Green Damage

     I love nature.  Animals on the golf course makes this place so special.  You can play a round of golf and see deer, fox, numerous birds, bobcats, squirrels, rabbits and many more species.  I have no problem with wildlife until they start to damage the course.  We had a spot on the front of 1 green develop on Monday.  I suspect it is a female  fox, coyote or dog urine kill.  This spot was about 10 inches in diameter in the front right of the green.  We had to plug out the spot.  The spot was a perfect circle.  Below you will see before and after photos.  About 3 years ago we had a fox dig a hole in this green down about 1 foot.  I hope this is all the damage we get.

 

Course Update

     Rain finally ended on Friday.  We  received 6.5 inches of rain last week.  The golf course is very wet as of today.  We got very little  mowing done last week and it shows badly.  We are mowing everything today.  Hopefully the rain stays away for tomorrow.  Any amount of moisture will saturate the soil and make it difficult to mow.  It takes 2 full days of mowing to get all of our roughs mowed one time.  We mowed fairways today and will mow them again tomorrow.  Please have patience we will catch up on the mowing.  The bunkers were destroyed by last weeks rain event.  We are working on them and hope to have them fixed by end of the day on Wednesday.  Green speed has slowed, it will take a little time to get greens back to were they were before all the rain.  Dry weather is what we need forecast looks like we are not going to have much of that this week.  We will keep our fingers crossed.

Course Update

Golf course is closed today as of 1:30 p.m.  rain has been falling all day and course is completely saturated.  As of Saturday June 13 we have received a total of 4.5 inches of rain and counting.  I am sorry for any inconvenience.  Hopefully the weather man will be off on rain predictions for the next 2 days.  We will let you know as soon as course opens.
Thanks,  

Driving Range Tee Help

     We need your help in order to keep our Driving Range tee in the best possible shape.  As most of you are aware our teeing area is too small.  This is a big challenge to keep turf on the tee.  Our driving range is used often.  Please help us keep our driving range tee in the best possible shape.                                                                                                                                                                  We move the teeing area daily to give the old area  time to heal.  Every Monday we are restricted to the mat.  This was a decision that was made by the Green Committee to help give the turf areas an extra day to recover.  On days we receive too much rain we are restricted to the mat.  If you see the balls on the mat please stay on the mat.  We have a number of members that drag the baskets to the grass tee and hit when the baskets are set up on the mat.  Please hit your balls from where the range is set up.
      There is a good and bad way to hit your balls off the turf.  The diagram below illustrates the proper way to hit your shots off the grass tee.  Making a big hole in the tee takes the longest time to recover we do not like that.  If you hit lines or space your divots out the turf has a shorter distance to heal.  The last thing is when you are finished practicing please take a  minutes and fill your divots in.  We have two containers with sand in them set up behind the teeing areas. 
     Doing these few things will  keep our driving range tee in the best possible shape. Thanks for your cooperation.
    

 

Venting

     We Hydroject our green today.  This is using hi pressure water to aerate  the greens.  We get a 3inch by 3 inch hole pattern that are 6 to 7 inches deep. This allows for oxygen exchange in our greens. The grass takes oxygen up through the root system.  This allow oxygen to get to the roots and allows the carbon dioxide out.  Roots will actually fill in the void left by the hydrojecting.  With all the rain and cool weather this will help our greens dry down.  Excessive moisture is not a good combination especially when it gets hotter.  We will Hydroject two more time this summer.  It takes 3 machines about 4 hours to complete this job.

Hydrojecting Putting Green.

 Notice no mess.

 You can hardly see the hole pattern.

Krakow Cup

     Today is the start of the Krakow Cup.  Our men's member guest tournament.  The golf course is in excellent shape.  I want to take a moment to thank my staff for a job well done.  We have put in some long hours getting the course in shape for this weekend.  Thanks to Dan Tod my Assistant, he wears many hats can do any job on the golf course. Thanks Rob Bardot, Rob keep our equipment up and running and if needed he will mow, fix pool problems and Clubhouse problems.  Thanks Karen Burns, Our landscape beds are the best at any golf course in the state.  Not only does she keep up with the landscape she will help out on the golf course anywhere she is needed.  Thanks Tim Larrison, Tim is our Irrigation Tec. he fixes leaks and bad sprinklers.  Tim also mows greens every day.  Thanks Kyle Frandenburg,  Kyle has worked here for 35 years.  Kyle mows our tee's and green approaches.  He can also do any job on the golf course.  Thanks, Nick Wachter,  Nick mows our collar, perimeters around the greens and he  also mow greens when needed.  Thanks, Duane Scheible, Duane mows our fairways and roughs.  He can also mow greens when need.  Thanks, Larry Ronsick, Larry mows roughs for us, he works 3 days a week.  Thanks Sonny Stone, Sonny mow roughs for us 3 days a week.  Thanks to our summer help, Mike Wachter, Corbin Voyles, and Conner Watson.  These young men keep our Driving Range picked, Bunkers raked, trashed picked up and golf course weed trimmed.  These are outstanding people I feel very fortunate to have them on my staff.  Thank you staff job well done.

 

First group off # 1 Tee

Winter Damage

     We have a few areas in some of our fairways that have winter killed due to excessive moisture.  Zoysia grass does not like excessive moisture.  some areas on our course water sits for longer periods of time.  The Zoysia is thin or has completely been killed.  We are working on some drainage plans to help move the water off the course to help dry these areas out.  In the areas that are killed we will sod them.  The areas that are thin we will push them to fill in with extra fertilizer.

 #9 fairway

 #9 in front of green

 # 6 fairway low area water cannot runoff

# 6 fairway.  There is Zoysia in the thinning area it will fill in.