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November 9, 2020 

Supers’ Blog

What do we do all winter?  This seems to be the most common question we get this time of year.  Winter is thought of by many golfers as the time of the year that the staff at their club or local public course stop showing up and take the next 4 months off.  Although winter months are less stressful and a little more relaxed, there is still plenty going on around the golf course.

For the staff at Heritage Hills, it starts with the first forecasted freezing temps.  Winterizing bathrooms and the irrigation pump station to prevent pipes and fixtures from freezing and breaking would be the first step in preparing for the winter.  If weather conditions look like prolonged freezing conditions will be staying around for a while, we will start the process of blowing out irrigation lines.  Blowing out irrigation lines usually takes us 3-4 days to complete. It involves us blowing compressed air through the irrigation lines pushing any trapped water in the pipes and heads to be pushed out through the heads.  With over 650 heads on the property, this is a slow process, but it is important that we ensure we do a thorough job to prevent problems for next spring when we decide to fire the system back up.

In addition to grinding, or sharpening, our own grass cutting units, Heritage Hills grinds reels for some golf courses around our area.  We charge a fee to those golf courses for us to tear down and grind/sharpen their cutting units for their upcoming season.  We grind about 100 reels from other courses. We usually work on this during colder mornings or on days we can’t be outside.  We usually start this in November, and it will take us most of the winter to complete.

This year we have received a grant for the addition of more cart paths.  These projects are ideal to be completed during times of the year when golfing slows down like the colder months.  We can be more efficient when not stopping for golfers and try to keep disruption to the golfers as minimal as possible.  Most of this work will be completed when the weather is conducive to being outside. 

Along with the above mentioned, we also have a review of the past season.  Deciding what programs worked and what didn’t, planning for improvement projects while keeping in mind the responses from the membership’s survey results, and reviewing the current budget and proposing a new one for the next season are included in this overview.

As time allows, the staff will also be painting tee markers and trash cans, repairing equipment, doing building maintenance, monitoring moisture levels throughout the winter, implementing winter watering if needed, attending continuing education opportunities, removing unsightly trees, and keeping the course playable for the golfers who are still playing during these months.

The idea of this blog is to keep the membership up to date on what is happening out at the maintenance barn.  We plan to keep this updated with information that is pertinent to what we are seeing around the golf course as well as help the membership understand why things are the way they are.  Look for a new post every couple of weeks, and we will try to attach photos for course conditions and progress on projects.  We would also like to thank you all for choosing Heritage Hills.