Saturday, April 30, 2011

On The Course April 30th

Above is the current radar image at 6:20am. Doesn't look good for golf this morning but should roll through and clear up for this afternoon. We are currently at 0.5" of rain with more coming.

Check with the Proshop and Foretees for more current updates. We will be checking the course this morning and resetting the range tee. If the rain moves out early enough we will set the course for the 2pm Shotgun this afternoon.

Friday, April 29, 2011

On The Course April 29th


We have some frost this morning and still some very wet areas through out the golf course.

Once the frost lifts we will be moving the cover on the range tee and opening the front of the tee for the weekend. Greens will be rolled this morning and pin locations will be changed. We will also be working on irrigation controllers today. Collars and Approaches will be mowed today in areas that are not too wet.

PLEASE KEEP ALL CARTS ON THE PATHS! With the rough starting to grow there are puddles that are not easily seen and cart damage can occur rather quickly.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

On The Wet Course April 28th


We have not received any measurable amount rain overnight. It is still extremely wet on the course and we will remain CART PATH ONLY!!! Please do not leave the path for any reason when out on the course and keep all four tires on the path.

We are mowing greens this morning with walk mowers for the first time this season. The greens were fertilized earlier in the week and have grown a little bit despite the cold wet weather. A nice sunny day would be well received right now. Meteorologist Ian Leonard might be playing this morning with JD so I might have to ask him to help us out with the weather and order up some warm sunshine.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

On The Course April 27th


We have recieved 1.5" of rain since yesterday and scattered rain in the forecast for today. Today we are going to be working on bunkers and irrigation controllers. If the course dries out enough later in the morning we will get out and mow greens.



Above is a picture of the first of 14 controllers that we will be installing over the next week. The controllers are going to allow us to water the course more efficient.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

On The Course April 26th

As you can see from today's picture it is a wet and cold morning here at the course. We have already received .5 inches of rain this morning and are expecting to have around an inch by the time the rain moves through. The course will be closed this morning due to wet playing conditions. Please contact the Pro Shop and watch Foretees for updates on today's opening.

Monday, April 25, 2011

On The Course April 25th


What a little sun can do for the course!!

We are going to be in full mow mode today with the rough and fairways starting to grow. Greens will be sprayed today with some fertilizer and iron. The cover on the range tee will be pulled today and the range floor will be fertilized. Jason and Gabriel are going to continue to work on pulling controllers and resetting new concrete bases for our Network VP controllers.

Sunny day today with some clouds and rain for tomorrow but by the end of the week I heard a mention of possible 70's.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

On The Course April 24th

Happy Easter!! With a clear sky overnight, a thick coating of frost has covered the course this morning. We will be delayed in our course maintenance this morning until the frost burns off. We ask that you please stay off all turf areas until the frost is gone. Please keep in touch with the pro shop and on foretees for updates on today's opening. After we are able to get on the course we will be rolling greens, changing pin locations, doing tee service and raking green side bunkers.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

On The Course April 23rd


A little misty rain this morning with 0.1" of rain overnight. The rain is supposed to let off later this morning with a slight chance of seeing the sun later today.

We will be preparing the course for play this morning by mowing greens, changing pin locations and raking bunkers.

Friday, April 22, 2011

On The Course April 22nd


The cover on the range tee is being pulled this morning so we can mow and fertilize the tee. The cover will be replaced and left on until later next week.

We received 0.25" of rain overnight but do not have any puddles on the course. We will be rolling greens and changing pin locations today. Intermediate rough will get the first mow of the season today.

Please remember to keep the carts on the paths at all times.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

On The Course April 21st




No more snow but heavy frost on the course today. It does look we will have some sun this morning to help warm things up quickly. We are looking at a slight frost delay this morning. Please check in with the Proshop for projected starting times.

We will be mowing greens later this morning. We have pulled some of the MGA markers on the tee boxes for cleaning and paint. We will be replacing them as we get them cleaned up over the next couple of days. We are looking forward to a warmer weekend for Easter and will be rolling greens Friday.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

On The Course April 20th

SNOW!!!




.................and that is all I have to say about that!

Snow flurries throughout the morning with a daytime high of 45 degrees. Tomorrow looks like a better day for golf. We should have a warmer day tomorrow and most of the snow will not last very long. Check with the Proshop later today for possible opening the course this afternoon.


Tuesday, April 19, 2011

On The Course April 19th


We have some rain and snow in the forecast for later today and into tomorrow. Today we are working on cleaning up some more debris from the tree removals and will be working on stump grinding later this week.

Hopefully this is the last snow we get for the spring and we can get back out and mow some turf. The weekend forecast is looking to get into the 60's.

Out irrigation projects are coming along nicely and we will be charging the system again today to check some more stations and check for leaks. So far only one pin hole leak in a steel pipe. We are working on upgrading our control system and will be testing stations over the next week.

