Winter in a Big Way!

The winter season has decided to show up in a big way.  After a mild and rainy November, December is here and Old Man Winter has showed up also.  The golf course was in great shape going into the winter.  One of the main factors going into to Winter is we need the ground to freeze before receiving large amounts of snow, that has now happened this year.  This should put us in good shape, what will happen from this point on is unknown.

With the cold/snowy weather most of our time is spent maintaining equipment is the Maintenance Facility or plowing snow.  Currently we are working on our large area rough mowers, theses two mowers take the longest of any other piece of equipment to do the off season maintenance.  Winter is also a good time to keep up on education, on Monday Brian and Kenny, our two assistants, attended a workshop in at the golf course in Pierre.  There was a group of thirty equipment managers, assistants and Superintendents.  The main focus was on off season maintenance and the maintenance practice for newer style reels and bed knives.  These one day workshops can be very good value and learning tool.  Other education experiences this winter will include State Pesticide Re Certification,  regional Turf Conferences and Golf Course Superintendent Association meetings.  There is always great value getting together with others in the industry, hearing new ideas / concepts others have tried is always one of my favorites whether they have worked or not.  

The Holiday Season is near I hope you find the time to relax with friends and family.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Ross

Winter Arrives

How quickly the weather can change around here.  Nice golf weather on Wednesday and now today winter conditions with a brisk North West wind.  Really only received about 2-3" of snow.  Not sure what the total amount of moisture was, but we will take it.

The snow is nice to get, but not ideal when the ground is not froze.  It is always ideal to freeze up the ground before you get a substantial snow fall.  When the ground freezes it causes the the turf grass plant to go dormant, once dormant you reduce the chances of snow mold dramatically.  As it looks right now most of the snow will melt off next week, this will put us back in good shape going into winter.  We will continue to monitor through the fall and winter.

Please remember the greens have been closed for the winter.  If you want to come out hit the ball around please use the temporary hole locations.  The temps are marked with an orange flag, most of which are 50 yards in front of the normal greens.

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

Thank You for a great 2016 Gold Season!!

Ross

November Course Update.

Here we are in November, the weather is saying it is more like September.  Still golf being played and the forecast looks like we are good at least for another week.  What will happen from there is unknown.  When the weather finally does turn we will switch over to temporary greens for the rest of the winter, stay tuned for more information as the month moves along.

Thursday we winterized the irrigation system, we should finish by Friday afternoon.  This is always a major job to accomplish, and feels good to be done with it.  It always a tough decision as to the right timing of this event, and there is no perfect answer.  We will continue to monitor moisture levels and hand water as needed.

If you have been out on the course you have noticed to grass is longer in our fine turf areas.  This is a normal practice going into the unknown winter season.  Having a little extra cove on the grass plant can be the difference of green grass next spring, or the other alternative! This is also true for the green surfaces, mowing right now would not be a good idea and could damage the plant as it prepares for winter.  Friday we plan on rolling the greens, this should help smooth the putting surface.  Next week we will start applying topdressing sand to the greens, we will apply this in two different applications.  After the sand is applied we will again roll it into the canopy, still providing a playable putting surface.

Come out and enjoy the extended Golf Season!!

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

Ross

Frost

This morning the temperatures were in the mid 20's.  This resulted in a heavy frost layer on the turf grass plants.  Please do not walk or drive on any frosted or frozen turf grass areas!  Any traffic on the frosted or frozen grass may result in injuring the plant or even killing it.  So please stay off all frozen / frosty areas.  If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

The golf course will remain open!  I hope you find some time to get a round or two in yet this season. 

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

Ross 

Compaction Relief

This has been a good week for the Maintenance Staff.  Compaction Relief has been in full force with the limited numbers of golfers on the course.

The fairways are receiving a 3/4" solid wobble tine relief.  This machine is pulled by a tractor and is going done to a depth of 4-5".  By the end of the week we hope to have all the fairways done.  Next week we will be hitting the Driving Range and Practice Area.

Next the tee, collar and aprons are all getting relief in the form of a 1/2" solid tine traditional aeration.  Once the relief is done we are applying a heavy coating of top dressing sand, this will be watered and rolled into the 1/2" holes.  This will be accomplished as of Thursday.  You will notice some softer areas here, this is a result of lack of roots in some of the grasses we have.  

