A Lot to Be Thankful For

Weather conditions over the past week or so have been a lot warmer then we had at the beginning of the month. Highs have been quite a bit warmer which has actually allowed us to get some much needed things done on the golf course this week. Since we have had warmer temperatures the ground finally thawed this week which allowed us to mow our greens on Monday and clean them up. Also we were finally able to change the hole locations, which this time a year becomes a challenge with the hard freezes as the greens are usually the first things to freeze. I had some questions from last weekend as some of you saw my staff out hand watering the greens and you are wondering why that was occurring? It has been a while since we have received any significant rain and the winds have been blowing rather steady over the last month or so drying out the surface. Under these conditions greens tend to dry out considerably due to the lack of moisture and windy conditions. Also this time of year the greens get very soft due to the freeze thaw cycle that they go through. Even if they are soft in areas, there are areas that are hydrophobic and are extremely dry. If we don't water these areas when we get the opportunity these areas are extremely susceptible to winter dessication as they will just die a slow death and will not green up in the spring. We had a little bit of this on #9 green last winter so we are trying to be proactive this year and stay in front of it to try and prevent any damage from occurring. This is why we try and leave our irrigation system charged as long as possible. Also this week we finished the cleanup on the hill between #1 and #18. Juan and the guys did an outstanding job and it looks really good. I have attached a picture below. We will hopefully start burning the brush piles as soon as we get a burn permit from the fire department next week. Speaking of permits we are still waiting to receive final approval from the State of Kansas to start the project on #5. We got word this week that a few more agencies need to look at our proposed work and give us their stamp of approval. We will get started once we get the word from the State. Yesterday we had the fun job of installing a plaque on #11 tee recognizing the tremendous generosity and dedication to Wolf Creek of Mr. Jack Stockdale for the great work he did on #11 creek last winter. I have attached a picture of the plaque below and hope that if you see him around that you will thank him again for his work! Well I hope each of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. I am very thankful this holiday season that I get to work at such a great place for such great members as yourselves. Thank you again for your support and for being the membership that you are! Wolf Creek is truly a special place! Have a great weekend!

Fridgid Weather Conditions and Golf Course Update

"Ole' Man" winter has made his presence known this year in a big way over the last week. Temperatures have been extremely cold for this time of year with highs in the teens and low 20s and lows dipping down to single digits. Needless to say things have slowed down a bit around the golf course over the past week. Before the extreme cold hit we were able to get half of the drainage project done on the short end of #14 fairway. We hope that once temperatures warm up a bit later this week that we will be able to get back out and continue working. Tree work has continued and Juan and his guys have done an outstanding job of getting dead trees that died during the year knocked down and have started doing some more clean up on the slope in between #1 and #18. We will continue working on these areas and removing dead trees throughout the winter as the weather permits. Earlier this week we finally received the permit from the CORE to allow us to do #5 project. However they told us that we had to notify the Kansas Department of Agriculture and get their permission before we could start. We are currently getting the paper work completed and will hopefully receive their blessing in the very near future. The feedback we have gotten from them is once they receive our paper work that things should move along quickly. So stat tuned as we are getting closer to starting the work. Have a great week and stay warm. It looks like Friday and Saturday will be warmer and will hopefully allow for some golf to be played. There are some much needed rain chances in there as the golf course has gotten very dry with the winds over the past week or so, but otherwise the weather looks favorable for golf.

Cold Front Arrives

In the matter of a day our high temperatures went from 70 degrees down to our high today of 33 degrees. Wow what a change in just 24 hours. I guess that is why they call this the Transition zone and why it is such a unique area to try and grow turf. Despite the cold temperatures the maintenance team was out and about working on some winter time projects. We are continuing to remove the trees around the golf course that didn't make through the season. A lot of these trees continue to be Black Locust trees that have either lived their short life or got hit hard during the summer drought a year ago. Today we were working on the trees along #6 tees and in between #6 and #7. Also we finally started our drainage project on the short end of #14 fairway. Our goal is to get this done as soon as possible before the winter moisture arrives and makes this area a sloppy wet mess. As I said last week the drainage in this area is going to make a big difference next year and help us to have good consistent turf coverage and firmer conditions in this fairway. I have attached a picture of the drainage trenches prior to us installing the pipe and gravel. It looks like the rest of the week is going to be very cold and winter like with maybe a chance of snow later in the week. We still are waiting on the arrival of the permit to start on the #5 project. Hopefully we will see it sometime this week. Keeping our fingers crossed. I hope everyone stays warm and has a great week.

Tree Work

This week has been a great week for us here at Wolf Creek. The weather has been decent and the maintenance team has been extremely busy with some projects. Tree work has been a big focus of ours this week as we started to do some thinning out and cleaning out of the tree area in between holes #4 and #8. I have posted a few photos below of a before and after shot. As you can see there was a lot of over growth removed and it really cleaned this area up a lot. Our goal is to try and keep this somewhat maintained and not let all the ragweed and other weeds take it over so that it has a cleaner appearance. Also we have continued to focus on the leaf clean up and mulching around the golf course. I feel like the leaves are starting to really slow down as of late and that we have gotten most of them mulched or blown for this first round. We will have another round later in the fall as all the Oaks will start to drop their leaves, but it is no where as extensive as it was this first go around. Also we marked the drainage project on the short end of #14 that we hope to start early next week once the ground freezes a bit. Out of all the projects this winter besides #5 I think the drainage installation on #14 will have the biggest benefit as this area has been an issue for as long as I can remember. Today we are out mowing the greens and changing the cups in front of this next big winter air mass that is on it's way next week. Like I mentioned last week we are down to only mowing the greens twice a week now due to their lack of growth and will probably be down to once a week on the roughs as this cold front approaches. We are still waiting on the permits to come in to start the #5 project. Our anticipation after some feedback we had with the CORE is that we might see something next week sometime. I will keep everyone up to date as to whether we get it next week or not. I hope everyone has a great weekend! Big game for my KSU Wildcats this weekend so GO CATS!

Winning Continues Along with The Colder Temperatures

Congratulations our professional members Tom Pernice Jr. on his win at the Charles Schwab Championship in Scottsdale over the weekend and Gary Woodland's second place finish in Malaysia at the CIMB Classic on the Asian Tour! Wolf Creek has had some kind of run as of late with Robert Streb's win last weekend and then to follow up the next week with a first and second is outstanding! Weather conditions here in KC over the last week or so have really slowed down the growth rate of the turf. We are starting to slow down our mowing practices to at least every other day on the greens and just once a week on the roughs. However we will continue to mulch and blow leaves as needed. Also this week we have started removing the dead trees around the golf course that we marked a few weeks ago. This will be an ongoing project over the winter. Our plan is to hopefully start a drainage project on the short end of #14 fairway this week or next depending on the weather. We are delayed to start today after the .2" of rain that received overnight. As you know this area doesn't take much to be wet so we will try and catch it before it get's too wet and get the drainage installed. Getting this area done will drastically help this area be more playable, allow for carts to travel on it, and help the turf be more consistent and healthy. Once we start I will upload some pictures showing our progress. The project on #5 is still in the holding pattern as we are still waiting on the permits to be returned to us. I will continue to monitor the situation as Jack Stockdale and myself are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the permits any day in our mail. I hope everyone is having a great week!