August Course Update

Farm Course Plays Host to the 95th Carolinas Open

The Farm course welcomed the top Club Professionals and many of the top amateurs from the Carolinas to test their skills this past week on the Farm course.  From all the praise that was offered by the players it was clear the club made a great showing.  Positive comments were plentiful in recognition of both the outstanding service and course conditions.  Staff from every department worked long and hard to make a good showing and based on all the comments I believe their efforts more than paid off.  Congratulations to Rick Morton from Rock Creek Golf and CC in Jacksonville, NC for his 11 under par - 3 day final score, which earned him a one shot lead and the Championship Trophy.

                                                                                                   Day Two - Carolinas Open

Recent Course Improvements

Farm Forward Tees - Two new forward tees were constructed this summer on holes #15 and #18 as part of our long term Farm forward tee program.  We now have a total of 10 newly constructed forward tees in play out of a planned total of 13.  Forward tees on all par threes will be played from the current green tees.  The course yardage from the new set of tees will measure somewhere around 4,200.

15 Forward Tee

18 Forward Tee

Farm Drainage - In addition to the large drainage project on #1 fairway, additional drainage was also added to the #11 and #15 fairways.  Similar to other drainage improvements on the Farm course Zoysia fairways each of the areas had extensive new French drainage installed with catch basins added wherever they were needed to get the water off the fairways as quickly as possible.  Drainage improvements are a seemingly never ending necessity, so we already have another long list planned out for next year.

15 New Drainage

11 New Drainage

P. David Brown Bench - A new bench was recently dedicated for long standing member P. David Brown on the #4 hole on the Irving Park course.

P. David Brown #4 Irving Park

Walking Path Farm 2 Green - 3 Tee - The most direct walking path from 2 green to the forward tees on 3 was a very rough and uneven path and was therefore very difficult for golfers to traverse.  Numerous trees were remove, soil and irrigation were added and new sod was installed to make this an easier walk for golfers using this shortcut.

Midway through Walkway Repairs

Numerous Sod Repairs - A total of 5 truckloads of sod was added to the two courses in June and July.  The vast majority of these repairs were tree related.  The largest portion of the sod was to repair areas where trees had been recently removed with the balance going to patching up areas underneath trees where shade had thinned the turf to an unacceptable level.  The blue and white tee on hole #6 at Irving Park was converted to Zeon Zoysia two weeks ago and should be reopening soon.

6 IP New Zeon Sod

15 New Shade Tolerant Zeon Sod

Off to College - A common ritual for mid-August is for kids to begin heading back to school.  We brought in 15 college students this year and by the end of this week nearly everyone will be leaving us to head back to college.  This part of our staff proves to be invaluable to us during what is our busiest season and without them it would not be anywhere close to possible to achieve the course conditions and small improvements we provide throughout the summer growing months.  The next 4-6 weeks are always the toughest time of the year for the full time staff because everything is still growing at a peak rate and we have now effectively lost 1/3 of our staff in one week.  This year was also a little special as I waved goodbye to my daughter as she headed off to her first year at the University of South Carolina.

Lauren Lowe - Freshman Move-In Day USC

June Golf Course Update

Weather

May provided for some really good golfing weather in the fact the winter and spring rains finally decided to take a break.  May was a little warmer than unusual in that we experienced 7 days in a row of 90+ degree temperatures.  The warm temperatures left on the last day of May and brought with it a substantial hail storm.  June thus far has been much wetter and cooler with the last seven days having produced nearly 8 inches of rain and much cooler temperatures.

Hail Damage on the IP Greens

Post Hail Storm

Fallen Tree due to Saturated Conditions

Irving Park Pond Dredging - Still Awaiting Permit Approval

The first stage of our pond dredging project on the #13 pond at Irving Park is still on hold due the permitting approval process.  We had hoped everything would be approved by sometime in May but nothing seems to move very quickly when it comes to permitting.  We are expecting a 6-8 week period for dry down, so we are now realistically looking at sometime in August to begin the dredging part of this project.  Stay tuned....

Farm Forward Tees
We have started construction on a few more forward tees on the Farm course. Our plan is to build new tees on holes 15, 18 and possibly 7.  This is part of the long term plan to build a short course that is more enjoyable beginners, novices and people who simply do not hit the ball far enough to enjoy playing from the standard teeing grounds.  Per a set of guidelines from the PGA of America's Tee It Forward program the forward tees will fall into a range between 4,000 - 4,500 yards long.

New Forward Tee Location #15 Farm

Farm Drainage
Immediately following the Presidents Cup this year the Farm staff began working on a large drainage issue on the #1 fairway.  The turf had thinned severely due to the above normal rainfall over the winter months and the fact Zoysia is very sensitive to wet conditions.  New French drainage was added to area nearly 4,000 sf in size and all the damaged turf was replaced with new Zeon Zoysia.  We have several more drainage projects we hope to work in before the end of summer.

