Happy New Year!

As the year winds down we continue to plug away at the bunker projects. Most of the grade work on #6 is complete and we have started taking sand out of the green side bunker on #4. Those projects will be difficult to work on for the next few weeks after the deluge of rain the last few days. The short days and cool temperatures are not conducive to drying a course and as a result it will be difficult to get carts and equipment to the bunkers. However, we are not complaining at all, the weather has been outstanding this fall (now winter) and we have completed far more than anticipated. 

Moving forward we will finish the wall at the range and do as much tree work as we can, again realizing we are limited our ability to move around the wet golf course. What we really need is for it to get cold and the ground to freeze. Once we are able to continue on the bunkers we will resume work there and should be in great shape to have everything wrapped up before golf resumes in the spring. I hope everyone had a great holiday season and has a very happy new year. 

#4

#6 

Driving range wall. 

Ian 

Project update

The mild winter continues to afford us plenty of great days to get a lot of projects finished. The bunker on #5 was sodded last week and grade work, drainage and irrigation work started at #6 and the wall at the driving range is nearly finished. In addition to projects, our routine fall work on the course is getting done as well. We put out our last snow mold application last week, are more than half way done with the Vertiquake on fairways and started a second trip around the course topdressing fairways. El Nino has certainly helped our productivity.

#5 bunker.

#6 grade and drainage work.

Range wall. The guys have done a great job here, one 75 pound block at a time.

It looks like the mild weather will be around for a while so we'll continue to take advantage of it, especially after the last two brutal winters we have had.

Ian

Tree work, bunker projects and wall at range.

Last week we continued removing dead trees from the course, which for the most part are Ash. There aren't as many this year as in the past but there are still a lot. The biggest reason for this removal is safety. Dead trees can come down at any point, in fact we had two come down last week in the heavy winds. This is some of the most important work we get done every winter. 

Dead tree hung up in canopy of other trees.

We also started work on the green side bunkers at #5 and # 6. The bunker at #5 had some regrade work done around it, new drainage installed and is now ready for sod. The bunker at #6 just has the sand removed for now, but we also stripped some sod behind the bunker where we will do a bit of regrade work as well. The goal of all this grade changing is to keep the water from running through the bunker. By slightly changing the grade we are able to move the water away from the bunkers and toward drainage. 

#5

#6. The sod we stripped out of this area was used to cover the drain lines at #7. 

We continued at the range working on the footer for the new retaining wall. We are using a a pretty cool product to form the base that doubles as drainage and it should work pretty well. We have the form all set up and will have concrete delivered Friday to pour the actual footer. Once this has set up we will start putting the wall up. 

Form for footer. Sorry for the recent shadows of myself in pictures, but with the early setting sun it's hard to avoid. The alternative is me taking a picture into the sun and then you can't see anything.

Ian 

Project update.

Another week of great weather lead to another very productive week. We were able to finish grade work and sodding on #7 and #9, finish the new tee at #7 and add more drainage along the cart path at #7. We also put out the first snow mold application on tees and fairways. As long as we have nice weather we'll continue to get as much done on these projects as possible. 

#7 green side bunkers. 

#7 Drainage. Back filled with pea gravel and leveled off with topsoil. 

#7 tee. 

#9 bunker. 

Next up is #5 green side bunker. I'll keep updating as we go. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. My advice is to focus on the side dishes, they're the best part! 

Ian 

Bunker project on #7

This week we laid a truck load of sod on #7 and installed some more drainage. The sod covered nearly all the bare ground on the left side of the green. We'll need to get more sod to finish the bunker on the right side of the hole and for the bunker on #9. We will wait until the spring to add the gravel, spray the billy bunker polymer and add sand.

Sod at green.

Drainage at beginning of #7 fairway.

We'll keep plugging away as long as the weather lets us. Enjoy the weekend!

Ian

Bunker project on #7, moss on greens and topdressing fairways.

In the last two weeks we've been able to get a lot of work done on the green side bunkers at #7 green. They have been given the normal treatment; everything has been pulled out or off of the area and we are re-doing the drainage and doing some grade work to help with surface drainage. The size of the bunkers will not be changed. The reason we are pulling the sod around the bunkers is to give us room to work, not to make bunkers bigger. We did run some additional drainage along the cart path as you walk to the green and are also adding some heads left of the path that will throw to the rough left of the green side bunkers. If you recall, this area has been very wet after rains and very dry when we rely on irrigation and we should have addressed both those issues.

Back left bunker.

Re-graded work between bunkers.

Front left bunker

New drain along edge of path.

