Course Update....Another Week with Mother Nature!

Memorial Day weekend provided us with some excellent weather that served some major benefits with the recovery of greens.  The new bentgrass seedlings really started to grow and spread laterally helping to fill in the ice damaged areas.  Tuesday following Memorial Day was very productive as we were able to get a lot of work done but unfortunately that evening 2.2 inches of rain flooded the course.  Another case of 1 step forward and 2-3 steps back which has been the norm this Spring.

Bentgrass germinated and starting to spread laterally filling in the voids



Productive day with needle tining greens prior to the 3rd round of seeding

2.2 inches of rain fell and set the plan off track

6 green with a river running thru it

15 fairway was "boat only"

Wednesday was pretty much spent pumping water and trying to get the course cleaned up and ready for the next day.

Thursday the crew did an excellent job and got all the ice damaged areas on greens seeded and topdressed.  With the weather now on the warmer end of the spectrum as compared to the 2 previous months, the recovery process should move at light speed in comparison.  Most greens are about 85% recovered with a few of the greens significantly further behind but still much improved.

Dimple tining damaged areas to incorporate the seed for good soil/seed contact



Completed area with seeding and topdressing

The new front Range Tee height of cut has been lowered to the Intermediate height and should be ready for use in a couple weeks.  Next week I hope to get aerification and topdressing completed.

Mowing the Range Tee to Intermediate height

Range tee with an early morning irrigation cycle

I will update things next week with hopefully the opening of the tees at 2,10, & 16.

Course Update and Week in Review

Summer has smacked us in the face these last 2 days and what a change it was as the temperatures nearly hit 90 degrees yesterday followed by a welcomed warm rain.  These are some key ingredients that we have been missing the past month as we deal with the recovery process.  The cover shuffle of taking off and putting on the covers has been a lot of extra time and effort but the warmer temperatures has allowed us to leave the covers off.  Based on the forecast, the covers will remain off until next week as it seems the warm weather may retreat a little later next week.

The positives from our recovery efforts are quite evident as you can see the seed germination that has taken place in the damaged areas.  While I would have much preferred better weather in April, I am pleased and optimistic considering the hand we have been dealt by Mother Nature.

Seed germination is the slit seeded lines

After evaluation earlier today, we will be opening up greens 3,4,5,13,&16. Greens 7,8,10, &11 will remain closed and be reevaluated next week.  There is still much needed recovery on all the damaged areas but the decision is being made to allow our beautiful course to be enjoyed while also limiting the risk of not achieving what we hope to be a full recovery prior to the summer heat.  Damaged areas are marked around the outer edges with white dots.  Please limit your foot traffic to only retrieving you golf ball and putting into a playable area.  If you are coming onto a green, please walk around these areas as again to limit the foot traffic.  Thank you in advance.

The white dots surround the damage area.  Please limit foot traffic to ball retrieval only!!

The addition of another front range tee was completed yesterday.  Kudos to the crew for pushing hard to get the job done before the rain.  I am proud to have these guys around me as it doesn't matter if it is recovery, renovation, or general maintenance........they always get it done.

Irrigation installation & leveling of the front range tee



Low mow bluegrass sod installed and testing coverage of the irrigation coverage

I would expect the sod to start rooting in the next 7-14 days and from there we will start to lower the height.  Once the sod is established and at 1 inch mowing height it will be opened and used for irons only.  Hopefully this will all take place in the next 3-4 weeks and we can begin to enjoy this welcomed addition to the practice area.

Augering the holes for the new tee sign posts

The tee signs should be installed within the next 2 weeks.  The new sign posts will be installed next week and then the new signs will be hung the following week.  It sure is nice to check things off the list of "things to do."

Dimple tine spiking the damaged areas on greens to incorporate more seed

Very little disturbance to the turf but very effective in seed to soil contact

While I am happy with the seed germination & recovery we have gotten so far with the horrible weather in April, I wanted to get more bentgrass seed into the damage areas now that the weather may be in our favor????  This whole recovery process has been frustrating to say the least but I have to believe May will speed up the process and get the course back to its normal playability and beauty. I will keep you posted next week with any and all progress made.