On The Course July 31st

The weather forecast for today is very hot and humid with a heat index into the hundreds, needless to say we will be out watching the course this afternoon and watering as needed.  Last nights thunderstorms just skirted us on both sides and we received no precipitation.  We are still showing signs of heat stress on the golf course but with some extra water and good growing conditions these areas should begin to fill in quickly.  We are rolling greens this morning and reseting the course.  The greens are firm this morning and in our normal speed range.  Again expect to see us handwatering greens and spot watering tees and fairways this afternoon.  Thanks for your patience.

On The Course July 29th

What a great moring on the course.  We had cool overnight temperatures which is nice for the turf with the high afternoon temps we are expecting today.  Today we are single cutting and rolling greens, they are within our normal speed range.  We are also mowing tees, fairways, and intermediate rough.  Please be patient with us as we may be running water on the course this afternoon in key areas to avoid turf wilitng and also to help some stressed areas, we will also be hand watering greens this afternoon.  Our bathroom project on #13 is nearly complete with the last coat of paint going on today.  We hope to have the area open next week.  Come out and play it is going to be a nice day for golf.

On The Course July 28th

The course is drying out enough to let carts off the path today but we will still have some areas roped off throughout  the golf course. We recieved some turf damage in some fairways from disease and heat stress last week. We are seeing areas that were sitting in water when it was really hot that show signs of scalding. Most of the areas will rebound and we will be working to fix these areas over the next couple of weeks.

Today we are mowing and rolling greens. They are also being sprayed with some fertilizer and fungicide. We have had a solid preventative fungicide program in place for greens this year and it is paying off for us right now. Talking with other Superintendents this season has had the most disease pressure they have seen in a long time.

Fairways, collars and approaches are also being mowed today. We have been working on pruning some sucker growth on some trees the past couple of days and should have that rapped up by the end of the week. 

Justin Ellison Spraying Greens

Sunrise!

On The Course July 27th

Nothing worse than walking into a Irrigation Pumphouse and smelling burnt electronics.

Yesterday we had an overload voltage error on our Irrigation Pump panel. We were able to get the system charged and while looking into the problem we discovered a scorched wire on the breaker that feeds our VFD motor. We then lost power to both well pumps and had to get an electrician to come in and fix the scorched wire and 200amp breaker. We were charged back up and running in the early afternoon and had to spot water the course a little. We also wanted to run enough water to make sure we had everything up and running.

Today we are fixing bunkers and rolling greens . We have recieved over 0.5" of rain overnight and the fairways are wet. We  will be cart path only for today. We are expecting some more rain this morning but should clear up for later in the day. Once the rain breaks we will be spraying tees with fertilizer and fungicide.

Congratulations to Nick Adams for winning the Boys Junior Club Championship

Congratulations to Steph Heiring for winning the Girls Club Championship

On The Course July 26th

We are getting back into some cooler night time temperatures that the turf grass really likes. Today we are mowing and rolling greens. We have the second round of the Junior Club Championship today. Fairways, collars and approaches are also being mowed.

Monday, Nick and Fernando sodded a couple fairway spots on 2, 12 and 15. These areas have been problem spots all season long with the continuous rain. There are some areas on the fairways that were hit pretty hard by the Brown Patch and heat stress. The amount of rain followed by the extreme heat caused some of the low areas that were sitting in water to turn brown. We are going to be working on some of these areas throughout the week and are expecting everything to bounce back. Please use caution when driving the fairways and try to avoid areas that appear to be under stress.

Enjoyed several rounds of golf with Jeff Jacobson, JD and several other members this past weekend at Sutton Bay!

On the Course July 23rd

One more hot and steamy day to start the weekend.  Greens are being single cut and rolled this morning.  Cups are being changed, and tees and appraoches are being mowed.  There is a storm out West this morning that may bring us a little precipitation.  Depending on the amount of rain we recieve, we will be out checking greens this afternoon for heat stress and watering as needed.  We may also be running additional irrigation on fairways and tees.

On The Course July 22nd

It's going to be another hot day. We are expecting some cloud cover for the early part of the day but that could burn off as the day goes on.  We are single cutting greens this moring and not rolling with the intent on keeping as much stress off the greens as possible with the high temperatures forcasted for today.  We will also be mowing fairways and collars and approaches.  Jason and Justin are cutting cups and doing tee service this morning.  It's gonna be a great day for golf.

