tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49295830746675513272024-03-13T01:40:29.683-05:00Golf Club at Creekmoor MaintenanceUpdated Golf Course Conditions and Behind the Scenes Information at the Creekmoor Maintenance FacilityUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger152125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-38561016795545296432010-12-27T08:07:00.003-06:002010-12-27T13:28:24.269-06:00Moving OnSome 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!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-52188059846025105912010-12-07T12:48:00.002-06:002010-12-07T12:57:51.721-06:00Cold Weather Is HereWhat 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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-62544959003945765482010-11-30T07:20:00.002-06:002010-11-30T07:31:04.466-06:00Cold Temperatures Have ArrivedThe 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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-12819765940784357492010-11-24T07:17:00.002-06:002010-11-24T07:27:10.970-06:00Turkey 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!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-72060702651260096902010-11-19T07:10:00.002-06:002010-11-19T07:17:10.826-06:00Fall Weather ContinuesCold 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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-188967411164392622010-11-16T08:27:00.002-06:002010-11-16T09:05:38.856-06:00Frosty MorningsFrosty 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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-50588401555679778562010-11-11T13:16:00.004-06:002010-11-11T13:24:19.367-06:00Pictures of Projects Around Golf Course<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_VtD5gXxlTSIuv16O9mGTT9nrqRwbiHBX5j_qk1ytlc6kjCziNaTG2eMOXbzQKR5Y1dIgXt5U58UabYb29ehbSWbCs4-S5IrpZk3nn7p2zWg6pxhD2nSnljt8sWThLq3-fieNWjmXaGAB/s1600/DSCN0678.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_VtD5gXxlTSIuv16O9mGTT9nrqRwbiHBX5j_qk1ytlc6kjCziNaTG2eMOXbzQKR5Y1dIgXt5U58UabYb29ehbSWbCs4-S5IrpZk3nn7p2zWg6pxhD2nSnljt8sWThLq3-fieNWjmXaGAB/s400/DSCN0678.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5538374260019360114" /></a><br />#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. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9xnwJkD8KlV07YoxeqUw4O0v5DqZDM0e5Mjtq1o7tDvRw2GX-3Fo7rzP4eWNNXhd1iqO_ltakhB9sAtij2AEfu6t3W2qi2NKzTp0Ezg2ITJXc6vJzRxuzAmVD7ozDfbRiog98aoqmmdc0/s1600/DSCN0680.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9xnwJkD8KlV07YoxeqUw4O0v5DqZDM0e5Mjtq1o7tDvRw2GX-3Fo7rzP4eWNNXhd1iqO_ltakhB9sAtij2AEfu6t3W2qi2NKzTp0Ezg2ITJXc6vJzRxuzAmVD7ozDfbRiog98aoqmmdc0/s400/DSCN0680.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5538373939904813970" /></a><br />Newly seeded nursery green with the winter cover pulled off.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjC7iT6oSpSS38-QWHEXZRozXKJkvFoHpsK2lyiqStxo3FE_KAQMXQFgAEqfI6rxbrYqR-vQlNDcgzNr-_FKv08kORjkUaMgh0Cdm82wd00nud_96SRjeK2plyxscOCyEs2HS1DING5HQO/s1600/DSCN0677.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjC7iT6oSpSS38-QWHEXZRozXKJkvFoHpsK2lyiqStxo3FE_KAQMXQFgAEqfI6rxbrYqR-vQlNDcgzNr-_FKv08kORjkUaMgh0Cdm82wd00nud_96SRjeK2plyxscOCyEs2HS1DING5HQO/s400/DSCN0677.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5538373676749010178" /></a><br />Rock work along cartpath on #11.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-58931363513443979962010-11-09T06:52:00.002-06:002010-11-09T07:05:37.621-06:00Warm and WindyOur 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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-80264681935472968982010-11-01T14:41:00.002-05:002010-11-01T14:55:41.583-05:00Cooler Week AheadIt 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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-90775317606312171002010-10-27T14:46:00.006-05:002010-10-27T14:58:13.848-05:00Fall Is On It's WayCooler 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. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJvPmxWEzUnWz3K2euHt1DM6o03wJPi40yURZgvv6DWMlb9ONQK55zo6hIC3K53cupKI76JOXYneBILVvMoAbTXub0BEXn2LP5UhqQ4ox2-niKIO0WBcO2muFESdg8k43Qg4KwT4qgREYk/s1600/DSCN0676.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJvPmxWEzUnWz3K2euHt1DM6o03wJPi40yURZgvv6DWMlb9ONQK55zo6hIC3K53cupKI76JOXYneBILVvMoAbTXub0BEXn2LP5UhqQ4ox2-niKIO0WBcO2muFESdg8k43Qg4KwT4qgREYk/s400/DSCN0676.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532815072482291938" /></a><br />New Fairway Units<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3YS4PX9Hx9ZdOkBF8pOh6ZX8yHEbjfhiifXqhFPabxDIcmD3-r-4cs466aDvryk4YYThmSRWuK0sophXtVroLQq5WoKXDaB_7ewTwP0TG2NG0j3OouUs2UeyI_3TjHfRSVTCG9xjWnX_z/s1600/DSCN0674.