Golf Course Report

April 19, 2018

The April Report is always filled with a little bit of - exhaustion, from the seemingly endless Golf Season; relief, from surviving the onslaught of 25,000 golfers in a four month span; optimism, from the light at the end of the short tunnel ahead that will allow my team to begin the process of making the course even better; and of course a little bit of pride, love and admiration for my team, they began this season under the most adverse conditions and constantly went above and beyond expectations.  We end each day at the time clock with a fist bump, a handshake and/or a hug and this year that interaction has a little more meaning.  We rise and fall as one, we are a True Family.

It is interesting to look back at the ups and downs, the goods and bad and the successes and failures.  Typically they all tend to revolve around weather.  From a record breaking wet summer to a not so nice storm named Irma followed by months of clean up.  This led right into a very cold January, record breaking heat in February, back to a seasonable March and now we are getting late cold fronts in the third week of April.  On a daily basis, weather effects our decisions on cultural practices, fertility, irrigation, mower set up, and a multitude of other functions.  That is the blessing of having a team that can adapt on the fly with the ever changing conditions and plans. 

We are all looking forward to the summer.  Well maybe me more than others. We have plenty of projects planned that will improve the golf course from a playability aspect and enhance the aesthetic value of your round. I anticipate some re-planting of perimeter buffers, some widening of playable surfaces, leveling and expanding a few tees, replacing the asphalt on #11 with concrete, a concerted effort to improve fairway conditions and a few other tricks up my sleeve to give Stonebridge a new look for next Season. 

My pursuit for perfection continues to motivate me to take Stonebridge to places it has never seen before.  If you think this year was good, wait ‘til next year!

Male Wood Duck

Osprey Cleaning Fish prior to delivering to the nest

               

 A Few Pictures From the Tours!

Screech Owl

Happy Customers!

Great Heron

Wood Ducks

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

BlueJay

Purple Martins

Osprey

 Only a few Tours left, sign up early! This is just a sampling and they only get better!

Golf Course Report

March 14, 2018

The “Ides” of March are upon us.  And with that comes, what most of us call, the turning point in the Season.  We have planned, prepped, pulled off and survived the first 2 ½ months of the Golf Season.  With our 3 Marquee events recently completed, a sigh of relief could be felt throughout the recent staff meetings.  That feeling of “rounding 3^rd and heading for home” does not mean we are pulling our foot of the gas.  We aim to finish the Season strong. 

On the maintenance front, I am somewhat pleased with how the golf course has held up considering the “Jekyll and Hyde” type of weather we have experienced.  The frigid January, record breaking heat in February and now back to some cooler temps for March.  Imagine dressing your child during this time; long-johns to shorts and a T-shirt to sweater weather.  This analogy rings true for maintaining a golf course.  As the climate changes, so does the mowing heights, irrigation frequencies, fertility requirements, disease pressure and many more variables.  That’s the fun part, out smarting Mother Nature!  Doing more with less is always our goal.  With the proper cultural practices and impeccable timing, we can produce conditions that require less fertility and a lot less irrigation.  Every year we add new tools and new products that aid in achieving these goals.  This summer will be no different.  We will start early and often, in an effort to be better than this year.

As we head down the home stretch, we will continue to try to stay one step ahead.  We will take our attention to detail from our Guest events and apply them to our upcoming Club Championships.  I promise to be a little kinder and gentler when it comes to green speeds and pin positions.  Good Luck!

Golf Course Report

January 2018

                The New Year brings new beginnings, new goals, a fresh outlook and resolutions that we swear we are going to keep this time!  The New Year also gives us a chance to reflect on the year that was.  Instead of rehashing the obvious (incredibly bad Summer Weather), I would like to remind everyone of a few positives that came from the odd year of 2017.

