Well, the cold temperatures have arrived and there is a
skiff of snow on the golf course. The 2015 golf season has come to an end and
it was another great year at GFCC.
We have completed all of our course preparations for the
winter and have begun to bring the equipment into the shop for winter
maintenance. The fairways, greens, collars, approaches and tees were sprayed
with a snow mold preventative fungicide a few weeks ago and are all well into
winter dormancy. We got all of the course accessories taken down, irrigation
system blown out and leaves mulched up. The last step was to lightly topdress
the greens to act as a blanket for the turf and put up snow fence around many
greens to collect snow as insulation for the cold winter months.
 |
| Irrigation blow out was completed the last week in October. |
 |
| Snow fence has gone up around 10 greens to collect snow as insulation for the turf this winter. |
We will now be busy greasing, changing fluids, sharpening
mower blades and reels and fine tuning all of the equipment so it is ready to
go first thing in the spring. These pieces of equipment go through a lot of
wear and tear throughout the season and it is essential that every single piece
of equipment gets a thorough check over. Some of our equipment is 10+ years old
and will need more attention than some of our newer equipment. For example, our
2007 rough mower sees use of about 500-700 hours per season. The parts on the mower decks are constantly moving on hard terrain all season long and begin
to wear out to the point of replacement. We will replace these parts as necessary to
make sure that our equipment fleet is running at its full potential next golf
season. These vital pieces of equipment are what make the Grand Forks Country
Club such a beautiful place to be at.
 |
| The tractor has already come into the shop with a gear oil leak in the front axle. A few of the bearings in the axle were broken, causing the gear oil to leak. This piece of equipment is very important for us as we use it for many projects, and more importantly now, snow removal. |
We will now hope for some mild winter temperatures and a
decent amount of snow cover to insulate the turf for the remainder of our North
Dakota winter.
 |
| Time to wait patiently until we get to see this spectacular golf course again in the spring. |
