On Course This Week

We had a great turnout at the Country Club for our Halloween Brunch and numerous Members took advantage of the hay rides that yours truly was the driver for.  Perhaps Peter will consider this an opportunity for a unique form of transportation for the club down the road.  If not, it was great to have families take a trip down to our pumpkin patch to decorate later in the club house.

Outside of leaves this week, we have been working on filling in sink holes around the course in the rough.  Leveling out these holes is a very simple and cheap way to improve playing conditions.

Juan Chavez, Army Vet and student, taking a break from studying Food Safety at MATC

We have also vented greens and aerated high traffic areas in rough to help relieve compacted soils from cart traffic.  Some of the worst areas have been top dressed with compost to help improve soil structure.
















While waiting for frost to melt off this week we have started mowing down our native areas to prepare them for next season.  Temperatures this week are looking up and we hope to get a late season herbicide application down to help rid of perennial weeds and prevent annual grasses next year.  For my fellow Superintendents, Wiedenmann's Super 500 is a must have in your fleet.  Highly versatile, productive and results you would not believe.  For the record, that was not a paid plug!

This material is not composted due to the amount of weed seed present

Speaking of frost....  We had quite the delay this weekend and for good reason.  When we see that white cast across the course, we keep play off the course because we do not want to damage the turf.  Grass plants are comprised mostly of water and when they frozen, the cells within the plant burst when we walk or drive on them.  While you may not see damage right away, within a couple days you will notice exactly where you walked or drove your cart.  One easy misconception is basing the presence of frost on the amount you see on our putting greens.  While we use these as indicators, they are among the first to melt because of their southern exposure and lack of shade around them.  Frost is an annoyance indeed, but we have to be judicious with traffic when it is present.

Once frost is melted, we need a half hour to get ahead of play.

For the coming week, our work will be much of the same mentioned above, but at least we will have some warmer temps to work with.  Come out and enjoy your course for what could be the last time this year, but lets hope not!