Before and After

Todd Quitno of Lohmann Golf Design sent me some before and after photos from our renovation that he used for a recent presentation. It's going on five years since the project started and I had forgotten what the old layout was like andjust how much the design improved the course. I am sure you have seen some of these before but there were a few new ones I wanted to share:

#1 Black Bird Before

#1 Black Bird After 

 #2 Black Bird Before

#2 Black Bird After

#7 Black Bird Before

#7 Black Bird After

#8 Black Bird Before

#8 Black Bird After

#2 Red Feather Before

#2 Red Feather After

#7 Red Feather Before



#7 Red Feather After

On an unrelated note: 



I am always looking to bridge the communication gap that exists between the golfer, the golf professional and the superintendent. Fortunately, in doing that, I have had the privilege of contributing to the NGA's "Nebraska Golfer" publications this year. It was a lot of fun and I really appreciated the opportunity. With any luck I will be able to continue this next season. The link below will take you to the third and final installment of the year.

http://www.nebgolf.org/nebraska_golfer/winter2014/winter2014/index.html.

If you love the game and want to further it's advancement, please think about joining and/or supporting the NGA. At the very least get busy on your game and support the NGA by participating in their 2015 Nebraska State Amateur Event at Indian Creek. The event is slated for the end of July and, as always, will showcase the best players from the area.

Join the NGA: http://www.nebgolf.org/membership.html

Winter Sign Repair

Outside of some extremely cold days here and there, winter hasn't treated us too badly thus far. A lot of work still goes on around the shop and with the cold settling in for the next couple of days, work has shifted back indoors, specifically to the golf course signage.

 

All of the course signage is made in-house and from scratch. No one on the crew can claim to be a carpenter, so we try and keep the design and construction fairly simple.

 

Between hole signs and traffic signs, we have quite a lot to go through. You don't realize the number of signs out there until they are piled up in the shop. This is a great job to work on when the weather isn't cooperating.

 

 

 

 

Every sign is repaired, sanded, stained, painted, and protected before it's ready to go back out in the spring. Those signs that are beyond repair are replaced with a new sign constructed, laid out and routed in-house.

 

Painting might be the most tedious of the jobs. It takes a steady hand and a lot of patience.

 

 

We feel the end product is a good one with the signs adding a unique touch to our facility.

Your Questions Answered Here

The Indian Creek Turf Talk blog has been up and running for a few years now. It has been fun to manage and is hopefully insightful for those of you that take the time to read its content. I have always tried to write about topics that I think would interest the golfer, Indian Creek customer, backyard farmer, and/or turf professional. I hope I have done a good job of that.

We all know the off-season can be long and by late winter golf can be a distant memory. I would like to keep you all engaged in the game and Indian Creek this winter but I need your help. I would like to use your input to drive some of the topics and conversation for future articles. Please feel free to offer up and send any questions, observations, or conversation topics to jimnedrow@gmail.com.

 I have grown up around the golf industry my entire life so, although my specialty is agronomics, I would love to discuss any topic related to the game. This site is supposed to serve the readers so help me tailor my topics to best do that.

Here are few photos from the past season to help keep you inspired all winter long. Also, don't forget about the indoor practice facility/hitting bay's this winter. They provide a great opportunity to get some real swing feedback all year long.

Ever Improving Drainage

This past fall, a lot of time was spent making minor improvements to increase the efficiency of our fairway drainage systems. Major improvements were previously made during the course renovation, but the heavy rains this past fall pointed out a number of areas that need continued improvement. Unfortunately a handful of those areas will take resources and shaping skills that we cannot provide in house and, for those, a master plan will be developed. Each area will be prioritized and fixed when time and resources allow. As for the smaller, more manageable areas, we are able to address those ourselves and we already made good strides this past fall.

The areas we focused on the last few months were areas that didn't surface drain as fast as we needed. This was due to a number of issues. Some areas didn't have adequate fall and the velocity of the draining water wasn't high enough to remove it from the playing surface fast enough. In other areas, the water simply had too much ground to cover before reaching a basin.

We went about fixing the insufficient slope issues in one of two ways. We either increased the percent slope along the entire run of the waterway through grading or by lowering the basin itself. These promoted higher water velocities along the run of the drainway and entering the basins.

The areas that simply relied on surface drainage for too long of a stretch were fixed by grading in and installing small inlets throughout the entire run of the waterway.

