Reel to Reel

Temperatures in the low 50's and the .35" of rain this week have melted most of the snow on the golf course. A handful of the shaded greens still have a little snow cover, but it is less than an inch.  The turf still looks really good heading into 2017. on 12/26, there was a healthy amount of water on #2 by 12/28, the water receded #5 green looking good this morning

We received the first significant snowfall of the year.  The golf course is blanketed in 8" of fresh snow. It looks to be pretty good timing as temperatures this week are dipping down to single digits. The snow will provide a nice layer of insulation over the turf and provide some protection against the cold temperatures. #2 woods

We spent the majority of our week cleaning and power washing equipment.  Before we start our winter maintenance, we thoroughly clean our entire fleet, including mowers, tractors, carts, line trimmers, and blowers. José power washing a rough mower

We are wrapping up the last of our winter preparations.  The leaves have held on longer than normal, but we are cleaning up the last of them today. Myles blowing off #10 green Due to the cold weather, we are roping off the greens and closing them for the season.  It has been a great fall, and our focus on plant health will serve the plants well.  I'm extremely pleased with how everything looks going into winter. The plants are healthy and ready to endure the winter months.

There is much to be thankful for this year.  I am especially thankful for the opportunity to work with such a tremendous group of people each and every day.   The successes we experienced this season wouldn't have been accomplished without the support and hard work of my staff. I'm blessed to be surrounded by such dedicated individuals. I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

November typically marks the shift in our work when we start preparing the golf course for winter.  Monday and Tuesday of this week were spent winterizing the irrigation system and bathrooms.  This is no small task.  During this annual ritual, compressed air is blown through the irrigation lines to remove any water in the lines, valves, and irrigation heads.  We systematically move through the 1,500 heads ensuring that all the water is out of the system so it is protected through the winter months. irrigation head on #3 being blown out We were also able to aerify the greens one final time with 10" solid tines. We like to do this prior to winter to provide some deep channels for excess water to move to during spring melts. aerifying  #8 green 10" deep #2 green after it has been rolled Final fungicide applications were also made on greens, tees, and fairways yesterday. This was a huge accomplishment, as we sprayed over 1.6 million square feet ...

One of the great things about working on a golf course is that there is never a shortage of things to do.  Rain over the last two days made it too wet to mulch leaves, so we shifted gears and added some drainage behind the tennis courts.  The 180' section south of the tennis courts needed to be regraded and drainage needed to be added to ensure the HydroCourts were draining properly.  This area is too narrow to get equipment into so the project was completed by hand.  A big thanks to our staff for enduring the wet couple days of digging in the mud. drain line added behind courts finished product Week Recap: Monday, we expanded #16 black tee 5' to the west.  Although this is a subtle change, the hole will play much better.  The tee was much too narrow and did not allow for the best alignment.   We stripped the existing bluegrass sod and added several yards of soil to rebuild the tee bank to give ourselves enough room to expand the t...

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the month.

It has been another productive week.  The leaves continue to change color, and are now falling at fairly consistent rate.  This has kept us busy blowing and mulching leaves, but we were able to squeeze in several projects, as well. blowing #18 fairway blowing #5 green We spent some time this week redesigning and adding some new perennial plants to the ornamental beds on #2, #4, and #10.   redesigning bed on #10 tee  bed on #10 will have a fresh burst of color next year We also extended the brick paver path on #10 tee to give us a little more room to direct traffic off of the path. Mike installing the new path looks great and will help with traffic control Most of our time this week was spent leveling and expanding #15 tee. Over the years, the back third of the tee had become uneven.  This project included striping the sod, removing 4" of soil that had created a hump in the middle, and relaying the sod.  We also ...

It was another productive week.  We were able to level and sod around 5 more greens: #2, #5, #9, #10, and #18.   #10 green complex completed sod We were also able to topdress greens this week.  The sand helps dilute thatch and smooth out the putting surface. topdressing #5 green It was also a good week for photos. Tuesday, we saw a bald eagle sitting in the middle of #5 fairway eating a snack.  To my knowledge, one has never been seen on property.  The eagle was quick to fly away and we did not get the best picture. eagle soaring above #5 There was also a nice rainbow Thursday. picture perfect

The plethora of rain last week put a damper on many of our maintenance plans.  We definitely made the most out of the good weather this week and were able to catch back up.   We were able to finish deep-tining the four remaining fairways.  In total, we punched over 7.2 million holes in the fairways.  deep-tining #18 fairway at a 9"depth We also started leveling and sodding the first cut around green banks. Over the years the first cut has become contaminated with poa/bentgrass. These grasses at the higher height of cut do not provide a very consistent surface to play from, so we are leveling and replacing them with bluegrass. #11 green bank With the rain and warm nights last week, the turf had quite the surge of growth. We sent out the full arsenal of rough and banks mowers and were able to mow the in play areas three times this week. rough mowers on #14 The fall is off to a beautiful start, I hope you are able to get out and enjoy th...

There will be no carts today, as we have accumulated close to 2.5" of rain so far. There is significant standing water on greens, tees, and fairways. With rain in the forecast for the rest of the day and over the next three days, it could get really interesting. #2 fairway #2 approach #5 fairway #11 fairway

With aerification of greens and tees behind us, we started on fairways today.  We were able to deep-tine fairways #1, #2, #4, and #6. We will only be aerifying a few fairways a day as it is a slow process moving 1 mph to achieve the tight spacing we want.  #6 fairway being deep-tined at a 9" depth rolling #2 fairway  #2 fairway after it has been mowed and cleaned up