Moving On

Some of you have already heard and for those of you who haven't I wanted to let everyone know that I have accepted the new position as Golf Course Superintendent for Wolf Creek Golf Links here in Kansas City area. My first official day is January 10, 2011. I am very excited about this opportunity that I have been granted with. However I will always have special memories of the Golf Club at Creekmoor. It has been such a big part of my family and I's life over the last 5 years plus. I am leaving behind a tremendous staff and a membership that has given me such unbelievable support that I will never forget. I also want to thank Cooper Land Development for allowing me the opportunity here at Creekmoor. I appreciate all of you for following and reading my blog and I hope it was insightful and that you were able to get whatever information or knowledge from it you were looking for. Thanks!!

Cold Weather Is Here

What a change in the weather has given us this past week or so. We have had temperature swings from highs in the 50's to highs in 30's and night time lows have really been cold down around 15-20 degrees depending on the day. However we have continued to stay extremely dry and have gone 19 days since our last significant moisture. Things are drying out and we could really use some moisture. It looks like the forecast is calling for a warm up on Thursday and Friday and then another cold front is suppose to hit and maybe give us a pretty decent chance at some precipitation on Friday we will have to wait and see how it plays out. With the dryer conditions my staff has been able to stay busy and get some work done on some winter projects around the golf course. We have continued to install rock along some of our heavy trafficked areas around the tee boxes and greens on #10,11, and 12. The crew has also been working on clearing out some of the under brush around #2 green and along the left side of #1 fairway. This is being done to help increase air movement in these two areas during the summer months. We are pretty much finished with #2 and are now working on the area along #1 fairway. During the frosty cold mornings my staff has been working on some cleaning projects around the shop that we were unable to get done during the season, and doing some repainting of walls in the break room and bathroom areas to keep it looking and operating in good shape. I hope everyone has a great week hopefully everyone has been able to get their holiday lights hung. If you haven't it looks like Thursday and Friday might be some great days for that and a chance to come out and play some golf.

Cold Temperatures Have Arrived

The temperatures have been bouncing all over the board over the last week. We have had times where the highs have been close to 60 and the lows have been in the teens. Pretty common this time of the year as the seasons change. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with their families and friends like I did. Nothing is better then being able to spend quality time with your loved ones over the holiday season. The crew here has been staying busy working in the shop during the cold days and out on the golf course when the weather is conducive. The turf is really slowing down its growth which has really altered our mowing schedules. We are still currently mowing the greens about twice a week and have moved to mowing the tees and rough maybe once a week depending on the weather and growth. We also have stayed busy cleaning around #2 green like I mentioned last week along with the rock project along the cart paths. We also decided to go ahead and winterize the on course restroom facilities for the winter. Some have asked why we did this since we had installed heaters in them . These buildings are not insulated and all the water heaters and piping is in the ceiling of these facilities. It is a little dangerous to try and keep these heated year round without insulation in them. If for whatever reason the power would go out or one of the heaters would quit working we would have a major issue on our hands. So to be safe we decided to try and extend them being open a little longer this year, but ultimately to have them winterized when we started to see temperatures reach the freezing points like we have had.

Turkey Day Already??

Man where has the time gone this year? I can't believe we are already the day before Thanksgiving. It seems like it was just yesterday that the temperatures were hot and the humidity was high and the stress levels in the maintenance facility were at an all time high. I don't miss that part of the year at all! Just a little update as to what has been going on this week here at Creekmoor. We have officially shut down the on course restrooms for the winter season. Temperatures are suppose to get down around the low teens this week and we simply didn't want to take a risk of having a pipe freeze on us. The restrooms will remain closed until the spring time. We have also removed the water coolers and stations around the course like we usually do as they turn into ice blocks in the colder weather. The ball washers have also been brought in to prevent them from freezing and cracking the cast metal. We have left four of them out and have put a anti-freeze solution in them to allow you to wash your ball. It is windshield washer fluid so please be careful handling your ball if you wash it. The crew has also been working on clearing the underbrush around two green. This will hopefully help establish some air flow during the summer months across the surface of that green. I hope everyone has a great and very Happy Thanksgiving. My family and I are so thankful for the opportunity that you the members and Cooper Land Development have given me to serve as your golf course superintendent. I am also very thankful for a great staff that works hard and truly cares about providing a championship golf course for its members and players. Safe travels to everyone and have a great week!

Fall Weather Continues

Cold and frosty mornings and a slow warm-up have been an regular occurrence over the last couple days. Temperatures have gotten down below freezing at night and have struggled to get reach their highs of the 50's in time for much to golf to be played. However it looks like this weekend is going to be nice and should allow for some good golf to played. My staff is continuing to stay busy on projects, a little mowing around on the golf course, and cleaning and raking the bunkers after the rains. We continued to work on installing some stones along cart paths in the area where the traffic has caused us problems. Also we have started to do some cleanup in and around #2 green by clearing out the undergrowth and old weeds that grew during the season this year in hopes of increasing our air flow for the green. We are planning to mow greens and tees today as soon as the frost lifts. I hope everyone has a great weekend and is able to get out and enjoy the warmer weather.

Frosty Mornings

Frosty mornings have started to be a pretty regular occurrence over the last couple of weeks. The temperatures have started to cool off and the night time lows have been lingering around the high 30's low 40's range, which has really slowed the growth of the turf. We are down to mowing greens about 2-3 times, mowing tees about once a week depending on the weather and temperature conditions. The bentgrass on the greens and tees has really slowed down and thus our mowing schedules have as well. This week we are in the process of repairing the bunkers after the 2.5" of rain that we received last Friday. We should have these completed by the end of today. If you play golf this week you might see double the paint dots around our collars on our greens. We are in the process of shrinking the collar areas down and changing them to 26" width from the 30" width they were before. We are doing this due to the fact that one of our new mowers is a 26" mower and will allow us to mow the collars in one pass instead of having to make 2 passes. My hope is that this will help alleviate some of the mechanical stress in these areas when the summer stress sets in during July and August. We will continue to mark the collar widths through out the year to help them stay a consistent width all the way around. In the coming weeks we hope to begin some drainage work in some fairways mainly. #13, 6, along right side of #10, and 16. The rock work will continue along cart paths on #10, 11, and 12 as the weather permits. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions or concerns either by email or by phone.

Pictures of Projects Around Golf Course

#8 green where the ground had settled from construction we cut the sod off and leveled this area so golf balls wouldn't get trapped in an uneven and settled lie.

Newly seeded nursery green with the winter cover pulled off.

Rock work along cartpath on #11.

Warm and Windy

Our staff here at Creekmoor has shrunk in size, but we haven't slowed down any on the golf course. My staff has continued to work hard and so me why they are the best golf staff around. Often times I don't mention them as often as I should, but these guys are the ones that make me look good. The growth pattern for the turf grass has slowed down tremendously over the last week or so with the cooler weather we were having. Our mowing schedules have altered according. We are mowing the greens about every other day right now on average. My staff and I are keeping our eye on it and we mow the greens when we start to see the turf getting tall and not giving a good smooth ball roll, which is about every other day right now. Our tee boxes and rough are getting mowed once a week as well. We have continued to work on the rocking project around the cart paths that get an extreme amount of traffic on holes #11 and #12. The nursery green continues to grow and fill in very nicely after we re-seeded it. It was moving at a very rapid pace prior to the cool weather last week, but hopefully the cover we have will help it to continue to fill in and grow somewhat over the winter months. Once spring is here the bentgrass will really take off and it should fill in very nicely and quickly. Another project we have been working on is leveling some of the step cut areas around the greens where they settled out and have caused an uneven lie for your ball when it rolls into these areas. This is very common after construction and is an ongoing problem. Hopefully I can get some photos for all of you to see along with some of our nursery green today and I will post those later. I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Cooler Week Ahead

