Pushing On

We continue to push on with cleanup and preparing the golf course for opening.  We had high hopes of opening this Friday but due to conditions following the early week snow and rain we are postponing.  The anticipated date, is now next Friday, April 3rd.  This is again tentative based upon weather cooperating and conditions being favorable.

The latest weather brought a stop to some spring tasks but has allowed us to move forward with others.  Earlier in the week when the course was covered in snow we took time to go through maintenance facilities; organizing and cleaning things up.  The weather also presented a great time to go through policy manuals with employees.  Having firm policies in place helps keep everyone on the same page with expectations and procedures for different practices.  Over the last few day we have returned to the course and continue spring tasks. We had started to cleanup and rehab bunkers last week, and have now continued that task.  The guys are doing a great job of cleaning out any debris and getting sides raked up and smooth for now.  In a few weeks once we have checked all depths, we will use a tiller to loosen up sand.  Over the last few years sand has firmed up a lot and believe we are seeing a negative impact on bunker drainage.  We are anticipating being wrapped up with bunkers this week, allowing us to focus on mowing and a few other things next week before opening.

Small projects are always nice to tackle this time of year as well.  With the recent melt of snow and accumulation of rainfall, we're seeing some negative impacting drainage in front of the first tee.  Today, Moe and Antonio Vargas used our drainage camera along with root rodder to make sure lines are clean.

Nathan installing goose device in pond on 10/18

 When the area dries we'll be adding more drainage to help the area dry faster following rain events.  Goose control has been a great focus of ours this spring.  They are starting to migrate back north so we are doing our best to make them feel uncomfortable when they land at Briarwood.  That's the key, don't let them get established, once they get to that point it's tough to get rid of them.  Today we installed a tool to help disrupt the geese, it's called the Gander Disbander.  Details of the unit can be seen here: http://www.ganderdisbander.com/ we hope that this along with the dog and other methods help keep geese from staying on property.  We can't guarantee 100% effectiveness but we are hoping to be very close.

We'll continue to stay very busy with cleaning up on the course and working to open soon.  Looks like next week will be a busy week for mowing and wrapping up a few projects from fall.  We have a handful of stuff that needs to be completed.  We're hoping that April is a pleasant month weather wise, allowing us to go into May and be completely focused on maintaining the golf course.