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3YS4PX9Hx9ZdOkBF8pOh6ZX8yHEbjfhiifXqhFPabxDIcmD3-r-4cs466aDvryk4YYThmSRWuK0sophXtVroLQq5WoKXDaB_7ewTwP0TG2NG0j3OouUs2UeyI_3TjHfRSVTCG9xjWnX_z/s400/DSCN0674.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532814930946604562" /></a><br />New Walking Greens MowersUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-27875327480329374992010-10-21T08:44:00.003-05:002010-10-21T08:58:29.294-05:00Nice Weather ContinuesMother 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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-22755348427966538182010-10-15T07:52:00.002-05:002010-10-15T08:08:30.494-05:00Crazy and Busy WeekWow 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!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-45818287108332994312010-10-12T22:32:00.000-05:002010-10-12T22:32:23.931-05:00Golf Course Employees Race To Aid Search - Video - KMBC Kansas City<a href="http://www.kmbc.com/video/25372012/detail.html">Golf Course Employees Race To Aid Search - Video - KMBC Kansas City</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-84820429330337603022010-10-12T22:31:00.000-05:002010-10-12T22:31:21.147-05:00Worker Swept Away In Sewers Rescued - Video - KMBC Kansas City<a href="http://www.kmbc.com/video/25371280/detail.html">Worker Swept Away In Sewers Rescued - Video - KMBC Kansas City</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-5385431013462896672010-10-11T12:25:00.001-05:002010-10-11T12:25:42.921-05:00Much Needed RainWe 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!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-67562773190673297812010-10-06T06:42:00.002-05:002010-10-06T07:14:05.973-05:00First FrostThe 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!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-78889127405547375272010-10-01T06:32:00.004-05:002010-10-01T19:38:48.868-05:00Preparations for Ladies Member/Guest InvitationalThe 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!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-48097243987136086102010-09-27T06:34:00.002-05:002010-09-27T06:44:48.475-05:00Cool DownWow 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!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-66518199837670473292010-09-21T06:28:00.002-05:002010-09-21T06:38:07.026-05:00Aerification UpdateAfter 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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-19725534198118315382010-09-17T12:29:00.002-05:002010-09-17T12:47:45.787-05:00What A Great WeekWow 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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-91903644771434645682010-09-14T09:54:00.005-05:002010-09-14T10:17:17.396-05:00Aerification Time<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC7_fVKQsw168hjtqBApLsLMMVGjnztpllPCn84jPn2CRTv1axnYCeXn25IqcaIVaVSn8Dlk8IOfLi9TPpYcqAOJHL6begcoJhulIo2vtqb7mBhyCfTip3CnpHvIKBDZrw_5xsOQDaL83N/s1600/DSCN0672.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC7_fVKQsw168hjtqBApLsLMMVGjnztpllPCn84jPn2CRTv1axnYCeXn25IqcaIVaVSn8Dlk8IOfLi9TPpYcqAOJHL6begcoJhulIo2vtqb7mBhyCfTip3CnpHvIKBDZrw_5xsOQDaL83N/s400/DSCN0672.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516787684805609586" /></a><br />Aerification plugs laying on the turf<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu9J4MLEqnubVFeJ2YUaQPHs_LFnx8EwUUiPzlF7qmZKIoKTTsIsUaEvz9k-CEJuXmhXAmXdQTsD62lmRqfiTgY_zL6qRpM8cDQo8cIfrnf-ZUlk4vgxvbCRAnVY07hN3zpWrxhC8tViLk/s1600/DSCN0670.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu9J4MLEqnubVFeJ2YUaQPHs_LFnx8EwUUiPzlF7qmZKIoKTTsIsUaEvz9k-CEJuXmhXAmXdQTsD62lmRqfiTgY_zL6qRpM8cDQo8cIfrnf-ZUlk4vgxvbCRAnVY07hN3zpWrxhC8tViLk/s400/DSCN0670.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516787382006083250" /></a><br />Crew working on #13 during aerificaiton<br /><br />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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-23652152238673192572010-09-06T06:10:00.003-05:002010-09-06T06:16:20.781-05:00Labor Day WeekendAll 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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-64425546517044014932010-08-31T11:31:00.002-05:002010-08-31T11:45:00.566-05:00Hopeful The End Is In SightIt 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!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-53486669848120221572010-08-27T08:35:00.002-05:002010-08-27T08:45:34.449-05:00Member/Guest WeekendWell 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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929583074667551327.post-88199859333458394212010-08-23T10:42:00.004-05:002010-08-23T11:18:56.221-05:00A Week Long BreakI 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!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0