It looks like our week is going to be a cool and brisk one. The temperatures have started to lower and the breeze has picked up a little bit causing conditions to be a little cool and brisk. As you can imagine the turf has slowed down significantly over the last week or so. Our mowing schedules as I have mentioned before are on a as needed basis besides the greens. We are still mowing the greens on a regular basis except for Mondays as that is their day of rest. I expect the next week or so our mowing schedule on the greens will start to change and we may go to an every other day schedule depending on the weather and growth. My staff will be switching into project mode in the upcoming weeks. Some of our projects we are going to be working on are rocking of the cart paths, drainage work in fairways, tree work around some creek areas, and installing a few more irrigation heads in the roughs. We have one more fertilizer application to make on our roughs for the winter. This should take place later this week or the following week depending on when the product shows up at the maintenance facility. As most of you already now from our monthly newsletter we will be going into our winter cart rules starting on November 15th. The rule consist of restricting the carts to paths only for the winter months. This is done to help protect our zoysia grass from any winter kill and hopefully minimize any expense next spring on sod to fix fairway areas. Continual cart traffic on the dormant turf can open the turf for winter damage. We have had pretty good luck since implementing this program and have minimized our damage repairs in the spring. I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween.

Fall Is On It's Way

Cooler temperatures and high winds has been pretty much the norm around Creekmoor lately. The seasons are changing and the weather is showing it. We are suppose to have temperatures in the upper 30s for lows and highs in the high 50s to low 60s in the upcoming part of the week. My staff numbers have started to decrease with the cooler weather as we have had to make some tough budget decisions. It is not one of my favorite parts of my job, but unfortunately we have to do it each year. The crew that is staying here have been extremely busy this past week. We have installed some rock along the cart path next to #11 green, installed some new fescue sod in isolated areas on #1,2,3,6,9,18,10. These are some areas where the seed didn't take long or areas that were to small for the seeder to hit. I was hoping to have some photos of the nursery green we seeded and show you all how good it is doing. Due to the high winds and that we have it covered to keep the frost off of the new seedlings, I have been unable to pull the cover. Those covers act like sails in weather like this and they will pick you up off the ground and become somewhat of a dangerous situation. I hope later in the week I will be able to get these for you. I know last week I told you I was going to post some. When I got back to my office you could barely see any of the seedlings. Well this week it has really taken off and looks good. We are now on our winter mowing schedule which is mow it when we need to. The turf has really started to slow down so the mowing practices are changing. We will be on a as needed basis for the rest of the season. I anticipate we will try and get the golf course mowed on Thursday and Friday for the weekend. I hope everyone has a great week and weekend. Below I have posted some photos of the newest members to the Creekmoor Maintenance family. Take a look they are some beauties.


New Fairway Units

New Walking Greens Mowers

Nice Weather Continues

Mother Nature has continued to give us the perfect weather over the last couple of weeks. Warmer temperatures and not much wind or rain. You couldn't ask for anything better this time of year. A year ago the month of October was terribly cold and wet and not much golf was being played. What a difference a year makes. My staff is continuing to stay very busy here at Creekmoor. The turf grass growth has started to slow down a little bit, however we are still mowing on our normal schedule. I anticipate over the next week or so the growth patterns of the turf will start to slow more rapidly and we will start to make adjustments to our mowing schedule. Today we have started mowing some of the isolated areas in the native grass that were overtaken by weeds from the flooding creeks or runoff from the undeveloped surrounding properties. The weeds in the areas have been sprayed and now we are just knocking them down to give it a cleaner look. We also have started installing some rock along some of the high traffic areas along cart paths where some rutting has occurred over the season. These areas are predominately around the tee boxes where golf carts are often parked and maintenance traffic has to get around them. This will be an ongoing process over the winter. Our nursery green has started to show some signs of life finally. After about 8 days of patiently waiting the seed finally popped and the bentgrass is growing like gang busters. We are covering it at night which is helping to protect it from the cooler temperatures and frost and will also help keep the soil temperatures warmer allowing more growth. Everything looks great so far. I hope to have some pictures later today to post of the rocking and the nursery. I hope everyone has had a great week. Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Crazy and Busy Week

Wow where has this week gone. It seems like just yesterday it was Monday and the start of the week. We have had a lot going on here this week and when you are busy time flies. I wanted to give everyone an update on the gentleman that went through the horrific slide down the sewer line that was found here at Creekmoor. As of Thursday afternoon he was still in ICU in an induced comma which is helping his body recover faster and is helping reduce his body from having to work extra. All the doctors seem to think his recovery should be good, but it is going to take some time. What a blessing this is and truly a miracle. We all wish him the best of luck and hope for a speedy recovery. On the golf course we have had a great week. The weather has been awesome and we have stayed busy. The KGA Senior Championship on Tuesday and Wednesday went great and I have heard nothing but positive comments from the players about the golf course which is great. My staff worked very hard in getting the golf course ready for the event. We have been able to stay on our normal mowing schedule and should be able to finish mowing everything by the end of today. It looks like the temperatures are going to continue to be nice so the turf should continue to grow at a pretty good clip. We have started to see some isolated areas where grubs are starting to pop up. This is common especially after all the moisture we had this year. The grub treatment we put down for prevention earlier in the year could have been washed through the profile a little faster then normal so grubs could be present in some areas. We are just spot treating as we see them and they are gone within 2-3 days. So everyone might want to keep an eye on your lawns and if the turfs starts to look a little dry you might want to check under the grass and see if you have any grubs feeding. Some projects we will be starting in the next couple of weeks will be some rocking along cart path edges, isolated sodding in the roughs, bunker repair on #16, and some hand topdressing on #2 and #10 greens. I hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

Golf Course Employees Race To Aid Search - Video - KMBC Kansas City

Golf Course Employees Race To Aid Search - Video - KMBC Kansas City

Worker Swept Away In Sewers Rescued - Video - KMBC Kansas City

Worker Swept Away In Sewers Rescued - Video - KMBC Kansas City

Much Needed Rain

We finally received a little rain shower overnight and this morning. Things were starting to get a little bit dry over the last week and half or so do to warmer temperatures and low humidity. As I am writing this we have received a little over .4" of rainfall. Course conditions are a little damp. However we are still able to get out and get some of our regular mowing done in front of the Kansas Golf Association event that is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. As I mentioned last week we were able to get our nursery green reseeded and are in the process of waiting on the seed to pop. We will hopefully see some new seedlings in the next couple of days. All of our over seeded areas in the roughs continue to grow and fill in nicely. There are a few areas that aren't taking the seed as well due to foot traffic and cart traffic. We will be doing some isolated sodding on these areas later in the week after the KGA event. The greens have started to really roll out nicely and get a good pace to them. We have been working hard on getting them as consistent as possible and keeping them hydrated at the same time. Several days of low humidity can really start to dry them out and you have to stay up on your watering practices. We have officially put the zoysia to bed for the winter. I was debating about mowing it one more time, but with the temperatures cooling off and the nice mat we have on it I decided it was best to not mow it and let the leaf tissue protect the plant over winter. I hope everyone has a great week!!

