A few days after I returned from my early spring rockhounding trip to New Mexico, I started my new job at Wolf Hollow Golf Course on the turf crew. My Manager the last two years at Greenbriar Hills, Shawn Prengle, called me back in February to let me know he had taken the job of Superintendent there end of January, and asked me to come work for him there this year. I drove over one day to look it over, found a very hilly course with a lot of drainage and erosion problems, that he intended to fix, and was def going to need some help for, told him I would be interested in the job there working for him. He sent me a text while I was out in NM and let me know to be there the morning of the 16th.

There are two lakes there near the clubhouse and I found out they are perfectly positioned for great sunrise photos…was able to capture several in the mornings before I would start my first detail, here are a few for you to enjoy….

…as you can see, we get some nice sunrises there…also a good vantage point for some storms that have rolled in while we were working as well….sometimes you only get to see the aftermath of the storms, the floods, the lightning strikes…

…this storm hit last week with a lot of lightning bolts, one hit this walnut tree up on 12 fairway…Cameron and I were picking up the debris..mainly the shards of the beautiful wood, one hundred feet out into the fairway from the tree, took about 90 minutes to clear the fairway for the golfers that morning…only fatality was a black snake that was electrocuted by the lightning bolt, likely at the foot of the tree…

…we also have two families of Canadian geese there, both sets of parents had some babies born in April and they have been teaching them how to swim and fly lately…where to feed at and where to poop at…mainly on 6 and 18 greens it seems like…we have to extra careful on our approach to them when their young are with them, they set lookouts front and aft as well…

My main detail in the mornings now is cutting the flagpole cups, usually on the back nine, while Wayne takes care of the front nine…then I also pick up the trash and top off the ball washer fluid, before taking the trash to the dumpster near the clubhouse. One morning mid June, I pulled up to the dumpster and heard something rustling around in the trash as I opened the lid..whatever it was, it was hidden under the trash for a few minutes…then it finally popped up into view…cute little guy and I felt priviledged to be able to get this close and take a photo of the little guy….

I wasn`t sure how he was going to get out of there, so Mel, our Mechanic, and Jake, one of my co-workers, went down there after I returned to the shed and let them know, and placed half a pallet into the dumpster so he could climb out on his own, after he got his fill of beer and snacks. 🙂

Here lately in July, I have been seeing an adult raccoon up near 8 teebox, by the time I get up there to pick up the trash, he or she is wandering into the wooded area between there and 9 teebox….haven`t been able to get a photo yet of that one. 

We have been doing a lot of irrigation work combined with replacing some of the bermuda grass on greens, sodding erosion areas, and fixing alot of leaks in the piping all over the course. Back in April and May, Shawn rented a mini trackhoe to do some major digging up on 3 fairway near the green, main idea was to install a large plastic pipe for drainage, up there where three hills and valleys converge…while digging that trench, they discovered multiple leaks and problems with the sprinklers as well…

..that`s Wayne in the foreground working to replace existing irrigation lines, and Shawn operating the trackhoe…

..the new drainage piping above….

…going under the cart path here and will then drain down into a creek below…held down here by riprap rock from a local quarry…yes I checked the rock, no pretty stuff on it at all..I was sooo disappointed…like why could they not get the good stuff from the Washington County Quarry instead ??? 🙂 Once things get back to normal, we will be finishing up this project and a few others we started at the same time. At least the golfers are noticing the changes and they like what they are seeing. This course has been here for about 21 years and we are def making some changes to it. Stay Tuned for more…