Tree Work

    Hello! We hope everyone is having a nice winter and hope that everyone is staying warm these past couple of weeks! When the weather is cooperative and warm we are open! So we encourage everyone to come on out and play a round with your friends and family!! 

    The course does have a bit of snow on the ground so sadly we wont be open for a few days at least but as soon as it melts off the course will be good to go for everyone that would love to play. If you have not been to the course for the past couple days, we have cut down a few trees on number 4 right before the  fairway.  Four on the left side and one on the right side.  We did this so it would open the hole up a bit more and be a bit easier to play. Now you can hit to the left side and not be in too much trouble.  Also we had found a boat load of golf balls down in that native grass just off the tee box so if there is anyone that wants some free balls go check that spot out!! Those aren't the only trees we will be cutting down though. There are a couple of trees in the range that have been sick looking and or just plain dead. So we will be taking a few trees out of the range as well. Also we took out the two little trees right out side the front entrance of the club house.  They were getting a bit big for their location so we took them out.  The next project we will be undertaking is the cart path on the rock course. It's over grown and it needs to be trimmed back so you aren't being hit when you drive on it.  So we will be cutting back along the cart path from nine green all the way to seven tee box.

    We have also been getting machines ready for this up coming season. Grinding reels on mowers, changing oil, oil filters and air filters on all the machines. But we have the machines pretty much finished up so we can focus on the golf course when the weather warms up so this season will be a good one for you! Stay warm and stay safe out there!

  

     Hunter Hill

    Assistant Superintendent

    Heart of America Golf Course

    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

      

Native Areas at HOA

Many of you who play at Heart of America have been asking when we would mow the native areas down on the river course. I am happy to say that over the last week of November, we have successfully mowed down all of the native areas on the entire property. We had to wait a little longer this fall to mow all of it because some of the lower areas that hold water were still muddy from rain and snow. We plan to do a better job of keeping the native areas under control next season to create a more enjoyable experience for our patrons. 

The Finished Product

Over the last month, the crew at Heart of America has made big progress on some projects, as well as stared getting the course ready for the coming winter.

As some of you have already seen, we finished the renovation of the cool season tee on hole number 9 on the River Course. It was a big project that we have wanted to do for the last couple of years. Although the tee has been completed we have decided to wait to open it until next spring, this will allow the new sod to knit itself into the soil and establish healthy roots before we open it for play.

This was after shaping the tee and prepping for sod. 

NEW Tee on #9

We have recently started renovating the cool season tee on number 9 on the River course. We attempted to rebuild the tee in the fall of 2018 to help with drainage issues and to re-establish grass on the tee. The tee struggled over the 2019 season and it has come time to give it another shot. Over the last week in September we began clearing the tee top of all unwanted sand and weeds to create the desired surface for the new tee box. The next steps in the process will be to level the tee and lay down bentgrass sod. We believe that bentgrass will survive better in the current location, and it will make for a much better playing surface. Also by using sod instead of seed the tee will be open for play much sooner.