Llanerch Golf Course and External Activities

Today, we will winterize the irrigation system. Why? To keep the irrigation water from freezing in the pipes and irrigation heads. We do this by gravity draining the system yesterday. Then we connect compressors to pump air into the system. After enough pressure builds up, we turn on every irrigation head until all the water comes out. We hope to be done today.

The weather is turning rather cold and wet today. It has postponed our ability to clean up the remaining leaves. The staff has moved their efforts towards the clubhouse. They will spend the next few day removing flowers, trees and shrubs from the perimeter of the building. We also had to cut the Boston Ivy that grew on the clubhouse side of 18 because of the renovations. We will replant the ivy after the clubhouse construction is complete.

The over the last two weeks the staff has concentrated on checking sand depth on all green side and a majority of the fairway bunkers. We shoot to have 5 inches of sand throughout the bunkers. When you play, you will notice they are a little "softer". That is because when we relocate the shifting sand to the proper places, the sand becomes "loose". The softness is also a result of not having any substantial rain for over 2 weeks. The staff has also been chasing down leaves on the play surfaces. We will be rolling greens today to provide a smoother surface for the rest of the week. PLEASE fix ball marks on greens. The last few weeks has seen an unexpected increase in unfixed ball marks. The grass is almost dormant and needs your help in healing from ball marks. Unfixed ball marks increase the emergence of poa annua. Thanks for your understanding. I want to wish you and your families a Happy Thanksgiving.  

As you can see in these pictures, we sustained some real tree damage. The course dried out last night and allowed Arader Tree Service to start the cleanup. It will take them at least four days. On the play areas of the course, we are cleaning out fairway bunkers, picking up sticks, blowing leaves and mulching leaves. We are open for play with carts today.  Thanks again for your patience.

The golf course sustained 4.75 inches of rain over 48 hours! The winds knocked a great deal of the leaves out of the trees. Oh, it also knocked down a few trees, too! We have roughly 10 trees down through out the property. Some are along fence lines on Steel Road, Edmounds Avenue and Township Line. Others around tees and greens. Some parts of the black and cyclone fences will need to be replaced. None of the greens, tees or fairways were damaged. The construction on #9 green held up great. We are planning to have our arborist out starting on Monday. We have to wait that long for the course to be dry enough to accommodate the tree trucks. The course will be open for play after 12 noon tomorrow. The carts will only go out if the course continues to dry out over night. I will be adding another update tomorrow. Sorry for the delay. We lost power at the Grounds Maintenance Facility (not restored) and back at my house (just restored). Most importantly, I hope everyone and their ...

   Well, it looks like we are staring right into a Frankenstorm! We are doing all we can to prepare for a storm that might either be epic in proportion or amount to some minor rain. Or something in between! We are preparing the golf course for the worst. We will be applying products today that protect the turf from all the diseases that might result from heavy rain. We are also going to tamp sand down in bunkers in a pursuit of reducing bunker sand wash outs. Staff will be checking all the drain basin to make sure they are clear of debris to promote as much storm water draining into the creeks and ponds as possible. All these tasks will work to some extent but if we get hit hard with several inches of rain over a long time period, it might not be enough. We are just hoping the storm moves away, dissipates or just simply misses us. I believe we will have a better idea on Saturday when the updated forecast models come out.      

Today, we started to sod the fairway and approach on #9. It will probably take close to 2 days to get all the bentgrass sod installed. We will then add the tall type fescue sod. Our goal is to be finished construction by this Friday!