Merry Christmas

It's Christmas day, all staff members are home with their families today where they belong.  The course is closed, but will reopen weather permitting tomorrow for those itching to play some winter golf.  Have a safe and enjoyable holiday. 

A day with Jim

Many superintendents will agree that the single most important position at a golf course is the Equipment Manager or Mechanic.  Without the mechanical knowledge, fabrication skills, preventative maintenance and attention to detail that a good mechanic possesses, maintaining a golf course is not possible and our facility is no different.  Without equipment to operate and carts for golfers, we wouldn't have much to offer our guests. 

Jim Bloesch has been the Equipment Manager at LRGC since grow-in was well under way in 1994 and has remained an incredibly valuable asset to the operation.  Prior to working at Legacy, Jim worked as the Equipment Manager at Riverdale Dunes, Heather Gardens, the local Toro distributor and prior to that was an over the road trucker hauling freight all over the country. 

Some of the equipment originally purchased when the course opened is still running as well as it did the day it arrived.  Jim has seen three new equipment packages and 5 cart fleets through his time here and adapted his maintenance plans to suit each wave of new machines.  Aside from a strict attention to detail in his PM schedule, Jim is an excellent fabricator, having built everything from implements for cultural practices (see our spiker post), to smaller items that make everyday tasks that much safer/easier.  He is responsible for the layout and organization of our entire shop, so we can efficiently store and access all of our equipment.  Here are a couple items Jim has built recently that makes our job easier:

Trailer for hauling inoperable carts back to the shop

Stabilizer for lifting bulk fertilizer bags with our forklift, a very dangerous endeavor before this baby was built

  These are small examples, but Jim is great at understanding the challenges we face in certain tasks, designing a safe, easy-to-use solution.   

It's rare to find Jim idle at any point in the day, especially during our growing season when he is constantly grinding bed knives and reels, servicing, troubleshooting and repairing damaged equipment throughout the day.  On top of all that, Jim also maintains our fleet of 64 Club Car golf carts for the golf shop. 

Because Jim operates at such a high level of efficiency, we are able to spin-grind all of our reels/bed knives on tighter intervals than many courses, which results in a much better cut and conditioning.  In a typical month during the growing season, Jim grinds:

Greens mowers:  10 reels x 4 times/month    40 reels
Tee mowers:  9 reels x once/month               9 reels
Fairway mowers: 15 reels x once/month       15 reels
Step Cut:              3 reels x once/month         3 reels

That's 67 reels per month, not including the rough mowers, utility vehicles, hand held power equipment, fly mowers, topdressers, sprayers, tractors and implements that all require preventative maintenance as well!  Keep in mind that with each reel, he grinds a bed knife also.  Reels and bed knives can only be ground so many times until they must be replaced.  That is an even more time consuming process he has to plan out in advance.  An EM of lesser experience and expertise would likely be overwhelmed by the volume of work Jim accomplishes everyday.  All tasks are done with same precision each and every time no matter the circumstances.    

It is important to note that grinding must be performed when the machines are not in use, so his time management skills are put to the test on a daily basis.  Throw in unplanned repairs and equipment breakdowns and it's a wonder he has time to eat lunch or take a break at all.  So the next time you are out on the course and you see a mower cutting to perfection, know that Jim is the one behind the scenes keeping that mower running as good as the day it was purchased.  Big thanks to Jim for keeping our operation going.

Tis' the season

We are STILL covered with snow and the forecast doesn't appear to be offering much in the way of melt.  We were ready for moisture three weeks ago, but at this point we are all experiencing some cabin fever. 

Since the snow arrived we have completed our GPS project, finalized our fertilizer/pesticide early order with the Heritage, taken a full inventory at both courses, created and printed new irrigation maps for the controllers, began working on our safety training information, and many of us have taken some much needed time off.  If snow persists and we cannot continue working on our tees, we will start refurbishing course accessories like tee markers, trap rakes, flag sticks and course signage.  This is an annual tradition and while time consuming, it's a great way to stay out of the cold and still improve the appearance of the course.  After the first of the year we will begin taking delivery of the years inventory and we will be busy storing and organizing everything for the growing season.

Just a reminder, the course will be closed December 25th and January 1st, two of the three days we are closed all year. 

