Fall Colors Are Here

Our amazing weather that we have been blessed with over the past couple of weeks has continued.  Low temperatures haven't been overly cold, however we have had a few frosty mornings, things have been pretty pleasant.  This time of the year is definitely one of my favorites as the turf grass is enjoying life in a nice and calm state and then all the fall colors that the trees put off with the leaves turning is just breath taking and gives us a nice back drop to come into to work everyday!  The maintenance team this week has been busy working on a few projects around the golf course.  Hopefully by the end of today we will complete the rough aerification.  This has been a week long process that takes a lot of time and effort to get done, but the benefit it gives us in our turf quality is worth every minute of it.  Also this week we have been working on putting a nice clean edge on our bunkers going into winter.  This is a great time to edge the zoysia as it is dormant and the clean edge stays in place well into the following spring.  We have completed about half of the bunkers at this time and will continue to work on them as the weather allows.  Another item we worked on was applying our last fertilizer application to all of the roughs.  This application will give the turf plant food to store going into the winter so that it can survive and then give it a boost coming out of winter so it can start to grow once spring gets here.  A lot of studies have shown that the most important fertilizer application to make is the winterizer application, so if you are looking for a little home lawn advice I would suggest you putting down your application as soon as possible.  Our upcoming schedule looks to stay busy as we are going to continue our tree work around the course cleaning up overgrown areas and removing dead trees that have died throughout the season. We are also planning to start some fairway drainage projects on holes #17, 18, & 10.  Also we are going to be adding some irrigation heads in a few isolated areas around #12 & 14 greens.  Have a great weekend and I hope to see all of you out at the club for the Closing Day tournament and chili cook off!    

Frosty Mornings, Colder Temperatures, and Royals Baseball

Temperatures have continued to drop over the past couple of days. As I am sitting here writing this post we are currently experiencing our second frost of the season as low temperatures were in the low 30s.  On Monday and Tuesday the club hosted the Kansas City Masters here at Wolf Creek inviting the 25 best golfers in Kansas City to compete against each other.   Conditions on Monday were near perfect even with a chilly start to the day, Tuesday however was a different story as a cold front and some beneficial rain moved into the area making the course conditions cold and wet.  Scores however were good and the golf course was a great test for the field, in the end Ryne Fischer took home the title shooting a two day total of 141.
As we start to move into the winter months we are going to be having frost delays on a more regular basis.  Every year I have members ask me why frost is so damaging.  I have included a USGA video below explaining why we have frost delays and the damage that can occur if caution isn't taken. I hope this video helps explain the importance of the frost delays and I appreciate everyone's patience when frost does occur.  Despite the cooler temperatures and frost the maintenance staff has been working hard and getting a lot of work done.  We started our off season tree work as we removed the two dead Willow trees on the right side of #6.  Also we started our annual bunker edging project where we go around to every bunker and give it a nice clean crisp edge.  This project will take us a few weeks to complete as it is a slow and tedious process.  Mulching and blowing of leaves has been an ongoing project as the trees are really starting to drop their leaves for the season and we have had some windy days aiding in the dropping process.  We will continue to try and keep up with the leaves and blow and mulch as much as possible.  On Wednesday we started our rough aerification around the green banks.  The recent rain has given us some much needed moisture allowing us to be able to pull plugs in the roughs areas easier.  Our plan is to finish all the green bank areas first and then move on to aerifying the cart enter/exit areas of the rough.  Upcoming in the next week we will be applying our winter fertilizer application which is the last one for the year to our rough.  If you haven't already I would get your winterizer application done on your home lawns before the weather conditions turn off cold and the plants can't take up the food for the winter as efficiently.  Have a great weekend and how about those Kansas City Royals!  Up 2-0 in the series against the New York Mets and playing unbelievable baseball.  Secretly I hope they make it back to KC to clinch the title at home rather then in New York, however I won't complain either way as long as they get it done!

            

Awesome Weather Continues

Wow I can't believe it is already close to the end of October.  The leaves are starting to turn and fall and postseason baseball is in full effect.  Our Kansas City Royals have been putting on quite a show this postseason.  As I am writing this post they are currently playing game four in Toronto and are up 5-2 with a 2-1 lead in the series, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that they can pull it out and take a commanding advantage in the ALCS and make it back to the World Series (Update the Royals did win game 4 and are now up 3-1 in the series).  Like I titled this post the incredibly great weather has continued here in the Kansas City over the past few weeks giving us great grass growing weather.  Course conditions have been great as the golf course is playing very firm and fast.  Finally this week we were able to level out the area right of #5 and #6 where we put all the extra dirt from the creek project this past winter on #5.  It turned out  great thanks to Jack Stockdale and his crew and we will be seeding this area very soon as we are waiting on some rain chances to move into the forecast to make things a little softer and give us better seeding conditions which looks like we are going to get on Friday. This area will hopefully establish itself as a low maintenance native area that we will work diligently to try and keep the weed population down as much as possible.  However this first year after establishment we will have a battle on our hands as the soil is full of weed seeds after the weed germination that we had in 2015.  Anytime you turn soil over you get a lot of weed pressure the following year. Currently we are participating in some trials of a chemical program with a chemical manufacturer that we are looking to use in these high profile areas that has been successful in limiting the weed population.  So hopefully we will get some great results and have a great plan of attack to try and help control the weeds in these areas.  I have attached a photo below showing the area on #5 as we get ready to seed it hopefully on Wednesday or Thursday prior to the rain.  Also I took a great shot of the beautiful sunrise this morning!  This is one of the great joys in being a golf course superintendent you get to see some awesome beauty from "Mother Nature" on a regular basis.

#5 Native area prepping for seed

Incredible Sunrise!!!

