Good morning! It’s a wet Saturday morning and the course is closed for the day.  We have received over an inch of rain but drying conditions are coming.  Sunday looks like a nice day to play.  We had a busy week working around quite a few competitions.  Lentz’s Revenge was smartly rescheduled for next Saturday.  We hope to see you there!

Familiar scene and what I'll try to forget about 2018.

Another view of our crew working on the downed tree on nine.  That's Jose Barahona up top.

Seeding season is over for the most part and its time to sod.  Here is the eighth fairway wrapped in new fescue.

Eighteen fairway perimeter will be sodded this week tying into work done last fall (dark turf in the upper right).

All summer annuals are being removed as we move closer to winter.  Tulip planting begins soon.

Construction of the eighth tee begins in November starting with the removal of these two maples.

Uh oh- look what's starting!

I’m in crisis mode as my computer has lost every bit of information installed on it and a fix doesn’t look promising.  Yikes!!!!  This blog is being created from my phone and it’s not easy.  The weather has improved and the greens are back to what we are accustomed to.  Lentz’s Revenge has been postponed to November 3rd as a cold rainy Saturday is forecast-Par for the course this year.

Our first killing frost arrived on Monday and caused a delay in the opening round of the State Girls High School Championship.

The bermudagrass encroaching into our bentgrass fairways is becoming alarmingly severe and accentuated by the frost.  We are struggling with ways to combat this aggressive grass.

A scene that just won’t stop.  This monster fell over the weekend on the ninth hole into a neighbor’s yard.

The small white spots in the turf are butterfly weed seeds being dispersed throughout the landscape.  They will not germinate in the turf but should prosper in the pond bank.  Nature doing her thing!

Talk about piling on.  Summer 2018 exited with a bang as the course received 2.75 inches of rain.  Drying winds with low humidity have now arrived and will really help the turf rejuvenate from the prolonged summer weather.  Bunkers are again a mess.  We have probably repaired bunkers more this year than in the past five combined.  What a year.

This really gets old.

Here's something positive.  This tree near five green was scheduled to be removed.  Last nights storm dropped half of it in a perfect spot making easy cleanup.

We added an interception drain above our nursery green just in time.

The results show minimal wash so it's a success!

Six green repaired and looking good.

This swale between 16 green and 17 tee has almost filled in after seeding.

Adding mums for some nice fall color. 

Good morning! We had a successful Ryder Cup and the course is rebounding from a tough September.  Plenty of ugly records have been set and we are not quite out of the woods yet.  It looks like a tough weather week again but fall weather is around the corner.  Maybe a frost next week??

We worked diligently to get our greens back into shape.  Here Josh applies sand to the putting green.

We had to knock the dust off our rollers after all the rain we experienced.  It had been a month since we used them.

Erosion on the 11th pond bank.

Believe it or not we are starting to irrigate again!  Here is the 13th approach showing some wilt.

The course continues to improve with the help of some superior work by our staff and more sunshine. Now if only the humidity would disappear.  Extended periods of high humidity have really hurt the drying of the course.  Please temper your expectations of a 'fast' course until this occurs.

Hurray, we have groomed the greens back to their regular cutting height!

Can you say things are on the mend!

The crew double cut all the fairways yesterday collecting clippings all the way.

Gray leaf spot continues to plague some of our rough.  This is another disease we don't see too often- Rust.  Too much humidity causing extended periods of leaf wetness are causing this disease to persist.

Rust in the deep rough on 14.  It is difficult to see but the disease is affecting the lighter fescue seen in the shade.  The darker turf is bermudagrass.

The driving range tee has been overseeded with perennial ryegrass to help prevent winter kill.  Here we drag in the seed and then turn on the water.  Water, really?

Despite the sunshine the course remains very wet-but it is getting better!

  

It's Tuesday and we are making progress on the course.  We had a packed field yesterday and the course suffered little damage so the course is growing and recovering.. We are mowing rough for this first time since September 21st and cross cutting fairways at a lower height.  Tomorrow greens will be cut to their normal height and we will roll the greens for the first time since aerification.  Crazy.

Caution- rough mowing!

Luis in action on the 12th hole.

Fairway cross cutting with clippings collected.  We are getting there.

Our greens have improved significantly.  Here's the 2nd green.

Overseeding the driving range tee with perennial ryegrass.  We may turn on the water there so don't freak out!

Areas marked to be sodded next week.

Hey guys please sod here!

It's Monday morning and the course is beginning to dry out.  The course is still too wet to begin mowing the rough. Rough mowing will begin on Tuesday in earnest.  We expect to allow carts off the path later this week, most likely Thursday.  There is so much to catch up on as we prepare for the Ryder Cup on Friday.

Talk about piling on.  Friday afternoon during lunch this tree came down at the 14th tee.

Dick and Rony are plugging away the remnants of a bad year.  This area will look like new after next week.

The course is healing now that the sun has arrived.  Crystal BlueLinks on the sixth tee.

Fairway mowing without baskets and still mowed high.  The height of cut will be lowered tomorrow and we will double cut.

Plenty of new grass is filling is bare spots.  These ropes have been cut by our neighborhood foxes believe it or not.

Our pleas to practice better just is not working.  We will overseed this tee on Tuesday and move play back to the mats.

Yes the rough is indeed long.   The height of cut has been raised to three inches to start out.  We have not mowed rough since September 21st.