The Boys are Back in Town

New drainage along the perimeter on #14

     It's an exciting time for us in the grounds department at Briarwood Country Club.  Come Monday, April 17th we will be fully staffed.  When fully staffed we are now able to begin our section maintenance program.  Section maintenance allows the grounds department to accomplish the fine detail work you see throughout the property on a consistent basis.  We are able to edge bunkers and lakes, trim irrigation heads and drains, weed whip trees and edge cart paths, and many other tasks that other courses have trouble finding the time to do on a consistent basis.  The premise of section work is that two employees are teamed up and given a certain set of holes to maintain.  These holes are their babies.  They mow greens, approaches, and tees on a daily basis and perform the aforementioned tasks.  At the end of each month there is a "Section of the Month" award based on the performances of each section group.  It is an enjoyable experience watching the guys tease each other and make a friendly competition out of it.
     Unfortunately for the week we were hit with more rain, which puts us over 1'' again.  We had to delay the #17 gold tee project due to the conditions but are planning on getting it wrapped up in the following week (weather permitting). We are also working to spray our second seed head application in fairways and hope to dry out soon enough to allow us to do so. The one positive to come of all this rain is it really shows which areas of the golf course needs drainage.  Over the past couple of seasons we have install roughly a half a mile of pipe in the ground and removed close to a quarter mile of old clay tile.  We had a crew member walking down #12 fairway today and had an old clay tile collapse under foot.  We are really noticing some changes in these areas.  The drainage work will continue right of number #14 in both the fairway and rough.  This area of the course is one of wettest and takes the longest to dry down due to the abundant amount of shade all day long.
    All in all, we are happy with the progress of the golf course and the way it overwintered.  We have a little work to do around haul roads that we used throughout the winter but this is something that happens every course you go to.  We will also be diligent in helping along thin areas throughout the course by seeding and fertilizing on a consistent basis.
      Last but not least, as always we ask everyone who is out enjoying the golf course to treat it like you would any other asset you have.  This property is a living, breathing entity and needs all the TLC you can give it.  Use the proper etiquette and replace all divots, fix your ball marks (if you can't find yours then try to fix another one).  Please do your part and rake the bunkers in a professional manner.  Imagine how you would feel if you had to hit out of these footprints.  We hope you're enjoying these blog posts as much as we enjoy writing them!  Looks like we are going to have a nice, warm weekend at Briarwood.