On The Course March 31st

Carlos Mowing #1 Green

 We are mowing greens this morning and setting the course up for normal play. The crew is working on raking the bunkers and cleaning up some branches on the Championship Course. Freddy is on the Salsco Greens Roller working on the Executive Course this morning. It is a little overcast and dreery this morning but the clouds are supposed to break and the sun is going to peak out this afternoon. Please remember to keep all carts on the paths at this time and repair all ballmarks. Last weekend we had a lot of leftover ball marks.

OnThe Course March 30th

New Flail Mower came in this week.

 We are going to have a great weekend of weather and the course is really starting to shape up nicely. This week we were able to get most of the irrigation system charged and only ended up with a couple of leaks. Jason is working on getting those fixed today and we should be able to finish charging into the rest of the back nine, tennis and Executive course. Greens were mowed yesterday and are being rolled today. We will be checking the growth this afternoon to determine whether will mow or roll them tomorrow. Troy and Justin are working on getting the course set up for play and the crew is working on bunkers and mowing fairways.



Irrigation is almost completely charged with only a couple breaks on the back nine.

 Our new flail mower and vacuum came in this week and we have already cleaned up part of the Native between 9 tees and 1 fairway. We will be working on several areas throughout the golf course over the next couple of weeks. Bill Ruone is working on mowing a couple of fairways today. If the weather stays warm we will be getting into a more normal mowing routing next week.



Pair of Swans joined us for a couple days this week.

On The Course March 28th

Fairways being mowed

 We have been busy this week working on bunkers and getting the rest of the course cleaned up.  The bunkers are being edged and sand depths are being checked. We will be adding sand to several bunkers over the next couple of weeks. Troy has restored the edges on some of the bunkers and has moved the sand around to get a consistent depth in the bunkers. Some of the bunkers that get a lot of play will need some additional sand. We have several stump holes to clean out on #14 and #15. We are mowing some areas of the fine turf on the golf course this morning and will continue working on bunkers later in the morning.

We pulled the cover off of the range tee yesterday to mow and fertilize. The tee is growing very well right now and we could be hitting off the turf in a couple of weeks. Jason is starting to get the irrigation system pressurized today and will be working on getting it completely charged up over the next couple of days. We will continue to ask everyone to remain on the cart paths with carts until the turf begins grow on a more consistent basis. Yesterday we had a cart driving through the Native areas and all over the course. We have certain areas of the course that will not be affected by cart traffic but we do have a lot of small areas that the turf is just starting to grow. These areas cannot handle cart traffic yet and will suffer if we were to allow carts off the paths at this point.

Please take some time when playing the course to fix and repair all ballmarks and divots!!

The crew has been working on moving sand around and edging bunkers this week

Rubiel mowing collars and approaches.

Cristian mowing the chipping green.

Bill Ruone mowing the intermediate rough for the first time this season.

On the course March 25th

It is a chilly 37 degrees this morning with the day time high going to be around 60 and breezy.  We are rolling the greens this morning, along with resetting the course and continuing debris clean-up.

On the course March 24th

Another foggy start to the day, the good news is that we will be in the mid 70's this afternoon and the sun should make its way out later this morning.  We are mowing greens this morning on the Championship course, along with setting cups, tees and hand raking bunkers.  There will also be a crew of guys out continuing to clean up leaves, sticks and other debris.  All in all it is shaping up to be a very nice first weekend for golf in March.

On The Course March 23rd

It is a damp and misty morning on the course but the guys are out and getting the course ready for the nice weekend ahead.  It is looking like the weather will continue to improve as the day goes on and is forecasted to be very nice over the weekend with temps hitting 70.  Today we are rolling greens, mowing collars and approaches, and also mowing the intermediate rough around the greens that has grown and greened up a little faster than other areas due to the greens covers. We will also continue to clean debris off the course which has been a long process over the last week and half but we are almost finished.

Carlos mowing the approach on #1

On The Course March 22nd

March 23rd of last year.

We opened the Championship Course yesterday to over 50 golfers. I like to look back at some photos that I had taken a year ago and the above picture shows what the course looked like on March 23rd. Snow storms overnight covered the course with snow again and we were looking at another 3 weeks until we opened the course.

Troy mowing #9 green.

Today we are mowing greens with triplex mowers and will be checking the course. We are working on some small projects throughout the golf course and getting ready for a very busy weekend. The weather forecast looks fantastic for the weekend with high temperatures near 70 degrees. We will remain cart path only until further notice. Please use the hitting mats on the range tee and do not hit shots to the range from the turf area around the practice bunker.

On The Course March 21st

Troy mowed all greens on the Championship Course yesterday

Championship Course opens Today at 12:00pm

We are rolling greens this morning before we open the course. The championship greens were rolled on Monday and mowed on Tuesday. We are starting at a higher height of cut than our normal cutting height for the spring. The triplex mowers will be on the greens until they get all of the reminents of the excelsior mats cleaned up and it looks like we will not be getting in any freezing cold temperatures. With the warm temperatures and the rain over the past couple of days the turf is starting to green up very nicely.

We will be cart path only until the turf starts to grow enough to handle the stress of cart traffic. Please keep all four tires of the carts on the path at all times. We want to take advantage of the early opening but we want to make sure we do not do any damage to the course before it starts to grow. We will remain hitting off of the range tee mats for a couple weeks. If the temperatures stay above normal we will be adjusting our fertility and seeding plan on the range tee.

Most of our crew is returning from this past season but we do have a couple new staff members that are not used to golfers on the course. Please be aware of our maintenance staff as they perform there job assignments and make sure they acknowledge you before you hit a golf shot in their direction.






Greens will be rolled today before the course opens at noon

Justin cleaning pea gravel out of the drainage holes on the front of #15 Green

Yeriel worked on most of the bunkers yesterday

On The Course March 20th

Rubiel and Freddy helping store mats in the Barn.

 We have officially moved all of the excelsior mats from the course and have them stored in the barn. Great news considering we had 0.4" of rain last night. The crew worked very hard yesterday to make sure all of the mats were properly stored. We will start working on getting the course ready for play. Greens, collars, approaches and a few fairways will be mowed today. We still have a lot of sticks, branches and other debris on the course. We will be spinning the bunkers today with the SandPro to get them ready to be worked on later in the week.

We are planning on having most of the golf course accessories on the course tomorrow before we open. With the early start we still have a few benches that need some work and will be adding them to the course as we finish sanding and painting them.

The warm rain has really got the turf growing and the course is starting to come out of its winter dormancy. We are having a Grounds Meeting today at 4pm to discuss course conditions and the 2012 golf season. Please let me know if you have any questions reagarding the course.

Fernando, Carlos, Yeriel and Jose stacking excelsior mats in the Barn.

We had several tree removals this winter and Kent has been out grinding stumps

Javier, Jose and Freddy blowing the chaf off of #1 green



Overall the greens look great

Matt, Ben, Peder and Tommy enjoying the Executive Course March 16th

On The Course March 17th

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Betty Soule and Jennifer Mendel were our first golfers of 2012

 We made very good progress yesterday with removing the excelsior mats from the greens. We ran into a few issues on a couple greens where the mat was frozen to the putting surface but we should be able to get those off the greens on Saturday. We started hauling mats to the barn and will continue Saturday and should be finished by Monday. The greens on the Executive course were mowed on Friday and are being rolled this morning. Please try to avoid the area on #1 and #2 of the Executive course that is bare soil. We have tilled in this area to establish a new fairway and it is still very wet.

Justin and Poa checking out the water flowing through a catch basin

 The golf course is draining well and the frost is coming out of the greens. We are blowing some of the debris off of the front nine greens today and will finish the back nine on Monday. We have a lot of work to accomplish this next week before we open. The trees are starting to bud out and the turf is starting to push through the winter chaf. We can only hope the weather pattern holds for the next couple of weeks and we can take advatage of an early golf season.

Still some ice on #14 green holding the mat to the putting surface

The big haul to the barn begins

On The Course March 16th

We started to uncover the F-9 greens yesterday afternoon. The cloud cover kept the temperatures fairly cool all morning and we were able to get most of the F-9 greens done yesterday. We will continue to work on the B-9 greens today as well as begin hauling mats to the Barn for storage. The greens we have uncovered so far look really good but we ask for everyone to stay off of the putting surfaces until they firm up.

