On The Course September 30th

We made an effort to try to blow leaves and keep the greens and fairways clear but with the wind it was a loosing battle. Today we will have calmer conditions and should be able to get the leaves clean up throughout the golf course. We are mowing and rolling greens this morning. It is a little cooler this morning and the high temperature forecasted for today is 60 degrees. Should be a nice and sunny day today and the weekend looks to be perfect fall weather. The overnight temperature for tonight is forecasted for 37 degrees which is usually right on the edge of possible frost for the morning.

Next week we will be moving some of the Imprelis damaged trees on #2 and replacing them. Over the next couple of weeks we will be planting some more trees and areas of the golf course and we will be identifying some trees to be removed later this fall and into early winter. We will have yellow caution tape identifying these trees and most are hazard trees that have injured main leaders or have been damaged from storms over the summer. The fall colors are supposed to be really great this year. Hopefully we don't see too many windy days like yesterday that just blow the leaves off the trees.

On The Course September 29th

Fernando core aerifying 10 approach.

 Today we will be mowing and rolling greens. We have had some great growing conditions over the past couple of weeks. Fairway aerification finished up yesterday but we will continue to verticut and topdress certain approaches and fairways that are in need of some thatch management. We will finish topdressing #7 today and start to work on #13. Next week we will be topdressing most of the approaches and working on the range tee. The turf grass portion of the range tee will be aerified, topdressed and seeded on Monday. We will then cover the area with a Evergreen cover to help promote germination and recovery. The range will remain open utilizing the hitting mats for the remainder of the season. This will enable us to get the turf protion of the tee grown back in and ready for next season.

Jason adding some topdressing sand to #7 Fairway.

By adding some topdressing sand to several fairways we are trying to firm up the base of the fairway. This process will take several applications before we notice a real change but by next summer we should have a pretty good layer of sand started. Topdressing approaches over the past couple of seasons has helped out a lot and they will continue to improve over the next couple of seasons.

On The Course September 28th

Today we are rolling greens, mowing tees, fairways and approaches. We are going to finish up our aerification on fairways today on #5 and #10. The forecast today is for a high temperature  getting close to 80 degrees. Cooler weather forecasted for the weekend but still great golfing weather. We will be working on the entrance later today and hopefully can get that project wrapped up.

Yesterday a representative from Dupont and an Independent Arborist toured the course looking at the trees we have that were damaged by Imprelis herbicide. They were gathering information on the species of trees affected and the extent of the damage. We have spruce, pine and several arborvitae showings signs of herbicide damage. The severity of the damage varies from tree to tree and we will be dealing with the most severely damaged trees on #2 first. This will be a slow process and we could possible see more signs of damage at the begining of next season. Dupont has been very helpful in working with us on this problem and we expect them to help us resolve this issue in the near future. We will be replacing some of the damaged trees in the next couple of weeks.

On The course September 25th

It is another cool fall morning on the course, there are even a few sprinkles falling but that won't be a problem today.  The forecast is for mid 60's and mostly sunny so it should be a good day to come out and golf.  We will be rolling greens this morning, mowing tees, raking greenside bunkers and doing course set-up.

The fall colors are begining to show on the course and prime season should be starting in the next week.  Get out and see them before it is to late.

On The Course September 24th

We have a little frost on the pumpkin this morning. We are currently sitting at 37 degrees but the sun is coming up and the temperature will rise quickly. We are single cutting greens and rolling this morning and we will need a little bit of a head start before we can get golf off. We should not have much delay this morning. Bunkers will be raked and Troy will be setting the course up for golf today. Warmer temperatures are on the way and it looks like October is going to be fantastic.

We were able to get a lot done on the entrance yesterday and should have that project wrapped up next week. The crew has done a great job so far and it should help the appearance of the entrance.

On The Course September 23rd



Great sunrise yesterday!

Very chilly morning with a temperature right now at 39 Degrees. We are anticipating some frost moving in as the sun comes up and we could be delayed. We are rolling and spraying greens today and changing cups. Fairways, tees and approaches are being mowed. We are seeing some limited growth on the greens with the colder temperatures but the forecast is looking for the next week. Please remember to fix your ball marks on the putting surfaces. Played the front nine last night and had to fix a lot of extra ball marks.

