Happy Holidays from the Heart of America crew!!  

This blog post will be a bit of an update as to what we have done so far to the course.  While also a bit of a step by step on the irrigation shut down for winter.  

     We do have our winter cups out on the River course and on the Rock course and will be changing them through out these next couple months so there will be some variety for you guys. The tee markers have been picked up so feel free to use the entire tee box to your advantage!! We will be sanding the tee markers down and repainting them so they are looking fresh and clean for next years play.  The exit posts were brought in from the course.  We have sanded them and put a nice new coat of paint and clear coat for moisture protection.  

    One of the big projects that we undergo every winter is getting the irrigation shut down and winterized.  During the winter we don't want water in the irrigation pipes or heads to freeze and crack to cause us headaches in the future and wet spots for golfers. This means closing the main line valves so that the water is not actively trying to move into the pipes. Once the water is shut off there is still water sitting in the pipes that can still freeze if or when it gets cold enough.  Now we can go around and open the drain valves throughout the system so the water can drain out of the pipelines.  But we have a bit of help to push out the water, we use big air compressor that has a special attachment that we can plug in to the irrigation system.  This will blow out any remaining water that is trapped in low spots that haven't quite drained out. We go around the course to every hole to make sure that all the water is out of the system.  Plug in and turn on the irrigation heads so we can blow those out as well, because the irrigation heads are the most susceptible to freezing and cracking. 

    Once again we are all wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

    Hunter Hill

    Assistant Superintendent

    Heart of America Golf Course

           

    

Seeded Range Tee

     

    Hello again! It has been awhile since the last blog post and we just wanted to give a little update on the range tee! As many of you have noticed already the range tee has been closed now for quite some time. We had reseeded the top section of the range tee a few weeks ago, and we are all thrilled with how it is looking so far!  We planted two different grasses this year a rye grass and a bluegrass blend.  We first aerified the top section of the tee to break up the soil and to make some holes for the seed to be planted into.  We then over seeded the rye grass, and then strip seeded the bluegrass all throughout the whole tee box. Lastly we dragged in the rye grass that we over seeded earlier. With seeding two different ways we can target a much wider area than just strip seeding row after row.  This means more areas will grow in fuller. 

    Here in the next couple weeks or so we will be starting to have people hit from the mats instead of in the front of the range tee.  We usually have the back lower section of the driving range tee open so you can still enjoy hitting from the tee.  But we decided this year to close that area off to save it for next year. 

    We want to thank everyone for staying off the tee so it has a chance to grow.  Once this winter is over and the warmer weather comes back we will be more than happy to open the tee back up so you may enjoy the freshly seeded tee box!  We also want to thank Tony Bertels for taking the time to help us during this whole process.    

     Hunter Hill

    Assistant Superintendent

    Heart of America Golf Course

      

Frost Delays

 Hello! Its been quite a long time since the last time we have posted on here and we are very sorry to everyone that reads these blog posts! We will try to have updates about the course work/projects and some further information regarding the course on here as well. My name is Hunter Hill. and I will be taking over these blog posts! I will try to have a post every two weeks or so, so I hope everyone that wants to learn more about the course reads these and gets a bit more information out of them!!  If you see me out on the course feel free to wave me down to ask questions!! 

    

    As we head into these winter months we are of course going to see a fluctuation of temperatures. Colder nights, chillier afternoons, and frosty mornings.  A big issue that arises during the winter months are those pesky frosty mornings.  Frost is a bigger deal than what people seem to believe.  It is essentially the water inside the grass freezing and becoming ice. That might seem like the grass is becoming stiffer and more solid to walk on but the opposite is in fact happening. Grass is very forgiving most times you walk on it, it bends and springs back like nothing ever happened. But when it freezes from the frost its as fragile as glass and if stepped on could break and possibly die. This leaves brown dead footprints where ever someone has walked. These footprints won't go away over night either. They will persist longer during the winter months because the grass is now shutting down and becoming dormant, cause of the colder weather.  Which means the grass isn't actively growing as much, compared to when it is summer time. This is why we have later tee times in the mornings and have frost delays.  It is to protect the grass and to make sure that golfers are given the best greens possible to play on! 

    

    Thank you for sticking it out and reading this blog post! This is the first time I've made a blog post so it will be a learning process. But I hope this helps people get to understand the maintenance side to the golf course industry.  But lastly from everyone here at Heart of America we wish everyone a Happy Halloween and a Happy Holiday's!!!

    Hunter Hill

    Assistant Superintendent 

    Heart of America Golf Course