Superintendent Steve Rowell, Sr.
is instrumental in making Nippo Lake a beautiful place to play. Hired
by the previous owners, Steve has worked tirelessly for 24 years and it
shows. From the daily maintenance to the adding on of the additional
nine holes, which have been opened since August, 2001, Steve has shown
that he is a Jack of all Trades and the Master of all of them!
New
this year to the website will be our Turf Care and Maintenance Page.
Steve will periodically add pertinent information for our golfers
regarding the care and maintenance of his “playground”. | |
CART PATH ONLY
from the desk of Steve Rowell, Superintendent
Please keep all four wheels of your golf car on the cart path at all times. Drive IN the potholes. NOT round them. Potholes are as important to us as divots on the tees. And we fill them weekly. A pothole can be repaired in a very short time, but the turf injury caused by going around them takes weeks to heal.
Our golf course is the same as your home lawn. When you get home after work, or golf, I don’t think that you park on your lawn, so please don’t park on ours.
Please keep all four wheels on the path at all times.
Thank you for your support. It is greatly appreciated.
The Maintenance Staff
Holes are moved as needed Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and during the weekend.
At NLGC we use red, white, and blue flags.
Red --- Front 1/3 of green
White --- Center 1/3 of green
Blue --- Back 1/3 of green
Because of limited cup-able area, and small size of our greens.
Some pin placements may be out of place at times.
Tees are moved Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and as needed on the weekend.
I am not and never was a fan of the Broken Tee Caddies. Most players would just throw the broken tee at it, resulting in a pile of broken tees, which I find unattractive. Our rangers, and crew do an excellent job of filling divots and keeping the tee areas clean. If you do wish to pick up your broken tee, simply toss it in the rough, and it will be gone forever.
Mowing Plan
Greens
Greens mowers are set at a height of .140 of an inch. They are normally top dressed every 2 or 3 weeks, on a Monday or Tuesday. Top dressing helps keep them smooth, fills un-repaired ball marks, and aids in the decomposition of thatch. Mowers are dulled by topdressing and must be sharpened to maintain the quality of cut.
Tees and Collars
Tees and Collars are mowed at a height of 5/8 of an inch.
Buckets are used to collect clippings, and broken tees.
Divots are filled, seeded, and smoothed weekly.
Roughs
The Roughs at NLGC comprise 38% of the maintained turf.
Roughs are mowed at a height of 2”, on an as needed basis. Many areas because of soil conditions, and microclimate require more frequent mowing. But normally it would be one time around and start again. In 2011 our 3 rough mowers recorded 610 hours.
That’s 15 weeks of rough mowing.
Ball marks
It is the responsibility of all players’ amateur or pro to repair ball marks.
If we have 25,000 rounds per year, there is the potential for players to make 450,000
ball marks per year. Under the right conditions, an even short-range chip shot will leave a ball mark. A repaired ball mark will heal in half the time.
Please repair yours and any others you may see.
Divots
Everyone at some time will make a divot. When they happen to be playing with me, some of them will say sorry Steve. You don’t need to apologize, just replace or fill it. Divot containers are provided on golf cars & teeing grounds, please use all of the mix you need.
I was once asked, Steve does that stuff really help? My reply was “only if you use it.”
Aerification
Aerification of greens is the one-thing golfers dislike the most. It is also one of the most important cultural practices required to maintain turf quality. Aerification breaks compaction of soil from mower and foot traffic, removes thatch, and allows better penetration of air, water, and nutrients. For the past few years at NLGC, we have relied on topdressing and deep tine aerification to control thatch. This kept the players happy, but the turf suffered. In the fall of 2011 the greens were core aerified, with 1/2'” tines. This began the aerification program we will use in 2012. We will core aerify, topdress, brush, roll, and mow, spring and fall. The 9 holes we will be working on will be closed, until our work is completed (around 3:00 PM). This plan will be the least disruptive for both players and the maintenance crew.
See dates below.
(Weather permitting)
Aerification Dates
| May 7, 2012 Back-side ½” coring tines |
| May 8, 2012 Front-side ½” coring tines |
| June 16, 2012 Deep tine ¾” solid tines |
| September 10, 2012 Back-side ½” coring tines |
| September 11, 2012 Front-side ½” coring tines |
| October 16, 2012 Deep tine ¾” solid tines |