The purpose of this project was to have all overhead lines removed from the property. The poles belonged to Duke Energy Co. but the club's phone (AT&T) and cable (Time Warner) were also attached to these poles. Before the poles could be removed the club had to reach an agreement with both AT&T and Time Warner regarding future services. It was determined Time Warner needed to install new underground cables to service the club and they did so about one week after Pike installed the new cables for Duke Energy. AT&T showed up about one week later to remove their overhead lines from the poles and Pike also removed the overhead electric lines from the poles leaving Time Warner holding up traffic. Several unanswered emails and phone calls later (and another week) and finally Metro Tech (A Time Warner contractor) showed up on the 20th of this month to transfer the club's service to the new underground cables and remove the overhead lines from the poles. I met with the foreman and we agreed on the best route that would allow him to get his line truck near the poles and perform the task without damaging the golf course. He then promptly left and a crew did not return till the following day (without the foreman I spoke with). Things looked a little like this...
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| Not Cool! |
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| Really?! |
Not the best first impression! However, I was able to turn this incident into something positive as I explained to him the fee for pulling him out with our Cat 277 skid loader. It seems one of the two ropes by the clubhouse flagpoles was needing replaced and they had just the equipment we needed. Now the state flag flies with Old Glory once again!
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| Tow Fee! |
Anyway, with Time Warner Cable now out of my way I immediately began pleading with my contact for this project at Duke Energy to send Pike back to the club to remove the poles. As I stated above, they arrived Tuesday and now things look a little different.
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| Removing the Poles! |
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| What Poles? |
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| Ready for Reestablishment! |
With the poles finally removed and out of the way my staff and I can begin to repair these areas and reestablish grass. We will be replacing the damaged bermudagrass near the tee and the area near the end of the golf car path shown in the picture above with sod (scheduled for delivery next Wednesday). The larger swath adjacent to the path will be reseeded with both our fine fescue and native short mix blends to reestablish the natural/native area. My crew has already applied compost in advance. This coming Tuesday the area will be tilled, hand raked, hand seeded and mulched with Seed Aide.
In other news, earlier this week I received an email from an esteemed member with a link to a story about the golf course superintendent at Merion Golf Club and his approach to golf course maintenance and the environment. Here is the link for those of you interested http://www.linksmagazine.com/best_of_golf/a-simpler-game-perfectly-imperfect and the member's email to me:
Below is a link to an article about the superintendent at
Merion. I wanted to share it with you
because his approach seems so enlightened to me.
I used to think the quality of a golf course was how
"perfect" it was, every blade the same, no blemishes. In recent years
I have gotten to see some of the more noted classic courses: Cypress,
Shinnecock, National, Merion, etc.
As described in this article, all of them have a variety
of grasses and a multi-textured look. It is the quality of playing surface that
matters most.
Merion has gone to some length to be "Eco
friendly". I wonder what things we do in the interest of environmental
stewardship?
I thought this may very well be the best question anyone has asked me in my 8+ years at Carolina and below is my reply:
Thanks for the article!
I really appreciate you sharing and I appreciate and value your comments
regarding quality golf courses. If the
modern day golf course superintendent is not a friend of the environment then
he or she is in the wrong business. We
are caretakers and stewards of God's creation and it is important we do the
best we can to preserve and protect the environment. I am very proud of the fact although we are
very much an urban golf course, we are home to blue herons, red tail hawks and
mallard ducks plus we have coyotes, deer, rabbits and squirrels wandering
around the property as well. The other
day I watched two white egrets fly over the course and stop off for a visit.
Many members of the golfing and non-golfing public assume
golf courses use too many chemicals, fertilizers and water when the opposite is
the case. I use soil test analysis to
determine the nutritional requirements for our golf course. This way we are only applying what is needed
to sustain the plant versus over applying by simply guessing. When making fertility applications we make
every effort to remain a safe distance from all bodies of water to help prevent
needless runoff and contamination. As
for our irrigation practices, I have had a reputation as a water miser for many
years now. I believe in only giving the
plant what it needs, when it needs it thus maintaining a lean, firm and fast
golf course as opposed to a lush, green oasis (when this occurs you know we
have received lots of rain). We even
implemented soil moisture meters into our regimen last year to assist our
efforts in only watering when and where necessary and further fine tune our
process.
Another example of how Carolina Golf Club practices
environmental stewardship is through the creation of the natural/native areas
(over 20 acres). These areas are
non-irrigated after establishment thus another way we are conserving
water. They also receive no fertility
after establishment thus another way we are reducing inputs. I also use plant growth regulators on all
short-cut turf areas throughout the growing season. These products help reduce the number of
mowings required each week to sustain a quality playing surface thus we have
reduced fuel consumption and therefore reduced emissions.
I hope this helps everyone have a better understanding of
how the things my staff and I do each and every day to your golf course impact
our environment and you can take solace knowing we are doing our best to be
good stewards and caretakers of this beautiful property!
Take care,
I hope you enjoyed the updates and lesson this time. In the blog piece I linked near the top from July 26th I talked about a feeling I would get on Friday afternoons when I take in the beauty of the golf course and enjoy the fruits of the week's labor and efforts to produce this outcome...Well, it is Friday afternoon and I've got that feeling again!!!
See you on the course,
Matthew Wharton
Golf Course Superintendent
See you on the course,
Matthew Wharton
Golf Course Superintendent
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