Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Agronomy Department and Course Weekly Update
March 9, 2016


I apologize for not having an update prepared last week; I was off property Monday-Thursday at our annual meeting for ValleyCrest Golf Maintenance. Dr. Todd Bunnell, knocked it out of the park, with a who’s who lineup of education and speakers. It is quite a treat to have unlimited access to some of the top researchers in the country, truly valuable knowledge. I also enjoyed a few rounds of golf in sunny Orlando, which is never a bad time. All in all, the entire trip was fantastic. Now to what is going on at St Ives Agronomy.

Medalist Golf started bunker renovation last week despite the 1.25” of rain. However, all they were able to get done was some rough shaping of the bunkers and demo work. On Tuesday March 8 we had another walk through with Billy Fuller and he gave the green light to begin drainage installation. Rain permitting we should have all the grass down mid week and then move to #16 to begin the demo process. Be on the lookout for a separate email describing the changes on #16 that will also contain a PDF attachment.

Billy Jack, John Gerdts and myself have prioritized cart path repairs into 3 categories (Urgent (this year), Important (next year) and Upcoming (3-5 years)). I met with our new Cart Path repair contractor on 3/8/16 to discuss pricing, options and timing. Going forward we will be using reinforced concrete to minimize breaking 3-5 years down the road. This proposal will be reviewed at the board level and discussed at the next committee meeting.

The dry weather early last week allowed us to partially dredge #12, we still have to dredge middle section and hand scrape 3rd section. Unfortunately, the backhoe that dredges the creek had a few mechanical problems and is currently being repaired to correct the issues. Once repaired and we have dry turf we will finish the last 2 sections of the creek.  

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at kmacdonald@valleycrest.com and for more information and plenty of pictures and videos follow us on Twitter @stivescc_vcsup and the Blog: http://vcgmstivescountryclub.blogspot.com/

See you on the course,


Kyle Macdonald, GCS, Class A 

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