Water

 Needless to say it has been a crazy week.  After receiving about 6" of rain in two days our dike system filled up.  Most all the crossings were under water.  We installed two bridge systems to help allow access to keep the golf course as playable as possible.  There were many areas we had to manually pump out.  Each day brought on a new challenges, most days the course setup was different.  Thank You for your patience, we are now fully open.  Below are a few pictures. 

Water #10 Fairway

Water behind #1 green

The bridge crew on #2

A special Thank You to those that loaned us pumps to use, one member brought lunch and others provided beverages.  Thank you so much and the Maintenance Team appreciated it!

Through it all the course has finally started to mature into it's summer condition.  Our cold spring did not help the new seed in the fairways, they are finally starting to grow.  The greens are looking good, just in time for tournaments.  

We are now fully staffed for the summer.  There is always a punch list of items we want to accomplish.  Most days the list grows by a few items.  As the team members are trained we hope the list will start to shrink.  It's all the little details that take some time for new team members to catch on.  If you see anything that needs attention please let me know, we will take care of it.  

Sometimes you need to stop and enjoy the view you are given

We will see you on the course.  

Ross

Just starting to grow

 Only about one month behind schedule everything is starting to grow.  Yes we will hang on for about two weeks with this surge of growth.  

Our greens are just now getting up to a good soil temperature to start growing and rooting.  We have had several inches of rain so the soil is rather saturated.  It is always important in the spring to let the plants be somewhat happy and develop some good roots going into the summer.  With all the rains our penn cross grass is puffy right now, this may continue as we keep some areas more moist trying to grow new seed in several areas.  So for now we have not started any verti-cutting or lowering of height of cut.  We did over the weekend use our new turf trainer on the greens.  This basically drags over the grass plants standing them up, providing a better cut way less aggressive than verti-cutting.  Speed of green will come as they warm, dry out and we get on a more normal maintenance routine.  

The new seed in the fairways is starting to grow.  When we seeded we used a low mow blue grass / rye blend.  What we see coming up right now is the rye grass, the blue grass should germinate within the next week or two.  It is real important to keep your golf carts off these new seeded areas until they are fully mature.  Shown below is the germination starting.  

Please Stay Off All New Seed Areas!

Our weather looks to be more normal.

We will see you on the Course!

Ross

Mother Nature is in Control

Springs like this we are reminded of just how much we are not in control and just along for the ride.  We are having very cold spring.  Most areas of turf have barely started to grow at all.  

Above is a picture of #9 fairway.  This one, of a few, fairways we are having some issues with.  End of February we had some ice, ice during this time is not usually a problem.  This year is different as the cold weather and freezing night time temperatures have extended way more than normal.  As a result we have ice damage, some will be real slow recovering others will need to be over seeded.  The over seeding process will start as temperatures warm.  Please drive your cart around any of the brown or thin areas.  

Irrigation start up is real slow this year.  As of today we will have the main lines fully pressurized.  Through the process we did find a couple of hair line cracks on valves, so they were replaced.  Other than that we are dealing with the normal huge amount of hard water deposits, as shown below.  

Hoping for some normal May like weather.

We will see you on the course.  

Ross

Ready for The Season ??

 We had a brief moment of the golf season.  Now Mother Nature decided to give us some much needed moisture.  At this time we will take what moisture we can get.  Shown below is #8 green with a fresh coat of 4.5" of snow.  

This winter we purchased a newer product on the market, it is called the Turf Trainer.  This product was developed by a fellow Golf Course Superintendent.  The concept is really simple and effective, basically dragging artificial turf on the grass.  This will stand the turf grass up and give a better quality of cut.  I am not sure if this will replace verti-cutting or any other practices at this time.  We plan on using this mainly of the collars/aprons and greens.  There will be a slight learning curve, I am looking forward to some great success.  

WE ARE READY!!!

We will see you on the course!

Ross

 A few weeks back it really looked as if we would have an early start to the golf season, now we are looking to be much more on a normal schedule.  

On my recent walk around the course I found the greens to be mostly cleared off with little or no ice accumulation on them.  Each one I checked also had good moisture levels, even considering the dry winter.  

The fairways are partially covered in snow, many areas have ice accumulation on them.  This ice should not be much of a problem currently, as the it has been present for a brief period of time.  This really shows what a lack of surface drainage we have in many areas of the golf course.  It is no coincidence that the fairways that struggle are the few that drain the worst.  

We did finally receive one of our capital items purchased last fall.  It is a new utility cart.  This will be nice addition and upgrade to our ever aging fleet.  

