Tuesday Course Update

Well we are going to have a somewhat warmer day today. This appears to be the last one for a while according to the forecast. The golf course is open today however we are still going to have to keep #8, 11, and 17 closed due to either ice and snow still on the green or the cart paths are still ice covered and are too dangerous to have golf carts go down them. There are still some isolated areas of snow cover as well especially on the North facing slopes. I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year and we hope to see you all soon!

Saturday Course Update

The golf course is still currently closed at this time. We still have several greens covered in either snow or ice now after some melting yesterday. We also have several cart paths that are covered in ice that we are currently working to try and get to melt. I will update the status of the course as soon as it changes. Thanks for your patience.

Brief Warm up

After that past couple of days of extreme cold temperatures it looks like we are going to have a few days of warmer weather before we once again dip back down into really cold weather pattern. I wanted to give everyone an update on the golf course as Saturday is going to be a nice day. At this time it looks like the golf course is not going to be ready. We still have a ton of snow coverage on the greens, fairways, and cart paths. A lot of it will melt this afternoon but it is going to take a huge melt event to have us ready to play for Saturday. However we will continue to monitor the conditions and let you know as soon as we can so keep checking back on the blog for updates. I have attached some photos I took at 12pm today below. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Winter Blast

Temperatures have tumbled over the last couple of days with this most recent arctic blast. At the course we received about 2" of snow over the weekend along with a good amount of ice. It looks like the weather pattern is going to continue to stay very cold over the next few days through Christmas with maybe a slight warm up into the 40's by the end of the week. The maintenance team will be busy inside over the next couple of days continuing to work on redoing tee markers, enter/exit post, painting the shop, and finishing up our equipment service (i.e. oil changes, air filters, etc.). We will also make sure that all of our staff takes some time to share with their families and friends for the holidays over the next couple of days. I hope each and every one of you has a very safe and a Merry Christmas spending time with your families and friends!

Brief Warm Up

Over the past couple of days temperatures have continued to warm up and the sun has been out giving us some really nice weather. The golf course has been fairly busy with golfers and my staff has been extremely busy taking advantage of the nice weather. We have been continuing to work on the drainage of #17, doing some more clean up of dead trees and leaves, and setting stones along some cart path edges. Today it looks like the temperatures are going to be in the middle 50's and this looks to be the last day of golf for a while as the forecast shows temperatures cooling back off again over the weekend into next week. The greens have finally thawed so we will be changing cups today and hopefully rolling the greens, depending on their softness which will help smooth out the footprints from the past couple days of play. I hope everyone has a great weekend and I can't believe it is Christmas next week already!! Hopefully everyone has their Christmas shopping done already! Where has the time gone?

Winter Time Work

The weather has continued to stay very cold over the last week or so. However the next two days it looks like it is going to warm up a little here for a couple of days with a chance of some precipitation on Friday and Saturday. The golf course will be open today as soon as the frost lifts which will probably be around 12pm. Carts will be good to go at that time on all holes unless they are designated as cart path only. I have had several people ask me lately what we do on such cold mornings and cold weather days when we can't get out on the golf course. We have several projects that we work on over the winter. We redo all our tee markers, enter/exit posts, and cooler boxes by sanding them down, re-staining, and painting. Also during the winter we do a lot of equipment servicing,rebuilding of the bearings, and sharpening of all of our reel mowers. This is a pretty intensive process that takes a lot of time to complete so a long cold winter is the best time to do it. Currently we are also in the process of redoing the flooring in our shop restroom. The floor gets a lot of traffic and had gotten in poor shape. So we are pulling up the vinyl tile and laying down a ceramic tile that will hold up to the foot traffic better during the season. Keeping a clean and tidy shop is a big priority for me. I feel like a good clean work environment helps keep the moral of the staff up which in turn helps set the precedent for their work on the golf course.

Cold Weather Pattern Continues

It was great to see a lot of you at the Wolf Creek Christmas party on Saturday night as it is always a good party and a lot of fun getting to meet everyone. Our current cold pattern looks to be staying in place for at least a couple more days. The forecast is showing a break in the cold pattern maybe by the end of the week with another chance of some precipitation. I have had some questions about how the cold weather effects the golf course? This is a great question and is a tough one to answer. However the best case scenario to go into a prolonged cold spell is for the ground to have a nice blanket of snow on it. This actually acts as insulation to the turf and protects it nicely especially if we were to get any ice. Ice is the ultimate killer as it will suffocate the turf and cause dessication. The cold front we are currently having at this time hasn't been around long enough to do any damage. The beginning of the week the staff will be working in the shop redoing tee markers/post, painting, changing oil in equipment, grinding reels, and some general shop cleaning. Hopefully we will be able to get outside by mid-week to continue the tree work and continue on the drainage work on #17.

Cold Blast

It looks like we are in store for some cold temperatures over the next couple of days. Currently as I am writing this post our temperature outside is 18 degrees with a wind chill of 4 degrees!! That's cold! Our staff has continued to work on the 1,000 linear foot of drainage on #17. We are roughly half way done. I can't wait for this to be done as it will help this area dry out during wet conditions. Also we are continuing to remove the dead trees around the golf course that we lost over the last year. We are removing the Silver Maple between #16 and #17 today. I hope everyone has a nice warm place to stay inside today. If you are looking for some good golf course material to read don't forget to click on the links on the right side of my blog. There is a lot of good information there for you to read about from the USGA, GCSAA, and even our local organization the HAGCSA.

