Scalping

A couple of weeks ago when the weather began to heat up we had a flush of growth throughout the golf course. This occurred even with the use of growth regulation products.

The flush of growth helped us with some final recovery in the rough areas, but hurt us on a couple of the greens. The greens that were effected were some of our more contoured greens in which the mowers began scalping the turf. The scalping took place due to the fact that the turf got puffy from the excess growth and when the mower when over it scalping occurred.

On the greens which the scalping took place recovery has already begun and the good news is that the scalping does not effect the putting quality of the greens it is more of an aesthetic issue than anything else.

Bear Cub Tees

We have recently added an additional set of tee markers to the golf course. The latest addition are th Bear Cub tees which can be found in the fairway areas.  This new golf course setup was designed by Golf Professional Sean Mackin for our Junior Golf program.

The Country Club golf course is a very difficult course to play for kids just starting out, so the idea behind these new tees is to make learning to play more fun.  These tees eliminate the need for forced carries which are present on nearly every tee shot out here and additionally the holes will be played from a reduced yardage. Hopefully this new setup will make the learning of the game more fun for the Club's up and coming golfing generation.

Leak Repaired

Some of you may have been wondering why the water level in the pond at eighteen tees has been so low all year. The reason for that has been that the overflow collar had a leak around it causing the water to flow out to the current level.

The other day I had a contractor out to try and repair the collar seal and I think we were successful in doing so.  He used a hydraulic cement to reseal the joints between two of the collars.  We have begun to raise the water level to the point at where water would leak and it appears to be holding so far.  Over the next several days we will top off the water level in the pond so that it will once again look as it should.

Low Water Level In The Pond

Installing the Hydraulic Cement

Raising The Water Level

A Lack Of Respect

It amazes me to no end the lack of respect that people have for their own golf course and fellow members.  Over the last several weeks there has been an alarming number of divots taken out of the putting surfaces on the golf course.

The latest crime scene occurred on the eight hole sometime durring the day on Saturday.  Imagine the horror of my setup guy Sunday morning as he walks up to the green to change the cup and he sees this:

This type of behavior is unacceptable and shows a complete disregard for the rest of the dues paying members and also is a slap in the face of the entire maintenance staff that goes above and beyond the what is asked of them each and every day. 

Splotchy

Throughout the golf course there are many areas that are off color (brown) by design. These brown areas are occurring as we continue to fine tune the adjustment of the new irrigation system. It is my goal to provide the driest conditions possible, while still providing enough moisture to keep the plant alive and viable.
As hot spots develop it tells me we are going in the right direction with controlling the amount of water applied to the critical play areas. These critical areas are greens, approaches and fairways.

When the hot spots show up we will hand water them only, so that we are  more specific with the water applied creating a more uniform playing surface.

#13 Approach

Close Up Of Stressed Turf

#15 Approach

Too Many To Count

On the golf course there still exist many areas that have still not quite recovered from winter and most especially Elk urine kill.  It is a mixed blessing to have the abundance of wildlife on the course that we do, but it also presents numerous maintenance issues.

The Elk are beautiful to look at but the damage they leave behind can be devastating and very labor intensive to repair. Year after year the biggest challenge we face from the Elk is the Urine burn that occurs on all of the playing surfaces.  We typically will start repairing  greens and tees first and then move to fairways and finally the rough.  This year the rough is probably the most damaged area on the course.  The recovery has been slowed by less than favorably growing conditions this spring and a lack of resources to do the work.

Now that we are fully staffed for the season will will be putting a large focus on repairing these damaged areas by re-seeding them.  This will all be done by hand with the use of hand tools to prepare the surface for soil to seed contact.  Without this prep work the re-seeding will not be successful and further delay the recovery process.