Project #2 for 2015

After a bit of a slow down things have once again ramped up here at Wolf Creek. The weather has been unbelievably great over the past couple of days and the grass and "To Do List" are starting to think it is Spring already. As I mentioned in my last blog post a week or so ago we are starting another very beneficial project here at Wolf. Mid-America Golf is on site starting construction on the practice putting green in front of the clubhouse. Our plan is to double the size and make it as flat as possible to maximize the amount of space to use. Tom Watson has once again stepped in and is lending his design expertise to us, which I am very grateful for. The construction process should take about 2-3 weeks and then we hope to be seeding the green as soon as possible. During this time we are asking everyone to use the three practice greens behind the clubhouse and the chipping green as a putting green. Please do not use #9 as we will cause excessive wear on that green and interfere with play that is on the course. I have attached a few pictures below showing the putting green project. Just like I did on #5 I plan to keep updates on this blog regularly as the process progresses. Speaking of #5 we are planning on installing the sod on Thursday of this week. We are doing our final grading now and hope to have it completed tomorrow. Also today we mowed our greens for the first time. All went well and they should start to green up slowly and really start to grow with the warmer weather. Cart traffic in the fairways is always an issue this time of year as the ground is freezes over night and then thaws out during the day. We are trying to regulate and allow as much cart traffic as we can. However there are some holes that are just to damp and wet and the carts are causing some tracking issues. This is causing us to have to do some regulation of allowing carts onto the fairways. I apologize for the inconvenience and want you to know that we are checking the fairways regularly and will allow carts in the fairway as soon as possible on some of these holes. I have attached a picture I took this morning showing the cart tracks in the fairways. Have a great week and I will update the blog throughout the construction process.

Winter Time Is Here

It has been a while since I have put a blog post up. Since we completed the heavy dirt work on the project on #5 things have been a little colder and quieter around the maintenance facility. "Old Man Winter" has made his presence known over the past couple of weeks. Temperatures have been very cold and the wind has been blowing at a pretty steady pace. There have been a few days where the sun has been out and day time temperatures have gotten into the the 50's but otherwise things have been very cold. The ground has been frozen ever since we completed the dirt work on #5. We are still waiting for some warmer weather and the ground to thaw out so that we can get the final grade work done and get the sod laid. This past week we have been out grinding the tree stumps where we removed trees this winter. Our plan is to grind the stumps and then back fill in the holes with dirt and sod them this spring. Also we have been doing some more annual equipment repairs and finishing up on the painting of the tee markers and cart post for the course. Once the weather breaks we are going to be going like crazy finishing up on #5 and starting a new exciting project that I will inform everyone of soon! You will just have to keep checking back on the blog to find out what it is. It is going to be a huge improvement for the club and will really help everyone with their short games! Have a great weekend!

#5 Creek Project Update

Well after a long and stressful couple of weeks and a few setbacks from "Mother Nature" Jack and his crew have just about got all the work done on #5 creek. I have attached a picture below from early this morning showing the finished product. It was a huge monumental task that Jack and his employees pulled off. I would like to personally thank Jack and his guys, Troy McFarren, Trey McFarren, Larry Kettler, Robert McRae for their tremendous hard work no matter the situation or setbacks and it was a pleasure working with them and getting to know them throughout the process. We had several times when things weren't going the way they should but the guys never wavered and were committed to getting the job done and doing it right. Jack should be very proud to have such hard working and dedicated employees representing his company. We still have some cleanup work to do today and some more final grading to do before we can put the sod down. Also we are going to have to wait on the weather to warm up and the ground to thaw out before we can get sod to lay. I am very excited with how it turned out and I think all of you will really enjoy the change going forward. This project corrected a huge problem for us with the rail road tie wall that was failing and I think it turned out even better then I thought it would. Have a great weekend and stay warm!!

#5 Project Update

Well the weather over the last few days has caused us to have some delays on getting the project completed on #5. It started over last weekend when we received the 1" of rain that filled up the creek and broke our temporary damns. We have been pumping the creek back down over the past three days and have had good luck as most of the water is gone. Now with the recent cold freezing temperatures things have gotten delayed further due to the ice and wet conditions after things start to thaw out this weekend with the warmer weather. We are going to let things melt and dry out over the next three days and hope to continue our work on Monday. We are hopeful that the 2" of ice that is currently in the creek will melt and that the area around the green will dry out so that we don't create an even bigger mess with the muddy conditions. As always I will keep everyone up to date when the work starts up again. Have a great weekend and enjoy the warm weather! After the last two days it will be a very pleasant site!

A Visit From "Mother Nature"

As we always say in this buisness you are not only battling pest,diseases, and traffic but a lot of the battle on a daily basis is dealing with the punches that "Mother Nature" delivers. Well this weekend she dealt us a pretty good blow! We received a little over 1" of rain fall and our temporary damns weren't able to hold back all the water. The rain was great for the rest of the golf course but not so much for our project on #5. Our creek area in front of #5 green filled up with water and we had to break another one of our temporary damns to allow for the water to get out and not cause anymore damage to our green. Today we are hooking up two 6" pumps to help pump down the creek. This process is going to take a few days and our hope is that we don't get anymore precipitation this week, however we are forecast to get snow on Wednesday. The silver lining in all of this is that Jack's crew was able to get a lot of the work completed prior to the rain event and we don't think it will take very long to get done once we get back to work. The majority of the dirt work on the green is completed so our hope is once we get the water out that it will go smoothly and we can get everything completed quickly. I have attached a couple of pictures below. One is from Friday showing the slope in place and the other is from Sunday after the water had filled up the area in front of the green. I will keep everyone up to date as things progress into the week.

#5 Project Update

Well with the outstanding weather we have had the last couple of days there has been some significant progress made on the #5 creek project. The water has continued to be an issue but we have been able to put some measures in place to try and keep most of the water out of the work area which has allowed us to make the progress. I have attached a few pictures below showing the dirt that has been moved to the green bank and the actual slope we are shooting for starting to take shape. The plan is too rough grade the slope in and then come back and finish grade it at the end. We are keeping our fingers crossed for the weather to cooperate the next couple of days to allow us to get some more done before the storm hits over the weekend. I hope everyone has a great day!!

Finally Some Progress on #5

After fighting water in the creek for the past six days we finally made some good progress on the wall on #5. We are installing concrete stones at the foot of the slope, which is allowing us to keep all the silt and sludge away from our work site giving us a solid footing to build the new dirt green bank on. There will still be some water each day that we will have to pump out, but hopefully it won't be to the extent that it has been. We have found several springs in the creek in the area that we are trying to work which has caused some difficulty in getting it drained down. I hope I will have even more progress to show you after today as our hope is to have a full day of building the wall and not fighting water. I have attached a couple of pictures below showing the work being done. I can't express enough how much of a joy it has been to work with Jack Stockdale and his crew on this project. His crew has been relentless and dedicated to trying to find solutions to get the job done even when at times things were looking rather daunting. Also this week we are planning to roll the greens and smooth out the footprints hopefully later today and then possibly try and mow the greens on Wednesday as out temperatures are going to be in the upper 60's to 70 degrees. We are also considering possibly pressuring up the irrigation system today and tomorrow as things have gotten extremely dry. Looking at the weather it appears temperatures are going to stay relatively warm despite a small chance of some snow over the weekend. As long as we don't have a long stretch of extremely cold weather things should be ok if they are pressured. Have a good day and I am hopeful I can give you another update later today or tomorrow.