On The Course July 21st

It's amazing its the last week of JR Golf

 The golf course made it through the extreme heat yesterday and I would like to thank Troy, Jason, Justin and Nick for coming back yesterday afternoon to hand water. Sorry that we had to water during the tournament but the ET was just too high to wait until evening. We were able to get through the course pretty quick and ran some irrigation heads late yesterday afternoon. We still have some fairway spots and different areas on the course that we will spot water today.

Today the Dew points are a lot lower and the air temperatures is in the mid 60's. We are rolling and hand watering greens this morning. Fairways and tees are also being mowed. How has the rough been this year? The new rough mowers have been great so far with a good quality of cut and the productivity has been amazing. The Brown Patch on the fairways is in check and should grow through over the weekend. We do have some spots in the low "bird bath" areas that have taken the moisture and heat hard. Most should rebound and we will be addressing most of these areas early next week.

A few low areas throughout the course are looking a little tough after the heavy rain and extreme heat. We should get most of the areas back in shape pretty quick.

On The Course July 20th



Brown Patch in the Fairways!

We are looking at one more really hot and steamy day with cooler night time temperatures coming in for Thursday. Looks like it is going to be a perfect weekend to play golf.

Today we are mowing greens, collars and approaches. We are trying to keep as much stress off the turf as possible with the record heat and humidity we are seeing. We should be back into a normal mowing routing for the weekend. The turf has become a little puffy with all the rain from last week but is drying out and after a few more mowing will be back to normal.

We are watching the weather today very closely to determine what we will be needing to water. With a lot of the rain sheeting off the greens the moisture levels are getting back into our normal range rather quickly. The ET is supposed to still be above 0.30 which mean we could be out hand watering high spots on greens later today.

Comfort Station on #13 is shaping up!

Bunkers are drying out!

On The Course July 19th

Thanks To Mark Steen and Friendship Ventures for enjoying the golf course yesterday!

Another hot and humid day yesterday! We are catching up on some mowing and other maintenance task on the course after the big rain. Most of the finer turf on the course got mowed yesterday but still needs a little clean up today. Fairways are getting mowed again and are extremely soft. Justin will finish spraying the fairways for Brown Patch and several other turf diseases that could show up over the next couple of days.

Justin Spraying for Brown Patch on Fairways.

Today we are rolling greens and trying to keep as much stress off them as possible with at least 2-3 more days of extreme heat. The humidity is very high and we are expecting the greens to be on the slow side for the next couple of days. We are looking at an Evapotranspiration Rate of 0.31 for tomorrow which is extremely high. The "ET" is the sum of evaporation and plant transpiration. We can use this number to predict what our water losses could be with the current weather forecast. We have site specific data on this coming in from our weather station every day and are using this to determine our watering schedule over the next couple of days. This morning we had a heavy dew and still enough soil moisture for the turf to get through today.

Sheldon had a helper with rough yesterday and Troy got a good picture of the fox.

On The Course July 18th

We are going to be in a hot and muggy stretch for the next couple of days. It has cooled down a little this morning but it is still in the upper 70's with the humidity over 80%. The coditions over the past 48 hours and the next couple of days are ideal for turf diseases. We sprayed greens Saturday afternoon and are spraying fairways this morning. We are seeing some Brown Patch in some fairways as seen in the photo above.

Today we are mowing greens, fairways, collars and approaches. We will not be doing a lot of the detail pushmowing and string trimming over the next couple of days with the Heat Index being well over 100 degrees.

Congratulations to the Member/Member winners and all participants.

Al Lampe and Pat Mackin Member/Member Winners

On The Course July 17th

MEMEBER/MEMBER 8am Shotgun!

We are mowing greens this morning in the wet and humidity. The humidity rose overnight with over 90% this morning and it is planning on sticking around throughout the next couple of days. Troy and Jorge are working on Pin Locations this morning. The rest of the crew is mowing greens and raking bunkers. The fairways are still really wet and still have some puddles. We will be cart path only today.

7 Cart Path on Friday

Pond on #7 is all the way up to the fairway!

On The Course (pm edition) July 16th



Troy spraying a preventative fungicide protecting the greens from the heat and humidity we have moving in over the next 4-5 days.

The clouds decided to stick around longer this afternoon than anticipated but it gave us a good opertunity to spray the greens on the Championship Course. We have been running water pumps all day trying to get the water out of the low areas and help the course dry out. I think we have done enough so the course will be playable but still wet tomorrow. We will work on some bunkers and mow greens in the morning as long as we don't get any more rain this evening. 

On The Course July 16th

LOTS OF RAIN!!!

The short blast of rain the radar was showing yesterday morning has turned into a 24 hour total of 4.49 inches. WOW!!

