Making Omelets

You know the saying, "You can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs".  Well, we are definitely breaking some eggs right now as all our winter projects have gotten started, but the wet weather won't allow us to finish anything. Our average rainfall in January is upwards of 6 inches and we are already there with still a week left to go.   The rain and snow has made it challenging, but things are finally starting to come together. We're almost done making messes and the team is excited to get things cleaned up and restored.  I guess you could say we're ready to pour the omelet into the pan.  Here's an update our winter projects.

 We always have a project planned for when it snows.  Weather like this is limiting, but with good planning we can always keep the crew working at peak efficiency.  Last year when it snowed we expanded the parking lot at the practice hole.  It was then that the Committee and the Board discussed the next snow event and put in motion the project you see here which is to replace the huge cedar trees in the guest parking lot.  They had simply gotten too big for their space.

This is what it looks like today.  The stumps have been pulled out and we'll be getting some new plant material for these planting strips as soon as possible.  Typically, it isn't till March or April when we can get a nursery to dig up and deliver new plants.  In the meantime it looks pretty good, and it's certainly a lot safer now that you can clearly see down the road when trying to pull out of the parking lot.  The project on the 8th green is also starting to look a lot better.  The new evergreen buffer is going in quickly.  Check out this series of pictures.

Here's another series of pictures from a different angle.

You can see that we're about half way done with the planting phase.  It looks fantastic and there is so much more light, air, and space to play golf over there near the greenside bunker.  I knew this project was going to turn out great, but it's already exceeded my expectations.  Things aren't going so well on holes 11 and 7 where we're working on an "oak release" project. Work started on New Years Day but since then little has been done given the wet weather.

Getting the trees off the property requires the use of big machines and to avoid injury to the fairways we need to wait a little longer for the right opportunity.  Lastly I want to show you where we're at with the project on #9 green near the driving range tee.

Yes it's kind of a mess right now but once we get a couple of dry days this should come together quickly. The new plants have been dug out and they should easily be transplanted to this location when the opportunity arises. Thank you for your patience as we try and get these omelets cooked up to perfection.  

The Train has Arrived

This week we started with snow.........a lot of snow.  There was a good 4 inches on the ground and it stuck around till Friday.  One bit of good news is the snow didn't bring down too many big branches like you see in this picture.  It shouldn't take long to clean up, but it was another week of course closure and unfortunately with the snow we couldn't work on 12 tee.

Speaking of 12 tee.  Here's a pic of the new teeing ground with snow cover.  It's a cool picture because you don't see all the dirt and you can really envision how the hole will look from the new tee.  Look how the trees frame this tee shot.  It's not a very narrow tee shot compared to most holes at Tacoma but as we all know, the landing area is pretty unforgiving.  What's nice is as a player you have a choice.  You can play a fade or a draw off the tee since both oak trees can easily be carried if you're playing from an appropriate tee that fits your game.   

 With the snow cover our options were limited as to what we could do this week on the golf course.  We did take care of removing those small firs on the right of 10 because we could work from the road.  Keep in mind these trees will be replaced with a more appropriate tree that provides better protection for the pedestrians on the road.  

Our attention moved indoors for some projects that were well overdue.  We painted the inside of the maintenance facility and the restrooms on 13 tee.

We also got every piece of equipment outside for a thorough bath. 

Lastly, we all knew this was coming but just so you know the train has arrived.  I clicked this picture Friday and as you can see there is an Amtrack train on the rail.  This is the first time I have ever seen an Amtrack train on that rail.  As announced, the rail is ready for testing and clearly they are testing.  This train was moving slowly and I know that the objective of this test was to just make sure all the road crossings are working properly.  I'm sure that soon we will see them testing at full speed which we're told will be about 80 mph.  The crossing at Thorn Lane on the south end was working and it was loud!!!  For more information on the new trains click HERE.

Frost can be Deadly....and a Blessing

So I posted this picture on Twitter yesterday.  I was again touting the ability of our new loader built by Wacker Neuson as it was astonishing how big of a log it could carry.  Honestly this is one of the best, most useful machines Tacoma has ever purchased.  But, one of my good friends on Twitter noticed that we were driving it on the frost and was giving me a hard time since we turf managers often stress that traffic on frosty turf is bad.  So "what gives"? Why is it okay for us to drive this huge machine on frosty turf, while at the same time close the golf course to all traffic because of the potential damage to turf?  The answer is simple. Dead turf is sometimes acceptable, and let me assure you we killed some turf this week.  I can explain.

Do you remember the poplar trees that lived between 12 and 13?  Do you remember that they were scheduled for removal this winter?  Well timing is everything and this weeks weather provided the perfect timing for removing these trees. This past week we had temperatures as low as 10 degrees at night and high temperatures barely above freezing. The ground was frozen hard as a rock.  Keep in mind that Tacoma has no cart paths.  This is great 99% of the time but it's not so great when you need to perform a project that requires huge machinery.

This picture shows the massive size of these trees as they were taken down this past week. A lot of manpower and machinery was required.

We were able to take these huge machines out into the middle of the golf course because the ground was frozen solid.  As a consequence we only suffered frost damage.  I say "only frost damage" because had the ground not been frozen, we would have completely destroyed the area and disrupted the surface to a depth of a foot or more.  

