Interesting Course Photos

Former Indian Creek Superintendent Bob Hall brought in some photos that he has collected over the years. In his collection was one that was taken of #2 Black Bird in early spring prior to the grand opening of Indian Creek Golf Course. Strangely enough, I had taken a photo of the exact same hole from nearly the same spot in the spring right before we reopened Black Bird after the renovation. My photo was taken without knowing the old photo existed. It gives us a great insight into how far the course has come over the years. I apologize for the poor picture quality, these are actually photos of photos taken with my phone.

Course Update

The course seems to be handling the spring fairly well. The putting surfaces were lagging slightly due to the cooler, wet weather, but with the recent warm temperatures and sunshine, they seem to be waking up. Hopefully not too much.

We have dropped the height of cut on Red Feather and Black Bird greens quite a bit and anticipate that, in time, this will result in smoother, quicker greens with a much finer texture. Unfortunately, the greens on Gray Hawk will be maintained at a slightly higher height with higher nutritional inputs to aid them through their first year. This will result in greens that are slightly slower and maybe not quite as smooth. We contemplated leaving the greens on Red Feather and Black Bird a bit taller to provide consistency between courses, but it is time that the older greens are maintained the way they are meant to be.

       

#9 Gray Hawk from the new black tee

The grow-in of the fairways on Gray Hawk has suffered the most from the cool, wet temperatures. The soil temps couldn't seem to maintain adequate levels to promote germination and growth. We will continue to push these fairways, but the heat of the summer is right around the corner, which, for all intents and purposes, will shut down any further improvements in density. Cart path restrictions on Gray Hawk will be lifted this Saturday with the understanding that any indication of major traffic stress throughout the summer, the restrictions can be reimplemented. With as little maturing time as those fairways have had, it will be important that we "baby" them as much as possible. The more turf we can get through this first year, the better they will be entering 2014.

 

#4 Red Feather from the black tee.

#6 Black Bird Drainage Install

The collection area along the left side of the green on #6 Black Bird has always been too wet, due mostly to surface runoff from the cart path and surrounding tee complex. In the hopes of firming this area up, we installed some drain tile and a 12" catch basin in order get the water underground and away from the area more efficiently. 

 Trench excavation

Plywood allows us to save as much turf as possible.

 Prepping for pipe and gravel install.

 

New basin to catch water on the cartpath.

Backfilling and grading is complete and the area is ready for seed.



Edging Bunkers

 

Over the last few weeks, we have been working on edging the bunkers on Black Bird. We have the edges cut on all of the bunkers except the right fairway bunker on #3. We want to make some adjustments to the size and shape of this bunker over the winter months so the edge will be addressed at that time. Next, we will be moving to Red Feather and will most likely get to Gray Hawk next spring.

Once all the edges are cut we will go back and repair the areas where the bunker liner has moved up through the sand. It is also at this time that we will replenish any sand that has been removed through the edging process. Below are a few pictures of the process.

 



 

 



Ill-Timed Irrigation Break

Around 3:30 last Friday afternoon, we found a large irrigation break behind the green on #3 Red Feather. The break was on an 8" mainline which forced us to shut down the pump station and left us without the ability to water Red Feather and Black Bird until the problem could get fixed.

The first real issue this posed was it prevented us from hand watering and syringing the course on what was a very hot and dry afternoon. The second issue we encountered was that repair parts of this size are not easy to find on short notice, especially on a Friday afternoon. For a while, there was a chance that we were going to have to overnight the parts in which would have rendered us waterless through Saturday afternoon.

The effects of that particular scenario on the golf course would have been catastrophic. We would have experienced wide spread turf loss. We were extremely fortunate that the renovation contractor, Duininck Golf, was on site. They had the equipment, manpower, and the ability to access the parts we needed.

Excavation of the break began around 5:00 p.m. The area we were digging in was full of irrigation and power wires making the dig more tedious. Once exposed, removal of the broken parts went fairly quickly and assembly of the new parts began. When working with large pipe and iron fittings, assembly and installation processes are labor-intensive and time-consuming. It was around 1:00 a.m. when the thrust blocks were installed and back-filling could start. By 3 a.m., we finally had the irrigation system fully charged and watering.

A normal irrigation cycle takes between 8-9 hours and begins at 9:00 p.m. On Saturday, morning we had to try and get what we could watered in 4.5 hours. I had to prioritize which areas needed water, so I decreased the water on Gray Hawk as that is the course that will be shut down in a week for renovation. I also cut the water back in the rough on all 27 holes. This allowed us to get all 27 greens, tees, and fairways watered early Saturday morning.

We made it through fairly well considering the circumstances. The primary issues we experienced were not the result of the shortened water window Friday night and Saturday morning. We were affected the most by the loss of hand watering and syringing capabilities on Friday afternoon. As a result, we have some hot spots on the course but considering what could have happened, we fared well.

Duininck Golf and my assistants Jeff and Nate deserve alot of the credit in helping us get through this. Without the hard work of the Duininck Golf crew, this would not have been fixed in the time frame it did.

In 13 years of working on golf courses, this was, without a doubt, the worst scenario I have experienced. To have a break of this size and loss of water on a day during a summer with historic heat and drought, the results could have been catastrophic. There were moments on Friday evening that I genuinely thought we might lose large portions of the course. Fortunately this wasn't the case.

Although the break is fixed and a major catastrophe was avoided, I can't help but be a bit dejected today. Prior to Friday afternoon, I was extremely pleased with the way the course was handling the weather. It looked good and was playing well. We had successfully planned and managed the course this spring as to avoid the issues we had last year. This event on Friday set us back and I cannot shake that frustration.