Tree Cleanup on 15

Tree company cleaning up some unsightly trees along 15 hillside and the bathroom.  This area is unsightly and once we remove the non essential trees it will allow the good ones to thrive.

Bunker Repair

We all know how this season went, so now is the time to fix bunker edges where surface water feeds into them.  Here on #8, we will fix the bunker edge, remove the contaminated sand and install a catch basin in the fairway to intercept the surface water before it reaches the bunker.  Crew getting some prep work done before the ground freezes.  This will be ready for play in March.

It Must Be December

Getting ready to put the greens to bed for 2018.  Our final spray was made last week, our dormant feed of fertilizer and gypsum was done 2 weeks ago and now a nice topdressing and aerification with 5/8" solid tines and 1/2" deep tines to help with winter drainage. The sand will help protect the crowns of the plant from foot traffic, ball marks and cold winds during winter play.

18 Coming Along

Despite the weather, we are making progress on 18.  The staff will be laying sod today, tomorrow and Monday and most of the 18th fairway area will be covered for the winter.  The tees are still too soft to even attempt to start to shape them in so we will have to be patient until ground conditions improve.

Mad Rush

It will be all hands on deck today as we race against Mother Nature again.  Trying to get the new fairway expansion sodded, temporary drains in the new fairway bunkers and then tarp the bunkers so we can continue to work on them once the rain passes.  We still have to rebuild the tee complex and put the irrigation back on the left side of the hole and sod everything so we will have our hands full the next few weeks.

Putting Green Work

We are putting the Graden sand injector verticutter across the new practice green today.  When the new putting green was sodded back in May, it had a clay layer in the sod that we have to remove via aerification and other means.  The green was aerified on October 24th, now we are passing the Graden over it to put slits into the clay layer and inject sand.  This along with aerification needs to be done several times a year to this green until we can reduce the layer or else the green will begin to seal off.

Drainage Paying Dividends

It looks like two different fairways but the above pics are the front and second half of the 17th fairway.  We installed new drainage in the front half two weeks ago and have not been able to get out and start on the second half yet.  What a difference.  Once we can finally tackle from the fairway bunker to the green, the fairway will be much improved than before.