Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Maintenance Staff at Moccasin Creek!!!

I hope you find time to enjoy this Christmas Season with family and friends. 

Thank You for supporting Moccasin Creek this season!

Ross

December Golf Course Update

The nice layer of snow we started the month with has now melted off!!  The ground is only slightly froze, this allowed all the moisture to soak in. This is a good thing, we do not need any ice this time of year. 

The abnormally warm weather has allowed to go out on the course and cut down some dead/unhealthy trees. The trees we are cutting down are the hybrid cottonwoods, they are getting close to the end of there life expectancy. There is only a few we will be cutting down on the course itself, the rest will be around the driving range. We will continue our tree work as Mother Nature allows. 

Above is a tree we removed near the Green tee on first hole. 

If you have any comments or questions please feel free to contact me. 

Enjoy the Holiday Season!!!

Ross

First snow

The first snow of the year has arrived. At the course we were in the 6-7" range, of wet snow. This was a good thing for the golf course, a nice blanket of snow to protect all the grass plants. Now we will wait and what Mother Nature has in store for us the rest of the winter. 

Even though we have a nice coating of snow, we DO NOT ALLOW SNOWMOBILES ON THE GOLF COURSE!!!  Snowmobiles can cause severe damage to our turf grass. So please stay off.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me. 

Ross

Please Use Temporary Green's

Effective today we are going to the temporary green and hole locations. The forecast is looking cooler and not so much for golf. So we have decided it was time to close the regular greens. 

We close the regular green's to help ensure we have alive grass come next spring. There is no guarantee, but keeping traffic off the dormant frozen turf is a definite help in the health of the turf grass plant.  This will give us the best chance of great green's next spring. 

So if there is a nice day, in the 40's or 50's, come out and enjoy your course. 

Please use the temporary green's!!

Thank you for your support and another great golf season!!!

Ross & The Entire Maintenance Staff

#14 Fairway

#14 fairway in July!!

#14 Fairway

Just gojng through the pictures from this season, this picture always catches my eye.  It is of #14 fairway, it was taken the end of April.  How soon we can forget how much grass we really lost last winter.  All our winter prep work is done, I hoping this winter season will be more kind to us!!

Have a great day!!

Ross

Top Dressing Green's

Today we are top dressing the greens with sand. Applying sand top dressing this time of year is a very beneficial in protecting the crown of the plant through the winter. This is especially true when we have an open cold winter. 

We will leave the flag sticks In for now, but according to the forecast we will switch to temporary hole locations very soon. 

It has been a great fall for golf, I hope you have found time to enjoy your golf course. 

If you have any comments please feel free to contact me   

Ross

November golf

I had an opportunity to go out on the golf course today, I was actually laying down the flag sticks due to high winds. Its always interesting to me to see the various colors on our green's this time of year. With our older green's there are many varieties of bent and poa grass out there. Each one of these varieties acts differently as the cold weather sets in and the grasses start to go dormant. As the weather cools more all the grasses will have a more consistent brown color. 

The weekend is looking good, I hope you find some time to enjoy your course before the winter season is here. 

Please contact me with any of you comments or ideas. 

Ross

Irrigation System

It is that time of year to winterize the irrigation system. The plan is to start onTuesday  with the irrigation system. Then on Wednesay we will winterize our three wells systems. The process for everything will take just over two days. 

In the mean time you will notice the golf course may be a little on the moist side. It is a common practice to soak all irrigated areas totally before you winterize your system. 

The golf course will remain open as long as possible. Come out and enjoy!!!

Ross

Top Dressing of Approaches

Tuesday we applied a sand top dressing to the green front approaches. 

We started this practice a couple years ago, applying  the sand monthly through the golf season. The problem we were having was that these areas were getting soft and mushy during the summer months. By apply the sand we should be able to keep approaches more firm and playable.  

If you have any comments please feel free to contact me. 

We will keep the course open as long as possible. Come out and enjoy!!!

Ross

Rain!!!!

Not sure how long it has been since we have received  a good rain. Last night we had 1.18", just a great rain. 

