Friday, October 30, 2009

Rain Again!!

The rain just keeps on a coming! We received about 1.8" of rain on Thursday. Course conditions are very wet and carts will be on paths until conditions dry out. Today we will be starting on repairing the bunkers and getting them put back into playing shape. We are also going to be mowing greens as well. The bridge crossings were completed prior to the storm and really seemed to hold up well with all the water flowing through the creeks. This is a tremendous improvement over what we have been dealing with when it comes to the erosion factor around each bridge. Hopefully this will help extend the life time of the bridges and will keep them sturdy for a long time. I hope everyone has a great and safe Haloween!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Busy Busy Busy

Course conditions here at Creekmoor continue to stay wet. We received about 2.75" of rain since last Thursday. The course is going to take some time to dry out as temperatures are going to be good, but the ground is so saturated that the water has no where to go right now. It looks like we have more chances as the week goes on for more rain, so we will have to continue to monitor the situation. As the weather is changing some people probably assume that my staff and I get the opportunity to relax and slow down. Actually it is the direct opposite. We get the opportunity to start working on some of our bigger projects of the year without having a lot of golf balls flying on the golf course. We have been working on repairing a couple of our underneath sides of our bridge crossings due to high water flow and some erosion issues. The creeks have been washing out the back fill around the bridges which could lead to some serious problems down the road allowing the brides and cart paths to settle. We have made a tremendous amount of progress and should be finishing up on these in the next day or two. As soon as conditions start to dry out a little we will start some drainage work in the fairways. I would like to get some of these areas done as soon as I can so that the water doesn't sit there and freeze and cause winter dessication to the dormant zoysia grass. My staff has also been working on keeping up with the on-course mowing as the course conditions allow. We have also been spot spraying broad-leaf weeds in the rough and fairways and cool season grass in our fairways. Not only is my staff great at growing grass, but we can do some handy man work as well. We have been having some issues with water leaking into one of the turrets on the North end entrance area and causing us some issues on our entrance fountain. The issue has been corrected as we were able to re-shingle the roof and correct the problem. Speaking of the fountain it was drained and winterized yesterday to get it ready for the winter months ahead. I hope everyone had a great weekend. If you have any questions feel free to contact me at any time.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Wet and Chilly

Once again the weather has switched and made conditions wet and cool. We received about 1.75" on Wednesday and Thursday. Course conditions are very wet and the temperatures aren't going to warm up much today. However I think temperatures over the weekend are suppose to be reasonable and the highs should be in the mid to upper 50's or low 60's. However the mornings are going to be in the low 30's, so it will have to warm up a bunch throughout the day. Despite the weather we have had a great and productive week. We have made a lot of headway on the bridge repairs on #8 and #12 by stacking rock in the eroded areas and then capping them with concrete. This should go a long way in helping to control the erosion in these areas due to the amount of water that flows through these areas. Luckily we were able to get the golf course completely mowed out prior to the rain and damp conditions that we have currently. Today we are mowing greens and cleaning up and raking the bunkers after the storm. My staff seems to be on the minds from the flu as we are finally at full strength today for the first time this week. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Projects and Flu Season

Well the weather finally gave us some sunshine and warmer conditions for a few days. I hope everyone was able to get out and enjoy it while it was here. It looks like cooler conditions are going to be moving back in over the next couple of days along with some rain showers. This week we have been able to get the golf course mowed out (rough and green banks)on schedule. We are currently mowing greens and tees about every other day right now due to the growing pattern of the turf. Along with our normal golf course maintenance we are working on some projects around the golf course. One of those is spraying fairways for cool season grass control and broad leaf weeds. We are also working on repairing some of our bridge crossings due to some of the creek banks washing out from all the rain fall. We are rebuilding these areas and stacking rock and concrete around them to help control the erosion. Another project we are working on is trimming around irrigation heads and valves. The grass starts to grow up around the heads and valves and makes it hard to see the yardages on the heads and impedes us from seeing them when we start to shut the system down for the winter later in the year. The flu bug has started to hit my staff over the last couple of days. We have been averaging at least one to two guys being sick from work this week. I hope everyone has been able to stay healthy and have had a great week.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Course Update

Conditions here at Creekmoor continue to be damp and wet. We received .6" of rain on Tuesday night, and then received another .25" of rain last night. Needless to say course conditions are very wet. Carts will once again be on cart paths today and hopefully the golf course will start to dry out in the next day or so. We are going to be spiking the greens this morning in front of the mowers. This process is necessary due to the fact that we have received so much moisture over the last couple of days and the greens need to dry out a bit. The spiking will help speed this process up while helping the green take in some oxygen which will continue to help the greens be at their top form. Bunker work is also going to be a high priority today after the series of rain the last couple of days. My staff also is working on a few projects around the golf course. We are currently working on some cleanup work in the creek beds on #4 and #8. We are just cleaning out some of the brush and undergrowth that has built up over this season. Another project we are working on is repairing the bridge on #12. With all the rain we have been having the water in the creek has started to erode the soil underneath the bridge on #12 and could cause us some real issues if we left it unattended. Our goal is to refill the area with some topsoil and then stack rock around it to try and hold off the erosion from happening. We have had good luck with this process on another one of our bridges so hopefully it works this time as well. The rough has really slowed down on it's growth over the last couple of days due to the cooler temperatures. We mowed all the rough, green banks, and tee banks on Monday and Tuesday and I don't feel like we will have to mow again this week due to the lack of growth we are getting right now. If temperatures turn around we may have to go back to our typical mowing schedules. Hope everyone has had a great week.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Continued Cool and Damp Conditions

