We have experienced some nice golfing days throughout the months of January and February so far but this week’s storm and colder temperatures will be a reminder that we still have a few weeks of winter left. Any type of moisture will be welcomed this winter in hopes to alleviate the drought conditions. The latest U.S. drought monitor has us in the severe to extreme drought conditions in our area. We are looking into alternate water sources for this year if the drought should persist but a good spring time rain will go a long way in filling up our big lake where we get our irrigation water from.

 

The crew has stayed busy these past two months clearing out multiple wooded areas around the course and working on other course projects. These areas not only looked unsightly to the golfers and homeowners but also limited the amount of air flow throughout the course. Creating more airflow through the course will allow the greens to cool themselves more efficiently on those hot humid summer days. 

The pictures show the tree removal and undergrowth clearing to the right of #5 green and stabilizing the pond side of #7 tee box that has eroded over the years.

See you on the course,

ANDY KLEIN        

 







     

December weather has finally arrived. Last Friday we got a half inch of rain and overnight we got around a quarter inch of rain and 3 inches of snow. This is welcomed moisture and the snow cover will serve as a great blanket for the turf as overnight temperatures continue to be in the 20's.

This past month we have been working on any projects that we needed to wrap up before this cold weather. We added three new irrigation heads in the rough on the back side of 15 green and two in the right rough on 14. We have an additional 15 or so heads we would like to accomplish next year when time and weather permits. Since the weather looks to stay cold for a while we put two cups on every green. This was done in case the ground is too frozen to change cups for a few weeks it will at least allow golfers to play a different pin location and also spreads out the wear from foot traffic on the bentgrass greens.

The pictures show the irrigation head install on 14 and the snow on hole 3.
Happy Holidays,

ANDY KLEIN 


 

The golf course is preparing for winter.

The zoysia grass fairways and tees have gone dormant and we are mowing greens 1-2 times a week. Outside of the chance for rain this weekend, this fall has been dry and it has been a struggle keeping the seeded areas in the rough moist enough to germinate and continue growing.The maintenance staff has slimmed down to its winter crew as things have slowed down on the course. We will begin working on our winter course improvment project list. (pictures to come)

The pictures are of  the nursery that we constructed in late September. We took the back range tee target and stripped the soil down six inches and replaced it with sand that is similar to the greens on the course. We seeded it with L-93 bentgrass and covered it with a grow cover to protect it from the elements and keep the soil temperatures up during the cool nights. Recently we uncovered it to mow it one last time before the cold weather this weeked. This nursery will be used in the years to come when we have to replace or repair any areas on the greens.


See you on the course!

For this year’s fall greens aerification we used 3/8 inch diameter tines going at a depth of 5 inches spaced every 2 inches. We also used a tightly spaced verti-cutter to slice a groove a ¼ inch deep. This allowed us to incorporate around 40 tons of new sand into the greens profile. After mowing a couple times and solid rolling the greens are healing quickly and will be back normal in no time.

 

Over the past few weeks we have been busy over seeding the green/tee banks and rough with a tall fescue blend seed mix. We have used over 3000 lbs. of seed so far. This coming week we will aerify and fertilize the rough to get the new grass seed growing before winter arrives. With all this going on we could use some constant moisture to keep things going. Unfortunately October  in the past has been one of the dryer months out of the year so we will have to rely on our irrigation to keep things moist.

 

See you on the course!