Mowing and Spraying

We are mowing all the fairways and approaches today to get them all cleaned up before more wet weather moves in. This will clean up all the earthworm castings and diviots, and put fresh lines into the fairway.

We are also spraying fairways for weeds. This extremely wet last half of the year has made it a bad year for poa. The rain tends to lessen the length of time that the pre-emerg chemicals last. We are getting all the poa now before it gets bad. We do this with a post-emerg herbicide that kills only the cool season grass (poa) and does not harm the bermudagrass.

Kids

Here is a picture of #9 after a party last night. 1 Budweiser, 1 Sam Adams, bottle of Jim Beam Red Stag, bottle of Southern Comfort, and a bottle of Malibu Black was found!  Quite a party.  They also drew pictures of certain body parts in the bunkers and threw one of those new $80 flagsticks with the reflectors somewhere - probably in the bottom of the pond.

Amigos

The last amigo went back to Mexico today. We have hired some new workers to help us through the winter months and through next year.

Two of the guys had their family pick them up at the Mexico City airport after they landed to go home and they were robbed at gunpoint on a Mexican highway by a couple guys in a truck. They took everything they had brought back home with them - cash, gifts, passports, clothes, everything. No one was hurt and everyone got home safely, but is just one of the risks that these guys take to come up here to provide for their families in Mexico. Can't wait for them to return in April!

Sent from my iPhone

Course leafs

The course was trashed yesterday from all the high winds that we had two nights ago. We have got everything blown And the course is cleaned up for the most part.

The course is still pretty wet in some areas. Things are very slow to dry out this time of year because the grass isn't growing and our clay soil.

This was a picture of #14 as I was starting to blow. We made a few marks with the tractors blowing the golf course, but finally got everything cleaned up.

Course Conditions

The course is extremely wet and there is standing water on many of the holes.  We got 0.4" yesterday and 0.9" this morning. 

Some of the back nine (#12, #14) are pretty bad with leaves because we were not able to blow them earlier in the week (they were still a little too wet).  The holes that did get blown are not as bad but there are still leaves everywhere.  It might be a while before it dries down enough to get the tractors back on the course.

Leafs

It's finally drying out enough to get the tractors on the course to work on blowing leafs. We will try to get the worst holes first then move around course from there.

Rain and bunkers

Some of the bunkers are washed after the 2+ inches of rain we received. Once everything dries out a little we will repair the washout. The last of the amigos are leaving tomorrow so we are going to be a little thin on labor. It gets difficult this time of year once all the guys leave and the weather stays nice. With the weather being nice we still have to mow greens, and setup the course for daily play. It is important this time of year that everyone rakes the bunkers after hitting a shot. With minimal staff we concentrate our labor on greens and course setup, thus bunker maintenance in the morning is only done a few times a week.

Pg2

Double cutting pg2 and grooming it. It's looking pretty good and is maturing nicely.

Grooming greens

I have been displeased with the lack of quality ball roll on the greens the last week or so. We are lightly grooming greens today to get the grass to stand up a little bit before mowing them. This should help smooth out the greens a little. We couldn't do this earlier because of the sand on the greens. If you bring up sand with vertical mowing it will dull the movers as soon as they go over the sand.

The deep tine aeration that we did last month made the greens bumpy for an extended period of time. This was a necessary practice that is used to fix the deep compaction that was built up over the summer, and it creates channels for new root growth. The aeration worked for root growth - I have seen significant root growth and recovery after this aeration.

Re-grassing project #10

Here is a picture on the re-grassing project that we are working on along the cart path on #10. 36 pallets of sod have been installed on these areas this week. We are laying fescue around the trees and touching up some of the thin hardpan areas in the bermuda. This will give this area a very clean look, and will look great on one of our most visible areas from Two Rivers Rd. I am planning on doing this on a hole or two a year. The next hole we are going to do is #3 along the cart path by the fairway bunker.

Leaves

We are smack in the middle of leaf season. The golf course is blown every morning with these big tractor blowers before play. The last week has been quite windy which makes it impossible to blow leaves. We get as much done every morning as we can before the wind picks up.

Deer

Here is a picture of a tree behind #5 green that the bucks have been rubbing on. This is a common sight in yards on many ornamental trees in the neighborhood.

Topdressing

Here is a picture of a green after topdressing. The sand will help fill the holes and smooth out the greens. This will be the last heavy sanding that we do for the year. It's all gone for the most part and we will mow in the morning.

Course conditions.

Course is a little on the wet side and there are a lot of leafs and debris on the course from the windy conditions yesterday. We are allowing carts on the fairways today just please watch out for any low areas.

Greens were mowed and rolled this morning and the greens are rolling good. They are still a little bumpy from the aeration, but the benefits of the aeration have been noticed - greens are a lot healthier now vs before the aeration. We will topdress lightly on Monday to help with the bumpiness.