Green Renovation 15/16

Our renovation work is well under way.  Golf Course Architect, Kelly Blake Moran, has designed our new green complexes.  Locally, Kelly is responsible for the superb design at Laurel Links in Jamesport.  The construction crew hails from Delea Sod.  They have hired Kevin Nolan, who did the majority of the shaping at Atlantic GC in Bridgehampton,  We are fortunate to have him in the seat of that John Deere dozer out there doing his thing!

One of the main reason's that we chose #16 is that it's summer survival has always been a constant battle.  When I interviewed for this position way back in 1995, it was explained to me this way: "don't worry too much about this green, it dies every August, that's the way it is."
Hmm? So obviously there is a bigger issue than the turf here.  Well we found it.  Right under the green, was a thick layer of blue/gray clay.  No drainage at all other than an inexpensive attempt with the "Water Wick" system, which certainly helped and remains evident some 10 years after installation.

Here come the photos, please enjoy.

Layering issues in the greens: 3 inches of topdressing, 3 inches of very heavy soil, and under that solid CLAY.  This is the reason behind most of our problems at IHCC.  And...most of our greens were constructed this way. 

We stripped the valuable areas on both greens to use in other areas.

Here we used sod form the right of 15 green to repair the damaged area on 18 green.  Unfortunately, the soil issue here is similar so we will be babysitting this sod for a while.  

We also used a lot of the newer bluegrass surrounds on 15 to repair some of the ground stumps.....

....and to patch the stump area where the mostly dead Maple was removed near the putting green

Step one: rototiller

The John Deere Dozer....has arrived!

Starting on 16

moving soils on 16

Water Wick drainage, 10+ years after installation.  This went down approximately 12", notice here the heavy dark clay soils that were in 16 green.   

Here the dozer is rolling up the blue-gray clay just under 16 green surface.

The dark gray clay....under 16 green, visable even after a lot of soil has been moved.

16

More to follow as the project continues.....

 

15/16 Greens Renovation & Projects / Fall 2013

Sorry for the lack of blog activity through the season.  Now that project time has begun I will keep a flow of photos and information heading out to you so we are all on the same page.

First I would like follow up on the 12th tee project and how that ended up working quite well.  Photos tell the story as shown below.

finished post Sandy destruction work / sod and prep day before mens member guest

got over 5" of rain on Friday of the member guest

newly reconstructed tee washed out to sea...again

reworked the slopes...hydroseeded

added a drainage path in the lowest area

brought in tee/construction mix for new blue tee area

laid the sod and opened it up again...and of course it rained 2" this night.

but, because of the well built drainage system, it survived with no issues 

and all is well on 12 once again.

 

Kev's New Hang Out 

 

 

The New "Starter House" arrived today, March 20th. 

 We purchased this from Wood Kingdom in Farmingdale.  It was built in "Amish Country" PA and shipped up here in kit form.

The installation took these 3 gents about an hour and a half from arrival to departure.

 

We will be re-landscaping the area as soon as we can get plants, it is still too cold for most nurseries to have materials available.

 

A few photos of the installation process:

 

arrival on a flatbed

setting pieces in place

nail gun made this quick

roof rafters set in place

roof in 10 minutes

15 minutes to shingle...

done.

 

 

 

One Less Eyesore....

 

 

We had a little break in the weather that allowed us to get to another eyesore on the property.

 

 

The Starter House, occupied for the last 30 years by our own Kevin Coll - professional starter extrodinaire, has been removed.  We have ordered and are awaiting delivery of our new, somewhat larger, cedar shake cottage style house.  This is another step of a project to improve the entrance way to the golf course. Below find a few pictures of the removal.

 

disconnecting electric and phone

took out the windows and door

knocked over with the bucket loader

loading into the dump truck

Found out where the bees were always flying to....


I will post photos of the new building when it arrives.  Should be soon.
Snow is melting nicely, hopefully the rains expected this evening will wash away a good amount of the remaining snow so we can get out on the course and continue the massive cleanup.

thanks for checking in...JohnnyP

 

 

 

 

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)