First Frost

The cooler temperatures and shorter days have started to really slow down the growth of the turf. We had our first rounds of frost on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday mornings which is what really started to slow growth down. Our third annual Ladies Member/Guest tournament benefiting Breast Cancer Awareness over the weekend was a huge success once again. Besides the cooler and windy weather it sounds like everyone involved had a great time. Congratulations to Sandy Dolence and all the ladies that participated and helped coordinate this event for a great cause. My staff has continued to stay busy finishing up some spot seeding and working on some small projects behind some of the new home construction sites for 2010. We have completed most of our over seeding and will hopefully start to see some seed popping in the next couple of weeks. Another item we will be working on over the next couple of days is re-seeding our greens nursery. We finally were able to use most of our nursery up and will get the opportunity to seed it again and start over. I was hoping this would be the case as our nursery was needing to be improved and redone. My hope is to get it seeded this week so we can get some decent growth on it before the cold weather hits for good. Several have asked me if I am going to mow our native grass areas any this winter? I am planning to do some isolated spot mowing in the areas where the water set and the weeds took hold this year. As we have talked through out this year the weeds were really popular with the wet and hot conditions we had. It was a banner year for them and it was a dog fight to get rid of them and keep them out. Mowing will help eliminate them for the most part and if the native area is weak we will re-seed it so that it will thicken up next spring. Along with all of these items we will stay on our normal mowing schedule adjusting it as turf growth dictates. I hope everyone has a great week and GO WILDCATS!!

Preparations for Ladies Member/Guest Invitational

The weather has continued to be awesome this week and is providing my staff a lot of opportunities to get a lot of work and projects completed. We have finally been able to get back on our regular mowing schedule after several weeks here of weather interruptions. The rough is continuing to grow at a rapid pace. We have been able to stay on top of it and are going to be able to mow it twice this week, which we haven't been able to do for the last couple of weeks due to the rain. My staff also has started reseeding a few areas in the native grass that were damaged from home construction. These areas should start to grow a little bit over the next couple of weeks. However it will really start to grow and fill in next spring so please be patient. Greens have continued to improve after aeration and seem to be close to 100% today. They have gotten better and better each day and my feeling is they are finally back to rolling and putting like normal. If you didn't know that the tees were aerified and top dressed you wouldn't know that we did it. They healed very nicely over the last week and half and are back to normal playing conditions. Today my staff is in full preparation mode for our Ladies Member/Guest Invitational. It looks like the weather is going to be fantastic. A little chill in the air to start the mornings off, but then it is going to be in the mid to lower 60's. I hope all the ladies and their guest enjoy the golf course and have a great time for a great cause with the Susan G Komen foundation benefiting. Have a great weekend!!

Cool Down

Wow what a change in the weather. Night time lows in the low 50's to low 40's and day time highs in the 60's and 70's. Great weather to be doing any outside work or playing golf. The golf course has really started to go through a change over the last week or so. The turf has really recovered well after the summer heat stress and the new grass seedlings have really started maturing and filling in nicely. Our fairways have noticed the weather has cooled as they have really started to slow down and lose some of their color. The shorter days and longer nights along with the cooler temperatures really accelerate the fairways growth and when they start to lose their color. Greens #2 and #10 are slowly getting better and better each week. We have started to do some more repairs on them and hope to continue to encourage them to fill in the stress spots as quickly as possible. We are going to be doing some spot seeding and plugging in some of the bigger areas and I feel the other areas will fill back in naturally over time. This week we will be getting ready for our ladies member/guest tournament on the weekend. It looks like the weather should be good and hopefully all the ladies will enjoy their time. Have a great week!

Aerification Update

After several days and a few rain delays we finally finished our aerification process on Monday afternoon. The rains and wet conditions really delayed us as we had to wait for the ground to dry out before we could finish. All the greens and tees are on pace to recover very nicely with optimal weather conditions for growing grass. We are continuing to mow the roughs as they started to get tall and thick during the cool and damp weather. We should have the entire golf course mowed out by the end of today. Today we are also going to hopefully finish up all of our spot over seeding in the roughs. We have just a few more areas that we need to get done and should hopefully get this completed today. Our plan is then to switch over and start spot seeding some areas in native grass up against new construction homes and isolated areas that have never been seeded. Temperatures are going to be a little warmer over the next couple of days so we have to be careful doing any over seeding during the hot times as the grass really doesn't appreciate the seeder when it is under stress from heat. Have a great week. Feel free to contact me at any time with any questions or concerns.

What A Great Week

Wow what a week of weather we have had here in the Kansas City area over the last week. Conditions have been cool and wet which has been great for all the new seed and for isolated areas that got stressed out over the summer to recover. However it is bad when you are trying to get aeration done on your greens and tees. The good news is we were able to get all the greens completed prior to all the weather setting in. This was perfect timing for them as the rain helped the topdressing sand on the surface work itself in and also softened the greens up a little which we took full advantage of and were able to roll them to help smooth them out. I have been asked by several people when I thought the greens would be close to fully healed from the aeration. A good rule of thumb I always use is around 2 good solid weeks of good growing weather and the greens should actually start to putt and roll smoother and at a decent pace. Today we are actually back at it trying to get the front nine tee boxes aerified and top dressed. If we are successful we will only have 18, 17, 16,10,& driving range tees left next week to complete. We are also out knocking down the roughs and green banks today as the ground finally dried out a little bit. With all the cool and wet weather the cool season turf has really surged and is starting to grow at a pretty good clip. The fairways have already started to slow down growing. This is a good thing for us as we aren't having to mow them as often, which will hopefully free some man power up to allow us to get some other things completed. Hopefully if the drier weather stays in place we will get our overseeding done in the roughs and native areas. Have a great weekend and enjoy the crisp mornings and bright sunshine.

Aerification Time

Aerification plugs laying on the turf

Crew working on #13 during aerificaiton

Once again it is time for fall aerification. The weather has cooled off and the rains have started to fall. We were able to get all 18 greens aerified, verticutt, and topdressed on Monday before the rains moved in Monday evening. Greens #13, 14, and 15 were not drug as well due to the darkness and moisture in the sand on Monday evening. However we are hoping by the end of today that the sand will dry out a little and let us drag it in better. The rains overnight (about 1") made conditions soggy and wet and have caused us to postpone our tee aeration until the ground is able to dry out. The aerifiers can not pull plugs when the ground is wet, so we are going to have to hold off until it drys out a little. My hope is too get the back nine completed by tomorrow and then the front nine completed on Friday. There are rain chances this evening and on Wednesday so this might change depending on what happens. The roughs are once again starting to grow and get juicy and lush. What a change a little cooler weather brings. The fairways have really started to slow down now that the days are getting shorter and temperatures are starting to cool. We maybe will mow them one more time and then will let them grow up somewhat and form a protective mat for the winter. We have a few other areas we need to do some spot seeding in the roughs and native areas. We will be attacking these as soon as we get aerfication completed and the ground is somewhat dry.

Labor Day Weekend

All has been pretty quiet here at Creekmoor. The weather has been great and we have had quite a few golfers out on the course the last few days. It is looking like the weather is going to continue to be favorable for us over the next week or so. Hopefully we are completely out of the extreme hot and humid conditions, but that is no guarantee at this point. The golf course has really enjoyed the cooler nights and cooler day time highs. The newly seeded spots are starting to germinate and take hold as well. We are going to be attacking the rest of the areas that need to be seeded this week and will hopefully have the seeding completed by the end of the week weather permitting. It looks like we have some rain chances this week so it will depend on how this plays out. Also we will be applying our fall fertilizer application on the roughs along with fertilizing the greens and tees in preparation for aerification next week. I hope everyone has had a great holiday weekend! I will be out of town starting Tuesday and won't be back until Saturday the 11th. So my blog posting will be on hold until I get back.

Hopeful The End Is In Sight

It looks like we had a great weekend for the 3rd annual Member/Guest golf tournament here at Creekmoor. Sounds like Sunday was a great day as Mr. Bruce Rehmer cashed in a hole in one on #4 and took home a free two year lease on a new Ford Mustang and a significant amount of cash that was in the hole-in-one fund!!! Congrats to Bruce hopefully we will see you soon driving around in the beautiful new Mustang. My hope is that the weather is going to cool down for good in the very near future. Our temperatures have been better over the last week, but I would like to see them in the low to mid 80's for highs and then have the lows in the 60 to 50 range. This would help the turf to relax and give it a break from the heat and humidity. Overall I think the golf course is fairing very well considering the conditions it has been fighting through. We are continuing to over-seed spots in the rough. There is a lot of seed coming up in the spots that were seeded last week and the week before. The greens on #2,10,12 have really continued to improve each and every day. It is amazing how the cooler temperatures for a few days really does some good. We applied our final high K fertilizer application on our fairways today. This application will help the fairways harden off for the winter and help protect them from the cold winter conditions. I hope everyone had a great weekend. It was great seeing all of you over the weekend at the Member/Guest events. Keep your fingers crossed for some much needed rain and cooler temperatures!!

