Cold Update...

 

...It's damn Cold.

 

 

 

It also appears that in my last post I spoke a little too soon regarding the "lack of" snow.   I think as i clicked on the "publish" tab for my last blog it started snowing.  Since then we have been locked inside and as of today (2/21) we can't see any grass out on the course.

 

Here in Northport the totals were in the 25-30" range during that monster NEMO storm.  Most of us were unable to leave our homes for at least 2 days, as the municipalities had huge issues trying to clean the roads.

Here are a few photos of the cleanup adventure at the Club

Miguel Flores manned the skid steer to help dig out

Lisandro Ortiz scooped all day in the pouring rain

drifts were well over 3 feet, here on our deck 41" 

At the locker room entrance, it was halfway up the door

The guys had to dig out before the plow could cleanup

Assistant Phil cleaned up with the plow post dig out

Bob from the Clubhouse helped all day in the rain too

I was on the snowblower, it was so deep that we needed all of my 6'6" for leverage

 

It certainly appears that we will not be enjoying golf in March as we did last year.

Looking forward to a little warm up to get the melt underway.  Currently, we do have some solid ice on the greens, which may cause some problems if we are stuck in this freeze much longer.

Our deep tine aeration should allow a bit of air under the ice but we wont know how this is effecting our turf until the melt is under way.  On top of the cleanup from Sandy, that was just about complete prior to the snow, the weight of the snow combined with the massive 60mph winds brought down even more branches and trees.  So, we have a mountain of work to do once we are able to get on the course. 

 

Our equipment repair work is nearing completion and I just received word from the Owners that I can move forward to schedule more drainage work and order a few pieces of equipment to replace some very old, and very tired machines we currently use.   

 

Thanks for tuning in, see you relatively soon.

-JohnnyP

 

 

 

winter sunrise, looking East from the shop 

Winter '2012 - '13

Update on what's been going on at IHCC since the season ended.

This winter has been quite cold so far, but snow free except for a quick little burst here and there.
We (our winter staff is myself, Phil (asst), Pat (mechanic), Miguel & Lisandro) were able to get a few things accomplished, working around frozen ground.

We began to reconstruct the hellacious mess of a bunker on the right of #7 green.  We deemed this to be one of the worst conditioned bunkers on the course and began renovation work in mid January.  Phil does a fantastic job on our old skid steer, moving earth and recontouring the materials.  We incorporated Stephen Kay's Master Plan design into our work and will have 3 much smaller bunkers where the oversized previous one existed.  The bottom photo, taken from the rough on the right of the previous bunker, shows a rough view of what is to come.  We hope to have workable ground in late February so we can get this finished up sooner than later.



Super Storm Sandy cleanup also continues... We had a large track excavator here last month to pull the enormous stumps from the rough between 10 & 18, including the monster Oak stump near 17 green. Norse Tree Service also spent two weeks here cleaning up dead or hazardous tree situations.  There are still some locations that need work.  Norse continues to provide excellent service to our club. The tree work required is extensive and expensive here at IHCC. Many of our trees have health issues including most of the Ash trees between 8 & 15.

Green Ash Borer Larvae

Borer damage

Ash tree ravaged by borers

The above pictured tree located near the 8th Championship tee, snapped during the wind storm the last week of January. The center of the tree was loaded with borer larvae as well as large carpenter ants. From the outside, it did not look bad, but snapped like a toothpick and 70' of tree slammed into the ground. Fortunately, this occurred late at night when nobody was close to the tree. We will be taking a hard look at all our Ash trees for safety reasons as soon as we can get Norse Tree back on site.

Thanks for checking in, JohnnyP.


Split & seasoned Firewood is available for pickup at the maintenance facility...call 757-0555 for more info.




and on my brightside....my pride and joy, (6'3" sophomore) Nick and his Smithtown West hoopsters play for the League 3 title tonight (2/5) at Riverhead.  GO WEST !!!
The varsity is currently ranked #14 on LI with a 13-3 overall record, 11-2 in league play.
 

(btw..Northport's varsity, ranked #5, is a powerhouse - beat us by 3 in a holiday tournament)

 

Winding Down the Season.......

We have finished our late season greens aeration program. All greens have been Verti-drained (9" deep x 3/4"), then solid tined with 3/8" x 3".   We incorporated Mag/sulphate to help our soils fight the "Fairy Ring" issues we faced last summer.

 

 

9-Hole Temporary Greens Course

 

Effective Tuesday December 11, we have converted to a 9 hole temporary greens course for the winter.  The best route for playing this layout is > 17, 18, 1, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15 & 16.

 

PLEASE Do NOT hit any balls onto the regular greens!!!

 

 

 

We do have a limited supply of seasoned firewood available at the maintenance facility.   call the office 757-0555, or stop in between 7a-2p and we will help load some for you.  

