Its been quite the active last 4 weeks here at Elcona, between preparing for and hosting the annual Walter O. Wells Invitational, dealing with all the fun that Mother Nature threw at the golf course, and beginning to think about Club Championships and our fall projects we would like to accomplish. One thing that is consistent, the sunrises continue to impress!
I would like to again thank my staff for all of their hard work throughout the year, especially through the last 4 weeks. They are the reason for the great golf course that you all get to enjoy. The last month has presented some challenges to our operation, and they have delivered in spades. I am very proud to work alongside these teammates of mine.
One of the best times I get to enjoy the game of golf is early evening, but unfortunately I am continually seeing unraked bunkers and divots not being replaced, some larger than dollar bills. Many of you continue to let me know you see it too. Please remind everyone in your family or group of buddies that play to help all of us take care of the course and think about the member behind you playing.
The 10 days after the Walter O. Wells Invitational brought over 9″ of rain to the golf course. This created new ponds on the golf course, some I thought could be nice new features on the course, others not so much. Our maintenance shop flooded twice, the ponds between 3 and 15 flowed into one huge pond, and even though our staff had water to pump water and push sand back into place, the bunker commitment all of you made 3 years ago also proved itself quite a worthy investment again. The sand was protected from soil contamination and many of you commented that its playability that day was great.
On August 4th, we had an unfortunate hydraulic leak on our greens mower that was quite hard to detect in the early morning until many of the greens were affected. While we never want to have this to happen, especially on putting surfaces, we are always prepared to respond in case it does happen. Where the true damage of any hydraulic leak comes from is the temperature of the oil when it hits the grass, not simply coating the grass with the oil. We were very lucky that the hose that leaked was a secondary hose that only sprayed hot oil out when the cutting units were in the raised position, not when the mower was cutting grass. We immediately tried to wash all oil off with a surfactant tab (glorified soap) and utilized some humic acid to further break down the oil, and if you have played, you know that these treatments worked to minimize further damage. We will finish plugging out the remaining dead turf along the edges of 9 and 18 and reseed some of the smaller damage this week.
One final project we completed today was reseeding our turf nursery. Having a nursery is critical for any golf facility to have, in cases of accidents like the hydraulic leak mentioned above, or for future projects. This year we are testing the newest varieties of creeping bentgrass at greens and fairway heights of cut, as well as bermudagrass at a fairway height of cut. Bermudagrass you ask, isn’t that only a grass that lives down south? While the answer is yes, more and more northern facilities are utilizing it as a practice tee surface, as far north currently as Indianapolis. While I am not sure if it will survive some of the more brutal winters we experience in Elkhart County, it doesn’t hurt to find out. If it does, it potentially has a place here as a practice tee surface that heals much quicker from the heavy usage our current tee gets. Stay tuned!
As always, if you have any questions, please reach to me at ryan@elconacc.com. Congratulations to Pat Mohan and all of the Senior Club flight champions, and best of luck for all that are competing in this weeks Ladies Club Championship, as well as next weekend’s Men’s Club Championship. Hope to see you all on the golf course!
Ryan
Rub of the Green 