5th hole on a gorgeous December day

December 2017 was a gorgeous month at Sandpines.  We had quite a bit of play, which was a nice change from December 2016. Consequently, the agronomy staff spent the majority of the time preparing the golf course for daily play.  Typically, we have a few more slow days in December and there is more time for projects.  It was a welcomed change to say the least.

Jerry hand watering the clubhouse putting green

Believe it or not, we actually had to hand water greens in Decemeber.  This was a first ever at Sandpines.  There were enough dry spots on greens with no rain in the forecast that we felt it best to play it safe and give them a little water.  Sandpines received less than 5 inches of rain for the month of December.  You can check out Sandpines monthly rainfall by clicking on the precipitation history page if you are into that sort of thing.

Dylan, Lilly, and I playing short sleeve golf on Black Friday

The picture above is from late November.  Black Friday to be exact.  It's not to often you can play golf in short sleeves the day after Thanksgiving in Florence.  I would love to make it an annual tradition.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate next year.

Jerry repairing an irrigation leak on hole 6

January's weather hasn't been quite as good, although there have been some beautiful days.  However, we were able to get a few of the projects done that we started in December. 

Cart path edging was recently completed.  Chuck and Thaddeus did the lions share of the edging, with Aaron and Mark contributing as well.  The finished product looks really nice. 

Quite a bit of brush and salal mowing was completed as well.  The dry days allowed us to get more mowing done than usual.  The mower we use doesn't work very well in wet conditions, needless to say we didn't get much brush and salal mowed last year.

We have been dealing with a few irrigation challenges.  A few leaks and broken valves have been repaired.  Some weren't very fun to deal with.  As always, Jerry did a nice job heading up those projects and getting them completed.

We also put out different rakes that were acquired from Oswego Lake Country Club.  The rakes are used, but they provide a much better playing surface than our old rakes. 

7 green on a cool January day

We are still in the process of looking for a mechanic.  Dennis has been doing a nice job keeping us up and running in the interim.  Thaddeus and Chuck have also helped out in the shop from time to time.