Course maintenance began today,  Front nine tees and all the collars were aerated and then collected.  It sounds like rain may put a damper on our work tomorrow.  If that's the case we most likely won't complete all of our work this week.  Weak tees #15 and #16 were seeded with perennial ryegrass and bent last week (we'll take whatever grass will grow) as well as the turf nursery behind the 14th green.  In addition the wildflower pollinator garden by the 3rd tee was also seeded.

Our crew repaired divots in all the fairways before course renovation began.  It is a shame there is so much golfer blight.  We can do better!

Sometimes nature helps and hurts.  These are earthworm casts in the collection area behind the 18th green.  While helping aerate the soil the mounding is a nuisance when mowing and playing.

Herbicide "flashing" the tall fescue in our rough as we work on reducing bermudagrass encroachment in sodded areas.

Preparing a seedbed in the wildflower bed by the 3rd tee.

We blended the seed with an organic fertilizer carrier before spreading.  Look close and you can see the seed.

Spreading the seed.  After spreading in two directions we used a cultipacker to tamp in the seed.

Turn on the water!  Keeping the seedbed moist is critical to a successful planting.  Seeded on August 22nd we are seeing germination on the 28th.  There are fourteen different plant species in this blend.

Promoting the spread of beneficial plants in our creek and pond banks is one of our Audubon goals.  Here is a beautiful pink flowering plant called purple loosestrife that is unfortunately an invasive species and needs to be removed.  Not every pretty plant is good.

This maybe the worst weed of all.  It is called mile a minute and it literally grows that fast.  This is taking over many areas around the course and will take a yeoman's effort to get rid of.  Spread by birds it has nasty thorns that grab you.

Another view of a mass of mile a minute.

Here's a true beneficial plant-Solidago or golden rod and a great pollinator.

Milkweed- a true beneficial plant that is necessary for monarch butterflies.  This plant has increased since we stopped cutting back our creek banks.

There hasn't been much disease throughout the course this season but we did see a little the week of August 21st following all the rain and humidity of the previous week.  The brown area in the middle of the picture is pythium blight in tall fescue.  Pythium is a water mold that follows drainage patterns such as this swale between the two tees.

Pythium Blight is a killer of turf and must be treated preventively for best prevention.  Greens, tees, and fairways receive regular fungicide applications during the summer.

Our much improved bunkers.

Do you recognize the avid golfer on the left?  He played here last week.

We are back!  Sorry for the long time between our last blog and hopefully we were missed.  There has been plenty going on the course so lets get to the pics.

We have had all kind of weather extremes.  This was in the morning after an early storm.  We usually don't see rainbows over the clubhouse.

Our annual visit from The USGA featured discussions of bunker maintenance interestingly enough.  Since then we have spent lots of man hours moving sand and compacting bunker faces to allow less "fried eggs" and giving you a better chance of recovering.

Compacting the bunker face.

Before,,,,

and after!

Compacting the faces is working!  Check out the pitch mark and where these balls ended.  Bravo!

Some things never seem to change.  Here is a poorly repaired divot.  The sand has not been leveled which is harmful to the turf and the mowers.

Here is the same divot smoothed out with my foot.  Please take the time to repair your damage properly!

Improper practice that will require a long time to recover and again harmful to our mowers.

Correct practice that will recover rapidly and not hurt our mowers.

Newly sodded turf received an herbicide application to remove bermudagrass and summer grassy annuals.  These areas will be treated several more times on monthly intervals.

Have you noticed the improved look of our rough?  We purchased a brand spanking new rough mower that is exceeding our expectations.  This mower is remarkably quiet, stripes the turf beautifully, disperses grass clippings so there are no clumps, and saves a ton of labor when servicing.

We almost ran out of water in July and were one day from buying water.  Not anymore!

Thumbs up to this marking on the ninth green by Josh Peters!

The completion of the pollinating garden was quite an achievement by our staff.

Proud, Proud, Proud!

June has continued the cycle of up and down weather.  Currently we are in a heat wave that looks to break towards the end of the week.  The course suffered a few minor blemishes through the heat but it is hard to find fault in the overall look and playability of the golf course.  What a great job our staff has done getting the course in the condition it is in.  This may be my best staff ever and that is saying a lot!  Next week begins four intense weeks of tournament competitions.  Wish us good luck!

Routine solid tine aeration has begun.  This is performed every two weeks.  After rolling it is difficult to tell anything was done.

Here is a look at a green just aerified before rolling.  This necessary cultural practice promotes oxygen to the roots and helps the plant breathe.

Greens were groomed last week as well.  Grooming is performed to reduce lateral growth which produces a more dense upright plant.  This is done in perpendicular lines to provide the best surface possible.

Plenty of ants around the perimeter of our bunkers that required spraying last week.

With the addition of summer help we are able to really primp the course.  Here bunkers are edged to perfection.

Summer heat has arrived finally and the Patriot bermudagrass is finally growing.  We aerated, topdressed, and fertilized last week and it is ready to open.  The tee will be on grass Wednesday thru Sunday.

This area will be sodded next week.

One more treatment of Roundup and garden below the third tee will be seeded with an assortment of wildflowers.  The pollinating garden behind 15 green is nearing completion this week and promises to be a showcase!  More pics to come.

Before the second application of Roundup the area is lightly cultivated to allow additional weed seed to germinate.

A specimen male bluebird.

Another dose of rain today and a fitting end to May.  Cloudy, cool, and damp has been the story this month.  Hopefully the course will begin to dry up as June arrives.  We have been fortunate to dodge some of the bigger rainfall totals that some courses have experienced.  Nonetheless almost ten inches of rain occurred this month.  The crew has performed great throughout.

Consequences of too much rain-soft greens and ball marks needing to be repaired.

Lightning hit on a red oak between two and eight earlier this week.

This tree just fell down last week in the same area.

The sun did come out on occasion.  Here Jose B mows the third fairway.  It takes talent to mow a straight line too!

Julio and company have done some stellar planting throughout the course.  The pollinating garden is the next big task.  Another application of RoundUp is coming before we begin prepping the soil.

The wildflower bed will be worked on next week as well.

This is a welcome sight.  The bermudagrass is just beginning to grow and needs lots of warm temperatures to flourish.

Jack continues to be a work in progress with his people skills but there is no doubt about his ability to  move geese off our property!