"This must be a slow time of year for golf"

We get a different type of busy this time of year. The irrigation blow out went well.....sort of. When irrigation systems fail, they don't break all at once. We are now experiencing a game called "a little further down the line." The next weakness is exposed with each repair. If you recall from the "crime scene" blog, we have some corrosion in metal fittings. Repairs wet made to a section of pipe so that we could winterize. When we hooked the compressor up, guess what we found? If your answer is "the next metal fitting," you win. I believe we will find a 45 degree fitting about ten feet down the line from the last repair. There were air bubbles shooting up all over the place, it would have been pretty cool if I was visiting another course. Being that I was witnessing it at Briar, not so cool.
We were able to winterize, all is good.
Then the rain came.
Our cart paths are not very wide. Moving a house on wheels is not the easiest thing to do in reverse. Pull forward to straighten out, and you are stuck. Two tractors and a hundred foot of chain later.....lift the hitch of the compressor and pull on the back.....unstuck.
We will close the greens this weekend, but we are watching the forecast for thanksgiving, in case we can allow play on them. The course will be closed on the day of the cross country. Please contact the golf shop if you would like to play. The cross county is a great event that you won't want to miss!
Have a great day,
Turf

Irrigation fix and closing of the greens

The fix is in!
Below are a few shots of the parts used and the blocking that must take place on the system. Our irrigation system operates at a fairly high pressure, so anywhere the pipe changes direction must be secured.
It is that time of year again, where we talk about the closing of the greens. We do not want to play on any green with a frozen layer in it. We are watching the nighttime lows and daytime highs. When the greens will have a consistently frozen layer in them, we will close them to play.
Looking at the forecast, that could be as early as Saturday. If there is a chance for a warm weekend over Thanksgiving, the closure will be temporary, and we will open for good weather. Good weather will be nighttime above freezing and above 50 daytime.
We are watching the forecast and will update the blog regularly.
The ladies will be playing cross country on Friday.
We will have another cross country on the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving, guests are welcome! This nine-hole event is a blast that you won't want to miss! Two person scramble, pick a partner!
We are blowing out the irrigation system this week, so no, the golf course is not on fire :-),
Yes we get that call.
Have a great day,
Turf

Irrigation crime scene and bathroom closing

If you have played 6 white lately you have seen what we call our crime scene. Ribbons, tape, comes, and barricades block off the pump house and more. People have commented that the repair is taking a long time. Welcome to the world of repairing main lines. Not only is the repair on a main line, it is on our drop pipe. The metal pipe has corroded in several places and will need to be replaced. Since this pipe is bolted together, it needs to be fabricated. We have jackhammered out quite a bit of concrete that was supporting the pipe. It is a good thing it is fall and not the middle of summer, which is usually when these things go bad.
The nighttime lows will dip below freezing, that means the course bathrooms will be closing. Sorry for the inconvenience, the halfway bathrooms will stay open a bit longer until we blow out the irrigation system. We still have a few good days left, come out and enjoy it,
Turf