Winter Duties Continue

The golf course has a pristine coat of white across it now. So peaceful to look out my office window and see the flurries fall only adding to the blanket provided by nature.
Now that the course is covered with snow we've diverted all work to inside. If there are days we can take advantage of weather and get back outside we will. Each year we spend a great deal of time getting accessories refinished for the next season and we are taking time to do so now. Over this past week the guys have really put a dent into this work.
So far they have refinished all tee yardage plates as well as fairway plates. These tasks involve a good amount of hand work with sanding then application of primers and paint. Now that those are wrapped up we've moved on to our wood staining work. Materials involving stain include our putting green sticks and all our tee markers. Putting green sticks are pretty simple to refinish while tee markers take more time as we repaint the tee color designation stripe as well. Again, the guys do a tremendous job detailing all these items so that they look as good as new for the next season.
As they work on these items I've begun my planning process for next season. It's always necessary to look back to help plan ahead. Each season we learn new things which we can think about implementing into our system. One thing I've been working on as of late is developing a section maintenance program. This type of program was used when I worked at Cherry Hills in Denver and I was just recently refamiliarized with when I volunteered at Medinah for the Ryder Cup. Curtis the Director of Grounds at Medinah had also done some time at Cherry Hills where he learned the same program and implemented it at Medinah. Basically a section based maintenance program involves dividing the course into sections to help narrow the focus of daily tasks as well as detail tasks. 2 guys are assigned to a certain group of holes where each day they are responsible for mowing those greens, approaches, tees, as well as all detailed work. This will hopefully develop more pride and accountability for those employees on their section, it will also help us in maintenance prep and tracking equipment performance as the same piece of equipment will be used on the same area. For instance if we see a poor cut on the second hole we know which mower and guy to talk to rather than wondering who and what machine mowed the 2nd green, tee, or approach. We are really excited about implementing this system and confident it will help make BCC better.
Ok, I've rambled enough, just want to keep you informed with the happenings on the Grounds of Briarwood throughout the winter. I'm attaching some photos of refinishing course accessories: