On The Course December 18th

The rain over the past weekend has left a layer of porous ice on TOP of the Excelsior Mats.

 I walked out of my house Saturday morning and was greeted by rain falling from the sky. I never get a very good feeling when it rains in the middle of December. We have been out on the course looking around and I am pleasantly happy with what we have seen. With the big snow we received before the rain it has helped keep any major ice from forming. We do have some porous ice just above the turf surface and in several low areas on some fairways some thicker spots of ice. As you can see in the picture above the ice layer is on top of the Excelsior mats and the moisture did not reach the surface of the greens. This should help with any blowing snow issues we could face in the coming weeks. This rain event has help set up the loose snow and we have a good blanket covering the entire golf course.

#1 Fairway has a porous ice layer above the turf canopy.

 The tees and fairways look really good under the blanket of snow. We do have some small pockets of ice in some low areas but nothing to be too concerned with at this point. We have much colder temperatures in the forecast with the night time temperatures in the single digits and the daily highs in the low 20's and Upper teens.

The screening slats are being installed today along CR 116 and should help with some of the road noise and traffic distractions. Should look really good when the new trees leaf out in the spring.

Screening slats are being installed on the new section of fence along CR 116.

On The Course December 13th

New berm on #2 along CR 116

 We were able to get a lot of work done on the course late in the season with no snow until just recently. Troy and Brandon were able to get most of the Native areas mowed and cleaned up with the Weidenmann flail mower. We spent a lot of time getting some trees removed on #2 and pulled the fence along 116 so we had some room to add some fill material for a berm. The berm was built an we planted 18 spruce trees and 4 Autumn Blaze maples back on top. The fence was replaced with a slightly taller fence and we will be adding in some screening slats on a portion of that fence. We were able to get several Autumn Blaze Maple clumps planted to the south of the forward tee to help with some screening along CR 116.

With almost 10 inches of fresh snow over the past weekend the course is in great shape for winter. We just need the cold temperatures to stick around for the next couple of months and we will be looking at anther great golf season for 2013. We have made a couple trips around the ski trail with the tractor sled and it has plenty of snow. We are looking at getting some more snow this weekend.

If we are able to get some more colder weather we will start some tree removals and will be burning brush before the end of December. The crew has been working on repairing and painting coolers stands, benches and tee markers. The grinder in the shop has been running everyday since the end of the season and Shaun has made some great progress on getting cutting units ready for spring.

If you have any questions on course conditions or anything in general feel free to contact us at anytime. Our shop hours are 7am-330pm Monday through Friday.

We have planted 3 Autumn Blaze clumps behind the Forward Tee on #2

Closer look at the berm addition on #2