Course Update

Last Friday we were able to replace the sod on the 18th green side intermediate. We harvested this from the teaching green and will do the same to #4 green side intermediate. Eventually we will have a few trucks of sod delivered and we will be working on the bermuda patches in the rough. Then there was rain again this past weekend, I cannot complain but when we get this much and and you start to see low lying areas becoming thin, it begins to be a problem. What we are seeing on #14 is one of the worst out on the course, I have always been planning to put drainage in this approach and this will be first on our list as we approach the winter, most of the water is coming from the tree line on the right and pools at the bottom of the approach, not good when we had 90 plus degree days last week. In the mean time we aerified and top dressed this area to help dry out and recover.

Repairing 18 intermediate with new sod

14 approach

Aerifying to help dry down

Top Dressing to fill in the holes

Course Update

So far, this week has been very eventful and also a sign that the season is slowly coming to an end. As I say that it does finally feel like summer has arrived, but I am okay with that because the days are getting shorter and shorter. This weeks high temperatures has dealt us some severe pop up storms in the afternoons. When I say we are wet, we are really wet out there.  We are gearing up our aerifiers for the greens and will be poking a small hole to help them dry out during this stretch of high temperatures. When ever you have high temperatures and wet conditions this poses a problem to the greens health.  Our goal is to have them completed by tomorrow afternoon and to disappear by the weekend. 

Some notable projects taking place is the transplanting of the bur-ford hollies to other various locations around the club house. These plants are getting smothered by the zelkova's shade and are not thriving like they should, they also receive damage every year from the snow plows. We will seed tall fescue into the existing mulch bed and this will give us a much cleaner and presentable look as you drive into the club.  The rough is getting some much need food to help fill in from the traffic, we also spot sprayed bermuda patches in anticipation of seeding these areas this week.

existing holly row

half way complete on removal

Applying the fertilizer to the rough. 

Needle tine on greens

Brown area in rough  is bermuda that has been sprayed

Bermuda Suppression

As of today we have made numerous applications to the tees and fairways to suppress the bermuda. As I have stated before there is no guarantee what will happen and after this winter we will evaluate and see how we progressed. Because of the applications, it has caused some areas of the fairways to become thin and as a result of that we are going to back off for a bit and let the fairways recover. Once recovered we will resume the applications until the colder temperatures.

Around a few greens and bunkers we have been spot spraying the bermuda and this has worked really well. We are seeding these areas to tall fescue and they should resume there intended look within two weeks. If they are slow to establish we will go ahead and sod them for quicker recovery. Although unsightly and cumbersome this is what we need to do until there are better ways to eradicate this weed.

Parking Lot Trees

You may have already noticed but there has been some tree work going on in the parking lot, more specifically the cutting down of the trees we just planted last winter.  Lets take a step back and remind ourselves how bad of a winter we had in relation to temperatures. There was a lot of plant material that did not make it and this happens to be one area. Nothing is ruled out but there appears to be a number of factors that can happen to stress a tree. Once a tree is stressed apparently it puts out an alcohol smell that attracts insects that burrow into the tree. That then starts to damage the tree even more, when we inspected them they had all of the signs as to insect damage. The tree nursery is on the ball and we have started the removal process by first cutting them down and then grinding the stumps. All trees are covered by a warranty and we are looking to plant sometime in September or beyond.