Cold Weather Here To Stay

Post Thanksgiving week began with stump removal on both courses. We continue to contract out this work for efficiency and cost. There isn’t enough justification to spend roughly 60k on a stump grinder to keep on property when we can bring in a stump removal service three times a year for a fraction of the cost. This approach allows us to keep removing trees as needed until enough stumps accumulate for our contractor to make a full day of grinding stumps on the property. Afterward, our team cleans up the grindings which fully completes the tree-removal process.

Continuing on the tree-removal topic, we were finally able to take down the last tree needed for the Department Maintenance team. If you remember from a couple posts back, we had to remove several trees next to their building. This was to make room for a new lean-to that will be used to store the smoker and a few other miscellaneous items. This added storage space will be a great benefit to their department and the club as a whole.

The Sabot team began work on the culvert located left of 16 fairway. A tree root had actually grown into the concrete culvert and shifted the entire pipe out of position. Ben brought out the mini-excavator, pulled up the pipe, graded the area, and reinstalled the pipe properly. We will finish the area off with sod. Improving access on the left side of the creek will make it much easier for us to maintain the pine-bed area that sits there. Not to mention, easier ball retrieval when a shot is pulled to the left here. 

We were fortunate to find someone willing to bring in their own equipment, at no cost to us, and begin cleaning up our dump area. This space is used every single day and is essential to our operation. Without a place to put leaves, dirt, debris, woodchips, and everything else we remove around the campus, things wouldn’t run nearly as smoothly as they do. While he is primarily targeting the logs we’ve accumulated over the years, any cleanup is a big help. It’s a win-win situation for both parties.

 

If you aren’t sick of hearing about tree work yet, here’s one last tree item. This one’s a rarity, you’ll actually see us putting in a tree instead of taking one down! The team was able to get the Christmas tree on the back lawn up and ready for the holidays. With the tree up, Rosa and Angela were able to clear out the remaining Thanksgiving decorations, and the rest of the campus has now been decorated for the Christmas season as well.

Keeping an eye on the incoming cold weather after Thanksgiving, we decided to cover our newly seeded area on 18 Manakin. We’ll continue to monitor this spot throughout the winter months, but for now it will remain covered in hopes of allowing the turf to keep filling in. The covers really help retain heat is the soil and protect the young seedlings from frost damage.

Our very own Tae Kim was selected this year to join the Green Start Academy. The Green Start Academy is a leadership and professional development program exclusively designed for assistant superintendents. He has been down at Pinehurst for most of the week participating in the event.

Leaf removal continues whenever we can get out on the courses. With heavy frost almost every morning this week, we’ve been doing what we can to keep the cleanup moving. Tuesday’s one inch of rain didn’t help either. If the blast of cold weather after Thanksgiving wasn’t enough, another round is on the way for the weekend. More frost and frozen bunkers seem inevitable, but fingers crossed we avoid any snow. Have a great weekend!