We have recieved 1.26 inches of rain this morning since 3:00am. The golf course is currently closed and we are working on pumping some water off certain areas of the course. The biggest problem is we don't have a lot of areas to send the water because where we want to pump the water is full already. We will have to wait for bunkers to drain but we will get as much done as we can today.

The rest of the day looks to be clear of rain (at the moment?) but the temperatures are going to get hot. Please check in with the Proshop for current updates on the golf course. 

A little video from earlier today.

Above is a snipping from our weather station data from this morning. 1.74 in one hour!!!!

On The Course July 15th

This morning the air temperature is 71 degrees which just happened to be our high temperature for yesterday. It is just the beginning of a nice hot stretch for the weekend. There are some storms in Western Minnesota that could give us some trouble later in the day. Yesterday we had a total of 0.38" of rain on the course and with a slight breeze most of the night the course has dried out pretty well.

Today we are mowing and rolling greens. Fairways, tees and rough are being mowed today. Yesterday we sprayed fairways with a wetting agent and some fertilzer. The wetting agent should help pull some of the surface moisture down into the soil profile and help firm up the fairways a little. With the extended heat forecast we will be managing our water by hand watering and syringing if necessary in the afternoons. The humidity and dew points are forecasted to be very high over the next 4-5 days which is always a good indicator of a possibility of some diseases being active on the turf. We will be scouting the course and looking at our indicator rough areas to determine what our disease pressure is and make any necessary precautions.

Member/Member tournament this weekend with a shotgun on Saturday and tee times on Sunday morning. We will be following the last group on Sunday spot watering and hand watering greens if necessary. We are having a Grounds Meeting on Tuesday, July 19th at 2pm.

On The Course July 14th

A little rain moving in this morning and very hot weather for the weekend. We are mowing greens this morning and might be rolling after the rain moves through. The weather has been cool for the past couple of days but the forecast is calling for temperatures in the mid to upper 90's for the next 5-6 days. We are spraying fairways with a wetting agent and fertilizer this morning.

Junior Golf is in Full swing and it is nice to see a bunch of little kids interested in golf.

It was a spectacular sunrise yesterday morning.

We have been working on the new bathroom location on 13 Tee and should have it finished for the weekend.

On The Course July 12th

We are currently enjoying some cooler weather but that is going to change going into this weekend. There are expected highs in the mid to upper 90's and the possibility of seeing 100 degrees or more on Sunday. In attempting to recover from last weekends heat stress and the coming high temperatures we have been watering in the evenings a little heavier than normal. We will continue to water as needed to keep the golf course in good condition. We are rolling greens this morning, cutting cups, and doing tee service. Tee boxes are also being mowed along with the Hogan walk paths. We will also be working on some detail work today which includes edging irrigation heads and mowing hazards.

A lot of Green equipment was on display yesterday for the John Deere Demo day that was held on the Executive 9 course.

On The Course July 12th

John Deere Demo Day on the Executive Course from 10am to 1:30pm.

On the course today we are mowing and rolling greens. The greens are rolling within our normal speed range. Fairways, collars and approaches are being mowed today. We have a Women's Guest day on the front nine this morning and have several special hole contests set up.

The greens are showing some heat stress signs from this past weekend. Everything will rebound nicely with the rain and some cooler temperatures. We are looking at another hot weekend ahead so please be patient with our Grounds Staff in the afternoons while hand watering.

On The Course July 11th

What a hot and sticky day it was yesterday. A pretty severe line of storms rolled in late last night dropping 0.75" of rain in just over one hour. We saw some wind in excess of 32mph on our weather station on holes 3 and 4. We did not lose any trees and only have a few branches scattered throughout the golf course. We do have some puddles in the fairways but overall the course survived the storm.

Today we are venting greens with a 5mm needle tine. We want to get some air back into the soil profile to help the greens through the summer heat. Greens are being double rolled after the needle tine and we should see a little disturbance in the roll today but after a mow and roll tomorrow they should be back in great shape. The range tee is closed today so we are working on getting all of the divots seeded and will be moving back to the front of the tee Tuesday. Overall the tee is recovering a little better and we will continue to work on tweaking our seed program to maximize the regrowth of the tee.

On The Course July 9th (pm edition)

Clouds rolled in this afternoon keeping the golf course a little cooler. Jason and Justin will be out this afternoon do some handwatering and checking some irrigation stations. We are trying to keep things as dry as we can and this will cause us to be out with hoses keeping some of the high spots hydrated.

On The Course July 9th

Amy Anderson qualified for the Women's US Open at Medina Golf and Country Club. She is currently in 2nd place at the US Open at the Broadmoor Club in Colorado. It is going to be fun to watch this weekend.

