New Species?

Just recently we discovered of all things small snails growing in our irrigation main line pipes? We contacted the Colorado Department of Wildlife to see if they could ID the snail. On Wednesday afternoon they stopped by, both rangers said they have never seen this type of snail and will have some experts look at the small snail to see if it is a new species or is it an evasive species. Fortunately this creature was not the Zebra Mussel or Quagga Mussel both are very evasive an would devastate our irrigation system.

New Species of Snail?

Fairway Expansion

This spring we started our fairway/IR expansion on select holes and landing areas. As of now we have selected around 12 fairways. This expansion should help speed of play and make the landing areas just a little bit more forgiving. You should be able to see the new mow outs when you are playing golf, they are marked with red turf paint. The pictures below are just a taste of what some of the new mow outs will look like.

#2 Mountain Before

#2 Mountain after

The Fairway moves to the right a little and the IR goes around the tree

Irrigation or Irritation

Irrigation or Irritation that is the question. Over the last ten days we have begun the long process of charging the irrigation system. The frost free main line went great but the 2nd week of charging up summer laterals has been much different. So far we have had three lateral breaks. A two inch T, two inch slip fix and a two inch 90. Thankfully two of these breaks were in the native and one in a fairway. All of these breaks should be fixed by the weekend so we can get back to business as usual.

#11 Native right of green

A two inch 90 right off the mainline

Hanging On

With temps in the upper 60's all week we still have some snow hanging on. Number five fairway has had snow cover since December 4th. With a little help from us it should all be gone by next week.

Lighting Protection

Just recently we added more lighting/surge protection to our irrigation pump station.

Last year we had over five thousand dollars in damage from four separate lighting strikes.

These lighting strikes occurred from May-July. As far as we can tell they were not direct hits but close enough to cause damage to the sensitive electronic equipment in the pump stations electrical panel. We were not alone in the summer of 2011 countless other golf courses were damaged from severe lighting strikes. We did have surge protection and proper grounding of the pump station but took extra precaution by adding a larger surge protector. Thanks to High Plains electric we got a great deal on this unit.

Lighting Facts:

- A typical lightning bolt contains 1 billion volts

- 10,000 to 200,000 amperes of current. One Amperes can kill a man.

- The average flash would light a 100 watt lightbulb for 3 months

- A leader of a bolt of lighting can travel at speeds of 60,000 m/s

- The US averages 20 million lighting strikes per year

- The Rocky Mountain Foothills are the Lighting capital of the US

Picture of the LEA International SP200

that was installed on the pump station

Hello Spring

The last few days have brought some incredible melting. On the 27th of February we had 10 inches of snow on most areas of the course. Over the last two days the sun and wind arrived with temperatures in the upper 60's and we had some significant melting. Yet we still have 12-15 inches of snow on our northern faced slopes. We have a plan in place to increase the melting of the snow in those areas.

These two pictures were taken eight days apart. Get ready for some golf once we dry out a bit.

Before and After

February 27th

March 7th