I can see irrigation is busy over there!
No big fall projects this year. Zach’s mom (guy who owns the property) unfortunately passed away a few weeks ago (long battle with cancer). We have been very light on anything BCN from that point. Mega bummer and didn’t want to bring the mood down but it is our reality.
We did have a very light frost recently which start to get our greens and tees towards dormancy. I think we will give em one last cut for the year and let it hang out/move to mats for the winter. BCN is still trucking along but we are def in our “natural” phase. Still just as fun and a lot less work!
3 Likes
Hey no worries at all, real life is what it is and I send my condolences to the head honcho himself.
I truly envy the idea that your first frost means you’re just going to dormancy and mats, we are headed into the process of putting the course to sleep for the winter. I’m prepared to once again have sand in places I’m not used too. Any updates on what a usual BCN winter is like would be awesome as I’m not exactly used to a reality of grass 365 days a year.
Shit also I forgot, have you guys had any disease issue in the first years and if so how have you managed it/ results from the approaches.
I know that may make for a long post lol
Currently 0-4 on fixes with some more intricate irrigation fixes, truly hoping we get a win in the next few days but it always helps to have someone with 40+years experience looking at you and asking what you think could possibly be happening so you don’t feel like it’s just you who has no clue what’s happening. 71932623491__A664D1EE-524E-44AF-9137-4E6360C41553|375x500
context we have new holes that have been built and it’s truly a nightmare to try and figure out what someone has done underground that you have to trouble shoot with no guidance
A BCN winter is honestly the most chill time for us. If we time it right and get a solid last mow in, it will all just turn brown and stay at that same height all year. Naturally, it’s cold so not much golf is being played, but when we can play it is some of the most fun time of year out there because no set up is required.
We have had our fair share of disease issues in the first 2 years. We had a case of the army worms which was the worst experience we had. It was summer and the grass was browning out a bit due to dryness but all of a sudden everything that wasnt tees and greens was just dead. We had no idea what was going on. Had a consultant come our and help us identify the issue. Once he did, we put down a grub control and the repair started. Took us a solid month/month and a half + a fall overseed to get the place back to a good spot. We have also dealt with molds on the greens and some winter kill. The mold was easy as we just sprayed a fungicide and it repaired itself. The winter kill is more of a patience thing. We punched and went heavy on the sand in those areas. It healed a bit but never back to square one.
2 Likes
Our course is actually just done building 9 new holes and growing them in, so we have had our fair share of disease from brown and yellow patch to cut worm (our army worm but what sounds like not as destructive as army worms). Anything grub related is a nightmare if you aren’t pre treated or prepped for a response.
Do you guys topdress in any fashion for a winter prep ? Or I guess if I could ask what’s your guys winter prep plan each year, we truly shut the place down so I’m curious if you guys follow a similar aeration/top dress/ dormant spring feed cycle.
Officially that time of year here in southern Indiana. I hate that we go to matts for the next 5-6 months.
1 Like
20 hours of labour in chasing down cut wires and digging 10 different holes finally resulted in 2 fucking wires being spliced back together.
It truly feels like beating your head against a wall just waiting for it to finally break, but also is the biggest high when you finally figure it out and don’t have to feel like an idiot any longer.
1 Like
I can’t lie as a Canadian currently counting the days until we are covered in snow again I want to sympathize, but you fuckers with your year round golf make it hard lol
1 Like
Hahaha, it’s just frustrating that it’s 70 degrees out and our range is on a Matt. Lol, kudos to the upcoming 10 foot patch of grass that’s about to die when everyone starts hitting drivers over by the practice green
1 Like
Yeah I feel like the timing of that probably isn’t the best but at this point with doing maintenance stuff my heart tells me they have a reason for it (punching and topdressing) but also laziness is possible
I just remembered that we are hosting a female college tournament next week, so I wonder if they might be saving our remaining grass for that? I know they usually shut it down around this time every year though
1 Like
100% that’s likely the idea. Tarp and allow a little greenhouse for growth for the tourney and then likely shut it down for the winter.
1 Like
They are definitely starting to dry the greens out for it. It got rather spicy and there were a few girls that didn’t break 100 either day (including some from my Alma mater that practice there 
)
1 Like
Lol I always got the direction on tournament days to be fairly aggressive on pins for the day but I was always disappointed that we didn’t change rough or fairway heights to really jack the place up.
That being said 100 year old greens run at a 10 if you even breathe on them.
They cut the rough Tuesday and idk if they will cut it again. We have been stupid dry all summer, so our rough thinned out and never got up much. We got a light rain this morning that softened things up a bit, but is prepping them to turn it up this weekend.
1 Like
We’ve had some changes in management so we haven’t really done anything on our “tournament” days outside of me being told it’s a tourney day and being a little more particular on pins.
But it sounds like we are headed in the direction of actually doing tournament prep leading up to some events in the future, I can’t wait to get to turn the course up once and a while and see how badly the members hate us if only for a week lol
The dreaded process of blowing out 27 holes of irrigation begins tomorrow, wish my poor soul luck.
3 Likes
Day 1
11 hours to get 9 holes fully blown out with fairly minimal issues or setbacks. Ideally we do another 9+ some extra areas tomorrow and we aren’t in for the entire weekend finishing everything off.
400 litres of diesel fed into the beast of a compressor today lol
2 Likes
