News and Notes

• With the next winter blast of 2011, we will be covering the greens again for the third time.  After speaking with Nathan and Gregg, we will be closing the course on Monday to get the covers out.  The current forecast has severe weather moving in late Monday and lasting through Tuesday night.  We are then expected to see the temperatures staying below freezing until Thursday or Friday.  It's difficult to anticipate when we will take the covers off, but right now it's looking like either Friday or Saturday.  I know it's a substantial inconvenience to close on a nice day, but with the chance of precipitation moving in, it's imperative that we get the covers out.  Once they get wet, they become much heavier and we would not be able to move them.
• We made a herbicide application to the greens last week to take out what poa annua there is.  The population we have this year is substantially less than last years, but it's still visually unappealing.  The chemical we used is very slow acting, so it will take a few weeks before you won't see the plants on the greens.
• We made an application of ferrous sulfate (iron) to the fairways also.  The iron simply 'stains' the turf and makes it much darker to allow for visual distinction between the fairways and roughs.  Below is a picture of #9 to show an example of the distinction.

• As far as pin placements go, we will change cups again on Monday, February 7th.  We will use hole locations 1, 2 and 3, as noted on the hole location maps.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any question or comments!

Thanks,
Chuck

Cart Path Only Holes

Good morning all!

We will be roping off holes #1, 7 and 8 to keep cart traffic from further beating down the fairways and roughs.  With the wet weather coupled with cart traffic, the turf coverage on these three holes has really diminished.  Last year, roping off #1 through the spring green-up really enabled the rough to fill in on the right side under the tree line.  With as much shade as these three holes have, it's a challenge keeping the rough nice and thick, and with the turf currently dormant, it thins out even quicker with any cart traffic on it.

I know this is a hindrance and potentially adds a little time to the pace of play.  It's not my intention to negatively impact anyone's round whatsoever.  I'm keeping the best interest of the course and it's conditioning in mind.

Also, please keep in mind that the par three holes should remain cart path only at all times.  I will be looking at permanent signage to place on holes #2, 6, 12 and 16 that state these holes are cart path only in the near future.

Thank you for your understanding on this matter and I look forward to seeing you on the course.

Chuck

Uncovering Greens Thursday 01/13/2011

Judging from the most recent forecast, the lows Thursday night will only be right around freezing.  That being said, we will spend Thursday uncovering greens, cleaning off debris, mowing and changing the 3-cup rotation.  We will plan on opening for play sometime Friday morning, depending on frost.

As I discussed before concerning the cups, we have had cups on hole locations 1, 2 and 3.  When we change cups Thursday, we will change to areas 4, 5 and 6 as noted on the hole location maps.

Covering Greens

Good morning all!

With the first winter blast of 2011, we will be covering the greens this morning, Monday (January 10th).  With the Weather Channel currently forecasting Monday and Tuesday night below 20, we will keep covered at least until Wednesday.  Whether we uncover Wednesday or Thursday will depend on what the low will be Wednesday night.  If it hovers right around freezing, we will probably uncover on Wednesday.  I will keep this site updated as to which day we will uncover.

There were several area courses that shut down on Saturday to cover.  This was done merely to avoid being out in the cold on Monday.  The moisture we received Sunday helped greatly to insulate the ground.  Plus, being covered for an extended amount of time leads to a greater possibility of disease.  I felt it was a better idea to fight the elements on Monday and only be covered for a couple of days than to shut down on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and be covered for 5 days.

While some neighboring courses have covered their greens already this season, I haven't felt it's been cold enough to warrant covering.  Night-time lows play a big role, but so do the day-time highs.  If the day-time high temps stay around freezing to mid-30's coupled with lows around 20, we will cover.   

January Chemical Applications

Happy New Year to everyone!

Beginning the first week of January, we will be making a wall to wall application of winter weed pre-emergent herbicide.  We will also be adding some Round-Up to the application to kill off any existing weeds.  While making this application, we will have blue spray dye indicator to allow us to see where we have sprayed.  So if the course has a blue tint to it, this is the reason. 

After making the application, the Round-Up must stay on the plant for at least a 24-hour period, as the mode of uptake into the plant is via the vegetation above the ground.  In contrast, the pre-emergent chemical must be watered in within 10 days to get down to the soil.  Once in contact with the soil, it binds with the soil particles to form a layer.  As weed seeds emerge in the soil, they hit this chemical layer and die off, never making it to the surface.  In theory, the pre-emergent chemical does nothing to existing weeds and the Round-Up acts as a "post-emergent" to kill off what has already emerged.

At some point this month, we will also make an application of a more "poa annua specific" herbicide to the greens to clean up any weed populations.  This chemical works very slowly over the course of a couple of weeks.  I've noticed a small accumulation of poa annua on some of the greens.  Once we make this application, the poa annua will simply disappear.

If you have any questions about this process or anything else, don't hesitate to contact me via this forum or my email.

Thanks and have a great start to 2011!

Chuck McCaskill