A Quick Update.



Hello and welcome back to the golf course.  It's nice to see the familiar faces again and to see everyone enjoying themselves in the excellent weather we have been having.  I apologize for being tardy with our posts but this spring has been very busy for us, between the projects, training new staff and general preparation for the season the time has flown by.  I'm taking advantage of the poor weather to get out this quick update on course events.   

 

 The Goose B Gone.

We have moved the goose-distress-call-emitter from its temporary setting to its home for the summer, atop a 25 foot pole adjacent to the fairway on 13.  It should be out of play, and hopefully not too disturbing.  To be perfectly honest, I was fairly skeptical of the value of this product in the beginning, however so far this year we have had only one goose habituating the area, which is considerable less then years past.  We think the plastic coyote decoys are also contributing to lack of birds this year, but the jury is still out.  I'm going to refrain from judging either product until the birds have had their young.    

 

 

Hopefully the site and sound of the GBG isn't too distracting.

Irrigation Start Up.
Over the last couple of days we have been working on starting the irrigation system.  At first it appeared as though we would have another year of little or no breaks in the irrigation lines. So much so that I actually said it out loud. No sooner had the statement left my lips when the cracks began to appear.  So far we've repaired six breaks, mostly swing joint arms (the part that attaches the sprinklers to the system), and one large four inch break on the back of six green. While the breaks are frustrating, in a way their beneficial as a training aide to our new irrigation technician Tyler, who is just learning the processes of maintaining an irrigation system.  Tyler comes to us from the plumbing industry and what he lacks in golf course experience he makes up in drive.  He will be a welcome addition to the course.

Tyler in mid repair on the back of six.

  To complicate the start up of the irrigation this spring has been both seen both wet and dry periods, one week rain then two weeks of sun. The last two week had very little precipitation and perhaps the earliest in my east coast career, we actually had to water greens.  In May.  Very unusual. 

NOTE: I originally wrote this last week and of course since then the weather has reverted to a typical spring.  Just this week alone we have received at least 60 mms of rain.



 

The Video Monitoring System.

In Mid-April the work began on the new video monitoring system on the tenth tee.  Last year it was brought to the Greens Committee that there was a potential for golfers to hit into the group in front of them due to site lines on the tenth hole.  The way the hole was designed forces the golfers on the tee to estimate when the group in front of them has moved on, which in the past has led to a number of close calls.  While no one can remember an actual incident of some one being hit, the club consider all situations where safety is a concern.  Because the latter part of ten fairway and all of ten green are not visible from the tee, it was determined that there must be some form of signal from the group ahead to be sure it is safe to hit.  The signal must provide an absolute assurance that it is safe to hit.  We considered what other courses in area do for the same situations.  Grandview uses a light system, but if not used correctly, the light can miss lead the golfers into hitting early.  We looked at bells, triangles and sounding devices, but determined that these are not 100% absolute.  A player could not hear the device and wait too long which leads to slow play, or the device may disturb other players on the course.  We mocked up a periscope, similar to that which Chester golf club uses, but unfortunately the height of the periscope would have to be at least 27 feet to be certain of safe hitting. At that height the periscope would have to be at least six inches wide to provide a decent view and would require the use of magnification mirrors.  Eventually the idea was raised to use a camera and monitor to view down the fairway, providing the players with a certain way of determining if it was safe to hit.  The camera, similar to the cameras we use for security will be mounted on the roof of the club house, giving us our needed 27 feet height of view.  At this height, all of the fairway will be visible, right down to the green.  Last week I climbed up on the roof of the Club house and took some pictures.  The picture below is from the roof at my eye line, roughly six feet.  The camera will be mounted four feet higher, at 10 feet, more than enough to see the area in question.  The view would be similar to this.

 

The project started with ECL, a company which specializes in directional drilling, drilled a conduit from the cart barn, underneath the road, ten tee and the waterlines to the left side of ten tee.  Below is a picture of the last few feet of pipe being installed.  Later on we had an electrician install a power cable from the barn to provide power for the monitor, and a panel with extra space for future use if required. 

 

Then I began the putting together the housing for the monitor.  After a few discussions we came up with a triangle design, which was more difficult to build but more appealing in the end.   Here are some shots of the progress. 

 



 

In the picture below you can see the TV cover leaning up against the work bench, more about that later.

We kept the roof and the body separate for ease of handling.  We dug out three four foot holes and filled them with sona tube and cement, then mounted three six by sixes for legs.  After that the body was mounted and leveled. 

 

 

 

 One concern we faced was how to keep the TV safe from the weather and from vandals. They do make exterior monitors for place like patio bars and amusement parks but the cost is very prohibitive. After some time on the Internet we came across this product http://www.thetvshield.com/.    The TV Shield allowed us to put some money into a cover and use a relatively inexpensive TV as part of the project.  Here's a video from the manufactures to explain the durability.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfa2XCdNFO8  I like the part when they hit golf balls at it.

 

Stay tuned for more updates.