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.