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!

 

Aerification Complete

After some delays due to mist and no sun on Monday and most of Tuesday we were finally able to get all of our aerification completed on Tuesday evening.  It looks like we got done just in time before rain moves into the area.  As I am typing this post it is raining pretty hard here at the course.  Today our plan if the weather cooperates, is to roll the greens and start the process of smoothing them back out.  As usual it will take the greens 2 weeks or so to recover and fill in all the holes.  I attached a picture below showing one of the aerifiers in action yesterday.  Also yesterday we saw our first seed germination on the new putting green.  I put a picture below showing the seed germinating.  It has a nice consistent hue of green across it now.  This is a great sign as usually seed doesn't germinate in the Spring in 8 days, but we were lucky with the weather we have had so far up to this point.  We haven't covered the green yet because of all the great weather.  Covers are great when the weather is getting cold, but they can be a real detriment as well when growing in a green.  Every time you cover the green and then uncover it you take the risk of pulling the seed out of the ground or the little seedlings as they seem to attach their selves to the cover itself due to static or the cover getting wet and sticking itself to the ground.  So it is my hope to not have to use one in the near future but we do have one ready to go if needed.   I hope you all had a great Easter weekend with your families and I look forward to seeing you soon on the course!