#14 Tee, Nursery Green and 5 Tee

It's been a little while since I've updated our blog; oh my have we been busy.  Between building the nursery/chipping green, the championship tee on 14 and re-sodding a few tees on the golf course, we've been really going at it.  Please enjoy the pictures of our work on the projects below.

Nursery Green sprigs

Topdressed sprigs - water runs every 1.5 hrs to keep them growing

#5 Tee before sod cutting - fresh Zoysia is going down today!

#14 tee with 'Zorro' Zoysia grass - an excellent shade tolerant variety

The finished tee box.  We can't wait for this to grow in.

Regarding general course conditions, I am very pleased with how the golf course came through the winter.  Some tree trimming and tarping greens seems to have been successful when compared to the last year.  We are also happy to have had warm weather return much sooner than it did last year.  The greens are filling in nicely; we are working to smooth them out with several practices including grooming, brushing, topdressing and vertical mowing.  We will be doing a 1/4 inch hollow tine aeration with topdressing April 18 and 19 to open the greens up and remove a little organic matter.  I have also been pushing the fertilizer on the tees and green surrounds to get them recovering and growing much quicker and fuller.

We had our mole cricket application last week.  We had 50 acres of a labeled mole cricket insecticide slit injected into the fairways, tee complexes, and green surrounds.  There is some adult mole cricket activity as this is their mating time.  We will be supplementing the insecticide with an additional spray application in areas that were not treated and have a history of problems and turfgrass injury in May.

Fresh Update!

With sincere apologies to the readers, it has been over a month since our last update.  We have been rather busy on the golf course and I wanted to let you all see some of our recent work.

During the very cold spells that we have recently had in the area the staff has been working hard building and painting new tee markers, removing dead or fall hazard trees and enhancing the aesthetics of the golf course.  Attached are a few pictures of some recent work.



Fresh tee markers ready for a spike and paint.



Stabilizing the bank on the left side of #5 tee

 

Tree removal

 Progress is being made on the tee project on #14.  In the most recent mailing from the pro shop there was a nice picture taken from the tee.  The yardage will measure 188 to the center of the green and be a full 165 yd carry.  We have decided to sod the tee with a variety of Zoysiagrass that is very shade tolerant.  That combined with some selective tree removal will give us a very good chance of keeping the grass to enjoy the tee for many years to come.  In addition to the sod on #14, we will be re-sodding some tees with Zoysia or a shade tolerant variety of Bermudagrass.  #5 tee is going to be getting fresh sod as you can see from the picture below the Bermudagrass has failed on the tee due to a lack of prolonged sunlight throughout the year.

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#5 tee before sod.



 We recently had a blowout on #9 fairway.  A "T"ee blew out a fitting and left us a nice sized hole with a mass of water pouring out of the ground.  We were able to repair the fitting and put everything back together.  Unfortunately the blow out happened on a Friday and we couldn't get parts until Tuesday.  Thankfully it happened while we were on site and not in the evening or part of the fairway would have washed into the ditch.

We will continue with tree work and stump grinding as the winter progresses.  Our sod plans for the tees are for March so that we don't have to close usable tees for longer than necessary. 

We are preparing to build a chipping and nursery green near #10 tee and the driving range.  With the dirt work and greens mix expected to be completed in March, we will be sprigging the green in late March or early April and hope to be using it by the end of the summer.  This will be a great addition giving us an extra putting green for tournaments, back 9 starts and lessons or clinics!  Stay tuned for updates!