Damaged Turf due to Poor Drainage

Drain Lines Installed and Damaged Turf Removed

Finished Product being Watered

General Items
With June comes a lot of extra seasonal staff and we are very pleased thus far with this year's recruits.  We have brought in approximately 15 school students to help with all the extra workload that comes with the summer growing season.  The greens, tees and fairways were aerified during the first of week of June on the Irving Park course and we couldn't have asked for better weather with bright blue sky's early in the week and significant rainfall coming right towards the very end.  The same large scale aerification will take place on the Farm course the week of July 8-12, so make sure to note that on your golfing calendar.  The two courses shared a truckload of sod in early June and we expect to install another 2-3 to repair thin or damaged areas and to assist in some of our future construction and drainage projects.

May Course Update - Pond Dredging and More

President's Cup

Our Gentleman's President's Cup takes place this weekend and the two courses are off to a much better start than the past few years.  We still have a few issues related to transitioning, tree removals and poor drainage where we still have some work to do, but most of our warm season grasses have come in nicely and it has been a great spring for root growth on the IP Bentgrass greens.  The weather forecast is actually calling for sunshine on a weekend (hard to believe), so we hope this year's participants enjoy the two courses and  the comradery associated with this great event.

Pond Dredging Project - #13 Irving Park

The first phase of the pond dredging project, which will be the draw down phase, is set to begin as soon we receive an OK, in the form of permit approvals, from the Army Corp of Engineers and NC State / Greensboro City Water Quality officials.  As soon as we receive our permits we plan to drain the pond and keep it drained for a period of 6-8 weeks.  Once the pond has drained well enough to truck the materials off site we would begin the dredging phase of the project.  We expect to start dredging/excavation sometime in mid-late July. We project hauling ~ 4,000 yards of sediment materials to an off site location.  While the dredging phase of the project is occurring we will plan to play the #13 hole as a par three.  We expect the dredging/excavation phase will take ~ 4-5 weeks.  This will be a very difficult project to complete and is very dependent of weather, so your understanding and patience with all the negative aspects of performing this process will be greatly appreciated.

#13 Sediment Filled Pond

Farm Swim/Tennis & Maintenance Parking Lot

Throughout the month of April the club undertook an expansive parking lot renovation project at the Farm Swim, Tennis and Maintenance area.  In additional to removing the old and heavily damaged asphalt and curbs and replacing with a new sub-base all new curbing and sidewalks at the pool area were installed.  In addition to replace the old asphalt, curbing and sidewalk twenty three (23) new parking spots were added for golf course maintenance parking and overflow for large event parking needs.  Also included in the project was a new concrete material storage area for golf course maintenance and a new concrete pad for our dumpster storage area.  While weather throughout the project was an issue the project was able to come in on time and slightly under budget thanks to the great work of our contractor, Piedmont Carolina Paving.

Before

After

#14 Farm Pond Spillway Repair

The spillway pipe that serves to maintain and drain the pond on hole #14 has corroded and developed a large hole in the pipe near the edge of the pond.  This hole developed last fall during on the large rain events associated with the two hurricanes or tropical storms that affected our area.  Fortunately the current spillway structure is located at the edge of the pond and has created a natural dam that has prevented the pond from draining entirely.  We have retained the services of an environmental engineering firm to assist us with the necessary design and permit work.  We expect to have a better idea of all the aspects of this repair by sometime in June.

Mark Your Calendars

Aerification - Irving Park June 3-6

Aerification - Farm July 8-12

Golf Course Important Notifications - February 2019

With spring right around the corner, I wanted to update the members on a few important things that we have been working on and a few things we will try to tackle in the near future.

Irving Park Hole #13 Pond Dredging - April - through the Summer Months

The pond on hole #13 has become an unsightly water feature that has been inundated with upstream erosion deposits over the past several decades. We are currently in the final stages of bidding this project out and expect to drain the pond sometime during the month of April. Once the sediment has had ample time to begin to drain out (6-8 weeks) we will bring in large excavators to remove the excess sediment off-site. Depending on a lot of different factors, but mostly weather, we expect the working stage of this project to last 4-8 weeks before the pond is refilled. There are a few things the members should be made aware of prior to commencing work on this project. The first is the pond does not support any large sized fish population, so the smaller sized fish and minnows will be safely drained downstream. There will likely also be an odor from the decaying organic material. We are will be committed to completing this project as quick as possible to minimize both of these aspects. We are designing in new riprap baffle walls to catch future erosion at the two stream inlets in an effort to aid future annual/bi-annual maintenance and removal of incoming sediment and debris.