Poa Annua Prevention

I hope each of you had a great Thanksgiving spending time with your family and or friends! It looks like the next couple of days is going to be great golfing weather here in KC before a winter cold front comes in on Wednesday. We are busy today mowing greens and spraying our last pre-emergent application on the greens. Some may ask why we are applying a pre-emergent this time of year? It is to prevent Poa Annua germination on our greens. Poa Annua germinates during the winter months and then expolodes during the spring time. So we try and prevent as much population as possible throughout the year by applying growth regulators and this pre-emergent. The project on #11 is complete and I will post a picture once the fog lifts today and I can get a clear photo. Thanks again to Jack Stockdale and his crew for the awesome job they did! I think it looks GREAT!! I hope to see many of you out here on the course over the next two days enjoying this warmer weather!

Creek Project Update

Work has continued to move very quickly on the #11 project. Jack and his crew are making short work of the project as they have made huge progress in the last 24 hours. Here is a picture showing most of the rip rap rock set in place. Since I took this picture they have got the rock done and are in the process of doing all the clean up work and finish work. I will post another picture tomorrow showing the progress before the Holiday weekend. We should be finished by the early part of next week if not before. Once again please tell Jack Stockdale thank you when you see him. His generosity towards this project is the only reason we were able to make it happen. It is going to look AWESOME!! Thanks Jack

#11 Update

Old man winter has struck with a vengeance over the last couple of days! Temperatures have been extremely cold and the wind chills have been in the single digits. I know the weather has halted most of the golfing over the last week so a lot of you haven't been on property to see the winter project work progress. However our staff and Jack Stockdales's staffs have been hard at it during these cold weather days. We got the dirt work finished on the creek bank on #11 and we were able to install the Geo-textile fabric as well. Rock is going to start getting installed this morning. I really like how the project is taking shape and am looking forward to the finished product. We are also going to continue our drainage work on #17. We are going to be installing about 1,000 feet of drain pipe on this hole to help it dry out better during wet periods to help the Zoysia grass grow better and help the fairway handle the cart traffic better. I have attached a couple of pictures of the progress on #11. I will update the blog one more time before the Thanksgiving holiday. Take care and I will talk to you all again soon.

Course Update and #11 Creek Bank

It looks like the weather is in the process of changing and getting ready to bring us our first real blast of cold winter weather over the next couple of days. We received about .3" of rain on Wednesday with another round expected today. The golf course is wet right now so carts will be on paths today if there is any play. Also we have started to install some drainage on #17 fairway this week to help get the water off this area and allow it to dry up quicker when we are in wet conditions. I will try and get some photos and update this post later today or put a new post up tomorrow showing the drainage process. Here is the latest photo of the #11 creek bank project. Dirt work is about finished and we are getting ready to install the geo-textile fabric and rock as soon as the weather allows. Work right now is halted for today and probably the rest of this week due to the wet conditions from the recent rains.

#11 Creek Bank Update

The work on #11 creek bank is moving along nicely. We are working on extending drain lines that were already in the creek bank so that the pipes don't get covered up, when we add the dirt, blocking the drain lines. Also Jack's crew is in the process of pumping the creek area right in front of the bunker so the back hoe can start placing the dirt onto the creek bank where it eroded from. Here are some pictures showing the work done on Monday.

Course Update

Today we decided to take advantage of the warm temperatures and spiked (vented the greens) and mowed them this morning. The greens growth have really slowed down over the last week or so due to the colder weather. We have started to cut down our mowing practices and are down to mowing the greens two or three times a week depending on the weather and growth. The venting process is done to help keep the surface area open so the green will take in moisture and water. Sometimes with foot traffic and equipment traffic greens surfaces tend to seal off and not allow the green to absorb any moisture or water as good as they normally do. So we open the surfaces up in several ways with one of them being the venting practice. Also the work has started on the #11 creek bank project! Jack and his crews got here sooner then they thought so they are taking advantage of the nice weather as well! Have a great weekend! I know this last comment is going to get me in trouble with a lot of you but GO BRONCOS!!

Existing Bunkers vs New Bunkers

I know you have heard me talk lately how our new bunkers on #12 and #13 handled the latest rain event. About a week and a half ago we received about 5.5" of rain over that week. Our existing bunkers were completely washed out and were contaminated in areas with silt and water and took us roughly 20-30 minutes per bunker to repair. The new bunkers on holes #12, 13, and 18 were completely free of silt and water and took us about 5 minutes to get them ready for play. Here are some photos that were taken right after the last of the rain stopped and show the existing bunkers vs the new bunkers.

Welcome to Wolf Creek Maintenance Blog

I would like to welcome everyone to the Wolf Creek Maintenance Blog. I hope this blog will help keep our members informed of the activities going on on the golf course and behind the scenes. I will be updating this blog several times each week with a post and some pictures to help show exactly what we are up to. I am excited to be able to communicate through this blog as I think it will be a huge asset to the membership and my staff. If you have any thoughts or suggestions on the blog please feel free to contact me. There are links on the right side that will take you to the club's website and other associations websites as well. Just click on the logo and you will be redirected. We will be supplying the blog link in upcoming newsletters to introduce it to the membership. Again thanks for checking it out and we will see you all on the course very soon!