Ready, Set, Go…
Welcome to another great year here at Oconomowoc Golf Club,
where I will be the new resident “Turf Doc” that will attempt to entertain you
with insightful logic from the golf course’s perspective.
Recently, our Assistant Superintendent, Eric Schmitt,
accepted a Course Superintendent position at Bass Lake Golf Club near Antigo
and started April 1st. Eric
has worked for OGC for a little over 2 full seasons and will be missed in my
transition here at OGC. Nonetheless, I
will be searching for a new assistant and will just have to train myself and
the newest assistant too. A big
challenge, but I’m up for it. Luckily, I’ve had a head start since November,
but I ask for your patience as we ramp up the course this Spring season and
learn the ins and outs about the property throughout the golf season.
Looking ahead, the course seems to have fared well over the
Winter months. Currently, I don’t
suspect any issues with the turf stands.
We’ll be watching closely as mild temperatures continue. We’ve seen a few isolated rough spots that
may need some attention and I’ve noticed several areas with frost heave from
the Spring thaw. As this is new to me, I
hope that these areas will subside early on.
I’ve been told, that most of these are normal, and will update you as I
learn more.
Spring will be a busy time, as noted above, with learning
the property, teaching a new assistant, and all its intricacies, in addition, we
have a few repair items to address. The
irrigation system and the bathrooms on #12 had some issues in the winterization
(blowout) in early November. I will be repairing these components as we charge
the system for the year and open the #12 bathroom. The #12 bathroom will be closed until the
repairs have been made, which I hope will be early May. Also, the landscape bed by the 10th
tee will be refreshed with some new plantings to supplement the open vistas
created by the removal of a few dying trees.
Lastly, we will have turfgrass sod repairs for those tree stumps removed
during the sunshine enhancement program around the course.
 |
| Vol Damage Between Greenside Bunkers on #8 (happening underneath the snow cover this Winter) |
 |
| Stump Grinding on #10 (Beautiful vista has opened) |
 |
| Stumping on #9 (Slicers beware of thicker turf :) ) |
 |
| Stumping on #13 Green Bank (Grass density should improve to the right of #13 green) |
 |
| Stumping on #15 Hillside (Who said we couldn't grind on the steep hill) |
 |
| Frost Heave on #1 Fairway (Normal heaving?) |
 |
| Bathroom Repairs (Water pipe exposing for fixes) |
 |
| Bathroom Repairs (More water pipe fixing) |
Our Spring staff has recently begun cleaning up the course. The team has been busy raking, blowing, and
preparing the surfaces for play. We have
also begun to clean up tree stumps from the sunshine enhancement program. The pictures below show an impressive stump
grinder and contractor that came in recently.
He was able to efficiently grind up all the stumps in a day. That’s impressive given it usually took 3-4
full days from our previous contractor.
The Board has approved a single one-color pin flag system which
will really showcase the classic course OGC is and improve the efficiency of
the grounds crew. Stay tuned for more
information as we roll out this change and highlight some indicator markers on
select holes to aid in determining the area of the flagstick. Please continue to follow the turfgrass blog
for OGC for updates to timelines and projects (www.ocongolfclub.blogspot.com).
No comments:
Post a Comment