Pre-emerg

We are working on getting down pre-emerg on the course for the season. That is all the green/blue out there. We use a tracker dye that helps us to make sure we don't have any skips or heavy overlaps. This pre-emerg is going out with roundup. It will prevent weeds from coming up throughout the year and will kill any thing that's out there now. We can spray roundup in the winter on the Bermuda because the plant is dormant and won't absorb the chemical. It's a lot cheaper than spraying other chemicals that are selective to just the weeds and not the Bermuda.

We are in a hurry to get this stuff out before more rain comes. It is recommended that you get out this pre-emerg at least 3 weeks before the start of green-up. I like to usually have it out the first or second week of February but this year has been so wet, we haven't been able to get the sprayers on the course.

Bunkers

The bunkers are still washed out. We have to wait for the sand to thaw to fix. Recently, most bunkers don't unthaw until the afternoon not leaving us much time to do the repairs. Instead of fixing 1 or 2 a day we will wait for some warmer weather (or at least some mornings where the temps are above freezing) so we can fix them all in a couple days.

Bunker sand and wind

The wind this winter has been blowing the sand out of the bunkers and on to the greens. We have been blowing it, but will have to set up some hay bales or silt fence to block it.

Bunkers

The bunkers are still washed out and need raking. We haven't been able to rake them because they are frozen every morning until about 10 am. The few warm mornings we have had, we've got rain or it's been too wet to be able to get the machine to the bunkers without tearing everything up.

This next week looks really cold and no real need on using that much labor to rake bunkers if it's going to be that cold with no play. We have started fixing some bunkers, and have been adjusting sand depth on the faces as we get to some of the priority bunkers.

Greens

These pics were taken last week during all the freeze/thaw mornings. When the greens are thawing and only the top inch is thawed while the rest is still frozen they get real soft and spongy. You can see this in these pictures. This is one of the reasons we have to be careful opening or closing on these mornings....especially after all the rain we have had.

Trees

There are a bunch of trees marked on 12, 13 and 14. These are NOT being removed just trimmed up. The trimming crew is done for a while until I can afford to bring them back. I like the results.

Rain

We got about 2.5" today. The bunkers washed out a little and there is standing water everywhere. The course will be closed tomorrow.