The maintenance staff is steadily getting the golf course ready for the winter season. Bushes have been trimmed, heights of cut raised, and leaves get chopped on a daily basis. A few main items left to accomplish are winterize the irrigation system, not sure when that will happen yet, and treat the greens for snow mold. Again this year we will use three modes of protection on the greens. A fungicide, a anti transparent to hold the moisture and sand to protect the crown of the plant. We are trying to do anything possible to have green grass next spring. 

The golf course is in great fall shape. Come out and enjoy!!

Ross

Frosty morning!!!

This morning we have our first real frost of the year. If I'm not mistaken this is a little later than normal. 

This is a reminder to stay off all grass areas while the frost is present. Walking or driving while there is frost will damage the grass and potentially could kill it. 

Please stay off all frosty grass!!

Looks to be a great weekend, we will see you on the course!!

Ross

Fall Mowing

Today is a cool fall day. So we decided it is a good day to aerate the Driving Range. The process takes about 5 hours, not too many members looking to hit balls on a day like today. 

As we enter mid October we look at changing the height we cut the grass. On all areas mowed under 1" height we will be raising them up, this includes tees collars fairways and greens. The height is raised to give the crown of the plant extra protection going into our harse unknown winters. Basically we do anything we can to give our Turfgrass a chance to survive this winter.  If Mother Nature cooperates we will have a chance. 

Weekend looks to be great. Hope to see you on the course!!!

Any comments or questions please feel free to contact me. 

Ross

Fairway Aeration

The Fall Fairway Aeration has begun!!  This year our main focus is compaction relief. The compaction relief will allow nutrients, moisture and air to enter the soil, providing a healthy environment for healthy turf. We will be using our aeravator style solid tine aerator. This will give a good compaction relief in the top 3"-4" of the soil profile. 

We will be working on holes 1-9 the rest of this week and holes 10-18 next week. There will be very minimal disruption of golf course playability during this process. 

The golf course is in great shape!!

We will see you on the course. 

Ross

Fall is here!!

Leaves are turning colors, some are actually starting to fall already. This morning we are having to blow off some of the greens before we top dress. 

The above picture is if Mitchell using our Toro Blower to remove leaves off 14 green. 

The course is in great shape!! 

Fall is a great time to golf. 

Ross

Sodded tees

As some of you may have noticed the new sodded tees have started to struggle a little. This is a normal happening with a sodded tee. It is a result of a layer of compaction. 

Today we are going out a relieving that compaction with solid needle tine aeration, as shown below. Going to a depth of 4" will give us the relief we need to keep the tee in good health. 

We mow the tee surface tomorrow, once mowed there will be very little effect on the courses playability. 

The leaves are turning and fall is in full swing.  Fall is also a good time for weed control, right after this first frost is the best time. We will be going out with a control product in some of our sensitive areas. These areas include the collars and aprons. These are sensitive due to have the bent grass green right next door. The bent grass limits the products we can use. We were also limited due to the areas being reseeded this spring, there is a buffer time needed for new seed before you can treat for weeds. That buffer time is typically 3-6 weeks.  Hoping to get good control this fall. 

If you have questions please feel free to contact me. 

The Golf Course in great shape!! 

Ross

Irrigation Leaks

We have had a couple of small irrigation leaks occur over the last week, one in 11 fairway and the other by 12 tee. So today is the day to fix them. 

Wednesday we brought in the small track hoe to dig the area up. This morning we cut the pipes, to drain the system as shown below. We will then repair the leaking pipe with new fittings. This afternoon we will the flush the irrigation system out and charge back up. With any luck at all the system will be up and running tonight. 

The golf course is in great shape, come out and play some beautiful fall golf!!

Ross

Top Dressing

Today we are top dressing greens. This is basically applying a light coat of sand to the greens, as shown below. Once the sand has dried we will then use our vibratory roller to roll the sand into the green's canopy. During the season we try to top dress the greens on a weekly basis. 

Applying sand in light applications does several good things for the greens. First it will smooth the putting surface of any inconsistencies. Second is it will help control thatch and organic matter near the green's surface, this is important due to more organic matter = a more bumpy moist surface. And finally this will help build up out sand base over time, creating a better root zone to grow grass.  If you have any questions feel free to contact me.  

