Winter Course Clean Up

The winter months have given us a chance to do much needed clean up on the course.  Since the temperatures have dropped and the grass has had little growth in the last few weeks, we are able to focus more on trimming and thinning than mowing.

Removing Cattails out of the water feature on 7,8,9 was our first winter effort.  We are also going to try to get the Cattails out of #10 lake before they get out of hand.  Cattails may look natural at first along a lake or in a creek, but soon they take over the entire creek or boundary of a lake.  The creek can become obstructed from view of our members.  This overgrowth can compromise the lake's liner and make the water around the Cattails become stagnate which aids the bloom of algae.

Fire wise is of course our main focus this winter.  The surrounding lots on the course have done a great job thinning the vegetation on their property and we are making a strong effort to thin out the golf course native areas.  We have finished the fifth hole and the next area on the schedule is the 11th hole.  I know I have lost a few golf balls on the 11th hole in the dense manzanita on the left and right of that hole. 

We are nearly finished with the landscaped areas around the proshop, resturant, bathrooms and select tee and greenside areas.  We have been trimming back the ornamental grasses and woody ornamentals to get them ready for the spring season.  These annual trimming excercises will keep the plant healthy and give it the ability to show its true colors come spring and summer.

Lane and I are trying to accomplish some small projects this winter aside from the major clean up that is taking place.  We have worked on the drive off after the bridge on seven by installing large flat sided rocks to level the area travelled.  We are also taking a look at the walking trails from tee to fairway and green to tee that have been eroding over time.  We plan to try to make all the paths passable with pull carts if possible.  We are also looking at the drive offs from the fairways to the cart path.  Some have become incredibly bumpy and we are working at getting those more smooth if possible.

Overall this winter has been productive.  Even with a reduced staff we have been getting a lot of work done.  Last year we had more staff but be pulled in many different directions we tried to get too many projects done all at once and spread the crew too thin.  This year I have been keeping the crew on a better schedule to finish a project before another starts.  We will keep you, the members posted on our progress and we will try to get as much as we can before mowing consumes our daily tasks.

If you have any questions please contact me.
Justin C. Ruiz, CGCS
justinr@therimgolfclub.org