The Golf Course is still in great shape, hope you enjoy some Fall Golf.

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

Ross

October Course Update

Well here we are on the first day of October.  It has been a great fall so far, the golf course is in amazing shape, it may be the best I have ever seen it!!  I hope you have found to time to come out and enjoy the beauty of your Golf Course.

Now that October is here we will begin preparing the golf course for the unknown winter season. Over the next two weeks we will be preforming compaction relief on all tees, fairways, collar and aprons.  This will be accomplished by the use of various solid tine machines.  The solid tine will give use the needed relief with minimal disruption to the playability of the course.  The tee and collar areas will also recieve a application of sand, witch will be worked into the profile, to help control thatch and puffy areas.  Getting some sand into the profile will allowing air and moisture to move better through the profile, creating a healthier plant enviroment.

With the growth starting to slow we will also start raising the height of cut on most fine turf areas.  This allows the plant to store up more carbohydrates, building a stronger more healthy plant going into the unknown winter elements.  Having a bit taller grass surface also protects the crown of the plant from winter dessiccation, giving us the best cahnce of having green grass next spring.

If you have any questions on any of our maintenance practices please feel free to contact me.

Come out and enjoy the great colors of Fall on your Golf Course!

Ross

September Course Update

It is one on my favorite times of year, it just seems like we always have some really nice weather in September-October.  The golf course is in great shape right now,  adequate moisture and normal like temperatures have been ideal for growing grass.  I hope you take some

time to come out and enjoy your golf course. 

Tee boxes are now just over a year old. With their age we are starting to get some contamination in them, most of which is bent grass creeping into them.  Last week we started applying a newer herbicide to help eliminate any unwanted grasses in the tee areas. You will notice there will be some areas of the tee turning yellow and brown, this will be the undesired grasses dying off. This product was applied to all new built tees and the driving range tee. We will have to wait and see where this program goes from here, not sure how often we will have to apply and if reseeding will be necessary?  If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. 

Above is the bent grass dying out!!!

We will see you on the course 

Ross

New mower

The fall season is approaching quickly.  The recent rain and seasonal temperatures have made for some good turf growing conditions. 

Fall is also a time for close out pricing on turf equipment. We have been in the market for a new small area rough mower for some time now. Last week we took delivery of a new Toro 360. This machine is more versatile and manuverable than our previous 13 year old machine. It will be a nice addition to our maintenance fleet. 

As typically happens this time of year our high school and college seasonal staff go back to school. This leaves us a lite short handed at times. We will do our best to keep up with maintenance items. One item that I have noticed lately is golfers not raking bunkers. With a shortened staff please help us out, and respect the golfers behind you, rake the bunker after hitting your shot. It is the golfer's responsibility. Thank you!

If you have any comments please feel free to contact me. We will see you on the course. 

Ross

It's a B & B kind of day!!!

B & B stands for branches and bunkers!!!

The storm last night was not good for the golf course, or for the maintenance staff. Sure the moisture was good, but when it rains that hard and the wind blows creates many hours of work for the maintenance staff. Currently have a crew of 5 on bunker repair. We have many washouts and just a general mess, some we will have to add new sand and others just shovel up the washed out area. I am hoping by 1 pm to have all the bunkers back in shape. 

There also a crew of 3 picking up sticks, branches and trees. This to we will hope to have complete by early afternoon. 

The rest of the crew is top dressing green's, mowing rough, spraying fairways, empty garbage, changing coolers, cleaning restrooms and numerous other small jobs. All in all just a fun day!! 

Below is a picture of the washouts on #18. That bunker is just a bad design as the water drains off the green into the bunker. 

It looks to be a great weekend. 

We will see you on the course!!

Ross

August Is Here!

Well it is that time of year when we some of the seasonal help starts their fall activities and schools. This time of year we always have to adjust some of the schedules and just do the best we can to keep the golf course in great shape. 

The moisture has been on the wet side lately; actually just over 5" for the month of July, to add to it another .5" last night. The turf is definitely going through a bit of a growth spurt, many man hours just trying to keep up with the growth right now.  I am hoping that rough growth starts to slow down some time soon!