The Golf is in Great shape right now. Play Golf Aberdeen. 

Ross

Fairways

I'm sure you have noticed a little bit of yellowish tint to our fairways. This is a combination of two things thing; first is the poa that has been on the struggle from the heat recently. Second is the older varieties of blue grass have a yellow tinge right now, no reall issue here just have a yellow look.  This has given us a bit of a different growth pattern, causing not a clean cut when we mow.   Both these will resolve themselves as the fall type weather is here for now. 

Tuesday we applied a light application of fertilizer to the fairways, this was not to make them grow but to try and improve the plant health. We also applied an application of growth enhancer, this should slow the upward growth and encourage a healthier plant. Both these applications will keep the fairways in great shape going into the fall. 

The Golf Course is in Great Shape!!!

See you on the Course. 

Ross

Rain

Officially 2" of rain in the gauge. It was just a good rain. This puts us in good shape for moisture going into the fall. 

The course is in good shape. Last weeks heat was starting to cause some stress on the turf plants. This week cooler and some rain has eased the stress level. 

Come out and enjoy your golf course!!!

Ross

Course update

Well here we are the middle of August, where did the summer go. The days are getting shorter and fall is not too far away. Some of the best golf weather is yet to come!!

The course is in great shape, we have started to use all tee areas now. They still have some filling into do but are very playable.  The fairways have struggled during the heat. This is due to having to reseed this spring, leaving us with a higher than normal amount of poa type grass. The poa does not like the hot humid days. I hoping the other varieties of grass out there will fill in when the poa is weak, not sure how much this will happen but a good thought.

Below is one of my favorite pictures from this summer. 

If you have any comments please contact me. 

We will see you on the course!!!!

Ross

Black Tee Markers

The new black tee markers have been placed!!!  These will be our longest set of tee's. The blue, gold and white tees will all move up slightly.  Check out the new score card to see which set of tees will best fit you and your golf game. 

The golf course remains in good shape. Our fairways took a slight hit from the extended period of warm humid weather. The weather mainly effected the poa annua turf plants. We have poa as a result of losing grass in our fairways; the poa tries to move in and it is not our desired turf type.  If you look there is dark green plants in the struggling areas, this is the new seed we planted this spring.  We hope that some of this new seed will take over the poa eventually. The cooler weather will help along with a light application of fertilizer. 

If you have any questions feel free to contact me. 

Fall is approaching quickly!

We will see you on the course!

Ross

Pump House

First of all a big Thank You to everyone involved in the Pro Am. Considering some of the weather issues every went off rather smoothly. 

Saturday morning we had a couple of weather delays with lots of lightning in the area. Upon inspecting the course I found that the intake to our irrigation pump was bulging and about ready to blow up!! I am guessing this is a result of a power surge from the weather in the area. I am thinking the surge shut the pump off and caused it to lose prime, the pump than turned back on but was not able to pump water. We were futunate to have a back up intake that needed a little tweaking to work, got us back up and running.  Still checking some stuff out but so far have  found no other causes. 

The white area should be straight, not bulging. 

We will see you on the course!!

Ross

Pro Am day 3

The final day of the Pro Am is here. Crew is done with morning prep, just one more final mow and change hole locations for the Pro's. 

Thanks again to the maintenance staff for  doing a great job this weekend. 

And yes Monday is an optional day!!!

Sunday morning mow n roll. 

Ross

Pro Am morning session #1

During the Pro am the maintenance staff will do a split shift. One in the early morning and the other starting in the late afternoon. Below is a picture of this morning's crew. 

These guys and gal did a great job this morning!!

Good luck to the players!!!

Ross

Pro Am Week

Pro Am week is here, ready or not. I think the course is in good shape considering the winter and spring we had.  Looks to to be a warm/humid weekend, the course should hold up well.

Greens are holding out good so far. The ball has been rolling out nicely, our green speed this morning was 10.5'. Not sure where it will be this afternoon or the rest of the week, weather looks to be more humid and that will effect green speed.

