GOLF MAINTENANCE REPORT
MAINTENANCE REPORT FOR THE GOLF COMMITTEE MEETING
Golf Committee Report for March 2010

The weather has set our projected tasks behind, and with spring creeping up we start looking to make adjustments in goals and begin to ready the courses for the 2010 playing season. The crews have been able to start some projects and will complete those within the next month. The projects are:
• Tee renovation work at the Bella Vista Country Club (No. 4 tees at No. 12, 13, 14 and 15)
• Tee work at No. 9 Kingswood
• Tee work at No. 12 Scotsdale
• Bridge railing installations at No. 4, 11 and 12 Berksdale
• Fan installations at No. 2 and No. 7 Dogwood Hills
• Bunker work at Dogwood Hills
• Rebuilding the drop area tee at Dogwood Hills

Other project goals for March and April include:
• Installing drainage at No. 2 Kingswood
• Installing new bridge planks at No. 3 Kingswood
• Installing fans at #1 and #4 greens Highlands
• Improving drainage to the No. 4 green at Highlands
• Continuing to improve drainage in bunkers on all golf courses
• Beginning spring applications of fertilizers and weed control
• Continuing work on irrigation systems (repairs, pump house tune ups) and installing a new mainline at Scotsdale across Glasgow Road.

What do your guys do during the bad weather?
• Our crews work throughout the winter months cleaning and organizing shop space. This helps to prevent work place accidents and increase employee productivity.
• Our mechanic staff sharpens over 150 sets of reels and bed knives throughout the winter months, as well as repairing seals and bearings in reel units.
• We maintain over 250 pieces of equipment throughout the year and do much of our preventative maintenance in the winter months.
• Our mechanic staff works together with each golf course staff to insure that proper height of cut and grinding specifications are followed for each individual piece of equipment.
• Planning for future projects can be a big part of winter work activity.
• Our crews’ sand and paint over 1,000 tee markers during the winter months.
• Yardage posts on all golf courses and tee markers at Berksdale and Kingswood were made by our crews throughout the winter months saving thousands of dollars.
• During the busy summer months our irrigation repairs are expedited by organizing and maintaining the irrigation parts inventory throughout the winter months.
• We have purchased an up-to-date program to aid in maintaining accurate equipment inventories; much of this is done throughout the winter months.
• We inventory all parts throughout the winter months and place orders to keep pace with equipment repairs.
• Our golf maintenance crews provide snow removal at all golf course locations, as well as Riordan Hall, Membership Services, the Shrimpman’s Yacht Club, Metfield Club and the fire stations.

Bermuda Grass Winterkill (Possible)

With colder than normal temperatures in Arkansas this winter, some experts are anticipating that turfgrass around the state may suffer from winterkill.
It is still early and we hope that we can escape winterkill on our bermuda grass playing areas around each course. As we transition from ryegrass back to bermuda we will begin to see the extent of possible winterkill damage to our fairways.
Predicting winterkill is a difficult task because turf can suffer low temperature injury in a variety of ways. The three most common ways that turfgrass sustains injury are:
1. Sustained low temperatures
2. Low temperature spikes
3. Unseasonably warm temperatures followed by freezing temperatures

Areas more likely to suffer winterkill are:
1. North facing slopes
2. Heavily shaded areas
3. Poorly drained areas
4. Areas with poorly adapted cultivars
5. Areas trafficked during winter

Arkansas lies in the transitional climatic zone. What this means is that summer in Arkansas is too hot for cool-season grasses, such as Bentgrass, ryegrass and fescues, to perform well, and winters are often cold enough to injure or kill warm-season grasses. Unfortunately, maintaining these turfgrasses in the transition zone is more difficult than in many other parts of the United States.

Bella Vista Country Club Irrigation Project

As you all know, the board approved the installation of a new irrigation system at the Bella Vista Country Club. We are very excited about this and look forward to the project. The project is expected to begin Sept. 7, 2010.

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