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