New Team Member

It has been a great week of weather this week as it brought us some nice bright sunshine and some highs in the 60's and 70's. Also this week we had a new team member join us. We are very fortunate to have Sean Berger become a part our team as Assistant Golf Course Superintendent. Sean got his Golf Course Management degree from Kansas State University and has spent the last two years at The National Golf Links on Long Island, New York working as an assistant superintendent before moving back to accept the position here at Wolf Creek. Sean is originally from Leawood, Kansas so he is excited for the opportunity to move back home and be able to work at a great facility like Wolf Creek. We are extremely excited to have Sean as a part of our staff and he will be a very valuable addition to the Wolf Creek team so please take time to introduce yourself to him if you get the chance when you are out playing over the next couple of weeks.

As the great weather continues we have been able to get some winter projects completed finally. The irrigation installation between #6 and #7 is finally complete. This is going to make a huge difference in this area by helping the turf to be more consistent during the hot summer months. Also we are just about complete with installing stone along some of our cart path edges. There are just a few more areas that we might try to complete before the season really gets started. Another project we completed was getting all the tee signs and post installed around the golf course. The signs really turned out nice and look awesome with the new paint job. We also were able to mow greens for the first time on Monday and are mowing them again this morning as they have started to wake up and grow a little bit. I hope everyone has a great weekend and enjoys the great weather and great basketball that is going on. This is a great time of the year to enjoy awesome weather by playing golf and then being able to sit down and watch some great basketball!!

Sunshine and Warmer

We finally have some much needed sunshine and some warmer temperatures to enjoy! The staff has been out on the golf course working their tails off over the last week. We finally were able to finish up the huge drainage project on #17 fairway and it is going to really help out this area when it gets wet. We also have been finishing up grinding the stumps, picking up the stump grindings, and doing some more dead tree removals. The area in between #6 and #7 has been cleaned out and looks amazing. We removed about 20 dead Locust trees that were full of vines and saplings. Our plan is to get this all burned down and then try a new pre - emergent product to try and help control the annual weeds and saplings from growing in these areas. I have enclosed some photos of the area before and after we did the clearing. I think everyone will really like how much cleaner this area looks now. We also re-installed our tee post for the new signs after Matt Ida took them and re-powder coated them for us. They look awesome and will really help out look around the golf course. Have a great weekend!!

Ice and A Little Snow

Well "Old Man Winter" continues to rear his ugly head! Temperatures have once again dropped down to single digits and even some negative numbers. This morning on my way into work at 6:30am my truck said it was -5 degrees are you serious? The silver lining in all of this is that we were able to dodge most of the heavy snow as we only got around 1 inch or so. However it mostly came in the form of sleet and ice with some snow flakes mixed in. Last week before this latest storm hit we were out on the golf course working on our unfinished projects from the cold weeks before wherever we could. The team was able to get some more stones installed along some cart path edges in areas where cart tires continue to rut. They also were able to work on some more tree work on the golf course continuing to remove dead trees that were unsightly and also unsafe to the golfers as they were prone to dropping dead wood periodically on windy days. Stump grinding has also been keeping the staff busy. We have been grinding the various stumps around the property and will eventually get all the grindings picked up and the holes back filled so we can sod them once temperatures are warm enough. Also we had a tree service come out and do some much needed maintenance pruning. Areas they attacked were the main drive into the club house around 9 green, #10 tee, and the putting green area. On the golf course they did some pruning on all the trees on holes #1, #6, and removed a dead tree for us next to #16 bridge that was awkward for us to do in house. I am really pleased with the work they did and I think it really cleaned up these areas and they look amazing!! I have attached some pictures of a couple of trees that they worked on. My hope is that every year we do some trimming like this moving forward eventually getting around the whole golf course to help keep the trees healthy but also to help our course have a more maintained look. I hope everyone had a great weekend and are staying warm this is getting old I am ready for Spring!!!

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.