Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Course Conditions
It has been a great stretch of weather the last 5 days; the sun and the wind has really dried up the course. Thursday at one point the average wind speed was 15 mph with gusts at 30 mph. When the sun is shining and the wind is blowing like that things are sure to dry out. (You have got to love that high pressure system) By Saturday the wind had firmed up the course nicely and we let the carts out. Sunday the wind subsided but it left us in a frost situation. With the warmer than usual winter weather this year frosts have been few and far between. Things warmed up nicely once the sun hit the grass and we had them playing by 10am. I hope you enjoy the pictures, Mt Hood really seemed to be magnified on Friday.

We thought about mowing the fairways on Friday but chose to wait until Monday. We knew that the weather was going to continue through the weekend so we figured we could mow more grass if we waited until then. This year we are going to try a new mowing pattern. I read in GCM that one course decreased their mowing time by mowing their fairways ribbon style. In other words, splitting them down the middle. One mower starts down the middle while the other goes around the outside and they mow until it is all cut. If it works like I read about the mowers finished well ahead of the golfers which meant that they did not have to wait for play to finish mowing. I will report back on how well it works. I am sure the guys will have a small learning curve but once they get it down I am sure we will be saving time and fuel!

One drawback with the east wind is the bunker sand will tend to move. A number of bunkers have a lot of sand build-up along the lips just outside on the grass. Since the weather is supposed to continue through Monday I asked Laird if he would come in and work on blowing the sand back into the bunkers before it gets wet again and settles in.

Projects
Jorge and Zeferino did a great job on the cobble under the bag drop stand. I think it really dresses up the entry well. Our next project will be the path next to the 13th green shown here. This is that one area where carts are having a hard time staying on the path. I think we will add a cobble strip along the edge and then place boulders just beyond that to prevent them from encroaching further.

Mike had some of the guys work in the native areas on fourteen last week clearing out more blackberries and reed canary grass. We have to cut the grass down each year to give the desirable plants a head start in the spring. You can see in the photo to the left how the roses have struggled with all the grass growing up the middle of them. About the only way I have see reed canary controlled is through competition. Since we don't want to spray in these areas our best chance is to promote the desirables and allow them to out compete the grass.

Golf Course Philosophy: Brown is Better

This is a great story from Tim Powers at Crystal Springs Golf Course in Northern California. I love this stuff!

Monday, February 15th, 2010

Course Conditions
It is good to be back home and back at Stone Creek after a week in San Diego. It was a great conference and was nice to see many friends from around the country. The best part about coming back to the course is knowing that it is always going to be in better shape than when I left it and this year was no exception. Mike and the crew have been busy working on projects and making the course a better place to play.

The restroom enclosure on fourteen was finished and looks great. It has always been nice to have the convenience of the portable restroom around the course but the bright blue has always been a distraction. Now two of the three on the course are enclosed and they don't stand out nearly as bad.

The apron on the thirteen white tee was getting very muddy where golfers have been walking on and off. With the sod grown on our nursery the guys replaced the entire area which now looks 100% better. Below you can see the before and after.

Like the bunker on eight, part of the edge was damaged and was caving in so the guys repaired that as well. Again, using the sod that we grew on the nursery.

This year we made a set of tee markers that will replace roughly a third of the ones on the course. We finished the lacquer coating and put the new ones out along with the refinished benches.




Also while I was gone Mike sprayed the greens with fertilizer and also made a fungicide application to protect them and to alleviate some yellow patch pressure that we have been noticing. Mike also finished painting wet areas around the course in an effort to prevent carts from driving through them. It is working on a limited basis. Still some problem spots hear and there. The course seems extremely wet right now and we have seen quite a bit of cart damage. Rich has been limiting the handicap flags which will help a lot. Unfortunately we can't allow them out every day but we will continue to monitor the conditions and make the call on a day to day basis.

Today Zeferino and Jorge are working on the bag drop area outside the front door. We are placing cobblestones where the bag stand sets, this should be a great improvement from the gravel that was there before. Next we will be replacing the sod in front of the building giving it a nice face lift.