I’m sure you, as a golfer, have asked yourself come fall time, “why is the golf course closed while it is still nice outside?”. Many golfers are in shock when the golf course closes down for the season Mid-October, when the sun is still shining and the leaves have yet to fall. During the golf season, the turf crew starts very early in the morning to prepare exceptional conditions for the many golfers to play that day, and come October, the crew needs their time to “put the course to bed”, as the turf professionals like to refer to it as. What goes into putting the golf course to bed? A lot!
Let’s begin by explaining what goes into putting the golf course to bed. Each golf course Superintendent has his or her own way of putting the course to bed, but we will show what is involved in Shadow Mountain’s preparation for winter. Blowing out the irrigation lines is the first item on the list of fall preparation, as they do not want the lines to freeze. Blowing out golf course irrigation lines takes 2 days. The compressor is also a lot bigger than one that would be used at your house.
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| Irrigation heads being blown out |
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| The compressor used to blow out the irrigation lines |
Most turf will make it through the winter on it’s own, but at the low height that the greens are cut, they need some help to defend the winter diseases, snow cover, and potential ice cover due to freeze and thaw. This is where fungicide applications are crucial. Each golf course Superintendent has his or her own preference of how many applications of fungicide he or she would like to put down before the snow starts to fly. At Shadow Mountain, we have bentgrass tees, greens, and fairways, so they are all treated with fungicide to assist them in making it through the winter. Without the application of fungicides in the fall, the greens would succumb to the harsh winters that they face. This would result in dead greens come spring time, and this is every Superintendent’s nightmare.
After the fungicides are put down, next comes pounding in rebar and steel posts around the tees and greens. These will be used to hold up orange snow fence which is used to keep the elk off of them, as the hoof marks create quite the mess. Roughly 2,500 posts are pounded in. This takes a lot of time, but pays off come spring time.
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| Orange fencing being hauled to #3 green |
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| Posts being hauled to #4 tee box |
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| Posts being pounded in |
While all of this is going on out on the course, all 81 of the golf carts, and maintenance equipment have to be moved into storage for the winter. There is a dedicated crew that hauls golf carts and turf equipment for a week to the storage location.
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| Golf carts being hauled to storage |
After all of the above has been finished, there are a few housekeeping items that are taking place this fall. Trees are coming down to make the golf course a little bit more golfer friendly for the upcoming season. As well, the much dreaded waste bunker on number 5 has undergone a facelift, and the green is better seen from the front half of the fairway.
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| Trees being cut down on hole 11 |
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| The waste bunker on 5 being cleaned up |
I’m sure you, as a golfer, have asked yourself come fall time, “why is the golf course closed while it is still nice outside?”. There is a lot that goes into putting the golf course to bed, and also a few fall projects that cannot be completed when golfers are on the course. After reading this, we hope you have a better understanding why we need to close the golf course when we do.
Thank you for another great season!
From the Shadow Mountain Turf Care Team!
