Natural Areas

This year the greens and grounds committee decided to bring back naturalized areas to Ridgeway Country Club.   Naturalized areas provide a host of benefits that can enhance the golfing experience.   Benefits include:  enhanced wildlife on the course, beauty (particularly in late summer when these areas turn brownish red), contrast/texture of grass types, and reduction in labor costs.  The reduction in labor costs mowing rough is one of the main reasons we have decided to bring back these ecologically friendly areas.   The areas that we have been selected for naturalization in 2012 are: behind #2/12 green, between #13/14/5 the area left of #15 fairway, between #16/7 fairway, left of #11 near maintenance and the new mound system on #18. 

Careful planning by the greens and grounds committee allowed us to select areas that will help reduce labor costs but rarely affect the golfer.   One thing we wanted to avoid is penalizing the golfer or having to look for balls in long rough.  The areas that have been selected are well out of play and will add a nice backdrop to the existing “maintained” turf.  Birdhouses have been added to these areas to enhance the amount of wildlife calling Ridgeway home.   So far every birdhouse is being utilized by mosquito eating bluebirds or tree swallows.

The beginning of this year is important because some of the areas were seeded this spring with a mixture of fescues and need to fill in over time to have a consistent look to them.   Examples are behind #2/12 and #13/14/5 area.  These areas will start to show maturity and once seed takes hold we will spray for weeds and it should look as good as the areas on #16.   Once these areas fill in they are going to help cut down labor costs while enhancing the natural landscape.

Memorial Day Weekend Update

Since I last posted a couple weeks back we have received little if any rainfall.  The past couple of weeks we have had to replace our well pump that fills our pond.  Unfortunately we had complications with the new pump.  We have had to ration the water focusing on greens first, tees second and then fairways last.  You may have also noticed a number of grounds employees hand watering fairways and tees to focus on areas that really needed the water.  Fairways have become very hard and a little off color, but still very healthy.  The good news is that the well pump finally got fixed last night and we where able to irrigate fairways for the first time this year.  Because fairways are very dry we plan to irrigate the next couple of nights to catch up.  Mother Nature looks like it might help us out as well, with good chances of rain in the next few days.  That being said our fairway, green and tee turf is very healthy with very deep roots which is always a good sign.

This spring has been a good one to get a lot of work done on the course.  A few items will be addressed in the next couple of weeks. 

1. Many of you may have noticed the new plants around Prindle's Pub, next week mulch and curbing is going to finish off this area. 
2. Our seeded areas are coming up nicely and this morning we are removing most of the netting and mulch.  Remember that these areas are still ground under repair. 
3. Many of our hole signs are out on the course however a few are absent because we need to relocate them to a better location.
4. This past week we have been working on repairing many of the sprinkler heads on the course we hope to rap that up soon and apply yardages to sprinklers that are currently missing yardage numbers.
5. A vast majority of the tree removal areas have been filled, seeded or sodded.  #13 still has some work to do and is a priority for us.  Also we will sod out the area in front of #5 fairway.

So far it has been a really good year! A lot has been accomplished and we hope to rap up these few small items so the membership can enjoy the rest of the golf season without interference.  Enjoy the nice weather we have been having and have a great Memorial Day weekend!   

Course update

 From Tuesday night thru Thursday Ridgeway received 4.5" of rain.  The heaviest rain came Wednesday night and Thursday morning where 3+" fell.  The course is flooded in areas and very wet.  Ridgeway will be closed for the second straight day.  We will concentrate our efforts on cleanup and water removal.  The pictures below tell the story! All pictures were taken Friday morning after a day of drying and still there is a lot of water throughout the course.



The bottom of the range looking at

one of the target greens.



Mud and debris from the storm.up.



#4 fairway at the bottom of the hill.
Over knee high water.



Looking at #11 green from the fairway