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!
Thursday, October 29, 2015
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!
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!
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
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.
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| #5 Native area prepping for seed |
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| Incredible Sunrise!!! |
Friday, October 9, 2015
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!!!
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| Mowing down the native on #12 |
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| Native area mowed on #18 tee |
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| Zoysia going dormant |
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