#7 tee and cart path restoration

     We hope everyone enjoyed the weather of the past few weeks because it seems to be coming to an end with temps soaring into the low 90's these past few days.  We get a bit of a break today and tomorrow and the golf thanks mother nature.  We here in the grounds department have completed a few small projects to go along with the daily maintenance of the golf course.  We added black-eyed susan, daylily, and zebra grass around the newly finished wall on #7 lower tee.  We also squared off the tee to give it a better look.  Another ongoing project is the restoration of the cart paths.  We edged the paths, add soil and seed to the weaker areas, and finally added new cart path material to the existing paths. Stay cool out there!

Black eyed Susan, daylily, and Zebra Grass along the new retaining wall

edging and adding the new cart path material

Soil has been added and is then prepped for seed

Newly established seed germinating

Squaring off the tee gives it a much cleaner look

White lines and blue dots

I've had quite a few members come up to me and ask what's up with the white lines in the fairways and the blue dots on the greens.  We are using the blue dots as marker for our greens mowers in order to achieve uniformity for the widths of the collars.  The greens will be dotted as needed throughout the golf season.  We're also transitioning away from the cart signs in the fairways and replacing them with a painted white line.  We think this looks cleaner and it also prevents shots from ricocheting off the signs.  The white lines show where the golf carts are supposed to exit the fairway and return to the cart path when possible.  The lines will be rotated up and down the fairway to limit wear from the carts.  I will have a printed sheet posted in the pro shop as a reminder for this new method.

Course Update

Following a cold start to Spring, temperatures have finally begun to normalize and with that soil temperatures are consistently over 55 degrees allowing the turf to finally begin to grow with some regularity.  Due to the inconsistency of the weather the bentgrass on the greens, tees, and fairways was slow to come around and had taken on a purplish hue.  This is no longer case and it has greened up nicely.  Last week we applied a granular fertilizer (Polyon) with an insecticide (Acelepryn) and a pre-emergent herbicide (Dimension) all rolled into one in the rough and greens and bunker surrounds.  This product saved us time and money by allowing us to make a singular application instead of the usual two applications, one for the granular fertilizer and one for the insecticide and herbicide.  Just a reminder, the golf course will be closed on Tuesday, May 9th for fairway aerification.  This was originally scheduled for April 4th but due to the weather had to be pushed back.  Finally, please remember to fix ball marks, replace divots, and only use the divot mix on the tees, fairways, and approaches.  Enjoy your weekend and I hope to see you out there.

Course Update

We are finally starting to get Spring like weather here at MGC and with that the golf course has begun to fully wake up.  These past couple of weeks have been quite challenging, the snowstorm set us back a couple of weeks and then it seemed like we would get an inch of rain every other day.  This has made it quite tough to get into a nice routine for course maintenance.  We have been mowing greens, tees, fairways, and the roughs but not as regularly as I would like.  The fairways are still quite shaggy from the inconsistency of mowing but the next few days look to be pretty good which will allow us to get a lot of work done.  The walls on the forward tee on #7 are finished and now they just needs some plantings and some minor sod work to square off the tee, that the maintenance staff will complete in the coming weeks. Please be mindful of your course etiquette while playing, replace all divots, keep carts away from greens, and fix your ball marks, please.  Remember, this is your golf course, so let's keep it in the best shape possible!

Topdressing Greens

There are a multitude of agronomic practices that are routinely done on golf course putting green but few are as misunderstood as sand topdressing.  When golfers see that the greens are being topdressed, you can almost guarantee to hear "the greens were so nice and rolling great, why do they have to do that?" Well, there are a lot of benefits to doing this and here are just a few.  Topdressing helps to greatly improve the smoothness of the greens by filling in small voids that hamper how true the ball rolls.  Sand drains extremely well and resists compaction so if you stay on a consistent light topdressing plan during the season the properties of the soil improves greatly.  It also helps with the suppression of thatch, which is simply debris that builds up over time within the rootzone which increases the likelihood of mower scalping and localized dry spot. These are just a few of the benefits of being on a light topdressing program on a regular basis throughout the golf season.  So, the next time your golfing buddies say, "this isn't necessary or needed", you can proudly say, "yes it is and here is why."

The 2nd green being topdressed yesterday in anticipation of today's rain.

The sand that was applied is no longer visible due to the rain pushing it down into the turf canopy.

Winter Preparations

We are beginning to prepare for winter on the golf course by aerating the greens using both a contracted deep tine aeration followed by our equipment using a smaller hole on a tighter spacing. These holes will allow for rapid drainage of the green surfaces during the winter months preventing against the potential for ice forming on the greens. The open channels in the soil will also provide ample space for the roots to grow this spring. The greens were rolled following these practices then topdressed with sand to begin protecting the crown of the plant from winter damage. We will continue to topdress the greens over the next few weeks as the sand works into the canopy of the turf building a layer of insulation around the crown (base) of the plant. Final applications of plant protectants for snow mold control will be applied as well in the next few weeks depending on weather conditions. The crew is finishing up their season this week but will return for one day to install the covers on the 7th and 8th greens protecting them from sleigh riders.

Deep Tine Aeration

Close Spacing Aeration

Course Update

The great fall weather stuck around for most of this week and mother nature even gave us an inch of rain on Tuesday, much needed as we are still 10 inches below normal. We were able to complete the lighting project on the front entrance columns, along the driveway, and at the front door of the clubhouse this week. As I pulled in this morning, the entrance to the club just looked great, much more inviting, safer, and the beautiful blue stone columns at the entrance finally look the way they were intended. As the season nears an end and our crew prepares to leave for the winter the water fountain from 7 tee was brought in for the season along with all the ball washers. Next week we will be removing the bunker rakes and the porch furniture for winter storage.

New this late fall season we will be aerating the greens this coming Monday utilizing a contractor to deep aerate to a depth of 9 inches followed by our machine using 1/4 inch solid tines. The greens will be then topdressed with sand preparing them for winter. This late aeration of the greens will allow us to not aggressively aerate the greens in the spring of 2017. The cold springs the past two season have created a challenge to heal the greens following the April aeration so we instead will aerfiy now thus having much better playing surfaces for the entire spring season.