                2017 brought us a new Driving Range Tee.  The entire tee was stripped and regraded.  Drainage was added and it was sand capped to resemble a green.  Finally it was sprigged with Celebration Bermuda grass.  This will allow us more flexible use throughout the year and faster recovery from wear and tear.  During this process we also installed a new “state of the art” TurfHound artificial mat teeing area.  These multi-length mats provide a more “real feel” impact for pre-round warm up and extended practice sessions.  Next we focused on the Chipping Green.  The practice bunker was expanded and the bunker face was lowered to increase the effective hitting area by more than 60%.  The West side of the chipping green was reshaped to soften the slopes and provide chipping and pitching options from a variety of distances and lies.  Next on the agenda, we tackled the poorly draining, heavily shaded #1 Tee complex.  A bit of “out of the box thinking” led me to design the island tees planted with a new cultivar of Zoysia grass that has done well in shaded areas at other properties throughout the South.  Finally, and probably the most noticeable for all of our returning members and guests, we completed the transition from soft path material to grass.  This was a summer long project, as we had to remove quite a bit of old material and add fresh soil before the sod was planted.  We also had to dodge a few weather delays while pouring the concrete for egress and ingress additions.  Once the project was finished we added close to 2 acres of turf to your golf course.  Drop in the bucket for most places but a big addition for Stonebridge. 

                The golf course evolves every day, every year.  In an effort to stay ahead of the game, I like to consume every bit of information concerning golf course maintenance.  We are currently at the forefront of the industry when it comes to fertility.  Our approach to soil science based organic feeding has been copied by many turf mangers throughout the region.  This program results in a reduction in synthetic fertilizers, less irrigation, lower disease occurrence and a decrease in insecticides.  This program was first employed on the greens and will be phased in to the tees and fairways as applicable. 

                Other BIG changes for 2017 were in the management portion of my team.  Wayne McDermott, our long time Equipment Manager, retired this summer after 24 years on the job.  I was very fortunate to spend 6 years with Wayne.  I will always consider him a friend and he will always be welcome here.  The other change was more structural.  With my ever expanding responsibilities and to do lists, I felt it was best for everyone involved that we eliminate the Assistant Superintendent position and actively search for a qualified person for the a Golf Course Superintendent position.  My passion is the golf course, but the needs of the community are wide ranging.  Re-installing this position will allow me to confidently go about my other business knowing I have a qualified professional looking over my baby.  I was lucky enough to have Wayne help me find his replacement.  He had a few recommendations and he sat in on the interviews.  In the end we hired Vance Julian, a legacy of sort.  His father was the leading Equipment Manager in the industry for more than 30 years; Vance sort of grew up turning wrenches and sharpening mowers.  He has a lot of energy and will certainly outlast me!  As for the Superintendent position, Joe McColgan joins us from the East coast.  His multiple years of service in management positions at various clubs throughout the state was impressive, but most of all he graduated from the same turf school I attended (albeit at a much later date). 

                I am excited about this year.  We have an infusion of youth to ramp up our energy!  We have a great opportunity to make a major impact on the entire property in the near future.  As we prepare for the busy “tournament” season, we always have our minds set on the summer ahead.  Planning, scheming and plotting to be the best.

Back from the Woodshed!

      Irma has kept us busy and I promised myself I would not write a blog post with frustration clouding my sensibilities.  Today, we topdressed greens.  A small victory for our staff as we look to get back to taking care of the golf course on a full time basis.  Granted, the afternoon duties included tree trimming, debris removal and stump grinding but we are making progress.  Going forward, more and more time will be shifted towards preparing the course for the "Tournament" season.  

    As you might recall, even before Irma, we were in the midst of a record breaking summer.  Our rainfall totals from June 1st through September 30th were close to 100 inches.  This is usually the time that we do a majority of our preparation and agronomic cultural practices that enhance the conditions for the coming season.  The most effected programs are the herbicide and fertilizer applications.  To compensate for the loss of efficacy during the summer, we took advantage of the fair conditions of October to aggressively treat the weeds, that led to some off color areas throughout the course that will soon recover.  The recovery will be enhanced by the fact that we have had the opportunity to apply our scheduled October Fertility coated with a Pre-Emergent herbicide to prevent winter annuals and two liquid fertilizer applications.  We have an aggressive schedule set forth over the next 4 to 6 weeks that should produce excellent playing conditions. 

