Winter Wetting Agent Program

While the golf course gets drier with each passing day, I refuse to put out wetting agent on our fairways in January.  It just doesn't feel right.  Its like having turkey on any day other than Thanksgiving.  Really?  

In lieu of the wetting agents, we are running all of our aerators with 3/4" spikes on them.  They are truly impressive pieces of steel and they are more effective than any wetting agent this time of year.  We will complete all of the tees, approaches, and fairways by the end of next week.  Rough's were just completed with a 3/4" core.

So the greens don't feel left out, we will also punch them next week with 1/8" solid tines.  Who knows, maybe a little sand too.

8 Lake Water Savings

With no rain in sight, we have begun to re-build the bunker behind the 8th green.  This project has been on the list for the last three years, but was always the project that would get postponed.  With water savings at a premium too, I felt this would be an opportune time to get this project done. 

The original goal of the project was to expand the bunker to the right so golfers who overshot the green would have their ball stop in the bunker vs. the creek.  That will certainly be accomplished, but we are also removing 2,000 square feet of irrigated turf.  With the removal of the turf and some other irrigation changes, we removed 4 part circle sprinklers at 22.0 gpm and replaced them with 30 MP Rotators at 0.4 gpm.  Of the 4 part circle sprinklers we replaced, I'd guesstimate that 75% of the water went directly into the creek. 

We will slowly check off the details early next week and have sod ready for Wednesday afternoon.   

Signs of a New Year

When you wake up on the second of January and you notice about 20 new runners running around your block, you know it is a new year full of new resolutions.  While subtle, the signs of a new year are evident at Cinnabar.  

The biggest of them all is the removal of the Christmas trees and accompanying decorations.  What took two days to setup, came down in a matter of hours.  Well worth it though and we hope you were able to enjoy our decorations as much as we do putting them up. 

If you poke around the offices, all the new wall calendars are up and I really take a lot of pride in my wall calendar.  It is what I use to plan out the entire year of fertilizer and pesticide applications and subsequently what I use to budget the entire maintenance budget.  The planning begins with the two weeks of the year we are scheduled to aerate and everything is worked around those events.  It becomes a chess match moving pieces or applications around and finally you have to know when to stop tinkering.  One of these years, I will begin a pool with my assistants and do an over/ under as to when we will deviate from the plan.  

Did you think I'd give you a clear plan as to what I'm doing?

While I haven't set any hardcore resolutions like I normally do, I have/ will be asking myself daily what I have done today to make myself and the course better.  With that, it is time for me to go grab a green smoothie and adjust some irrigation heads!