Member/Guest Weekend

Well the weather has really given us a treat this week. Who would have ever thought I would have to be wearing a jacket in the mornings after the weather we have been experiencing. It has been very refreshing for my staff and I and the turf as well. The golf course really responded to the cooler temperatures and has bounced back very strong. The greens on #2, 10, 12 continue to heal and the cooler weather is just what they needed. The timing for the cooler weather couldn't have come at a better time as we are getting ready to have our 3rd annual Member/Guest tournament this weekend. We have an extremely busy day today with 230 players on the tee sheet and then a busy weekend after today. We had a good couple of days this week over seeding in our roughs in the areas we had some summer stress along the cart paths and low areas. The new seed is already starting to blow out of the ground and will continue to fill in over the next couple of weeks. We still have a few more areas to get done and will hopefully have this completed next week sometime. It is nice to only have a couple of days worth of seeding after the summer we had. That means our agronomic program was pretty strong and our turf grass was in good shape going into the heat. I hope everyone has a great weekend. Good luck to the members who are playing in the Member/Guest. I hope you all have a great time and you enjoy the golf course.

A Week Long Break

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Well we are finally going to get a extended break in the weather over the next four or five days. I mean we might even have to wear some jackets in the early morning hours with the lows forecasted to be in the 50's who would have ever thought this was going to happen after the weather we have been having. This break will really help out the turfgrass to continue to recover after the brutal stretch it was in. Our greens continue to improve and are really starting to recover in the stressed spots well over the last week or so. Temperatures haven't been perfect, but they have been a little cooler which has allowed the soil temperatures to decrease and encourage root growth for the grass. We should start to see some new grass in some of the areas we over seeded last week. I am just barely starting to see the seed germinating and I am expecting by the weekend that we should see some sort of green in these isolated areas. We are going to be extremely busy this week preparing or our Member/Guest tournament on Saturday and Sunday. It looks like the weather is going to be good and hopefully everything goes off without a hitch. Several individuals have asked me about using the roller on the greens for the event. I unfortunately am not going to put the greens under anymore stress until they have fully recovered. I feel like they have just come through one of the worst weather summers on record and they need a break to recover and get back to 100%. The double cutting and constant rolling will really put additional stress on the greens (#2,10,12)that they aren't ready for at this time. We will do everything else we can to help the roll on the greens and my hope is it will be just as enjoyable for all the participants. We are planning on lightly topdressing the greens tomorrow in hopes that it will help the greens firm up and roll nice and smooth over the weekend by helping the ball marks level out. The fairways and tees continue to be in great shape and are holding their own very nicely. Have a great week!

Nice Break In The Weather

Mother Nature finally came through for us and has given us a much needed four day break. Temperatures have been very pleasant over the last couple of days highs in the upper 80's and the night time lows in the upper 60's to low 70's have been awesome. The golf course has really responded to these cooler temperatures and little rain shower we got the first part of the week. I would like to thank all the member volunteers who came out on Sunday August 15th to help repair ball marks and fill divots on the greens and tees. We had a great turnout and I think everyone had a great time. I appreciate all the hard work and your time in helping us try and keep Creekmoor at a Championship level even through these tough weather conditions. The greens on 2, 10,and 12 have started heal from the stress they were under. On Friday last week we double spiked and drop seeded these greens just to help the recovery time. I feel like we could have left them alone and eventually they would have recovered 100%, but I had some seed already, so I thought I would use it and maybe speed up the recovery time. We also have started some over seeding of areas in the rough. Predominately the enter and exit areas of the carts and the few areas where the water set during the big rains and the turf pretty much boiled to death. We are going to continue this for the next couple of weeks and should hopefully have some good success. With the break in the weather we have finally had the opportunity to start spraying our nutsedge and broadleaf weeds in the roughs. It has been a banner year for the nutsedge and this is the worst I have ever seen it. I hope everyone has had a great week. Next week begins a very busy stretch for us as we have a big outside event on Monday and then our Men's Member/Guest tournament followed by the holiday weekend the next week with a couple of other outside events. Don't forget that fall aerfication is scheduled for September 13th and 14th. We will be closed both of those days to allow us to get greens and tees aerified.

KC Weather Factor

I hope everyone has been trying to stay cool this last week. What a tough and difficult week it has been. Here is a report one of my colleeges put together with some very interesting information he gathered. Take a look at what we have been battling against. It is pretty amazing that we are where we are when you factor in everything this report says. I hope everyone has a good weekend.

KC Weather Factor, 2010

By Eric Bickel
Superintendent Hallbrook Country Club



Extreme heat and humidity have persisted for over four weeks. The wet conditions this spring coupled with the heat stress have combined for peak turf loss conditions. The cold spring and wet conditions (33” April through July) was not conducive to healthy deep root development. The cool season grasses have been surviving for the last six weeks off reserves in the root systems. Those reserves and the root systems have all but run out. In addition, high humidity has created constant high fungal disease pressure.



Dew points, temperatures, wind speed, and soil temperature are the key climactic factors which measure the stress associated with cool season grasses ability to perform its basic physiological functions, (respiration, photosynthesis, evapotranspiration). A brief summary of these factors, their critical values, and their occurrence follows for the period of June through Aug 11th.



Days with highs of 90 or above 37

Days with a low temperature above 70 43

Days with a average dew point above 70 46

Days with an average wind speed of 10 mph or less 65

Days in which soil temperatures have been above 86 52



When all five of these factors occur simultaneously at their critical values (highs & lows above 90 & 70 respectively, dew points above 70, soil temps above 86, and wind speed below 10), cool season grasses are in a state of full blown decline. There is no recover for that day. The plant can no longer perform its basic functions normally. Metabolic activity is sustained solely at the expense of the root system. When this occurs for extended periods of time little can be done to alleviate the issue.



Total days in which all five of these factors occurred simultaneously over the last 20 years, (i.e.# of severe root decline days)



Year 90’ 91’ 92’ 93’ 94’ 95’ 96’ 97’ 98’ 99’

# of days 5 8 1 3 2 14 5 10 12 17*



Year 00’ 01’ 02’ 03’ 04’ 05’ 06’ 07’ 08’ 09’

# of days 9 16 13 9 5 7 11 8 5 6



*1999 had the most consecutive days with 13



In 2010 this has happened 29 days, (this could hit 32 on Saturday, August 14th!)

Heat Stress Continues Along With Hot Temperatures

Photo of drainage trench on #2 Green

Picture of the new trench line where the drain for #2 green exits the green.

