2013 Season Passes On Sale SOON!

2013 Season Passes On Sale September 1^st 2012!

Buy Now and Save!

Purchase Your 2013 Pass Before January 1^st 2013 and Pay 2012 Prices!!

Save $25 off a Single Pass and $50 off Couples Pass

Starting September 17^th Next Years Pass holders can Play Until November 26^th 2012(weather permitting)!!

Are you a 2012 Pass Holder? Renew Before January 1^st 2013 and Not Only Will You Save Money, We'll give you FOUR FREE rounds to share with your Friends!!

2013 Single Player Season Pass $600

2013 Couples Season Pass $850

Project Drainage

As we mentioned on the Facebook page the course has seen an ENORMOUS amount of water in the past few days.  Our course is well designed to handle such weather events and for the most part our natural drainage system is sufficient to handle large amounts of rainfall without too much soggy turf.

However there are a few areas on the course where the existing natural contours need some help shedding excess water.  We went to work on remedying two such areas today.  The first was near the ninth tee box in the valley between the tee and the fairway.  Unfortunately the water tends to pool there as there is no way for it to run off into the pond.

   

Our first job was to dig a trench so we could get the standing water flowing towards the pond. Once we got the water drained we began the process of laying in drainage pipe which will mitigate some of  the problem in the future.  After running into a few small problems with buried rocks and an irrigation pipe we laid in the new drain pipe.

We're going to let the remaining water continue to drain out of the area giving us a chance to see if there are any other areas that may need addressing before we completely cover the area and fill in some of the low spots in a few days.  

We then moved on to a much more ambitious project near the ninth green.  The area running from the small pond down past the bunker has always been a very troublesome area because it holds water making it difficult to mow and a very wet experience for people whose balls wind up right of the green on nine.  So we decided to take action to address this issue.  The first thing we did was to trench out the fairway under the bunker to allow the water to drain into the smaller stream.  We laid a section of perforated pipe in which will continue to collect the runoff from the fairway.

We then moved up to the small pond and ran 120 feet of a combination of perforated and solid pipe from the small pond all the way down the old drainage ditch which will help tremendously in our efforts to capture more rainwater for our larger irrigation pond.

  

 With the addition of an overflow valve and a dam there will be no other way for the water to exit the small pond other then down the pipe we have installed.   Currently the smaller pond captures all the runoff from our parking lot and a lot of water is wasted on its journey from the parking lot down to the irrigation pond.   We're hopeful that with these new modifications we will have a much larger source of water to draw on during the summer months.

Below is a photo of everything tied together near the bunker. Again we're going to let everything drain out in the next few days while looking for any problems before filling everything in and re-seeding the area.

So the next time it rains and you don't want to get your feet wet, come out and play Brunswick Greens!!!

-Andrew

Verticutting the Greens

Some of you may notice in the next few days that our greens and collars have lines on them, no there isn't a problem with our cutting units and we didn't decide to cut funny patterns in our greens just to mess with your heads.  We're verticutting!  

Trails left by the verticutter

The easiest way to explain verticutting is that we are simply "pruning" our grass the same way you would prune a tree or a flower.  Normally our cutting blades cut horizontally which lowers the vertical height of our grass, keeping it at the desired length.  However the grass eventually wises up and stops growing in a vertical direction and starts "laying over" horizontally.  This is detrimental for several reasons, first off we aren't getting a clean cut which makes the green bumpier, and secondly laid over grass is a breeding area for many turf grass diseases that can harm our greens.  So on a regular schedule during the early and late season we swap our regular reels for blades that cut vertically.

When we verticut the greens we are trimming the horizontal growth of the plant to encourage healthier growth due to better airflow between the grass shoots above the ground and more efficient transport of water and nutrients to the root structure below the ground.  As you can see from the photo below some of the horizontal growth was QUITE a bit longer then the 13/64 of an inch we're currently cutting at with our regular reels.

 

One of the horizontal grass shoots that was clipped off

This year we've also extended our verticutting efforts to the collars near the greens which as you can see from the video REALLY needed a trim as we cut a MASSIVE amount of horizontal growth.  Our efforts will provide the golfer with a much smoother transition from collar to green surface.

The results of our verticut can be seen in the photo below, you'll note that the grass is standing up nice and straight and we're able to go out and mow it much more efficiently.  While the lines on the greens are the most obvious signs of our verticutting.  If you're looking closely you will notice a few subtle changes in the greens  in the next few days first the greens may seem a bit more light green then normal.  This is a normal due to the higher stress level, when we verticut and follow with a double cut on the greens we're removing a large amount of the mass of the plant.  If not done properly this can make our greens susceptible to disease and pest problems.  We will mitigate these effects by giving the greens extra water, and a shot of fertilizer and fungicide later in the week.  

