Greens, Cart Paths, Misc.

We have spent a lot of time on the greens the last two weeks.  We have already top dressed four times and we roll the greens before and after the top dresser with the retired tennis court roller, picture above.  The transmission blew out the other day so we installed a hitch device to pull the roller with a cart.  The roller really firms up the greens and is making the process work better.  We have already lowered the height on the greens from .190" to .180".  We are filling some of the eroded areas from the winter thaw on the greens with hex plugs and bent sod from the nursery.  Ted Moore finished the back 9 cart path overlay in 11 hours.  We will begin sod edges next to cart paths shortly.  We have had a difficult time pulling sod due to the lack of warmer temperatures, the sod won't stay in one piece.  After the rain, we will try again.  The new cart path areas on the front such as the one pictured above on 9, have been sodded.  The irrigation system has been pressurized.  The debris from stump grinding has been removed and we are already back filling and compacting the areas for sod install later.       

Asphalt, Stumps, Seeding

We are working around the weather to get as much done as possible.  We started last week with the asphalt planer and sweeper and finished the week using the backhoe to remove damaged areas.  The second picture is the grinder that Ted Crews from Ted Crews Service Co. operated.  He ground 40 massive stumps in 9 hours.  The third picture is the amount of debris left by the grinder.  We have already cleaned up the debris from half of the big stumps.  We have also seeded the bottom of #13 fairway where the drainage project was completed last fall.  In between the larger tasks we are progressing on smaller detail tasks such as re-placing the tee monument on #3, painting the St. Clair entrance sign, white pillar and curbs, and reinstalling ball washer posts that had to be removed.  Today we are working on more stump debris clean up, installing rock base in damaged areas and hopefully when it warms up spraying the rough with pre emergent. 

Spray hawk and Temporary chipping green

Since the snow cleared we finally had a good week to get the herbicide and pre emerge sprayed throughout the warm season turf.  All approaches, fairways and tees have been sprayed.  The first picture is of the staff spray hawking the approaches and using a board to stop chemical drift from reaching the surface of the new greens.  The second picture is of the dyed temporary chipping green on located on the chipping fairway at the driving range.   

Greens, Bunkers, Cart Paths

We brought in plugs from the greens to make sure they made it through all of the ice and snow.  The plugs greened up within a few days and are already growing.  I haven't seen any winter disease on the greens either.  The second pic is of the new bunker on 16.  A few days ago the drains were frozen and once the snow began to thaw the bunker was full of water.  The bunker drains throughout the course are working properly with no contaminating wash from thr grass faces.  We started cart path prep on the back 9 yesterday.  We are doing everything we can to continue progress even through the wet conditions.

Green Core Samples

I've had a few concerned members call me about how the greens are doing with the long term ice and snow.  I pulled core samples out of the high and low areas of #5, #7 and #12.  These greens represent the three types of green construction through the course.  After a few days of warmer temperatures in the maintenance building the cores should give us a better indication of the health of the greens.  I will update the results of the cores in a few days when growth begins.

Winter Work

We couldn't get equipment out on the course over the last few days so we rigged a sled with the chainsaws and gear.  We are finishing up the last few trees on the removal list.  I added a tree removal video of a tree that was struck by lightning last season.