So what do we do to speed greens up?  First we do not lower our height, we maintain the same height of cut almost the whole season.  Plant growth regulators help us control the upward growth of the plant. We try to control moisture levels, sometimes this works other times it rains or gets real humid. Verti-cutting more than normal will increase speed, this controls thatch and eliminates horizontal growth. This week we will also double cut the greens and roll the greens more than normal. So bottom line it is a combination of various items that will assist us in getting the desired speed we want. If we push too far we will start to lose grass. 

Good luck to all Players!!!

Enjoy and respect the golf course!!

If have any questions please contact me   

Ross

Fountain

In the irrigation pond we have a bubbler and fountain type systems. The first is the bubbler system; it forces air up from the lake bottom through four air diffusers. This system adds oxygen to the water and moves moves water keeping the lake clean from algae and weeds. The second system is the fountain system. This is more of a visual system, it does not do a lot for the cleanliness of the water. 

The fountain system has stopped working. It has a short in the electric system somewhere. This most likely happened as a result of a power surge or a lightning strike. Wednesday we removed the fountain from the water and inspected the cords and connections.  We found nothing, it looks like the electric  motor is in need of repair. It will be sent in the be repaired, not sure how long this will take. 

The bubbler system is still functioning fine, the water should stay clean. We will just be missing the visual effect of the fountain in the middle. If you have any question please contact me. 

We will see you on the course!!!

Ross

Verti cutting Greens

Today we are verti cutting greens. Through out the summer we will do this 1-2 times per week. 

What verti cutting does is it stands the grass up, basically it is little saw blades on 1/2" spacing cutting little grooves and lifting the leaf blade up. This standing the blade up gives you a better quality of cut, help produce a finer leaf blade and reduce any chances of grain in the green. Once verti cut we follow with mower to mow and cleanup any left over debris. 

During real hot times you have to be careful not to verti cut too much. This could cause stress on the green, resulting in green that may not be very healthy. 

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. 

Ross

Cookout time

Monday we hosted the Wachs tournament, it was a 10 am shotgun start. So we decided it was a good time to do a cookout for the maintenance staff. We typically do these 3-4 times a summer. 

The maintenance staff has been working hard this year getting your course back into great shape. Dealing with reseeding/ growing in of tees, fairways, aprons and collars takes hard work and extra details they normally don't do. 

So a big thank you to my staff for the hard work so far this season!!!  

We will see you on the course. 

Ross

Course Inspection

Out doing a little course "inspection" this morning. It's a good way to see the course other just driving by. After taking a look, we have decided to open up some of the new tees boxes.  As always please tee off between the markers and fill or replace your divot. 

Other new tees will open as the grass matures more. 

We will see you on the course!!!

Ross

New tees

Tuesday we lower the height of cut on the new tee boxes. Most are ready for this, some it was a little too soon. We will continue this week to lower the height until we get to our desired 1/2" cut. 

Above is Mikayla mowing the tees at a 1" height. Our next step was mowing them down to 11/16", which is our fairway height of cut. Within the next few days I hope to be down to the 1/2" height of cut. As the grass now matures it will fill in quickly. 

Some of the new tees may open within a week or so, others may be a few weeks out. 

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. 

We will see you on the course!!

Ross

Intake Cleaning

Late Wednesday afternoon we had a couple of the local scuba dive team members come and clean out the intake for our pump house. The intake is an 18" pipe that runs from the pump house out into the irrigation pond. On the end of the pipe there is a 2' square screened box. About every 7-10 years this screen becomes plugged with hard water deposits. When it starts to plug it does not allow the water to get into the pump house. 

Cleaning the intake is a pretty simple process of using a hammer and pounding all the hard water deposits off the screen.  It took a matter of about 35 minutes with two divers to get the screen clean, good for another few years. 

Have a safe 4th of July Weekend!!!

Ross

Mower Demo

Wednesday we had the opportunity to demo a small area rough mower. It was a Toro 360. Some of the features include quad steer, quick height adjustment, tier 4 emissions and a comfortable ride.  This machine is way more versatile than our current machine, may even use it the widen and improve our intermediate rough cut. 

