Winter is back

 

Another shot of cold air is headed our way so we will go ahead and put the tarps on the North bermuda greens on Sunday morning. We have been using 20/19 degree lows as a trigger for the tarps. You can see the difference the tarps made a few weeks ago when the low hit 16 at night. The South will be able to handle anyone that wants venture out in 40 degree temps Monday through Wednesday next week.

The cool season bent on the South continues to enjoy the sunny and dry winter. We did have to finally put some water on these greens this week as there has not been any significant rain yet this year. The greens were dusted with sand this week which was watered in just in front of the drizzle on Monday.

Dry cold weather makes tree work much easier in January. The Grounds team went after this dead oak in the golf parking lot on Monday. Ambrosia beetle had infested this already drought stressed tree over the past year and took the rest of the life out of it. Previously a tree service had quoted us $5,000 to remove this tree completely. Our team had the tree erased before lunch on Monday. We continue to use our rented lift all through the parking lot and golf courses pruning and cleaning other dead out of trees.

Not much further away James and Connor brought the mini-x up to finally investigate what was leaking around this fire hydrant.

The 6" city line from the street did in fact have a pin hole leak in it. Luckily this was away from the repair that was done last June (and is buried in concrete).

A repair coupling was tightened on and this area is drying up nicely.

Most of the focus this week on the South was on the right of 13.  9,000 square feet of tall fescue sod was delivered Monday and the guys worked to cover up Micah's newly shaped and cleaned up hill.

The tree removal and cleanup of the exposed roots here looks great. Please treat this area as ground under repair and take a drop if you find yourself in the fescue. This area will turn in to a periodically mowed native area this season and provide a much cleaner look on this side of the course.

With the sod work completed towards the beginning of the fairway now we moved towards the approach to start shedding more sunlight on here around the green. You can see from this before picture that the pine trees to the right of the approach were casting very dark shade all the way across the approach in the middle of the day. In the mornings shade was even across the collar and onto the green here on 13. 

A number of pines were removed out of the right side native area this week. The shade line has been moved back and more light is being filtered through the remaining trees. As the sun angle continues to get higher through the spring, this area will have a much better chance to remain dry and produce acceptable playing conditions.

Behind the green on 13 the guys worked to move the old fan pole from way behind the green left, over to the right side. The power wire was extended from the old site and a new irrigation wire was run so that the fan can be remotely controlled.

Back inside the Facilities team is helping our Equipment managers Scott and Richard expand their grinding room. We have two new grinders ready to go here that will double our ability to keep mowers sharp and cutting perfectly this season.

Tree work will continue next week through the cold. The North team got a jump start on a few unsightly trees left of 10 by the fairway bunkers on Thursday. Next week we will continue down left of 9 to help move that shade line back off the fairway a bit. All this work happening now is positive assurance that turf quality will be held high for the 2026 season!