Photo of the green drain on #2 that was clogged and we repaired it to get it draining once again.
The hot and humid weather continues to make it's presence felt here at Creekmoor. We are working extremely hard to help the turf grass continue to fight through these extreme conditions. Greens #2, 10, & 12 are continuing to improve each and every day. Some days are slower then others depending on the weather and play, but to notice an improvement in the weather conditions we have been having is a great thing. Hopefully by the end of this week night time temperatures will start to cool off and allow the turf to finally have a much needed break. We will be keeping our fingers crossed and keeping a close eye on the forecast. Our rough continues to amaze me with how well it is holding up with these extreme weather patterns. We have some areas where the water set after the big rain storms earlier in the summer on #10 on the right side and then on #11 in the low areas that we will be addressing as soon as the weather is going to break, but all in all I am very pleased with it. We will hopefully be out throughout this week spraying for nutsedge that has just taken over in some spots. It is a banner year for it and I have been getting a lot of questions from homeowners about their lawns and how to address it. You have to get a special chemical called Sedgehammer or ProSedge along with a spreader sticker. These chemicals are available at John Deere Landscapes or other professional distributors. I don't think they are available at Home Depot or Lowe's at least they weren't the last time I checked. Fairways continue to love life and grow by the minute. It is a great year to have zoysia and to set back and watch it grow. It is a nice luxury to have one less thing you have to worry about keeping alive and know that it is doing just fine. It allows us to concentrate on the other cool season grasses and help them survive the conditions. Here is a link to a story in the Wall Street Journal that came out today http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748704017904575409411501359450-lMyQjAxMTAwMDAwOTEwNDkyWj.html. You can just copy and paste the link into your address bar. It just goes to show how drastic and severe the weather we have been dealing with is on turfgrass. I hope everyone has a great week.

Heat Wave Continues

Wow "Mother Nature" just doesn't want to give us much of a break. Temperatures are soaring into the upper 90's along with humidity levels in the upper 50's to 60's. This combination causes the heat index to be up around the 100 to 105 degree mark. Needless to say these are undesirable conditions to be growing turf in. I have been monitoring the soil temperatures and surface temperatures throughout the day. The lowest soil temperature reading (at a 1.5 to 2 inch depth) in the last 6 days I have seen was 81 degrees with the surface temperatures going from 92 degrees in the morning to 106 in the afternoons. These are extreme conditions that require us to be a little more cautious and conservative. I have raised the mowing height of the greens just slightly from .125" to .140". This is to help the plant photosynthesize and produce more carbohydrates so that it can survive the extreme conditions. We also have cutback on the rough mowing and other mowing around the golf course just to give the turf a break and not to put it under anymore stress then we have too. We are still trying to mow the golf course one time entirely and then are making mowing decisions at the end of the week depending on the growth and weather pattern we are in. Today we are working on repairing the collar on #10 green. I hope to have this installed before the temperatures get too hot today. We will continue to work on some of the other holes (i.e. 2,6,12) as weather and play permits. I feel that the greens are holding their own right now and seem to be turning the corner. It is tough for turf grass to recover in the extreme conditions we are having. If we can get a little break and have temperatures in the high 80's to low 90's and have night time temperatures get into the magic 60's it would really help us tremendously. The night time temperatures is where the turf really recovers or gets stressed.

Heat and Humidity

The heat and humidity continue to make their presence felt here in the Kansas City area. The turf grass has been under a tremendous amount of stress with the heat and down pours of rain that have been happening. These two together are not a good combination like I have talked about before. Earlier this week we found a plugged up drain line on #2 green. This means that that part of the green wasn't able to drain and the roots were sitting in over-saturated soils and boiling itself. We have since trenched in a new drain line and the water just came flowing out of the green. This should hopefully help that green a bunch and help it to stay dry and healthier. We are continuing to see improvement in greens #2, 10, 15, and 6. Once they dry out and the temperatures are high it is a long and slow process to get them back. I told everyone that I was wanting to keep them dry and that is still the case as wet over-saturated soils can cause death this time of year by choking out the turf and not allowing oxygen to get to it's roots. I know some players have expressed concern for #2 and 10 but I assure you everything is going fine and we are giving them some TLC and look for them to continue to improve. We will be continuing to sod some of the stressed out areas in the collars as weather conditions and play allow us too. We have started already and I am planning to continue on #2,6, and 10. The fairways continue to amaze me with how fast they are continuing to grow. We seem to not be able to stay in front of them. They are thick and lush and look great this year which is a little different then in the last two years when the temperatures weren't as warm. Hope everyone has a great weekend. I will try and upload some pictures of the plugged drain line on #2 when I can get my camera to cooperate.

Short Break In The Weather

We are currently in a two day break from the extremely hot and humid conditions we have been dealing with. Unfortunately this isn't going to be around very long as temperatures are going to once again rise up into the upper 90's and humidity levels are going to soar. Although at this point in the summer I will take whatever I can get. A few people have asked me about the conditions on the greens and all the off color spots that are on them. We are currently trying to keep the greens as dry as possible to allow them to breathe and keep the disease away from them. Saturated soils don't allow the plants to breathe and in this heat can cook the roots of the plants and choke it out and wet soils are a breeding ground for diseases. The spots on the greens are localized dry spots and have come to the surface due to the fact that they dried out at some point. This is not a bad thing although it is aesthetically unpleasant the turf is in a healthy but stressed out state. We will give them some TLC and they will heal back over time and when the temperatures relax. This summer has been a very unusual summer and it has really tested our patience and our grass growing abilities. The collars on #2 and 10 continue to struggle a little bit in the areas where the moisture runs off the greens and sits against the moisture barriers that I mentioned several weeks ago. These areas will eventually heal or if they continue to struggle we may look into some isolated sodding. The good news is the zoysia grass fairways are the healthiest that I have ever seen them here at Creekmoor. They are just loving life right now and are getting everything they need warm and humid conditions. The rough is really holding it's own as well. It continues to grow and stay healthy. There might be a few areas where Brown Patch is present, but this disease is every where right now especially with the prime weather conditions we have been having. I hope everyone has a great week!

Summer Stress Continues

The summer temperatures and humidity have continued to make their presence felt here in the Kansas City area. It has been a huge challenge for my staff and I to try and alleviate as much stress on the turf as possible. The golf course has been holding up relatively well with all things considered. It is really important to watch your water management this time of year especially in these conditions. It is better to error on the dry side then to have things overly wet. Wet conditions encourage disease and insects to harm the turf, which puts the turf in a weakened state and then the grass can't survive the extreme weather. I have had a few people ask me about the small spots on the greens. These are called isolated hot spots and are a sign that that area of the green is drying out. It also tells me that I have the greens at a dry level and that I shouldn't have a lot of problems with disease although stranger things have happened. Hot spots recover with a little hand watering, disease spots do not so it is better to have hot spots then wet soggy conditions. I am aware of the spotting and my staff is monitoring these on a daily basis. These areas will recover over time and with cooler weather. We are starting to repair some of the collar areas on #2,6, and 7 greens. We should have these areas repaired by the end of the week. It is a little dicey this time of year to be sodding and I wouldn't encourage it to be done unless you have the capabilities to babysit it and keep it moist. Since it is around our greens areas and we are babysitting them anyway I thought what the heck we can get these done and out of the way. The tees are continuing to heal from the verticutt that we did to them a week ago. They are healing a little slower this time due to the extreme heat and humidity, but they are healing and with a little break in the weather should be back to 100% or close to by next week. I hope everyone has a great week and is able to stay cool!

Temperature and Humidity Continue to Rise

Over the last week the temperature and humidity have decided they both want to be on the higher end at the same time. These conditions have made us here at Creekmoor be on our toes. The grass has been spoiled by receiving timely rains and the root structures haven't had to reach and grow down into the soil. So now that the heat is on the turf is really having to work and stay cool thus providing us a challenge in keeping it moist and not over watering causing disease outbreaks. This time of year it is a very fine line and you really have to pay attention to the amount of water you are putting down or you could get yourself into some issues. We finally finished our grub application today, so if you haven't done so yet make sure to get it down on your lawns and watered in as soon as you can. My staff was able to get the fairways, greens, tees, step cut, and rough mowed today. The grass should start to really slow down it's growing pattern with the warmer temperatures over the next couple of days. I hope everyone has a great weekend and stay cool.

