In baseball, nothing throws a batter off more than expecting a fastball and instead getting thrown a curve. It’s unexpected and usually throws the batter's timing off, causing a swing to miss. Believing that sports can be a metaphor for life, life's curves can be just as as unpredictable. Lately many surprising situations have been thrown at the Grounds Department. The Covid-19 situation is an obvious one that everybody is currently dealing with and the agronomy team is no exception, but mother nature also seems to be following suit. Frost and freeze delays are common in March and early April. It becomes unexpected and disruptive when they occur in May- a time when tee times get earlier and earlier. Frost delays really throw us off our game. Greens mowing, rolling, changing cups, moving tee markers, and raking bunkers are all jobs done ahead of play. Normally to combat the morning tee times we begin work earlier, but with frosty mornings that is not possible. We know that everyone is excited to get out and golf, but the daily course maintenance takes time to accomplish, and during these curve-ball days we just ask for patience and time so we can accomplish our maintenance without disrupting play.
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| The new way to limit cup exposure during the Covid-19 era.Thanks to Mr. Kelley for the new golf ball lifters. Use your putter head to lift the lever on the flag stick and your ball will lift out of the cup. |
The aeration that took place on May 4th went well. The day turned out to be perfect for deep-tine aeration (8" deep), and topdressing
(for more information on the importance of aeration click here for an informative article by the USGA). We did have an unexpected situation occur on #4 green and on a couple green collars (#2 and #11). The pull-behind tractor aerator that was used happened to find a couple of our old irrigation heads (from the 1986 installed hydraulic system) that were still in the ground. The aerator tines punctured the old head and it stuck on leaving some bigger holes a quarter of the way down #4 green. We filled in the holes with sand and put small bentgrass plugs in them. This should heal up in the next month or so.
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| Big holes on #4 green after old irrigation head got stuck in one of the tines |
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| Holes filled in with sand and small bentgrass plugs |
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| Small flag showing the 8" depth of the aeration holes |
The city water flows into our irrigation system in the irrigation pit. This is where the water is turned off for the blowout of the system, and on for the spring start up. Periodically we check down there to make sure there are no leaks or other surprises. Well we were greeted with an unexpected surprise when we opened the lid to the pit and found it half way filled up with water. The sump pump had broken and we needed to pump out the pit and replace it with a new one. The amount of water in the area made this task challenging but it did get accomplished and hopefully the new pump will buy us many more years before it needs replacing again.
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| Pumping out the irrigation pit to fix the sump pump |
Lastly, while changing the cart restriction sign in the rain, a small red puddle was noticed by #1 cart path. The smell revealed that we had a diesel fuel leak and upon further investigation it was discovered that our 20 year old diesel fuel tank had sprung a leak. With the help of our handy assistant mechanic and
Wardway fuels we siphoned out the remaining fuel and put a temporary tank in front of the grounds building wall by the mulch pile. Since we caught the leak early very little fuel was lost. Hopefully the grass along #1 cart path will be spared but only time will tell.
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| The leaky diesel tank |
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| Temporary diesel tank |
Now that I am done with my therapeutic venting, there are other tasks being accomplished by the crew. May is an extremely busy month for the Grounds Department. The May temperatures combined with the spring fertilization cause the grass to explode with new growth. Of course, all the new growth must be cut, and during weekdays we have every mower in the shop out to accomplish this. On the horticulture side all the tulips from April have been removed to make way for the summer annuals. A new landscape bed has been created at the corner of Neeb road and Cleves-Warsaw. It is replacing the overgrown prague viburnums and consists of emerald green arborvitaes, pink and red drift roses, and moonbeam coreopsis. This bed will improve aesthetics and visibility to a very busy Delhi intersection.
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| New landscaping. Mulch to follow |
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| Julio fly mowing around #6 green. We are trying to fly mow more often around steep green banks to decrease ruts left by mowers. |
As we get deeper into May, hopefully mother nature cooperates and warmer temperatures are not far away. In the next couple weeks the summer annuals will be planted, outdoor dining will begin, and it will look more like summer. Meanwhile, the agronomy team is waiting on the next pitch-hope it’s a fastball!
Brad Piecuch
Grounds Superintendent
