One month later

One month since my last post has brought over 15 inches of rain, brining out rainfall total since June 7th over 20 inches. Last night we were hit with another 4.5". Today has been spent pumping fairways and bunkers. Other than the rain I have been assigned course setup most morning. This involves changin pin placement moving tee markers car traffic signs, and picking up trash. Other than the rain we have lucked out with the weather. It has been in my opinion a rather mild "temperature" wise summer. Due to our high clay content in our soil we have only had to syringe a few days this summer.

And then the rain came

In the past two weeks we got hammered with 7.65'' of rain, which brought lots of flooding to the course.  When our course receives this much precipitation we are limited in what we can do. One thing we can do is pump, pump, pump! Despite all the rain, our bunkers took the water beautifully, yes we still had wash outs and a few bunkers that looked more like swimming pools, however the damage done was no comparison to previous years.

#9

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Bunker Project

Since the fate of Woodcrest was undecided until the late May acquisition of the course by First Montgomery Group, maintenance of the course was at 50%.  Luckily once a date for re-opening was set, the throttle was turned up.  The first big project of the year was to add sand to all of our bunkers.  With a deadline of only a week until opening day we needed all the help we could get.  Thankfully to our friends at Pine Valley, extra crew members and a vital piece of equipment, we were able to meet our deadline before we opened on June 6th.  In order to get our bunkers into playing shape we had to edge, remove old dirt, and most importantly we added a temporary drainage fix to a majority of the bunkers.  We used a Toro Dingo with a drill bit to remove clay, which most of Woodcrest is built on, and then we backfilled them with fresh sand to help the bunkers drain.  

New Job!

It has been quite a long time since my last post, the reason for that is I moved back East to take a position at the New Woodcrest Country Club in Cherry Hill, NJ.  Woodcrest was recently purchased by The First Montgomery Group of Marlton.  It was a tough decision to leave Shooting Star, however for my new career I felt it was important to enhance my skills at the course that originally peaked my interest in the business.  At Woodcrest my position is "Assistant-in-Training,"  this position offers me the best of both worlds.  I get to get a taste of management as well as performing all mechanical and cultural practices at the course.  Overall, I am excited and eager to get the season underway.

April 15

Today I took my commerial pesticide applicators license for the state of Wyoming. And I passed!!

Check out my Flickr page for more photos!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/94926530@N07/ 

Pink Snow Mold and Fairy Ring

While I was on a walk about  I ran into our good friend Microdochium nivale!

Luckily with the warm weather coming soon we anticipate our turf making a full recovery.

I also ran into a little type 2 fairy ring.

Also seen in these two pictures are brown spots as a result of Elk traffic

Previous Day's Work

Since I began work on March 25th, that means there has been a two week delay on my blog! Sorry, so here is a quick update on my duties during the first two weeks of work.

During the first two weeks I began my day by checking on the clubhouse.  I would pick up trash, shovel snow, and any other odds and ends that would make the clubhouse look cleaner.  I also was responsible for taking the recycling from the clubhouse to the recycling center down in Hoback Junction, WY.

During the first week, I had the chance to ride along and help groom the Nordic course with the SnowCat.

Once the weather started to cooperate we began to clear off our Nordic "cross country" ski course.  We used a Zaugg attatched to a skid steer to blow the snow

During this process it was my duty to jam a piece of re-bar into the ground and mark out a path for the Zaugg

April 12, 2012

Hello Earthlings,

Welcome to my Turfgrass blog!  Actually this isn't just a turf management blog, its more of a journal of my activities in my new home of Teton Village, Wyoming.  For starters, I'm 21 years old, Rutgers Turf Student, Intern at Shooting Star Golf Club, golfer, snowboarder, foodie, and much much more.

Now lets move on to the golf course.  Today I began my day my repairing and testing our fertigation system.  At Shooting Star, fertigation is our main source of food for out plants.  The system works by utilizing six tanks that are connected to our irrigation system.  When we decide that the grass needs to be feed we turn on the agitation pumps and begin pumping the "juice" into the irrigation lines.  Using proper fertigation systems leads to less time and labor spent on manually applying fertilizer.

While in the process, I managed to record my first injury of the year!  Remember always use a clean box cutter when slicing hoses!

Later in the day I checked greens 3, 6-10 for elk traffic marks and other divots.  THe proecess for fixing the divots included:

1. Identification

2. Fix with divot tool 

3.Add black sand to warm soil up

4. Hope it works!