    

October is Here

As I am sitting here writing this post the current temperature outside is 58 degrees and the sky is cloudy.   The forecast was for the high today to be in the middle to upper 60s, however I don't think that is going to happen.  Yesterday our high temperature reached 85 degrees!  Twenty degree difference in the matter of 24 hours makes for a shock to the system for sure.  Yesterday it was short sleeve weather and today it is a two jacket and glove day!  Many of you that have played this week have probably noticed some of the native areas have been mowed down.  We don't normally mow these areas but they also don't normally have the weed population that they had this year either.  A lot of moisture throughout the season and five flood events will make these native areas weedy and unsightly.  Now that things have slowed down a bit on the golf course with regards to the amount of mowing and hand watering that we were doing we have been able to address these areas and get them cleaned up.  I have attached a few pictures below showing a few of the areas that have been mowed.  I am also talking with some chemical professionals and looking into some options for 2016 that can help us in these areas keep the weeds more manageable.  Normal years these areas haven't been to bad, but this year was enough for me to start looking at some programs for treatment so that we won't hopefully have them look like they did this year again.  As I have mentioned in previous post the zoysia grass has really slowed down and is really starting to loose it's color.  I took a picture today of #18 fairway to show everyone how much color they have lost.  Needless to say we are done with fairways and tees for the year.  Earlier in the week on Monday and Tuesday we did a needle tine on the greens to vent and open up the surface.  Every time after we aerify the greens the surface tends to seal off a bit as we have done a lot of rolling and mowing getting the greens smoothed back out.  Our greens were actually not taking water like we wanted them to so we do the needle tine to help them take the water and oxygen down to the roots so the plants can utilize them .  I know it tends to make the greens a little more bumpy then usual for a day or two,  but the benefits this practice provide for the greens is huge!  Looking ahead to next week it looks like the great weather is going to stick around.  We are planning to do a light verticut and topdress on the greens on Tuesday.  Verticutting helps us to control the thatch accumulation at the surface of the greens along with helping to keep the putting surface firm and smooth, by helping the topdress sand to get incoporated into the green profile by cutting a tiny line in the thatch layer of the green allowing the sand to fall into the line.  As the forecast continues to stay dry our watering practices in the roughts have had to increase especially in areas around the trees as the turf has started to show some drought stress from the trees taking all the moisture.  I know that the increase in watering has caused a few areas to be more soggy then others.  Please be patient as we are still trying to grow in some areas we overseeded and thus have to water them a bit more than normal.  If we can get some nice rainfall soon we will be able to back off of the irrigation.  Have a great weekend and Lets Go Royals!!!    

Mowing down the native on #12

Native area mowed on #18 tee

Zoysia going dormant

Fall Conditions Arrive Early

Fall weather has arrived early and has blessed us with some mighty fine playing conditions.  The cool season turfgrass (fescue, bluegrass, and bentgrass)  has responded nicely and is in a very nice and relaxed state.  Our new putting green has been doing well and has recovered nicely after the aerification.  We are continuing to take it slow and easy on it to allow the grass to mature and develop before we start treating it like the other greens (mowing heights and rolling).  So the putting speed remains a little slower then the other greens as we are mowing the new green at a higher mowing height.  This week we applied our pre-emergent and zoysia patch prevention to our fairways and tees to prevent any poa annua germination and fungus from growing during the wet fall conditions.  Also we have done a few more areas of seeding and sodding in some high traffic areas around the greens on #1 and #17.  We are going to be patching a few more areas around holes #2,3, & 4 before the end of the week.  These are areas that have high traffic from mowers and foot traffic and are hard to get seed to germinate.  Speaking of seed germination the areas in the rough that were over seeded have really started to fill in and grow.  There are a few areas where the cart traffic is heavy that we may need to reseed eventually if the seed doesn't germinate good enough over the next week or so. Our plan going forward is to start mowing our fairways once a week as the growth has really slowed down.  Like I said in my last blog post we will monitor the growth and once we see that the Zoysia is getting close to shutting down completely we will let the fairways and tees grow up a bit to give it some insulation and protection for the winter.  Tomorrow we will be spiking our greens to open up the surface to allow the water and air to get into the profile.  Typically after aeration the surface of the greens starts to seal off as they have had a lot of machine traffic on them from all the rolling and topdressing that occurs getting the greens healed after aerfication.  After we spike and mow them we are going to apply a thin coat of topdressing sand to help keep them smooth and fill in any voids that still remain from aerification.  Enjoy the fall weather and I will take some updated photos of the greens and post them.  Have a great week!

Course Update Post Aerification

Today we are applying another thin layer of topdressing sand to continue to fill in the aerification holes as they have settled over time with the rains and watering.  As you can see in the picture below the healing process has really been good and the greens are healing rather quickly.  Our plan moving forward is to continue to monitor the healing process and once the holes are pretty well filled in and minimal sand is exposed we will put the walking greens mowers on them and mow.  First however we have to get the holes filled in completely with sand and the turf has to fill in the holes or we will destroy our good greens mowers with the sand.  Also today we are rolling the greens to continue to smooth the putting surface out, but also to help firm the surface up.  Like I have mentioned in past having firm putting surfaces is of the up-most importance to me and my staff.  Firm greens are easier to manage and perform better under all conditions.  The fall season is a great time of the year to be on the golf course as the turf is able to relax and playing conditions are firmer and faster due to root structure being longer, less moisture from irrigation needs as the plant doesn't require as much to survive and keep cool, and the humidity in the air.  As cooler weather and shorter days  have moved in the Zoysia grass has really started to slow down its' growth.  We are now mowing the fairways and tees twice a week as opposed to three times a week.  Soon after the Friends/Foes event next week we will start letting the fairways grow a bit to build up some thatch and get a little protection for the plant moving into the winter months.  Over seeding in the roughs has been completed and we are now waiting on germination in the few areas that we seeded.  We are starting to see some nice germination in the areas we seeded first and are just starting to see seed pop out of the ground in others. Another project we completed this week was hauling sand to some of our bunkers that had shallow sand..  The ones we added sand stick out like a sore thumb now as the new white sand is quite a contrast to the older white sand that is already in the bunkers.  Over time the sand will get raked in and the contrast won't be as noticeable.   Looks like the weather is going to continue to be in our favor over the next couple of days.  I hope all of you can get out and enjoy the golf course! It is setting up to be a really good Fall here at Wolf Creek!

