Freeze/Thaw Continued

The cold night temperatures are still with us, but we still got 6 clay courts cleaned and spread with new Har Tru yesterday. Every day for the last week has been pretty much the same. The courts are frozen in the morning, thaw out and get soupy and then dry a bit. Yesterday we turned on our water system, so this morning we tried putting some water on the courts to help speed the thawing - we'll see if it helps. Pictured below is the almost finished Route 9 courts and the crew cleaning the courts early in the morning while the surface was still frozen.

Freeze/Thaw

The weather has not been cooperating for renovation of the clay courts. Frozen courts each morning, thawed/wet courts every afternoon. Let's hope for a different weather pattern so we can get the courts ready for opening day!

New Junior Courts at LCC

A new feature on the Longwood grounds this year will be junior sized courts that are superimposed on the Route 9 clay courts. This means that standard lines will still be on these courts for adult play along with green lines that will define three 60 foot long junior courts and two 36 foot courts and two 36 foot grass courts. Included in this post are some videos explaining the smaller courts and some pictures of what our clay courts will look like. Also some commentary by LCC's Director of Junior Tennis, Tim Smith.

Tim Smith: The addition of court spaces for the 2011 season is driven by a rule change made at the highest levels of the game. More than 260 delegates, partners and staff attended the International Tennis Federation’s 2010 Annual General Meeting, held in Washington, D.C., and hosted by the USTA. 

Among the initiatives approved by the ITF membership was a rule change for all 10-and-under competition that will mandate modified courts and the use of slower balls as part of the ITF’s Tennis 10s campaign. This decision will fundamentally change the landscape of tennis in the United States. With this change Longwood will be in line with Harvard University and other established tennis leaders in our region, who have or will be adding court spaces to their facilities in the near future. Longwood was a pilot site for this initiative back in 2007 and we have been using the modified balls to great success with the junior program. We have seen a marked increase in the learning curve for our junior players – they develop confidence from being able to rally with success, appropriate swing patterns, grips and better control. The court space addition is the natural progression for the club. More information can be found at 10andundertennis.com

Ready for the Season

The Har Tru topdressing is here and we are ready to renovate the clay courts. Unfortunately the weather is not cooperating this week. So what has the crew been working on? Besides lots of grounds cleanup, tree and shrub pruning and hanging windscreens we have been attacking the yearly task of painting the net posts. It may not sound like a big job, but it is. 44 courts means there are 88 net posts that take a beating from the elements each season. All 88 need to be scraped of rust and loose metal. We then apply two coats of primer and two coats of LCC's green paint (Benjamin Moore "Chrome Green"). So far all the posts for the clay courts are done, we are now onto the grass net posts.

Spring is Here

Spring is here and assessment for winter damage to the grass courts shows that we are in pretty good shape. We have avoided many of the problems some of the area golf courses have had due to the harsh winter.

Click here for a blog entry on this by Dr Kaminski of Penn State

We are not ready to state that we have got through this year without any winter damage (we don't want to jinx ourselves). The grass is still vunerable to drastic dips in temperature - you never know what the weather will be like in March. If the rest of March is fairly normal we can say that we had a very good winter, with minimal winter injury!

Clay Courts 1 and 8

Clay courts 1 and 8 may seem a little wider this year. Here's why.

Erosion

Every winter there is considerable erosion on the clay courts near the catch basins. Last fall we tryed an experiment. We put some geotextile fabric down around the drains. The idea was to slow the water down, but still allow it to flow into the drains. Hopefully the fabric would also block clay from entering. The test was only for one season and we had a lot of snow, but it worked. The picture right below is from 2010, when we had a great deal of erosion. The two other pictures show the geotextile set-up and how it worked in 2011.

Ready For Work

Jeff dressed up for his first day of work.

First Day

Today the crew is back full time. The day started with a typical discussion, "What is the definition of a fast food restaurant?" Some claim it is food that is prepared ahead of time, others said if you are waited on it isn't fast food. Five Guys makes great burgers to order - is it fast food?
Below is the lawn by clay court 1. It has a great deal of snow mold (fungus that grows in the cool weather). The grass courts were protected in November with a fungicide. Same grass as the lawn - no fungus. Good thing we treat the courts or they would look like the lawn or worse!