Stone Dust Removal

Work has begun on removing ALL stone dust around the cart paths. Once the stone dust is removed the areas will be re-graded with loam and then sodded. Holes 1-5 should be completed by the end of next week.

Im sure many of you have noticed that most of the mulch in the beds surrounding the clubhouse has been removed and replaced with 3/4" native stone. For better or worse the mulch was replaced to meet new fire code laws brought to our attention by the Dartmouth town fire inspector. The new fire code states that "Mulch shall not be applied within 18" of any combustible portion of any commercial building". Unfortunately the wooden shingles on the clubhouse qualify as combustible.

Golf Cart Damage on the 4th Hole

A picture says a thousand words.  It is often a point of contention with certain members when we don't allow golf cart usage after heavy rain. The damage pictured below is exactly what we are trying to prevent from occurring when we make such decisions. Every golf course is different. Every golf course absorbs heavy rains and drains at different rates. Decisions on whether or not to allow carts on a certain day cannot be based upon whether or not other golf courses in the area are allowing golf carts on that same day. We always try to make decisions based upon what is best for The Country Club of New Bedford and not make reactionary decisions based upon what other area golf courses are doing. We implore you to be patient with us concerning golf cart usage and respect the decisions that we must make to protect the golf course.  Putting unnecessary pressure on the turf care staff, the golf shop staff, and the green committee chairman to allow golf cart usage after heavy rains is counter productive, irresponsible, and can only lead to damaged turf.

Flushing Wells and Installing Well Meters

Each spring before we re-install our well meters for the irrigation system we have to flush the iron and sediment out of the wells. Because our irrigation system lacks a proper filtration system iron flakes from the wells that feed the irrigation system constantly clog sprinkler heads. Flushing the wells certainly helps a bit but after we recharge and fill the irrigation system for the year we will still need to flush each individual sprinkler head on the golf course as well. It is a time consuming process. I will post pictures of this process as well when it begins.

A Quick Update!

From March 28th to March 29th our weather station at the Turf Care Center recorded 4.35 inches of rain. In the heat and humidity of summer that amount of rain would have been potentially catastrophic to the turf. Thankfully its still spring and the golf course took that amount of rain surprisingly well. The course is open to walkers but there will be no golf carts allowed today, Tuesday, April 1st. Hopefully the course will continue to drain quickly but certain slow to drain areas such as the 3rd fairway, 4th fairway, beginning of the 9th fairway, 14, and 16 often prevent us from allowing golf carts as soon as we would like.  Because the turf is still awakening from winter dormancy and the ground was already soft from recently thawing from a deep winter freeze, it is especially easy to damage the turf with golf carts given the amount of rain we just received. Please be patient with us as we will be extremely cautious to protect the golf course from incurring any unnecessary golf cart damage.

14th Hole in the middle of the rain storm on Saturday morning...

17th Hole in the middle of the rain storm on Saturday morning. Notice the Bridge and the area to the left of the green almost completely under water...

3 Days later the golf course is still draining. Water comes out of the ledge to the left of the 4th fairway and drains all the way across the fairway to the bottom right starting point of the fairway.

We have installed a number of drains in and around the 4th fairway over the years but with such a large amount of rain they are often overwhelmed. In the case of the 4th fairway the water is actually coming OUT of the ground and draining downhill across the 4th fairway. You may ask yourself how this is possible given the laws of gravity and the fact that water is naturally pulled into the ground. In the case of the 4th fairway the ledge (rock) in the ground is creating an impermeable layer that water cannot be drawn down through. This forces the water to move sideways in the direction of least resistance, which naturally is downhill across the 4th fairway. If you can picture in your mind two sponges placed on top of each other. If you poured water on the top sponge the water would naturally drain down to the bottom sponge allowing the top sponge to dry. Now place a piece of plastic between the two sponges. If you poured water on the top sponged the water wouldn't be able to penetrate the plastic and reach bottom sponge. The top sponge will stay saturated and the water will seep out sideways around the edges where the top sponge meets the pastic. The top sponge will eventually dry but it will take MUCH longer because of the impermeable layer the plastic created. Pictured below, the water is actually coming OUT of the drain in the rough to the left of the 4th fairway and then draining across the surface of the 4th fairway.

 Many of the bunkers become bath tubs after a heavy rain storm and take 2 or 3 days to drain.

And of course many of the bunkers are severely washed out. The face of the bunker on #2 is actually caved in. If the bunkers weren't bad already from the winter they are now exponentially worse!

Golf Course Opening

As of Thursday, March 20th all 18 holes are open for play. While all 18 holes are available to play the golf course is not yet fully cleaned and restored from the winter to typical CCNB conditions. The process of cleaning and repairing areas of the golf course from the winter has begun but please be patient as our small, skeleton crew at the Turf Care Center does their best to return the golf course to the conditions we all expect.

A few quick notes.. 

Bunkers - To be perfectly blunt, the bunkers are a mess. They are full of leaves, and some still have snow in them. Many are washed out from rain storms and snow melt over the winter. We have yet to begin the process of cleaning out the bunkers, repairing them, and raking them. We will begin this process sometime next week as weather allows (we are hoping it doesn't snow!). This is a very labor intensive process and could take up to a week or so to complete with a moderate sized crew. Please be patient with us as we do our best to clean up the bunkers.

Removing Goose Excrement

Goose Excrement - Yes, its gross. In fact, I don't ever recall seeing this much goose excrement on the fairways and in the roughs. The good news is the geese don't like to be bothered and now that we are on the golf course working daily and golfers are playing the course daily the geese will leave for the season. The bad news is that we are left with a huge mess to deal with. The greens and tees have been blown off but cleaning the fairways, where the majority of the excrement remains, is a bit more labor intensive. To un-stick the excrement from the turf we have been dragging a metal mat with a golf cart over the turf and then blowing the excrement into the rough. As soon as the we start to mow the rough the mowers will mulch the excrement in the rough and we will be done with dealing with goose excrement for the season. This process is very effective but also very time consuming. Many fairways have already been cleaned but please be patient as we clean the remaining fairways. We hope to have this process completed by the end of next week. For now, we suggest wearing an old pair of shoes :-)

Golf Carts  - Barring any unforeseen weather changes we hope to allow golf cart usage by the end of next week. Please be aware of and obey any cart signs and keep all carts (including pull carts) out of any roped off areas and away from the greens.

Sticks and Tree Limbs - There are still quite a few sticks and tree limbs on the golf course from winter storms. We are in the process of cleaning them up. Please be patient with us as our small crew does their best to clean them up as quickly as possible.

A few spring projects to keep an eye out for - This spring there will be a few small projects that we will be attempting to complete. We hope to remove the crushed stone dust adjacent to many of the cart paths and replace it with turf. Also, tree pruning will continue around the forward tees on #2 and on the left of the 4th fairway. I'll post pictures and updates on the blog as we begin these projects.

Frost Damage

What happens when golfers do not observe course closings?

Or when equally hard to control deer also do not observe course closings :-)