Scoreboard Landscaping

Be on the lookout, the golf course maintenance staff will be doing a landscaping project at the existing scoreboard area.
Before we got started-this is what it looked like for years and years.

These next set of pictures will show the changes in appearance happening.

Fairway Aerification

 Willow Fork CC is scheduled to have the corporate fairway aerifier in the first 2 weeks of May.  We will be using a 3/4" solid tine on 2" centers. We will be aerifying 40 acres of fairways plus an additional 70 acres with our Aerway aerifier as well.
 The fairway aerifier resembles the greens aerification, punches a round hole, the depth varies on the compaction of the soil. The rough aerifier (Aerway) makes slices in the turf again the depth varies on the compaction of the soil.
 As we are finishing up each hole a pre emergent block will be sprayed to help prevent crabgrass from moving in.
 So please be patient with us for the next 2 weeks as we are trying to get this aerification completed as quickly as possible.

Willy Plowman
Golf Course Superintendent

County OKs meaty contract to trap, process feral hogs

The Houston Chronicle posted this on Wednesday April 23, 2014.

After this article, I e-mailed Kiah Collier the author of this article, telling him our experience with the hogs here at Willow Fork.

 Locally sourced pork may be on the menu for needy Houston-area families as Harris County Precinct 3 launches its most ambitious effort to eradicate feral hogs damaging parkland and neighborhoods around the barker and Addicks reservoirs.
 Within a month, precinct employees hope to begin trapping and transporting the wild pigs to a meat processing facility in Brookshire, where they will be butchered, frozen and distributed to area food banks.
 Commissioner Court on Tuesday approved a one-year contract $217,600.00 contract with J&J Packing Co. that begins May 1. Commissioner Court also OK'd the purchase of metal panels to complete four traps to be erected near the reservoir's in west Harris County.
 The approvals were the final steps needed in Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack's longstanding plan to eliminate, or at least sharply reduce, a prolific hog population in George Bush and Commissioner Bill Archer parks, home of the two reservoir's.
 "This is the beginning of the Harris County hog program in earnest," Radack declared. "As meat prices go up, we'll be giving it away."
 The commissioner for years has been looking for a way to curb the destructive beasts that have proliferated in his precinct, Texas and most other states, according to government wildlife agencies.
 In 2009, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers vetoed another Radack plan to hire bow hunters to shoot feral hogs, saying the impact would be minimal and would not outweigh the risk to the public.

Getting rid of the past
  Radack said the rapidly multiplying pigs, have been a problem in his precinct for almost a decade, venturing into neighborhoods bordering the reservoirs to look for food, rooting up yards and damaging sports fields (failed to mention the golf course).
 Radack said trapping them and donating the meat to the hungry is a charitable solution to a pesky problem that he hopes will serve as a model for other communities.
 The question is: "Are we going to be able to make a dent and, yes I think we will," he said.
 For nearly a decade, off duty county workers and hired contractors have trapped several hundred hogs a year in the area. The current plan began to come together early last year when the precinct won a $630,000 Federal Coastal Impact Assistance Program grant to bankroll a study assessing whether hog removal improves water quality, as well as pay for four metal traps and the slaughter and processing of 2,500 pigs. "It'll will be an ongoing and continuing exercise until we get every pig in that area," said Mike McMahan, Radack special activities coordinator.
 The plan is to trap the varmints in four, 4-acres fenced structures - two in each park - where they can survive for up to several weeks, having grass, water, and room to move around. The larger traps will be more effective than the smaller ones employees have been using, McMahan said, because the pigs do not realize they are in a trap and less likely to panic and warn others. "Pigs become very aware of those situations very quickly," McMahan said. "Pigs are very smart animals."

Huge win' for charity
 Radack's office already has an agreement with the Houston Food bank to receive and distribute the meat. The agency's public policy manager, Pamela Berger, described the partnership as a "huge win for us." "From our perspective, this is kind of meat everybody wants; it's locally sourced, it's wild, it's been subject to practices that some people are now finding objectionable, and it's USDA-approved," she said. "I mean, that's the magic because, of course, we would never distribute product that has not been appropriately certified." The meat processor the county will use, J&J, is one of only a few in the state that accepts  feral hogs that has a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector.
 The plan has its skeptics. Brian Mesenbrink, a wildlife disease biologist with the Texas Offices of Wildlife Services, the U.S. Department of Agriculture branch designated to address human-wildlife conflicts, said the agency is "not against any legal method when it comes to controlling the feral hogs," but said that the trap-and-process concept - "tried in small little operations here and there" - has proved short-lived in other places, mainly because of the cost. "It's actually very expensive," he said, noting that "you don't get to pick which ones go to market."