It's always fun to see how mowers and technology have improved over the last 12 years. 

The course is in great shape so come out and enjoy !!

Ross

Raking Collars

Here is a picture of Mikayla using the bunker rake to "rake" the collars and aprons before we now them.  The grass there has a tendency to lay down. This raking will stand te grass up and give us a better quality of cut. We will try to "rake" these areas once week for the next month or so. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. 

The course is in great shape, come out and enjoy   

Ross

First Cut on new seeded tees

Monday we mowed the new seeded tees for the first time. This cleaned them up nicely and actually starts to make them look like tees areas. We mowed them at a height of 2", we will gradually lower the height of cut as the grass starts to thicken and mature. 

The big question is still when will the new tees be playable?  The answer to that is still unknown. We are pushing hard to get these tees to mature as quickly as possible.  The last two weeks they have changed dramatically, I am hoping they keep maturing that quickly. 

Above is Brian mowing the new tees for the first time, this is #15. 

The recent weather has been great for the Turfgrass. The golf course is in great shape so come out and enjoy. 

Ross

US Open

Mowing fairways at the Open!! Or ???  

Is there any grass to mow??

The ropes are gone!!!

 We are finally starting to get some good growth, in fact some areas a little too much top growth. With this growth the fairways have started to fill in. So we decided to take all the ropes down and allow carts back on the fairways. Please still use the 90 degree rule as much as possible, thank you. 

The new seeded tees are starting to fill in.    There is still some blue grass germinating, just over 30 days to germinate is longer than normal but our weather conditions did not help any. We are applying another application of organic fertilizer today. An application every 7-10 days will give us optimum nutrients for the plants to grow and fill in. 

Looks like rain this afternoon. Hoping not to get too much. If you have any questions please contact me. 

Come out and enjoy your golf course!!!

Ross

Mosquitoes Tees and Fairways

Just looking at my last blog. I realized that I had fairways in the title and never mentioned them in the blog post. 

The fairways are finally starting to grow and fill in. We have started the process of sand n seeding any areas that are still in need of some help. The ropes will stay up at least through this week, we will then see where we are at. I would like the grass to fill in more before allowing carts to drive on them. Thank You for your patience. 

The blue grass is just germinating on the new seeded tees. It has been a long process to get to this point. The tees should start to fill in quickly now, gave them another shot of fertilizer Tuesday. I am hoping by the end of the month we will be mowing!!

Mosquitoes are still going wild. We sprayed Tuesday night and Wesnesday morning. I hope this will help get them under control. 

Any questions or comments please feel free to contact me. 

Ross

14 fairway

Mosquitoes and fairways

What a hatch of mosquitoes we are having. Not quite sure if I have ever seen anything like it. Earlier this spring we started treating the water areas with a larvacide, this will help prevent the larva from hatching. Our next step is treating for the adults. We use a ULV sprayer, just like the city uses. Since Wednesday we have treated the golf course 4 times, we will continue to treat as needed. When the conditions are prime it is hard to eliminate them all. We will continue to battle and eliminate as many mosquitoes we can. 

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. 

Ross

Sunday morning mosquitoe control!!

Punching holes

Today we started to needle tine the greens. The process is step one to needle tine the greens using 1/4" tine on 2.5" spacing. Step two mow the green. And the final step of rolling the green. After completion there will be very minimal effect on playability of the green. 

Today the front nine and tomorrow the back nine. 

If you any questions please feel free to contact me. 

Ross

Aerate n seed

This morning decided to aerate and seed some of the bad spots in our collars. They were all seeded previously but figured it was time give them a little extra push to establish. The past few days we also fertilized all new seeded areas, this should get the seed to grow. At this time we need some warm weather. I have talked to various Golf Course Superintendents and all have commented how the last few weeks the new seed has done nothing. I would expect with warm weather the seed will grow. 

Here is Mikayla aerating collars this morning. 

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. 

We will see you on the course!!

