Here We Go

We are back after it again. Finally, after much planning and discussion, along with puting the course to bed, the drainage project has finally started. I actually began last week with some exporatory digging finding existing tile lines to use and opening up areas that needed work. We are using a trencher on loan from Pat McCabe and yesterday tied in some drain tiles on 14. This will help in collecying and transporting the collected water and moving it over to 15 and off the course. We then began hole 7 by trenching from the pond to the fairway to a catch area and then will start at this point with the rental equipment. We then began trenching on Hole 6 by the trees on the left at the dogleg. The intention here is to drain the low area back toward the tee. We got about 100' and the chain fell fell off. After a 2 hour wrestling match, we were able to put the chain back in place. We got a good start to the project. and will update today with pictures.

New Project

It has been awile since I have posted. The completion of the greens project was agreat benefit to the Luck golfers. I thouroughly enjoyed the project even on the days where it seemed to be an impossible venture. So now what's next? Well, we are just finishing up our aerification this week. All greens and fairways are done with the tees to be done as time permits. We chase leaves everyday and should be done by early November, when all the leaves are done falling.

The big project will be starting next week when we begin to add drainage to fairways 2,4,6,7,& 14. We will be removing some old drainage and installing some new. We have a trencher and materials onsite and will begin as weather permits. I plan to rent a specialized trencher and trailer to help with the install. Once again, a big thanks to Dennis Frandsen and Chuck Torrance for the donation to make this project possible. I will update and show pictitures as we progress.

We Made It

After several months of a lot of effort and work, the 4 new greens along with the practice green, are now being maintained like the others. With the excemption of green 7, it is hard to find any seams or irregularities on the surfaces. Green 7 will need a bit more time to fill in completely, but we are coming into the best growing conditions of the year. This green has also come the furthest since the beginging of the year. Just in case you can't remember, pictures dont lie.

I have a recent photo to show but the computer gremlins are not allowing me to post them. But if you are reading this, most likely you are playing the course so you know first hand what the conditions are. There will be some more continual maintenance activities going on but for the most part, the greens have finally made it.

Now it is August

The heat of summer has come and gone (for now) and this recent cool stretch has made my life a lot easier. The one week of uncomfortable weather set the new greens back a bit. What happens is the high humidity will make the thatch layer swell or as I term it “puff” and the result is the mowers will scalp the canopy and leave unsightly marks. If corrective action is not taken immediately then the damaged areas will soon die. I was able to see the scalp marks right away and for the next few days skipped mowing and just rolled the greens. I raised the height of cut about .040” and began alternating mowing and rolling. After about a week, the weather cooled, and we were out of the danger zone. No turf was loss, but the progression towards matching the other greens was sent backwards. A couple of topdressings later, the new greens are now once again very near the quality of the existing greens.

As for the “Dog Days of Summer”, the staff has caught up on mowing and completed several projects. We did finally finish burning the pile of brush on the Ravenholt property and now can look foreword to burning our new pile on golf course property. So far this year, the equipment and the irrigation have been holding up fairly well, but the various pump motors we have seem to be failing. The sump pump on hole 2 went out this spring but since we got it repaired, the rains have stopped. Over the last few weeks, the fountain on 9 pond died and is presently being repaired. Then, the fountain on pond 7 stopped working and I am working on getting that repaired as well. I did have the pond on 7 sprayed and should be cleaning up shortly.

Other then the above mentioned items, daily routines are nice and comforting. It makes the transition into the next season easy. Until next month………..

Progress

The 2 pictures below show remarkable progress on #7 green. Continued regular topdressings and rolling have smoothed out the surface and aerifying and overseeding has helped tremendously to fill in the voids. We will be going out this week and put forth the last of the sod plugs in any remaining bare spots. We only have a limited amount of plugs but we will use it all up. The 4th green has responded nicely to a change in mowers and additional supplemental nutrional products. The other greens, 15, 12, and the practice green, will be back online with the regular greens by the Member Guest on July 15. It sure has been a painstaking slow progress to complete the grow in and I thank you all on your patience. The timetable to get greens 4 & 7 online with the others will of course be, weather dependent. Have a happy 4th!

New Greens Update

It has been awhile since I've had time to update the conditions of the 5 new greens. We have been actually treating the practice putting green like a new one since it has been in various states of rehabilitation over the last 3 years. I am pleased with some of the progress and have disappointments with others. First the good news. We were able to aerify those greens last week but not topdress. We will do so on Monday. Once the greens smooth out, our intention is to get green 15 and the practice green into the same mowing and maintenance schedule as the existing greens. Green 12 has mad a lot of progress recently and with any reasonably sound agronomic practices, that one should also be joining the ranks of the other greens. Now for the disappointments. Green 4 has shown signs of stress and weak growth. I plan to begin to reverse the grow in and actually raise the heighth of cut back up to an acceptable level for optimum growth. There will be additional sodding and plugging to once again get the turf to fill in and then start to condition the grass for lower mowing. As for green 7, overall appearance is good but still not healthy enough for lower mowing yet. It is also difficult to roll the green to smooth out the bumps because the root system is not strong enough to hold the turf in place while rolling. In the meantime, we will continue to seed and sod all areas until we run out of sod.

What this means to the golfer is that greens 12, 15, and practice will soon be similar to all the others, while greens 4 and 7 are going to take longer to get to the same place. A cool, dry summer would help considerably to meet these goals but any type of high temperatures and humidity will play a significant role in reducing the chances that all the greens will be the same sooner than later.

As you see, green 4 has some work to do. That picture was taken a month ago and not much improvement. But, I am always up for challenges and this is no excemption.

Rain Again

The forecast seems to be a broken record. Rain is mentioned daily and the amount varies. A year ago after the spring rains stopped, it never rained again until late fall. The water supply(Big Butternut) was dramatically lower and turf conditions off irrigated areas were barren. Today, the mowers are running daily to keep up and the water supply is adequate for this season. The sun will return and the golf course will be ready for your enjoyment.

The new greens were actually set back by the extended wet weather but for the long run are benefiting greatly. With continued rain, the surface looks good but the nutrients that were applied have leached past the root zone and suddenly the color was off. Thinking it was mower or rolling damage, I quickly reduced those activities. After thinking about this, I soon realized that there was a great need to fertilize those greens again. After an ample helping this week, yesterday they looked great again. The real positive gains with the wet weather is that all the sodding and seeding on those greens helps in the establishment.

There are new seedling emerging from the aerifier holes and the bare areas. With constant watching and reseeding, all these areas should fill in. How soon? Not sure. It all depends upon weather, traffic, and various maintenance activities. Rest assured, the maintenance staff is doing everything it can to get these greens in the same conditions as the other existing ones.