As you have been in and out of the clubhouse the past two weeks, you probably noticed our progress on the lawn and flower beds. Not much changed, but it does have a fresh look to it. Some of the bed lines changed and we laid new sod. A new shrub is on the way to replace one that was removed. This area will only look better as we move into summer.
Here is the before picture in front of Club 21. The shrub at the corner [.....]
We are wrapping up the first topdressing and aeration on the fairways this season. Like so many other things, the rain last week delayed us on this project. Once the water was off the course, we then had to wait for the soil to dry enough to get heavy equipment back out. We will be done by the end of this week.
We use a large solid tine in the fairways to break up the soil under the surface. We are not pulling a core in the [.....]
This was a post that I had ready last week until the rains forced us to change our schedule. Each spring we spend a little extra time get the bunkers ready to go for the golfing season. This work involves removing debris, checking sand depths and moving sand. This year we added one step-edging.
Our trim work on the bunkers through the season involves cleaning the edges with a weedeater, but no major edging work. This project involves using a shovel to cut a clean edge, removing the old [.....]
It will take some time to get the course back into shape. There is still water across the 16th fairway this morning, and some cart paths will need to be rebuild. The crew has done an amazing job this morning, in very unfavorable weather, to get the course back in shape. Cleaning debris, fixing bunkers and fixing cart paths are the priorities today. We are foregoing some mowing(still too wet also) and working to get the course in playable condition. This means some fairways will be very long [.....]
A short video of the flooding on the course yesterday.
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The storm system last night brought with it 4.0 inches of rain. More rain is coming today. I have never seen this much rain on the course before. The course will be closed until further notice.
One nice thing is the flooding is confined to a very small portion of the course. This makes clean-up easier. However, this will take several days to get the course back in shape after it dries enough to get back out. Here are some pictures:
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This weekend the course will have its "official" opening. Carts will be available, the practice areas will be open, the halfway house will be open, and all beverage stations will be on the course. The weather is still not cooperating with highs forecasted to be in the 40s on Saturday and a chance of rain on Sunday. We received over 2 inches of rain this week which helped green the course, but the cool and cloudy weather is limiting growth. It is tough to call this spring when [.....]
Most of the crew started back to work last Monday, and a few more began work yesterday. It is nice to have the crew back and try to get into a routine for the season. With the weather still stuck in February, we are trying to get some projects done while mowing is not even on our to do list yet. The first project was the installation of drainage at 1 tee. The area between the end of the cart path and the fairway regularly held water [.....]
Slowly, things are coming along on the course. We have done a first mowing on the fairway and approaches. Greens were mowed again today for the second time. The bunkers have been cleaned and one raking has been done. It will take a few rounds raking the bunkers to get the sand in shape. Rakes are in the bunkers now, so be sure to rake your tracks for the golfers behind you. Tee markers are out on the course now as well.
We do not have a [.....]
Frost is delaying any activity on the course for Thursday. It looks like it will be a nice day once the sun comes up. We plan to get a first mowing done on the fairways and approaches today. [.....]
There are examples on several greens throughout the course of damage from traffic over a frozen green. This is why we play to a location in the approach rather than allow traffic on frozen greens. There are many days during the winter when the weather is sunny and warm, but the soil and the portion of the turf canopy closest to the soil is still frozen. The growing point of the grass plant is in this area of the canopy just above the soil surface. Exposure to any [.....]