Merry Christmas

Well it sure looks like we will have a brown Christmas this year in Aberdeen.  Having no snow is not the ideal thing for the course, so far the course looks to be handling the moisture free winter in great shape.  Any moisture some time soon would be great. So far this winter we have hand watered the sand based greens twice.  It is important to keep moisture in the root zone of the plant, especially when it is dry and exposed.  We will continue to monitor the moisture level in the greens and add water as needed. 

The warmer temps has allowed the maintenance staff to work on some tree removal. Shown below is us removing some of the dead cotton woods near the driving range. There are more in this area that have meet their life expectancy and will be removed. 

When not outside the focus is working on equipment and accessories for next season. Below the fairway yardage plates received a fresh coat of paint.  

Thank You for another great golf season 

Merry Christmas from the Maintenance Staff. 

Ross

2017 Season it’s a wrap

I hope you found sometime to come out and enjoy some December golf!!!  When you live in Aberdeen that does not happen often.  Monday the cold, wind and snow moved in.  Yes the greens are closed until spring.  What Mother Nature brings the rest of the winter is unknown, for now we are ready. 

One of the items we have been working on is our bunker rake this winter. We have installed all new rake heads and some smoother tires. The smoother tires will accomplish two things, first they will be less aggressive when raking the bunkers and second we have been using this machine to brush the greens and the previous tires left some marks on the greens.  I am sure we will see great results when put into use next year. 

Thank You for another great season!

If you have any comments please contact me. 

Looking forward to 2018. 

Ross

November course update

November has been a busy month for the maintenance staff. Started off the month with winterizing the course, finished that just in time for a brief cold spell. We then planted some trees on the south and east side of the driving range. This is a result of expected traffic increases along those roads. This should give us a good start to a buffer zone between us and the road. Expect more trees next Spring. 

We also started removing some of the dead trees on the course.  As weather permits we will continue through out the winter.  Shown below is a couple trees left of 7 that were dead. 

Now with the dry weather, we are experiencing, we are  out watering greens. I guess you have to be prepared for anything this time of year. Shown below we are using a water tank, sprayer and hoses off the Club House to water some of the most dry greens. 

I am sure hoping for some moisture soon. As this year has gone it could be dry for some time. 

This is the time of year we are planning for the next season. If you have any great ideas please feel free to share them with any of the staff or Board members. 

Wishing each of you a Happy Thanksging with Family and Friends!!

Ross

Irrigation Blow Out

Today is the day for the start of irrigation blow out. The plan is to blow out the irrigation system today and the well systems tomorrow.  

As for now the greens are still open, we will keep you informed if anything changes. 

I hope you found time to enjoy Fall’s beauty!!!!

Ross

Just About November

Yes the weather has definitely changes over the last week.  Some of our maintenance focus has changed from maintaining to getting ready for winter.  Most of that just involves making sure we have done everything possible to have green turf grass next spring. 

Last week we planted some trees around the driving range tee and chipping green.  We planted 13 spruce trees and will plant an additional 10-12 deciduous trees.  We are expecting more traffic in the area, this should get us started on a buffer area between us and road. 

Yes the greens are still open,  we did go out and lay the sticks down due to the high winds.  But when it warms we will put the sticks back in.  I am not sure how long the greens will be open, once the ground freezes up we will switch over to temporary greens.  Please respect your course and stay off the greens when they are closed.  Just another reminder to also stay off all frozen or frosted turf, walking or driving on it will damage and may even kill it.

Below is a picture of the temporary flag stick.  Most all the "temps" are located 50 yards in front of the normal green. 

Hope the fall gives us a few more golfing days.
If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me.

Ross

Green Compaction relief

Aeration of greens is on the schedule for today.  We are using a 1/2" solid tine and top dressing with sand.  After top dressing we will drag and roll.  It looks like we may have to apply more sand as the week moves on.  This should give us some nice sand channels through the turf canopy providing some good air and water movement. 

Also on schedule is a slicing tine of the fairways.  We should finish this up be weeks end. 

And finally we are solid tining the collars and green sorrounds. 

