I ran into a golfer the other day who seemed to be left with the impression that as soon as the golfing was done we were out of work. I guess my postings aren't making the impact with as many people as I had hoped.
This has been a great fall with a general trend of colder temperatures and limited rain (only 12mm for October). Combined, these circumstances will give the turf lots of cues to get ready for winter. I should give a little update on where we stand in general. All the preventative sprays on the greens, fairways, tees, and green surrounds are completed. All the "beetle trees" have been cut and stacked and the wildlife fences around the greens are up. The planted trees susceptible to wildlife damage have been protected (see "Typical Fall Work", Nov. 2009) as well as having a slight pruning (not the best time but getting around in winter is a pain!). We took advantage of the protracted fall to perform a little extra aerating and dormant overseeding on the driving range. We aerated the range in 3 directions, overseeded and then dragged the cores and seed into the the holes and low spots. The hope is to increase the turf density which will make it easier to pick the balls with the range picker.
At present there is only 3 staff working (me, the assistant, and the mechanic). We still have to take the tarps out of storage and lay them out where they belong. I'll do another post dedicated to tarping the greens and will give more information at that time. There are still a few loose ends from this year to clean up out on the course but nothing substantial. Ultimately, the work moves indoor and is mostly related to record keeping, equipment maintenance, reviewing and planning, and monitoring conditions. Actually, each one of those tasks deserves its own post so I won't go into too much detail other than to say that even though golf is finished we still manage to fill our days with cleaning up from this season and getting ready for next.