Covering The Range Tee

Today we will be working on other projects as well as pulling covers. We will be servicing the Golf Cart Fleet, setting up the Executive course, setting up the Range and working on cleaning up the Championship Course. The weather forcast appear to be looking really good going into next week with a couple small chances at some rain. The temperatures will stay above normal for the entire week next week.

Rolling Excesior Mats

Back Left of #2 Green

On The Course March 14th

Above is a video of the course from March 13th. Over the next couple of days the course will dramatically change and we will be making some more videos to share. We are excited to get the season started and with the current weather it should make for a record opening.

We currently still have some frost in the soil but with the nightime temperatures in the low 50's and the daytime highs hitting records in the 70's we expect the frost to be short lived. Once the frost comes out of the ground and the Excelsior mats that have been protecting the greens all winter are dry we will start to remove them. Currently they are still a little wet on the turf surface. They should be dry enough to start to roll up Thursday. It will take us a couple days to get the mats off of the greens and a couple days to let the greens dry out enough before we would be able to get foot traffic on them.

The greens on the Executive course has thawed out and is drying out. We have the Executive Course Closed for the time being but we expect to open it up on Thursday of this week. If you see flagsticks out on the Executive Course we have it open. JD and I have been touring the course and we should be able to open the Driving Range Tee sometime on Friday. We will be utilizing the artificial mats for the first few weeks of the season and will have the turf grass portion of the tee covered to aid with growth.

We are having a Grounds Committee meeting Tuesday, March 20th and will be discussing the 2012 golf season.

On The Course March 12th

Water flowing off of the front of #18 Green

 The big thaw has started and with the forecasted temperatures it won't be long before all of the snow is off the course and the frost starts to come out of the ground. I took a quick drive around the course this morning and I would say 95% of the snow has melted off. The bunkers are still holding some snow but the course has drained very well since yesterday. The pictures in this blog post were taken yesterday afternoon by Troy as he toured the course cleaning out drainage basins. There was a lot of surface water sitting in areas but as we drove around this morning most if not all has drained off. There are still some puddles in a few areas but as the frost comes out of the ground it should soak in. The soil temperatures on our greens has finally gotten above 30 degrees for the first time since November.

Looking across the low holes from 2 green towards 10 green.

Range Tee will be clear of snow before Monday.

 I checked several suspect areas on a few of the greens that we typically would have drainage issues and standing water. All of the areas I have checked so far look really good and nothing "smells" funny. Typically during the spring thaw we can "smell" turf that hasn't wintered very well. We will continue to look at the forecast and will be determining when is the most appropriate time to pull the covers off of the greens. With temperatures later in the week that could hit 70 degrees we could be getting a really good look at the greens later this week or for sure by the begining of next week. We are planning on bringing most of our seasonal staff back starting March 19th to begin uncovering greens. All of the best laid plans can be changed by mother nature in a heartbeat. Snow is not out of our minds but it will be far in the back if the temperatures do hit above 70 degrees.

Drainage system is accepting the snow melt really well.

On The Course March 6th

Edge of Excelsior Cover on #12 Green

We have been eagerly awaiting a good snow melt after the big snow event from last week and it has started. Over half of the measured snow has compressed and melted and we are very please with what we have seen on the course to this point. We have some ice in some fairway spots but over all I believe the course is in pretty good shape. We have looked at a couple greens and there does not appear to be any ice on them and our Toro Turfguard sensors still show soil temperatures below 32 degrees. We will be monitoring these daily to see what the temperatures are reading and will also be taking daily checks of the golf course. The weather forecast looks to be really good for the weekend with a chance of some rain. That rain if warm enough could pull the rest of the frost out of the ground and helps us get a jump start on spring.

Cover Releases from the Turf Canopy.

The covers we looked at yesterday on 10 and 12 look really good. They are not frozen to the ground or encased in ice. We have lost a lot of the snow pack over night and will look at some greens later this afternoon. We do not want to interrupt the snow melt by tracking up areas around the greens. Footprints and shovel marks can re-freeze overnight and cause an ice dam when the snow starts to melt again. We will be watching some run off areas and if needed be clearing certain areas to help with the snow melt. With temperatures predicted to be in the middle 50's for the weekend I would imagine most of the snow will be gone by Monday of next week. We will be making a more frequent return to blogging about the course and what we are seeing as the snow melts.

Drainage Basins are Open and the Water is Flowing.