Monday, March 15th, 2010

I have decided that I am going to call this month February and some how come to grips that this year March came right after January. I know it has been different in other parts of the country but we seem to be ten degrees cooler this month than we were in February.

My heart goes out to all those high school kids playing golf each year. March is when practice begins and they have to come out and endure this cold weather to prepare for the spring season. Each year it seems that the weather finally cooperates just about the time their season ends. It is nice seeing so many of them showing up to practice each day.

We had a great week last week in that the greens and tees received a Verde-Cal application and soil samples were taken prior. It seemed like it rained an awful lot but it was only around a half inch, most of it happening late Friday. It was good to see it clear up for the Stone Creek Men's Club opener on Saturday.

Last week we broke ground on the new banquet facility, stripping off the old asphalt where the tent used to be. Once the grade is set the foundation crew will be in to start excavating and setting forms. I will be posting pictures as the project proceeds.

Here is an updated picture of the new turnout at the thirteenth green with the new sod. If this doesn't keep the carts off the grass I don't know what will. Since we still had some extra cobble left the guys went ahead and put in a new turn out at the bottom of fifteen. I think that should take care of that mud hold nicely.

Expect to see some fertilizer applications this week on the greens and tees. As we begin to mow more frequently the need for fertility increases as well. Weather permitting we will also try to get some fungicide down on the tees as well. We have been keeping a close eye on the fusarium patch and it is probably time to take action. The greens are also due for a preventative application for anthracnose. We have seen some yellow patch show up here and there but that is mostly superficial and disappears as we fertilize.

If we have time this week we will begin our new irrigation project on the right side of thirteen. As you can see from the photo, the area near the path has always been thin in the summer due to the lack of coverage. We are going to take a sprinkler head out of commission on the opposite side of the fairway and use the wire to control a zone of sprinklers along the cart path edge. Once completed, this should greatly improve the rough along the right side of the fairway.