We will be working on the front entrance today after we get the course set up. Our Massey tractor that we use for blowing fairways and a lot of other job on the course broke down yesterday. We do not have an area in our shop where we would be able to split the tractor to fix the shifter that is broken and therefore was sent to Waconia. We will be delayed on our fairway topdressing and aerification for next week. We will just have to use a little more hand labor to get everything done.




Carlos mowing rough around 13 green.



Troy compacting the trench behind #13 Green.

On The Course September 22nd

A couple little rain showers overnight with us picking up another 0.1" of rain. The wind yesterday help dry some of the moisture from the rain but the course is still pretty soft. We are rolling greens today and spraying fairways. We are spraying fairways with some fertilizer and a fungicide for Dollar Spot. The fertilizer will help with some growth and get the turfgrass plant ready for winter.

We will finish backfilling the trench behind 13 green and you should see a nice addition to #13 later today or tomorrow. Fernando is out on #11 with the solid tine aerifier getting to work on the fairway. That will only leave us #7, 5 and 10 for next week and then our fall aerification will be done. We will continue to verticut and topdress approaches and some fairways but this process should be minimally disruptive to golf.

On The Course September 21st

Fernando mowing #1 on the Executive Course.

We have light rain showers in the area this morning and spotty showers into the afternoon. The forecasted high temperature for today is 56 degrees and we are currently at 51 degrees. It will be a nice cold drizzly day today. The greens will be triplex mowed then walk mowed for the first time since aerification. After the greens are mowed they will be rolled and the course will be set up for today's guest day. There are some wet areas throughout the golf course so please be cautious with cart traffic. If we get more significant rain we will be cart path only but as of right now we are 90 Degree Rule.

The crew has started to fix the grade on the entrance drive.

 We have started to work on the entrance drive fixing the grade along the edge of the road. Please use caution entering and exiting the club. We will be working on this project for the rest of the week and should have most of it wrapped up by Friday. We will be continuing fairway aerification tomorrow if the fairways are dry enough otherwise we will have to finish on Monday. Leaves are starting to change and we are seeing some falling already. We will be blowing leaves just about every day until the end of October.

Jorge mowing approaches.

On The Course September 20th

We were able to get #6 fairway core aerified and cleaned up yesterday. We are planning on topdressing this fairway with a heavy rate of sand to help firm up the fairway. The main reason behind coring this fairway is to help deal with some thatch and pull up some sand that has been applied over the last couple of seasons. With all of the heavy rain the sand layer has migrated down into the peat soil. The cores were dragged with a mat to knock the sand off and we picked up the thatch that was left. The next two pictures show the core aerification process.

Jorge Core Aerifying #6 Fairway.

3/4" Aerification Hole and Plug.

 There are some fairways that we are trying to alleviate compaction and therefore are only solid tining at this time. We will be managing thatch in a different manner on some of these fairways by utilizing a scarifier. The scarifier has vertical knives that slice grooves into the turf canopy and removes thatch. Below is two pictures of this process which is less disruptive than the core aerification process.

Fernando Solid Tine Aerifying #2 Fairway

 1/2" Solid Tine Aerification

This morning we are watching some light showers pass through the area with more that could build throughout the day. If the weather holds we will be mowing and rolling greens. Some of our other projects for today will be put off until tomorrow when weather is forecasted to be a little better.

GROUNDS MEETING TODAY 2PM

On The Course September 19th

Wet and foggy morning with a temperatures of 51 degrees. We are mowing and spraying greens today. We are getting really good growth on the greens despite the frosty mornings last week. We will be core aerifying #6 and #7 fairways today and #2 fairway will be solid tined. Fairways, tees and rough will be mowed today.

The course is open at 12pm today for normal play and we will have a 1pm shotgun on the back nine. The fog is supposed to clear off this morning for a nice sunny day.

On the course September 18th

We have a few sprinkles in the area this morning that should be tapering off around mid morning.  Greens are being rolled today, bunkers are being raked, and the course is being reset.  We are 90 degrees with carts today, please follow the cart signs and keep carts away from and off of green banks.

