I hope all of you are enjoying this weather we have been having since the end of January. The course responded beautifully after that cold spell we experienced in early January. The greens are rolling great and the course is nice, healthy and lush. We are continuing to work diligently to provide you top playing conditions at all times and hope sincerely that each of you are enjoying the conditions we have been able to provide this season. We have been fertilizing the course regularly and have been working with some new vendors on various blends that will give us the response we are looking for as well as saving the club money wherever possible. Through some of these trials we have found products that worked great and others that did not produce the way we had hoped. If you have played golf recently you may have noticed some odd-looking little bleach spots on the tees and fairways.

These spots are from a fertilizer application we made on Monday and Tuesday last week. It is called fertilizer burn. While that term sounds very bad, I can assure you that it is not as bad as it sounds. Fertilizer burn usually happens with sulfate products in fertilizer. Sulfate can burn the turf if the right environmental conditions are present. Usually when iron sulfate or ammonium sulfate, the two most common threats for fertilizer burn, applications are made it requires watering the fertilizer in. While we did water the fertilizer in as required, the dew set back in heavy, unexpectedly and cause a chemical reaction with the fertilizer that caused these little burn spots on the turf. While it is a little unsightly, it will be short lived. The turf should grow out of the issue quickly and the spots should disappear within a week or so. The grass is very healthy and growing very fast right now so we should see a quicker healing of the turf than we normally would this time of year. We have already contacted the vendor and resolved this issue so we can make sure this issue, hopefully with not happen again. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work hard to correct the issue and we hope that all of you continue to enjoy your wonderful golf course.

Last Thursday, January 3, 2019, golf course maintenance requested the closure of the golf course after the morning shotgun. The purpose was to administer a mole cricket chemical treatment to the golf course. Mole crickets have been damaging to our course in recent years and it has been very costly to control the outbreaks. The application made last week is a one-time cost to the club and warrantied, meaning if we experience any outbreaks in the areas that they treated within the 2019 calendar year, the company will give us the chemical to retreat the affected areas free of charge. This should reduce the amount of chemical we use to treat for mole crickets significantly, as well as reduce the money spent to control them as well. The chemical application has left us with some minor damage to the turf. Many of you have seen and questioned the brown lines on the course. This is a direct result of the way the chemical has to be applied to the golf course. The chemical was slit into the ground using metal disks.

When the disks slice into the tur they do cut the roots of the turf a little and it pulls up a bit. This slicing does initially stress the grass out, causing the brown strips you see on the golf course. I understand this is a little unsightly, but the turf will heal up in a couple weeks and will be back to looking great. Please bear with us during this healing process as we are doing everything in our power to provide the best playing conditions possible and are working diligently to make the golf course as perfect and beautiful as we can. We thank you for your understanding and patience.

Sincerely,

Benjamin S. Hanshew
Spring Run Golf Club
Superintendent

Dear Member,

The Maintenance Facility project has been slow to get started, but we expect it to ramp up throughout the month of December. On the plus side, we still anticipate completion by the end of February at the latest.I would like to reassure all of you that the area will look much better than it does now, and once the clusia fills back in, it will screen the building.

Of course, we are only in Phase 1 which is site work and surrounding buildings. Phase 2, which is the renovation of the main building, is tentatively scheduled for Nov 1 of 2019.

To recap, Phase 1 will include installing a pipe in the culvert laterally next to SRB and paving over it, resulting in brand new usable space for parking. At that time, we will bring the employee’s cars off the street and back into the facility. In January, we will have a new roofed steel building for fuel tanks and a water reclamation unit, and the materials storage area should be completed. The area of the entire facility will be expanded and cleaned up, and we will work on moving any areas that collect green waste or discarded equipment out of sight. Finally, we will work to cover it all back up again!

In Phase 2, the existing pole barn will be refurbished and expanded to house more equipment, and to expand the deteriorating office and employee break, locker, and restrooms.  The leaky roof and gutters will be replaced, and insulation will be installed in the ceiling to reduce the temperature of the building. A protective block base will be installed around the exterior, and the entire facility repaved.

I thank you all in advance for your patience throughout this project. Pardon our dust.

This will be a major improvement for the community, and even though you will rarely see the actual facility, the results will be visible on the golf course!

Mike

Dear Spring Run Member,

Just a note to let you know that the Golf Course Maintenance Facility Phase 1 project will begin tomorrow, Tuesday Nov 13. You may notice more increased activity and construction vehicles coming and going over the next few months. Also, the staff will be parking along the street until such time that the new parking area has been constructed. We anticipate this project lasting through February.

Phase 1 is the reconfiguration of the maintenance site to make better use of the existing space, and to make room for materials bins. A new fueling station will replace the 20 year old rusting tank, and a new wash station will be installed to improve efficiency and to be more environmentally responsible with the chemical runoff. Finally, a new sand silo will be installed to ensure top dressing sand stays dry and to improve the logistics of storage and loading.

Phase 2 is slated to start next November 2019, and will involve renovations to the existing building.

Feel free to reply with any questions. Thank you.

Mike