Is has been a great fall so far, still time to enjoy your golf course.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Ross

Much Needed Rain

Officially 2.05" of rain received at the Golf Course over the last few days.  It was a much needed rain, not sure when the last good rain was.  There are some rough areas that have really been beat up by the dry conditions.  As the fall goes on there may be a need to reseed some of these areas, time will tell and we will proceed as needed.


This past week we started our soil compaction relief efforts.  The driving range tee has been solid tined and top dressed with sand.  This should help smooth the tee surface.  Tomorrow we plan on  moving on to the driving range and tee surfaces, the tee surfaces will also get a top dressing of sand.  Next week we will move on to the fairways and any rough areas.  Finally the week of October 9-13 we will be solid tining the greens, collars and approaches.  Again all this to help relief soil compaction, giving the turf the best chance to heal from the long summer of compaction and dry conditions.  If you have any question about our compaction relief program feel free to contact me.

Below are a few pictures of solid tining and top dressing the driving range tee.

Come out for some great fall golf.

Ross

Fall is Here!

Well the middle of September is here.  The leaves are starting to change and the cool mornings the last few weeks have been a nice break from the heat.  We are still on the dry side, but it looks like later this week we have a good chance of some much needed moisture.

As you know we had the USGA Agronomist on site late August.  We have received his report last week.  I have placed several copies of the report bye the GHIN computer.  We will also be sending out an email link to the report.  If you have nay questions or comments on his report feel free to contact me.

The golf course is in great shape right now, with the fall is also the time we will start compaction relief.  The first areas we will hit will be the tees, this will be accomplished with a solid slicing tine to provide compaction relief with minimal disruption to the playability of the tee surface.  From there we will move to the fairways, collars and approaches.  If you have any questions on our compaction relief program please feel free to contact me.

On several occasions I have seen foot prints left in bunkers. I have also seen where a golfer has exited the bunker on a steep slope, this will cause damage to the bunker and create soft unplayable sand conditions.  We do not rake bunkers everyday, we will touch up areas if needed.  Please enter and exit the bunker on the low side where the slope is not so steep, rake the bunker as smooth as possible.   As shown below I think I would have raked if they were my tracks!!!  The final picture is deer having fun, didn't expect the deer to rake their foot prints.  Thank you

Come out and enjoy some Fall Golf!!


Ross

USGA Visit

Tuesday we had our Regional USGA Agronomist, John Daniels, visit the golf course for a day long visit.  It was very interesting to have a set of outside eyes looking in at the golf course, and maintenance operation.  Through all of this we will receive a detailed report on areas where we can improve our operation, and maybe where we should be looking for that next capital project idea.  His report should be available in the next few weeks.

The hydraulic leak on 7-9 greens is healing up nicely, by the end of the week most areas will be barely noticeable.  On another note we had a another leak on Tuesday, this was a different machine, the operator only made 4-5 passes on #10 green before he noticed something was wrong.  I am hoping we are done with oil leaks for the year.

The golf course is in great shape right now.  I hope you find time to enjoy the start of the Fall season. Good Luck to all Participants in the Dakota Open this weekend!!

Ross

August Update / USGA Visit

Well the last week has been an interesting one.  We have not received any big rains, but everyday there has been some moisture in the air.  In fact I have not run the irrigation for a week now, never thought that would happen after the drought we are in.  The heavy morning dew factors does make it difficult to get a quality cut on the turf grass, also that has caused the grass to grow in a crazy fashion.  So we have to slow down and make sure everything is getting cut properly.

It has been one week since we had the hydraulic leak.  Everything is looking well considering, on #8 green we actually have some burn from the detergent we used to clean up the oil.  This should recover in a timely fashion, along with the oil the streaks.  As shown below before and after pictures, everything is looking better.

Notice in the picture above, the not repaired ball mark is way worse than the oil leak.  Please repair ball marks.  

Tuesday, August 22, we are having a Turf Advisory Service visit from our USGA Agronomist.  It has been four years since we last had a TAS visit.  Typically there is some very useful maintenance information that will come out of this visit.  I always look forward to the USGA Visit and some of the useful information he reports back to us with.  We will typically get the report a week or two after the visit.

