Bunkers - Grounds Facility Member Tour - Halloween Trailer Rides - Fall Pics - Super Pro Event

My apologies for not updating my blog for a while but here a few of the interesting things we have been doing.  Every fall we add bunker sand to our high traffic areas.  My team was knocking them out so well that we ran out of sand but will be starting this back up next week.

Spreading out the sand just right with the bunker blade.

I invited the golf committee, green committee and the board of directors over for a tour of the grounds facility last week.

Our cold storage is packed full of equipment!  I am on the left explaining what everything is for.

My equipment manager Mitch was explaining how, when and why we sharpen all of our reel mowers.

Every year we decorate and take part in the fall festival giving haunted hay rides out on the golf course.

Thank you Scott Werly! He has been the hayride driver for all of the years of the event.

Lots of room to sit!!

It's nearly peak for our fall colors out on the golf course, looking back on 5 fairway.

Looking north on 5 fairway.

Last Thursday I hosted the Super Pro event for men and ladies.  54 players signed up and enjoyed course set up changes like three holes to putt to on 5 green.  Scott and I chose the back hole... big mistake as we were 12 feet above the hole and just tapping it, it rolled off the green.  Scott being the hall-of-famer that he is rolled in our par putt, but I gave him the line with mine just short :).

 

Congressman Bergman's District Director - Melanie Collinsworth Visits TCCC

Two weeks ago I invited Melanie Collinsworth to The Club.  She is the District Director for Congressman Jack Bergman.  I am one of the regions GCSAA Grassroots Ambassadors to our elected officials. 

 

We discussed water conservation & management, native area maintenance, labor issues within The Club, details about The Club's year-round business, membership size, our role within the community for giving back and the current Farm Bill that the industry supports.

Mitch discussed our fleet of electric carts and he shared how precise reel mowers cut and the process of servicing them.

Our Great Lakes GCSAA director Shane Conroy was on site to help explain and discuss how much our industry appreciates the support from Congressman Bergman on a few current industry topics like the H2-B visa program. 

Thank you very much for the time and tour of the property Melanie Collinsworth and Shane Conroy. For further shared information please visit Shane's blog at https://www.gcsaa.org/resources/regional-resources/great-lakes/great-lakes-blog/2024/09/20/grassroots-ambassador-legislator-course-visits

 

Our 2024 Bluebird Birdhouse Inventory and Details

Thank you again to John Hardy and Becky Odinga for their continued work with our bluebird house program!  Here are the results from this year's batch of birds in 13 boxes.  Be sure to look at the pictures below.

1. Nearest to the clubhouse. Moss and pine needles nest. Chickadee 

2. Hole 2-chickadee nest.

3. Hole 3-empty not used

4. Hole 3-partial nest unknown

5. Hole 3-bluebird nest

6. Hole 5 partial nest hole in front needs replacement.

7. Hole 12 blue bird nest one egg

8. Hole 15, green Blue bird nest

9. Hole 16 tee, nest and three young mice moved in, evicted.

10. Hole 17 tee, empty unused.

11. Hole near pump house pond, chickadee nest.

12. Hole near 8 tee blue bird nest

13. Hole near 11 tee Chickadee nest.

The Story of our Equipment Manager Mitch Hunt

Please take a few minutes to watch this very professional video of the club’s Equipment Manager, Mitch Hunt.  He is in his third year at The Club and is doing an amazing job for me and for you!  Mitch serves on the state of Michigan’s golf course superintendents chapter board, the MiGCSA and serves on a national committee with the GCSAA. Very proud of the work you are doing here, for the industry in Michigan and for EM’s around the country Mitch. 

https://x.com/migcsa/status/1823415170623824109?s=46&t=PxeAW3k86W06OPQylPvxTw

Come Join my Grounds Team!!

Hello Traverse City region friends. I am hiring for part time and full time employment on my grounds team at Traverse City Country Club! Share this with your friends, neighbors and collegues. Come work with a great group of people and enjoy working outside and using very well maintained equipment. Free lunches and free golf once a week with a friend. No golf course experience needed, just a friendly and positive vibe is needed to enjoy your job here working on my team. Give me a call 231-645-2318.

https://www.tcgcc.com/employment

Opening Secret Garden Event

It was really great to see this wonderful turnout to the opening Secret Garden event last week!  My team and I put a lot of time into creating the garden the last three years and I must say, Peg, Michelle and my team exceded the expectations.

We put a lot of love into everything inside and outside these fences!

 

Every Wednesday is Safety Training Day

Special thanks to one of our own team members, Adele for sharing her EMT experiece and how to use our defibulator.  Adele has been with us since she was in 9th grade and now works five days a week as a certified EMT in Traverse City and still works part time on the grounds staff.

I let her know she gets to do this again on Monday since we were missing five of our team members being off on the 3rd.

Hey sups out there, this new Wednesdays from 11:00 to 11:10 works great for us this year.  The team acually looks forward to it, last week I walked in at 11:00 for lunch and forgot about it, they were all waiting for me.  I put the topics on the daily job board then just save the Google doc in a seperate safety folder for an OSHA visits plus it shows who was in attendance with just saving the job board.