Golf Course Superintendent, Luke Knutson

Saturday June 1st at 8 AM I am the guest for On Par radio with Anthony Scorcia on AM radio 1240

Here's the link to the shows website.  Even after the show the podcast will be posted on the website.

Golf Course Superintendent, Luke Knutson

Bunkers

Today we had the opportunity to greatly improve the bunkers by moving sand around to insure proper depths throughout the trap.  This was done very early this spring, but  needed extra attention once again.  

The problem has not been a lack of sand....but how the sand was positioned inside the trap.  Most of the sand was on the face and edges of the bunker.  This leads to firm bottoms of the trap and fried egg lies on the faces.  

The crew checked the depth of the sand to insure a little less on the faces, and moved the excess sand to the bottom.    Most bunkers needed sand REMOVED not added. 

The difference is very noticeable.  Reinforcing the new expectations to the crew should lead to a better visual and playing experience on a daily basis.

Rains over the past week have shown some wet soggy areas on fairways and high traffic areas.  Our new Verti-Quake machine was ran through these areas again to help relieve the compaction and should greatly improve drainage.  This machine leaves the lines that were seen in many places this spring.

In between routine maintenance, we are continuing to clean up the course from storm damage.  

Memorial Weekend

The weather has not cooperated so far this holiday weekend.  Late yesterday we had a few trees snap in half and another completely uproot.  Plenty of other branches also blew out of trees.  All that added together with all the pollen and seeds made a huge mess across the whole course.  The delay today was just so we could clean up and be able to clean/mow greens, clean/rake traps, and blow off fairways and tees ahead of play.  The temporary inconvenience allowed the crew to get a great deal of cleanup done this morning.  This also allowed carts to go, softer conditions after the rain with the sticks and branches could have caused a ton of damage.  Things will be back to normal tomorrow morning, which looks like it will be the best weather of the Weekend!

New look for the Front Circle

All the rain days this week allowed time to finally start and finish the front entrance makeover. 

Divots

A frequent question I have heard lately is, when are divot boxes being put out on the tees?  

I am not a fan of leaving Divot mix on tees.  The seed usually germinates while still in the box and then never really does well once put in the divot.  So it wastes seed, labor to make the mix and top off the boxes.

What I have always done is send one person daily to fill the divots on every tee.  This is not much added time when this person is already going to each tee to blow it clean, empty garbage, check ballwashers, and move tee markers.  

As a membership Rockville Links does a great job filling fairway divots!  Keep it up and top off a few extra.  The staff will take care of Tee Divots.

Follow up on Drain Lines

A few weeks back I put up a post about the drain lines.  Just as a follow up here is how they looked over the weekend.  These are the exact 3 lines in each picture.  

 

This week at the Links

Rockville Links is scheduled to begin the installation of internal drainage in 5, 8, and 10 green Wednesday April 24.  This process is usually about a day and a half per green.  So as long as weather holds up this should be a quick process that is completely wrapped up by early the following week. 

The new well on 2 should begin end of the week or early the following.  All that we are waiting on is the permit to arrive from the New York DEC.

Earlier this week the process of restocking fish in the pond began.  Added was a variety of Koi including a few Butterfly Koi.  Along with the Koi we added a few Red Comets and Shubunkins.  Soon we will be adding some aquatic plants and a variety of fish that will help control algae and mosquitoes.

Now that the pond has been cleaned we began a weekly maintenance program. 

Mya has been pitching in as well.  

New landscape area by the Oasis