Course Opening Wednesday March 14th!

The news you've all been waiting for!  We will open the course to play for the 2012 season Wednesday, March 14th at 9:00 a.m.  Thanks to a warm winter and a warm spring, this will be the earliest opening the course has ever seen.  Right now, the plan is to be open with carts, forecasters are not calling for much rain so I don't see that changing.

Tomorrow and Tuesday the grounds staff will be working hard to finish our preparations for opening.  The greens and tees will get their first mowing, and we will be blowing off the fairways in order to provide you with the best possible early season conditions.  This warm weather will really be kicking our operation into high gear, as most of our chemical schedules are now going to be running two to three weeks ahead of normal and we will be seeing the grass start to green up and get growing.  It's looking like it may be a busier spring than usual.

The warm and windy weather we had over the past few days allowed us to get out and begin preparations for opening the golf course.  Yesterday we were able to finish cleaning off the greens and tees, and finish rolling the greens. 

Adam Rolling 11 Green, with Roberto blowing off 17 Tee

Course preparations were moving along quite nicely until last nights rain, and with the colder temperatures coming in tomorrow, the golf course will not be opened this weekend.  As of right now, we don't have date set for opening the golf course, but the forecast for next week is very promising.  Keep an eye on the blog over the next few days for updates.  Blog readers and twitter followers will be the first to know when the golf course is opening for play!

Hello Winter - For a Few Days At Least

Winter finally decided to show up for a few days, and the frozen ground has allowed us to get to some tree work that has been put on hold until now.  A tree service was here yesterday and today to do some large tree removals and to do some trimming.  All in all, they removed four trees, two of which were causing turf problems.  The first was behind 17 green, and was shading the green from the south, where the strongest summer sun comes from.  It was causing some areas of the green, especially the back tier, to be very weak.  The second was behind the 7th green near 8 tee.  The back of the green has been getting weaker because of tree roots growing into the green and from the tree blocking the morning sun from the east.  Removing this tree will also help the back of the 8th tee, as it will now receive afternoon sun.  Morning sun is better, but getting afternoon sun as opposed to no sun will help this very high traffic area. 

Getting Started on 17

Almost Down

Yesterday, they were able to finish all the removals that we were not able to do in house, and today they have been working on trimming up some tee shots that have gotten over grown.  Tee shots that will now be a little wider are holes 4 and 6.  The tree service will be here for a few more days to begin pruning more of the trees on the course.  It has now been about ten years since the trees have had a good pruning, and many trees are definitely needing it.  We hope to get a majority of the trees trimmed over the course of the next few years. 

The other "problem" with no snow cover

It's going to be a mess out there this spring.

January 12, 2012

Golf course finally looking like its supposed to in January....white!

Interesting Look to #1 Fwy

I don't know for sure what the cause of this is, but there are distinct lines of different looking turf on both sides of the first fairway.  It's possible that at some time, the sides of the fairway were killed off and seeded with a different variety of bentgrass, but there is also defined lines of earthworm activity.  The earthworm activity leads me to believe that there is some difference in the soil on the outsides of the fairway. 

The black specks in the grass on the left side of the picture are soil castings, created by earthworms.

Is it March?

This morning I took advantage of this unseasonable weather, and took a walk on the course to check on all the greens and evaluate how they are fairing through this very mild winter.  Overall things look good, but there are a few small spots that are looking a little weak and will need to be monitored through the rest of this snowless "winter" we are having.  Snow cover provides protection to the greens from the winter winds and cold temperatures, without snow cover, some of the weaker areas of turf can be susceptible to winter kill. 

Dead Ash Tree Near 3 Tee

Without having many cold days, it's been hard to get out on the course and do our tree removals that we have planned for the winter.  It's best to do this work when the ground is frozen in order to minimize the damage to the turf from falling trees and the heavy equipment we need to use to clean up the mess.  The cold weather we had at the beginning of this week finally provided us a window of a few days to get out and work.  Most of the tree removals that we will be doing this winter are due to the emerald ash borer (EAB) that has infected most, if not all, of the ash trees on the course that are not being treated. 

Click on the Picture to Enlarge and see the EAB galleries that cut of water and nutrient supplies, killing the ash trees.

Since we haven't been able to get out on the course as often as we like, it's been busy here in the shop.  About half of the equipment work has been completed, but there is still a long way to go to get ready for mowing and opening the course in the spring.  It will be here before we know it!