Just a reminder

Please remember that we will be aerating September 19th and 20th and that the course will be closed these days.  Aeration is a vital agronomic practice and can only benefit the golf course going forward, thank you for your patience and understanding.   Please follow us on twitter @MadisonGCgreens for course updates.

Course Update

Somebody must sure be looking out for us because every time the course gets a little too dry we get a nice soaking rain.  That is no different today, because we needed the almost .6" of rain we received a short time ago with potentially severe storms looming for later this afternoon.  As I'm sure many of you have heard we lost two employees last week, which means it's just myself, Bob, and Angel to carry the load.  I'm proud as hell of these guys because they've worked their tails off the past week and it has showed, in my opinion the golf course looks just as good as when we were fully staffed. So, kudos to them.  This past monday the greens were dryjected with the soil amendment profile. The greens were brushed and rolled followed by a mow the next day.  This is a great process that allows the greens to breathe while also creating channels for the roots to shoot down.  A huge benefit is that the entire process is quick and minimally invasive to play.  We will be core aerating the greens on Sept. 19th and 20th, followed by fairway aerification Oct. 16th and finally by a deep tine aeration on November 20th.

#3 green after the green has been brushed, you can hardly tell anything was done at all.

#9 green the day after being dryjected

Beautiful Sunday in July

Just a few pictures I took on my ride around changing cups this morning.

Notice the roots coming out of the bottom of the cup cutter plug, about 10" long, pretty incredible for the end of July .

#5 green hanging strong this year, the weather from the past week surely helped.

Late July Course Update

July has been a very up and down month weather wise.  It was fairly normal for the first half but then the heat and humidity reared their ugly heads with pop up thunderstorms in the afternoons.  This can be a recipe for disaster but I was happy to see the course come through it with only a few bumps and bruises.  The rain we received Saturday night and Monday morning was a welcomed sight, the daytime and nighttime temps have come way down and have given the golf course a chance to breathe again.  We vented some of the greens yesterday and finished up today due to the rain.  This is a vital practice as it promotes gas exchange and allows the turf to breathe, there is also a hormone in the roots that gets stimulated by splitting the root which in turn allows the root to branch off more making for healthier turf.

Bob venting the 3rd green.  The playing surface is minimally disturbed and the aeration holes are relatively unnoticeable once the green is rolled.

We've also been busy edging bunkers and adding new sand where needed.  This gives the bunkers a fresh look and helps to make them stand out.  I do ask that when you enter and exit and a bunker that you do it on the low side, please don't walk up the face of the bunkers.  This destroys the edge and came make for some unplayable situations.  Just a reminder that we will be dry-jecting the greens on Monday, August 15th and the course is closed September 19th and 20th for greens aeration.  Enjoy the nice weather!

Family tee markers

As I'm sure many of you have already noticed we switched from the painted black tee markers to a plate in the center of the fairways for the family tees.  On holes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9 the markers can be found in the center of the fairways at varying distances.  On the 7th hole the marker is located at the front of the upper tee and on the 8th hole it's located at the front of the forward tee.  Craig has made up new scorecards and can be found in the pro shop.  These tees are great for kids just learning the game or anyone for that matter.

Don't be this guy

This picture was taken on the 2nd green this morning, as you can see someone took their frustrations out by taking a divot from the green.  Please don't be this guy, the grounds department takes great pride in being able to produce a golf course that the membership can be proud of on a daily basis.  To steal a quote from Arnold Palmer, "Enjoy your round, you're not good enough to get mad."

Playing through...

It seems we had a little visitor here last night checking out the conditions here at MGC.  I've asked quite a few people and they all seem to be in agreement that it is just a harmless corn snake. Although harmless it is enough to give you quite the scare.  If you see him out there just leave him alone and you'll be fine.