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!

Snow Mold

I got a chance to tour the course this week. I am very encouraged by what I have seen so far. All the exposed turf looks healthy. There is still some deep snow out there in the shade, but hopefully we will make some gains on melting these areas this week. One thing there is a lot of this year is snow mold disease. This is a cold weather disease brought on by extended snow cover and melting snow. Conditions have been perfect for snow mold over the last few weeks. The deep, prolonged snow cover, in February activated the disease. As the snow started to melt it creates moisture on the surface and allows the disease to develop. Here is a link to a fact sheet on snow mold if you are interested, Snow Mold Fact Sheet.

16 Fairway -- Treated vs Untreated

9 Fairway -- Treated vs Untreated

We have a strong fungicide program in place to protect our greens, tees and fairways. In a typical year we will see 100% control on greens and a 90% control on tees and fairways. The uncovered greens, as of now, are completely disease free. Our tees and fairways are relatively clean, with the fungicides providing around 85% control. As you can see in the pictures, there is a stark difference between the untreated rough and the treated fairways. We are seeing spots of breakthrough here and there, especially in low lying and heavy snow covered areas. Seeing pictures like this is a reminder of how important our winter fungicide application is. Luckily this disease looks worse than it actually is. With some warm weather and some fertility, these areas will bounce right back.

As for opening the golf course we are still a ways off. The long term forecast is unfortunately calling for this cold pattern to persist. It will not take much to tip the scales in our favor, but we need cooperation from mother nature. I will keep you posted on a potential opening date.

The Big Melt

It's been a long winter, to say the least! Finally it seems there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Our sizable snow pack is slowly melting and some grass is starting to poke its head. I have had numerous people ask me over the past month how the course is doing with all this extreme weather. I thought I'd take minute to briefly update you.

It may come as a surprise to you, but this winter has been ideal for the course. If you think back to November and December, the weather got consistently colder and we lacked a lot of significant snow. This allowed for frost to setup in the ground, allow the grass to properly harden off and prepare itself for winter. As January progressed into February it got historically cold and snowy. Fortunately we had a 2.5 foot blanket of snow protecting the grass from the elements. Exposed grass in those conditions would not have been a good thing. Unlike last winter we have not experienced the extreme freeze and thaw events. These events are what spell trouble for turf and what caused the damage we saw last year. So far March as been kind. The snowpack has slowly begun to recede. A nice slow melt helps to prevent our creek from flooding and allows for water to dissipate slowly. Hopefully we can lose the rest of this snow in the same manner before the spring rains arrive. The 10 day forecast looks promising in that regard, with no large storms on the horizon.

So where does this leave us moving forward? I have been looking at some long range forecasts and all signs are pointing towards a spring similar to 2014. Temperatures, on average, are forecasted to be below normal with near normal precipitation. Below is a 45 day temperature outlook and a post from a local meteorologist. The blues and greens represent cold air where the reds indicate warm. As you can see the green has parked itself in our neighborhood.

@whec_kwilliams:

Not at all surprisingly, the CFS model has an overall chilly look to it in the Northeast next 45 days....

 

Unfortunately this same forecast model has predicted, with a high degree of accuracy, the weather we have seen this winter. All we can do is hope a drastic pattern shift is in our future!

As for the course I am confident we will come out of this winter in great shape. Once the snow melts some more I will have a chance to get on the course an inspect things further. I had the chance to dig down and see the grass on the putting green last week. Everything looked great and that should be the case for the rest of the course. We still have around 8 inches of snow left to melt, so we are not completely out of the woods yet. Lucky we are so late in the winter season. If any ice or standing water forms, the likelihood of damage is small. I will keep you updated as the melt progresses.  

Think spring and warm temperatures, we will be golfing before you know it!

It's that time of year again!

It's every golfers, I mean superintendent's, favorite time of year, AERATION! Yes the dreaded aeration is making a return in a few short weeks. We will be core aerating the greens on Monday September 29th and Tuesday September 30th, weather permitting. Processes will include verti-cutting, pulling a small core, topdressing and fertilizing. Impact will be similar to years past with complete healing in 10-14 days. As always aeration is a necessary evil to keep the greens in the condition you expect.

Core aeration on 17 Fairway

This fall we are also going to begin core aerating fairways. This process is very similar to the greens, but with out the sand. We will pull a core, drag the core to break up the soil, blow off the surface and mow to clean up any debris. This a very labor intensive process that is dependent upon dry, sunny weather. Our plan is to pick off two or three fairways a day as long as the weather allows. We are going to begin with the weaker fairways on the front nine starting tomorrow, Wednesday September 17th and go from there. This past Monday, 17 fairway was aerated to test out the equipment. Everything went very smooth and it turned out very good. That will give you an idea of what to expect. Like the greens, it will take around two weeks for them to heal. The short term disruption will pay huge dividends moving forward. I don't believe a core has ever been pulled on these fairways. A significant thatch layer has accumulated and areas have become compacted. which played a large role in why we saw the disease damage this season. By getting on this aeration program we will begin to reduce this layer, relieve the compaction and increase the overall health of the fairways. I would ask you to respect the staff as we begin this process. If we are working a hole you are playing, please give the staff the right of way. This is a new process for everyone, my staff included, so I ask for your cooperation and understanding.  The quicker we can complete a hole the quicker we can have it back to you for play.

As always I am happy to answer any questions you might have,

Thanks again and enjoy the fall season!