Hot and humid this morning with a Temperature of 76 Degrees and a humidity of 70%. We do have a little storm west of the Cities heading in for later this morning.

We are mowing and rolling greens this morning. Fairways, collars and approaches are also being mowed. Jason and Justin are setting the course for the day and we will be adjusting our plan as the weather rolls in.

On The Course July 8th

What another great day yesterday! I hope the Senior City League players enjoyed the golf course. The temperature climbed yesterday afternoon with the sun shining and today looks like another great day.

We are mowing and rolling greens this morning. Nick and Jason are working on course set up today. Tees and rough are being mowed today. The fertilizer we put down on greens yesterday has them looking better. We adjusted some irrigation last night and have a couple fairways that are a little wet this morning. The seeded area on #15 rough is coming in nicely so please use caution when entering that area because it could be a little wet.

On The Course July 7th

We had a short sprinkle of rain move through this morning with just enough moisture to get the parking lot wet. We are mowing (with groomers) and rolling greens this morning. Jason is following the rollers and cutting pin locations for Ladies League and Senior City League. We will be pulling all tee markers except for the blue markers this afternoon for the tournament.



Fairway, collars and approaches are being mowed today. Nick is taking soil moisture readings and painting hazards this morning. He will be working on the fairway nursery later today and we are hoping to have that seeded by the end of the week. Justin is spraying greens this morning with a fertlizer package to promote some growth. Please be careful when applying bug spray while on the golf course. We have a couple burn spots on #11 fairway from an application of bug spray to someones lowers legs.

On The Course July 6th

A very nice and cool morning with temperatures in the upper 50's. Should warm up quick and be very pleasant for the rest of today. We are rolling greens on the Championship course this morning and mowing the Executive greens for Junior Golf today. Fairways are being mowed as well as tees. We have Senior City League tomorrow with a 1:30pm Shotgun.

Monday of next week we will be needle tining the greens to help get some air into the soil profile and get them ready for the stressful part of summer.

On The Course July 5th

I hope everyone had a safe and fun Holiday weekend. We received 0.25" of rain early this morning which is delaying our start. We are working on cleaning up the debris left from the fireworks last night. We will be mowing and rolling greens this morning but with a chance of rain moving back in our efforts could be short lived.

We have a busy week planned catching up on some detail work throughout the golf course.

On the Course July 4th

With the warm, beautiful weather this holiday weekend, we will be out watering on the course today. Greens are being single cut and tees are being mowed. Fireworks are tonight, there will be some stake and rope up to help direct everyone in the viewing areas. Also, with hot and humid comes the bugs. Please refrain from using bug spray on the turf, only apply it on a paved surface. Everyone have a wonderful and safe 4th of July.

On The Course July 3rd

What a great couple of days of weather! Cooler last night with a high just above 80 degrees should make for another great day.

We are rolling greens this morning and setting the course for the Couples event. The pin locations will start with a red pin on #1, white pin on #2 and a blue pin on #3. We will carry the red, white and blue pattern throughout the course today. We have had a couple of irrigation heads stick on the past couple of nights so there are a couple of wet areas. We have a lot of steel irrigation pipe that has accumulated a lot of rust on the inside of the pipes. The rust breaks loose and gets caught up in the pilot valve of the irrigation head. This prevents the head from turning off and can leave a lot of water sitting on the surface of the turf.

On The Course July 2nd

Great day today with the hot and humid weather blown out of here last night. The wind kicked up for a little while last night causing a few branches to fall on the course. We recieved 0.1" of rain overnight which has softened the course slightly. Today we are mowing and rolling greens and will be setting the course up for the Men's Firecracker Event. Collars and approaches are also being mowed today. We will be blowing fairways off and picking up branches this morning up until the 8:30am shotgun.

Everyone have a safe and enjoyable 4th of July Weekend.

On The Course JULY 1ST!

It is another warm morning with a temperature of 80 degrees and 84% humidity. That is at 6 am this morning and the rest of the day doesn't look any better. We are single cutting greens today. With the predicted heat we do not want to stress the greens very much which is why we are not rolling today. Storms are predicted for later today which should kick some of the hot weather out of here. Fairways, tees and approaches are being mowed today.



Above is a picture of Justin using our TDR-300 soil moisture meter. This tool gives us a volumetric water content number unique to our soil conditions. We are using this number to evaluate the soil moisture profile throughout the entire green. We will take several data points and see what the average of the green is and use this to set our water plan. We are also looking for any visual sign of wilting and can correlate the volumetric water content number close to what our wilt point is and be able to hand water these areas.