Introducing the Silver Tees

Head golf pro Tommy Brannan wanted to create a new set of tees for some of the green tee players. The new tees will be called the silver tees and will be played from the current red tees. We have painted a silver ring around the back side of the red tee marker to distinguish the two sets of tees. By creating this new set of tees we are hoping that some of the green tee players may be able to enjoy their round a little bit more.

Cart path only unfortunately again

We received one inch of rainfall throughout the night. That puts us over eight inches of rain for the month. Carts will be path only today. The good news is that there is no rain in the forecast for the foreseeable future and we should dry up in a few days.

90 degree rule in effect for today

Carts will be allowed back onto the turf, but are asked to use the 90 degree rule on the non cart path only holes.

Course conditions

The golf course will be cart path only Saturday and I will determine Sunday morning if we will be able to go to the 90 degree rule. When we left the course today we had a total of .7 inches of rain so far. Even though we have only had .7 inches, it was a very slow rain and the course is very wet. If we would have received all the rain at once the course would not be as wet, due to most of the rain would have run of into the natural areas. I hope you like the pictures below. I figured that many of you have not seen the course during a nice soaking rain.
 

Tree pruning

Yesterday afternoon we did a little bit of pruning to the Zelkova tree left of number eleven green. By taking off some of the limbs our goal is to encourage better turf growth around the Zelkova tree. We will not be able to see the benefits of this pruning until summer when the turf is actively growing.

Aerification complete

Aerification was completed this afternoon after a few delays due to weather. For this aerification we decided to go with smaller tines. By going with smaller tines the greens will be back to normal sooner rather than later. The forecast for the weekend is calling for rain. This will be very beneficial towards the healing process and will work the sand down into the holes further.

Aerififcation

Aerification started this morning around 9:30, we started later than normal due to a frost delay. Once we got going we were able to knock out quite a few of the greens. We used a Toro aerifier with a core hog attachment. This attachment saves countless man hours and speeds the process up a good bit. With the harvester pulling the plugs to the edge of the green, we do not have to manually push the plugs off of the green, thus we have a more efficient process.

Spring Aerification

Our spring aerification is scheduled for this upcoming Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The golf course will be closed during this time and will open back up for play on Thursday morning. I am looking forward to posting videos and pictures of the aerification process, so that you may better understand why we must do this dreaded process.

90 degree rule today

Carts will be asked to use the 90 degree rule today.

Cartpath only

We will be cartpath only today, due to the 3.5 inches of rain we have received over the last three days.

90 degree rule today

Due to the rain over the last day and a half, carts will be asked to use the 90 degree rule for now. If a downpour occurs later in the day carts will become cartpath only. I will update you if this happens.

Rainy day on the course

We do not get many rain days on the golf course, but when they happen we will take them. It may be too wet to work on the course, but it's the perfect time to catch up on shop cleanup. Reorganizing the equipment building, tool room cleanup and pressure washing equipment are just a few things we accomplish on a rain day.

Tinting Fairways

Today we sprayed our second tinting application on the fairways. Three weeks ago we decided to try tinting the fairways with a pigment, due to unseasonably warm weather. The reason behind us spraying the fairways is because the bermudagrass has yet to go fully dormant and we wanted to keep the green look as long as possible. We plan on spraying 2-3 more applications depending on the weather. The pigment we are using raises the turf canopy temperature, thus helping the bermudagrass stay greener longer due to the warmer temperatures that the pigment creates.

Winter lime application

Recently we have taken some soil samples of various locations throughout the golf course. The sample results came back and the results told us that our soil PH was too low. In most of the samples collected the PH came back between 6-7, but some of the samples came back with a PH lower than 6. PH is measured from 0-14, with 7 being neutral(ideal soil PH). In order to correct the lower PH we will have to apply Lime at the soil results recommended rate. If the soil results would have came back with a PH higher than 7, then we would have had to apply Sulfur to correct the soil PH.

Potential frost delay tomorrow morning

Tonight's low is supposed to get below freezing. Frost can occur even if the temperature does not get below freezing, so after saying that there is a good chance of a frost delay in the morning. Just wanted to give you a heads up so that you can adjust your plans if you would like.