A Cover Update

A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about covering portions of our driving ranges that are in need of recovery.  The covers the golf course maintenance crew put down were moved two weeks later and the results were excellent.  Below are some pictures that were taken on the Reserve and Members Club ranges.  The first picture is on the Reserve Club range after the cover had been moved.  As  you can see the covered turf has recovered nicely.

The second picture we have added is on the Members Club range and it shows perennial ryegrass seed that has germinated while being covered for 2 weeks.  The area directly under the cover was topdressed and seeded directly before the cover was put down.  As you can see the ryegrass has germinated well under the cover.

It's a Plane?

     Last month the golf maintenance team on the Members, Founders, and Players Clubs at St. James continued a tee leveling project that began last summer.  Several tees were leveled using a Turf Planer.  Basically, the Turf Planer runs over the entire surface of the tee and shaves down areas that are higher than the other portions of the tee, leaving a more level tee surface.  The picture below shows what the tees at Cate 2 looked like immediately after being planed.

The next picture is of the same tee 2 weeks later.

As of now the tees are closed to being fully healed after regular fertilizing and topdressing.

 

Last Week 7/14/14 through 7/18/14

We were closed three days at Players Club to aerate the greens, which we did, but we also accomplished a lot more:

·        Stripped and leveled #7 tee on the bridge, then re-sodded. (Photos Below)

·        Edged all bunkers, yardage markers, cart paths and drains

·        Treated all fairways with a growth regulator

·        Repainted tee markers

·        Topdressed and double rolled all greens for smoothness

·        Mowed all rough



Renovating #7 Tee on the bridge at Players Club



Players Club #7 Tee
Stripped, leveled, sodded and added a border of pavers!

Tee closing at the Players Club

       The white and black tees on the 12th hole at the Players Club will be closed for 2-3 weeks. These tees have been an increasing agronomic nuisance each season. Both tees struggle from lack of sunlight. The added stress from ryegrass competition only decreases the bermuda's chance for survival.
        The past few years we have seen some significant advancements in bermudagrass varieties. A particular variety 'Celebration', has tested extremely well under semi-shade conditions. We selected this variety to sod the black and white tees on number 12. Here are some pictures of the tees after sodding.

Black tee on #12 at the PC.

White tee on #12 at the PC.

        It will take approximately 14-21 days for the new turf to be playable. In the meantime, we will position the black tees in the front position on the gold tee box. The white and green tees will be positioned on the rear of the teal tee box. Thank you for your patience through this process.

Tee Leveling Update

It is no secret that there are several tees on each of the older courses in need of leveling. On a trial basis, we are attempting to level a few of the most uneven ones in-house. We began with the middle tee (white tee location) on Cate #8. Below are photos of the progression.

One day after stripping, tilling, packing and leveling

 

Thirty days later

 

Forty days later



 

Fifty-four days later.

By next week this tee will be ready for play!

Improving teeing ground efficiency

       We have several different shapes, sizes and justifications of tees across the Plantation. The shapes include, circles, rectangles, squares, ovals and hourglass. The inconsistent shapes evolved from the change in mowing styles and directions. We our currently in the process of implementing a program (on trial at the PC) to restore the teeing surfaces to more consistent shapes, sizes and justifications. This idea hatched with a plan to reduce the overall area of the tee and speed up our morning mowing. What we came to quickly realize is that we may have a larger project on our hands. We noticed that we could reduce tee sizes, increase playable area, restore consistency all while improving our efficiency  Here are some pictures of the changes that we are describing.

       In the above picture, you can see the old style circular tee shape. This tee was 32 foot in diameter. Simple math gives this tee an overall area of 803 square feet. 

       The new rectangular tee shape allows us to gain square footage using the same area. The new tee is 1,080 square feet. We gained 200 square feet on the same area by changing the shape and direction of our teeing surface. The photo above is #11 at the Players Club, a par 3 that was in dire need of more teeing surface.
        We didn't expand on every tee. Some tees were reduced in size. A few tees were unnecessarily expansive. Here is a picture from number 2 at the Players Club detailing a tee that we reduced in size.

Please forgive my poor artwork.

      The blue lines show the new tee width. The red lines show the old tee width. This is just one example of how we reduced tee sizes without sacrificing teeing ground. On the tee above, 99% of the divots were on the center-right of the tee. The left side of the tee was barely, if ever utilized. In this case we simply pinched the tee in on both sides by roughly four feet. This type of size reduction throughout the course will increase our mowing efficiency without surrendering playability.

      Another aspect of the tees that we needed to correct was the direction in which they where pointed. The photo below is number 1 at the PC.

       The red lines show the old tee direction and the blue shows the new tee. The old tee was directed into the woods. We moved the tee slightly ahead and turned the direction in which the tee was facing. This helps us to ensure that our tee placements point directly at the fairway, regardless of who is moving them.

       This project is currently on trial at the Players Club. You will notice some scalping in areas that we expanded some tees. Our hope is that we can improve our efficiency and increase the consistency of tee placement across the plantation. If successful at the Players Club, we plan to implement these changes at the Members and the Founders Clubs.
   

      

Tee closed

When you play the Founders Club, you may notice a couple "Tee Closed" signs. Currently, there is one on #1 and a second one on #8. Both teeing areas needed a break. Due to their small size divots quickly accumulate in the same place. The tees have been reseeded and should be back in play shortly.