  

Result after verticutting is grass that stands up

So as golfers what can you look forward to in the next few days and weeks.  The most important thing from a golf perspective is that the greens will be tighter, smoother, and faster for daily play while remaining stronger and healthier from a maintenance standpoint.  In this case verticutting is a winner for everyone involved!!

-Andrew

Under Construction

Please pardon our dust for the next few weeks as the crew up at Brunswick Greens gets a couple of projects accomplished.

First off many have noticed the new gravel cart path near the pro-shop.  Over the past winter Jim Prescott and I have been working on a solution to the nagging problem of carts not being allowed into the parking lot.  Due to the previous narrow concrete walking path and the blind corners around the building there really was no good way to allow people to drive carts to the parking lot.  After considering all of our options we decided the easiest way to proceed was to remove some of the front lawn and create a wider gravel pathway for cart traffic while keeping walking traffic on the concrete path.  No longer will you be forced to carry your clubs from the car all the way to the golf carts parked on the other side of the pro shop!!

We're also doing some on course improvements as well.  We've always struggled to keep the back tee on the 9th hole through the season.  Due to its poor location boxed in by trees the tee doesn't get enough sunlight and almost no airflow.  So we are in the process of re-configuring the tee box to bring it further out into the sunlight.  We are hoping with the new tee box we will rectify some of the problems we faced previously and allow us to keep grass on that tee though the season.  As for the tees scheduled completion we're hoping to have the construction and grading finished within the next week and we should be able to seed it by Easter week if Mother Nature continues to bless us with good weather.  If everything proceeds according to plan we should have the back tee in play by Memorial Day!

See you on the course!

Andrew

What a week!

Wow,

As I sit here at my desk and check the live weather station and see it's currently 75* down from a high of 77* then I look at my calendar and it says March 21st.  A quick glance out my window towards the golf course and the fairways are striped, the greens are emerald, the sky is completely bluebird and we're seeing lots of happy golfers coming of the course.  I'd like to take the time to once again publicly commend the work being done by the grounds crew under the supervision of Jim Prescott.  These guys are absolutely working their tails off to get this course in the kind of shape it's been in and I would appreciate it greatly when you see them if you'd take the time to thank them for all their efforts.  They really do a lot and without them the course just doesn't run.

Moving along to whats on tap in the upcoming weeks.  Since the weather has been so nice we've spent the majority of our limited time doing course maintenance.  It's a long and somewhat repetitive process because we have to set a higher height of cut, mow, then head back into the maintenance barn, re-set to a lower height and then go out and mow again.  We know that there have been a lot of people who are chomping at the bit for us to open up the range and Bunkers Grill.  So here's the lowdown, we're going to spend Thursday and Friday getting the range nets up so look for the range to be open for the weekend!

As for Bunkers Grill, we're really excited to get open but we've got a couple of things we're working on downstairs to get everything all set for the season..  I can announce that we're planning on having a huge grand opening party for Bunkers in April on Friday the 13th, featuring Hair of the Dog upstairs in the Banquet Hall.  Then we'll get everything running on a normal schedule on Saturday April 14th in the usual downstairs location.

Again we'd like to thank EVERYONE who's come out the past few weeks, this is easily our best March in the history of the golf course and we can only thank our customers who continue to support us!

See you on the course!

Andrew

Golf Tip of the Week!

Andrew shares a tip on how to improve your putting this season.  For the best viewing click "view in you tube"

Jim Prescott Joins the Inside the Ropes blog with his Superintendents Corner!

I'd like to welcome Jim Prescott to the Inside the Ropes blog!  Every so often he'll be chiming in with a report from the course we're calling "superintendents corner".  This time he's going to highlight what we're doing with the greens mower to get the greens back in shape after their long winters nap!

“Here We Go!"

The first cut of the season.

Yesterday while many of you were out enjoying the golf course you may have noticed that we were working in the maintenance barn. Winter has been very kind to us the year and we're taking advantage of this early start and getting the machines in shape.   During the course of play you may notice the greens will be cut higher for a few weeks. This is a common practice used by most golf courses to reduce the stress levels on the greens coming out the grasses dormant period during the winter.

We have reset the greens mower to 1/4” and our intent is to cut the greens this week at this height and then to reduce the high each time we mow. So golfers should see a increase in green speeds over time as we drop our heights. Our greens are normally cut at 3/16” which gives us a green speed of around 9.0(green speed and how we measure it will be explained in a future blog)

My staff and I will be making every effort this season to reduce our visibility on the golf course during playing hours, insuring that your round will be uninterrupted by our maintenance. I have been working with Andrew all winter long creating a new golfer friendly work schedule for the staff , which will put more of our efforts into getting all work to the greens and tees completed before you tee off in the morning.

I hope you and your family can enjoy the 2012 golf season with us here at Brunswick Greens. The Grounds Crew and I will be making every effort to ensure that your visit to the course is both pleasurable and memorable.

See you on the course!

Jim