Aeration

Well the weather this week was far from ideal for aeration, but we powered through and completed the greens. Starting Monday we are planning on aerating tees and finishing solid tining the last few fairways. Aeration is a word golfers hate to hear, but this practice is vital in creating a healthy turf stand. I came across this video and wanted to share it with you. It does a great job explaining why we aerate. Have a look!

http://tinyurl.com/lkt9jvd

13 Tee

As we all know growing grass on 13 Tee is not easy. The combination of shade, tree roots, and constant divots makes this our weakest tee. In an effort to get some grass growing on it for this season we have aerated, topdressed, over seeded and fertilized it. A cover has been put on the tee to encourage seed germination. Within a couple of weeks we should see some seedlings and hopefully have it playable come the middle of May. The long term solution to this problem is tree removal and we hope to begin the process this fall. In the mean time the tee will be closed to play. We will be scalping down some areas in the rough in an attempt to provide you as much teeing ground as possible. When the tee markers go out later this week please play the hole from where they are placed. They will be in some odd place compared to where you are used to.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Course Update April 9th, 2015

It looks like the weather is finally turning the corner. The grass is starting to green up and we have started working on the course. The clean up process began this week by focusing on the playing surfaces. Fairways and tees have been cleared of debris and are ready for mowing. Now we need some dry weather to allow us to get on them with out doing damage. We have received .6" of rain so far this week with more on the way. My plan as of now is to open the course at the early part of next week. If the forecast holds true we will blow the greens off Monday and evaluate their  firmness at that point. I am hoping to have flags in the greens by Tuesday afternoon at the latest. Stay tuned!

I am happy to report we have escaped the winter free of any winter kill. Unlike last year we will start 2015 on a strong note and will not have to deal with temporary greens. I am happy to see all of our struggles and hard work from 2014 have paid huge dividends. We how have greens with improved surface drainage and exposed to more sunlight from the tree removals. Tragedy can make you stronger and in our case this statement rings true!

I also wanted to inform you of my upcoming plan for spring aeration. The plan is to aerate greens starting Monday April 20th and finish on the 21st, as long as the weather cooperates. We will be pulling a small core, verticutting and topdressing. It will be the same process we did in the fall of 2014 and the greens should be fully healed in 10 to 14 days. This process is vital in producing the greens you have been acustom to.

As soon as greens are done we are planning on aerating tees in a similar fashion. We will be pulling a core and cleaning them up. We are also going to continue our fairway aeration program this spring. Last fall we pulled cores for the first time in along time and the fairways responded beautifully. This spring we will be solid tining the fairways to allow more space for roots to grow. Inturn this will create a strong plant that will be able to better withstand stresses, like we saw last summer. This process is low impact and will heal very quickly. The goal is to have all the faiways and tees done by May 1st.  

As always I'm free to answer any questions you may have.  Look forward to seeing you on Saturday at the Clean-up Day and in the coming weeks on the course.

Live MGC Weather!

I wanted to make you aware of a powerful weather tool I have incorporated into the operation for the 2015 season. I recently linked our on-course weather station to an internet weather service called Weather Underground. Our weather station automatically uploads its data to the site and allows viewing from any internet connected device. You now can view the website and see real time, onsite conditions. Say its going to be cold one night this fall and there is a high likelihood of a frost delaying your morning round. You can now check the temperature in real-time at the course. Want to know how much rain we got? Check the weather station. As you can see this can be a valuable tool.

There are many way to access this information.

1. There is a new weather widget on the right side of this main blog page. Just click on it to be re-directed to the website. This widget is only visible from a Mac or PC.
2. Bookmark the following website on any of your devices and add the link to your desktop or mobile device's home page: http://www.wunderground.com/weather-forecast/zmw:14506.1.99999
3. Download the Weather Underground App for iOS or Android:
• iOS Weather Underground
• Android Weather Underground

I encourage you to utilize this information for the upcoming season. If you need help setting up your device, feel free to contact me and i will be more than happy to help!