If you have any thoughts or ideas to help improve your golf course please feel free to contact me. 

Come out and enjoy your golf course!

Ross

Pro Am

Here we are at Pro Am week.  Of course it is the hottest / most humid week of the year.  So far the course is holding up great, we will wait and see waht the rest of the week brings!!

Members are always asking me if we need to water more during the hot / humid times.  Most of the time when it is real humid we water less, due to the grass not drying out during the day time.  We try to keep the course on the dry side,  But on a Golf Course you are always running a fine line between running too dry or too wet.

Generally speaking you would much rather have hot / dry over hot / humid.  This is mainly as a result of the disease pressure that is a result of the hot humid conditions.  If you lose grass to fungus it does not recover, where if a grass is extremely dry it has the ability to go dormant alowing it to recover when it recieves some moisture.

Good Luck to all players this week.  Stay cool!!

If you look closely there is lots of activitey on the Practice area as the sun rises!!

See you on the course.

Ross

Rain!!!

Well the dry conditions have changed dramatically over the last few days. Since Wednesday we have received 2.61" of rain, 2.05" of that fell yesterday.  The timing of the rain was not the best as we were hosting the Wachs Classic, we still will take the good rain.  It always amazes me how quickly conditions can change. 

The Pro Am is just around the corner, please do your part to keep your golf course in great shape.  Driving carts properly, fixing ball marks, repairing or filling divots and raking bunkers are just a few items you can do to help keep your golf course in great playable condition. 

We wil see you on the course!! 

Ross

Golf Course Update

Dry is definitely the first word that comes to mind with June's weather. Just looking and we have only received about 1.35" of moisture for the month so far. That is just over 2" below normal for the month.  For now we just do the best we can watering and keeping the course green. The last week we have been getting a nice cool down at night, this is a big help when you are dealing with dry conditions. 

With the dry weather please remember carts play a major impact on turf issues and compaction. If you see a worn or thinning turf area please do not drive there. When going to and from the Club House stay on the cart path as much as possible, if you can not use the cart path please alter your route to reduce wear. As always stay on the Cart Path by all tee and green areas.  Thank You!!!

Wishing everyone a safe and Happy 4th of July weekend!!! 

We will see you on the course!!

Ross

June Golf Course Update

The golf course remains in great shape.  We have seen some of the summer heat but it has not lasted too long.  The golf course remains in great / playable shape.  The last two weeks have been busy catching up on all the detail work that falls behind in the spring of the year.  As stated in a previous blog we do our best to monitor the details of the golf course, at times we may miss an area that needs attention.  If you see an area that needs attention of the course please feel free to contact me.

Some of you have noticed a brownish color on a few of the fairways and tee areas.  This is a result of that particular type of grass trying to go to seed, this happens each spring.  When the grass is trying to seed it sends out stem shoots to produce a seed head.  These stem shoots are extremely tough and hard to cut, the not so clean cut produces a brownish color on the stem.  This should go away with time.

I hope to see you on the Course!!!!

Ross

Summer Is Here

June has arrived in fine fashion. Some timely rains and seasonal temperatures have helped keep the golf course in great shape. Over the past two weeks the rest of the seasonal staff has arrived. We should now be on a consistent schedule of maintaining your golf course. 

One item we are trying to just have four filling containers on the course for sand n seed. With five sets of tee areas it was always hard to determine which tee to set the sand n seed box by. So for now fill you bottles on holes 1, 4, 10 & 13. If you want to fill divots on any of the tee areas please bring your bottle to the tee. If you have any questions on this please feel free to contact me. 

Come out and enjoy you golf course!!  If you see any items that need attention on the golf course please feel free to contact  me. 

We will see you on the course!!

Ross

Bunker Maintenance

Today is a "Bunker Maintenance" kind of day. With the help of some more seasonal staff on board we are going through all the bunkers today. 

Checking sand depths and adding sand where needed, weed eating all edges, raking all edges and cleaning out any debris. This will be a day long project for a crew of 4-5 workers. 

