December Ice Storm

On Wednesday, December 14, we encountered large amounts of ice throughout the golf course.  Not only was the entire course covered, but many of the trees collected large amounts of ice.  Due to the weight of the accumulated ice, we have incurred a massive amount of tree damage.

Hundreds of branches were broken, as well as entire trees falling over.  Many trees lost large amounts of limbs and central leaders, resulting in the entire tree needing to be removed.  The cleanup process will be lengthy, as we are currently clearing all cart paths.  We will then begin to clear debris adjacent to fairways and focus on the areas that are in play.  Here are a few photos of some of the damage...

Bunker Work

With the arrival of wet, cold weather we are able to complete some projects throughout the golf course.  One of the projects we are beginning to work on is creating a new edge on many of the bunkers.  Over time, the bunker edges deteriorate and become very ragged and inconsistent. Sand also builds up along the edges and needs redistributed. There are numerous bunkers that need improvement, therefore this will require 2-3 weeks to complete.

The photos below demonstrate a before and after of a bunker edge that was recently improved.

Turf Disease Control

This time of year in the Willamette Valley, most days consist of cloudy, wet weather.  These conditions are conducive for our most common turf disease, fusarium patch or microdochium nivale.

The past two weeks we have treated all greens, tees, approaches and fairways with a plant protectant to control this disease.  You may have noticed the blue appearance of the turf in these areas.  The blue color is simply a dye that is added to the water in the spray tank, acting as a spray indicator.  This allows the applicator to make a precise application, avoiding any overlaps or missed areas.

Tree Care

With the nice weather in early November, tree work continued using the high lift.  The lift allows us to raise the tree canopy much higher than we could from the ground.  Dead material throughout the interior of the tree is also removed utilizing the lift.  We concentrated our efforts on holes number 10, 13 and 14.

Due to the weather and wet conditions, this is the last of the pruning with the lift for 2016.  We will continue next year!

Pond Treatments

Pond maintenance can often be a time consuming, costly task.  In particular, ponds that are used for irrigation water require certain treatment at various times of the year.

Many aquatic herbicides cannot be used in irrigation ponds if the water is being used to irrigate turf, as the herbicide may cause damage to the grass.  This is the case for our 3 acre irrigation pond that lies between hole #12 and hole # 17.  Now that we are finished irrigating due to the wet weather, we are treating this pond with an aquatic herbicide to eliminate the aquatic weeds present.  This will help to clear the pond from algae and weed growth accumulated throughout the summer and start the season next year with a much cleaner pond.

This winter the golf course maintenance team will also be working to manually remove grasses growing into the water from the shoreline of many pond edges.  As well as cattail removal in the pond on hole #4.

Fall Aerification

It's that time of year to aerify and sand the golf course again.  The fairways have already been aerified and sanded.  The maintenance team is currently completing the greens, followed by the tees and approaches over the next couple of days.

The fairways are aerified with a 3/4" tine, while the remaining areas receive a 5/8" tine.  Cores are pulled and removed on all areas and then the holes are filled with sand.

Here are a few photos of the aerification and sanding process...

Tree Care

The trees on the golf course have been neglected over the years.  Many of them have large amounts of dead material in the canopy, as well as hang very low to the ground.

Our goal is to visually make the trees and the golf course more appealing, while improving the playability of the course.

The entire month of September we are working on tree care with a rented high lift. We will not finish the entire course in this time, but plan to continue this process annually.