Greens recovery 8 days after they were aerified

Rolling the Putting Surface to smooth and firm them up

Aerification Completed

It wasn't without some challenges from "Mother Nature" and equipment issues but we were able to get our greens aeration completed on Wednesday late afternoon.  We had some challenges getting started on Tuesday morning after we received about .5" of rain the night before.  This made the process take a little longer as we had to let things dry out a little bit before we could start and getting the sand dry enough to drag into the holes took some patience.  However it is done and we couldn't have timed it any better as we received another 1.75" of rain last night bringing our weekly total close to 2.25" of rainfall.  The rain last night really helped to settle the sand into the holes and as soon as course conditions dry out we will topdress the greens again to fill the holes back up that settled after the rain.  We finally got the new putting green aerified this week and our plan is to open the green this weekend.  It will once again be a bit slower then the other greens as we are going to take it slow on getting it down to the mowing height of the others and let it slowly adjust to the foot traffic and mower stress.  Today the ALL-STAR crew is busy trying to get the bunkers repaired after the storm last night.  Most of if not all of the bunkers took a hit last night and it will be a slow process getting them repaired.  Earlier in the week we were able to get our seeder back out and were able to get holes #10-16 seeded before the rains.  Any time you can get a nice rain on new seed it does wonders for your germination rate and extremely beneficial.  Obviously course conditions are very wet today and we are going to be unable to have the mowers out on the course.  This may cause the roughs to get a little tall and thick over the weekend.  However we will get them out as soon as conditions allow.  We were able to get the entire golf course mowed at least once if not twice in spots even with all the rain this week.  I have attached some pictures below showing the greens as they looked today and showing the damage to the bunkers after the big storm. Have a fabulous weekend and keep your coats handy as it looks like things are going to be pretty chilly over the next couple of days with lows in the middle 40s and highs in the upper 60s and low 70s.  Perfect weather for a turf manager!!

Aerification holes full of sand

Bunkers Washed Out!!

Holiday Weekend Prep.

"Mother Nature" has continued to work on our side so far this week.  Temperatures have been higher but with the shorter days the hot temps don't cause as many problems as they do during July and August.  Also with the shorter days and cooler night time temps the zoysia grass has slowed down its growth considerably.  We are now only mowing the fairways and tees two times a week as opposed to the three times that we were having to do a few weeks ago.  The zoysia still has great color and is still growing but it just isn't growing as aggressively.  Seeding of the roughs has taken a bit of a break this week with the warmer temperatures.  However the seed we did get down last week during the cool weather got a nice rain and is really germinating nicely.  We hope to continue doing some spot seeding next week after greens aerification is completed.  Speaking of aerification a reminder that we are scheduled to do our fall greens aerification on Tuesday September 8th.  Hopefully we will be able to get majority of the greens completed as the forecast doesn't look too favorable right now with rain chances in the forecast for most of next week.  We are going to keep our fingers crossed and hope that we get a break in the weather to allow us to get them done.
As the holiday weekend approaches the maintenance staff has stayed very busy this week. Our maintenance team has been hauling new sand to some of the bunkers that were low on sand.  Bunkers that need sand are ones that routinely wash out during heavy rains, receive a lot of play, or are exposed to the wind and the sand actually gets blown out of them.  We checked each bunker a week ago and made a list and started filling those bunkers today.  Also today we have been push mowing around bunkers and pulling all the zoysia grass runners that have grown down into the sand.  Pulling the runners takes a tremendous amount of time but the bunkers look awesome when they are done!  Another project we completed this week was flushing all of our drain lines in our greens.  This helps get all the old nasty water and debris that builds up over the summer in the drains out and lets the greens breathe a breath of fresh air and helps them drain also.  We try and do this about three times a year at the beginning of spring, middle of summer, and beginning of fall.  Doing this helps us to know that our drainage is in good shape in the greens and also helps us to keep all the exits in the creeks and catch basins in good working order.  We weren't able to get the new putting green aerified last week like I was hoping due to the heavy rains that we got on Thursday.  Our plan is to do it next week when we do the regular greens and then open it for play after that.  Well I hope you all have a very safe holiday weekend with your family and friends.  Looks like the fall weather is going to be back next week with some rain chances so hopefully you can get out to the club this weekend and take advantage of your time off.  I am going to keep my fingers crossed that the weather holds off next week so that we can get the aerification done on time so that the greens will be fully recovered in two weeks for the Friends/Foes event.  

Great Weather Continues

The great weather has continued over the past week or so.  Temperatures have been absolutely perfect along with low humidity which has really made being outside very comfortable.  Cool season grasses have really benefited with the break in the weather which has allowed them to relax and start to grown and develop a root system again and not just trying to survive like they were doing when temperatures and the humidity were higher.  On the course this week we started our annual over seeding of some of the rough areas where the cart and foot traffic have been concentrated.  We started seeding some areas last week and I just started seeing some seed germination this morning.  That is pretty darn good having germination in about 6 days as some times it takes 10 to 14 days.  However the conditions have been ideal and it is awesome to see!  Finally we got all the back filling and sodding around the new tee line on the driving range tee and the hitting shed completed.  It turned out very nice.  I already showed you a picture a week or so ago in one of my blog post's of the line on the driving range tee, but here is a picture of the one in front of the building.  Hopefully the fescue grass will survive better in front of the building due to all the shade that occurs in this area the zoysia never really had a fighting chance as it likes to receive a lot of sun.  Greens continue to perform well.  Along with the other cool season turf the bentgrass greens are really liking these weather conditions of late.  A lot of the stressed areas where the foot traffic or mower traffic has occurred have really started to recover and are getting less and less noticeable.  Also the firmness in the surfaces has started to come back as the roots of the turf are developing again and the water requirements are a lot less due to the lower temperatures and lower humidity.  We are scheduled for our greens aerification on September 8th, but we are going to aerify the new putting green on Thursday to try and give it time to get it healed up before the other greens are aerified.  Also this week we have started to try and tackle some of our native areas and spraying some of the broadleaf weeds that have emerged.  We were able to keep up early in the year but as the rain kept falling and areas flooded we slowly lost control of the weed growth.  Right now we are focusing on some high profile areas around tees and greens and will hopefully work our way around the entire property eventually.  Hopefully everyone has been able to get out and enjoy this awesome weather over the past week or so.   It looks like tomorrows forecast for the annual Member/Pro/Guest event is ideal and should provide some great playing conditions.  Next week's forecast looks to rise into the upper 80's to low 90's so we aren't quite done with summer yet, but with the shorter days things will start to feel cooler.    

