Ground Hog Day!!

Well everyone has probably heard by now that the ground hog saw his shadow, which means we are suppose to be in store for six more weeks of winter. Whether you believe in this or not is up to you. However six more weeks of this winter is going to test my patience with all the snow we have had and some of the extreme cold temperatures. This week is looking like a pretty decent week weather wise. Who would have ever thought I would be saying that with high 30's and low 40's as highs? Unfortunately this is where we are at now, but I will take weather like this any day over the extreme cold. My staff has been staying busy the last couple of days working on the drainage on #14 fairway, repairing goose damage on greens, and installing rock along cart paths as weather permits. The drainage on #14 is going to be a big addition for the playing conditions on this hole. The right side of the fairway has always held water and moisture and we had to replace sod here last year and had poor playing conditions during the wet periods. Installing these lines are going to improve the drainage on this fairway tremendously and will improve playing conditions drastically. Most of our holes we have been able to keep the geese at bay with our cardboard coyote cutouts. However the geese over on #7 must be a little smarter then the ones everywhere else. We are going to try some other deterrents on #7 green and tee and see if we can keep them at bay. We are going to be out repairing some more areas on the green this morning, but hopefully we will get them under control. As weather has permitted we have continued to install the rock along the cart paths in the high traffic areas. Unfortunately when the ground starts to thaw out we have to stop working on this cause it just becomes a muddy mess. I will be taking a 10 day hiatus here starting on Thursday. I am going to be heading out to Sunny San Diego and Palm Springs California for our annual GCSAA education conference and our golf championship. I hope everyone has a great week and I will be in touch when I return on February 13th.

Busy Week

The last couple of days we have been very busy working on various projects around the golf course. We have continued to install rock along cart path edges that continually get rutted out from the cart tires. My staff started to work on #10 tees and #11 tee areas. These areas are in need due to the cart traffic going to the cart barn and the volume of traffic that occurs around the tee complexes. We also broke ground on some drainage complexes on #14 fairway. This fairway has been a constant headache when it comes to wet conditions. Last spring we replaced a significant amount of zoysia sod in this fairway due to the amount of moisture that was sitting on it in the low areas. These drainage complexes will substantially help move the moisture out of the fairway and keep the turf in better shape coming out of winter. It looks like we are going to go into another deep freeze here for the next two to three days and then possibly start to warm up again next week. I have been asked by some how the golf course is holding up this winter. Besides a little bit of damage from the Voles the golf course is doing great. The blanket of snow we had a a true blessing as it acted as a warming blanket to the zoysia and kept the bitter cold from damaging it. We all need to keep our fingers crossed going forward. We still aren't in the clear yet as weather conditions could still potentially be damaging well into the month of April if we get one of those late freezes. I hope everyone has a great weekend. It is a big weekend for me as I will be partaking in the Sunflower Showdown between KU vs KSU. Saturday can't come soon enough. GO CATS!!

Colder Weather Returns

The warming trend is over for a few days and looks like we are going to return to the freezer for a few days. We were able to have around 50 golfers this past weekend which was a pleasant surprise. However temperatures this week will be in the lower 20's for most of the week so our play is going to be very minimal at best. My staff was able to get the cleanup work on the left of #1 completed on Friday. The warmer conditions over the last couple of days allowed the greens to thaw out completely so we were able to change hole locations yesterday and get them set in place for the next round of cold conditions. We have been noticing several areas where we had Vole damage done while the golf course was snow covered. These little rodents look like mice and cut runs in the top surface of the turf. There really isn't any good way of treating for these guys unless you do some significant trapping. They look bad right now, but more times then not they will grow out of it and recover on there own when the grass get actively growing again. You will see some significant damage on the left of #11 fairway and around the green on #12. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Golf Course Update

With the warmer weather this last week most of the snow has melted or will be melted soon. We finally opened for play this afternoon. Course conditions are very sloppy and damp, but most of if not all the snow is gone. Due to the warmer conditions the greens have thawed completely allowing us to repair the goose damage on #2,#7, and #13 greens. My staff also has been busy the last couple of days doing some tree work on the left side of #1, and we started removing the dead tree on the left side of #6. Since the conditions are so damp I have decided to wait until it dries up a little bit before we knock down the second part of the tree on #6. I have attached some pictures below showing our progress. We were also able to get out and repair the bridge between #7 and #8. Hopefully we have made the transition to the cart path a little smoother. I know it isn't perfect, but it was the most economical way to repair this area going forward. Hope everyone has a great weekend. It looks like we are suppose to receive some more rain. Keep your fingers crossed that we don't get a significant amount of rain. The ground is so saturated that it won't take much to cause some isolated flooding.