GPS

The course is still buried under 6 inches of snow and with the temps barely climbing above freezing for the next week, we are hunkered down working primarily indoors.  One of the projects we have been working on the last few days is our new irrigation map.  Our irrigation computer operates Rain Bird Cirrus, and one of its many features is a map which displays our irrigation components over a map of the golf course.  Since 1997 we have used a fairly basic map utilizing a hand drawn version of the golf course taken from our scorecard.

This version worked well for many years, but we could improve upon this map and accomplish a couple other things if we made a GPS based map.  Any course built in the last 12 years was likely GPS'd during the construction process.  We weren't one of those courses.

In working with the City's GIS department, we put together a plan to map and catalog ALL irrigation and drainage components, calculate yardages for sprinkler caps, and verify the actual size of all playable areas.  It sounds simple, but the last piece will be very valuable for future project estimating and pesticide and fertilizer planning and calculations.  All of the pictures are of #14 and #15.

Wish they took aerial photos in June, not March...

To start we borrowed a Trimble handheld data logger for basically the summer of 2010 and began collecting data.  The data collection process was completed outside of normal maintenance duties, so it took a better part of a season.  We mapped sprinklers, valves, electric valves, splice boxes, drain basins and cataloged each by type, size, brand, model, and date installed. 

Any and all traced areas can be quickly measured

 

The completed GIS map, the yellow dots are sprinklers with yardage, the red dots are front center and back of each green.  The yardage info can be displayed in a tighter extent, pretty handy for replacement purposes



The second portion of the project was to define/trace various areas of the course (ie greens, rough, bunkers, etc).  We completed this portion during the winter of 2010.  To bring the new map over to our irrigation software, we enlisted the help of Brian Keighin, Owner of Irrigation Technologies a local irrigation designer, consultant, expert.  With his knowledge of both ArcMap, Auto CAD and Cirrus he was able to help us take the data from GIS into Cirrus.  The result is an aerial photo with dots representing sprinklers in their exact location.  Not quite done yet...



The dots are just dots at this point, stations from the database still need to be added to make the map usable in Cirrus



Looks a little bare without the shading.

Completed map in Cirrus

The last piece of the project was to populate our Cirrus map from our database, which basically entails placing individual "stations" where they belong on the map and labeling them properly.  I have a dozen more stations to add and the map is completely finished.  A nice added feature we incorporated was to display the address of each home bordering the course so that when a homeowner voices a concern we can quickly identify where they live and address the problem properly. 

We want to thank Joe Simpson, Dave Murray and Sandy Malesky in Community Development for all of their help in making this happen.  They were great to work with and excellent in explaining things in layman's terms so we grass-guys could understand. 



#8 Tee

I forgot to post these pictures last week when I took them.  #8 has progressed nicely and is basically ready for sod, though by springtime it will likely need some more finish work and cleanup.  Because we filled in a natural drainage way  between the two tees to add teeing ground, we had to add a drain basin to the south side of the tee.  It should capture water that would have ran between the two old tee boxes.   

 

The tractor is parked on what will be part of the tee surface.  Here's a pic of the added ground between the tees and to the south of the blue tee.

   

Overall, we are pleased with the way it came out, with a minimal amount of money and time we were able to add around 30% more teeing space to each tee box.  After the latest round of snow melts I will try to take pics of the finished product.

Let it Snow

Another beautiful day here at Legacy Ridge GC, today it's beautiful only if you love free moisture in the form of snow.  Though we can't continue working on our new tees, it is most definitely a blessing to have this blanket of snow.  One because it will insulate our drained-but-not blown out irrigation system, and two the recent weather pattern has left the course thirsty for moisture. 

On days like today we have a pretty standard schedule consisting of snow removal and more snow removal.  In addition to plowing/clearing all of the paved areas around the golf course,

we maintain 5 miles of bike trails and bridges that connect the neighborhood to a large network of trails throughout the City of Westminster.  Depending on the timing of snow storms, we run through bike trails at least twice each day to make sure they are clean and haven't drifted over.  If you happen upon our gator, tractor, or truck plowing, the operator will stop and allow you to safely pass them by.  We would also ask that sledders, snowshoers or walkers please stay off of the golf course at all times.  Golf course features like bunkers, drain basins, and other hazards can be hidden under the snow, making it an unsafe option for snow day recreation.