Monday, December 20th, 2010

Conditions

Lake A

Still raining but we were blessed to get a nice day here and there. We managed to reach flood stage in Lake A and around the 6th hole. Lake A was primarily designed as a water detainment structure and it has worked beautifully. Without it we would have a river across the fifteenth and the 13th fairways. This lake primarily receives its water off of the highway as well as the drainage from our driving range and parking lot. The lake stores the water and portions it out down stream in a steady but restricted flow. This week we reach the overflow pipes which doesn't happen often.

6th Green

We had to detour the carts on the walking path around the over flow on the 6th hole. This also only happens during high rain events. The drainage system simply becomes overwhelmed and the water has to flow over the turf. There was no damage from any of the flooding only a small inconvenience. 

I think we managed to have a little of everything last week including rain, hail, snow, sun and more rain. We had some pretty stiff winds which brought down quite a few large branches. The crew made quick work of it though and had the place spotless by the end of the week. The bunkers have also been a mess but the crew managed to get through most of them and have them ready for the weekend play.

4th Green

Mike fertilized the greens at the first sign of clear weather. We applied a tenth pound of nitrogen along with our Redox formula. This is our second full season on the Redox program and I could not be more pleased with the performance. We have also been adding simple iron sulfate to the mix this winter. We feel the amino acids in the Redox formula actually aids in chelating the iron. A chelated iron is much more available to the plant. This is why we are seeing such a nice dark lasting green color. It is much less expensive than purchasing already chelated products.  

This winter we have also decided to continue using Revolution, an Aquatrols product, on the greens. We used Revolution throughout the season to increase the efficacy or our irrigation. Research shows the Revolution allows the soil to become uniformly moist by helping it flow through the profile. That is exactly what we want it to do in the winter as well. By keeping the moisture flowing through the profile we will be able to maintain a firmer putting surface all winter. We only have to apply at a half rate to get the response we need.

Steve has been at it again. Last week Steve brought in all the handrails from the Event Center and sanded, primed and painted each one. He did a high quality job. While he was working on the rail for the air station he came up with the idea to pressurize the entire rail and install two ports for the air nozzles. Now we not only have two air nozzles that can be used simultaneously, we can safely remove one without shutting down the entire system. This is so much nicer than what we had before.

This will be my last post before Christmas so I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has chosen to play at Stone Creek this year and would like to wish you all a very wonderful Holiday.