Jacket Weather

Wow what a change in the weather today!  Going from upper 80's to lower 90's for highs down to lower 70's for highs and 50's for lows was a shock to the system this morning.  I don't remember the last time I wore a jacket in the middle of August.  The cool weather and 1" of rain yesterday were very beneficial and will provide the turf a little bit of relaxation and much needed "Mother Nature" love.  All the cool season grasses in the roughs and on the greens will greatly appreciate this break in the weather.  Our maintenance team continues to stay busy as the season continues to fly bye.  Today's schedule consisted of mowing the greens and rolling, mowing fairways and tees that were dry, and fixing the bunkers after the rain. Along with raking of the bunkers we are also starting the process of checking the sand depths and moving the sound around to get our consistent depth of 4" of sand on the floor of the bunkers and 2" of sand in the face of the bunkers.  After the wet weather we have had this year the sand has been moved around quite a bit by the rains and has caused some inconsistencies in our bunkers.  After we get this slow process completed the bunkers should play a lot more consistent.  There are a few bunkers we will be adding some new sand to as they have gotten shallow with sand from either a lot of play or from our crew having to remove sand after wash outs to get the silt out of the bunkers.  Also today we are push mowing around the bunkers as the zoysia grass continues to grow at a very rapid pace.  I have attached a few pictures below showing some work from this morning and this afternoon.  Looking ahead it looks like the weather is going to stay relatively cool for this time of year into next week.  This stretch of weather should really help our new putting green continue to develop the root structure it needs to withstand the daily wear and tears.  We are monitoring it daily and I will keep everyone up to date as we move along in the process.  If temperatures stay cool we may try to aerify the putting green a week or so prior to our regular greens to help with it's recovery.  This is all dependent on the development of the roots over the next couple of weeks or so during this cool down.  Over seeding in our roughs will hopefully start once the ground dries up some after these rains.  It is a great time to get seed down with the cool temperatures so we are going to try and take advantage of them.  I hope everyone enjoys the weather over the next few days as much as our staff and I will!!

Mowing fairways and the Zoysia grass continues to shine!!!!

Team members checking sand depths in bunkers and pulling the zoysia runners growing down into the bunkers.

Push mowing bunker faces.

  

Busy Times With A Great Cool Down

This week has been an extremely busy one so far and we are only on Tuesday! The nice cool down in the temperatures and humidity has been a big change.  Also the fact that it has been mostly dry is also been a big part in allowing us to finally get some much needed projects completed.  Today we spiked and topdressed our putting greens.  These agronomic practices help us to get some much needed oxygen into the soil profile and helps the surfaces of the greens to dry out.  Topdressing is done to help keep the surfaces firm and smooth, while also helping to keep our organic matter (thatch) under control.  Also today we are finally finishing up the aeration of our tee boxes.  We are aerifying holes #2,3,4,5, & 18.  All that will be left after today is #1 and the driving range tees.  I am planning on getting these done next Monday weather permitting.  Also today we are applying another fertilizer application to the fairways. On top of our normal weekly maintenance practices we are also putting the finishing touches on the new tee line project on the driving range.  Our crew has been back filling around the concrete and installing the sod.  The project has turned out great and will be a huge benefit to our driving range tees moving forward as the tee line will help lighten the load of traffic and divots.  Looking ahead to the rest of the week we are planning to do some sodding on the green bank on #5 where the water sat this spring and summer during the floods along with a few other areas around the course.  If the temperatures stay cool we will start doing some over seeding in some of the rough areas over the next week or so as well.  Here are a few pictures of some of the happenings this week.  Enjoy the great weather and we hope to see all of you soon.

New Tee Line

Spiking Greens

Spike Holes on Greens

Topdressing Greens

Cool Temps and Rain

After some warm and humid days we finally have got a break today as temps are in the lower 80's and the humidity is a lot lower which has made things more bearable for the turf and for the staff.  Along with the lower temps and low humidity we also received 1.02" of rain overnight and into the morning.  This rain will be very beneficial and will help a lot of our stressed areas around the golf course start to recover.  Speaking of stressed turf I know everyone saw Rod's note on us shutting down the new putting green for a while.  We are doing this as the turf is only 5 months old and it is was starting to stress out pretty good from all the traffic and heat.  This spring was a great time to seed the green as the temperatures were fairly good and we got some good moisture.  However the other side of that is the roots of the turf never really grew down to the depths that they were getting as all the moisture and food they wanted were being provided for it at the surface.  We had to fertilize it quite a bit during grow in to try and get it to fill in and have the green ready to open when we did.  There are some areas around the edges where the seed washed during grow in and where it has been exposed to more foot and equipment traffic then other areas.  These areas are being sodded this week as the turf in these areas were a lot more immature then the rest of the green.  As the temperatures start to cool down and the days get shorter the green should recover  and our hope is to open it as soon as it gets it's legs back under it.  We were able to start our tee aerification this week and will continue to work on them the rest of this week.  Holes #6,7,8,9,15, & 16 are complete.  If the weather cooperates we should have most of if not all of them completed by next week.  Have a great week and enjoy the nice cool weather for a few days!