The 'disease aspect'
 He also warned of the "disease aspect" of such an operation, noting that feral hogs "carry quite a few" and even federal inspectors do not examine every piece of meat. "It's like Russian roulette," he said. "It's great publicity while it works, but the minute something goes wrong, the minute somebody gets sick, there's going to be all hell to pay. No one thinks about that going into it. They just see the fuzzy and warm side of it."
 Radack dismissed the disease concern, noting that hunting and eating feral hog is far from uncommon. As for the financial viability of the program, he believes the precint will be able to secure additional grant money to contnue it.

Will meet safety rules
 If not, he said, people likely will "donate to the cause" once they see the effectiveness of the program, which he noted has been approved by the Corps of Engineers.
 McMahan said the agency had to sign off on the areas where the traps will be set up to ensure they do not disturb beneficial, native plants species. "Our evaluation found that this program met our requirements and may have a positive impact on the resevoirs with regards to water quality," said Isidro Reyna, a spokesman for the Corps Galveston District. "The Corps will maintain oversight throughout the duration of the program."
 The Corps had been developing another program with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to form a new policy on managing hog populations in the resevoirs and elsewhere. Reyna said that has been "set aside" so that it can "evaluate the successs of the program wth Harris County."

Let's wish them the best!!!

150 RULE

 So what is the 150 rule? 

Add the nighttime and daytime temperatures together and what do you get? 

The ideal growing combined temperature is 150 degrees, with this ideal combined temperature number you get results in the growth of turf. When the combined temperatures add up below this 150 rule the grass is either in a dormant stage or growing at slow pace. The same will generally occur when temperature reach the 100 to 105 degree during the summer months.

 Here's some examples of March 2014;

Week 1-average low 51 degrees average high 66 degrees =117 degrees

Week 2-average low 62 degrees average high  71 degrees = 133 degrees

Week 3-average low 64 degrees average high 73 degrees = 137 degrees

Week 4-average low 69 degrees average high 79 degrees = 148 degrees

April 2014

Week 1-average low 52 degrees average high 66 degrees = 118 degrees

(2 morning were in lower 40's-ouch)

Week 2-average low-61 degrees average high 74 degrees = 135 degrees

Forecast for Week 3 

Average low-51 degrees average high 68 degrees = 119 degrees

So far no combined average temperatures have reached the 150 degree rule of thumb. Yes there has been a day here or there, but overall temperatures are well below where we need them to adequately maintain a good stance of turf.

Everybody hang in there before long we will be wishing for some cooler weather to come in and cool things down.

Thanks

Willy Plowman

Golf Course Superintendent

#16 Cart Path Repair

A few minor bumps was repaired after you pass the green on hole #16.

#10 Cart Path Repair

This damage to the cart path was due to the ground sinking in an area where a storm sewer pipe was installed back in the early 90's. Just as you passed the ladies tee box on #10 you would feel it.

Lots of broken concrete and really confused on what we found below the existing cart path???

Apparently this area had already been repaired one time before. Huge slabs of concrete was found underneath the existing cart path.

Concrete being poured-45 bags were used. Today the ride is smooth when you go past the ladies tee box!!!

#9 Cart Path Repairs

Evidently there is some type of electrical lines or storm sewer that runs underneath #9 fairway. The sink-age to the cart path was due to the ground settling from a previous dig. 

35 bags of concrete was used in this repair.

I had some signs made just to let the membership know that the golf course maintenance staff was doing these repairs. I had several members approach me for a business card to the contractor that was doing this work. No contractor!

Signs says:

CART PATH REPAIR

GOLF COURSE MAINT STAFF

THANK YOU FOR BEING A MEMBER

An additional repair as well on #9 cart path.

#8 Cart Path Repairs

The following repair to #8 cart path behind the green has to be one the most rewarding. How many years have we all been taking this bump???

After I took this picture I realized the amount of roots the staff had removed.

The roots towards the front of the picture were approx. 4" to 5" round. That root provided the bump we have experienced for how many years????

31 bags of concrete was used.

#6 Cart Path Repairs

This is pebbles, she is the leader of the pack. She supervised the repairs completed on the #6 cart path. 46-80 lb. concrete bags was used in this repair.

This shows the broken concrete that was removed. If you look on the same edge of the cart path towards the top of the picture you can see the repairs that has been completed already.

This shows the repaired cart path. look to the left of the path and you can see all the concrete that was broken and we removed it.

A different view of the cart path repairs on hole #6.

This repair is around the 150 or less distance from the green

Cart path Repiars #4

Hole #4 cart path repairs at the turn and approx. 150 yards out from the green.

Serafin admiring his work.

Romeo preparing the 2nd are of repair.

Serafin & Romeo pouring concrete.

Starting the finish work.