Making it New Again

It is that time of the year again. With the harsh winter weather upon us, it's time to start touching up trash cans and ball washers around the club. We have brought most of them down to the shop and have started painting them to get them looking nice again. This is the process we use for completing multiple tasks around the club and the golf course.

No More Waterfall

It is time to dismantle the waterfall. This Tuesday we decided to turn off and remove the waterfall pump on hole number 5. The pump is turned on at the start of spring and runs all year until about this time. It's necessary to turn the pump off during the cold winter for the longevity of the pump.

Let it Snow!

On both Christmas eve and the day after Christmas, we experienced some snow. The snow cover on the course is beneficial to the turfgrass. The snow acts as a blanket for the turf and insulates the ground to help it through these harsh winter night temps we are about to experience. Then, when it warms up the snow will melt and provide moisture to the turf.

Great News!!!!

As you know from a previous post, we had our dump truck and chipper stolen from us. We have recovered both of them. The chipper is back home with us with minimal damage and the dump truck is in the process of getting to the body shop to get fixed. It was like we were missing a child and we are very happy to get them back.

Draining the Irrigation Lines

The weather is beginning to take a turn for the colder and so it is time for us to begin draining our irrigation lines on the golf course. Throughout the golf course you will see irrigation heads laying in the grass. These heads were removed intentionally to allow the water in our irrigation lines to exit. This is necessary so our irrigation lines do not freeze. If we were to leave the water in the lines there's a good chance the water will freeze and expand and cause damage to the lines. This process will take two to three days and then the irrigation heads will be placed back into the ground.

Break in!

Around 4:30am - 4:50am there was a break in at the Blue Hills Maintenance Shop. Management arrived near 5:00am after being alerted through our security camera. The thieves got away with our F-350 truck along with our Bandit 250 XP Chipper. They damaged our wash bay that we use to clean our equipment and they destroyed our front gate. We have contacted the authorities. If you have any information regarding the theft please contact Woody or Rich.

Let it Shine, Let it Shine

          This week we removed a tree behind 17 green. This mature pin oak looked healthy and seemed to be out of the way in terms of affecting our golf course. Since the tree was so tall, it casted a large shadow on the south end of the green. During the winter months this is problematic especially during a snow event. The sun can't penetrate through the branches of the tree because of the sun angle being lower in the sky as compared to the summer months when the sun is higher. This will cause the snow to sit long periods of time on the surface, the same is true when it comes to frost. When looking at the pictures you will also notice that the tree, although looked healthy, it was beginning to rot from the inside out. This of course wasn't our intention, because it didn't show any signs of rot from the outside, but it goes to show what most of our mature trees might be experiencing on our golf course.

Removal of Rotted Trees

So far this winter, the Blue Hills Country Club turf team has been doing a lot of tree work. We have recently removed a tree at the beginning of the fairway on the right side of #15, as you can see in the pictures the tree was rotted out. With the tree rotting out fast it becomes a safety hazard and with any big gust of wind it could of came down.

Letting Them Breathe

Monday, we had the opportunity to take advantage of these unseasonably warm temperatures by needle tining our greens. Needle tining is another form of aerating greens, but without the major disruption aerating usually brings. Normally, we would pull a core and fill that empty space with sand. Needle tining instead, doesn't pull a core and only makes a hole small enough to help with the air exchange of the roots in the soil. It also helps with water movement into the soil profile and will relieve soil compaction, and allowing our roots to grow.

Fall Leaves

The past few weeks have been keeping our blowers and mowers pretty busy. The colder temperatures with the early morning frosts have caused the majority of the leaves on our trees to drop. A drawback of having mature pin oaks, maples, and ash trees is all the leaves that they produce.  We do our best to manage all of these downed leaves by using our buffalo blowers in combination with our rough units to mulch the leaves. Spending a whole day blowing usually cleans up the course well enough to experience playable conditions for that day. This is an ongoing process and there will be an end in sight in the coming weeks. 

Fixing the Small Things

The Blue Hills Country Club turf team has recently been working on removing bare areas in highly compacted, high traffic areas. These areas have been there for a few years and we have struggled to get any turf to grow there.

Some of these areas include the right side of #4 at the bottom of the hill, and the right side of #17 at the end of the fairway where golf carts are exiting.  In winters past we have tackled larger projects such as cart paths, tree trimming and tree removal.  With some of the jobs having been completed, we now have time to take care of some smaller projects that needed addressing.

Raising the Canopy

This fall the Blue Hills Turf Crew began another tree project involving the removal of dead limbs, raising the tree canopy, and overall removal of dead decaying trees. We began the project towards the start of November by removing a few dead trees like the cluster of crab apples near hole number 4 tee box. There was another crab apple that was struggling on number 18 about 120 yards out from the green. We removed a few bigger trees that were beginning to grow hollow and already decaying towards the top of the tree. A few examples are the ash tree on the left side of 18 and another one on the right side around 250 yards out. Then we took a look and removed the two maples on the right side of 7 fairway behind the right bunker. These decisions will only benefit the turf health and possibly a few golf shots out on the golf course. We will be assessing more trees throughout the winter months and will make a decision whether those trees will need to be removed as well.

Meet Our New Assistants

We have recently hired two new assistants.

Joey Rufenacht started in the middle of May. He just recently graduated from Kansas State University in May with a Bachelor Degree in Horticulture with a Golf Course Management option. He grew up in Ness City, Kansas on a Family Farm where he worked until he graduated college. He worked at Stagg Hill Golf Club in Manhattan, Kansas for 3 years while going to school and spent one summer working there. Also, he interned at Creekmoor Golf Club in the summer of 2016. He is very excited to be starting his Career at Blue Hills Country Club.

Robby Henderson started at the beginning of April.  He grew up in South Kansas City In the Red Bridge area.  He has an Associates in Turfgrass Management, and has been in the golf maintenance industry for over 20 years, and playing golf for 35 years.  Most of his time in the business has been spent in Arizona and California, but is glad to be back home where it all started. 

Keeping the Grass Off the Turf

        Good Morning Blue Hills Country Club! We have heard great things regarding the new driving range tee turf. The maintenance crew has been busy planning, to keep this turf in immaculate condition. We have noticed as the golfers walk on the stone paver path to the tee, grass clippings and debris tend to be tracked onto the artificial turf. In order to keep the life of the turf to its highest potential it was decided to extend the paver path all the way to the turf itself. Extending the path and with proper upkeep, the members should be able to enjoy the performance of this turf for years to come. Included below are some pictures of the process that took place with the maintenance crew hard at work.

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