Irrigation Blowout

 Yesterday we blew out the irrigation system effectively putting an end to the 2020 season.  It was a pretty crazy year but thankfully we made it through healthy with only some minor bumps and bruises to the course.  The club saw record numbers in terms of play and the course showed it near the end of the season, definitely some tired turf out there.  Fairways will be core aerified on Monday, November 23rd and we will also be getting a few pallets of sod to repair weak/high traffic areas on a few greens and also repairing the greens nursery.  The putting surfaces are being topdressed weekly to protect the crown of the plant going into winter.   I want to thank my crew for their hard work and dedication, they came to work each day ready and willing to put out the best possible product.  Enjoy the rest of the year, see you next season.

Course Update

 With the cooler temperatures we've been seeing the past week the course along with the maintenance staff has finally been able to catch their breath.  This summer will go down in the record books as the hottest summer since 1895 as well as the 15th wettest on record.  Couple that with the fact that we had two employees quit the 3rd of July without any notice and I was pulling out what little hair I have left.  My assistant Bob and our lone remaining employee, Luis, more than picked up the slack and I thank them for that.  We have since hired one replacement, Tyler who is our assistant superintendent's son.  He's done a great job so far and we are very happy to have him.  Needless to say it was a very difficult summer and we're not out of the woods yet but there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Cooler nights and shorter days make a huge difference.  We completed greens aeration Monday, August 10th, followed by an 0-0-12 granular fert along with seed.  The greens have healed up very nicely and should be completely healed by early next week.  The 5th and 6th greens definitely took some bumps and bruises during July but have begun to bounce back after aeration.  We need to continue to work on the mat layer that has built up in these greens, this isn't due to anything we've done but rather how the sod comes from the farm.  Our plan going forward is to continue to dilute this thatch layer through verti-cutting, topdressing, core aerifying, and hopefully being able to borrow a sand inject graden.  All of these practices will improve turf quality and playability going forward.  Next on the horizon will be dryject aerification on greens September 28th and tee and fairway aerification in October.  We will also be putting a lot of hours on our triwave seeder, focusing on weak areas of greens, fairways, and the roughs.  As always please continue to replace all divots and fix all ball marks on greens.

Course Update

The course is very healthy heading into the summer months, all of the cultural practices performed this Spring have led to healthy turf and solid roots.  I am very pleased with the 5th and 6th greens, they look good and both have very dense root masses as you can see in the pics below.  We continue to lower the heights on both and are currently at .115" while the other greens are at .100", so they're getting closer.  This time of year is all about proper water management.  We've been trying to keep everything as dry as possible which has led to fast and firm conditions.  We continue to hand water greens and tees during the day.  If you see myself or my assistant watering a green please do not hit into us, you wouldn't do that if a member was putting so please show us the same respect.  We will be off the green as quickly as possible.  We've also noticed an increasing amount of unrepaired ball marks on greens, so please do your part and fix them.  Enjoy the weather.

Poa Suppression

I've been asked a lot about the "brown patches" in the fairways.  This is a result of high rates of growth regulator that targets the Poa.  Also, the very cold night time temps we experienced a few weeks back definitely exacerbated the situation.  In doing this we give the more desirable bent a chance to run a little and hopefully fill in the areas.  While it's not the best to look at right now it won't even be noticeable in the next few weeks with warmer temps moving in.  On closer inspection of the turf there is a lot of healthy new shoots growing within the Poa.  Below are some pics showing the bronzing of the turf.

  

Just some pics I've taken over the past few days, the course is really starting to come together and that's a credit to my staff.  The crew works tirelessly to make MGC the best it can be each and every day and without them there'd be no course.  So, if you see them out there a quick thank you will go a long way.  We ask that you continue to replace divots when possible and also repair all ball marks.

Verticutting greens and approaches

We verticut greens and approaches yesterday followed by a hand mow.  Verticutting is important as it removes excess leaf blade, makes for a smoother playing surface, and promotes an upright growth.  We will continue to verticut up until around Memorial Day on an every other week basis while also lightly topdressing.  This process tends to be a little too aggressive for the summer months so we will pick it back up starting after Labor Day.  Below are some pics of the process as well as a video of the 4th approach being verticut.

Thank you

Just wanted to thank one of the great guys in this business, your favorite pro and mine, Craig Lindsey. Craig has been helping us out around the course cleaning grown over irrigation heads, tee plaques, junior markers, etc. This is a job that gets done roughly 4 times a year and it’s very time consuming and pretty much a pain in the butt but he’s killing it!  From my first day at MGC Craig has been nothing short of amazing in helping me learn the day to day operation and has always had my back. Sometimes I think MGC doesn’t realize how much he actually does to make this place run smoothly. So thank you Craig for everything you do!

Don’t be this guy

This is a photo from the middle of the 6th fairway about 40 yds from the green. Please don’t do stuff like this, now we have to take the time to repair your ignorance. If anyone sees someone out on the course playing or hitting shots please let me know immediately.

April Course Update

The course has really started to green up over the last week or so.  We finished up aeration last week on greens, tees, and approaches, we used 1/2" hollow tines to a depth of roughly 4.5", back-filled the holes with sand, brushed it in, and then fertilized.  The holes are slowly beginning to close, it takes much longer this time of year because the grass isn't fully actively growing yet.  Greens have been mowed twice since aeration which you can see in the pictures below.  I've applied pre-emerge to all tees, fairways, and greens, next we will begin spraying bunker banks as well as applying granular fert to the rough and all surrounds.  We will also begin filling all divots from winter play next week.

Course Update

The crew has been back for a little over a week now and we've been focusing on mainly course cleanup from the winter.  Quite a few branches and limbs came down as well as leaves from the oak the trees.  The guys have done a really good job and the course is starting to come together.  Today we've been working specifically on putting the bunkers back together, moving sand around and pushing it back up on the edges from the winter wash outs.  We've also edged a few bunkers and will continue to do so.  We will begin greens and approach aeration starting on Thursday, it's clearly no optimal having courses closed at this point but it does allow us to get a lot of work completed uninterrupted.  Once we're done with that we will move onto tees.  After aeration we will look to begin fertilizing the roughs along with applying our pre-emergent throughout the course except on the putting surfaces.  Below is a few pics I took of the bunker work.  Stay healthy and keep washing those hands!

Repairing the liner in the green side bunker on #9

Drill and Fill

We've recently begun a manual drill and fill process on poorly draining areas of greens, specifically on the PG, #2, and #8.  We're drilling to a depth of roughly 16" using a 1" drill bit.  We made the boards using 3/4" plywood with the holes on 3" centers.  The channels created are then back filled using dry sand.  Although very time consuming we think these areas will benefit greatly from the process.  It helps to alleviate compaction, improves water movement, increases oxygen levels and gas exchange while breaking up any layering that may have occurred and creating a good growing medium for roots.