The work in the Maintenance Facility continues on.  We are getting close to finishing up on the main equipment.  We will then move on to the golf course accessories; including benches tee markers and all other accessories.  When to time comes we will begin course cleanup, there may be additional cleanup with the amount of tree work accomplished this winter.   

When will spring break for the Golf season to begin?

We will see you on the course.

Ross

Time to grow some grass

As we close in on May we are finally starting to grow some grass.  April was a cool month, I don't think the ground temperatures changed for about three weeks.  Over the last week we have fertilized everything, now with the warmer temperatures I expect growth and color to happen.  

Some dew on #2 green

With the warmer temperatures we proceeded with over seeding the fairways.  Most of them had a few minor areas that needed attention.  #2 fairway had several areas, for now we are not allowing carts on #2 fairway.  All other fairways please drive around the over seeded areas.  We are just trying to give the turf grass plants the best chance to establish.  

Kenny over seeding fairways

Please keep all carts of #2 Fairway

The weather looks to be good.  I hope you find time to enjoy your course.

Ross

The season is here!

 The season is here.  The golf course is coming out of winter in good shape.  We will have some smaller areas in the fairways that will require some extra attention.  Currently we are working on getting the irrigation system up and running.  The main lines are charged, still working on going through and cleaning all the heads.  With weather looking to stay warm and dry this will be important with need to start watering.  

We are allowing Golf Carts at this time.  The frost is still coming out of the ground in areas, so please respect your Golf Course.  Below are few general rules. 

Golf Cart Rules-Really Important

       -Keep all four wheels on the paths

       -Stay on the path by Tee and green surfaces

       -Scatter at entrance and exits points

             Do not just drive straight on or off the

  Cart Path ends

       -Stay out of all soft / thin areas

        -Home Owners use the cart path when going             

        to and from your house

I hope enjoy the early start of the season

We will see you on the course.

Ross

When will the course open??

After our brief cold spell, the weather has really warmed. This is giving many the itch to get out and play some golf.   For now the temporary hole locations are open.  So if you want to walk around and hit some balls please use the temp holes.  

When will the regular green surfaces open for play?  Our current policy is we do not open the greens till we are able to cut a new hole location. This will require the frost to be out of the green for about 7” deep.  This allows the green surface a chance to firm up and dry out, activity on a soggy putting green surface can be very damaging.  Currently most of the green surfaces are thawed about 1" deep, as shown in the picture below.  Tee and fairway surfaces are thawed about 1/2".  Bunkers are froze and have some snow/dirt contamination in them.  Coming out of the winter most all the turf grass plants look to be healthy.   

On the course there are several areas that hold water,  One of the worst areas is #5 fairway.  there is not any drainage there, and with the ground froze the water just sits there and freezes.  With the warmer weather continuing  I do not expect an bunch of turf grass kill at this point.  At some point it would be nice to add some slight contours and drainage, this would help alleviate this problem.  

So at this time we are temporary hole locations, with no carts.  We will open the normal greens when we can cut a new hole location.  No date available yet!!

If you have any question please contact me .

Thank You 

Ross

Welcome 2021

I sure hope you enjoyed the course opening in December.  Now here we go with 2021.  The winter so far has been manageable, with the aid of some timely snow cover and moisture.  Now we are in January with highs in the 30's, I am not sure what we are in for the rest of the winter, so far so good.  As shown below we have some nice snow cover on #8 Green.

Late in the Fall we were able to purchase a slightly used sprayer.  We have been in the market for one for some time.  Our old model was a 2003 with a smaller tank and older technology.  The new to us has many nice features including; bigger tank, a separate rinse tank, clean water supply, hydraulic boom assist, a chemical mixing tank, diesel engine, a six stage pump with newer sprayer technology.  Thank you to the members for their support.  This allows us to make much needed capital purchases like this.  

The maintenance staff is in the process of preparing all the equipment and course ready for the 2021 season.  When the weather allows we will go out and accomplish some much needed tree work.  If not we will be working in the shop, preparing  the equipment for another season. 

Even though the course is covered in snow, come out and enjoy the golf simulators or some of Chef Jerry's great food.   

Thank You

Ross

2020

Mother Nature has really had us on the move this fall. With the early snow fall, record lows.  The next week turned to record warm temperatures, now more normal like. I am happy to say the course is fully winterized and ready for winter. 

With that we have made the switch over to temporary hole locations. These “temp” holes are about 50 yards in front of the normal green. If it is nice out and you want to get out, please use the temporary hole locations on the front nine. 

