Create a Crate

During the off season the maintenance crew is determined to stay busy.  Another project that we have started is to build new ball crates for the driving range. These crates will be used on the driving range tee instead of the current buckets.

The crates have been designed with a dual purpose in mind.  They will be just the right size to alleviate the need for a boundary board to designate the hitting stations while holding all the range balls. The crates will be spaced to the proper distance giving the golfer room to hit while giving it a cleaner look.  The pictures below show the process of us putting the crates together.

New Path for the Alternate Driving Range Tee

These last few weeks we have begun an addition to our cart path. We have felt there was a need to modify the mulch path that cut through from #1 to #4 to concrete.  This new concrete path will be for golfers to get to and from the alternate driving range tee.  The new path will be 7 feet wide which will also help accommodate the maintenance crew maneuver our larger equipment around the course. There will be three phases to this process.  Phase 1 was completed by removing all of the mulch from the existing path.  We then painted white lines to set the boundary of the concrete path. Then we excavated the dirt out to a depth of about 8".  Once the material was removed we brought in AB3 gravel and compacted it down to create a foundation for the new path in preparation for the concrete.  Phase 2 will consist of forming up the sides and laying re bar along the top of the AB3.  Phase 3 will then consist of pouring the concrete and smoothing it out for the final look.  

Opening Up the Rough

The Blue Hills Crew took advantage of the weather that we had this past month with the high close to 50 degrees and cut down a few more trees. The trees that were in question were located on hole 11, just past the start of the fairway on the left hand side.  It was a group of pine trees that were posing a problem agronomically as well as for playability purposes. Removing these pines will definitely help with the turf growth in the rough with their absence and the fairway will benefit as well.  Looking at the playability  aspect of this decision, when your golf ball would land near this area the shot would be very difficult to recover from and land back into the fairway. The removing of these trees will at least help your chances of recovering and landing back into the fairway, but the shot still leaves it difficult to go for the green. The next grouping of trees acts as another barrier to keep the hole challenging.

Dead Spruce

It was another cold day here at Blue Hills Country Club. Although it's cold there's work that needs to be done and so the Blue Hills Crew tackled another tree project this morning. If you have been out on the golf course lately you might have noticed there was a dead spruce behind 3 green. The tree itself was very tall, close to 80 feet tall, but it was as dead as they come. The branches were slowly breaking off in the presence of bad weather and there was nothing that was going to save this tree. So, we took it upon ourselves to cut down the tree and put it through the chipper.

Twice As Bad, or Better?

This week at Blue Hills, the maintenance crew kept busy by cutting down and chipping up another tree that posed a problem agronomically as well as to the golfers. This tree in particular was located directly behind the right fairway bunker on number 18. The tree was close enough to the fairway that it posed a problem to the turf, but mainly we felt like the tree created an additional hazard, or a "double jeopardy" to golfers that were to land inside the bunker. The difficulty of shot would be hard out of the bunker, but it would be even more difficult to hit the shot out of the bunker and trying to avoid the tree as well. This is the first hole that was decided in this fashion, we will be looking at other holes/trees that have a similar setup throughout the winter months.

Rain, Rain, Too Much Rain

When we get rain it is a blessing here at the golf course. When we get a lot of rain, sometimes the effects can be a hindrance. When we take a look at our creek you will see exactly what I am talking about. In the last few years we have experienced multiple short bursts of excessive rain. These storms can bring a relief for a droughty turf in the summer, but when it comes to a water feature like our creek, the effects can be overwhelmingly destructive. The large amounts of rain will cause the creek to flood significantly, and when this happens there is a high chance for erosion to occur on the creek banks. This is especially true near the waterfall features of the creek.

There is a large washout near the stepping stone bridge behind the blue tee on 18. As you will see from the videos, the flow of water has managed to find a weak spot behind the rocks and is now flowing into the bank, the water then finds its way back into the creek.

One of the projects we hope to complete this winter is to create a long wing wall that expands into the creek bank.  This wall will be made from poured concrete and will extend about 15 feet into the bank and placed at a 45 degree angle. This process will be tricky because when the waterfall was first designed it was placed on top of the city sewer. The stacked landscape rock was then placed through iron rods in the center to stabilize the waterfall rock. So with this in mind we will expand onto the existing foundation of the waterfall to create the necessary wing wall. Placing a wing wall at this length should help correct the flow of water and divert it back into the main stream where it belongs. We will then back fill the washed area with topsoil and bring it back to level.

Dead Wood

These last few years we have been really working on cleaning out the canopy of the trees on our golf course. This winter we are continuing the process by cleaning out all the dead wood that has appeared in a lot of our oak trees. We contracted out a crew to come in and climb those tall oak trees. These climbers are professionals, they are able to climb the trees without spikes on their shoes so the trees aren't damaged during the process. They will start from the top working their way down the tree removing all the dead wood that is visible. The process should take only a few weeks since they are only concentrating their efforts on the oaks. Our crew then will come in later and limb up any maple trees that need it as well. This process is necessary for the health of the tree by severing off any portion of the tree that is dead. This will help keep unwanted insects from penetrating and entering those wounded areas and damaging the tree further.