Dear Member,
Good afternoon! I hope this letter finds you with life treating you well and enjoying the winter months. I was thinking this morning that it has been some time since I sent out a form of communication to the membership so thought I’d take the time to do so. Even though the golf course is closed we have numerous tasks at hand that I thought I’d bring you up to speed on.
With yesterday’s snowfall it puts us close to the 30” mark for the 2010-2011 winter season. Most snow events have been fairly moderate except for yesterdays where we received 7” and then on December 25th we had 8.5” here at the club. Snow shovels and plows have been very active with keeping the driveway clean around the clubhouse but also with shoveling some snow off the greens. The extended weather forecast looks to be bringing some more snow our way but also some much cooler temperatures. Fortunately this year we haven’t seen much ice accumulation. New year’s weekend was our biggest concern when temperatures reached the mid 50’s, with the rain and melting snow we figured we’d have some sitting water. Following a course inspection we only found a few areas where ice had accumulated but for the most part we were clean. Our belief is that the deep tining process in early November gave the water avenues to drain into other than sitting on the surface.
Winter maintenance tasks continue to push along. Junior and Antonio are going through each piece of equipment with a fine tooth comb. Oil changes and tune-ups are basically wrapped up. Currently we are beginning to replace bearings in all fairway mower reels as well as grinding the cutting reels and bedknives. Course accessories are getting checked off the list. So far we’ve refinished tee markers, fairway yardage plates, and sanded and repainted cups. Benches are the big task for this winter. Last year we notice that most of the boards were in bad shape so we are replacing all the wooden slats as well as sanding and repainting legs and metal components. Repainting ballwashers as well as inspecting bunker rakes are tasks still at hand. I anticipate that we will be all finished with course accessories by mid February and then we will move on to detailing and waxing all the equipment.
Coming up in February is the GCSAA Conference and Trade Show. This year it will be hosted in Orlando, Fl. The event last a week and has numerous education events as well as a large trade show where we are able to see new technology and speak to vendors. I always look forward to this event as our industry is always evolving, this year I’m sure environmental protection is going to be at the forefront.
Again, I hope you are well and having a good winter. Don’t forget that I continue to update the Grounds and Greens page http://www.briarwoodcountryclub.com/viewCustomPage.aspx?id=65 with photos and information as it takes place at Briarwood. Just click on the Grounds and Greens tab and click on the blog link.
Best Regards,
Justin