Sunny Days Ahead

Finally some warm sunshine has set in around the golf course. Hopefully over the next couple of days we can start to dry out a little bit before our next storm hit us sometime in the early part of the weekend. My staff has been taking full advantage of the warmer drier weather. We have started to mow greens at least every other day and will increase as the turf starts to grow regularly. We also have started edging all the bunkers on the golf course. Over the winter the sand blows out of the bunkers and sits on the lips and the grass actually starts to grow out of these areas towards the center of the bunker. We then re-edge them and relocate our original edge and get them back to their original size. This is important to stay up on as the bunkers would continually shrink over the years and we would lose our bunker shapes. Also we have started to mow the rough and green banks for the first time today. As the course conditions continue to dry out we will continue to try and get all the rough cut. Just a reminder to everyone that greens and tee aerification is scheduled for April 5th and 6th, which is actually next week. The golf course will be closed on Monday and Tuesday to allow my staff to complete these tasks. I hope everyone can get out and enjoy the warm spring fresh air while it is here.

Soggy and Busy

We have had a rather soggy and busy week this week. Mother nature has continued to bless us with some difficult conditions, but we are moving forward and dealing with it as much as possible. At the beginning of the week we had a tremendous amount of snow melt which resulted in tremendously wet and soggy conditions. We then had one day to dry out and then once again Mother Nature reared her ugly head again dropped about .75" of rain to continue the extremely soggy conditions. None the less we have been able to continue and get our work done. We were able to mow the greens on Thursday and are planning to mow them this morning as soon as the frost breaks. My staff also has started our annual spring edging of our bunkers. Over the winter the sand blows out of the bunkers and forms white eyebrows around our bunkers. This allows the grass to start to grow into the bunkers in these areas and actually moves the edges of the bunker. It is important for us to stay on top of this and get the bunkers re-edged before they get to far into the spring and really get to growing and shrinking the size of the bunkers. It looks like we are going to have some more rain on Saturday and then hopefully some warmer and drier conditions next week. I would like to ask you to help us out this spring with the divots in the fairways and tees. Due to the carts being on cart paths for the winter months until the zoysia greens back the sand bottles aren't readily available to use. I would like to ask you to try and remember to take the sand bottle with you out to the fairways when you are hitting your shots and fill in your divots. This will help the divots recover faster when the grass greens up in the next month or so. Also on the tee boxes we provide a box full of sand that you can use to fill in the divots. This will help us tremendously in continuing to provide championship playing conditions on a daily basis. Hope everyone has a great weekend. What a game for Kansas State on Thursday night. The most incredible game in my lifetime I have ever seen. Anyway congrats to my CATS and on they move to the Elite 8 on Saturday!!

Brief Winter Storm

After getting blasted with about 8-10" of snow over the weekend temperatures are now in the 50's and 60's and the snow is melting away at a very fast clip. What a winter and weather pattern we are in. We were around 65 to 70 degrees on Friday afternoon around 3pm and by 5:30pm we were in the lower 40's to almost 30's prior to the winter storm that moved in. None the less it looks like temperatures are going to stay warmer here for a while and hopefully that was the last of the winter storm blast. My staff is continuing to work on some projects around the shop and the common areas around the golf course. We have been removing a couple of dead trees in the common areas and doing some reorganizing around the maintenance facility. We hope to have the Southern Hills fountain in the pond by the end of today. As soon as the snow melts off the cart paths and golf course and the ground dries out a little we will continue to work on getting the bunkers raked and edged and continue on our normal mowing schedules. Course conditions for the rest of this week and into the next are going to be very very sloppy. The ground is saturated and the moisture has nowhere to go which results in a lot of runoff and flooding conditions. We will be monitoring the creeks and surrounding areas as the week goes by due to the snow melting and a good chance of rain that is in the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday. I hope everyone had a great weekend. I had an exceptional one as my Kansas State Wildcats continued their winning ways and moved into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament, while our brethren from Lawrence fell to the Northern Iowa Panthers in a shocking upset. I hope everyone has a good week. I will update the course conditions as we get further along in the week.