Heat Wave Continues

Temperatures have continued to stay hot and humid. Heat indexes have been over the 110 degree mark a few times over the past week or so.  The maintenance team has been busy trying to keep things cool along with our normal maintenance practices trying to keep everything as cool as possible and trying not to damage the grass with the equipment in the heat of the day.  All in all everything seems to be holding up pretty well.  The greens are showing a little stress in spots, but this is pretty normal under these conditions and hopefully the weather is going to cool off tomorrow like the forecasters are saying.  One thing I would like to ask everyone's help with is being diligent with the cart traffic in our roughs.  Majority of you do a great job of keeping the carts out of the roughs all the time, however it is very important this time of year to be as diligent as possible as the turf is in a fragile state and it doesn't take much to stress it out and cause damage with cart traffic.  Thank you all for your help and your willingness to help us out.   I apologize for not updating my last post with pictures from the tee line installation that is occurring on the driving range.   I have attached a couple pictures below of the concrete installation and then the beginning of the turf installation.  The contractors are on schedule to hopefully finish sometime later this week if the last roll of the turf arrives.  If it doesn't they may have to finish the beginning of next week and then once the turf has been glued down for 24 hours it is ready to use.  We are still trying to get the tees aerified.  Hot temperatures have caused us some delays as our staff has been busy doing other things.  My hope is that either later this week or next week we will be aerifying the tees which should only take us a week or so to complete.  I don't know how many of you have played lately and noticed the new Crabapple trees that we installed on holes # 3,10, & 18.  We put these trees in areas where we think they provide some nice color variations and provide a little backdrop to the green complexes. Well that about does it for today.  I hope everyone is able to stay inside and stay as cool as possible for the rest of today.  We are hoping the cool down tomorrow happens and that some of this heat and humidity gets out of here.  Stay cool and we hope to see you on the course soon!

Summer Weather and Rain Continue

Hot temperatures and high humidities along with bouts of rain have become the norm as of late here in Kansas City.  I have seen summers that are very hot and dry and I have seen summers where it has been very cool and wet, but I don't recall any that have been as wet and hot thus the high humidities as this year.  The maintenance staff has been staying busy trying to keep up with watering, mowing,  and keeping the diseases under control which has been a challenge.  Our new putting green has continued to hold up pretty well with all the traffic and heat.  However we do have one edge where the seed washed out several times during grow in that the turf never was able to mature enough to withstand the foot traffic it is receiving.  We will be patching in this area with some sod this week during this brief break in the temperatures.  Also this week we will be getting our new artificial turf tee line installed on the driving range tee.  I will post pictures once the contractor gets started. They were delayed today due to the 1.25" of rain that we received overnight.  Bunkers have become a topic of conversation lately as I have heard from some that they think they are too firm or don't have enough sand in them.  We changed up how we rake the bunkers this year and the frequency in how many times we rake them during the week to try and firm them up. Last year and even this spring members comments were they thought our bunkers were to soft and had too much sand in spots causing the ball to not release to the middle of the bunkers.  I feel that along with the change in our raking techniques that the firmness is a result of all the rain we have had.  The new bunkers that we have redone in the past two years aren't quite as firm because they do not have contaminated sand in them like the old ones due to the new linears we installed, keeping the new sand free and clean from the silt that washes during the heavy rains.  The comments on the new bunkers are that they are playing nicely and aren't quite as firm as the old ones.  We rake all the bunkers the same, so the difference is in the clean new sand being a better playing surface due to them not having contamination in them.  Our plan is too however add some sand to a few of our bunkers that wash out frequently where we have had to scoop silt and sand out of them following the storms.  I have been waiting on the rain chances to slow down so that the new sand won't get contaminated right away by a big rain event.  Like I said I will post some photos I hope later in the week of the new tee line installation. Have a great week!

Course Update with Crazy Weather

Needless to say our weather over the past week or so has been CRAZY!  High temperatures have been in the upper 90's to low 70's and lows have ranged from low 60's to mid to upper 70's.  Throw on top of that quite a bit of rain and humidity and you got yourself a tough situation when it comes to growing grass.  Root structure for the turf is shallow due to the frequent rain events so when the temperatures do soar into the upper 80's and 90's things get a little hairy trying to keep cool season roughs alive and not over water them at the same time.  This set up also makes managing greens a challenge as the frequent moisture and high humidity cause disease pressure and make water management very difficult.  Due to the amounts of moisture and humidity it is tough to keep green speeds consistent day in and day out.  Example is one day it will be 80 degrees with 65% humidity and the greens will be slower then when it is 90 degrees and 35% humidity and we are applying a lot more water by hand to areas on  the greens.  They will tend to be quicker on the hotter day due to the lack of humidity and moisture in the air.  During these temperature extremes we also have to be smart with how much equipment pressure we put on the greens (i.e. rollers, verticut, topdress, etc.) to try and not cause anymore stress then they are already under.  This is always a tough juggling act for all superintendents as we want the greens to be as fast as anyone while keeping them healthy and alive. We currently are mowing our greens at .105" and are rolling them 4-5 days a week depending on the weather.   We verticut and topdressed the greens on Monday taking advantage of the rain and cooler weather that we are forecast for on Tuesday and Wednesday.  This practice will help to remove any leaf tissue that the mowers have missed (which is one of the factors in green speed) and will help us to incorporate our topdressing sand better all while providing a nice opening in the surface so that oxygen and water can move down into the root zone.  There aren't a lot of years that I verticut on July 6th as temperatures and stress on the greens is usually to high for them to tolerate it.  This will help with some of the inconsistency in speed, but a lot of it will still depend on the weather conditions each day.  Our goal is to have the greens as close to our standard green speed day in and day out, but the moisture levels and temperature readings dictate the speeds a lot more then most people know.  Also the later in the day you play the slower greens typically get as the turf grows throughout the day.  We try to slow this growth process down by applying growth regulators, but they still tend to grow, hence why we mow them about every day.

We received 1.75" of rain over night and didn't have a lot of storm damage.  I feel very fortunate that we dodged a bullet with some of the areas around Kansas City that got hit pretty hard by flooding and high winds.  However there is more rain in the forecast and depending on who you watch or what you read it looks like there is the possibility for a lot more rain.  My hope is that it misses us and things will stay like they are and we can get back to our normal schedule on Wednesday and Thursday of mowing and doing our normal maintenance.  Also as soon as conditions dry out we will try and finish our fairway and tee aerification.  We are almost done on the fairways as the only ones left are (1,2,3,7, & 18) and we still have all of the tees and driving range to complete.        

