Misc Jobs

During the winter there are always plenty of odd jobs to keep the crew busy on some of the colder days.  This winter was no exception and we had plenty of things to work on.

Many of my staff have acquired plenty of indoor painting experience over the years.  This year we took advantage of the cold and rainy days to repaint many areas around the club.  Fresh coats of paint were applied to the walls in the Fitness Center, Charleston Room, Elevator Hallways, Men and Womens Locker Rooms, and some small touch up inside the Golf Shop.

This winter our staff also had to time to lend its talents to Sam in helping him fix all of the landscape lighting at the front gate.  There is a noticeable difference when entering the club at night.

Clyde Forrest, who is our flower gardener in the summer, takes care of many of the odd jobs in the shop over the winter.

My former assistant Ryan built these water cooler houses in 2005.

We bring them in and clean them up in the winter,

Kitchen doors refinished for Sears Room.

Clyde takes pride in his work here at Kenmure.

Cleaning and repainting trash cans.

Driving Range signs needed some paint.

Wet Weather Spring on #3 Fairway

This area on #3 fairway has been a problem in the past, we have made some temporary fixes but something more effective was needed this winter.  There is a very active spring that making a nice mess in the fairway.

Ditching machine was purchased new by Kenmure in 1984.

It still works great! 

A view of the area getting some attention.

Some old pipe, I would say 100% clogged.

Hopefully my arteries are in slightly better shape!

My men demonstrating how 4 people can get gravel from one truck bed.

Nice job guys!

Bunker Renovation Winter 2016

I recently read an article in an industry magazine about the current DIY movement in Golf Maintenance.  We have been DIY since the beginning.  Constructing tees, building bridges, renovating bunkers, installing miles of drainage, and burying our own 3 phase power cables.  All done in house by our maintenance staff.  We have used outside contractors for some very large jobs, but this is few and far between.  We have a talented staff and if given the time and resources we can achieve most anything one would ever need on a golf course.

In mid February we started the final phase of our bunker renovations here at Kenmure.  We had 20 fairway bunkers left to complete before the regular season started.  The weather cooperated with us and in a few short weeks we managed to complete a ton of work, well to be honest it was more like 500 tons of work.

The crew worked very hard and shoveled many, many tons of sand.  It was nice to complete the final leg of this bunker renovation.

Drainage was enhanced in most of the bunkers we refilled.

This is some drainage on the right fairway bunker on #1

4 to 6 inches of fresh sand was added to all the bunkers.

Some bunker renovations involved some reshaping for surface drainage reasons.

Emma finding some shade on an a nice day in February.

Laying the old sod back on #15.

New sod on a reconstructed #18 bunker edge.

Finished bunkers on hole #13 looking great.

17 truckloads of bunker sand averaging 24 tons per load.

The brown sand is the old sand was removed from the bunkers.

All this sand was removed by hand with shovels.

Defining the edges in a bunker that will soon receive fresh sand. 

Hand removal of the old bunker sand.

  The crew is getting back in shape for the Spring.

A look a 3 fresh bunkers on #8 and #1

Waiting for more manual labor.

Putting Green Stairs

The rotting and slippery green matting is gone from the steps leading down to the putting green.  New boards have been added and covered with a very nice anti-slip matting.

New Bridge on #17

The old walk bridge on hole #17 was in pretty bad shape and needed to be replaced.  We have many talented people on our crew with some very handy skills.  Scott Chrisman is a crew member who has many years of carpentry experience and has done some nice work on many projects this winter.  He and the crew demolished the old structure and rebuilt and nice new bridge complete with handrails on both sides.  The old bridge had a makeshift handrail on one side only.  Having a carpenter on staff is of great benefit to our golf course.

The top decking boards were still in good shape, we reused them.

The rotten boards underneath were the problem.

The bride stripped back to the telephone pole supports.

The old decking boards were cut to equal lengths.

The recycled boards put back in place as the new support boards.

New boards purchased from Lowes.

We had 2 gas generators and lots of batteries.

The new flooring is looking good.

Handrail supports in place.

The new handrail is looking great.

We have a much nicer bridge on #17.

Bunker Removal on #7

We removed the first fairway bunker on the left side of hole #7.  We flattened the area and will finish sodding the area when the ground warms back up in the Spring.

Storm Drain Repairs on #12

In a situation exactly like what happened last year on #10 fairway, a large 30 inch steel drainage culvert needed to be replaced,  The bottom had completely rusted out and sinkholes began to form at the surface.  We addressed this problem in the early winter of 2015.

Winter Drainage Projects 2015-2016

Drainage projects are a staple of every winter maintenance diet.  It is inevitable that old drains will fail and wet weather springs will find their way to the surface of our fairways and roughs.  By the end of the golfing season we usually have located plenty of locations that new drains will need to be installed.

Here is the run down on what drains were installed/repaired this winter.

Cart Path Drain on #2  -  342 Ft.

Narrow Neck on #8 Fairway  -  372 Ft.

#4 Left of Fwy Rough  -  300 Ft.

#6 Tee Surrounds  -  777 Ft.

Other locations we completed on the course this winter season :

#12 Left of Cart Path  -  276 Ft.
#14 Cart Path near White Tee
#15 Fixed badly clogged drain on #15 cart path.
#3 Fairway wet weather spring.