A mild start

This winter has been anything but normal. To date we have received less than 10 inches of snow. The turf has been exposed and overall looks good. Lets hope for an early spring.

2011 in Review

Put away for the winter

Today the final greens covers were installed on greens 1,2,13,15 and the putting green. Prior to covering these greens we applied over 50 ton of sand on all greens. We have been trying many new techniques on the greens to combat winter/ice damage  that we have been incurring for the past few years. I truly feel like it is all a crap shoot. Roll the dice and wait to see what you get. Honestly, alot of the techniques we are using are old ones that have just come back around. Stay tuned for updates and pictures of what the winter of 2011/2012 brings us. Lets all hope for consistently cold temperatures with lots of snow and no mid winter thaws.

                                                          Heavy sand top dressing on 10 green
                                                                             first pass
                                                                         

5 green cover

NOVEMBER COLOR

As we head into November, there is still some excellent fall foliage to be seen around the course. I took this photo on a frosty/foggy November 1'st morning. Yes the temperatures are dropping and the season is winding down rapidly. Our seasonal golf maintenance staff are finished for the year, however Shaun Maher(Asst. Supt.), Rich Johnson (Equip. Tech.) and I are still quite busy around the course. As you can see from this picture, many leaves are still on the trees. We have a significant amount of clean up still to be done.
We are identifying pipe sizes on 3 isolation valves to be replaced. One valve located  on #3 near the green, another valve on #14 between the forward and back tees and  another on #18 fairway.
Our plan is to apply our last plant protectent application on greens, tees and fairways next week. This application will protect us from a disease called snow mold. There are two types, pink snow mold (Microdochium Nivale), this type does not need snow to be present. It likes cool, moist conditions. The second type is grey snow mold, (Typhula incarnata, and 3 varieties of typhula ishikariensis). We see grey after deep and prolonged snow cover. These are both in the fungus family. You may recall seeing this on your home lawns in the spring time once snow has melted. Matted circles of grass/turf with  fluffy, cotton candy looking rings around the outside if the patches.
The week of November 14-18 we will be topdressing greens heavily. This aides in the reduction of winter damage to the turf. We will then cut drainage trenches in a handful of greens we see water accumulation during any mid-winter thaws. We will then cover the greens where we perennially see winter/ice damage.
We will also be winterizing our irrigation system and pump station. This process is done much like that of home irrigation systems however we utilize a very large compressor 8x that of what is used by your local landscape company at your homes. If water is kept in plastic pipes through the winter, the water will freeze and rupture the pipes leaving extensive damage to the system. This blow out process usually takes 2 full days to complete.
I would like to thank all that came out last Saturday morning for member help day. We had 15 members assist us with limbing up trees and hauling to the burn pit. It was quite a bon fire. We all enjoyed lunch  in the mixed grill accompanied by some college football. The course looks great. Come on out for some excellent fall golf.

Fall time at Lakelands

Believe it or not, October is one of the busiest months for our crew.  We have unpredictable weather to contend with, the falling leaves add so much more labor to every job we do out here, from cutting greens to raking bunkers, the leaves are always in our way from here on out.  The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting cooler. With the cooler night time temperatures comes frost. It will soon be part of our morning challenges. Please be aware, that any traffic on the turf that has frost may damage or even kill it. A typical the fall time question, "when will the frost be gone"?" and when can we get out there and play"?  As soon as frost melts is when play can begin.
The aerification of greens and tees are complete. We are verticutting the fairways and currently have 4 holes finished. The process is quite labor intensive, however, the results from this turf cultivation equal strong healthy plants that produce optimum playing conditions.

Greens aerification

As planned, we were able to aerify all the greens on Monday August 29.  We had a set back when our top dresser went down.  This proved to be a challenge since we do not currently have a mechanic.  After a few phone calls, Huron Meadows Metro Park Golf Course graciously allowed us to borrow their top dresser.
The greens have almost completely grow in in the nine days since aerified.  We are planning to lightly  top dress greens again Monday September 12'th.  We saw the true extremes of Michigan climate with temperatures in the mid 90's on September 1,2,3 only to plummet by 40 degrees two days later. 
We did suffer another pump station failure on Monday, Labor day.  However, if there is any luck involved it is on our side with the drastic temperature change.  We have new in line pipes on there way.  Although frustrating, this is only to be expected with an aging and outdated pump station! These pump house failures continue to adversely affect our turf conditions. The golf maintenance team continue to repair all irrigation issues as rapidly possible to lessen the negative impact of these very issues.

Finally some relief...

Despite some major irrigation and turf issues we made it through the Invitational and Club Championship!
All in all I think both were a big success!
This past week has offered us some much needed relief temperature wise as well as much need rainfall.
The course has really had a chance to breath.  The turf is loving this weather, as is the staff!

Our plan is to aerify all the greens on Monday (we aerified 2 green this past Monday due to the decline we saw from the pump station failure, the week of the Invitational).

Invitational Shoot Out