Wow What A Sunday Storm

"Mother Nature" struck again on Sunday morning and throughout the day. We were directly in the path of a pretty intense rain storm that was comprised of three waves. The first wave dumped 1.10" of rain in 15 minutes and after that I knew we were in store for a heck of a day. We ended up getting around 3.5" total for the day. Needless to say the golf course is extremely wet and the bunkers suffered pretty extensive wash outs. We are going to be working on these bunkers today and hopefully will be able to get the front nine done or real close by the end of the day. We are unable to do any mowing and the rough has really surged over the last couple of days due to the rain and cooler temperatures. We will hopefully be able to start mowing later tomorrow or on Wednesday. The positive that came out of this all is that we didn't suffer any tree damage from the storms like a lot of folks did around us. The weather looks like it is going to start to warm up again and this is the perfect set up for disease and drought stress to occur in the turf. Weeks like this are what we work for all year. Hopefully the course can dry out before any damage occurs from the wet,hot,and humid conditions.

Watering Practices and Course Update

I have been asked by several home owners over the last week or so how they should be watering their lawns. As the price of water is going up and the availability of water is going down I thought it might be a good idea to try and help everyone out a little bit with what I consider my own opinion the best watering practices. You have probably heard people say that deep and infrequent is the way to water. This is very true and really starts to show up this time of year. In my opinion homeowners should not be watering their yard anymore then three times a week during the extreme heat and then during the cooler periods to back that down to once or twice a week depending on weather conditions. The key is too run your sprinklers for longer periods of time less days during the week. I would suggest running your big rotor heads around 20-30 minutes each time and your mist heads around 10-15 minutes. The mist heads put down a lot more water at one time so it is important to back those down or you will be putting too much water down. You can then decide how many days to run your system depending on the weather. But like I said I would suggest to limit it too 2-3 days a week. This will help your turfgrass establish roots and will help it withstand the warmer temperatures along with helping you cut down on disease pressure and your water bill. One other way you can save water is to put your systems in rain shutdown when it rains. You don't know how many times I am driving around the golf course right after or during a rain and I see homeowners lawns still watering. This week has been a great week here at Creekmoor. We have been able to get a lot accomplished and got somewhat caught up after the heat. These rains we got were much needed and helped the golf course recover a little bit after the warm temperatures. Yesterday we verticutt the greens and today we did the tees. We are trying to help eliminate the puffiness and help improve our water infiltration rates along with helping the turf to breathe. We also were able to get back onto our normal mowing schedule somewhat. We also applied a fungicide to greens and tees today to help prevent disease from forming during the warmer stretch of weather that is ahead. After the little rains we had this week the turf may surge a little bit over the weekend so we will be busy next week getting caught back up. It looks like the temperatures are forecasted next week to once again start to rise into the mid to upper 90's. I am going to keep my fingers crossed that the humidity stays so that everything doesn't dry out as fast. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

My assistant Juan on the verticutter on #5 tees

#2 tee after verticutter went over it

Thatch accumulation on tees after we verticutt

Much Needed Rain

I hope everyone had a good and safe Fourth of July holiday even though it was wet. The rain over the holiday was bad for the fireworks, but was much needed for the golf course. The turfgrass was starting to dry out pretty good and we were really having to work to keep moisture in the ground. This rain should help some of our stressed out areas tremendously. As I am writing this blog entry it is raining again. My crew is out on the golf course under cover waiting on the rain to subside so we can finish prepping the golf course for the KC Ladies Pub Links tournament. These rains over the last couple of days have been steady and slow for the most part which has been great. They haven't caused a lot of wash outs in the bunkers or along our cart paths. The good soaking rains are what you want to see. We finished aerifying the fairways on Friday. It was perfect timing to get them finished up ahead of the rain. We are planning to get back on our mowing schedule once the weather and ground dry out. It might be a challenge this week as the forecast is calling for rain chances most of the week. We will just have to wait and see what curve balls are thrown our way. Hopefully this week we will also be able to start spraying clover in the roughs and maybe even start our annual spraying in the native grass areas for broad leaf weeds. Hope everyone has a great week. I will keep you up to date as the week progresses.

A Break In The Weather

What a great time for a break in the weather. This week has been a delight for us here at Creekmoor. The turf was really starting to show signs of heat stress of last weeks temperatures and heat index values over 100 degrees. We came through that stretch relatively well. We had a few areas where water ran and sat in the rough and step cut that really took it on the chin. My hope is that these areas will recover over time, however there are probably a few like on #10 that we may have to address with some sod in late August or early September when the temperatures are more conducive to sodding. We also have a few collars around the greens where water pooled that are showing signs of stress most notably #2 and #10. These two collars have started rebounding nicely and should continue especially with the cool night time temperatures these next couple of days. We have started fairway aerification and have been having great luck with the weather conditions and all. We have completed 1-5 on the front and 10-14 on the back. We will continue to get 3 or 4 done a day depending on play and weather and my goal is to finish either by this weekend or early part of next week after the holiday. I hope everyone has a very safe and good holiday with family and friends. Please remember to not light fireworks on the golf course property as the native grass areas are highly flammable and it leaves a mess for us to have to clean up ahead of play the following day.

Heat Is On

The heat has come and has made quite an impression right out of the gate. After we went through the stretch of rain fall we had these temperatures are just what us Superintendents don't want to see. It is a recipe for disaster and can catch up to you if you aren't ready for it. The disease pressure has been extremely high and we have been very busy this week treating our tees, greens, green banks, and tee banks for disease and insect control. We unfortunately had some low areas that held water and developed disease that we have treated and am hoping will rebound over the next couple of weeks. We are looking to start fairway aerification on Monday and it should take us until Thursday or Friday to complete depending on weather and the amount of golfers. I would like to ask for everyone's cooperation with staying out of our native grass areas behind your houses. These areas are very sensitive areas and took my staff and I four years to establish. Please do not mow,weedeat, or create walk through areas in the grass to our cart paths. We have a no walking rule on the golf course due to liability reasons and would like to ask everyone's cooperation with this. When those native areas are mowed down it will really set the native grass back and even might kill it causing unwanted weeds to grow back. So please stay out of it and enjoy it's natural beauty. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Disease area where water set after rain.

Low area where water stood after the rain storms and caused the grass it get infected with disease and scorched the grass with the warm temperatures

Sunny and Warmer Weather

It has been a great relief over the last couple of days to have some much needed warmer and drier weather. The golf course is finally drying out and getting back to what it should be. We finally got all the bunkers put back together Sunday morning. It literally took my crew the entire week to get them back into playing shape. I have never seen anything like it before in all of my experiences. We also have been able to get a pretty good push on getting caught up with the mowing of the roughs. We should be over the entire golf course today for the first time this week. That is saying something, cause in the past couple of weeks we have been lucky to get it all mowed one time in the week. If the weather continues to cooperate we are hopefully going to start our fairway aerification. This is a pretty invasive process that is very important to keep our fairways in good shape. We will try and do 4-6 fairways a day and hopefully won't disrupt play very much if at all. My hope with the drier weather is to get started also on spraying the clover, nut sedge, and thistle around our property. With all the rains and wet weather these weeds have really taken off and started to grow at a rapid pace. I hope all the dads had a great Father's Day! I know I did!! Have a great week and I will give everyone an update later in the week.

Golf Course Update

I just wanted to follow up and give everyone an update. Since my post on Monday we have been continuing to get hit with severe thunderstorms and high amounts of rain. We received another .5" of rain in 20 minutes on Wednesday and then last night received another 1.75". This brings the 10 day total to about 13.25" WOW!!! Needless to say the golf course is beyond wet and the bunkers are once again a mess. One good thing is we were able to get out yesterday afternoon and mow green banks and six holes worth of rough, which was marginal in itself. My hope is that the rain is finished and we can start to get caught up with the mowing of the roughs and fairways. The fairways and roughs are extremely tall and will take us a couple of mowings to get them back to where they need to be. We will continue to work on bunkers and get them done as fast as we can. I hope everyone is patient as we work on getting the golf course back into shape. On top of all of this Mother Nature is throwing in some 90+ degree days with heat indexes over 100 degrees. This will present a huge pressure of disease and stress on the turf as well. I will check back tomorrow and give everyone an update.

