News

It has been a fast-moving fall for the team in charge of the golf courses. Getting the golf courses ready for winter and still dealing with some serious golf being played has kept us on our toes. The extra nice weather days in October and November were certainly great for golfing; it also benefited us for growing in the driving range.

While working on the driving range project, we encountered four different rain events that pushed us off of the driving range landing area, due to the ground being too wet. Due to this, we lost between 10 to 14 working days, which pushed back our chance to seed earlier. But with the great fall weather being above normal in temperature, the turf areas were able to have some extra growing days that we wouldn’t normally have had in the fall, as the warm ground temperatures helped the turf areas fill in quite nicely. The range is nowhere near being ready to open yet—and will need some spring grow-in time—but we have a great stand of grass to work with come spring. My best guess is that it will be ready to use at the end of May or beginning of June—of course, weather depending. An early warm spring would really help to develop the plants and a cool, wet spring could hold us back. Keep your fingers crossed for a warmer and drier spring!

Once we had the driving range growing and looking good, we started the pump house renovation project. If you had the time to play golf in November, you may have noticed the irrigation pond on Ridge Nos. 12 and 13 being quite low on water. The pond needed to be drained to enable us to remove and replace the intake line, which has involved a total make over. The entire current pump house was removed and all of the pumping components inside were dismantled. The intake line, which is out into the pond, had to be removed and replaced, as well as the wet well, which will be inside the pump house building. The wet well is where the water enters the pump house so the pumps can pick it up and move water throughout the irrigation system. The pump house project is still being worked on and will not be totally finished until spring, with most major work being completed by mid-January. The job will be complete once we know we can irrigate the property.

With the mild winter so far, our team is focusing on finishing up leaf clean up and are dedicating a significant number of hours toward cleaning up damaged trees that were blown over this past summer.

In addition, our department had a very productive golf season, as the golf courses performed well and the team taking care of the courses was a solid group of individuals. It was also the biggest staff we’ve had in the past five or six years, thanks to finding individuals who wanted to come to work and actually work. What a pleasure to have a fun team! Hoping it will be the same for the 2024 golf season.

Thank you for being a member of Egypt Valley Country Club and providing an opportunity of employment for many of us. The Club is a great place to work, as you are surrounded with lots of wonderful people, from members and guests to vendors and employees.

Happy holidays to everyone!

Jeff Holmes, CGCS
Golf Course Manager
Happy Holidays!