On the course September 17th

It is 49 degrees this morning and there is no frost.  It is going to be a breezy fall day with a chance of showers tonight into tomorrow morning.  We are mowing and rolling greens, mowing collars and appraoches, raking bunkers, blowing debris, and resetting the course. 

On The Course September 16th

Mr. Brooker helping out with bags for the tournament.

Great day yesterday for the "Bad Pants Open" with a heavy frost in the morning but it melted off and we were able to get all of our Course Maintenance done before the afternoon shotgun. Great day, Great event and thanks to all the Member Volunteers for all the help and Congratulations to JD and the Proshop staff for another well run event.

Ian Leonard with a Tee shot on #9.

Today we are single cutting and rolling greens. They continue to fill in and look better each day and with some warmer weather forecasted for next week  the course should be very good going into the fall. We have watered a little heavier last night to get ready for the weekend. We are working on a project on #13 and should have that finished on Tuesday of next week.

We have a Grounds Committee meeting Tuesday, September 20th at 2pm. We will be working on the entrance drive next week raising the edge of the turf to match up with the asphalt. Several irrigation projects will be started next week and we will be looking at some drainage projects as well. 

On The Course September 15th

We have a very heavy frost this morning with temperature currently at 32 degrees. "Bad Pants Open" today and we are hopeful with some creative scheduling to keep everything on time. 9am shotgun on the back nine and Executive Course. Please give some patience to the maintenance staff this morning if you get out on the front nine before the event. We will be mowing and rolling greens when the frost lifts as well as mowing fairways, collars and approaches. Should be a great event today. The weekend looks to be a little bit warmer and the course is shaping up pretty good after aerification.

On The Course September 14th

Cooler this morning with no frost has given us a great start to our Wednesday course set up. We are mowing and rolling greens today. Fairways are getting mowed again today because of the potential of frost tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning is forecasted to be in the low to middle 30s with a good chance of frost around the Metro area. Warmer weather for the weekend with no rain in the forecast we should have some great golfing weather for the rest of September. The greens are making great progress each day and will continue to get better each day. We were able to finish our solid tine aerification on fairways  yesterday and will be core aerifying several fairways next week.

On The Course September 13th

Cristian mowing this morning.

Put a fresh set of reels on one of our triplex mowers for this morning. The greens are growing very well and healing in nicely. We have had ideal weather this past week and most of the greens are looking really good with only a couple still a little behind. We are mowing and rolling greens today and will be checking the quality of cut of the mowers after the front nine to determine if we will be able to finish the back nine before sharpening the reels. Fairways, collars and approaches are also being mowed today. Definite chill in the air this morning with colder temperatures forecasted for tomorrow morning. Please be aware we are heading into the frost time of year which could delay us from getting onto the course in the mornings.

Aerification holes healing nicely.

Justin has been working on our fairway nursery and should have it seeded later today.

Full basket of clippings halfway through mowing #2 green.

On The Course September 12th

Our great strectch warmer of weather is coming to an end with the full moon. We have a weak cold front coming in later tonight that will bring cooler temperatures for the rest of the week. Very high wind gusts predicted for later today as the front moves closer. Today we are going to be mowing greens a little later in the morming with our triplex mowers. We are getting very good growth right now and should be able to get back to a normal mowing schedule later this week. Jason will be topdressing some tees today. We will be solid tining several fairways today starting on #16 and #15.

On The Course September 11th

They guys will be out rolling and blowing greens again this morning to continue to help the greens firm back up and smooth out.  With the fertilizer applied last week the greens are really begining to grow and fill in the aerification holes.  We will continue to irrigate heavily at night to help knock down the sand and to help with growth.  We will also be reseting the course this morning and using our mechanical rake to rake out green side bunkers.

On The Course September 10th

Troy dragging greens with a Coco Mat.

What a great stretch of weather this past week. Perfect for aerification and growing turfgrass. The greens are healing in ahead of schedule and we will continue to work the sand into the canopy over the next couple of days. We were able to mow most of the greens yesterday with the exception of a couple that still need to be rolled and brushed a couple more times. We should be able to get the rest of the greens mowed later this morning when they dry out.