Please remember to keep carts on the paths until further notice.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

On The Course April 17th




We are clear of snow this morning but with a temperature here at the course of 29 degrees the ground is pretty frozen. We will be updating the Proshop with an opening time throughout the morning but we expect to have a considerable frozen delay.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

On The Course April 16th


Winter Wonderland this morning with some slow release water on the ground. Our high temperature for the day should top out in the upper 40's. The snow will not stick around very long and the course should be open for play later today. Keep watching for updates from FORETEES.

Friday, April 15, 2011

On The Course April 15th

Cold and windy today!




Yesterday we had our first irrigation repair on #14 fairway and as usually we aren't sure what exactly it is going to be until we dig it up. The above picture is of a 2.5" Steel pipe that comes from the main line and supplies water to #14 fairway. All of our irrigation as-built maps show the main line 30 feet to the east of this pipe but with some investigation looking at settle lines and hooking the wire tracer up to the steel pipe and following it we can determine what we exactly have in the ground. The steel pipes in the ground are original hardware from the irrigation installation in 1968.



We pulled the cover on the range tee yesterday and we are getting some good growth started on the tee. Troy mowed the tee before we recovered it.

Today we are going to be changing pin locations and working on some more course clean up. With the weather forecast we will not be mowing or rolling greens.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

On The Course April 14th, 2011



We will be pulling the cover on the range tee this morning to mow and clean the tee off. The cover will be replaced and left on the tee until next week. We are using the cover to help with growth on the tee. With cooler temperatures we will be working on some small projects throughout the golf course and continue to clean up debris from the golf course.

We will remain cart path only until later next week and if the rough starts to grow through the snow mold damage we will let carts off the path.

Jason started to charge the irrigation system yesterday and we have 90% of the golf course charged and will continue to run through stations over the next couple of days to ensure everything is working properly.



Troy has seeded a couple areas on the Practice green and a couple of greens on the Executive Course. We will be watching these areas over the next couple of weeks for growth.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

On The Course April 13th, 2011


The Championship Course opens today!

We are going to be rolling greens (if the rain doesn't get too heavy) and putting flag sticks out today. The rough is starting to grow and push through the winter snow mold and we are asking that everyone stay on the path with golf carts. CART PATH ONLY!

We have been able to mow greens a couple times this past week and also have rolled the greens. We are keeping our height of cut on greens a little high through this weekend with one more cold front moving in and after that we will be getting the greens down to summer height. Fairways, Tees, Collars and Approaches were mowed yesterday with only a couple fairways left to be mowed today. The back nine still has some leaves blowing around but we will be working this morning on getting them cleaned up.


Friday, April 8, 2011

On The Course April 8th, 2011

We are opening the Executive Course and Range today. We still have a lot of work to get done on the championship course as well as the course needs a little more time to get the frost out of some areas and dry up. A nice warm rain this weekend will help and we should be ready to open the Championship Course Wednesday, April 13th.

The crew was working quickly Thursday to get all of the Excelsior Covers hauled to the barn. The covers are all dry and have been put into storage in great shape. Below is a video of the back nine greens with a quick walk through over each green. It is a little long but it gives a good idea of what each greens looks like.


Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Pictures From The Course! April 5th


Snow mold on right and snow mold protected turf on left


Head Mechanic Shaun Hill painting bag stands


Covering the range tee with evergreen cover


Evergreen cover on range tee


Sod cut from low area placed in bunker for winter


Drainage hole on Green surface


Green surface has significant growth

On The Course April 5th, 2011

We have started the process of pulling covers off of the greens and so far we are happy with what we are seeing. There is some wood fibers left on the surface that we will need to clean up and the greens will need some time to dry and firm up before we will be able to play on them. We are hopeful to get all the covers off the greens by Thursday and start the long haul of getting them stored in the barn for the summer. We still have a couple pockets of snow and some very wet conditions on the course. We are hopeful not to get too much rain over the next couple of days.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

On The Course April 2nd, 2011

I have been out on the course this morning evaluating our snow melt and getting some projects organized for next week. Above is a picture I took of the middle right of #6 green. As you can see the turf underneath the covers looks pretty good. Over the past couple of weeks we have been able to keep an eye on what has been going on under the covers and have a pretty good feel for what the greens are going to be looking like when we pull the covers off. I have looked under the covers on every green in areas I would think we could have issues and they all look similiar to the picture above.

Fairways and tees are looking pretty good also but there is some ice damage areas on some fairways and a little snow mold breakthrough on some tees. The picture to the right is of a spot on #6 fairway and is 3 foot square area that has some ice damage. This is a settle area that collects water and when the snow melted and refroze it caused this turf damage. There are several areas throughout the golf course fairways that have some ice damage. Most of these areas will be aerified and seeded when the fairways dry out enough and we are able to get on them.

We are looking at the weather forecast very closely right now with another system moving in later in the day on Sunday, April 3rd. The computer models are showing the heavier moisture is starting to move farther to the north and most of the moisture will miss the Twin Cities area. As most people know the weather can change at anytime but we are hopeful not to get a lot of moisture from this next system. If we are able to get a couple nice warmer days next week we will be able to get the green covers off and store them in the barn.


Above is a picture of the crew working on chipping some branches from some tree trimming this past week. With most of the snow melting we will be able to get a lot of these areas cleaned up and ready for play.