Monday, February 7th, 2011

Course Conditions

A terrific week weather wise. The fairways were cut once again and the carts were set free to roam as they please! The week was punctuated by on Wednesday with an unexpected irrigation cycle over night. With the night time temperature at 25 degrees you can imagine what the course looked like when we arrived. Tuesday our service representative was doing some work on our computer control system and he performed a back-up of our data base. Upon the reinitialization of the program the rain hold switch was overlooked, subsequently allowing the system to download the last program that was run to the satellites. I believe we pumped close to 350,000 gallons, enough to drop the lake level a good three inches! I could not have been more frustrated. What should have been a short frost delay turned into an 11:30 start loosing close to 55 players that day. An honest but unfortunate mistake.

The weather cooperated for us on Friday, avoiding frost delay, and we managed to cut the greens first thing ahead of the golfers. Saturday we were able to roll for the Men's Club tournament giving them some nice rolling conditions for the day. This week Treecology will be back out to work on some more trees. I wasn't too pleased with their progress last time and hope they can get a little further this round. We have a tremendous amount of work to accomplish in the trees and I hope next years budget will allow us a little more time to work on them.

Monday, January 31st, 2011

Course Conditions

We ended last week on a nice note with some very nice weather. We managed to cut the fairways, topdress the greens and mow them twice! We even managed to get some rough cut. What a difference a few nice days can make. The forecast for this weeks weather shows we are in for some clear and dry days but we are also more than likely going to be in a frost situation. Morning temperatures will be in the mid 20's but the afternoons will be warming to the mid 40's.
The maintenance staff will be busy chipping brush and clearing invasive plants from the wetlands and pond buffers until the frost has melted. We are still cutting the greens once a week, mowing on Thursdays or Fridays. With the frosty weather pattern we will most likely be mowing the greens in the late afternoon to avoid holding up play in the morning. The greens are due of a shot of fertilize this week and we may have to spray in the afternoon as well.


Steve has had a busy week in the shop. He has been preparing our large Dakota 440 for the topdressing season. Wear and tear over the years has forced us to replace the spinners and the spinner shafts as well as the seal kit on one of the main hydraulic motors. The repairs are pretty expensive but extremely necessary for us to continue it's operation.

Our walking greens mowers have not been giving us the quality of cut that we demand from them. Lately we have notice some minor scalping from the edges of the bedknife. We depend on these machines mostly in the winter when the greens are soft so we can prevent scalping. They are now causing the problem. Steve has determined that the rear drums are the main culprit. Using his calipers he can see the difference across the drum in thousandths of inches. Any difference within 5 thousandths can be very noticeable.  Two of the three will need new reels while all three are in need of new rear drums and shafts. To replace just the two rear sections of the drum including bearings and shafts we are looking at $1,100 each, not what we were expecting. For now we will limp them along to the best we can until we can determine a proper course of action.

As our equipment ages, repairs are going to become a larger part of our maintenance budget until we can replace the equipment that has outlived it's usefulness. I am certainly grateful we have Steve as our equipment manger. He is one of the best I have seen!

Audubon Recertification at Stone Creek is Retained!

It is official, Stone Creek Golf Club has retained its designation as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary through the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses (ACSP), an Audubon International program.  Stone Creek has been a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary since 2006. Since we have been in the program we have demonstrated and maintained a high degree of environmental quality in: Environmental Planning, Wildlife & Habitat Management, Outreach and Education, Chemical Use Reduction and Safety, Water Conservation, and Water Quality Management.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the ACSP. To prepare for the celebration, Audubon International released two surveys in which I would like to share some of the results with you.

Wildlife & Habitat Management

• The average member has natural vegetation around 72% of their shorelines, compared to 33% before joining the program.
• Prior to joining the program, 31% of the respondents had no naturalized shorelines and 11% had all naturalized shorlines. Now, 2% of the respondents have no naturalized shorelines and 31% have naturalized shorelines.
• Since joining the program, 60% of  members have removed turfgrass at an average of 11 acres.

Water Quality Management

• Where shorelines are in play, 89% of members raised mowing height along shorelines to slow and filter runoff.
• 79% mow in-play shorelines at the recommended 3" or higher (compared to 27% before joining)
• 88% mix and load chemicals over an impervious surface (compared to 57% before joining)
• 91% have pesticide storage with secondary spill containment (compared to 55% before joining)

Water Conservation

• Since joining the program, 50% of members have reduced irrigated turfgrass by an average of 8 acres.
•   68% have replaced full circle irrigation heads with part circle heads.
• On average, 15% of full circle irrigation heads were replaced with part circle irrigation heads.

Turfgrass Management

• Since joining the program, 58% of the members have reduced the average numbers of acres to which pesticides are regularly applied by 16.5 acres.
• 96% are transitioning to pesticides with a lower toxicity level (compared  to 46% before joining)
• 70% are transitioning to biological pesticides (compared to 22% before joining)
• Since joining the program, members have reduced the average number of acrew to which fertilizers are regularly applied by 15.5 acres.

Business Value 
Many golf courses are registered in the ACSP because it is considered "the right thing to do," but there is also a strong business case for voluntary environmental action. In these days of tightening budgets, many ACSP recommendations reduce costs while also allowing you to frame the reasons for the changes in a positive, environmental light.

• 52% of members have reduced water costs.
• 70% have reduced pesticide costs.
• 66% have reduced fertilizer costs.
• 44% have reduced fuel costs.
• 46% have reduced electricity costs.
• 51% have reduced wast management costs.

In addition, even during these times of decreasing rounds, 15% report that they have new golfers and/or members because of their involvement in the ACSP.

These findings demonstrate loud and clear the benefits of a good and sound environmental program.Thank you Audubon International for your first 20 years and all of your diligent efforts in helping the golf industry become keenly aware of its potential to become true stewards of the environment.