Important Notice - Chipco Choice Application on Monday, June 18

Each year we make a preventative application to control mole crickets on the golf course. What are mole crickets? Mole crickets are large insects that can be very disruptive to turfgrass. If not controlled, they can completely destroy acres of turf having a detrimental effect on aesthetics and playability.

One of the products we use to prevent mole cricket outbreaks is Chipco Choice. (This product also controls fire ants.) When possible, we schedule our preventative Chipco Choice application to coincide with the golf course being closed to prevent disruption to golfers. Unfortunately, our scheduled application date was two weeks ago and was rained out. An outside contractor is required to make the application which means we have to reschedule to fit within their available dates.

The contractor will be here on Monday, June 18 and Tuesday, June 19 to make the application. The work will consist of tractors driving up and down the golf course to cover basically every square foot of the property except for the greens. We will do our best to work them around play but you may experience a few interruptions during your round on Monday. If you do, please allow them to move out of your way before playing your shot.

After the application is made, you may notice grooves cut into the turf. In most situations, these should be minor and not affect play. If for some reason there is a more significant impact, you are allowed to confer with your group to determine if relief should be granted.

Detour

Most of us remember a little storm last year by the name Hurricane Irma. Aside from roughing up our docks and blowing down our trees, Irma also caused the Starlite Princess Dinner Cruise Ship to break free and drift into the bridge between Isla Key and Isla Del Sol. This caused damage to some of the power lines across the span. Duke Energy is now in the process of installing new lines.

Instead of installing aboveground lines, Duke Energy will be boring a new power line under the channel. This work will require them to excavate and install access boxes in the area of our current cart path behind #2 green heading towards the bridge. As a detour, the contractor will be providing a temporary path in the location where the original path was many years ago. They will be exposing the old asphalt where available and adding stone where necessary in order to provide us with a continuous path. Barriers will be installed to guide us along the correct path.

Take a left at the fork

Our carts will continue along the property line with La Puerta until we near the water where we will be able to turn under the bridge as usual.

This will be the new angle of approach heading to the bridge

Upon completion of the project, the contractors for Duke Energy will once again provide us with a permanent path solution to travel between holes 2 and 3. They are estimating the work to take approximately one month. 

Just A Little Off The Top

This week the grounds department began cutting back the ficus hedge along number nine. This hedge was planted over a decade ago to give the golf course separation from the Bayway. Every two to three years we cut the hedge back to just a few feet high. This is done to keep the bottom part of the hedge dense in order to best serve as a barrier. If this trimming is not performed, our hedge would eventually turn into a row of trees with little density at the bottom. While they look like dead stumps now, the hedge will soon regenerate and grow back full and healthy.

As a result of Hurricane Irma, much of our hedge blew over but was still alive. Another benefit of cutting back the ficus is that we hope to straighten these plants. This would be difficult to do successfully if they were still 20 feet tall.

We will continue this work to the ficus hedge across the entire property until complete.

Member or Guest?

This photo was taken last week between the 13th green and 14th tee. The gator seen here is approximately 6-7’ in length. (It wouldn’t hold still for me to measure.) I hope it is just visiting for the Member-Guest Tournament and will be leaving soon! 

Cart Damage to 5 and 7 Greens

Last night someone stole a security golf cart from one of the neighboring condo associations and went for a joyride. They made numerous “donuts” on greens 5 and 7 and drove through some bunkers. While the damage could have been much worse, it is disheartening to have something like this happen. I don’t expect any long term negative affects to the golf course as a result of these actions. We did find a windshield in the greenside bunker on #5. The windshield had “Security” printed on it. I urge any of you living on Isla Del Sol to check your condo association’s security cart to see if it is missing its windshield. It is also possible that your cart is missing. I would also encourage you to make sure those responsible for your security cart to not leave it parked with the key in it. We have a lot of visitors in town this time of year, and unfortunately some people find vandalism to be fun entertainment. Please keep your eyes and ears open.

#5 Green

#7 Green

Do you recognize this windshield?

Hurricane Irma - The Aftermath

Unless you live under a rock, you most likely are aware of the recent natural disaster named Hurricane Irma. (If you do live under a rock, you were probably much safer than anywhere else in Southwest Florida.) Irma graced us with her presence last Sunday into Monday. Unfortunately, she was not a nice guest and left our property a mess. The Grounds Department has been working since Tuesday to clear the golf course of debris which includes close to 100 fallen/damaged trees! A big shoutout goes to Fred Curtis and the Golf Department, a few other club employees and even a couple members who have all pitched in to keep the recovery process moving along.

The cleanup process began by clearing all greens of debris. We had very limited staff on Tuesday and the greens were one area where we could make an immediate impact. Obviously, the greens are the livelihood of the property and needed to be tended to quickly. I am relieved to say none of the greens suffered significant damage.

On Wednesday we had the staff and equipment to begin clearing trees off of condos and from roadways. Work also began to clear obstructions from cart paths to make travel easier when hauling debris. This work has continued through today and will continue into next week.

For the safety of both employees and members, the golf course will remain closed into next week. Fallen trees present a safety hazard to anyone walking near them as they can cause someone to trip, bang their head or even potentially roll on and crush them. We continue to inspect trees that are still standing for evidence of cracked limbs that could fall onto anyone below. We had a number of palm trees blow over from the winds. On Monday and Tuesday, we have a machine coming that will help us stand the palms upright and hopefully save as many as possible. I am currently expecting that we will be far enough along to open for play on Wednesday, September 20th.

While what we experienced isn't ideal it could have been much worse. For the most part, the storm was weakened and missed hitting us directly by the time it made its way this far north. We did lose a significant number of trees but the majority were melaleuca trees (also referred to as punk trees or paperback trees). These trees are actually an invasive species in Florida and and not commercially valuable or desired. For us, they create a safety hazard when the wind blows. They tend to split easily and, as we observed this week, blow over.

Thank you for your patience as we continue to work hard to put your golf course back together. Here are just a few pictures showing what Irma left us.

Large Australian Pine next to the Red/Gold tees on #2. Notice its size next to my cart!

Several palms snapped in two

Other palms blew over - we will try to save these

Several large melaleuca trees blew over between 14 green and 13 tee.

A large Australian Pine on #3


Golf staff helping to remove fallen trees left of 3 fairway


Dino getting in on the clean-up action!

Aerification By The Numbers

This past week the grounds maintenance department worked long hours in the hot Florida sun. It was a very productive week with everything going as planned. There is still clean-up to be performed on some fairways, but overall everything looks healthy and should recover well. The men in the grounds department worked exceptionally hard this week. If you see them, please pass along your appreciation.

Some statistics on the week:

• 3,600,000 cores pulled from greens
• 62,726,400 cores pulled from fairways and tees
• 60 total acres aerified 
• 75 tons of bulk sand used to topdress greens
• 61,600 pounds of dry bagged sand injected into greens
• 8 men moving 30 tons of sand bagged in 50# bags (7500 pounds moved by each man)
• 130 collective acres of grass mowed
• 900 man hours of work (that would take 1 person 112.5 8 hour workdays to complete)
• 1 partial solar eclipse

Holes punched and filled on greens


Fernando aerifying #18 fairway


61,600 pounds of bagged sand (1232 50# bags) soon to be moved by hand one at a time