Here is a neat time lapse video of our triplex greens mower mowing number 3 green. That was fast!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdSSincALTg&feature=g-upl

An update from the last couple weeks....

We have completed the deep tine aerification on the greens. They are top dressed and have been rolled to smooth them out. They are looking really good and playing well also. Wetting agent has been applied to greens, tees and collars. This helps hold moisture in when it is dry and windy here in the spring. Dandelions and other weeds have been popping up already! We have been spraying them as they come up trying to keep them in check. Do the same with your home lawns to keep the good grass that you have and don't let those weeds invade! Look forward to seeing you on the course!

A good start...

It has been an up and down spring this year, but overall the weather has been pretty nice. An earlier start than most years has kept us busy getting everything going, plus we are trying to complete our project list. All of this has been done with limited labor but at the end of the month and beginning of the next month we have some more guys coming in. The help arriving will be much appreciated. Above is a picture of a prairie grass fire to the north. It was quite the scene!!!

Project Update

The weather has been much cooler since Saturday. With the cold spell we have been able to get some projects done and wrap up a few from last fall that we did not finish. While moving some soil we found the little guy above in the pile. He didn't seem to happy with the air temp outside of his home. Looks like the forecast for the rest of the week should be nice. Even one day in the 70's potentially!!!

Golf Course Is Opening Thursday!

The golf course will be open Thursday March 15th. What an early start to the season! Carts will be available with cart path only on a few holes. Please take care of the golf course this time of year, keeping in mind that divots and ball marks will not heal for a while. Come on out this weekend and enjoy the amazing weather!

What a winter!

Here is an interesting article about this winter's weather. Take a look.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/looking-back-winter-2011-2012_2012-03-07

Course Update

Took a walk around the course today, things are looking good. There isn't a lot of snow. The forecast looks like there are some nice days ahead, we should see some snow disappear.

Learning to Blog...

Last week at the NCTGA show I took a class on blogging. It was interesting to learn some of the ways people are combining all the new technologies such as twitter,facebook,blogging, etc. Dr. Marcus Jones from Iowa State University was the speaker and he did a great job informing the class on the future of blogging. Thanks Marcus!

Fall Projects

Here are some photos of some projects we are working on this fall. We wrapped up the bottom of number 8 the bunker is complete and ready for play next season. We are redesigning number 12 fairway a little bit. We will be removing a couple of the bunkers that are in the middle of the fairway and straitening the fairway out also. We are doing this to make it a lot easier to maintain. Right now we have to turn the mowers an incredible amount of times to mow that area. So with the fairway a lot straighter we will get done mowing sooner and be off the course for play. #12 is a spot where our mowers get caught a lot. As you notice in one of the photos we got in a little bit of hunting this fall also. Deer was 5 yards away!!! 

Some early morning photos.

Here are some photos I have taken during the mornings out here. There are some absolutely beautiful vistas! Really makes me love my job being able to enjoy this on a daily basis!!!

Employee Golf Outing

The crew has been working very hard lately to keep the course looking in great shape. As a thank you for getting up early in the morning and working hard all day every day I let them off a little early one afternoon and took them out golfing. Thanks for the work guys!

Getting there!

We are finally getting some nice weather! And we are getting our college kids in to work. Feels good to have the help around. We can start to get on our normal summer mowing routine now also. Please remember a few things while out there. Fix your ball marks, replace your divots, and keep out of the prairie grass with carts. Thank you!

A little slow release moisture...

Got a few snow showers the last few days. Its good moisture for the course though. Whatever snow we have got has melted quickly. Need to get some good sunshine and warm temps to raise the soil temps and get the grass growing!

We are open!!!

The flags, cups, tee markers, and benches are out. We are officially open! Hopefully the weather warms up so everyone can enjoy some golf. The course dried out well the last few days. Almost all holes are open for carts. Hopefully we will be mowing next week.

Spring Update

Here are some more pictures from the course the last few days. A couple of greens had some significant ice accumulation that we had to remove. Snow is melting very rapidly and with the forecast things are looking very good. The frost has broke through in a few spots also. So hopefully it won't be long and we can think about an opening date. Until then keep those clubs shined up!

Snow Conditions

I have taken a couple walks around the course lately and things are looking really good. Snow is melting all over. There are many parts of the course starting to show. The greens are coming out of winter really well. A few of the greens had some very large drifts on them. We cleared most of the snow off with our asv skidsteer to help the melt and prevent disease. As you can see in the pictures there is very little to no ice cover, which is a good thing. Hopefully this weather keeps up and things continue to melt!

Leaves!!!

The leaves are falling fast. We are cleaning leaves off of the course every day. There may be times when we cant get to all parts of the course. We appologize if you cant find a ball due to the leaves but they will be done falling soon! Happy golfing everybody!!! There are still some great golfing days left!

Temperatures

In the evenings lately the temps have been in the 50's and some nights touching 40's. This reduces the chance for disease greatly. There have been a good amount of acorns falling already and the leaves on some trees are starting to change colors also. All good signs that fall is just around the corner. The greens are ready for core aerification which is scheduled for Sept 13 and 14. This year we will also be aerifying tees and collars. The grass this year has had a long season and a lot of golf on it. It will be happy to get some oxygen and be able to breathe again.

The Open at St. Andrews

I have been asked lately why some areas of the course are burning up. There is an easy answer to this question. We do not have irrigated rough. And so when the temps rise on a hot and sunny day some areas will tend to get a little "hot". Also we do not fertilize any of the rough either. Being a links style course we try to maintain everything to roll and run. The rough can be thick in spots where it does receive irrigation. But for the most part there is a lot of hard pan.

I read an interesting article that I have attached to this blog about the definition of links golf. Found it to very interesting and I would hope you will take a look at it. And for those who have golfed wildflower, keep the course in mind while reading this article.

www.worldgolf.com/features/links-golf-meaning.htm

Bunker Edging

The bunker edging project is complete on all greenside bunkers. We only have a few of the larger fairway bunkers to do and the entire course will be done. We wanted this project done before the MGA Junior State Championship. Got 95% of the way there. Kudos to the guys for working as hard as they did to get that far. The bunkers have not been edged in years. I didnt take a before and after photo, but im sure if you have golfed here you know as well as i do that they were horrible! They are looking good now!