We've also continued with our usual fall work including spraying moss on greens and topdressing fairways. Moss is very tough to control but we continue to get it under better control with every application. We generally do two to three applications each fall and then another in the spring if we have the opportunity. The one spot where it seems to thrive is on the chipping greens and we were able to hit it pretty hard with our most recent spray. As far as topdressing fairways, we continue to add more sand and go farther into the rough areas that are traditionally wet hoping to start firming the rough up in the same way our fairways have firmed up.

Chipping green moss.

As always I have a lot more pictures of the bunker projects so feel free to send an email if you want to see any of them. Enjoy the great weather this week!

Ian

Bunkers, chipping green, slit seeding and aerification.

This week we got back after the bunker project, starting on #9 fairway bunker and then moving to the green side bunkers on #7. The nice weather has allowed us to get a good start and we are already mostly done with the work on #9 and a good way into the largest bunker on #7. The fairway bunker we started with on #9 always had pea gravel in it and we weren't positive why, until we dug the sand out of it. There was hardly any sand and that meant that the pea gravel in the drainage lines was getting pulled up by the sand pro rakes and mixed into the entire bunker. To keep this from happening again the bunker has been dug down so we will be able to put a proper six inches of sand above the drain lines. 

#9 before. Notice the lack of sand. 

#9 currently. Notice how it's a little deeper? This will allow us to put the proper amount of sand in. 

The new fairway at the chipping green is all graded down and has been seeded. If you haven't been up there I'll include some pictures below but, if you have or are soon going to be up there please do stay off of the seeded area; the less traffic on the area the better it should grow in. Furthermore, if you do walk through there you're just going to make a mess of your shoes. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Dark soil will be rough, sanded area will be fairway. 

Seeded. 

We pulled the slit seeders out as well this week. Our goal is to get more consistent stands of grass in the rough and on fairways. We have done this in the past and had good success so this year we are doing more. We will seed even further into the rough around greens and are doing every fairway with bentgrass seed. On fairways we hope to have better success because of the use of the plant growth regulator I discussed in the last post. With the annual bluegrass being held in check, bentgrass seed will have a better chance competing against it, increasing success and our stand of bentgrass. 

Fairway slit seeder. 

Seeder used around greens. 

We also aren't quite done with aerifying. We decided to get tees punched one more time and to do a pass on the collars. The tees always have more thatch than greens or fairways and it showed this summer. The areas that had a lot of wilt on tees was largely a result of heavy thatch layer. Thatch acts like a sponge and it keeps the water from getting to the roots. So we wanted to get more thatch out of the tees this fall and started with the front nine tees this week. We'll get the back nine tees next week. The reason why we did just one pass on the collars was a little different. Collars tend to develop a little hump over time as topdressing disproportionately accumulates on them after aerifying. When we are blowing the excess sand off the greens from topdressing the collar acts like a speed bump and catches a lot of sand, resulting in mounding. So by pulling plugs and not filling the holes with sand and instead allowing the area to settle, we're able to reverse that trend. 

It looks like we'll get our first big frost this weekend so dress warm if you're crazy enough to come out and play! 

Ian 

Driving range wall, added chipping area and fairway extension at #1.

The retaining wall at the driving range is being dug out this week. Above this wall is where carts coming to the range will have parking spots. Right now the foundation is being dug out so a form can be set and a footer poured. Once that is set we will start putting the blocks up and soon we will have a nice retaining wall that will afford more space for teeing ground at the range. While working on the wall, Mark decided to fill in the low area by the chipping greens which we will then turn into more chipping area that will be fairway height grass. Adding this area will again increase usable practice space at the range. There has been a lot of work done at the range already and it will be another nice addition to our practice area once completed.

Future parking spots.

Base dug out. We'll pour concrete and then set the blocks on top of the footer.

Beginning to fill in by chipping greens.

Area after some grading and smoothing. The small mound in the picture is the existing irrigation head, this should give you an idea of how much lower the grade is now.

Last week we also starting the process of mowing down the grass between #1 fairway and green. Initially, we dropped the height to what we mow short rough at. We will continue to drop the height until it is down to fairway height. There already happens to be a lot of bentgrass (which is what we grow on fairways) mixed into the area we are mowing down, so that should transition nicely to the fairway height of cut. The other grasses won't do as well, so we do plan on slit seeding bentgrass seed in the entire area and heavily topdressing to help germination. This will be a neat look on the hole and should be a welcome change for golfers because you'll no longer have to hit shots from this area out of the thick rough.

I'm not sure how easy it is to see in these pictures but, the grass running from the fairway up to the collar has been mowed down to short rough height. The width of the fairway will stay consistent until bottle necking around the green side bunker.

Enjoy this nice October weather and good luck to those playing for the championship belt this weekend!

Ian