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

Thank You.

Ross

Hydraulic Leak!!

Yes on Thursday we had a hydraulic leak!  It happened on #7-#9 greens.  Thankfully it was not any worse than that.  Sometimes when these things happen the operator can not see the oil until it is on the grass blades for 5-10 minutes, that was the case this time.  At least another crew member saw something was wrong. 

So the process begun of trying to cleanup the oil, in this mower's case it is a bio oil.  The bio oil does help with long term cleanup, but does nothing for the initial heat burn of the grass plant.  The process involved using a detergent and lots of water, to disperse any oil that was there.  Through the process there was some damage to the thatch layer in the green, we will be hand top dressing these areas as needed to keep the greens putting smoothly.  I am hoping everything will heal up quickly with minimal damage.

This is the final result on Friday.

The big question is will we lose any of the grass?  That is unknown right now but will continue to monitor and adjust any maintenance practice as needed.  Every leak can be a little different so we will see what the results are from this one.


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

Good Luck to all Jack and Jill Participants This Weekend.

Ross

Irrigation / roots and more

The drought in the area continues, so far the irrigation and well system have been holding up to abnormal expectations.  One of the projects this week is fixing some coverage problems with our irrigation heads.  Most of the problem is with the small rear nozzle that will plug up and give inadequate coverage.  There is a newer style nozzle out that we have been replacing the old with, the new nozzle provides better coverage and a new design that does not plug up as easy.  As shown below the red nozzle is the new one, and the black is the old one.  The second photo below is of an area with inadequate coverage.  You can look to see these areas improving with the new and improved coverage.

The next project we are working on is the roots in the fairways.  Our famous hybrid cotton wood trees have a very shallow root system, and at times they grow near the surface or in our bunkers.  This creates many problems for both the golfer and maintenance staff.  The bunker crew will pull the roots on the bunkers as needed through out the year.  On the fairways we try to remove any exposed roots as time allows.  Some years we can not keep up, but hoping this year to get most of them removed.  We have started on #9 fairway, as shown below.

Greens have been handling to dry hot weather well.  There have been some times where the green speed has slowed compared to other days.  It has been rather weird dealing with humidity during a drought.  We are working on a few items and hope to have them at a good consistent pace going forward.  If you have any questions on this topic or any other please feel free to contact me.


Finally a big shout out to the bunker crew this morning.  Get job raking edges and weed eating.  They gave them a good fresh look!!  Thank you Gabe, Jacob and Lucas.

We will see you on the course!

Ross

It's Pro Am Week

The Pro Am Week is here.  It was great to receive the .55" of the much needed rain Tuesday.  We have been through a long dry spell, any bit of moisture will help.  With the rain came some wind, we lost one tree and several branches.  But through it all we were all smiles for some much needed moisture.

This week the maintenance staff has been busy fine tuning the Golf Course for one of the busiest weekends of the year.  So far the week has been running smoothly, we will wait and see how the rest of the week comes together.  A big shout out the Maintenance Staff, they have worked hard all year and I would like to say THANK YOU for your hard work and dedication this year.  It's great to have an experienced staff making your golf course great.  Thank You!!

A early morning photo of the Maintenance Staff.

Thank You to all the Pro Am Sponsors and good luck to all the players!!

We will see you on the course.

Ross

Rain Please!!

This year has been one of those years.  Mother Nature has not been very cooperative.  We are on the extremely dry side right now, a little break from the heat may happen for a day or so but not much for moisture is in sight.  I am sure hoping we receive some moisture soon, even with the lack of moisture the golf course remains is great shape.  Along with the weather the green speeds have fluctuated at times.  We are just trying to keep up with the ever changing weather conditions, now with the heat we will see how we have to adjust from here.  We

Did you know that you can drive from #3 tee box all the way to the clubhouse without leaving the cart path.  With the extreme dry conditions please use cart paths as mush as possible.  I have seen several carts driving down the middle of fairways going to and from the Club House, I also see this during shotgun starts.  This is causing unneeded wear to the golf course, so please use the cart paths as much as possible to help preserve your golf course.  Golf Carts cause more wear and damage than any other single item  on the golf course.  Please be mindful of this, playing off grass is much better than trying to play off dirt!!! As shown below, a worn out cart area!!

