It is another beautiful day in Highlands. A bit windy but that will help dry things out. This morning, Chad is working on a beautification project on the 15th hole. That is the irrigation main line that crossed the creek. Using sand bags and rock, he is damming the area up to create a pool and waterfall.
Below, the Graden process will finally be finished!! You can see how much labor is required to do this. You have 1 man running the machine. 4 men keep running dry sand to the machine from carts that are staged around the green. Finally, there are about 8 other staff members cleaning up and blowing greens behind them. It is realistic to get about 6 greens per day done. As you can see, with only one machine, we could never do anything like this during the season. When it is all said and done, we will have used about 78 tons of sand! That is 1,250 lbs of sand per 1000ft2.
Blowing and fairway mowing continue today. Tomorrow, intermediate rough will be mowed for the first time. Our schedule and goals are as follows:
today: finish graden
tomorrow and next 2 weeks: (March 18-27) golf course raking/clean up and sod work
following 2 weeks: (March 30-April 10) details! Pinestraw/mulching, edging beds, edging sprinkler heads, etc.
Each year, Graden, clean up and sod work, are 3 projects that consume a lot of labor. Once we get past those three items, thing really start coming together because we are able to break up the crew and work on different projects.
The golf course opens on April 10th and we will be well on our way to being ready despite the dredging project.
After lunch, I am headed to Raleigh, NC for an Agriculture Awareness Day with the General Assembly. This also includes the NC Secretary of Agriculture and Dean of Ag Sciences at NC State University. As you may recall, I serve as the NC Government Relations Chairman through the Carolina's GCSA. This is really important because I am able to keep up first hand with legislative issues that effect the golf industry. It serves a great service to NC clubs and the golf industry as a whole. I enjoy spending time twice a year with our lobbyist and general assembly in Raleigh. This is where things like water restrictions and use, labor issues and other hot button topics are discussed. It is important for industry people like me get in front of elected officials and educate about how golf impacts the economy.