Wow What a Week of Rain

Well we are up to 11.25" of rain over the last seven days. I can't remember a time I have ever seen this much moisture in such a short period of time. The golf course has reached it max and has taken it on the chin pretty darn hard. I have posted some photos below of some of the amount of water we were dealing with. We lost about a 40' portion of the rock wall by the black tee on #3. We are currently getting it looked at and getting a game plan to repair it. I am having trouble uploading my pictures from my camera so if I can get them off I will attach them to this post. We are currently out getting all the trash, debris, mud, silt cleaned up around the cart paths and in the bunkers. The golf course is closed today to allow us to have the opportunity to get this done. I will follow up this week with the updates and hopefully I can get my camera to cooperate.

Photo of Lake Creekmoor dam (courtesy of Sandy Dolence)

Photo of #2 fairway (courtesy of Sandy Dolence)

Photo of #8 (courtesy of Sandy Dolence)

Photo of the water running over on #3 Fairway (courtesy of Skip and Kathy Karl)

Another shot of #3 creek (courtesy of Skip and Kathy Karl)

(Courtesy of Skip and Kathy Karl)

Member/Member Weekend

The weekend is here and man has it been a long and wet week here at Creekmoor. The rains that came on Tuesday night really messed things up. We received about 3.8" in about a four hour time frame. The creeks all were out of their banks and silt, trash, and limbs were deposited all around the golf course and cartpaths. My crew worked diligently to get the course in shape and ready for our two day Missouri Women Amateur event. Today we are starting to prep for our member/member event that is slated for Saturday and Sunday. We will be mowing fways, tees, greens, rough, and green/tee banks. I am also excited about using our brand new Salsco roller for the first time. I finally got it delivered this week just in time to hopefully help make the putting surfaces as true as possible. The sod that we put down last week has really started to take off and will continue to net down and hopefully by next week we will be able to mow it. The weather forecast for the rest of the weekend doesn't look real promising right now as they are calling for rain starting on Saturday evening and not stopping until sometime on Wednesday. Lets keep our fingers crossed that this doesn't happen as it could be a huge issue for the turf. High amounts of moisture and hot temperatures do not go together. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Warm and Dry Conditions Continue

Temperatures continue to stay in the mid to upper 80's with a few 90+ degree days and the moisture has stayed away for the most part. The sod in the fairways on #13 and 14 was completed last Friday. We are still lacking a few pieces to finish up a few odds and ends areas in 15 and 17 and hope to have these completed by the end of the week. Hopefully we will be able to maintain our normal mowing schedule this week as there are no holidays or big outside events to conflict with it. We started solid tining on our greens this morning and will hopefully complete the rest of them by tomorrow afternoon. As I have said before this is an important agronomic practice that helps us keep the water infiltration rates up and the ability for the turf to breath easier on our greens under these times of high traffic and stress. Depending on the weather and the rain chances this week we might start our aerification process in the fairways. We will be able to get 4-6 holes done a day depending on play and this process will not interrupt play at all and the playing conditions on the fairways should not change that much at all if any. I will hopefully do a better job of posting more often this week as we finally have a normal week and the grass has started to slow down growing a little bit. I Hope everyone had a great weekend and stay tuned for upcoming details here at Creekmoor.

A Great Memorial Day Weekend

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. We sure did here at Creekmoor as many of you and your guest were out enjoying the beautiful weather and playing golf. We have been busy just trying to stay up with all the mowing and clipping management after the wet weather we had a week ago. This weekend however went a long way in drying the course out and I even had to run my sprinklers in the rough last night for the second time all year! This week we are going to continue our normal mowing schedule just a day off since we had the holiday on Monday. We are also going to be getting the last of our zoysia sod and hopefully will be able to get the drain lines on #1 and #14 sodded along with some little areas here and there around the golf course in the fairways. This morning we are mowing rough, tees, fairways, approaches, and raking the bunkers. We are also applying a fungicide to our bentgrass tees to cure some "Dollar Spot" that popped up over the weekend. I am looking forward to speaking to our Tuesday night woman's league tonight and giving them a course update and answering any questions they might have. I enjoy getting these opportunities to share and explain what we do here in the maintenance department at Creekmoor. Enjoy your week and keep your fingers crossed for some nice weather as we have some chances of soggy weather later in the week.

Good Growing Weather

We finally have some drier and warmer weather for a while. Course conditions have finally dried out for the most part and the fairways are starting to really enjoy this warmer weather. We are continuing to try and keep up with the rough as it is growing like gang busters after all the moisture and the warmer weather. The rough should get mowed this week three times and my hope is the clipping amounts will start to dwindle. I also think we got a grip on the zoysia patch that has been in the fairways. Between some chemical treatments and the warmer drier weather I think we have finally turned a corner and most of it should start to subside in the next week or so. I am still waiting on my sod provider to send me the last bit of our zoysia sod to finish up on the drain lines in #1 and #14 fairways. It may be next week before we are able to get any from the farm as they have been having a hard time drying out enough to where they can get the machines in the fields to harvest the sod. Today we are mowing the fairways and verticutting,mowing, and topdressing the greens. The verticutting on the greens cuts little grooves in the green as it removes thatch build up. This is important practice in greens management to help the greens from becoming puffy and sealing off not allowing any moisture to penetrate through to the surface causing the bentgrass to dry out. Sand topdressing helps smooth the greens out and also helps with the thatch accumulation as well. It looks like we are going to have a good weather week. Hope everyone is able to get out and enjoy it!!

Wet Conditions Continue

The rain just keeps on falling! Since Monday we have received another 1.75" or rain fall. Needless to say course conditions are extremely wet as the moisture has nowhere to go due to the soil already being saturated. After this week that makes our rainfall over the last two weeks around 6.25"! My staff has been trying to mow when we can, but a majority of our time has been spent on fixing the bunkers. We were able to get the rough and fairways mowed one time this week. I am hoping it starts to dry up some this morning and maybe we will be able to get some mowers out later this morning or early afternoon. The good thing is it looks like the weather forecast is going to warm up and dry up now through next week. It will get really interesting if the temperatures sky rocket up to the upper 80's after we have been in a cool wet weather pattern. The humidity and disease pressure will become a huge issue along with the fact that the plant's roots are shallow right now as they have been getting all the moisture given to them and they haven't had to dig down and work for it. This could become an issue later in the year if our temperatures rise. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Update: As you may have suspected carts will be on paths today and possibly into the weekend. We will continue to monitor the situation.

Wet and Saturated

The ground here at Creekmoor has been saturated and wet since last week and weather conditions continued on in to the weekend with another 1.25" of rain on Saturday. That brought our total rainfall for the week to a little over 5.5" of rain since last Tuesday. Course conditions are wet and the grass in the roughs are tall. Today we are scheduled to host the Hopehouse event with 180+ golfers. Golf carts will be on paths only as the fairways are saturated and are extremely wet. We are going to try and get most of the bunkers put back today along with some weed eating and trim mowing. Hopefully this week we will be able to dry out a little bit which will allow us to try and get back onto our normal mowing schedule. A couple people have asked me why the fairways have started to get a little bit of a purplish look to them over the last couple of days. This is due to the Zoysia grass shooting it's annual seedhead out. It always happens this time of year and it goes on for a couple of weeks. We are also seeing some success with our treatment on the zoysia patch in the fairways I talked about last week. Hopefully it continues to suppress the disease and the spots continue to recover. Sometimes if the weather is damp and cool the patches will fire back up. We will continue to monitor them through this weather pattern we are in as it is just about perfect for the zoysia patch to be active. I hope everyone had a great weekend. Cross your fingers that we get some warmer temperatures and some much needed sunshine!

