Looking forward to the 2012 season

For those who have found the inside the ropes blog, welcome.  We're hoping that with this blog and the Brunswick Greens Facebook Page, we'll to be able to both engage with our customers and give everyone a sense of what goes on behind the scenes here at Brunswick Greens. With that out of the way I'd like to share with you some of the upcoming improvements you're going to see for the 2012 season.

• First off we'd like to welcome superintendent Jim Prescott back to our staff.  We were thrilled when Jim was able to step in towards the end of last season to fill a vacancy and he has graciously offered to return this season.  Jim brings with him a treasure trove of experience from Mechanicville Country Club and also has worked here at Brunswick Greens for many years so its going to be a welcome relief to have someone who really knows this property running the show for us.   

• As a direct result of Jim's presence on staff he has manage to repair and resuscitate much of the equipment that I had written off for scrap.  Due to his considerable mechanical skills we can look forward to a MUCH improved playing surface, in particular areas like the tees, green banks, and fringe around the greens will be able to be mowed MUCH shorter then they were last season simply by having the right tool for the job.

• Early last season we made the decision to spend much needed capital on the refurbishment of our Toro GM 3250D Greens mower.  While the machine was fine mechanically it was clear that the cutting units had been neglected over the previous seasons.  Cutting greens with dull blades leads to a poor putting surface and encourages the spread of fungus and other turfgrass diseases which require the use of chemical treatments.  I heard many compliments over the course of the season about the quality of the putting surface and I'm proud to report that we saw far fewer outbreaks of disease which required much less use of both chemicals and fertilizer.  While I doubt that as an industry we will ever be able to go 100% chemical free, I made it a personal goal of mine to see that Brunswick Greens becomes much less chemical dependent and more environmentally friendly, this is a small step towards that goal that we will continue this season.  

• Adding onto the theme of Brunswick "Greens", while it didn't see much use this past year we DID make some amazing renovations to our irrigation system which will allow us to make much better use of our limited water resources.  We installed both a second pump and feeder lines which doubles our irrigation capacity.  In plain terms we can get more water onto the course in less time which means we use less power and have less wasted water.

• Towards the end of last season we made a significant investment in a new Jacobson SLF 1800 Fairway mower which replaces the tired old Ransomes AR250 that we had previously been using to cut fairways.  While we only had the new mower for a few weeks it's clear that we had made a substantial gain in overall mowing efficiency.  Over the course of a full season this efficiency will allow the grounds crew to devote more attention to some of the areas of the golf course that had been neglected in previous seasons, and will also allow them more time to take on new projects around the course.  Not to mention the overall quality of our fairways will improve drastically.

• We are looking forward to an exciting year in Bunkers Grill, with a new chef cooking all of your old favorites and some new menu items as well.  We're planning on adding some new beverage options like six packs of soda and some new beer choices to the mix so if you have an requests please don't hesitate to let us know.  We're also planning on staging some live music events and are VERY excited to bring you a Nine and Dine special every Friday night which allows you to play nine holes and then pick from a specially prepared menu of our chefs creations.  Trust me you won't want to miss it.