The maintenance staff has started to clean equipment and getting ready for all the service work that is needed. That along with tree work and snow removal we will stay active this winter. 

This year has been a grind of a season. The course was in great shape all year.  It is only possible with efforts of the maintenance staff. THANK YOU to the maintenance staff for making the season successful. 

We are gathering any thoughts on next year. If you have any suggestions please feel free to contact me.  

Thank you for a great 2020 Season!!!

Ross

October 2020

October was one heck of a month.  We started out by finishing up our tournaments for the year on October 4.  The following week we hit the compaction relief. Greens, tees, collars, aprons, fairways and cart traffic areas all received some sort of relief.   This year we hired a contractor to come in and deep tine our greens.  We went to a depth of 9", this will give us some good channels in the soil profile allowing air and water movement.  As shown below.

The above photo is of a green on the left and the collar on the right.  Both the areas received a heavy top dressing of sand to fill the holes.  This will also provide a more firm playing surface.  

On October 19 the forecast really went crazy.  Predictions of snow and cold.  This left our focus on winterizing the course.  The irrigation and restrooms were fully blown out. This would be the earliest I have ever winterized the irrigation in my 23 years here.  I am still hoping to get back on the course.  There is leave cleanup, tree work and would sure like to get a heavy sand top dressing on the greens.  I am sure some would like to get a round or two of golf in also.  At this point who knows what 2020 will throw at us next?    

We are always looking to improve your course.  Let me know if you have thoughts.

We will See you on the course?

Ross 

Tee surface contamination

As our tee boxes age they have started to get some bent grass contamination. We try to keep the bent grass out. There is a chemical called Mesotrione to help us with that.  

Over the next few days you will see the grasses start to yellow. The bent grass should turn a whitish color, while the blue and rye grasses will yellow and recover to a green color. We may need to apply another application to get the desired results.  There will be areas that will require some seeding to get desired grasses established. 

If you have any questions feel free to contact me. 

We will see you out enjoying some great fall golf!!

Ross

Fall Compaction Relief

 All of the sudden it's the middle of September.  We have had a busy season, and some extra cart traffic.  This has our Golf Course feeling a little tired and wore out.  As the fall moves along we are a mission to improve the plant health.  We will accomplish this through various methods including; compaction relief, fertilization and raising the heights of cut.  All these will have very little effect on the play ability of the golf course.  

Yesterday we started with some compaction relief of cart path entrances and exits.  This was accomplished with a wobble tine machine to a depth of 4".   We will use this same machine for the driving range and practice facility.  

The plan next is to hit the tees, collars and aprons.  We will use a 3/4" solid tine machine followed by a top dressing of sand.  Getting the sand down in the holes will help control thatch and organic matter. 

Next will be the fairways.  Again this year we will be using a slicing tine machine.   This machine can go to a depth of 8", giving us some good compaction relief.  Best part is there is very minimal disruption to the turf surface after one or two mowings.  

 Finally the greens will get their compaction relief on October 6.  We hired out a contractor to come in with a deep tine machine.  9-10" deep is common.  This is the same process on the greens as last year, with very good results.  This will require a heavy top dressing of sand to fill the holes.  All this will allow more air and water to move through the soil profile.  

Timing of all these events will very over the next three weeks, working around tournaments scheduled.  

Through all this there will be very minimal disruption to play.  

Come out and enjoy some great fall golf!!

August is here

To say the least it has been a busy summer!!  That is definitely a good thing.  I Just like  seeing all the families and kids enjoying the golf course. 

The season started off on the moist side, now we are dealing with dry conditions. We are constantly finding stuck or malfunctioning sprinkler heads. With the dry conditions we are also monitoring the soil moisture in our greens.  We have a soil probe meter that gives us instant readings.  Typically we like to keep our moisture level between 15 and 18%.  This gives us the best playing surface.  There is always areas we need to hand water to keep the moisture level up without drenching an already moist area. As shown below Matt is hand watering #9 green. 

One other practice we have been doing each month is needle tining the greens.  This provides some soil compaction with very little disruption to play.  It will allow moisture and air to move more easily through the soil profile. Once we mow and roll the greens are very playable. 

We will see you on the course!!

Ross

Pro Am Week

It is hard to believe but Pro Am week is here.  It has been a good year so far, and many of the golf course details have been taken care of weeks prior to the event.  It seems for now we are ready for the various activities to start taking place. Just waiting to see what Mother Nature has is store for us. 

