Weeds Fairways and Greens!

This year has been extremely mild and a little wet. This is the perfect combination for winter weeds. We have already sprayed the fairways and will be spraying the Tee complexes and the Green complexes as the wet weather allows. Once sprayed it will take a week or two for the weeds to die completely. This is because the cooler temperatures slow the movement of chemicals through the plant.

Our Greens have more Poa in them than in recent years. This is because of the warmer weather we have had this season. I normally begin spraying the Greens for Poa right after we paint, but we have not been able to spray the herbicide yet! We have not had a real cold snap to cool the soil temperatures enough for the Champion Turf to go completely dormant. Spraying the turf with a herbicide while in a state of partial dormancy can be ddangerous. We have a cold front coming in this week, I am going to spray the greens directly after our next heavy frost. Probably Thursday morning. That way I know that we will have no damage to the Greens.

Here are some Pictures of Andy spraying the Fairways with Herbicide last week.

Christmas Time!

During this time of year the members of MCC present the Employees with a Holiday Bonus. All of us down at the Turf Care Facility would like to say a great big Thank You to all of the members who were so generous once again this year!

Here is a picture of my full time crew. These guys and gal work all year long in very different weather extremes to provide MCC with the best possible conditions. All of them take pride in their job and enjoy working here! They really make me look good and I appreciate everything they do. THANKS GUYS!

From left to right; back row; Edgar, Aaron, Mike, Andy, Jose,

Front; Oscar, Alfredo, Cande.

SNOW ?

Today's winter precipitation was a surprise to everyone!

No concerns in regards to our Greens or Course other than it being WET.

As soon as we are able we will continue painting the Greens today. While we are painting at least two holes will be closed at at time in order for the paint to dry. We apologize for the inconvenience, although I doubt many will want to play today in the snow/muddy/wet conditions.

Due to the delay caused by the snow we may not be able to finish painting the Greens until Friday.

Painting Greens

We have begun painting Greens today. They will be done by Thursday afternoon.
We paint greens for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, it looks great! Our paint job really has a natural look that really gives the golfer a brilliant target to shoot at from the fairway.
Secondly, the dark color helps attract sunlight and in turn helps to warm the surface and the soil.

Andy and Alfredo spraying first coat on #1

Applying 2nd coat to #1

Chipping Green Completed

Painted Chipping Green on Left, unpainted Putting Green on Right.

Covers are coming out!

We are bringing out the covers! We place the covers near the Greens so that they are handy and ready to be deployed when the weather demands.
As of now there is nothing in the forecast to be concerned with, but winter his coming and we never know when a cold snap may be just around the corner!

moving each of theses big covers is a several man job.

at each green we place the covers on pallets to keep them off of the ground.

We then cover them with a blue tarp to help keep them dry so they are easier to handle when needed.

Leaves!

This time of year one of our primary goals is to keep up wit the leaves so the Course remains playable. Some days are easier than others.
We blow fairways, greens and bunkers. We then mulch the leaves in the roughs.
On days that the wind is blowing too hard, it becomes a losing battle, when that is the case we simply save the gas and wait for the next day. Here are some pictures from today, I am sure over the next few weeks I will post several more pictures of the leaf control, it is quite an operation.

Sod on 13, 16

We have repaired the "sand pit" in front of 13 green. This area has been a sore spot all year, and thanks to a private donation we were able to repair last week.  With the leftover sod we were able to repair two small areas on 16 fairway also.
Late fall is not normally a good time for sod projects as the turf is not growing and the roots will not anchor the sod down. A heavy rain could float the sod or cause erosion underneath. However, since these areas are quite flat and the problem on 13 is very much in play the Greens committee and I decided it was best to do it now rather than wait.
Here are pictures of the two repaired spots on 16. (The picture I took did not come out if I can I will post one later).