17 Green Repair

Plug repairs on #17 green.

 The bald spot on number #17 green was repaired this week.  This spot has been a problem for a few years now and we feel that this should remedy the situation.  The plugs were taken from the lower putting green.  This putting green has always doubled as our greens nursery.  Rarely do we need to take many plugs from it as our greens do fairly well even through the past two difficult summers.

Looking back up #17 Fairway.



Frost Delays

Frost covers #7 fairway at sunrise.

Its that of time of year again and we will be seeing more and more frost delays.  The frost must melt before we allow any traffic on the grass.  This not only delays golfing but all maintenance on the golf course as well.

The Show and Play policy we used last year seemed to work very well and we will be utlizing it again this year.



Fall leaf cleanup season is here

The fall leaf cleanup has started and will be ongoing until the leaves have been removed from the golf course.  This is a time consuming task that requires a large chunk of our labor this time of year.  Every morning we blow off greens and tees that are covered with leaves.  It is impossible for us to keep all areas clean of leaves at all times, especially on windy days.



A good example is 18 tee box.  We can blow off the 18th tee first thing in the morning and if it is windy that area will become covered back up before golfers arrive at the tee.  We cannot spend the entire day in one location trying to keep it clean, so we do our best and eventually all the leaves will have fallen and be removed.

Seed germination on #16

Looking closely at this picture you can see that we have had excellent seed germination on 16 Fairway.

Please help us achieve maximum success by keeping off all seeded areas with your golf carts.  If your golf ball comes to rest in a seeded area please move the ball to an area with good turf coverage.





A week of seeding comes to a close

Seed germination in the slits made by the seeder.

This week was a wet one that provided good conditions for seed germination.  The ground stayed moist and we had many rainshowers.  This weather was not very conducive to playing golf but there were some moments of sun and great temperatures.

600 Gallon Finn Hydroseeder

This week we rented a hydroseeder and used it on many areas around the golf course.  If you played golf in the past few days I am sure you have noticed where we have sprayed the seed and hydromulch.  Please try to keep out of these seeded areas and take a free drop if your ball comes to rest in one of those spots.

Please take free drop outside the seeded area.

We sprayed mulch over the freshly seeded areas on #16 and #13.  We sprayed a seed/mulch mixture on #2,#3,#4,#10,#11,#16, #17, and #18.  Today I observed a large amount of seed popping through on #16 fairway.

More spots in #3 Fairway

Hydromulching in progress

On Monday we rented a Hydroseeder and used it to spread cellulose fiber mulch over the seeded areas in 13 and 16 fairway. This will help keep the seedbed moist and aid in germination. We plan to continue using this process in other areas around the golf course.

Cart Damage

Cart traffic in the fairways during hot afternoons when the temperature was above 88 degrees kills grass. The only solution to this problem is to have a reasonable cart traffic policy.  Allowing carts on the fairways during this period of heat stress has always resulted in this kind of damage.

Bentgrass will not tolerate this kind of abuse.

16 Fairway Damage

 Most of the damaged areas of turf on the golf course have been reseeded.  These areas need to be kept moist in order to have successful germination.  Sprinkler heads will be running during the day on a number of holes.  There are reseeded areas on most holes and we will continue to work to grow back from the brutal summer conditions.

The pictures above show the amount of damage that occured on 16 fairway.  The areas have already closed in some since the damage occured and will continue to look better as we get into the Fall.

Tee Aerification Complete

Tee Aerification has been completed.

  The tee aerification has been completed.  Our original schedule and plan for this job was delayed but we managed to squeeze it in and finish during the last two days.  Thank you for your cooperation during this operation.  We will be topdressing these tees on Monday unless there is rain.



Course Maintenance Update

Monday morning was the first frost of the year. The crew was delayed for about an hour before we could start mowing.

The rough cut is now back under control. The rainfall put us behind and it took a few days to get caught back up.

The damaged fairway areas are slowly starting to creep back in and recover from the damage. There is also plenty of seed that has germinated over the past week. The growing conditions have been good and the areas are healing.

Monday we spread fertilizer on all the fairways and the greens. This will help push growth and speed recovery from aerification. The fairways will be closed to cart traffic for 2 days following this fertilizer application.

The seeding of 16 fairway has started and we will leave this hole closed to cart traffic until we get a nice stand of grass growing again.

We hope to begin tee aerification this week, with the aerification of the fairways starting the following week. The weather looks great in the extended forecast so we hope to be able to achieve a great deal in that time frame.