Bunker work and the OTF conference and show.

We have continued to stay busy working on the bunkers and are now at #15 starting work on the large green side bunker. We've pulled out all the sand and started re-shaping the bunker and splitting it up. A new drain line was installed that we will use to drain the bunkers and the low area between the bunkers. This area has been problematic in the past so we wanted to run a new drain that would work better. We have finished a lot more work this fall than we anticipated so we are in great shape heading into the winter, which seems to be arriving right now. 

#15. The spoils are from the new trench which was cut for the new drain line. 

As you can see the bunker will be smaller and split.

Part of what we do in the winter is attend turf conferences for continuing education in order to keep our applicator's license and hear about the latest research and problems people are having at other courses. Every year we attend the Ohio Turfgrass Foundation conference and show and this year was the 50th. It's one of the largest regional shows in the country and draws people from the surrounding states. We heard a lot of good talks and some of the highlights included; new ways to manage annual bluegrass weevil populations, different approaches to managing soil profiles and better ways to communicate with our crew and membership. We also learned that the USGA green section plans on putting on their website a case study from Barrington talking about our use of African tilapia for algae control. I'll post the link whenever it is available. 

Earnest Byner was the keynote speaker. 

As we get into winter we'll continue to work on bunkers whenever we can and we'll probably start removing dead trees pretty soon. If anyone has any questions about the bunker project please get in touch with us, we'd be happy to talk about it! 

Ian