Aeration Update

We finished the aeration and topdressing process on the remaining greens yesterday morning. We then started tee and approach aeration completing 9 and 1 tee and 1 approach when I had to divert the crew to mowing due to the surge of growth from the recent rains and warm weather. The rain has shut down aeration for today, Wednesday, so we will concentrate on mowing rough, tees, and approaches before the heavy rains this afternoon shut us down completely. We will continue aeration on the tees and approaches when the weather changes but considering the year we have had who knows when that will be.

More Aeration Pictures

Here are some more aeration pictures

Heavy Topdressing of Sand

Finished Product

Greens Aeration

The crew is working hard on the greens aeration and looks like we will only have #7 and #8 to finish in the morning. The process this year was to deep tine with a 3/4 inch solid tine to a 9 inch dept at a 4inch by 4inch spacing followed by our Toro 648 with 5/8 hollow tine at a 2inch by 2inch spacing. The cores are then shoveled into the carts and hauled to the dump. We then apply our dry sand topdressing and work it into the holes using our brush and tow behind blower. Here are some pictures:

Deep Tine Machine from the Fredco Group

Crew Clearing the cores

#3 green before clean-up

I will post some of the finish pictures tomorrow I have to get back out on the course.

Course Update - September 23

We are trying to get the entire golf course mowed this morning before the rains begin. The golf course is still very wet and the forecast is calling for another 1 to 2 inches. This time of year with the cooler temperatures, shorter days, and lower sun angle the course stay wet much longer then in the summer months.

We will be aerating the greens on Monday using both a contractor to deep tine the greens and our own equipment for traditional core aeration. We will not be able to finish all the greens on Monday so there will be a few holes closed on Tuesday as we finish the clean-up and topdressing. I know how much golfers hate aeration but it is a very important process especially after the year we have had losing so much turf. Once we complete the aeration and topdressing of greens they will receive an application of fertilizer as well as be over seeded with bentgrass.

We will continue aerating other areas of the golf course, tees, approaches, and fairways, once the greens have been completed.

Course Update

The 8th green is fully open now with no ground under repair on the green now that the sod has rooted and we have brought the height of cut down to be equal with the rest of our greens. I will be keeping the pin locations out of the sodded areas for another few weeks until the ball rolls a little better in this area. I have fertilized the greens, tees and fairways this week with a blended fertilizer that is part synthetic and part organic. The product does carry an odor but now that it has all been watered in no odor is present. These fall applications are very important for the turf as we are trying to drive root growth before winter, increase carbohydrate reserves that were depleted during the summer, and aid in the recovery of aerification which will take place the week of September 26th. This aerification will also give us another great opportunity to seed all of the greens that still have bare spots. The annual flowers have been removed from the clubhouse landscape beds and replaced with mums for the fall.

The recent cooler weather signals that fall is around the bend and that means frost. Frost can develop anywhere under 40 degrees at MGC so even if your car or the bank thermometer says its above 32 there still might be frost. Please obey the frost delay signs that will be posted and do not walk on any turf until the ok is given by myself or the pro shop staff. The leaves will also begin to fall in the next few weeks and we will do our best to keep the golf course as clean as possible. The noise ordinance prevents us from using blowers on weekend mornings so by Sunday afternoon the course might be a little messy but we will continue to work as fast as possible cleaning up the leaves.

End of an Era

Greenwood tree removed the Silver Maple from the center of #9 today. The Long Range Committee and myself are working with our architect to develop a plan that will be acceptable to all the members at MGC.

Remember those that are Gone

Going to be a difficult day for many in our area that lost a loved one ten years ago. We will be enjoying the first round of the club championship today but we will never forget what happened ten years ago. In honor of those that died we have put out the American Flags on all the flagsticks today. God Bless America