Over the last month there has several days of wind.  I am not sure how many hours of debris cleanup we have.  For the most part nothing too major has blown down, just lots of small to medium sized branches.  I know there are a few aches and pains felt by the maintenance staff.  Maybe we can get back to somewhat normal maintenance practices for the rest of the year. 

Typical tree damage the last month

The Golf Course has been in very playable condition.  I hope you make time to enjoy!!

Photo Matt Osborne #9 Green

#8 Green

We will see you on the course!

Enjoy!

Ross

Fairways and Roots

So there has been four fairways roped of from cart traffic.  The fairways roped off are consistently ones that struggle, due to shade winter kill or high water table.  It is almost comical watching who follows the ropes/signage and others that think they can just drive around the roped off areas.  We do things for a purpose, to make your golf course better.  Yes it may be inconvenient at times, please follow any signage or directions on the golf course.  It is a proven fact that golf carts/compaction are the #1 cause of  wearing / thinning turf.  We now have started to remove the ropes.  As shown in the picture below the turf grass looks amazing with no cart traffic on it.  I am hoping by the end of next week to have all ropes removed and yes the turf grass quality will start to suffer.

Last Fall we did a deep tine compaction relief on the greens, to a depth of 10".  The greens were struggling to get  roots going.  I was changing hole locations on Sunday, and to my surprise the deep tine aeration is paying off.  I found good roots growing and and some were more than 7".   The deep tine was very beneficial and a program we will continue.

We will see you on the course!

Ross

Enjoy what you can

I has been some time since I have posted a blog.  Needless to say the last month has been crazy for everyone.  Good news is the course is open and is in great shape coming out of winter.  When you are on the course please strictly follow any social distancing rules that apply. 

Greens are off to a good start. 

Below is a few other general Golf Etiquette rules    

Fix all Ball Marks

Replace your divots- No Sand N Seed for now

Rake the bunker with your feet, do the best you can 

Stay off all steep slopes in the bunkers

Golf Cart Rules-Really Important

       -Keep all four wheels on the paths

       -Stay on the path by Tee and green surfaces

       -Scatter at entrance and exits points

             Do not just drive straight on or off the

  Cart Path ends

       -Stay out of all soft areas

 -Home Owners use the cart path when going             to and from your house

Please leave this place better than you found it!

Please level with your shoe. 

Enjoy Your Course!

Ross

Conference Time

I was able to Attend the North Central Turf grass Conference over this week.  It was a great conference with speakers like Larry Divito from the Twins, Dr. Aaron Patton from Purdue, Matt Cavanaugh from Rush Creek, Mark Michalski from TPC Minneapolis, Larry Gilhuly a retired USGA Agronomist and Roger Stewart an independent Staffing Consultant.  The talks dealt with anything from renovation to purchasing new products to Leadership and Organizational staffing.  It was a busy fulfilling week. 

This up coming week we are heading to Sioux Falls for The South Dakota GCSA meeting.  Some of the Topics are;  How to live where Excellent becomes average, Irrigation Uniformity, Remote sensing to improve your knowledge, Advance in fine Fescue, Golf Course or Nature Preserve and Advancing Your Career.  There will be much to take in in a few days. 

We took a little time to trim the trees on #7 fairway and #17 tee.  This was a good time to achieve this with some snow on the ground to help protect the turf grass.  As you can see the after pictures provide a more open fairway and tee shot.  I am sure most of you will approve.

Spring is near!!
We will see you on the course!

Ross

Is spring near?

I guess that is a typical question this time of year. The days are getting longer and the sun just seems to have a little more warming power. We recently did have a few good melting days, it sure made a impact on the snow depths.  

This week were able to get out and work on some dead trees.   We plowed a trail to the left side of #12, where we had a willow and 2 smaller pine trees to remove.  As you can see it was a nice sunny day and felt good to be outdoors. If the weather allows we do have more tree work to complete. 

As you see the stump of the tree was really leaning and slowly falling over. 

When not outside we have been working in the Maintenance Facility.  One project we had for this year was repair a beverage cart. It had a minor meeting with a tree. As shown below there was some minor frame straightening with many of the front end parts to be replaced.  Now it is ready for another season. 

We will just have to see what Mother Nature has for us the next month. Will it be an early season? Only time will tell. 

We will see you on the course. 

Ross

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from the Maintenance Staff of MC3.

Thank You for a successful 2019.

As you can see I enjoy the sunrises on the course.

Wishing you a great year!

Ross