Training Day

Last week, Dan the Assistant Golf Course Superintendent held a training day for the staff.  He brought the crew out to the putting green to teach them all how to mow and roll the greens.  After he felt everyone was well versed with the walk mowers and roller he headed to the eighteenth fairway for fairway unit training.


The training day was great for the guys to not only learn and teach each other how they mow the greens, but it also brought the guys together to have a little fun a share some camaraderie.

It was a great way to kick off the summer with the new guys.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me

Justin Ruiz, CGCS, MG
justinr@indiansummergolf.com

Hovercraft Golf Cart

How about carts year round?  Ha.

Chipping Green Construction Update

The chipping green project is coming along nicely. We started the project last fall during aerification.  We used the plugs that we harvested from the greens to create a new chipping green.  My vision was to have the green represent the golf course much better and also give our members many more options to practice their short game.

The small chipping green is now roughly double the size.  It has three distinct tiers that flags can be placed on the green.  Many more shots can be played around the green by either running it up the tier or having a shot that might land on one tier and filter down to the next.  I wanted to exercise the imaginations of the golfers. If you want to increase your short game imagination, Steven, Sam and Brandon can show you some very unique shots that will not only impress your friends, but might save you a couple strokes as well.

We are still in the process of coming down to the final height of cut that will match the greens on the course.  The green will provide a true comparison to the golf course.

If you have any questions about the new chipping green or want to add some ideas to the practice center
improvement plan, please feel free to contact me.

Justin Ruiz, CGCS, MG
justinr@indiansummergolf.com

Greenhouse Installation

This winter has been busy for us on the turf team.  We have started and finished many projects and are still trying to tie up more projects before the grass begins to grow too fast.
Another project that we have been working on this winter was the installation of a greenhouse in our maintenance area.  The greenhouse will give us the ability to grow our own annual plants for color in the summer months.

We spend a few thousand dollars every year to purchase annual color for the clubhouse and around the course.  Our greenhouse project has cost a fraction of the price and I expect that we can cut our costs in half if not more by growing our annual plants from seed.

I will post more pictures as we begin to assemble the new greenhouse and start planting our new annuals.  I am hoping to grow some perennial plants as well to either replace, add to or create new landscaped areas that will help add some finishing touches to the golf course.  The greenhouse will give us the ability to have more control on when we want to install our annuals and how healthy they are coming into the season.

I have to thank our new mechanic Geoff Adams.  This has been his project and he originally tossed the idea onto the table as a way to become more self sufficient and be able to utilize our composted green waste.  He has been a great addition to the staff and he has done wonders to our shop as well.

If you would like to check out the behind the scenes action at Indian Summer. Please feel free to contact me and I would love to show you our progress.

Justin Ruiz, CGCS, MG
justinr@indiansummergolf.com  

Drainage #15

It has been a busy winter.  We have been trying to get a few projects done this winter to prepare the course for the spring and summer season.  One of the projects that I had been talking about was drainage.  We got one section of drainage done on #15.  It was right in the landing area where golfers were having a lot of trouble during the wet months of the year.

The project took us a little longer than expected because just as we were wrapping up the pipe installation we had a two week cold snap.  This kept the area frozen and hard to work with.  Once the freeze lifted we were able to put the project to bed and start working on other areas of the course.


The picture on the left is the final look after we laid the sod back.  The area has already begin to dry up and the drainage has been working well.

If you have and questions or comments please feel free to contact me.

Justin Ruiz, CGCS, MG
justinr@indiansummergolf.com

Bunker Work

We have been doing some work in the bunkers over the last few weeks.  The sand has sloughed off of the sides over the winter months from regular maintenance and stormy weather.  We are trying to return the bunker shape to the original design with a more bowl shape into the bunker and not such deep bunker lips.

The work we are doing will be part of our training program for the new staff this spring.  It will be their responsibility to maintain this look as they rake the bunkers throughout the season.  I am also going to switch up some of the maintenance to see if we can do more hand raking and less mechanical raking.  It seems like the mechanical rake does more damage than good.

I would like to ask our members a favor during the 2013 golf season.  Please enter and exit the bunkers on the least sloped areas of the bunkers.  This will help maintain our bunker faces and not accelerate the movement of the sand to the bottom of the bunkers.  We will try to place the rakes in the best positions for entry and exit so that members will utilize these areas more often. We are also placing the rakes on the opposite sides of the green when possible so that there will not be a rake between the green and the bunker.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Justin Ruiz, CGCS, MG
justinr@indiansummergolf.com