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.