Sediment and Debris Buildup #13

Irving Park Greens Aerification - March 4-5
We will be conducting our first aerification of the year on the Irving Park Bentgrass greens on the first Monday and Tuesday in March. We will be using small coring tines for this aerification as the greens are slowing to healing with the cool soil temperatures in March. Members should expect about 3 weeks for the greens to fully recover. Our second spring aerification will be conducted on June 3-6.  This aerification will include not only greens but also tees and fairways, thus the two additional days of course closure.

Farm Swim/Tennis/Maintenance Parking Lot Renovation - Month of April
We are in the middle of the planning process to refurbish the entire parking area at the Farm swim/tennis and golf maintenance shop. This area has seriously deteriorated over the past many years and is in much need of new resurfacing. The existing asphalt will be removed and new asphalt will be installed.  We are also planning to add a small amount of extra parking in the swim/maintenance area. The current plan is to begin work as early in April as possible and have the work completed by the end of April depending on contractor scheduling and weather. We are currently in the engineering phase and as soon as that work is completed we will send the project out to bid.  There will be limitations on accessing this area for tennis operations and the Tennis department will communicate those restraints as soon as we know an official and definitive work schedule.  We do not expect this work will conflict with the pool season schedule.

Ultradwarf Greens and Remaining Warm Season Grass - Winter Prognosis
To date we have experienced two moderately cold weather events that caused us concern with the health and survivability of the new Ultradwarf greens. For both of those events the club took the extra measure of applying and additional pine straw insulation blanket. The unseasonably warm weather last week lead to the greens breaking dormancy and unlike last year at this same time there is a uniform emergence of new leaf tissue across the entirety of the greens. The forecast for the next two weeks is for near normal or slightly above normal temperatures.  March can be a very unpredictable month in our area for weather so we are not out the clear yet but it would seem we have made it through the months that produce the harshest weather. As for the remaining parts of the course with warm season grasses, we are currently not expecting anything beyond the normal spring time and early summer repairs due to poorly drained and overly shady areas.

Pine Straw Insulation Prior to Covering

Tree Thinning Program Wrapping Up
The staff along with the help of Bill's Tree Service has been working hard this winter to remove trees that have been identified for removal as part of our on-going tree removal and course beautification program. We expect this work to conclude sometime toward the latter part of February or early March depending on contractor scheduling. Stump removals and grass repair related to these areas will take place later this spring.

Tree Logs Stored for Removal

Spillway Pipe on Farm Pond Hole #14
The pond on hole #14 on the Farm course has not been holding a proper level over the winter months and we experienced a small sink hole around the structure during the two fall hurricane events. The club has retained and engineer and pond specialist to investigate the issue and will do whatever is necessary to restore the functionality of the spillway pipe in a timely and responsible manner. The spillway pipe for this pond is the original galvanized steel pipe structure that was installed during the ponds construction and we estimate it is somewhere in the area of 60 years old and will need to be lined with a new HDPE pipe as well as a new riser and overflow structure designed and installed.

Sloughing Bank around Intake Structure

First Covering Takes Place This Week

Covering Greens - Farm Course Closed Tuesday at 11:30 and Reopens Thursday at 11:00

Our first few days of weather that will be cold enough to force covering the greens isn't going to wait for December to roll around.  Temperatures are expected to drop below 25 degrees Tuesday night (11/27) and Wednesday's highs will hover around the mid-forties.  Winds will be out of the north and are expected to be in the 10-20 mph range on Wednesday.  The Wind Chill temperature Wednesday morning is currently forecasted to be a chilly 16 degrees.

With that said, we will be closing the Farm course on Tuesday at 11:30 to allow enough time to cover the greens before dark.  Placing the covers out for the first time requires a few more hours than normal in order to position the covers properly.  Once the staff figures out the exact angles to place the corners the covers are then stapled to the ground and the corners are painted to speed up their next installation for the next time.  The covers will remain on the greens until Thursday when we hope to get the course reopened for play by around 11:00.

Leaf Season

The leaf season is in peak mode with leaves steadily rolling off the trees over the past few weeks.  The persistent rains as of late has kept the courses too wet to take our large equipment out on a steady basis and as such we have definitely struggled to keep pace.  The initial leaf fall period was later than normal this season but with the recent hard frost, rains and wind they are well on their way to catching up.  The leaf season consumes the vast majority of our labor during this time of the year but rest assured by the end of December or early January we will have a hold on the leaf situation.  Until then be sure to establish a winter leaf rule in your group to keep up the pace of play and keep things friendly in your group.