Ross

Top Dressing Greens

Today we are lightly top dressing the greens. Once the sand is dry we will roll into the turf canopy. 

These light top dressing will smooth the putting surface and also provide thatch management to keep the surface more firm. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. 

We will see you on the course 

Ross

Progress

We finally starting to make some progress on growing new grass. The top picture  was taken April 16, and the lower picture was on May 20. They are taken on 14 fairway. Progress has been slow due to the cooler temperatures, the ground temperature has actually maintained or slightly gone backwards over the last two weeks. 

We will see you on the course!!

Ross

Germination

We are starting to see some germination of the grass that we seeded in the fairways. It is the rye grass, the blue grass should germinate in another 7-10 days. 

Thank you for your patience during this reseeding process. It is my goal to get Moccasin Creek back to great playing conditions as soon as possible. Each and every cart track slows this growth and fill in process down, so please drive in the fairways as minimal as possible. Thank you!

The new tees were reseeded on Friday. Hoping to see some growth soon. We will keep you updated on the seeded tees and the opening of any more sodded tees. Again Thank You for your patience!

Warm weather would help. 

We will see you on the course. 

Ross

Rain / Frost

It always amazes me how we go from drought to too wet in a matter of days. Received 2.35" of rain over the last few days. It just goes to show that Mother Nature is in control, we just learn how to deal with whatever conditions she delivers us. 

The new tees were seeded on Friday. The question now is did all the rain wash any of the seed away. As the picture below shows there was some puddling on the tees, but it looks like the seed stayed in place. The lines in the picture is the hydro mulch that bunched up.  Only time will tell when the seedlings start to germinate. 

Now this morning we have frost!!  Will this hurt any of the new grass that has germinated?? Not sure at this time, I am hoping it didn't get cold enough to damage anything. 

It looks to be a nice day, we will see you on the course! 

Ross

New Tees seeded

As many of you know the open winter was not very kind to the golf course. The new seeded tees are no exception. After waiting for some warm soil temperatures we determined that the seed was not going to germinate.  This was caused by the open dry winter. 

On Friday we went through the process of reseeding the new tee complexes. It was a three step process of tearing up the existing surface, seeding and finally dimpling or packing the seed into the sand base. We also added more organic fertilizer at this time, thinking this will give the seed more jump when it germinates. Speaking of seed we went with a combination of new creeping rye grass and low mow blue grass. This should give us a good tee surface when established. 

Here is Ottis riding with while dimple packing the seed.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. 

Ross

Seeding of Fairways

Tuesday we finished seeding the fairways. We are ready to grow some grass. To accomplishing this we may be running the irrigation during the day to keep the seed bed moist, this will give the seed the best chance to establish. We are also asking that you follow all cart signs, if there are no signs please use the 90 degree rule on those fairways. Sorry for any inconvenience but we are just trying our best to get your golf course in the best shape possible. 

Above is a picture of the new sodded tee on #8. All the sodded tees are looking good. On the other hand, the new seeded tees are struggling. I think most of the seed did not make the dry winter. We will begin reseeding the tees as weather allows. The process will not take long but we will need some calm conditions to accomplish this. If you have any questions about the new tees or any others maintenance items please feel free to contact me. 

Chance of rain the next few days, I sure hope some moisture comes our way!!!

We will see you on the course. 

Ross

Sodded tees open on 3,5,6 &7

The new sodded tees are open for play on 3,5,6 & 7. 

Seeding of fairways is also continuing. Please respect the ropes and cart traffic signs!!!   We want to give the seed the best possible chance to germinate. 

Thank You

Ross

Time to seed

Tuesday we started the process of seeding the fairways, aprons and collars. We finished the aprons and collars and will continue on the fairways, with a goal to finish seeding by the end of next week. 

Once seeded please follow cart signs and rope. On all other holes please drive your carts in the rough, but try not to drive in a path right along the fairway edge. We are starting to get some wear patterns right next to the fairways from the cart traffic, please scatter your driving patterns. 

Below is a picture of our 1982 over seeder. Technology has not changed much and this machine still works great. 

Questions or comments are always welcome!!

We will see you on the course. 

Ross