Good Luck Adam!

This weekend is my assistant, Adam Lencke's, last weekend working at Calumet.  After working here for four years, he has accepted the head superintendent position at the Course at Aberdeen in Valparaiso, IN, and will be starting work there on Monday. 

Over the years working here, he has put a great deal of hard work into the golf course here, and has been an excellent assistant to me.  He will be missed, and I'm sure that he will miss Calumet also, but this new position is a huge step and a great accomplishment in his young golf course management career.  If you see him out on the course this weekend, be sure to stop and wish him will in his new position. 

That Doesn't Look Right

At some point in time, many years ago, a clay tile behind the 12th green was installed to drain part of the shop area.  When it was installed they must have realized (too late) that their line was going to run into a tree.  Instead of slowly moving the line away from the tree, a sharp S-Curve was made with two 90 degree fittings to go directly around the tree.

Obiviously, this drain was always clogging up because of the restricted water flow, and if any debris came through the pipe, it would get stuck in the drain and cause it to backup.  This week, we were finally able to fix this problem for good.

That's better.  Nice and straight like it should be!

Course Opening Wednesday March 14th!

The news you've all been waiting for!  We will open the course to play for the 2012 season Wednesday, March 14th at 9:00 a.m.  Thanks to a warm winter and a warm spring, this will be the earliest opening the course has ever seen.  Right now, the plan is to be open with carts, forecasters are not calling for much rain so I don't see that changing.

Tomorrow and Tuesday the grounds staff will be working hard to finish our preparations for opening.  The greens and tees will get their first mowing, and we will be blowing off the fairways in order to provide you with the best possible early season conditions.  This warm weather will really be kicking our operation into high gear, as most of our chemical schedules are now going to be running two to three weeks ahead of normal and we will be seeing the grass start to green up and get growing.  It's looking like it may be a busier spring than usual.

The warm and windy weather we had over the past few days allowed us to get out and begin preparations for opening the golf course.  Yesterday we were able to finish cleaning off the greens and tees, and finish rolling the greens. 

Adam Rolling 11 Green, with Roberto blowing off 17 Tee

Course preparations were moving along quite nicely until last nights rain, and with the colder temperatures coming in tomorrow, the golf course will not be opened this weekend.  As of right now, we don't have date set for opening the golf course, but the forecast for next week is very promising.  Keep an eye on the blog over the next few days for updates.  Blog readers and twitter followers will be the first to know when the golf course is opening for play!

Hello Winter - For a Few Days At Least

Winter finally decided to show up for a few days, and the frozen ground has allowed us to get to some tree work that has been put on hold until now.  A tree service was here yesterday and today to do some large tree removals and to do some trimming.  All in all, they removed four trees, two of which were causing turf problems.  The first was behind 17 green, and was shading the green from the south, where the strongest summer sun comes from.  It was causing some areas of the green, especially the back tier, to be very weak.  The second was behind the 7th green near 8 tee.  The back of the green has been getting weaker because of tree roots growing into the green and from the tree blocking the morning sun from the east.  Removing this tree will also help the back of the 8th tee, as it will now receive afternoon sun.  Morning sun is better, but getting afternoon sun as opposed to no sun will help this very high traffic area. 

Getting Started on 17

Almost Down

Yesterday, they were able to finish all the removals that we were not able to do in house, and today they have been working on trimming up some tee shots that have gotten over grown.  Tee shots that will now be a little wider are holes 4 and 6.  The tree service will be here for a few more days to begin pruning more of the trees on the course.  It has now been about ten years since the trees have had a good pruning, and many trees are definitely needing it.  We hope to get a majority of the trees trimmed over the course of the next few years. 

The other "problem" with no snow cover

It's going to be a mess out there this spring.

January 12, 2012

Golf course finally looking like its supposed to in January....white!