Glen Eagle Maintenance (12/1/23)

 Golf Course

We had a very nice cold front come thru this week. It ended up getting down near 50 degrees a couple mornings and didn’t make it out of the 60’s for a few days. During cold weather, grass slows down growth and has a tendency to turn off color, especially the greens. The benefit is that ball roll speed up which generally make the greens more playable.

We performed a pencil tine aerification this week to help water movement thru the root zone. Greens can get what we call sealed off where water doesn’t want to penetrate into the soil and instead rolls off the surface. This allows areas to dry out and can compromise turf health. By creating 8” vertical channels with solid aerification tines we can restore the movement of water into the soil.

Here are a couple pictures of the course this week. Looking pretty good despite the cold weather.

Last year a pine tree on #17 died due to Pine Beetles. I decided to make a snag out of the tree instead of cutting it down. A snag is a tree that had the outer portions of the limbs removed to create perches for birds. Trees used as snags have not significantly decayed and are strong enough to stand for many years after they are no longer living.

Just this past weekend I was able to catch two Bald Eagles using the tree to rest and look for prey. My phone doesn’t do them justice but they were beautiful and seemed very happy up there in our dead tree.

Common Grounds

Sidewalks and curbs were pressure washed in the last week…

Hector painted the bocce ball holders…

This week areas of the sidewalk along Glen Eagle Blvd that are heaving due to tree roots are being replaced. This will take several weeks and include the sidewalks on Weston Way.

Facilities

Glass for one of the tables on the lanai had cracked and was replaced…

Hector put together the new Divot lanai furniture…

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 (11/24/23)

Not too much of a maintenance update this week since most of us are probably still in a post Thanksgiving lethargy. Just some pictures of a green course and hopes that everyone had a great Thanksgiving! 🦃

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I do want to point out one important notice that was issued by the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) this week. They are asking for water conservation as we have been talking about for the past several months. This could turn into water restrictions depending on rainfall totals as we go thru the dry season. See link below from Wink News.

https://winknews.com/2023/11/21/water-shortage-warning-lee-collier-county/

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 (11/17/23)

 Golf Course

I’m going to keep it simple this week. WE HAD RAIN!!!!

Reminds me of the scene in Castaway when Tom Hanks made fire. Such a relief to know that we can stop worrying about a basic need, if nothing else but for just a little while.

We ended up with 3.93” of rain yesterday. That brings our total this week 4.74”. The rain plus not needing to run irrigation since last Saturday has allowed the lakes to come up 14”.

Snapped some pictures today - rain does a golf course good!

Couldn’t choose so here is half the course….😂

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#17

#18

And one of #1 on my way out this evening…

Common Grounds

As promised a few pictures of the flowers we installed a few weeks back. Still have some growing to do but coming along nicely.

Didn’t realize how busy the Davis entrance was this afternoon 🤯

Facilities

Hector stayed busy, so busy in fact I couldn’t catch him on camera 😁

Did catch a couple pictures of the plumbing company working on the grease trap pipe. That’s a big job!

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 (11/9/23)

 Golf Course

Blue skies and green grass here in Naples as the weather has warmed up quite a bit.

#17 from behind the green…

Don’t let the picture of 17 fool you, the lack of rain along with wind over the past couple weeks, and warm weather (upper 80’s to low 90’s predicted for the weekend) has continued to make our drought more severe. With no significant rain in the forecast the need to conserve irrigation water will be important factor in making it thru this winter without running out of water.

Along those lines, a couple posts I saw this week regarding our current weather conditions. 

A new ice machine has been installed on hole #13. As many of you know, the old one had broken. After evaluating the cost of repairs and the age (13 years) of the old machine replacement was the best choice.

After installation, I received a report that the water handle was hard to push and would break the cups when retrieving water.  I had the company come out and adjust the water pressure on the machine which did help some. They are also reaching out to the manufacturer to see if more can be done. I do think that the valve will loosen up over time with the amount of use it will receive.

We will be getting new holders for cups, lids and straws but in the interim, Hector attached the existing holders with magnets so they can be removed once the new holders are received.

Common Grounds

I missed an opportunity to take pictures of the flowers that were installed last week. I will have some pictures next week. By then they should be growing up nice!

Facilities

Hector had a busy week…

Changed out the faucets in the Divot restrooms when a leak developed from the old rusty ones. 

A new latch on the door in the Clubhouse restrooms.

Put together a shelf for the admin office.

Hung a new clock at the tennis courts after the wind blew the old one down.

Installed a new plate to one of the light poles on Weston Way.

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 (11/2/23)

 Golf Course

The last week of daylight savings time and the sunrises have been beautiful.

The golf course has been soaking up the sun and the grass has been using it to produce large amounts of chlorophyll…

Thursday (Nov 1st) we put out our new course accessories. As suggested, we painted the ball lifter so that it blends in with the flag sticks. Turned out pretty well. We will have to see how it holds up over time.

New cups…

Finished product with new flag, flagstick, lifter and cup…

I wanted to highlight the result of a new practice we implemented this summer. We root pruned trees along the perimeter of the course to reduce the competition with the grass from adjacent trees.

I have noticed the benefits on many holes like #17 near the green for example but captured the picture below of the area near the putting green.

Here are the lines where the roots were pruned near the practice green in July…

And here is the same area this week. You can clearly see that the grass where the roots were pruned is much healthier than the area where the turf roots have to compete with the tree roots.

Common Grounds

Gustavo and Paulino have been working on a nice new planting along the cart path near the fitness center. Most of these plants are donated, propagated from existing plants or plants that have been relocated. We have to add pinestraw but the plants look great and have made another area of the GE property beautiful.

Facilities

Hector’s did a great job repairing the back walkway to the lanai. Over time the pavers had become loose and needed to be reset to reduce the potential of tripping over the loose pavers.

The Radio Road Entrance monuments were painted this week and turned out great.

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!