Finally Golfing!!

We finally were able to get some players out on the golf course on Tuesday afternoon after the snow and ice melted. Today looks like it is going to be pretty nice with temperatures in the 50's with a strong breeze. The maintenance team has been busy over the last couple of days finishing up some of our projects around the golf course. We are continuing to work on finishing the huge drainage project on #17 fairway. This area has been difficult due to the amount of shade and moisture that is in the area. Cold temperatures have been causing this area to be really slow at thawing out thus slowing down the progress. I hope that we will get this project buttoned up in the next week. Also we have been doing a lot of clean up of limbs and debris that have blown down over the past day or so with the high winds. Several trees have been effected by the drought over the last year or so and they have some dead wood up in the tops that comes down in these high winds. Starting on Monday we are going to have a tree company out here starting to address some of these trees getting the dead wood out and doing some overall maintenance pruning on our trees. This is really going to help out the health of the trees and the overall look of the golf course. We are also going to be busy next week grinding the stumps that are left from all the dead trees that we have removed over the winter. I hope everyone has a great weekend and is able to get out and enjoy the sunshine today!

Big Melt

Temperatures have started to warm up significantly and the snow has started to melt away. It is going to take a lot of sunshine and some time to get the golf course playable due to the snow cover that still remains. My best estimation as of right now is for at the earliest a late Wednesday or early Thursday for the course to be open for play however this can change depending on how we progress today and tomorrow with the weather conditions. The areas where the snow has melted are extremely wet with standing water in many places due to the ground still being frozen and the water not having anywhere to go. Hopefully this improves over the day today as the ground should continue to thaw out and start absorbing the much needed moisture. The team is going to be busy today working on clearing snow off some of the lingering cart paths, continue washing and waxing equipment, installing stone along cart path edges, changing cups and tee markers on the course, and general cleanup of limbs and debris around the course. I will get out and take some photos today and show the course and where we stand as far as how the snow melt is progressing. I will try update the blog with photos throughout the day. Updated at 11:30 am

Warmer Temperatures

Looking at the extended weather forecast it looks like temperatures are going to increase over the next week or so and be above freezing which is a big change from where we have been. Yesterday the snow started to melt a little bit, but it is going to take some time before we see any turf. Once the snow does melt it is going to be extremely soggy and wet which will slow down our progress on some of our unfinished projects that we have started on the golf course. Hopefully by the middle of next week we will be able to start working on a few of these projects in hopes of getting them finished before spring really comes. The team has stayed busy this week power washing and waxing our equipment, making some extra tee markers, servicing equipment, and some organizing and cleaning in the turf maintenance facility. Also thank you to Matt Ida for powder coating all of our tee signs for us. They turned out awesome and will look really good once we put them back out on our tee complexes! I hope everyone has a great weekend and you are all spoiling your Valentine today!!

A Lot of Snow

Ole Man winter just keeps on bringing some nasty cold weather to us here in Kansas City. I was fortunate enough to be out of town in a warmer climate for most of it, but coming back home on Saturday was a shock to the system as temperatures have been in the single digits ever since I have been back. My trip however was full of some great education and networking opportunities along with some great family vacation time. Our annual Education Conference and Show is always one of my annual highlights in my profession. Having the opportunity to learn and bring back new ideas is a tremendous opportunity for me and I am very fortunate to be able to go. Things around the shop have been very slow as you can expect. The maintenance staff is ready for the weather to turn and to be able to get outside. We are all a bunch of caged animals right now and are tired of being locked in doors. I have attached a picture of the clubhouse from last week that was taken by my Assistant Juan before they started pushing the snow. As you are all aware we received a lot of snow about 13" by our estimation. It is going to take a while before we see the turf again. This snow will provide us with some much needed moisture that will really help out with the dry conditions that were present prior to the snow.

New Trees

I hope everyone has had a great week. The weather has warmed up a bit the last few days. However it looks like another artic front with some chances of snow are in the forecast for the next couple of days. I know that the snow is not what everyone wants to see however it will be very beneficial to the golf course as things have gotten really dry over the last several weeks with the high winds and the snow will protect the turf from the bitter cold temperatures. Today we were able to take advantage of the nice weather and were able to plant two new trees on the golf course. One on #6 and one on #1. Both of these trees were replacement trees due to the two from last year that didn't make it. I have attached a picture below of the new Red Oak on #6. Next week I am fortunate enough to get out of the cold weather for a bit as I will be attending our annual national Golf Course Industry Education Conference in Orlando, Florida. I will be able to sit in on some great education seminars and I will also try and bring some sunshine and warm weather back with me. My crew over the next week will continue to stay busy finishing up the last bit of painting and doing some much needed organizing and cleaning in the shop. As temperatures get warm enough we will be out continuing on irrigation installation between #6 & #7, drainage on #17 fairway, installing stones along the cart paths on #14, and doing some more dead tree removals. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Up and Down Temperatures

The extremely cold weather looks like it is going to continue over the next couple of days at least. What a change it is this morning from yesterday! Yesterday our high temperature was close to 60 degrees and today our high is forecast to be around 15 degrees with wind chills around -15 degrees, a huge difference in just 12 hours of time. I have had a few questions about how the golf course is fairing through these extremely cold temperatures that we have had over the last month or so. My gut feeling is that everything looks and seems to be OK at this point. However the more ups and downs we have and the more traffic we have on the dormant Zoysia grass fairways causing injury the more susceptible we are to winter kill. This is one of those touchy issues and is a lot like gambling in the Casino. You can roll the dice and continue to take your chances with cart damage which is what we are doing or you can eliminate cart traffic on the fairways and go to cart path only. At this time however I don't think we have any areas that are showing signs of damage from cart traffic. We will continue to monitor the situation as the winter season continues. One thing I would like everyone's help with especially with the cold temperatures we have been having is honor our "cart path only signs" that we do have on a few of our fairways. We are doing this to allow some of these areas to recover from all the golf cart stress that they incurred in 2013. Hopefully with your help and some help from "Mother Nature" this spring these areas will recover quickly for the 2014 season. It looks like the beginning of the week the crew will be inside continuing to work on some projects hopefully finishing up most of them. As the temperatures improve over the week we will move outside and continue on the irrigation installation between #6 & #7, installing stone along cart paths, and removal of a few more dead trees around the golf course. I hope you all had a great weekend and were able to get outside yesterday and enjoy some nice warm weather at your homes or here on the golf course!

Another Artic Blast!!

It seems we are in a weather pattern where we get decent weather for a few days with bearable temperatures and then a blast of really cold weather with unbearable temperatures comes in for a few days and this week looks to be no different. It looks as if today's high of the mid 30s is going to be the warm one of the week because tomorrow they are saying we may set a new record low and wind chills could be in the -25 degree range! Today we are going to be outside continuing to work on the irrigation installation between #6 & #7. We are also going to be continue working on removing the dead trees on #13 behind the green where the large Sycamore tree fell during the storm in June of last year. Also we will be doing some burning today of some brush piles that we have accumulated around the property from our tree work. I hope everyone has had a good week so far and stay warm over the next few days!