Timberwolf 2015

I would like to first apologize for not posting recently. Unfortunately I got injured a week ago Thursday and broke a bone in my foot that required surgery on Tuesday. All is good the recovery is moving along slowly. I hope to be back at the course as soon as possible once all the pain subsides. I will be a bit limited on crutches but I hope to be back very soon.  Fortunately for me I have unbelievable Assistants and crew that have done a great job in my absence.  This past week we saw temperatures soar into the upper 90s  and heat indexs rise into the 103 degree range. The golf course faired well and held up nicely.  The maintenance team was extremely busy all week preparing for the 2015 Timberwolf, which is our annual member/guest event.  From all indications all preparations and course conditions went well. Thursday night we received about 2.75" of rain along with some high winds that caused there to be a delayed start on Friday allowing the staff to get the course cleaned up and ready to play. However things weren't to bad as some parts of the city got hammered and had significant tree damage and power outages we only had a few limbs down, wet fairways, and a little water in the bunkers.  Along with the Timberwolf starting we were able to open our new practice putting green.  It has held up well through the heat and seems to be doing great. Just a reminder that the green won't quite roll like our normal greens this year as we still have to baby it along for this first year.  Our mowing height is a little taller and we aren't able to roll it as much. It will continue to mature and our hope is that next year it will be close to the same as the others after a year of maturing and growing.  Also this week our team worked their tails off and got a majority of the Zoysia spot sodding done on the fairways prior to the tournament.  Conditions finally dried out enough in the sod farm to allow us to cut some sod.  Fairways/tees continue to do great with the warmer weather and the cool season roughs have held up well during this heat wave.  I hope everyone had a great week and have a great weekend. The weather looks great to be outside enjoying it!

Installing new zoysia sod

New putting green ready for play!

Drying Out and Some Heat

What a change in the weather we have had over the past 7 days or so.  The cool wet weather gave away to mid 90 highs and mid 70s for lows.  These temperatures really helped us in getting things dried out, however they made things interesting when it came to managing the cool season roughs.  As a turf manager the last thing you want to see is a bunch of moisture followed closely behind by mid 90's degree temperatures.  This pattern doesn't allow the turf to establish a good solid root system and on top of that it breeds disease as the humidity levels give the spores and fungi a play ground to swim around and infect turf plants.   So needless to say we have been extremely busy this week trying to get caught up on all the mowing and clipping management and we also were busy applying control products for diseases on our greens and in our roughs.  We were able to get it out in time to control most areas however there are a few areas, especially where we flooded, that the disease was a bit more severe.  We have sprayed these areas and they should eventually recover over time. The temperatures cause problems for shallow rooted grasses such as our Kentucky Bluegrass as it doesn't hold up to the traffic and heat as much as the Fescue.   We have been doing some spot watering in some of the cart traffic areas and in and around the green complexes to help the turf recover.  Coincidentally our Zoysia grass fairways and tees have absolutely exploded over the last week.  Our fairways and tees are really starting to green up and grow.  The turf team applied a fertilizer this week so they should continue to grow and fill in and become a lot more consistent then they have been coming out of the slow Spring.  Our zoysia farm has dried out  so we are going to be starting some zoysia sodding in a few of the thin areas in our fairways.  I don't know how far we will get as the extended forecast looks rather bleak with rain chances of 50% or higher every day for the next 10 days.  We will work as hard as possible to try and get as much done as we can.  I attached a picture below of our fairways showing how good they look after they have dried out and we got a good mowing on them.  Also I attached a photo of some bird damage that we had on our #17 green.  The birds were digging for some sort of insect and really did a number on the green.  We are applying an insecticide today to try and help with this issue.  As you can see there is always something new happening around here and it isn't always related to weather or golfers!!  Have a great weekend!

Zoysia Looking Good!!

Bird Damage on #17 Green

Rain Just Keeps Coming

For some reason this year ole "Mother Nature" has decided to grace us with a lot of rain so far this spring.  Like the past couple of weeks this week has been a soggy one.  Not as bad as some of the others, but course conditions are still very wet as we received another 1.25" of rain giving us about 2.25" for the week and bringing our May and June total close 11" of rain.  Luckily the creek stayed in it's banks last night and this morning and flooding wasn't a big concern or issue.  The creek is unbelievably full right now so crossing our fingers that it has time to drain down before the next round of rain comes either later today or over the weekend.  Between the rain events we have been able to get some mowing done in select areas.  Thankfully we had two dry days this week so we were able to take advantage of them and stay somewhat caught up on the mowing.  Course conditions are such that we were unable to mow the greens this morning.  The maintenance team is working on getting the bunkers put back together and doing some general clean up around the golf course picking up limbs, silt, and debris that was left behind by the storm.  We hope to resume our normal greens maintenance over the weekend barring anymore major rain events.  Hopefully everyone will be able to get out and enjoy their family activities over the weekend.  If you are coming out to play over the weekend please be as careful as possible with your carts and their tires driving down the path.  It doesn't take much right now to cut a mud track in the turf as things are extremely wet.  Have a great weekend!!  

June is Here

What a wet month the month of May was!  One of the wettest months on record according to researchers and weather forecasters.  I can believe it as I have never in my five years of being at Wolf Creek seen this property as wet as it was this past weekend.  Luckily we were still able to host the annual Wolf Creek Invitational only losing 9 holes of competition to the weather.  However at times it looked like it was going to be questionable to even play any of it.  Hopefully we will get a nice dry week this week and get caught up on the mowing and applications that we couldn't get done the past couple of weeks.  Today we are solid tining the greens to open them up a bit after the wet weather we have had.  This practice will help dry them out and supply the roots with some much needed oxygen after being saturated for so many days.  I couldn't have been more happy then I was over the past couple of weeks with our greens.  They have stayed pretty firm and consistent through the wet soggy weather.  This is a testament to our agronomic program and shows that what we do to try and keep our infiltration rates (how fast water moves through the soil) as high as possible really pays off.  Also today we are applying another light topdressing to the greens to continue to help them stay firm and as consistently smooth as possible.  Our rough mowers are out this morning trying to get as much rough mowed as they can.  Most of the areas we should be able to mow, however there are still some wet areas that we will have to leave and hopefully come back to later in the week.  Our plan is to try and mow fairways and tees on either Tuesday or Wednesday depending on when they dry out enough to get the mowers on them.  We are also planning this week to do some applications in our roughs for disease prevention and weed control that we haven't been able to do with the wet conditions.  Lastly our #5 creek project held up extremely well over the past month with all the water that has been thrown at it.  We didn't have any wash outs or erosion issues on the slopes.  The only blemish we had was it looks like we lost a little bit of our rough in front of the bunker due to it being under water for so many consecutive days.  We will be replacing this turf once conditions dry out here and at the sod farm where we get our sod.  I have attached a few pictures from today showing the solid tine on the greens and the topdressing.  I hope everyone has a great week and I look forward to seeing all of you here at the Club soon. 