 Below are photos of some work we did on Gray Hawk #1

 

Below are photos of some work we did on 1 Black Bird

You Asked: Divots

I am back! I know many of you have been anxiously waiting another “Turf Talk” post  (sense the sarcasm), so I appreciate your patience. I had great intentions to resume regular blog posts a few weeks ago, but autumn is always a busy time around here. Our summer help leaves us just in time for aerification and over seeding, which means I often find myself taking part in the work too. I am not going to pretend that I am busting my butt as hard as the rest of the crew, but I do get out there a little more often than normal which pulls me away from things like the “Turf Talk” blog. Sprinkle in a busy 1-year old toddler to supplement our 3-year old, and spare time has been hard to find lately. We had a pretty good fall, minus all the rain, and the course is in good shape right now. This is hands down the best season to play so get out here before the weather turns.


I had a great question posed to me the other day that I wanted to share. The question was whether to replace a divot, or use the sand and seed bottles provided at the pro shop and our first tee complexes. Sometimes I forget that what seems like common knowledge to me is not something that most golfers know (or should know for that matter), so I wanted to take a quick minute to answer the question.


In almost every instance, use the sand and seed mix provided to you on your carts, at the clubhouse, and the first hole of every nine. Ninety-nine percent of the divots taken on the course do not contain enough root mass to survive the reestablishment period. What doesn’t succumb to displacement by a mower or drag mat will most likely dry up and wilt before a solid root system can take hold. Also, remember we have ryegrass fairways and ryegrass has a very quick germination period. This, combined with a higher seed to sand ratio of our mix, allows divots to recover from seed very quickly.


If you don’t happen to have the sand and seed mix with you and your divot is substantial, then by all means replace your divot. There is a small chance for reestablishment and a small chance is better than no chance at all. If you have mix with you and your divot lacks any realistic chance of survival, toss it out of the fairway. This keeps things looking cleaner and a member of our crew will fill it while on divot patrol.


Thanks for the question! You know who you are and keep them coming. I will continue to address topics that I feel are important and interesting to you all, but remember I do this for a living so what may be obvious to me may not be to you. Your questions and comments go a long way in steering the direction of this blog so keep them coming. After all, the goal of this page is to inform, entertain, and provide insight to the golfer.


Autumn is the prettiest time of year on the course so enjoy some photos from the other day.

Key Staff Members: Dusty Keiser

 

Dusty Keiser grew up in Norfolk, NE, and spent the majority of his youth on the sports field or in the field hunting. Through sport and outdoors activities he learned the value of hard work, team work and also gained a deep appreciation for the environment. 

Dusty attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and was a walk-on tight end for the Huskers. He graduated in 2005 with a Bachelors degree in business administration and moved west to Sidney, NE, to take a job with Cabela's. He enjoyed his time at Cabela's and the outdoor opportunities that the Nebraska panhandle offered, but the corporate scene didn't light his fire. He eventually moved back to Omaha in 2009 and took a job as the Camping Director for the Mid America Council, Boy Scouts of America. In this role he managed 2,000 acres of land and 25,000 annual campers in both Iowa and Nebraska. Side note this was some of the best deer hunting ground I have ever seen.

The land management aspect of the his Camping Director role was the catalyst for his increasing interest in agronomy. Eventually this new found interest led him to Indian Creek 3 years ago. Dusty's passion for the environment and agronomy has enabled him to learn quickly and he was promoted to an assistant position earlier this year. He has been a valuable team member and continues to improve his eye for turf.

Outside of his role on the golf course Dusty has also started the Indian Creek "Micro Farm" a 10,000 square foot garden behind our maintenance facility. This "micro farm" is in its very early stages but we hope to someday provide quality produce at locally marketable quantities.  Who knows someday you can play a round of golf and leave with a bag of fresh veggies.

Key Staff Members: Jeff Moeller

Assistant Superintendent Jeff Moeller grew up in Wisner, Nebraska, and spent much of his younger years farming. The bowling industry has always been a passion for Jeff and eventually drew him off the farm in the late 90's when he owned and operated Coachmen's Steak House and Wisner Lanes. Bowling opportunities eventually brought him to Omaha in the early 2000's, but the call of the outdoors and agronomy led him to the golf course. His knowledge of golf course agronomics was limited in his early years but his farming experience gave him a solid foundation to build on. That foundation and a solid work ethic enabled him to work his way into the assistant superintendent role that he holds today.

Jeff has grown to love Indian Creek and the role he has in maintaining the course. He takes a lot of pride in the work he does and the team he helps manage. I have a tendency to want to push the envelope and can get a little high-strung in the summer, so the running joke is Jeff's role is to talk me off the proverbial cliff. He is really good at this and continues to grow in his role daily. We really appreciate what he brings to the team.