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


The Pro am is next week, please do you part and keep our golf course in great shape.  Fix or fill divots, repair all ball marks, keep your cart on the paths if possible, and rake the bunker after hitting your shot.  If you see any item that is needing some additional attention please let me know, it is easy for the staff to miss an item or two occasionally.  Thank You

We will See you on the course.

Collar & Approaches

This year we have put a focus on the grain in our collars and approaches.  We widened some of these areas out several years ago.  With the shortening of the height of cut we have an encroachment of an old variety of bent grass and poa grass into these areas.  These varieties tend to lay down and not grow upright, especially in spring of the year when the plant is attempting to produce seed heads.

Over the past 8 days we have verti cut these areas, to stand the plant up.

We than double cut the areas at .5", this is our normal height of cut.

Finally we cut the area down to .35", this helped clean the area up as we had the buckets on to collect the clippings.  The final result in a better quality of cut, where we go from here is unknown and we will continue working on this until we find the best playable surface.  We will continue to monitor and adjust as needed.

If have any comments please feel free to contact me.

Have a safe and Haapy 4th of July Weekend!!!

Ross

RAIN!!

Well some much needed rain has fallen.  Monday night we received 1.4" and now Tuesday night .85", for a grand total of 2.25".  I am always amazed at how fast things can change with a good rain.

With the rain coming down so hard we also had a few issues on the course.  One has been bunker washouts.  Some of these washouts area result of a poor design, most of them is when we have surface water running into the bunker.  The photo below is one of our problem bunkers, any hard rain will wash this area out.  It may take a day or two to get caught up on the all the bunker washouts, Thank You for your patience.

The recent storms also came through with some wind.  So over the last two days there has been several hours of picking up branches and sticks.  At least this storm did not take any trees out.  As shown below a branch down on #2 and the first load of branches for today.

The rest of the week looks to be great weather.  We will see you on the course.

Ross

Hot n Dry

The weather over the past month has definitely been a roller coaster ride. We have had cold, warm and windy.  The only variable missing from that equation is moisture, and a big lack there of.  I think out at the course we received less than .5" over the last 30 days, yes we are very dry.  Each day we find sprinkler heads that are clogged or simply not functioning appropriately., it only takes a day or two of a head not functioning properly and the grass starts to burn up.   Hoping for some rain soon.

At the beginning of May we seeded all winter kill areas on the course.  The cool weather was not good for germinating seed.  Some areas we have gone in and reseeded, with some good growing weather I hope the areas fill in quickly.

June looks to be a busy month, please help take care of your golf course and leave it in better shape than what you found it.  A minute or two of raking bunkers, fixing ball marks, repairing divots and driving your cart in the proper areas will go along way for the golfers behind you.   I will appreciate it and so will they.

The pictures below are pretty common with the roughs burning up.

Come out and enjoy your Golf Course and Club House!!

May Course Update

The Golf Course is looking good.  Most of the seeded areas are starting to germinate, should establish and fill in quickly when the weather warms back up.  We are also getting closer to being fully staffed, this is allowing us to mow everything in a more timely fashion.

The weather the been on the cool side, and not much golf happening.  This is allowing the Maintenance Staff to accomplish a few different items.  First we were able to get the Intermediate cut in, this was a three step process of mowing at different heights of cuts and blowing the clipping debris.  Now that is is in we should be able to keep up with the mowing of it .  

The second item is we were able to quad tine the greens again.  We weren't schedule to do this till June but decided with the weather and lack of golfers it was a good time to get done.  This was also a three step process.  The first step is to lightly top dress the greens.

The next step is the quad tine the greens with our Toro 648 aerator.  With this setup we end up with 1/4" hole every 2". this will give us plenty of compaction relief and allow oxygen and moisture to enter the soil profile.

The final step is to roll the greens two different directions.  This will work the sand into the profile and also help close to hole slightly.  Shown below is our older triplex roller, we also have a newer roller with a vibratory system, that help work the sand into the profile even better.