Remnants Of Yet Another Hurricane With Member Guest A Few Days Away

Devastation was brought upon many with the two recent hurricanes and while the damage to our community and GCC's two courses was measurable it was nothing compared to those in the landing zones of each of these gigantic storms.  Just to keep things in proper perspective our minor flooding and tree damage pales in comparison to the  extensive property damage and the great many lives lost in these two storms and my heart goes out to everyone affected is these hardest of hit areas.

Mexico beach, Fl.

While we made it through the downgraded tropical depression associated with Hurricane Florence with nothing more than some significant flooding and a lot of tree debris the damage from the tropical depression associated with Hurricane Michael was not so kind.  The Irving Park course lost only one major tree on hole #14 but the Farm course witnessed a dozen trees uprooting from the high winds and saturated soils.  The bunkers on each course washed with the Irving Park bunkers suffering extensive washouts and all the sand contamination that comes with severe washing.  Debris on the two courses is extensive and will take several days, if not weeks, to get a hold on, especially at the Farm with the numerous large fallen trees.

As this storm hit on a Thursday, October 11 it did not give the staff a lot of time to make repairs before last weekend.  Now our Men's Member-Guest is just a day way and while we expect good conditions for this event a lot of our manpower that would have normally gone into tournament conditioning efforts has been reallocated towards storm cleanup.  The good news is this event is held during a time of the year where the cooler temperatures have slowed down the growth rate of the grass, so that frees up a lot of manpower to focus on things such as storm cleanup and course conditioning

The months of September and October have been as hot and wet as any I can remember.  The hot, moist and cloudy conditions have affected turf growth on each property but the Irving Park greens suffered the most.  The fall months are generally a time of recovery for cool season grasses but this year not so much.  While the Irving Park greens are in fair shape they are nowhere near where we would like for them to be for this time of the year.  We expect with a few weeks of cooler temperatures we will begin to finally see new root growth and surface healing of the plants.  This should result in a gradual firming of the surface and provide us the opportunity to once again producing green speeds more suitable for this time of the year.

Best wishes to all the teams who are entered into this year's Gentleman's Member-Guest and let's all hope the weather is a little more cooperative over these next few days.  2018 has been a crazy and very long year and your golf course maintenance team appreciates your patience and understanding as we have done our best to work through some very challenging situations brought unto us by the effects of good ole Mother Nature.

Farm Course Re-opens to Newly Restored Greens and Really Wet Conditions - Saturday, July 28

The long awaited re-opening on the Farm course is just a few days away and it can't come soon enough for all parties involved.  The Irving Park course and its staff have done their best to handle the additional play this summer with more than its share of repairs going on throughout a lot of very busy play days.  The practice putting green with its small amount of cup-able surface has suffered the most with all the play and teaching clinics, which has simply worn the surface down to the dirt in a few areas.  Mid-June through Mid-July was very hot this year with 22 days out of 30 in the nineties and 10 days near or above 95.  Water management and more specifically hand watering greens has been especially difficult this year with the temperatures, the high volume of play and all the extra repair work going on outside of the greens. So while the Irving Park staff loves seeing golfers, the expected normalization of rounds on the course will prove helpful to conditions of the course moving forward.

The Farm staff has been busier than almost any of the members could even begin to comprehend.  Since the course has closed much has taken place.  The greens were re-planted and the grow-in has gone well.  The same hot weather that has worked against the Bentgrass greens at Irving Park has resulted in a very good grow-in on the new Ultradwarf Bermuda.  Over three acres of sod has been installed on various areas throughout the course with a lot of the areas now having grown in enough that they will be somewhat hard to see.  Three new forward tees have been constructed and several small but much needed drainage projects have been completed.  Nearly 20 very large trees have been removed and with the exception of the last few trees that were removed just last week, all these areas have been repaired as well.

The opening week has not gotten off to a great start with nearly five inches of rain coming over the past 5 days.  Sunday night's storm brought a lot of high winds with it creating a lot of cleanup work for the staff but it's nothing they can't overcome by the weekend.

In the end, the Farm course staff is excited to see golfers once again and the Irving Park staff is excited to see play slow down just a little bit.  I'm sure all the golfers are eager to once again get to play the Farm course after 10 long weeks of it being closed.  With that said, everyone has worked really hard up to this point and while I know everyone will be happy to see this day come and go, no one on our staff expects the workload to let up anytime soon.  We still have nearly two months of summer ahead of us and all our extra seasonal labor will be heading back to school over the next few weeks leaving us with just our core group of fulltime guys who will working hard to keep pace during a time when everything is still very much actively growing.

We hope everyone can get out to the Farm course very soon, if not this weekend, and we hope everyone is pleased with all our efforts.

Hole #12

New Flowers

Hole #3

Hole #11

Hole #4

#3 Green