March

March brings golf, and a vacation.

(Salt Lake City Skiing Views)

What a winter we've had! Snow, bitter cold, and a Superbowl win has blessed us here in KC. Winter season is always great for golf course superintendents. There is no grass growing, no golfers growling, and time for us to actually take a step back and relax for a short time. We are able to catch up on all the small jobs that are difficult to get done during our busy spring/summer/fall season. As for myself, there was also time to slip away and take a needed vacation. Skiing in Salt Lake City was an awesome experience, but with temperatures in the high 50's back home, I returned back to the machine called Swope Park already up and running. 

We've had two major winter projects. First, we trimmed, limbed, dropped and chopped up the low hanging and encroaching trees along the parking lot wall. Historically, we believe it was possible to see from the club house directly down to the KC Zoo. Years of tree and undergrowth later, it was a wall of honeysuckle and 20 year old trees. Cleaning these trees up will not only improve the aesthetics of the parking lot, but also reduce the chance of a limb or tree falling on a patrons car and/or blocking the path at 5 o'clock on a Friday.

(Part of the wall cleanup.)

Project number two has roots that grow back to, maybe the 1970's? The existing tee signage is an aluminum, square plate, with 3 yardages and the hole number. The information is correct on them, however there isn't much other info, nor any feature to catch a person's eye. Since I've been employed here, since my boss has been employed here, since my boss's boss was employed here, there is a stack of old tee signs in the basement of Swope. There are large, stone signs that have the hole yardage as well as the hole layout. Originally the signs were in wooden post frames, and they were rotted and falling over. The superintendent at the time took them down, stored them in the basement with the intention of fabricating new metal housing for each sign and use hanging bracket system. The plan never grew to fruition and the stones started collecting dust. Enter Matt Nash, our new mechanic. Matt has an immense background in metal fabrication. Coming from BTM Manufacturing with over 15 years experience, Matt formed, welded, and painted a bracket and sheath for each and every sign, while myself and Sam power-washed and repainted each sign. After installing a few new poles for holes with multiple signs, the course has Tillinghast era tee signage again. Still to come, names for each hole. 

 (Cleaning up the stones.)

 (Digging a new post hole on #15.)

(#1's final product, missing the hole name plate: Hope)

As I said before, the machine was up and running when I returned from my Mormon vacation. Greens were mowed, new cups were cut, and zoysia was sprayed all before March 3rd. The zoysia is sprayed to reduce anything other than zoysia to grow in our fairways: poa, clover, goose/crabgrass, etc. The zoysia is currently dormant, so any product applied to the plant will not be absorbed or used by the zoysia. However, any thing else growing in the fairway will die out and allow the zoysia to fill in once warm weather appears. 

 (#12 during spraying.)

(Sam perfectly spraying #12. A very photogenic Superintendent.)

Once we finish spraying our tee tops, we will return our newly painted tee markers and our enter/exit signs in the fairways. The season is upon us, and we are ready.

Fix your divots!

Tee Markers

We are currently working on a plan to replace the tee markers on the river course. In the winter of 2017 we made wooden tee markers that had the HOA logo burnt on to the top of them. These tee markers looked very nice when they were new, but they have suffered over the last two years of use. We have come up with an idea for new metal tee markers that will allow us to keep them looking new all throughout the year. 

This is a rough design of what the new tee markers would look like. They will be cut from either 1/8 inch or 3/16 inch steel plate; they will then be painted blue for the men’s tee and yellow for the forward tee. The logo will be a white vinyl sticker that can be replaced as needed. 

December

Merry Christmas Kansas City Golfers and Blog Enthusiasts!!

It's been a red and white beginning of winter here in KC. Snow on the course and the Chiefs in the playoffs, couldn't ask for anything else from Santa! Our course is ready for the dormant, cold season of winter. We've prepared as well as we can for the upcoming cold months and are looking forward to our 'easy' work days. I say easy because there is no more turf stressing, high humidity 90 degree days, no more golfers to work around, and we can focus on other aesthetic aspects of the course.

(Fertilizing 16 green.)

(Sam fertilizing our new putting green.)

After the snowpocalypse in early December melted, we rushed out to get our last fertilizer application down for the winter season. We want the turf  to absorb the nutrients released from the fertilizer and store them away for the Winter. This gives our greens a better start for coming out of dormancy in the Spring.  

(Blowing out our irrigation on green #2.)

Every year we empty out our irrigation lines. The thought is emptying the lines of water will reduce the chances of freezing and busting pipes. Many courses in the area achieve this by just opening their drain valves. However, where a different course may have a drain on each hole, Swope only has 6 total. To remove the majority of water in our lines, we hook up an industrial air compressor powered by a diesel engine to create the pressure needed to blow out our system: hole by hole. The compressor charges the line to around 80 psi, allowing sprinklers to open and release any being forced up the line.

(Our 2019 fleet outside of the shop.)

(Bill Ray finishing the last sweeps of a now clean shop floor.)

Spring cleaning came early. We spend the majority of our time inside the shop during the winter. Working on equipment usually means being down on the floor and trying to find the right angle to make the bolt fit or to remove a stubborn nut. Having a clean work environment not only keeps your clothes clean but really gives you a sense of pride of where you work. Just as a happy wife = happy life, a clean/organized shop = happy shop workers. 

Hopefully Santa found everyone's houses and if he brought you golf balls, I have the perfect place to come lose them!

Remember, Fix Your Divots!

See ya next year, folks.

November Firewood

Every golfer who was played Swope knows there is no shortage of trees on the course. Throughout the year, it never fails that a tree or two will fall. The majority of our trees are large Oaks, which when they fall, require a large cleanup. After the smaller leafier branches have been cut off and dumped, the remaining trunk and larger branches are cut into 1-2 foot length pieces and brought behind our shop to be split and stored for firewood. 

  

(Sam and Antonio adding to the stack.)

If you have a wood burning stove, a living room fireplace, or just like to have a bon fire on a Friday night, we are your one stop shop for seasoned firewood!

$75 per Truck Load

$100 per Delivery (within 10 miles of Swope)

Contact: Sam Bailey - 480.250.3122

Marshall McCall - 785.282.8153 816.513.8910

or Swope Clubhouse - 816.513.8910

Spooky October for Swope

The times they are a changing, so are the leaves at Swope park. Actually, the whole course is starting to change. Grass growth is slowing down, golfers are slowing down, leaves are dropping, and temperatures are dropping. Just in time for us, too. With a total crew of 4, Superintendent, Assistant, and two hourly workers, we need all the help from mother nature we can get. 

(Late evening aerification.)

In late September, we aerified our greens, allowing air, moisture and new organic material to filter into the existing roots. After the Kelly's tournament, Sam, the superintendent, and I stayed until dark poking holes and rolling the greens as to get a head start on the following day when we would finish. Aerification requires the entire course to be shut down for two days. Greens are aerified, rolled for firmness, top-dressed with sand and then drug in providing new/fresh organic medium for roots to spread. It took around two weeks for our greens to completely heal.

(12 backdrop.)

(October 30th snow.)

Looking forward, our main focus will be blowing and mulching leaves. With the first snow fall already upon us on October 30, many of the trees have completely dropped their leaves over night. So when setting up for those drives, aim small, miss small, and keep those balls away from the leaves! 

Happy Halloween and Happy birthday to me, I'll accept cash and/or ice cold bud lights for presents.

Fix those divots!