Sunday, September 25, 2011

Weekly Schedule for Sept 26-Oct 2, 2011

Weather and unforeseen conditions can/will change the schedule.

The far side of the driving range tee will be opened on Tuesday morning for use. We will continue aerifying and seeding green surrounds and bunker greens. Once completed we will move to rough and fairway bunker seeding.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Seeding Schedule

Our goal is to have the far side of the driving range tee open for play on Tuesday, September 27th. We will need to rope off an area for everyone to walk through to get to that side while keeping traffic off the recently seeded near side (closest to the 1st tee).

As you can see from these photos we are getting excellent germination in areas where the seedbed is prepped properly on hole #10:


While the prep time takes a bit longer it is obvious the germination is far superior in the properly prepped location compared to the surrounding areas:


Our seeding schedule is to do all green surrounds and green side bunker faces first. Then we will do fairway bunker faces and areas of the rough with grub damage. So far we are through hole #12 green surrounds.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Weekly Schedule for Sept. 19-25, 2011

Weather and unforeseen conditions can/will change the schedule.

On Monday we are lightly topdressing greens as well as backfilling around the lake overflow structure on hole #6.

Our seeding efforts will be focused on tees and bunker faces.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Grubs

This time of year is when grub damage is most evident on the golf course. Actually, it's not the root feeding insect that is doing the damage but animals such as skunks which are tearing up the turf looking for these tasty treats!

We did a preventive application on greens, tees and fairways this summer to control the insects. Therefore there is zero grub activity in these areas. Roughs do have areas where there is a strong grub presence.

Here's a couple of photos of the grub, we believe are actually masked chafer beetles, and the damage caused by animals looking for them:




These photos were taken on an area to the left of #9 fairway.

Currently we are applying a product for control then re-seeding. In order for this not to occur in the future we use our CourseVision maps to mark where we find the damage so we can make a preventative treatment next summer.



Areas with the red outline are examples of where we have found damage in the roughs in the past few weeks.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Weekly Schedule for September 12-18, 2011

Weather and unforeseen conditions can/will change the schedule.

One goal this week is to fix the erosion around the lake overflow structure on #6. We are waiting for it to dry out enough so we can pour concrete then backfill and compact. The rest of the driving range tee will be aerified and seeded on Monday. We will continue to seed any areas that need it throughout the course.

We will be applying a fungicide to fairways for control of Dollar Spot disease. If time is available a general clean-up of the stream area on #15 will be done.

There is excellent germination on collars, so please play any newly germinated areas as ground under repair.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Weather and Driving Range Tee

Couple of interesting notes about the weather:

We received 15.8 inches of rain in August. The average for the month of August is...... 4.1 inches.

Through September 7 we have received 4.75 inches of rain.  The average for the entire month of September is.....4 inches.

I'm actually pretty sure we had more rain since at times it was raining so hard it was coming in sideways and not picked up by our rain gauge.

Couple of pictures from the driving range tee that was seeded Tuesday, August 23.

The first picture is from Monday, September 5:



Now here is one from today, Thursday, September 8:



Now that's some amazing growth!










Monday, September 5, 2011

Weekly Schedule for September 5-11, 2011

Weather and unforeseen conditions can/will change the schedule.

This week is all about seed, seed and more seed. We have gotten excellent germination on collars and the far half of the driving range tee. Now we are focusing on bunker surrounds, green surrounds and any areas on collars that need additional seeding.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Driving Range Tee Seeding

We were able to seed the far half of the driving range tee on Tuesday. So far the weather is looking very good for germination and growth. Hope to have some initial germination within a week.

Photos of golf course mechanic Greg Taylor doing the seeding:




Also, a photo of bentgrass seed germinating in the divots on #6 tee. This is a great sign that the weather is very conducive to new seedling growth!