Treasure Hunt: New & Old

My wife has been busy studying for her nursing boards lately and with no kids, that's meant that I've had more time to kill than normal.  Yesterday, when Google-ing images of Blackhawk, I ran across two aerial pictures of the course that were taken in fall of 2011.  One picture is taken from the south and one is from the north.  They're great images that can be seen (and purchased if you so desire) from the following link:

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/bill-lang.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=120041

So, that's the "new" part of the treasure hunt.

Here's the old...  I've always been curious about the work that A.W. Tillinghast did on the course, and to the best of my and Chad's collective knowledge, no formal plan exists of the plans and recommendations that he made for the club.  But, I'm going to look more into that.  However, I did run across two very cool letters that Mr. Tillinghast penned during his extensive travels of the U.S, on behalf of the PGA.  These letters explain some (maybe all?) of the work that he suggested at Blackhawk.  I hope that you enjoy reading them as much as I did.

The first is from May 6, 1936:
http://www.tillinghast.net/Tillinghast/PGA_Letters_JAN-JUNE_36_files/Media/Madison%205-6-36/Madison%205-6-36.jpg?disposition=download

The second is from October 23, 1936:
http://www.tillinghast.net/Tillinghast/PGA_Letters_j-dec36.html#82

Three Green Snow Removal

Today, the decision was made to clear the accumulated snow from three green.  I'm probably beginning to sound like a broken record, but the arborvitaes and University Avenue bridge create an excellent microclimate for snow and ice accumulation.


 The above picture was taken prior to removing the snow, and the reason that we removed the snow was to facilitate the melting of the ice that had formed beneath it.  The ice was thickest on the front half of the green.  The sun had melted some of the snow on the front, but it reformed into ice during the cool nights.  Earlier this winter, we removed snow and ice on the back half of the green, but it wasn't as thick there this time.  The warm temperatures that we had today put a tremendous dent in the ice, and grass was already poking through the ice as of this afternoon (see the picture below).

Some of you may be wondering what effect this warm winter has on the golf course.  The short answer is that it's too soon to tell, but with the exception of three green, we aren't too concerned about winterkill.  However, that can quickly change if the Poa were to "wake up" (which is does much more easily than creeping bentgrass), take in water, and suddenly freeze.  This can result in crown hydration, which is something that has been discussed in length previously.  Otherwise, our main concern is degradation of the snow mold fungicides, and we'll be keeping a close eye out for any snow mold as the winter progresses into spring.  Currently, very little is present, even in the roughs, but pink snow mold doesn't necessarily need snow to form; it just needs cool, wet conditions.  To be sure, we're keeping our fingers crossed for a turf-friendly finish to winter.

Factory Tour and Other Happenings

Our entire crew (Chad, Dave, Omar, Angel, Jake, and I) had a very interesting start to the week.  On Monday, we had the opportunity to tour the Toro manufacturing facility and distribution center in Tomah.  It's at this plant that Toro makes the bulk of the equipment that's used on golf courses and in other commercial applications.  Here, they weld the frames, paint the metal components, and attach the hundreds of other items that the machines require.  It was fascinating to see the organization that's necessary for a plant of 550 workers to take hunks of steel and turn them into highly-specialized pieces of equipment.  To say that we have a better appreciation for what it takes to manufacture the machines that we use on a daily basis is an understatement.  It surprised us to learn that materials make up 90% of the cost of these mowers, and if anyone's interested, they sell an 18' rough mower for just a touch above $100,000.

Once the mowers, sprayers, utility vehicles, etc. are assembled at the manufacturing facility, they are shipped a few miles down the road to their distribution center.  With the rows and rows of new equipment, we were like kids in a candy store.  Unfortunately, it's very expensive candy, and they didn't give any free samples.  It was interesting to learn that almost 50% of their equipment is sold overseas.  We had a great time and certainly appreciated the glimpse inside Toro's operations.

Speaking of equipment, below is a picture of the metal bed that our 300 gallon sprayer tank rests on:

Inevitably, some of the fertilizers and plant protectants that are loaded into the sprayer run down the outside of the tank and are squeezed between the plastic tank and the metal bed.  As you can imagine, this is quite corrosive, and the above picture is a great illustration of the effects of this corrosion.  A new metal bed costs $800, but every 3-4 years, we sand off the loose paint/rust and recoat the metal.  For a few hours of labor and a couple of bucks worth of paint, we're able to keep the bed like-new.  This is just one small example of the preventative maintenance that takes place in winter that saves the club money in the long run.

Besides equipment maintenance, you're also probably aware that the lack of significant snow cover has allowed to take care of a lot of the tree removal and trimming that's normally done in the summer.  Last week, we removed an overcrowded ash tree between 3 and 4 and a dying ash tree just past the dogleg on the left side of number 6.  Based on our visual observations over the past three years, we knew that the tree on 6 was declining, but once it hit the ground, we were able to see just how bad of condition that it was in.

Normally, when a relatively healthy tree comes down, just a few branches will snap off.  When this tree fell, it's canopy exploded into a million little rotten pieces, and the above picture shows just that.

Otherwise, our winter work is progressing as planned, and we're looking forward to the start of the 2012 golf season; I'm sure that you are, too!