Tree Removal

The oak tree on hole 7 that was struck by lightning last week was removed yesterday.  Due to the damage to the trunk of the tree from the lightning strike we had the pros come in and take down the tree.  The tree ended up being split all the way to the ground.

Pythium Out Break

Due to perfect weather conditions the last few weeks we had some pythium develop on the course.  Hot days and nights with high humidity is ideal for the development of pythium.  We had preventive fungicides in place but the conditions were so favorable that we had some break through over the week end.  If you look closely you will be able to see the disease throughout the property.  Unfortunately rye grass is very susceptible to the disease and under the right conditions it can wipe out an entire golf course in just a few days. We were able to get out on monday and spray for the disease, it appears to be in check at this point.

Storm Damage

The storm that blew through on Friday had strong winds that knocked many limbs and sticks down.  Lightning also struck a tree on hole 7.

 This is what we dealt with Saturday morning.

This is what is remaining and should be cleaned up by the end of the week. Thanks again for the cooperation.

Due to the rain today we will not be running carts the rest of the day. Standing water high temperatures and carts do not mix. Thanks for the cooperation and as always your understanding.

Extreme Heat

With the extreme heat water management is more important
than ever. We will be watering less at night and more syringing
during the day to help keep the plant cool.  This also allows us
to keep surfaces dry and firm.

Below is a letter from Dr. Vargas of Michigan State relating to the
tempertures this week.

The hot weather is here and more importantly so are the warm nights. When the nighttime temperatures stay above 68 F, diseases like anthracnose and crown rot anthracnose, brown patch and Pythium blight become a problem. If the warm nights are accompanied by heavy rain showers, then summer patch will also be a problem. If you have not made preventive fungicide applications for these diseases they should be made now. If any of these diseases are already present, curative fungicide applications should be made before the diseases become worse. Remember, if the disease is present, systemic fungicides need to be applied so they can enter the plant and stop the fungus from destroying more tissue. Also, these hot temperatures will stop root growth and cause any roots already present to suberize. This means the turfgrass root systems will not be functioning very well. This is the time to bypass the root system and foliar feed the turf. Needless to say, these hot temperatures will require a lot of hand watering to keep the turf alive. Good luck to everyone and try to stay cool.

Dr. Joe Vargas

MSU Turf Team

New Pump

Yesterday our front pump along the driving range was replaced.  We use 2 pumps to irrigate the property this one was last replaced in 1994. Below are some pictures, you can see the damage to the pump caused by our poor water quality.

 This is the actual pump that sits at the bottom of the well on 70 feet of column. You can see the blackening from the sulfur water.

 This is the pump intake and what is left of the screen.

 This is what the intake screen used to look like.

This is the new pump being lowered into the pump house and down the well.  After a few finishing touches today we should be back up and running at full capacity.

Monday Maintenance

Due to the very dry conditions of late we solid tined greens today, followed by the hydroject machine. The aerifiction allows us to relieve some stress, compaction and vent the greens for a few days. The venting will allow CO2 to escape and some well needed O2 to hopefully enter the root zone.  The holes are very small and should not affect ball roll.

 This is the green after we solid tine.

 This is the hydroject that uses high pressure water to create a very small hole. We also inject wetting agent at the same time allowing the green to be more receptive to irrigation water. The holes will be anywhere from 6 to 8 inches deep, but are not very visible.  Under the current drought conditions and our poor irrigation water we will due this 2 to 4 times a month.

We followed all of this with a light topdress.  We topdress every week with light sand, this allows us to keep greens firm and as smooth as possible.

Storm Damage

Due to yesterdays storm the course will not be open until 10 am.  We have some trees and a lot of debris to clean up before we can mow anything.

 A tree limb that fell in the parking lot.

 18 green

 This is what most of the greens looked like this morning.

The creek also came back up last night. With the high temperatures today and tomorrow it will be hard pressed to find much grass on holes 1 and 2 that is still alive. 

With 1 inch of rain last night we will not be able to run carts today.

Flooding

Due to the rising creek holes 1, 2 and 3 are closed for the day.  We will evaluate carts for this afternoon.

 A look at 1 ladies tee and the fairway.

What used to be hole 2.

More Flooding

We received another 2.25 inches of rain last night and holes 1 and 2 have already begun to flood.  There will be no carts today and 1 and 2 will be closed. Unfortunately the creek probably will not even crest until tomorrow.

2 fairway is already under water and more is on the way.

Annuals

We are finally dry enough to start planting flowers.  We received over 200 flats that will go in the ground over the next few days.

another .5 of rain last night we will not be running carts today. we now have had 4 inches of rain in the last week

No carts today we recieved another .5 inch rain last night and it looks like more on the way.

Greens Aerification

Greens aerification is complete, things went very well with cooperation from mother nature.  The greens are in good shape and should be in great condition for the weekend.  Below you can see a few pictures of the cores being pulled from the greens.  After the machines are done we go in and shovel all the cores up, and then apply enough sand to fill all the holes.

 Today we gave the greens a good roll to help close the holes.

Here you can see the holes 100% filled and a very playable putting surface.

Finally some sun

This morning we saw the sun for what feels like the first time this year. The course has dried out and the greens are in great shape.  With the rain and warmer temperatures the rough is growing at rapid pace.  It looks like we are going to have our first great weekend, hopefully you can get out and play.  Also this monday and tuesday we will be closed for greens aerification, if everything goes well we expect the greens to be back to normal in 7 to 10 days. Thanks for the cooperation and understanding.

 Even the deer decided to take advantage of the great weather this morning.

Here is 8 green being cut with clear sky and sun in the background.

