On The Course July 30th, 2015

Great stretch of weather this week.

 We are mowing and rolling greens today. Nick Walters is working on finishing the deep tining of the fairways. He is working on 6, 7, 8 and 14 today. That will wrap up the deep tine aerification on the fairways and we will be looking at another round of sand topdressing in 2 weeks. The weather forecast looks about as good as it could be for the next couple of days as we enter August. We will be starting some of the Capital Projects on the course over the next couple of weeks and we have a Town Hall Meeting scheduled for August 6th at 7pm.

We have had a couple good Thunderstorms over the past couple of weeks and have not seen a lot of significant damage. We have seen a few trees get hit by lightning and we might have to remove a couple trees as well as some limbs. We will monitor the trees over the next couple of weeks and determine the best route to take going forward. We had a couple trees between 12 and 13 that have some significant bark blown off of the tree. Some of these storms also brought heavy winds and we have seen a couple larger trees show some stress cracks from the wind. We will keep an eye on these and make any necessary removals as soon as possible.

Tree on 13 that was struck by lightning

On The Course July 24th, 2015

Corey Heasley topdressing greens on Tuesday morning

 We have started this Friday off with a little bit of rain this morning. We have received 0.35 inches of rain so far and the storms are clearing. We have a possible chance of some more light rain this afternoon. It should be a hot and humid day once the sun comes up. The crew has been delayed this morning but are heading out to mow green, rake bunkers and prepare the course for play today. We will be a little delayed this morning but should be back on time quickly.

We were able to get our topdressing done on Tuesday this week and it has been really beneficial for us this summer. We started on summer deep tine on fairway to help with surface drainage and we have complete a few fairways this week and will finish the rest up early next week. Should be a great weekend for golf even with the heat and humidity.

Nick Walters on the Weidenmann Deep Tine Machine

Matt Haughey rolling a long putt towards the hole

Member/Member Champions Matt Haughey and Tim Herbert

Moises Lopez aligning tee markers.

Jeff Smith (on left) made his first perfect shot with an ACE on #17 during the Member/Member

On The Course July 18th, 2015

Blowing Branches off Greens!

 We received 1.5 inches of rain this morning which included some very strong winds. We have some damage to the exterior of the clubhouse and Pool area but we do not have any large trees down. There are a lot of smaller branches and debris throughout the golf course. The crew is working on clearing off greens and bunkers. We have a few pulling larger branches to the cart path edges and will be picked up later this morning. Kurt and Fernando are running trash pumps around the course getting some of the low areas pumped out.

We are planning on getting most of the debris cleared from the fine turf areas and then we will be mowing greens and getting the course set for the Member/Member Tournament this afternoon. The weather is clearing off and now the golf course needs some time to drain and dry out. The crew very busy this morning and we should be able to get things back in shape pretty quickly.

We have a lot of debris to clean up this morning.

On The Course July 17th, 2015

Trash Pump earlier this week moving water out of a low area on #14

 Member/Member Tournament this weekend. We are mowing and rolling greens this morning. Fairways, tees and large rough areas will be mowed today. The course has dried out well from the rain earlier this week and we only saw a trace of rain last night. The crew will be working on bunkers later this morning after the fine turf areas are mowed.

We had 1.7 inches of rain earlier this week and Corey and Kurt did a great job of getting a lot of the low areas of the course pumped out and ready for play. The large transfer pumps have been working pretty good down on 2 Green. They have been running the past couple of nights to try to get the pond level as low as possible before the next rain event. We are getting closer to finish grade on the Executive Course Project and should be seeding the areas next week. We will be installing some irrigation and then fine tune the finish grade.

There has been perfect conditions for Turfgrass Diseases this week and we have seen some activity in some of our test plots on the executive course. On Tuesday morning I took a couple pictures of Dollar Spot mycelium growing in some tire tracks and a footprint depression. It may not sound too exciting to most but it was a pretty cool TURF GEEK moment. Why nature behaves the way it does is pretty cool.

We are looking at some pretty extreme heat conditions this weekend with a possibility of storm activity. The course is playing pretty good right now and we should have some great golf this weekend. All shots count on the back nine of the Member/Member. Always a fun finish to the tournament.

Cottony mycelium from the fungus Sclerotinia homoeocarpa, Dollar Spot

Turf Geek picture of the week! Dollar Spot mycelium in a foot print on the Executive Course

Kurt Wacker handwatering collar on Practice Green #1

On The Course July 13th, 2015

A few puddles in the rough on #7 fairway

 We are mowing tees and cleaning up some debris from the storm last night. We received 1.7 inches of rain last night and the course is pretty wet. We will be cart path only today for our outside event. We have a PGA Junior event on the Executive Course this morning. The crew will be mowing greens later this morning and will finish raking bunkers. Corey is going to be running some trash pumps moving water out of some low areas before the temperatures get too hot this afternoon.

Pond between 7 and 2 higher than normal but the transfer pump will bring it back down later this morning.

On The Course July 7th, 2015

Pond on #7 is higher than normal but it is draining

 We are mowing greens this morning and will be rolling them later today. We received 2.5" of rain yesterday morning and the course is pretty saturated. The greens have drained fairly well but we still have some standing water in some rough areas. We will be cart path only this morning and will look at going off the path later today. The pond on 7 Fairway is pretty full this morning but is starting to drain down. The development has a large water pump moving water from the outlet point to the culvert that heads west of the golf course. As the pond level drops the low areas on 6 and 5 will drain down also.

Sheldon is mowing rough today and will try to get as much of the dry areas done today. Fairways and tees are being mowed today. The crew will be filling range tee divots on part of the range tee this morning. The bunkers have washed out a little and they are still drying out. The crew will be working on raking them and fixing the edges of the bunkers later today.

Sunny cool day today!

On The Course July 2nd, 2015

We are adding some fill material to #8 on the Executive Course

 We are mowing bunker banks this morning and the greens will be rolled later this morning after the dew has had a chance to burn off. Fairways and tees are being mowed today. Corey and Kurt are working on spot watering the fine turf areas of the course and Nick will be changing pin locations. Range tee is set up on the turf for today as we took a break off the turf yesterday and utilized the hitting mats. We will be using the mats on occasion the rest of the summer to give the turf tee a little break and to aide in recovery of the turf.

We are looking to have some perfect weather coming up this weekend for the 4th of July. Fireworks are scheduled for Saturday night at the club and we have a couple member events this weekend. We have been working on a couple areas of the Executive Course and will be working on finishing those projects next week. We are creating a small berm area between the golf course and the development to the south. This area includes a fairway expansion on #6 as well as a new tee. We need some fill material for the New Maintenance Facility and we were able to negotiate moving some material near #8 Tee on the Executive Course. With the new building we are going to have to relocate #8 tee later this fall and we had an opportunity to get some free material to complete this project. This area will be finish graded next week and reseeded and will have a minimal impact on the play of the executive course. We have temporarily closed 6, 7, and 8 on the Executive Course while the crew is working on moving material. We will have those holes open again for the weekend.