The key to success on these large projects is to minimize the area of disturbance because sometimes the cost of restoring the area around the project can be more than the cost of the project itself.  In this case, the frost damage can easily be restored with some aeration and overseeding in February or March when the soil temperatures are warm enough.  In the meantime, it will be obvious where we drove the heavy equipment over the frosty turf because it is severely damaged.  This is exactly why we close the golf course when frost is present.  Damaged turf in one small area of the fairway or rough is a small price to pay for completing a project of this size.  Had the golf course been open during this week of frosty weather, there would be damage on every green, every fairway, and everywhere in between.  I'm sure no one would have liked to have seen that.

Burrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

The BPCI team braved the cold and installed these big metal doohickeys on the new ProShop.  They also put up some huge glue-lam beam.  

Out on the range, they have made serious progress on the Performance Center.

 They are close to being ready to pour the foundation.  Finding the opportunity to make that pour in this current weather pattern may prove challenging.  By the way, this building is going to be so cool.  I think it will be the most popular spot to hang out, talk golf, and work on your game.

On the golf course my team was really cookin on the artificial turf strip.  We built a nice plywood road out to the site and got a lot of the base built before the weather shut us down.  We installed some pipes under the strip so that we can pull wire, water pipe or anything else under it if we need to in the future.

The weather is definitely a factor right now.  We cannot do much on the turf strip because all the ground is frozen and so is the pile of gravel that we're working with to build the base layer.  So we decided to remove some of those pesky trees.

That dead hemlock on the driving range is now gone and so is the 150 yard marker tree on #4.  FYI, the 150 yard marker tree on #1 is also slated for removal and I'm guessing that will get done sooner than later with all this cold weather.  

There is always plenty to do on a golf course no matter what Mother Nature dishes out.

Project Time

We had above normal precipitation in November and several high wind events so all the leaves are down a little earlier than normal.  We've got most of it picked up and now without the need to blow all the fine turf every day, we have time to start on our long "to do" list.  This is the best part of the off season because almost every day we get to go home knowing we made some kind of improvement on the property.  When you spend all day blowing tree debris only to come in the next day and do the same thing, it feels like you're not being very productive.  Now that it's project time, we know we're making a difference and that helps us get through some of the miserable days of weather we have during the winter.  Here are some of the things we've been working on.

 The curbing around the first tee was replaced last spring and we had every intention of replacing the curbing around the putter at that time but it just didn't happen.  The project on the first tee had some delays so we finished it later than I had planned, so once we finished the project and installed the clock I decided it was time to just focus on the golf course.

 The putter/first tee area is busy with traffic so working here can be difficult when the golf course is open.  Last week we had frost delays every day which made this the perfect time to work on this project.  You can see how the old railroad ties were in pretty bad shape and really hazardous for people to step on.  This project was overdue for sure.

 We used the same 8X8 timbers that we placed around the first tee in the spring. They are not railroad ties so they don't have creosote in them which makes them more environmentally sensitive.  We intentionally left them as they came off the mill.  They are not planed or sanded so hopefully they will not get slippery.  I think they look great.  Thank you Pinnacle Lumber for finding the perfect material for curbing.

 The crew finished raising the sprinkler heads which we started last winter.  That is no small task as we have about 800 sprinklers in the fine turf areas which need to be raised every 2 to three years.  Once the sprinklers we're raised we started raising the valve boxes.  Above is an example of a valve box in desperate need of raising.  Some of these boxes are the original ones installed in 1989 and they look pretty gross.  So, we are not only raising the boxes, we are replacing every box in the fine turf areas.  The new boxes are smaller in diameter and I have designed a custom lid which Keltech plastics made for us. 

 The plastic pipe sleeve is important to keep soil away from the top of the valve. 

 Since the new boxes are smaller than the old ones, we have to get creative with the sodding but once tamped down they look good and the bare spots will fill in quickly.

 The custom lid was created because every lid you can buy is simply junk.  The lid that comes with these boxes are thin, look cheap, and have a hole in them.  That hole is for your finger so you can pull the lid up, but that hole makes valve boxes really attractive for bees to make their home.  Try turning a valve when there's a bee hive on it.  Our custom lid has a stainless metal handle that drops down so there is no need for a finger hole and no need for a special tool to get the lid off.  Also, you can see there is a recessed area for a yardage tag.  We will be putting new yardage tags on all these boxes very soon.

Lastly, back by popular demand we are adding new sand to all the bunkers making them so soft that recovery from them is impossible.

 Seriously, we are adding sand to the bunkers because they need it.  I apologize if you get into a trap that we recently worked on because they will be soft for a while.

When we constructed the bunkers in 2013, we were judicious with the sand because too much sand is just as bad as not enough when you consider good playability.  Not only that, bunker sand is expensive so controlling costs was really important during the construction period.   Now we are adding sand where we need it but we are still judicious because unfortunately the bunker sand we have is no longer available.  We have several tons in storage but since we can't buy anymore, we will make that stockpile last as long as possible.  Adding sand to bunkers is a necessary evil.  You would be surprised how much sand leaves a bunker annually by golfers hitting shots and by the action of blowing debris from them.  If you don't monitor the quantity of sand and add some occasionally, you'll end up with so many thin areas that the bunker liners will be compromised and then we will start seeing rocks coming up into the bunkers.  So like I said, this process is important and by doing it we are prolonging the life of the bunkers and of course sustaining good playability. Another way of making a difference which makes the off season and "project time" so important and gratifying.