Perfect golf weather is here and the course is great shape.  We are in our second dry period this year and are in need of some rain but who cares!  Give us this weather and then some and we will cope!  As days get shorter and cooler nights prevail irrigation requirements are much less than in the summer.  Fortunately we are not trying to push too much newly seeded turf cause we'd be singing a different tune.

Uh oh, here we go again.

Bermudagrass reduction in process.  We are having a difficult time getting bent to grow in several spots on 16 and 18 fairways.  We have seeded 18 three times!

Removing begonias and getting ready for fall pansies.

...and the pansies are in!

During recent pruning we identified this oak as a blackjack oak.  Blackjack oaks are small oaks that grow up to fifty feet in height.  This particular tree is on the 12th hole and is only seven feet short of the state champion found at Army Navy CC Arlington.

So you ask how is our Audubon Certification going?  We are nearly ready to submit paperwork to conclude this project.  I must say it is difficult to work on during the heart of the golf season.

Here is one of the first blooming flowers in the wildflower garden on hole three.  Now I need to learn what it is!

Our bees our flourishing this season.  Here beekeeper Larry Marling inspects our hives.  We hope to have Larry come speak at the club in the near future.

Native species throughout the course are doing well.  I believe this is called jewel weed and supposedly a good treatment for poison ivy.

This is fox grape or porcelain berry.

Butterfly bush with a monarch butterfly visiting.

Meet Hubert.  Hubert is a juvenile double crested cormorant who has taken a liking to the club.

Certain things drive us crazy and this is one of them.  I guess those flies were just too much to take.

This is called an unplayable lie.  Would love to hear the story how it got there.

Nice start to the day.

This day had a special start as well.

Course renovation is winding down and has been a success despite several soaking rains.  There are benefits and detriments to it but what can you do?  Our crew once again showed their value by accomplishing plenty in a short window.  This Tuesday was one of those great work days where we aerated all twenty greens, collected the cores, sanded and drug all greens, double cut all tees and mowed fairways until rain stopped us.  What a great crew!

Perfect start on Tuesday morning.  Francisco begins a long day of walking as he aerates the first of twenty greens.

Plenty of washouts the past two weeks.  This was Saturday morning.

After aerating and cleaning up the greens look like this prior to sanding.

This is the finished product after sanding, brushing, seeding, more brushing, blowing and final rolling.  A fungicide application with lots of fertilizer will be applied on Friday. 

Richard seeding greens.

Detail back pack blowing to evenly disperse the sand.

Final rolling in two directions and we are done!

Meanwhile Luis is slicing fairways.  This is just another way to improve rooting.

When he is done the fairways look like this.  After we mow tomorrow it will be difficult to tell we were there.

Meanwhile Josh is keeping a keen eye on no skips while seeding the rough.  One day he will wear a hat!

While the back nine was closed we had a contractor begin some pruning on several trees including everyone's favorite.

Wildflowers are germinating like gangbusters on the third hole.

Kousa dogwoods have never had so many berries as this September.  Birds relish this fruit.

Our bambinos are growing up fast!

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!