Cool and damp seems to be the weather of choice for good "Ol' Mother Nature"! Temperatures have stayed below normal over the weekend and it doesn't look like they are going to come back up until the end of the week. The golf course is trying to dry out, but with the slow mist all day today and the little shower we got overnight it has not allowed it to do it very good. Course conditions continue to be very damp. Most of the major weather services are calling for a 40-70% chance of rain Tuesday and Tuesday night, so the drying out process is probably going to take a little bit longer. Today we were able to get most of the rough and green banks mowed. The turf has really started to slow down its growing pattern. However if the temperatures rebound again soon it will start to grow again as long as the soil temperatures stay above the 50-60 degree mark on a consistent basis. As soon as dryer weather moves in we are going to be starting on spraying some broad leaf weeds (mainly clover) in the dormant zoysia along with some of the cool season grasses that have germinated this fall while the temperatures are still somewhat on the warmer side. I hope you all had a great weekend. I hope to see you all or talk with you soon.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Cool and Damp

The weather has once again provided us here at Creekmoor a bit of a challenge. We received a little over 3.25" which started yesterday morning and finally stopped sometime overnight. Course conditions are going to be extremely wet. Today my staff is going to start working on repairing the bunkers and trying to mow the greens and tees depending on how soft they are. Carts obviously are going to be restricted to cart paths only as we wait for the conditions to firm up and dry out. We where able to get the roughs mowed earlier in the week prior to the storm moving in. My hope is that with the cooler temperatures that the roughs have slowed down and won't be out of control by the time the course conditions are dry enough for us to mow. I hope everyone has a good and warm weekend. It looks like the temperatures are really going to dip down over the weekend. Stay warm and we will see you all soon.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Frost Is Here

I guess "Mother Nature" has decided it is time to have some frost in the mornings. As I am sitting here writing this post we are waiting on the frost to break so that we can get out and get the golf course ready for the day. This time of year it becomes a pretty big battle as we are battling less day light and more frost delays. Please be patient with the frost delays. There isn't a whole lot we can do to speed them up when the temperatures are in the low 30's . If the temperatures are in the mid to upper 40's and we have a light frost we can sometimes water it off and speed up the process. However if it is in the 30's we are at the mercy of the sun and temperature to help us out as the water will just freeze back and cause an even longer delay. The grass is definitely starting to slow down on it growing cycle with the cooler weather. We have stopped mowing fairways for the year in an attempt to let the zoysia grow and get some insulation for the winter which will hopefully help it survive the winter months with more leaf tissue to help it store food and insulate the crown of the plant. We are going to be slowing down on some of the other mowing as the weather dictates. As soon as the mowing slows down we will be starting some drainage projects in some of the fairways. The weather forecast for the rest of the week doesn't look very good at the moment. They are calling for 2-4 inches of rain to fall between tonight and Friday morning. Hopefully it will be a nice slow steady rain and not cause us a lot of cleanup and repair. I hope all the women that participated in the Creekmoor Ladies Member/Guest tournament over the weekend. It sounds like you had a great event and raised some money for "The Cure". I hope everyone else had a great weekend as well. Cross your fingers on the rain. I look forward to seeing you all soon.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

October is Here

Wow I can't believe it is October already! Man where did the summer go? It has been a very busy, but good week. The greens are looking better and better and most of them are back in shape and are close to being 100%. The five greens I had the aerifier damage on are a still a little behind, but they are healing very nicely. We received about .50" of rain overnight and into this morning. The golf course is going to be wet. As I am writing this I am unsure of the course conditions as we are waiting on the storm to move out so we can get going for the day. We are planning on spiking and mowing greens this morning unless conditions are too wet. With all the rolling and mowing we have done the last couple of weeks trying to get the greens back in shape, we actually have caused the greens to seal off a little bit. We are going to spike them in hopes of opening up the surface a little bit to let them breathe and not hold a bunch of moisture in them after the rain. On Friday we will be doing a light topdressing to try and continue to level out some of the holes that have settled on the greens after aeration due to the settlement of the sand. As soon as conditions allow us too we will continue are normal mowing schedule in the roughs and green banks. We were able to get everything mowed on Monday and Tuesday in front of the KGA Senior Team Championship. If you are going to be playing golf in the early mornings coming up, you better bring your jackets and sweaters. The last two mornings we have had some frost for the first time this year.