The maintenance staff does a good job of noticing most items that need attention on the golf course.  There are times where we may miss something, if you notice any items that need attention on the golf course please feel free to contact me. 

Summer weather looks to be here. The golf course is in great shape. Come out and enjoy the beauty of MC3!!!

Thank You!

Ross

Top Dressing the green approach.

This week we top dressed the approach area in front of all the greens. The process involves applying a heavy application of pure sand, this will help keep these areas more firm/playable throughout the golf season.  We will try to top dress the approach area at least once a month throughout the growing season. 

The greens recently have been in a funk, they are brownish looking and just not doing much at all. The playability has not been affected just color and not looking a healthy green color.  This is a result of the cooler/ freezing temperatures last weekend, the brownish blotchy look is just the different cultivars of grass being effected by the frost. With the warmer temperatures the last few days and an application of liquid nitrogen they are on the rebound. We will continue to monitor and keep them heading the right direction.  They are getting more color in them every day. 

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

We will see you on the course!!

Ross

Course Update May 14

Here we are mid May. The golf course is in great shape. Over the next two weeks the remaining season staff will be on board. This will allow us to start fine tuning the golf course, making you golf experience even better.

Thursday we were able to get out and lightly top dress the greens for the first time this year. This will help smooth the green surface, add some green speed and help with thatch management. As the season goes on we will try to top dress and least every other week. 

Over the next two weeks we will be looking at performing compaction relief on the tees and greens. This will be accomplished with a 1/4" solid needle tine. There will be a very low impact on the playability of the golf course, in fact most golfers will not even notice. If you have any questions about this process or any maintenance items please feel free to contact me. 

We will see you on the course!!!

Ross

Carts / Green speed

The end of April has definitely given us our April showers!!  As May arrives we look to be drying out a little and the temperatures getting more normal like. 

As I drive on the course I am noticing a number of areas next to the cart path that are worn to the point of being bare dirt. As shown in the picture below. This is a good representation of how much carts damage the turf and compact the soil. Please when you are driving your cart keep all 4 tires on the cart path!!!  The bare area shown is just from plain lazy drivers, remember this is your golf course and please help take care of it. 

I recently have heard a few comments about green speed, or lack there of. This time of year it is important to allow the turf plant to be healthy and not abuse it too much. The plant is in the process of building roots to help it survive the rest of the season. Just a few years ago we pushed hard early in the spring and had to deal with a severe case of anthrocnose. Basically it's fine line to run and we error on the side of plant health till at least the middle of May. 

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

We will see you in the course. 

Ross

Much needed moisture!!

It looks like Mother Nature is going to provide some much needed moisture this weekend.  It has been some time since we have received any moisture, and our daily dosage of wind has really dried the course out. 

If you are out enjoying a round of golf and see something, anything that looks out of the normal, please feel free to contact me. No matter how much my staff and I are out there we will miss things on occasion. We just want to keep the course as good as possible. Thank You in advance.  

The golf is in great shape, for the middle of April. I'm hoping this great start will continue right through the entire season. I hope you take time to enjoy your course. 

We will see you on the course!!

Ross 

Flag Sticks

After the record warmth our weather has been more normal like, although the wind factor is seeming to be higher than normal. 

The Golf Course Is in great spring shape, not much winter kill or desseccation. All fine areas of turf have been mowed twice now, we will start to get on a more regular schedule as the weather warms and the growth is more regular. 

With the cooler/windy conditions we have taken the time to refurbish our flags sticks.  The process includes cutting off the bottom ferrule and top post, we then will epoxy the new ones on. This process is typically done every two-three years. New for this year we are trying a product called Vinyl Gaurd. It basically is heat shrinking a vinyl coat over the entire flag stick. This will give it a bright white look and very easy to keep clean. We will see how this product holds up in out South Dakota conditions. 

Below is a picture of heat shrinking the Vinyl Gaurd on one of our flag sticks. 

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

See you on the Course!!!

Ross

March Update

What a March it has been!!!  Record warmth has lead to an early start to the golf season.  Even allowing carts on March 11. 

All the tees, fairways, greens and collars have been cleaned up and mowed. We will continue cleaning up rough and native areas as the weather allows. 