    I am looking forward to next week.  Due to the storm we had to push back the installation of our pine straw and the planting of our winter annuals.  This process will begin on Monday the 13th.  We have a few more flowers to install and a lot more pine straw to spread than previous years.  I thank you in advance for your patience and I promise you that I will do everything I can to expedite the process. 

There is so much to look forward to, we have always striven to make this season better than last season, today better than yesterday!  We will keep pushing the envelope to find the right combination to make Stonebridge the best that it can be.   

     

All The King's Horses and All the King's Men...

 I have no words to describe the effort and determination that my team has put forth during the last two weeks in an attempt to restore this beautiful piece of property.  We are a long way from reaching our goal but we are on the right path.  When it is your job to inspire your team sometimes it is tough to be inspired.  When you see what my staff has had to endure through this storm and what they have done to support me, I am truly inspired.  Working sun up to sun down for the last two weeks is made a little easier when you know you are greeted by Family at both locations.

We will be opening the golf course for play on Wednesday morning (9/27) and I would like to preface this with a few words of insight.  This will not be our best presentation.  We have not had the time to attend to the finer details that our members are accustomed to. I implore you to take a drop from all lateral hazards and do not attempt to look for your ball in a wooded area.  We have cleared all the playing surfaces but the periphery will take quite a bit longer.  Please work with us as we continue to progress to our ultimate goal of being the best club all of SW Florida.  

I would like to thank the members for their generosity.  Their continuous donations have made a great impact on many of my team members lives.  These guys are my Heroes!  

August (last minute) Update

Leave it to me to wait until the last few days of the month to squeeze in a monthly report.  I was much too frustrated the last four days to be optimistic about anything, that is why I waited for the sun to break through before I passed on this information.  This Tropical system that decided to park itself directly over SW Florida for the past four days dropped closed to 12 inches of rain on Stonebridge.  This brings our total for August to over 20 inches and if you add that to June and July we have endured over 70 inches of rain during that span.  That three month accumulation is 15 inches more than our ANNUAL average. 

"The Sun will come out Tomorrow" "The Sun will come out Tomorrow" "The Sun will come out Tomorrow"  I keep telling my team that we will catch a break and the weather will reward our hard work if we just BELIEVE! 

 Enough with the depressing weather, let's move on to the nuts and bolts of what we've been up to and where we are headed. Below you will find a picture of a little green house that I am sure most of you did not know existed.  This houses our Common Grounds Pump Station.  Or in layman's terms "the machinery that draws water out of the lake to supply the irrigation for all the homeowners and Common Areas".  We had to clear the hedges in front of the building because we are well over due for a replacement on this very important asset.  During our September closure we will be removing the failing equipment and installing a more efficient upgraded pump station.  This new station comes equipped with a built in filtering system and we are incorporating a biological cleaning program that will aid in reducing clogged sprinkler heads and faulty valves.  I will be certain to take a lot of photos during the installation. There is a crane involved, it should be pretty cool.

We also finished up our Cart Path Removal/Enhancement Project.  I never knew what to call it but I think it will make quite the impact this season.  The last few steps were to switch out the soft path material  on #1, #6, #15 an #17 and to add the concrete extensions to the exits and entrances around the tees and greens.  This should help to reduce some concentrated wear areas.  After a little "wheeling and dealing" I talked our contractor into coming back to take care of a nagging issue.  The cart path leading from #13 to #14 had quite a dangerous drop off and a sharp right turn just past my Maintenance entrance.  We formulated a plan to raise the catch basin and concrete the surrounding area to make it safer for our members and guests.  

We are a week away from our last Summer closure.  Typically, we tend to ease into Season, this year will be completely different.  The saturated conditions on the golf course are far reaching, if we are not aggressive in our approach during the last months of the growing season, our turf will not be acclimated to survive the season.  

It has been a trying Summer, but I am not about to throw in any semblance of a towel.  "WE" will make it happen.

Common Grounds Pump Station

New Concrete en route to #14