1 and 2 open

Holes 1 and 2 opened today at 12:00. We were able to cut most of the areas that were flooded, however some of the areas are still to wet.

 This was the rough on 2 island, although it was cut there are still a lot of clippings lying around.

Here we are cutting down the fairway on 2.

Holes 1 and 2 will remain closed for the weekend. We will be running carts today at 1100

with another inch of rain last night we will not be running carts today.

More Flooding

With the additional rain on top of already saturated conditions, we are experiencing more flooding.  Due to the rain and the forecast we will not be running carts today.  Hopefully the weather clears and we can get some golf in soon.  Unfortunately holes 1 and 2 will be closed for some time due to the severe flooding.

 1 tees in the process of being submersed, unfortunately the creek will not crest till later today barring addition rainfall.

This is what is left of hole 2.

Flooding

Due to course flooding holes 1 and 2 will be closed until they become playable. Unfortunately with the current forecast things do not look too promising.  The rest of the course is dry and we are running carts for today.

 This is a view of 2 fairway.

 Hole 1 from the black tee.

The drivving range is also closed due to standing water.

Spring

Hopefully we will see some spring weather soon!  We received over an inch of rain and have some standing water on the course. Holes 1 and 2 are also beginning to flood so there will be no carts today, by tomorrow we should be ready for a busy day and will be running carts. Lets hope the rain and snow stays away for awhile.

Course Update

The warmer weather has finally started to green up the course, unfortunately it looks as if more cold weather is headed our way. We have been busy with course clean up, a little bit of mowing and charging up the irrigation system.  Irrigation start up went very well this year with almost no issues at this time.

This is a green head running at full pressure.

Opening Day

Course opening has finally arrived today at noon, greens are open and we will be running carts. In preparation greens were rolled yesterday and are being cut for the first time today. Overall they are looking very good, and we are removing a fair amount of clippings. The ball is rolling as well as could be expected for this time of year, with the temperatures we have been having they should hold their current speed for some time.  Hopefully many of you can take advantage of the 50 degree day (it looks like it is as good as it will get for a while).

This is the front putter being cut for the first time.

Course opening

The golf course will open Friday April 1st with carts.  This looks to be the best time to open with current night time temperatures being well below freezing.  When the temperature drops below freezing we get frost forming in the ground. In order to open we have to wait for the frost to melt, the past few days this has not occurred until late afternoon. With the low temperatures most of the course is still in dormancy.  Turfgrass still in winter dormancy has difficulty recovering from mechanical damage like cart traffic, meaning we could cause damage that we may not fully recover from by the summer season.  In order to prepare for the upcoming season it is best to wait for some growth to enhance the plants ability to handle foot and cart traffic. I think a few more days will be the best time for all of this to come together.

Tree Work

Some tree pruning and removal was done this winter to improve the playability of the course.  A major part of tree removal is stump cleanup.  We go through a long process of grinding the stumps, cleaning out the grindings and then filling with top soil. As you can see from the pictures this is no small task. 

 This was a large oak left of 13 that was damaged and rotting, was removed for safety reasons.

This is what is left of the last elm tree on 14. The green committee felt it was well past its life and also posed safety concerns.

Course Conditions

Course cleanup is progressing very well and should be completed by the weeks end. The course continues to dry and we are slowly starting to green up, we will be ready to open with the next break in the weather. You can see below 10 green looks great with no signs of ice damage or snow mold.

In the picture of 11 green you can see the small amount of damage that occurred from water ponding on the green.  The area is small enough we should be able to recover quickly.

Course Clean up

This week has been pretty busy with course clean up; we have finished up flood debris and are now working on sticks.  We will spend the better part of two weeks on clearing sticks off the property. This does not include the past three weeks spent clearing the larger damage from the ice storm.

Overall the course is is good shape with only some small winter issues on the front of 11 and 12 greens. Most of the course is still soft and with the rain in the forecast we may be looking at a few more weeks until the course will be ready for traffic. The past two years we had warm springs and were able to open mid to late March, with the current forecast it looks like we will not be opening until the first part of April.

Flood Clean up

With all the flooding last week we spent all day Tuesday trying to clean up the debris left behind. The early spring floods always seem to bring large amounts of silt and sticks for the crew to remove. Unfortunately  the way the weather looks today we will probably be flooded again for the rest of the week.

You can see the silt and leaves left behind

This is a huge pile of brush we had to remove.

Here you can see silt deposits left on 2 fairway.

The Melt Round 2

With the warm weather and rain we are seeing the second flood of the season.  While many areas are hit with major flooding this one looks to be rather mild by our standards.

This is a picture of hole 1 looking over the blue and white tees.

This was taken standing on 2 green, not a lot of room to land your second shot!

Flogton

Flogton-(notgolf)

Is an interesting new concept that may be worth checking out.

Flogton

Winter Storms

Like most winters we go through a number of freeze thaw cycles, this February we have seen some of the most extreme fluctuations I can remember. We have already had temperatures in the single digits and in the 50s, along with the temps we have seen snow, rain and freezing rain.  The freezing rain has been the most devastating as you can see from the attached pictures.  We have lost a lot of limbs, sticks and a few trees along the way. It looks like we will have a few extra long weeks ahead of us as we prepare to open the course for play.

The big melt

With the warm temperatures last week we lost the majority of our snow cover, however most of the heavily shaded areas of the course did keep some of the snow.  In anticipation of winter issues we spent 2 days clearing snow off our more troublesome greens.  This was done to hopefully allow them to dry up preventing any crown hydration damage.

Here you can see 10 green before we started.

The blowers working.

This is the green completed.