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!!