Playing Catch Up at the Bay

With all the work being done on the golf course this summer, mostly on the greens, there have been some areas of the course which have unfortunately had to take a backseat on the priority list.  One of those has been the native grass areas around the course and with over 50 acres of native grass areas that has begun to become an eyesore and an added obstacle to many golfers' enjoyment of the game.

This past week Mitch used a Bobcat brushcat equipped with rubber tracks to go through and clean up all the native grass areas and lake banks around the course.  Many of these areas had become overgrown with weeds and tree saplings becoming unsightly and in some cases blocking golfers view or even ability to play properly off of certain tee boxes.  We do apologize for that and believe we have remedied that issue.

View from the tee box on #2 before maintenance.

View from #2 after maintenance.

#5 tee box before maintenance

#5 tee box after maintenance

Another area on the course that we have neglected has been the faces, or turf surrounding, the bunkers.  These have become overgrown and were extremely difficult to play out of but several members of the agronomy team led by Bill Greene have put forth tremendous effort mowing the grass back down, reestablishing a nice clean edge on the bunkers and getting them back in shape for play.

Our agronomy staff is working very hard to catch up on several of the important areas on our course and we ask that you do your part in improving the course by repairing your ball marks, filling divots, raking bunkers, and obeying golf cart directional signs.

Harrison Bay will have the honor of hosting the Tennessee Golf Association Match Play and Senior Match Play Championships July 28-31 and we are working to have the course in championship condition by then.  In preparation for that we will be adding sand to the bunkers, aerifying selected tees and other areas on the course, landscape work around the course, and a lot of prep on the greens to get them smoother and faster.

It has been an interesting summer so far and we are excited about where the course is headed.  I have to thank our agronomy staff, some of which have only been with the course for a month or two, for jumping in with both feet and putting in long, hard hours to rebuild the course to the level that you, and I, expect.  We are not done, not by a long shot, and will continue working hard.

Winter course improvements

Some people think the golf course maintenance department staff take the winter months off since there isn't any mowing to be done but that is far from the truth.  In most all cases the winter months are our time to renovate and refurbish the golf course so we can spend the majority of our time during the growing months maintaining the turfgrass.

Our irrigation renovation project of installing part circle irrigation heads around the greens is rolling along on schedule.  Willie, Jonathen, and Eric have been working hard and have completed the renovation work on nine holes so far.  This project will be most beneficial to the greens as we will be able to apply the correct amount of water needed to the putting surface without overwatering the surrounds which is a benefit that our golfers will enjoy.  The environment is going to benefit from this upgrade in that we will not be using as much water to maintain our greens.

Reducing the amount of water we use on the golf course is important but we also need to protect the water supply that surrounds the golf course and where we get our irrigation water from.  Surrounding all the waterways on our golf course we have created vegetative buffer strips which help to filter chemical, fertilizer, and soil residue from entering the water.  During the winter months when TVA drops the water level in the lake is a great time for us to do work on these areas which might have gotten overgrown through the years.

Most areas can be done with hand tools or a bush hog on a tractor but then there are areas like #3 green and #5 tee slopes which pose a safety issue of working on these steep slopes that we have to call out the "big guns" for.  We rented a BrushCat from Bobcat of Chattanooga which allowed us to remove the overgrowth of trees and shrubs in these areas.

This is a shot of the bank on #3 green before Mitch began the renovation work.  As you can see the overgrowth is blocking not only a great view but also much needed air movement on this green, especially since it sits in a hole and has restricted air movement anyway.

It took Mitch only a few hours to safely and efficiently clear the lake bank off.  A project of this size would have taken us weeks to clear by hand and we would have had a tremendous amount of plant debris to remove.  The BrushCat allowed us to remove the material safely and cut it up into mulch which will serve as a barrier for any water movement down the hill protecting the water supply.

With just a little hand work to remove some trees that were too large for the BrushCat to handle we now have the air movement we need for this green restored along with the view of the lake which will be very nice in the summer when TVA brings the lake level back up to summer pool.


I am very thankful for my crew who take on the responsibility of maintaining the golf course with such passion and dedication.  I tend to get the credit for the condition of the course or the environmental projects that we do but it is truly the guys in the trenches and on the equipment that make Harrison Bay what it is.  They are the ones who deserve the credit.

Lake bank mowing

The Bear Trace at Harrison Bay is located on a beautiful peninsula which extends out into Harrison Bay.  It has eleven holes which touch water and these waters are regulated by the Tennessee Valley Authority which regulates how we can maintain the banks around the lake.  We use buffer strips around the golf course to filter fertilizer and chemical residues as well as restricting possible soil particles from running off into the surface water.

 

 

 

We have several holes which play across the water from the tee and occasionally the vegetation grows high enough as to impede the play of the hole.  This is a big problem for us because TVA restricts our ability to place any equipment near the waters edge or apply any chemicals or growth regulators in these areas.  It is times like this when having friends with the proper tools to do the job comes in handy.

 

 

The Tennessee Department of Transportation, TDOT, has been very helpful this week by bringing one of their reach arm right of way mowers out to the golf course to safely and properly maintain the lake banks without damaging the lake bank or endangering the environment.

 

 

The mower is capable of remaining a safe distance from the waters edge and mowing the vegetation down to an acceptable and safe height.  The work this machine can do in a day would take weeks and weeks for my employees to do by hand.

 

When all is said and done the high vegetation is removed allowing a clearer view of the hole, while protecting the stability and structure of the lake bank and observing the rules and regulations by which we are bound. Many thanks to our friends at TDOT and job well done.