US20 Added Travel Lanes Project

By now everyone is aware of the US20 expansion project that will be taking place from CR17 in Elkhart to SR15 in Bristol. Last week I attended pre-construction meeting to meet with individuals from INDOT as well as Niblock, the company awarded the project.  Below, I have listed some of the main takeaway points from the meeting.

• ·       Expect to see work beginning sometime during this week. The Right-of-Way is scheduled to be staked and tree removal will begin.
• ·        The goal is to minimize any road closures of county roads connecting to US20, but some temporary and intermittent closures will be necessary. This includes CR21. There are no specific dates set for closures, so be prepared for this possibility if you use US20 and CR21 to travel to Elcona.
• ·        You should fully expect an increase in traffic along CR21 due to motorists wanting to use it as a short cut when traffic is slow on US20.  Please use caution when coming in and out of the club and when crossing CR21 with a golf cart.
• ·        This project is not expected to be completed until the latter part of 2014. The south side of the expansion will be done in 2013 with the north side completed in 2014.
• ·        There will be minimal disruption to Elcona’s property. A few trees are expected to be removed at the intersection of CR21 and US20 but, beyond that, no other major removal is expected. Our fence along #2 and #15 will remain intact and the sign and landscaping along US20 should remain undisturbed.
• ·         Major earthmoving will not begin until 6/10

Please let me know if you have additional questions.

This is Not a Sandbox

The golf course has only been open for one day and, unfortunately, I already feel the need to address an issue that happens all too frequently.  I came in this morning to prepare the course for play and immediately saw this:

This is the bunker at #9 green that had been used as a giant sandbox and slide for a handful of kids.  I cannot  express enough how hard my staff works to provide you with a golf course that hopefully meets or exceeds your expectations. When this happens, it requires us to spend additional time and resources to make the necessary repairs.

 Not only does it impact my staff, but it impacts you as well.  The excessive traffic causes the sand to lose its firmness and become excessively soft leading to plugged balls.  If you wonder why this bunker tends to be softer than the others, damage like this is the reason why.  As you can see in the picture above and below, a significant amount of soil has now been mixed in with the bunker sand because of the "extracurricular" activity. This now makes the sand contaminated and it will not drain as well and will most likely create even more inconsistency.

Purchasing more bunker sand is a temporary but very costly solution.  It costs us approximately $1,700 for a truckload of new bunker sand and a bunker like this would easily take 1/2 - 3/4 of a truckload.  Obviously, this is not in the budget right now.  The real solution to the problem is to eliminate the use of bunkers as a playground. Thank you for reading and the next post will be much more positive...I promise! In the meantime, get out and enjoy this fantastic weather.

Opening Day!

It's now official, the golf course will open for the season on Friday, 3/29 at Noon.  The weather looks like it will cooperate for a few days so make your tee time and enjoy the course. Looking at the nighttime temperatures, I would not plan on having any tee times available prior to 11:00 am or Noon until we really see a warm up.

As far as maintenance on the course is concerned, all greens have been rolled and they will be mown either today or Friday before play goes out. Due to a limited staff and the fact that the turf is not growing much right now, we will only mow as necessary.

Aerification of the fairways will begin next week and we will be using solid tines to enable us to work around the weather and not create a mess.  The aerification of the greens has been pushed back to April 10,11 with the hope that they will be growing consistently.

Course Opening Update

Well, it looks as if we may actually get to play some golf this spring! If the forecast stays the way they are predicting, it appears that the golf course could POSSIBLY be open on Friday or Saturday.  This is not set in stone and it won't take much for us to have to delay the opening. For those of  you that regularly read this blog, you are now officially the first ones to know our current thoughts regarding the course opening.  I will keep you posted here on the blog and I'm sure the club will be sending out an official email once the opening date is finalized.  If you have a twitter account, please follow @ElconaGrounds for more timely updates and course conditions.

On a much different topic...Do any of you remember the cartpath at #10 green that had become a giant section of speed bumps from a tree that was in close proximity? As of Monday, you no longer have to worry about it.  the bad sections have been removed and we are planning on sodding this area once sod can be cut.  There is a lesson here, but I will save it for a future blog post.  Stay tuned for more updates and thanks for reading!

Cartpath at #10 green that was destroyed by tree roots

Removal of cartpath at #10 green. Notice the size of the tree roots!