Winter Is On It's Way Again At Least For Two Days

I hope everyone is going to be able to get out and enjoy the weather on Thursday and Friday because it looks like on Saturday and Sunday it is going to be a different story. What a swing we are going to be in for. The weather professionals are calling for the high to be in the mid 60's on Friday and then the highs on Saturday and Sunday are going to be in the low 30's with some sleet and snow. Man what a difference one day will make. Only in Kansas do we get these crazy temperature and weather swings. Anyway this week we have had a very productive and busy week. We were able to get out and get our pre-emergent application applied to our roughs on the golf course. The greens have started to green up and grow a little bit the last couple of days. We have been mowing them about every two days right now and we plan on increasing the mowing frequency as the greens start to grow at a more steady rate. We have mowed the tees twice this year, but they aren't growing as much as the greens at this time. This is due to the difference in the different bentgrass varieties on the greens and the tees. The bentgrass on the tees takes a little longer to get going as it needs warmer temperatures where as the bentgrass on the greens is a more cool season bentgrass so it doesn't require as high of temperatures to start growing. Unfortunately on Tuesday we had an irrigation leak on #8. We are in the process of repairing this and hope to have it done by tomorrow. We will be turning on the restrooms on the golf course at the beginning of next week. With the cold temperatures forecasted for this weekend we are hesitant to turn them on until the weather is going to be warmer due to the lack of insulation and heat. I would also like to ask all the home owners on the golf course to help me out and not dump anything (i.e. grass clippings, potting soil, etc.) into the native grass areas behind your house. This will keep the native grass from growing or eventually cause it to die and then this allows the weeds and other unwanted grasses to grow. I hope everyone has a good weekend. It is March Madness time so hopefully everyone will be able to watch the games if you are a sports fan. Oh by the way GO CATS!!

Work Work Work

We have had a very busy and productive week this week with the warmer weather we have been blessed with. We received around 1.5" of rain over the last couple of days. Course conditions are very wet and soggy right now. My staff was able to complete our fairway application of pre-emergent and roundup just in time before the wet weather hit. Today we are hoping to finish cleaning out the bunkers and pushing the sand up and raking them after the rain. Earlier in the week we were able to mow the greens and tees for the first time this season. The mowing really cleaned them up and helped smooth them out after the long winter we have had. We also applied a little bit of fertilizer to the greens to help jump start them and get them greening up and growing. I have had several homeowners ask me recently about when they should be applying their pre-emergent application on their lawns. The answer depends on a lot of different variables like (what chemical you use, are you going to do any over seeding?, etc.). I would suggest to everyone to wait another week or two prior to applying your application. This will help extend your coverage longer into the summer when the threat of crabgrass is the greatest, and the temperatures will be more consistent and will be better growing weather. I hope everyone has a great weekend. If you are a college basketball fan like I am then you are in hog heaven this weekend. My Kansas State Wildcats are starting to hopefully play to their potential and will hopefully have a good Big 12 tournament and NCAA tournament. Go STATE!!!

Spring Is Here

Irrigation head we added on #9 rough. This area wasn't irrigated very efficiently, so we added another head to help it out.

Hydrant we added to our shop area. This will help cut down on our water expense with washing equipment and filling up spray rigs. It is hooked up to our irrigation system which will pump our lake water at no cost to us.

Crew working on blowing the white sand back into the bunkers

Photo of sand piled up on edge of bunkers from the wind blowing it out over the winter months.

Wow what a weekend of weather we just had. Sun was shining and the golfers were out enjoying the golf course. Being the first weekend with warm weather really got everyone's attention and thus we had a good weekend of golf here at the golf club. With the warmer weather we started filling the irrigation system up today and should have it fully filled by the end of the day. The fairway spraying of our pre-emergent and roundup application is continuing as the weather permits. We were able to get the back nine completed last week and are currently working on the front nine today. During the the winter the sand in the bunkers gets really dry and tends to blow out of the bunker faces and piles up and forms eyebrows around the edges of the bunkers. This is an annual event and we have to go out and blow all the sand back into the bunkers. We have completed the front nine and are starting on the back nine today. As the warmer temperatures continue the grass will start to surge and start growing. We will probably start mowing the greens at some point this week depending on the rain and weather. It looks like it is going to be a rather wet week, so this may slow us down and delay us into next week. I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Warming Trend Is Finally Here

Finally we are going to have some warmer weather here for the next week or so. The golf course is going to be open for play starting today. My staff has started to get very busy preparing for the weather to break and we have actually been able to work on some projects in this warmer weather stretch. We have started spraying our pre-emergent and Roundup application on our fairways. This will be an ongoing process over the next week or so. The application will help us prevent crabgrass from germinating this summer and the Roundup will help to control the poa annua and fescue in the fairways. My crew has also been busy with a couple of irrigation projects. We tapped into our irrigation system by #13 tee and put in a water hydrant in our shop compound. This will help us save money on buying city water for washing equipment and filling up the spray rigs. We have also added an irrigation head to an area on #9 rough that was having a hard time getting watered properly due to the wind and size of the area. The head will help us out tremendously in this area and help us to continue to provide quality playing conditions. The geese have really been a problem for us this winter unlike any winter I have seen. They have done some heavy damage on some of our greens and collars. We will be out as soon as the ground thaws and plugging some of these areas out and repairing them. Hopefully today I can get out and get some photos of the projects we have been working on and will post them here. I hope everyone gets out and enjoys the weather this week. I will hopefully see you all soon on the golf course.