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.

#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!