On Tuesday we started to fill the irrigation main lines, by Wednesday mid morning the main lines were all fully pressurized. Due to the dry/windy weather we used the irrigation system to hand water the greens. The sand based green are always to first to start drying out. Next week we will start going through all of the valves and heads to see  if we have any issues there. 

Looks to be a cooler weekend and warming into next week. Hope to see you on the course!! 

Ross

Golf Course Open

Today the golf course will open. At this time no carts will be allowed due to soft conditions on the course. We will keep you updated as conditions change. 

The weather looks to be good through the weekend. Come out and enjoy some early spring golf. 

Any questions or comments feel free to contact me. 

Ross

Course Update March 4

Since the last update we have had some cooler temperatures. Our greens are now only thawed out to a 1" level, as shown in the picture below. We will continue to monitor and keep you updated. There looks to be a warming trend heading our way next week, maybe the golf season is near!!!

If you have the itch to get out and hit the ball around please use the temporary hole locations, thank you. 

We will see you on the course. 

Ross

Golf Course update February 29

It looks to be an early golf season if this warmer than normal weather persists. I was out checking frost levels in the greens on Saturday. Most of them were thawed out 2-4 inches, the general rule is we must be able to change the hole locations before we open the greens, which is 7 inches. This gives the green some time to start firming up before allowing traffic/ damage to it.  I also went out and checked the greens this afternoon, they were froze softly in the 2-3" range and frozen solid after that. 

The rest of the week looks to be warming towards the weekend. We will keep you updated if progress is being made. 

In the meantime the temporary greens are open on the front nine.  Come out and use on the warmer days!!!  Of course no carts allowed!!!

We will see you on the course!!!

Ross

February Update

Well here it is the last week in February. Our weather has been a little warmer than normal and adequate amounts of moisture. 

The last couple of days I took the time to walk the course. I am very happy with the way the golf course looks at this point and time of winter. There is very little snow mold or any turf damage for that matter. We will see what happens the next few weeks!!

The picture below is a common site on the golf course right now. 

Next week Kenny, Brian and I will be attending the South Dakota Golf Course Superintendents Association annual meeting. There will be some valuable education and trade show opportunities there. The speaker line up this year includes Chris Tritabaugh from Hazeltine, John  A Jenson a motivation and communication expert, Tony Koski of Colorado State University, Eric Watkins of University of Minnesota, Wade Merry of South Dakota Golf Association, Tom Ryan and Adam Bragee of the Minnesota Golf Asociation.  It looks to be a great show. 

It's looks to be an early Spring!!!

We will see you on the course SOON!!

Ross

February Course Update

Here it is the middle of February already. The days are getting longer, the sun seems to have a little more heating power. The recent warm weather has melted some of our snow pack, we still have about 60-70% of the turf grass areas covered.  The turf grass that was exposed looked to be in very good shape, no evidence of snow mold or desseccation. We will just wait and see what the rest of the winter season brings. 

The last month we have focused on tree removal and working on equipment. This will continue until spring arrives. 

Golf season is not to far away!!!  If you have any ideas for your golf course please contact me. 

We will see you on the course soon!!

Ross

Winter Update

This winter has been relatively good so far. Most areas of turf have been covered with good cover of snow for most of the season. I checked a few areas yesterday and there is no ice below any of the snow, this should be good for our Turfgrass. January is about done and spring is not too far away. 

The mild weather has allowed the maintenance staff to get back outside and work on some tree removal. Most of the trees, we are removing, are the hybrid cottonwoods that have lived their life expectancy.  We will continue as the weather permits. 

A few warmer days ahead, signs of a early spring??  Only time will tell!!

Ross

January Update

I hope you enjoyed the Holiday Season. For me it was great to spend time with family and friends. 

The Maintenance staff has been busy preparing equipment for the golf season. Between regular service work, sharpening of blades or reels, checking all bearings and wear points, any other refurbish needs, are all items we check to help eliminate any break downs during the golf season.  

Below is Brian putting the finishing  touch on a reel we sharpened. Sharpening the reel is just one step in the process. We also check all roller and reel bearings, replace and true up the bed knife, and check new cutting quality. Through the winter we will refurbish 60+ reels. 

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

Ross