Picture of #1 and all the underbrush we have knocked down and cleaned up.

My staff working on #1 clearing the underbrush.

Picture of dead tree on #6 before we knocked half of it down.

Tree on #6 after it was knocked down.

Melting Snow and Fog

Over the last couple of days temperatures have continued to rise a little bit. This has caused course conditions to be very wet and slushy. There has been a good amount of snow melt happen over the last couple of days, however we have a long ways to go until it is gone. We were able to get out and take some updated photos of the course and the greens. I have uploaded some of those photos below. We will continue to monitor the course conditions as the week goes by. I know several people will be itching to get out on the golf course if the weather permits it and if the snow melts. It is a tough decision for superintendents this time of year due to the wet conditions and the foot prints that happen on the greens when the greens are in the freeze thaw stages. The foot prints will occur and then when the temperatures drop to freezing the greens will re-freeze and make the putting greens bumpy and uneven. All golf course superintendents would rather air on the safe side and try and hold play off as long as possible. However we know the economic situation a lot of facilities are in this winter with the weather we have been having and they need the rounds of golf. It is an extremely hard decision for everyone involved rather to put the putting green quality in jeopardy or play it safe and have upset golfers. So please be patient as we wait for the snow to melt and for the golf course to drain off. Please if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me t.bohn@creekmoorpoa.com.



Photo of goose damage on #7 green. We will be filling these areas with green sand while the ground is frozen. Once the ground is unfrozen we will repair these areas with new plugs from our bentgrass nursery on site.



Picture of #7 green with a lot of snow remaining on the putting surface and a good picture of just how wet the greens are right now with all the snow melt and warmer conditions.



Snow is melting slowly as the fog has slowed the process down not allowing any sunlight to come through.



The dense fog on #9

Snow Melt

Weather conditions have continued to rise and the amount of snow on the ground has started to decrease or melt. It is a welcome site as we are now starting to see some turf grass in some of the higher areas around the golf course. My staff has been out the last couple of days trying to clean off some of the cart paths to allow us access to the golf course. Some of the cart path areas were drifted as high as three to four feet. We have started making our way over to #6 today in an attempt to at least get the cart path clear to haul the dead tree out of there when we cut it down. We will have to wait now for the ground to freeze so that the tree doesn't cause any damage to the turf areas around it. We will continue to monitor the conditions and I will keep everyone informed. With all the snow melt that is going to happen some of our creek areas are going to be rising at a rapid rate. Please be patient with some of these areas behind your homes as it will take a little while for the lake to drain down and allow the overflow water to get out. Also I hope everyone will join me in continuing to pray for the victims in the Haiti earthquake. Please feel free to send me a message with any questions or concerns. t.bohn@creekmoorpoa.com

Finally Some Warmer Temps

Finally we are going to be able to enjoy some above freezing temperatures. I have been able to talk to a lot of old timers in this area lately and none of them can really say they have seen anything like this before in the way of temperatures and snowfall. Hopefully these upcoming warmer days will start the thawing out and melting process of all the snow. However most of the weather people are calling for another major snow storm for our area sometime in the month of February. We will have to wait and see if this happens and if it lives up to what they are calling for. Here at the maintenance facility things have been a little quiet for the last couple of days. We have been continuing working inside on projects (painting, sharpening, grinding, cleaning, etc.). We are all looking for a chance to get outside hopefully sometime soon, as you tend to get a little stir crazy being inside for long periods of time. Hopefully this week will free up the cart paths and allow us to get out and remove the tree on #6 that I have been talking about for the past couple of weeks. The only draw back now may be the wet conditions of the ground and the damage the tree could make falling onto the turf. We will have to asses the situation if we get the chance and see how wet it is. If we can get it done early enough in the morning while the ground is still frozen from overnight temps I feel we should have a reasonable chance at taking it down. Hope everyone had a great weekend!!