It's Opening Day!  What a great day to start the 2019 golf season.  The crew has been extremely busy preparing the course for this year and the work continues.  The entire rough on the course has been aerated and weak areas seeded.  On Monday the club grounds will be done. Fairways are scheduled to be contract aerated on Monday April 8th.  We will seed bermudagrass infested areas in the fairways at this time.  With some luck we hope to improve our bentgrass stand.

 

It's Opening Day!

 

 

Our greens are in great shape so early in the season.  Yours truly applied the first growth regulator to suppress annual bluegrass seed heads on Friday.  This will be repeated in several weeks.

 

 

Things are starting to grow.  Here's a pic of the ninth fairway on March 14th after our first mow followed by...

 

 

Two weeks later after mowing.

 

 

Soil temperatures are still low.  Big changes will occur once we hit 50 degrees.

 

 

One load of sod will arrive on Wednesday to repair marked areas.  The crew will start prep work on Monday morning.

 

 

Our last deluge caused this sinkhole at 11 bridge.

 

 

Another casualty from last season.  This bunker on 16 won't drain due to a crushed exit drain pipe on the 3rd hole.  This work will be completed this week.

 

 

Tracking the drain line.

 

 

Julio and the rest of the crew are doing some outstanding work renovating beds throughout the course.  We are using more landscape fabric and aluminum edging to reduce labor inputs.

 

 

Donna and Mina's bed. Gorgeous!

 

 

Everyone pitching in during Friday's frost delay readying the bed on nine. 

 

 

Not a great picture but it does tell a story. Amazing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very rainy Thursday but the timing is not bad with the great work our staff did on Monday thru Wednesday.  All the rough on the front nine with the exception of #3 and 10, 17 and 18 on the back nine were aerified extensively.  Weak areas were seeded as well.  Weather permitting this work will conclude next week.  Conditions were perfect for a change!  Can you believe beneficial rain?  Anyway the golf season is breaking positively so far.

 

Nice soil conditions allowed us an opportunity to create excellent deep holes.

 

 

Three John Deere tractors aerating the sixth hole.

 

 

Jose B using the Ryan Renovaire to aerify the deep rough.  The concrete weights on top of the aerifier allow the unit to penetrate deep into the soil.

 

 

Luis using the John Deere Aercore 1500 and Tano aerifying with the Aercore 1000.

 

 

After the cores are drug the finished area looks something like this.

 

 

All this is followed up by seeding where needed with the Kubota and First Seeder.  We use a 90 percent tall fescue, ten percent Kentucky bluegrass in sunny locations.  We also use a shade blend in low light areas. 

 

 

Another view of Josh seeding on the 17th hole.  There is actually some dust behind the machine!

 

 

The fairways are beginning to show their blue color unique to this bent variety.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally some great weather to help the course.  Conditions improved immensely last week with sun and wind.  There was actually some ball roll witnessed in the fairways!  Today we began aerifying and seeding the rough.  Expect this to be completed by the end of March.  We have a daunting task after last year's epic weather ahead of us but I know we are up to the challenge-weather permitting!

 

We mowed fairways for the first time on Thursday.

 

 

Eight tee looks great.  Here Josh rolls it before mowing.

 

 

The first mow.

 

 

Five green after mowing for the first time.

 

 

We fertilized the driving range tee to encourage it to wake up on Friday.

 

 

The ground is still cold but we are about ten days ahead of last year's pace.

 

 

Francisco deep tine aerating the first tee.

 

 

The crew is doing some great mulching around the course.

 

 

Geese don't stay long with our dogs on duty.

 

 

A sure sign of spring.  Our first osprey has returned!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have had a great week of work.  Finally some nice weather is happening and we deserve it!  We are taking advantage of it too.  All the greens were deep tined aerified this week and it came out spectacularly.  The aerifier was able to reach a depth of ten inches without any surface disruption.  Tees are being aerified now.  All tarps were removed on Monday and those greens will open on Thursday.  Tees on eight and fifteen will remain closed until they are ready to support play.

 

A remarkable thing happened on Tuesday.  The sun came out and there were no clouds!

 

 

Francisco and Josh did some superior work aerifying the greens with the Vertidrain.

 

 

Perfect results-now wake up Mr. Green!

 

 

Tarps were removed on Monday.  Now that is an oasis in a dormant world!

 

 

Tarps do work.

 

 

Fifteen tee turned out great and was done by our staff.  It's not ready for golf traffic though.

 

 

Eight tee looks awesome but is not ready to support play as well.  Expect this to open in about a month.

 

 

Daffodils on the sixth tee just opening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No golf on Saturday but the prospects for Sunday and beyond look promising!  The crew is wrapping up their vacations and all full timers will be back to work on the 18th.  This week looks busy.  Turf covers will be removed on Monday and all the greens will open by Thursday.  Play will start off the first tee as well.  Deep tine aeration of greens begins Monday and the tees will follow.  Once aerated the greens will be rolled and then mowed for the first time.  Tees on eight and fifteen will be inspected but will not open till later.  Rough aeration and seeding will begin ASAP!  This area of the course will require plenty of work to recover from last year's deluge.

 

The guys completed the lateral drainage lines on the ninth hole and did a great job!

 

 

A beautiful and neat French drainage system.

 

 

Water pumping from this wet area.

 

 

We received 75 cubic yards of mulch that is keeping the crew occupied.

 

 

The guys completed in house tree removals last week as well.

 

 

Our red tailed hawks are preparing their nest for egg laying!

 

 

 

 

 

It looks like a cold start to March but fortunately dry.  The crew is wrapping up some tree removals and hopes to add some internal drainage in the rough later in the week.  Mulch Madness is underway. We will continue to add weed barrier and aluminum edging to beds to reduce labor prior to mulching. Our first bulk delivery arrives Tuesday with club grounds the first area to be tackled. 

 

Tree removals on the 14th hole.  Removing the weak so the strong can prosper.

 

 

French drain installed last week on hole nine.  We will add some lateral drains later this week to this line.  Sod will be purchased to repair raised area.

 

 

Many areas of standing water are from sod berms.  This sod needs to be lowered to allow water to reach the catch basin.  Routine maintenance and job security.

 

 

Julio and Tano have begun preparing beds for mulch. 

 

 

Our aerifiers and seeders are about ready for the season to begin.

 

 

Seed is in the barn awaiting Mother Nature to say go.