Maintenance Morning

Once a week we close the tee for maintenance. This allows us to preform any cultural practices to the playing surfaces before the golfers get out on the course. All of these practices have many benefits but can be disruptive.We modify our plans on a weekly basis depending on the weather, playing surface health and golf schedule.The last four weeks this has been our process every maintenance day.

Aerate the greens with needle tines to open them up and vent the soils

The small needle tines make the holes hard to see even after the whole process is done

Verticutt to help stand up the grass and remove some organic matter

Topdress a thin coat of sand on to smooth playing surface and dilute remaining organic matter

Brushes on the back of the sandpro to help move sand around evenly

Sweep to move sand into soil profile

Roll to smooth playing surface

Blow off any debris and reset the pin position

Water in any remaining sand on the surface

Add a fresh cut to clean-up the playing surface

Wet Conditions

It was nice to get the course open for play last week, now we just need the weather to cooperate. The whole property has been saturated and we are seeing standing water on most of the holes.

Start of the day

Along with power carts not being able to be used on the course we are restricted to how much maintenance work we can do. We will not be taking any of our heavy equipment (larger mowing equipment, utility carts...  ) around the course and the bunkers are going to need a few extra days to dry out.

#7 Green

Hopefully once we get through the next few days the course can dry up and we will get things back on track for some nice spring weather.

Standing Water

Spring Weather

The course is greening up nicely. We have been able to do our first few cuts and the greens are looking good. There is inconsistent growth on the greens right now due to the fact that some areas are getting more sunlight than others and warming up the soil temperatures. Hopefully with some consistent weather everything will be actively growing soon.

#3 Green

#12

We have started our cultural programs for the season. We are trying to get our first aeration done before we get open but it has been hard to get around the whole property. We are starting with a deep tine aeration that punches holes about 8 inches deep. This is giving the roots easy access through any layers in the soil that may have been slowing them down. The next steps in the process are all weather dependent, so we will see how things are looking next week.

Deep Tine Aerator

Wide spacing to insure less disruption

The weather for the remainder of the week is not looking great. With rains and cooler temperatures it will slow down our ability to get the course ready for play. We haven't been able to get out on the course with our bigger equipment yet and the weather forecast isn't going to help. The bunkers haven't been touched yet as we don't want our efforts to be wasted if we get the rain they are calling for. We are hoping that the course won't fair to badly through the end of this week, so we can move forward with course preparation and important cultural practices. 

Spring Update 2017

This has been an interesting week of weather. We welcome the rain to insure enough moisture for the plant while it wakes up. The snow has slowed us down for a few days, which is a good reminder of the unpredictability of April weather.

The 10th Tee

Lots of standing water

Across the River

With these fluctuations in temperature over the last few weeks, the perforated tarps have helped to protect the plants by regulating these changes. It looks like next week they will need to be removed so we can start to prepare the greens for play. At this time, we believe the greens have survived the winter well but with the tarps still on we haven’t seen all areas yet. 

A peek under a tarp

The newly sodded tees on #3 and #5 have wintered well. There is still some work to be done on the surrounding areas such as sodding and installing the steps. We look forward to getting them into play as soon as possible.

New tees on #3

New tee on #5

We have lots of course clean up and set up to do before we open, so hopefully the weather cooperates in the following weeks. We will start with debris clean up and the first cuts on the playing surfaces. Hopefully we will be able to start our cultural practices of aerating, topdressing, brushing and verticutting. The plants should begin growing, so they can handle any stress that may be added from maintenance or golf. For active growth we need the soil temperatures to increase, which is directly related to the air temperature, so we are looking for some nice days with warmer nights.

We are looking forward to a new season.