 

 

 

 

 

Sandy Video...

 

 

The video above was taken during the Storm at about 2:00pm.  Our Assistant golf pro, CVII, was there as well.  This was close to low tide and the waves were still easily coming over the revetment. My son, Nick, often asked me if he could come to the course when the wind was blowing hard so he could "lean into it without falling"...he got his wish.

 

 

There's a part of the video that I had the presence of mind to let a great Caddyshack line rip...."I don't think the heavy stuff is gonna come for quite a while, if I were you, I'd keep playin'"...but the wind was blowing so hard you can't hear it.  

 

Life is Good!     

Hurricane Sandy's Handiwork on IHCC

 

Hurricane Sandy Hits Indian Hills

On October 29th & 30th IHCC and the rest of the Met area got pummeled by a huge tropical storm, the former Hurricane Sandy.  For 30 hours our Soundside course took a heavy beating from winds up to 94 mph (recorded at nearby Eatons Neck). The damage is substantial, but our Grounds Maintenance Staff has been on the job since early morning on the 31st.  We were able to open 9 holes on November 9th, and hope to have the entire course back up by November 17th.

Special thanks to all members of our Grounds Staff, all of whom worked tirelessly and continue to do so to get IHCC back open so you all can enjoy it again! 

For now... a few pictures of just how bad it was.  We'll see you back on the course soon!

#12 During the Storm, waves were Oceanlike.
(The Sea was angry that day, my friends.......)
this photo taken at LOW tide, during the storm



12 after, lots of earth taken out to the Sound.

exposed irrigation lines, massive loss 



Clubhouse

Clubhouse



Halfway House....no major damage, no broken windows - pretty lucky.



Tree on #1 tee, caused a lot of issues as cars often attempted to drive under it.

One of many uprooted trees, this maple landed on an irrigation satellite and the chipping green
 



working on the massive Oaks that flipped over on 18.



Huge uprooted Oak near 17 green



Assistant Superintendent Phil, spent the last 13 days with a chainsaw attached to his arms.



17' drop from the tee surface to the beach below on #12

Lots of blowers and lots of help.  Here my son Nick and wife Roxanne cleaning 15 green with summerhelper Ryan. 



The staff meticulously walked every inch of every fairway handpicking branches and sticks.
If this was not done, our mowers would have been damaged.



Our undersized chipper has been going for two weeks straight



hauling tons of logs with bucketloader



Phil was everywhere...chainsaw in hand

10 tee...other fallen maple



blowers, blowers, blowers....Rox and Nick helped out every day!
Thanks to no school and no power at home!

big Oaks on 18...downed

continuous blowing of fairways

Roxanne & Nick mowing fairways....regular maintenance had to continue as well.



Our resident foxes on #6 were a bit out of sorts....

took advantage of predicted post hurricane storm to fertilize greens as power was still out and no water available

So what's next.... a Nor'easter ??? 

Naah, that couldn't happen...
 

 

 

uh...oh, it did!

Hoping to See you on the Course Soon!!!!!!
 

 

Just a quick note on some of the results of winter work.....

Root Pruning.....Was it worth the time and effort?

I'd say absolutely.  We have done nothing more to these areas other than the root pruning.  Now that the turf is under summer stress it is very obvious that the tree roots were really negatively affecting our turf.  Dark green and healthy where the roots were pruned, suffering to survive where the roots remain.   No Brainer.


Carts on Path = Better quality Turf

Along with massive root pruning on the left side of the first fairway, the fact that we have reduced cart traffic and damage has improved this fairway dramatically.  We will continue to keep the carts off the fairway throughout the summer in an effort to keep quality up.  Please help by keeping carts off this fairway at all times.

And...How are we doing with Protecting the Environment???  We are very careful to use only the safest products in our battle against turf diseases & weeds.  We use IPM (integrated pest management) whenever possible.  Treating only when necessary.   If we were not as careful as we are our ponds would not be loaded with bullfrogs, which are highly sensitive.  We would not have the large amount of Foxes that we do. We would not have wildlife, to feed our ravenous red tail Hawks.

And we certainly would not have this Monster Snapping Turtle here for an estimated 60+ years according to NYS DEC officals that visited our course last year.


Thanks for checking in........
John

(Oh, by the way our Assistant Superintendent's name is PHIL not Tim.  not sure where the Tim came from....but, he is definately PHIL - Thanks)

Just an example of a bad tee shot?  Notice how far from the  tee the divot is....... and yes, there is another divot on the left.

            Wait a minute....this picture was taken where???

       Say it ain't so.......# 13 GREEN. 
     Divot heading towards the Sound.

         Saturday 6/16 late afternoon.

                             Very Sad.