Golf Course Update

2012

The 2012 golf season is quickly approaching, and it's time to get the clubs out of storage and wipe off the dust. A relatively mild winter with very little snow accumulation in the valley has been very beneficial for the golf course. Following winter, it is very rare for the course not to have a disease of some type. Snow mold, fusarium, and numerous other disease pathogens linger all winter under snow's cover. Usually the fairways get hit the hardest by snow mold, but in our case, the damp September and October months of 2010 prompted a disease pathogen to attack the greens. We were able to slow the annoyance, but the damage was too severe, and the championship 18 greens went into the winter disease ridden. Along with a better plan, a mild winter, and an investment by the club to spray a better combination of fungicides, Eagle Bend has come out of the winter better than ever.

As Michael has stated with the Lake Nine pass no longer available, we will be able to close a nine this year, as needed, to apply some much needed maintenance. The chief priority will be the greens and bunkers. For example, if we have the Lake Nine (Osprey Nine) closed for the morning, we can send a crew ahead of play to edge bunkers and adjust sand for better consistency. Our other priority will be a consistent top-dress and verti-cut program to our greens. If we are able to achieve this, it will benefit the greens in a number of different areas. First, verti-cutting helps reduce compaction and alleviates the thatch layer, which allows water to reach the root zone, thus a healthier plant. Second, if you watch golf on T.V., you may be familiar with the Johnny Millers of the broadcast world frequently discussing the grain of the greens. The verti-cut program reduces the amount of grain and allows the ball to roll over the tips of the leaf blade with a much smoother and faster putting surface. Finally, if we remain consistent with this program (maintenance cycles every 3 to 4 weeks) and are able to keep the thatch layer in check, we may not have to aerate the greens in the fall!

If you have driven by Eagle Bend recently and glanced out to the Osprey Nine, you most likely noticed the cart path renovation. With help from Mother Nature, we hope to have it buttoned up by June 1st, and if all goes well, possibly sooner. The Eagle Bend maintenance crew has also been working hard this spring trimming more trees. We hope to have every tree on the Eagle and the Bear trimmed up by this fall.

Over the last two seasons, Eagle Bend Golf Club has made many improvements to the irrigation system. We put in close to twenty new irrigation controllers last year, most of them going to the old Nicklaus holes. We were able to take the older controllers from these holes to the Osprey nine so that we would be running on a central computer system, which is clearly more efficient. This winter we also pulled two of our main pumps that were only operating at 50%. These pumps will be rebuilt and should be as good as new.

We hope to see you on the course for a great golf season!

Shane Bigelow, CGCS

Superintendent

Golf  Course  Update

The 2010 golf season is fast approaching!  A relatively mild winter with little snow has prompted your maintenance staff to begin a countdown of sorts to course opening.  While we still need several mild days and nights to melt the last of the snow and ice, we should be well ahead of last year’s opening.

Last year’s late season snow accumulation hindered one very important project that was on our to-do list.  We had intended to spend a significant amount of time on our bunkers, which included adding new sand.  Unfortunately our late thaw interrupted the timing of this project and I made the decision to postpone it to this spring thinking the bunkers could wait.  While we felt like we entered the season ok, it became difficult to keep the bunkers up to standards from mid summer on.  New sand has already been ordered for this spring and the crew has been scheduled to begin the project early in March.

While on the subject of bunkers, there are a couple of questions regarding them that we have been asked lately that I would like to address.  First of all; how should golfers place the rakes in the bunkers after using them?  It has been recommended to us to bridge the sand trap rake.  That means that the handle is placed perpendicular to the bunker edge outside the bunker with the head of the rake inside the bunker.

The second question I would like to address is; why are there rocks and pebbles in the bunkers?  Eagle Bend Golf Club is fortunate to share this beautiful piece of earth with an abundance of wildlife, which includes the fox.  They have discovered that varmints which they like to feed on live in the drainage of the bunkers.  This drainage includes a drain pipe surrounded by gravel.  They dig down through the sand to the drainage in search of food and kick rocks up to the surface of the bunker which then gets mixed into the sand.  We have purchased a machine that will help get the rocks out and help us deal with this problem.

Tom Ask, CGCS

Superintendent