Venting of the Greens

Solid Tine Holes

Topdressing Greens

New Putting Green

Wet and Saturated Conditons Continue

The rain has not let up over the past week to week and a half.  We have received a total of about 8" in the past 9 days.  Overnight last night we received another .5" of rain.  Needless to say things are rather soggy and wet.  Golf course however is holding up pretty well all with all the rain.  We have had two flood events that caused some minor damage, but nothing to severe yet.  The worst hit areas have been the bunkers and the silt deposit in some of our low areas.  Our maintenance team has been working their tails off cleaning up after each round of the storms doing some washing of the silted areas and repairing bunkers.  Thankfully we were able to get most of the golf course mowed at the end of last week and on Saturday in between the rains.  Roughs aren't overly tall at the moment, but if it doesn't start to dry out soon things are going to start to get really tall and start causing us problems leading into the Wolf Creek Invitational this weekend. We are hoping and praying for some drier weather over the next couple of days to help allow the golf course to dry down and to help us to get the golf course mowed.  Most of the fairways have completed their seeding process and look a lot cleaner after our last mowing.  However #10, 9, and 17 still have some seed heads on them so they still have a little bit of that purple and white dingy color and look to them.  Hopefully we can get out sometime this week and mow them which will really help to clean them up.  Greens have continued to perform nicely during these wet conditions.  Our agronomic program which focuses on keeping our peculation rates (How fast water moves through the green) higher has really paid off by helping to keep the greens somewhat firm and not letting them turn into mush.  This week we are hoping to try and do another verticut/topdress on them leading into the event to help keep them as smooth and consistent as we can.  I hope everyone has been able to keep dry as much as possible.  It seems like every time we get some nice sunshine and start to dry out in moves another round of showers and thunderstorms.  Let's hope this trend stops very soon and hopefully we can get back to our normal routine. 

Wet and Soggy Conditions

The wet and soggy conditions continue here in Kansas City.  As many of you have probably heard by now the golf course went under water on Sunday May 17th for the first time this year after we received 3.25".  I have seen way worse floods here over the years, however any flood is a bad one.   We had several fairways and roughs silted in from the water and our bunkers really took a hit.  The maintenance team worked their butts off the last two days and we were able to get all the bunkers and silt cleaned up and most of the golf course mowed on Tuesday.  Their are still quite a few wet areas that we were unable to mow, but all in all I was very surprised and pleased that we got done what we did. Shockingly we were able to get fairways mowed on Tuesday afternoon after they finally dried out. Since there were so many seed heads the quality of the cut wasn't up to our normal standards.  We are hoping to be able to mow the fairways again on Thursday or Friday if conditions allow us too.  Rain came again last night and gave us another 1" bringing our weekly total so far to 4.25".  Course conditions again are pretty sloppy as water is standing in the fairways.  The bunkers are pretty good except for a few areas that washed a bit.  We are able to mow the greens this morning as they have surprising stayed very firm after all the rain.  This is a testament to our agronomic program we use and keeping our water peculation rates high in the green profile allowing the rain water to move through and drain out quickly.  I have put a few pictures from the flood below.  Have a great week and keep your fingers crossed that "Mother Nature" lets up on us a bit this week and next!

   

Wet Conditions

Rain continues to fall and has caused course conditions to be pretty saturated.  Thankfully the first part of the week we were able to get the entire golf course mowed twice before today's rain that put a halt to the mowing.  We have had to do a lot of hand mowing in areas but all in all the course is in pretty good shape when it comes to clippings.  The rough is wet and thick right now and I know it is tough to play out of.  However it will start to slow down and dry out in the next couple of weeks as the rain stops and will become more playable.  Like most of you have heard me say numerous times this is a "short term pain for a long term gain" when it comes to the health of the rough once the summer  stress hits.  Being diligent with our mowing practices and our traffic control are two key reasons why I feel our rough stays healthy throughout the season.  As many of you can see the zoysia grass has really started shooting it's purple seed head and has caused the fairways to look dingy and unsightly.  This is an every year thing that happens, but it seems worse this year due to the wet conditions and not being able to mow more frequently. Our hope is to try and mow some of them late Friday if the weather cooperates.  If it rains again it will be next week before we can get the fairways mowed.  Early in the week we solid tined our greens for the first time.  We opened them up to help them dry out a bit after the rains last week and to help the oxygen continue to get down to the roots and promote root growth.  The greens responded nicely and have stayed relatively firm even with the wet conditions.  I hope everyone has a great week.  Hopefully the weather cooperates and the golf course drys and the weekend will be a nice time for all of you to come out and see us here at the club!

Damp Week

It looks like this week is going to be rather damp here at Wolf Creek.  The forecast for the week is rain and more rain.  We received about .5" overnight and it looks like it is suppose to move in again later this afternoon into the evening.  I am keeping my fingers crossed hoping it will be a gentle steady rain and not a heavy downpour.  Monday we did our first verticut/topdress on our greens helping to keep the greens smooth and consistent.  This practice really helps remove the missed leaf tissue that is laid over and the mower can't get and really helps the consistency of the putting surfaces.  Also we have continued our sodding of the drainage trench lines in the fairways.  We are almost finished with the trenches and we will then start patching in some of the thinner areas under trees and close to our approach areas where there is heavy traffic or shade issues.  The mowers continue to run as much as possible trying to keep up with the growth in our roughs.  This is the perfect storm for the cool season roughs as they love damp and 70 degree weather like we are having.  They will eventually start to slow down growing once the wet season is over and temperatures start to increase.  Many of you have probably noticed the annual purple tint to our fairways as the Zoysia grass is starting to do it's annual seed head production.  This goes on for about two weeks and then they will stop this is a normal occurrence but it just causes the fairways to have a dingy purple color.  The new putting green continues to fill in nicely.  We have been able to mow it and topdress it a few times now helping it to start to fill in.  It has a long ways to go yet but I am very encouraged about how it is going so far.  I hope everyone has a great week!  Stay dry and hope to see all of you here at the course at some point!