Today we are rolling greens and using the Sand Pro to rake bunkers. As we get farther into fall we will be raking bunkers everyother day so please be sure to rake the bunkers when finished. We are mowing collars and approaches this morning. Troy is setting the course up today for the 3-Club Tournament.

Jason mowing greens yesterday afternoon.

 We will be utilizing our triplex mowers over the next week to mow greens. This will keep our walkmower with a nice sharp reel. Once the sand is no longer an issue with the mowers we will be getting the walkmowers back on the course for the remainder of fall. We are going to continue fairway aerification next week if the weather is suitable. The forecast is showing a front moving in Monday that could bring us some rain for Monday and Tuesday. We will be solid tining a couple fairways on Monday and coring a couple fairways on Tuesday if there is no rain.

Concrete has been poured on the patio yesterday.

On The Course September 9th

Today we will be doing our normal Friday routine with a twist.  We are rolling greens this morning to smooth them out after last nights irrigation and to get the dew off the surface so the sand can dry faster this morning.  We will be tri-plexing greens later in the day once the sand is dry and we have drug them one more time with our coco mat.  We will also be mowing fairways, approaches, and rough today.  Yesteday we solid tine aerified 1, 9, and 18 fwys.  Javier rolled them behind the aerifiers with our tri-plex roller to smooth them back out and they are looking good.  An irrigation head was stuck on from last nights irrigation on #5 green. The bunkers are full of water and the area around the green is very wet so try to avoid these areas until the green and surround dry out a little better.  The green is still in play it will just be very wet.

On The Course September 8th

Greens were rolled and dragged again yesterday and the sand is starting to settle.

We have had ideal weather for aerification and above normal temperatures forcasted for the weekend should help the healing process. Troy and Justin are spreading some fertilizer on greens this morning. We will be running water on greens several times today to water in the fertilizer and to also help settle the sand. Tee aerification went very well yesterday and we will continue to clean the tees up today. Executive greens were also aerified yesterday and topdressed. We will be adding some more sand to the greens on the Executive Course this morning and fertilizing them later today. Fairway aerification will start today on #1 and #9 with 1/2" Solid tines. A combination of solid tines, verticutting and coring tines will be used on the fairways. We will topdressing tees and some approaches later today.

Patio demolition began yesterday.

 We will have limited access to the patio area over the next couple of days. Please avoid the construction area at all times. They will be setting forms today and pouring concrete on Friday.

Greens will be rolled and brushed later this morning after the fertilizer has been watered in and they have had a chance to dry. Even though the greens have been aerified please remember to fix your ballmarks. With very few players yesterday I was amazed by the number of  unrepaired ballmarks that were on the greens this morning.

Sunset on day one of aerification.

Fall Aerification 2011

Jorge Aerifying #7 Green

 Tuesday we started aerifying greens at 5:30am and after a few minor equipment problems finished the last green at 8:00pm. All of the greens with the exception of #13 was topdressed yesterday. The dew came in at about 7:30pm which made the ground too moist to let the sand dry. We were able to drag the sand in on all the greens but #9 and we will be getting to that one and #13 later this morning. #5 green and #10 green were a little wet when we dragged the keystone mat over them last night and the sand was not able to fall into the holes. We were also able to roll and hand broom all but #5, 9, 13, 17 and 18. Overall the crew did a great job getting greens aerified, topdressed and dragged.

Troy and Fernando Collecting Cores

 Today we will continue to work the sand on the greens into the holes. Justin is going out to set cups this morning and we will be rolling and dragging greens when the dew comes off and they have a little chance to dry out. We are starting to aerify tees on the championship course as well as the greens on the short course. Once the tees and short course greens we will be working on fairways. The fairways will have a combination of coring and solid tines. There will be a lot of different things going on today.

We will have a concrete crew here today and for the rest of this week working on the back patio near the fire pit. Please be aware that there will be some contruction traffic around the Pro Shop and #9 Green.

Justin dragging greens with Keystone Mat