Course Update

The golf course is extremely saturated and wet after last nights rain of 2" and there is more rain in the forecast for today. As soon as the weather clears out of here today I will be assessing the damage and how wet the course is. This makes our total over the last three days at 3.5" or rainfall. The soil has now become saturated so anymore rain is going to runoff and cause some minor flooding in our creeks and streams. I will update everyone as soon as the weather moves out and I can assess the golf course.

Update: Due to wet conditions the golf course was closed today. We had a tremendous amount of standing water in fairways and creeks overflowing cart paths in certain areas. Our plan is to open for normal play tomorrow.

Cold and Wet In May??

Zoysia patch on one of our fairways. This is a soil borne disease that is very active this time of the year. We will be out treating these spots as soon as the fairways dry out.

New sod on #9 fairway. Fairways are starting to green up, but the cooler weather over the last week or so has really slowed them down.

Is it October or May? Man what a weird and unusual weather pattern we have been in the last couple of days. We currently have received around .65" of rain with more coming this evening according to the forecast. Nonetheless my staff was able to get out this morning and get a few things done ahead of and during the rain. We were able to mow greens, tees, fairways, and some rough. Hopefully by the middle part of this week the ground will be dry enough that we can finish mowing out the entire golf course. Although the weather forecast doesn't look as promising we are in Kansas City and the weather can change at any time. On Friday we were able to get the zoysia sod completed on fairways #8 and #9. As soon as the ground dries up again we will move onto #14 fairway and sod the drain lines that we installed this winter and we will work on the drop area on #17. I hope everyone stayed dry today and keep an eye on the weather this evening as there is potential for some severe weather in our area.

Busy Week

Wow what a week it has been here at the Golf Club at Creekmoor. The weather has been great and the grass has been growing like a weed. Due to the beginning of the week being wet and our big outside event on Monday we got a little behind this week on mowing. We are currently trying to catch up and get all the loose grass clumps knocked down. Please be patient with us this next couple of weeks as the rough is going to be lush and thick until the cool temperatures and rain start to slow down. I have been asked by some what height we are mowing our rough at. It has always been at 3". We have never changed it. It is a matter of the grass right now being lush and moist and we are having the best cool season grass growing weather we can have. My staff also is continuing on the sodding project in the fairways over our drainage areas on #8 and #9. We finished #8 yesterday and should finish #9 today. The fairways have really started to green up nicely and are a lot further along this year at this time then they were last year at this time. The greens have really started to get a little more consistent roll to them as we have started to back off the fertilizer since aeration recovery is finished. They will continue to get a little firmer and faster as the wet weather subsides and starts to transition into a dryer pattern. Hopefully by the end of today the golf course rough will be mowed for the second time this week along with the fairways. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Wet Conditions Continue

The golf course continues to stay wet after the last batch of rain on Friday that dumped another 1.25" of rain. My staff however was able to get the entire golf course mowed twice this week so hopefully we will continue to be able to keep the rough under control. Yesterday we were able to get the fairways fertilized for the first time in front of the rain so they should really start to take off and grow in the next week or so. We also applied a micro nutrient pack and growth regulator to our greens Friday morning. The greens have been growing at a very rapid pace as we were helping them heal after aeration. The growth regulator will help slow them down a little bit and help the pace of the greens get a little more consistent. If the weather cooperates we are planning on getting some more zoysia sod in on Tuesday and will continue to sod the drain lines in #8 and #9 fairways. Many of you that played on Friday or today probably noticed all the white bunker sand around the edges of the bunkers. This was caused by the high winds towards the end of the week. We will try and continue blowing the sand back into the bunkers as the sand dries out. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Wet and Soggy

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last week. I was a lucky individual and got to go on a vacation to Captiva Island Florida for 5 days. It was a great time with my family as we were able to celebrate my parents 60th birthdays in a magnificent setting with our entire family. I guess however, I picked a great time to be gone as everyone here in Kansas City was blessed with over 3.75" of rain and cool weather. Needless to say the golf course was and is still extremely wet. The rough is growing at a tremendous pace and is going to be a challenge for the next week as we work on mowing it and mowing it again to knock down all the clumps and loose grass. The greens have all but healed up and should be back to normal playing conditions. We have a few greens number 13,14,and 18 that are just a little behind the others as you can still see a few aerification holes if you look closely. I anticipate these healing up and being like all the others by the end of this week with the growing weather that we have been having. Many of you if you have played this last week have noticed we are starting to sod some of the trench lines in the fairways and repair some of the winter kill areas from 2009 that we were unable to repair last year. We will continue with this as my sod provider can get us the sod. When it rains here it rains at the sod farm so we are having to wait for conditions to dry out so they can get equipment in the fields to cut. I am attacking the landing areas first and then will work my way through some of the other areas as our budget allows. I don't see much if any winter kill from this years winter which is a great thing. Most of what we are repairing is from the winter of 2009. I will try and get some pictures uploaded as soon as I get caught up from being gone so stat tuned!!

Cool and Dry

The weather has been Awesome over the last week or so! Man what a great time to be out and about on the golf course. We have been extremely busy here as you can imagine. The weeds and grass are growing at an extremely fast and aggressive rate and have been keeping us on our toes. We are back on our normal mowing schedule and are trying to get the entire golf course mowed out twice a week. This can be a challenge depending on weather conditions and the amount of golf that is being played. I have had some questions already on how often I am mowing the roughs and at what height. I haven't changed our height of cut since we opened in 2007. We are currently at 3" and will stay there all season long. Every year at this time a lot of people think we change our height of cut. We stay at the same height, but the turf grass is just growing at a rapid pace and it is lush and juicy from all the nice weather. Think how much you are having to mow your own lawn right now! Please be patient through this time as it will pay off in the summer time having a good stand of roughs instead of having weak and thin roughs. As you may have noticed we were able to mow the fairways on Friday for the first time this season. It really cleaned them up and they have really started taking off. I would like to remind everyone to please enter the fairways at the green post and stay in the fairway the entire hole and then exit at the cart arrow and red post. This will help our roughs stay in top condition throughout the season. We will continue to work on spraying the clover and broad-leaves in the roughs and fairways. This is an ongoing process and we will continue to make it a priority. Hopefully the cool season grasses in the fairways and around the greens in the zoysia will start to die out over the next week or so. We sprayed them last week and it usually takes a couple of weeks of warm weather to really start to see the results. The greens continue to improve and heal from aeration each day. My hope is they will be back close to 100% by the end of the week. I hope everyone has a great week.

Nice Weather Continues

I hope everyone has been enjoying this nice spring weather as much as I have. We have been extremely busy here at the Creekmoor Maintenance facility over the last week or so. Our greens continue to heal very nicely from the aeration. Putting conditions are still a little on the slow and bumpy end, but I feel they will continue to get better each and every day. Several people have asked me about when the carts are going to let out into the fairways. Hopefully if everything goes as planned we will release carts at the end of this week. My staff and I are trying to get our last application for cool season grass control done on the fairways and once we get this done we will release them. There have have been several questions on what the blue color is in the fairways. That is the non-selective chemical we are currently spraying to control weeds and cool season grass contamination in our fairways. It is a chemical that if tracked around can kill the bentgrass or fescue/bluegrass roughs. This is why we have to limit access to it until we get the fairways completed. I hope everyone has had the opportunity to treat their lawns with the Pre-emergent herbicide to prevent the crabgrass from germinating. I always use April 15th as the deadline as the soil temps and such start to increase after this date causing the crabgrass to start thinking about germinating. The crew will continue to work on edging of the bunkers and checking the sand depths in the bunkers as well. Hope everyone has a great week!