Greens after verticut and a mow.  Most of the lines from the verticut disappeared!

New Putting Green!!

First League Night and Great Weather

"Mother Nature" has been really good to us over the past couple of days. We dodged some big rain over the past weekend and received just the right amount (.5") not causing  any damage on the course.  The only bad thing from that storm was it put the carts on the path for our opening weekend event and some during the actual weekend. However things have dried up nicely the carts are off the paths and maintenance team have been staying very busy.  Keeping up with the roughs has been our number one challenge.  Our mowers have been running around the clock as the conditions allow after they dried out.  Currently we are mowing the roughs 2-3 times a week to try and keep it as playable as possible.  We mowed our zoysia fairways and tees for the second time yesterday.  They are starting to grow more regularly now.  Last week's temperatures and lack of sunshine caused them to slow down a little, but this week's weather and sunshine should help them really start to grow.  Our new putting green has continued to grow and we mowed it for the first time on Monday.  The new grass has really started to fill in nicely.  We have a few areas around the edges that are lagging behind from getting washed out earlier in the spring, but they will fill in over time.  I have put a picture below showing us mowing the new green for the first time.  The greens on the golf course have finally filled in after aeration and have started to get back to their normal selves.  We applied our first growth regulator on them on Tuesday so hopefully they will start to get more consistent pace to them once this product kicks in a few days.  It is always hard after aeration and the greens heal to get them right back to having a consistent pace since we give them a bunch of fertilizer to grow and heal during the aeration.  Plus the weather and temperatures have been ideal for growth as well.  Have a great week and hope you can get out and enjoy the nice weather here at the golf course!
 

Cool Week

We are in the midst of another great week here at Wolf Creek.  The maintenance team has been extremely busy even though cooler temperatures have moved in.  Highs temperatures this week have dropped back down into the low 60's and we have had some low temperatures in the high 30's to low 40's.  Cool season turf (i.e. fescue, bluegrass, etc.) love these temperatures but the warm season grasses (zoysia, switchgrass, etc.) not so much.  We have been extremely busy trying to keep up with the mowing in the roughs.  As I mentioned above the roughs are thriving right now with the cool weather and the moisture that we have received over the last week, so our mowers are having to work hard to keep up with the growth.  So far I think we have done a pretty good job as we have a few clippings laying around in areas but all in all we have been able to avoid excessive clipppings laying in the roughs.  Fairways were mowed for the third time on Tuesday after they dried out after last weekends rain.  Obviously with the cooler temperatures their growth will slow down a bit so our mowing schedule is on a as needed basis.  Once temperatures warm up again they should start to continue to take off and grow and our mowing schedule should get a bit more consistent.  Our putting green continues grow and fill in.  Cooler temperatures have slowed the growth down a bit, but we are doing everything we can to keep it accelerated and growing.  As  the temperatures warm up the growth on the putting green will as well.  Also this week we have been doing some mulching around the newly painted clubhouse and it really looks sharp with the new paint and the fresh shot of mulch.  Lastly we started filling the new bunker on #5 today with the new sand.  Our hope is to complete it on Thursday.  Here a couple of pictures showing the new mulch and some team members filling the #5 bunker.  Have a great week and we hope to see all of you on Friday night for our cocktail party and Saturday morning for Opening Event!  Keeping our fingers crossed that the forecast rain will hold off.

New Bunker Sand #5

New Mulch at Clubhouse

Sunshine and Great Weather

At least for today we were blessed with some much needed sunshine this afternoon and almost perfect weather.  It has been a while since we have had some good sunshine and finally we got our wish.  Unfortunately I think it is short term as it looks like another storm system is going to be moving in over the weekend bringing some more rain with it.  Today we were able to mow our greens for the second time since our aeration last week.  They are starting to heal nicely and should be improving everyday.  Tomorrow we are going to apply another thin application of topdressing sand on them to help them continue to fill in and smooth out.  I attached a picture below showing one of our greens from this morning.  Yesterday we were finally able to get out and mow our zoysia fairways for the first time this year.  They cleaned up nicely and should really start to take off over the next week or so.   I have attached a picture below from yesterday showing the #1 fairway mowed.  The new putting green continues to grow  and is starting to slowly fill in.  We had a little erosion damage on the west side of it from the rain last week, but that area should eventually catch up and fill in.  It will be a little slower now for a while until it gets caught up with the rest of the green since we had to reseed a section of it after it washed out.  I have also put a picture below showing the progress of the green.  Have a great weekend and we look forward to seeing you all on the course soon!

Aerification Holes Healing on Greens

New Putting Green Grow In

First Fairway Mowed!

Some Good Growth

The weather has been awesome over the past week or so.  We had a little frost on Friday morning, but nothing that hurt anything.  The zoysia grass is really starting to green up and take off which is a great site after the slow start we had last year.  We mowed the tees yesterday for the first time and are hoping to mow the fairways next week if the weather holds like they say it is suppose too.  The greens continue to heal after our aerification on Monday and Tuesday.  I was surprised how well they actually look already as they have a nice green color and are already starting to fill in four days after we aerified them.  We put another topdressing of sand on them on Friday to help fill in the holes that had settled to try make them as smooth as possible as they heal.  We hope to be able to mow them on Monday and start the process of getting the sand off of them as we finally have filled most of the holes.  Our new putting green has really taken off over the past week.  I have attached a photo below showing the good growth that we had. Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that we don't have a huge rain that washes the green out.  Have a great weekend!