Glen Eagle Maintenance (10/26/23)

 Golf Course

First I want to say welcome back to the many members who I have seen returning to Glen Eagle over the last week or two. I’m not sure who it was but someone brought the wind along with them 😂. We have seen abnormally strong sustained winds this week. The strong winds have made it very comfortable to play golf but have also dried out the turf quite a bit. When I say that I don’t necessarily mean the soil although at times that is true too. I’m generally talking more about the leaf tissue of the plant. I am seeing many areas that are a bit off color due to the wind pulling moisture out of the cells within the leaves which we call dessication. Not much that can be done about it but to hope for calmer winds and more rain to offset the loss of chlorophyll production.

Golf course is still looking pretty good. I can see the some wear from the increase in traffic and a few of the tees are a bit weak where Common Bermuda has intruded but we are doing ok overall.

Hole #7…from the back tee

This Wednesday we had a cookout for the golf course maintenance, housekeeping, and facilities maintenance staff. Gary, Lisa, Tiffany and members of the golf group organized by Mr. Davis were also in attendance. I want to thank their golf group for their support and donations that help pay for the cookout. Everyone enjoyed a great lunch cooked by Gustavo, our Assistant Superintendent and sweet deserts homemade by Chef John and Mrs. McVetty. After a hard and hot summer, cookouts like these mean a lot to the staff and help keep the morale high.

Common Grounds

The Fall Annuals were planted on Thursday.

This process involves removing the Summer Annuals, adding fresh soil to the beds and planting flowers that will survive the fall and winter. I will take about a month for the flowers to really start filling but just swapping out the flowers has already made an improvement.

Facilities

The front entrance monument painting looks great and is much more visible from the Davis blvd intersection. Radio Road monuments will be next to match the paint colors of the Davis entrance.

I look forward to seeing everyone on the course or in the facilities, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf and facilities too!

Glen Eagle Maintenance (10/20/23)

Golf Course

Thanks to everyone who did a rain dance last week, it worked! We received 2” (highest single event in 2023) of rain on Friday which brought the lakes up 6” and allowed us to suspend irrigation for 3 days.

It wasn’t enough to erase our deficit for 2023 but was a huge help to the golf course and common areas. Now thru end of the dry season if we can get an inch or two per month we should be in a much better position to make it thru until rainy season 2024.

The course responded to the rain with some of the deepest green color I have seen in quite a while, here are some pictures since the rain.

#2

#10

#18

A couple of ways we will work to keep the course green are by spraying liquid fertilizer like we did on Tuesday…

and by applying granular fertilizer like we did on Thursday…

This fertilizer has an added benefit. It is sparged (coated) with a pre-emergent herbicide to prevent weed seeds from germinating. This type of herbicide can reduce the need to apply post-emergent chemicals after seed germination, reducing our total herbicide applications per year.

We are working on adding more color around the course. Here the beds on #3 by the bridge at the tee are replanted with more colorful crotons and purple fountain grass.

Before

During

After

Common Grounds

This week we installed a memorial bench overlooking the 9th green. The bench was donated by the Glen Eagle Golf Leagues in Don’s honor.

Trimming trees for Christmas lights to be installed very soon.

Before

After

Adding color that can be seen from the road and the course…

Flower installation was pushed to next week due to painting of entrance monuments (see below).

Facilities

In a previous post I highlighted Hector painting the divot lanai floor. He put the finishing touches on the painting this week by adding the safety stripes to the area by the door.

Added an electronic bulletin board at the fitness center…

Blinds to the front room at the divot…

New hardware on the restroom doors…

New umbrellas on the divot patio…

A first aid kit and stand at Tennis…

And last but not least, painting of the front entrance monuments started today…

I look forward to seeing everyone on the course or in the facilities, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf and facilities too!

Glen Eagle Maintenance (10/13/23)

Golf Course

We just missed the tropical moisture that came across the gulf this week, netting only 0.1”. An early fall cool front will push thru the area this weekend and if we are lucky we may be able to pick up more rain as it moves South. We will be looking forward to the drop in temperatures it will bring early next week.

The golf course is coming out of its summer growth and is starting to tighten up.

Once October gets here, the temperatures moderate, the days get shorter, growth slows and the course becomes easier to manicure.

Here are some pictures from the course this week.

#13

#16

#17

Common Grounds

A couple quick updates:

The summer annuals have run their course and will be removed next week. New fall annuals will be installed in their place.

Sidewalk and curb pressure washing is scheduled for the 20th of next month.

Facilities

Didn’t get many pictures of Hector’s work this week as he spent time working on getting the donated furniture setup in the apartment for the H2Bs.

Did get a picture of replaced drain grates in the pool.

I look forward to seeing everyone on the course or in the facilities, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf and facilities too!

 

Glen Eagle Maintenance (10/5/23)

 Golf Course

We ended September with 3.04” of rainfall. That is well below 17.31” in 2022 and 11.4” in 2001. Our yearly rainfall total thru 9/30/23 is 31.5”, 38.08” behind 2022 and 29.23” behind 2021. As our “rainy” season comes to an end our chance of catching up has all but come to an end.

In addition to the dry weather, it has also been an extremely hot year. Hotter, drier weather means more irrigation use and evaporation of water from the ponds. This graphic illustrates how hot this year has been. These are the total average monthly temperatures (high temp minus low temperature each day, added together and divided by number of days in the month).

Even though it has been a year of extremes, you wouldn’t really know based on how the course looks. This picture shows green grass and blue skies over #1 this morning, just like we like it.

Facilities

Carpet Cleaning in the activities center was completed this past Monday, a task that I don’t remember happening in my 4 plus years at Glen Eagle. Next Monday we will have the Pro Shop, Divot Rugs & Fitness Center carpets cleaned. Reminder, the gym will close at 11am on Monday and reopen Tuesday morning. 

We also had the windows of all the buildings washed. I wasn’t able to get a picture of the it but it looks really good.

Hector worked on the bocce area this week by installing the 6 new bocce benches and cleaned the court numbers while he was at it.

And last but certainly not least, Hector cleaned and painted the Divot lanai. A huge improvement from…

Before

And…

After

I look forward to seeing everyone on the course or in the facilities, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf and facilities too!