This has been a good system of compaction relief for the past few years, once complete most golfers might not even notice it was done.  If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me.  We will see you on the course.

Ross

Seeding has begun

With the warmer current weather and extended forecast, we are finally warm enough to start seeding our winter kill.  If everything goes as planned we hope to be done by tomorrow.  Our over seeding program is accomplished through two different application forms. each for different areas on the course.

First is for around collar and apron areas.  This accomplished with the use of our Toro 648 aerator.  We have installed a mini tine system that punches lots of small holes in a short amount of time.  Once the holes are there we simply spread the seed over the area.  As shown below making lots of holes.

The second application is for the bigger fairway type areas on the course.   This is accomplished with the use of a tractor mounted slit type seeder.  The seeder will make a small slit in the soil, seed is then dropped into the slit.  With this machine we will go over each area two different directions.  Below is a picture of the tractor and slit seeder.

Again we hope to finish seeding by Thursday.

The weather looks to be great we will see you on the course.
Ross

New Equipment

Well the weather has not bee very conducive for golf the past few days.  These freezing nights may not be the best for the trees that are budding, time will tell to see if there is any damage.  For now we look to be alright, but tonight we are forecast to be in the low 20's just have to wait and see.  I hope this weather straightens out and returns to more normal like.

The past week we received a couple pieces of new equipment.  A new greens mower and utility cart. The greens mower is a TriFlex 3300 from the Toro Company, many upgrades to give a better more consistent quality of cut.  The utility cart is from Club Car, nothing fancy here just time to upgrade from our old 2001 model.  It's always nice getting new equipment Thank You!

With the weather conditions being cold and the ground temperature not warming we have not started any seeding of winter kill areas on the course.  I am hoping to get started next week if the weather straightens out.  At this time we will also start the sand n seed program for the year.  Please remember to always replace your divot if possible, when filling divots with sand n seed please do not over fill.  See my Blog post from April 20 for more information on divot care.

We will see you on the course.
Ross

Divots / Sand n Seed Mix

With golf season in spring swing I have received a few questions about the sand n seed mix and when we will start using it.

We will start using sand n seed mix when two things happen, both have to do with the weather.  First we need the ground temperatures to to into the 50's.  Current ground temps are in the 40's, just need some more warm weather.  Once in the 50's it will give the seed the best chance of germinating, also will help protect the seed if we do have some cooler evenings.  Second we need to not have less of a chance of a hard freeze, if we do get a hard freeze hard we will lose any germination that has happened, resulting in having to reseed.  If you have any questions on this please contact me.

So please replace your divots!

Below is a a link on proper divot care, please take the time to read. You may need to copy and paste in you internet browser.

http://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/usgamisc/ftg/2017-04-07.pdf

Thank You We will See You on the Course

Ross

Spring Season Update

The season is up and running.  For the most part it has been a normal spring with mixture of some warmer days an some cooler.  As of the today the ground temperatures are in the middle to upper 40's range.  Typical good grass growth does not start until we hit at least 50.

If you have been out enjoying your course I'm sure you have seen a few smaller areas in the fairways that may need some attention, some may need a push of extra fertilizer others may need to be reseeded.  This will be addressed as the ground temperatures warm up enough to germinate the seed, I am hoping for that in a week or two.  The photo below is of #1 fairway.

I have taken a few questions on when the sand n seed program will begin.  This will take place as the ground temperatures warm, until then please replace your divot.  I also have noticed many ball marks on the greens, the spring of the year they may be hard to see.  Please take the time to find your ball mark and repair it, it is not the job of the golfers behind you or the maintenance staff.

I have noticed many home owner carts driving down and across fairways when going to and from the Club House. Please do not drive on or across any fairways when going to and from the Club House! Cart traffic is one of the biggest causes for compaction on the golf course, this leads to many turf issues.  So use the cart paths as much as possible, in fact you can drive all the way from #3 tee to the Club House on the cart path.  If you have any questions or need further explanation please feel free to contact me.

We will see you on the course.
Ross