Sunny Days

In my last post I predicted the grass would start growing. Call me Nostradamus because I called that one perfectly. Other than a few shaded areas and some north facing slopes the grass is well awake. Before our focus shifts to mowing next week, we have been able to take care of a few projects.

On Tuesday morning Dave, Omar and Angel braved the cold depths of Lake Mendota to hook up our intake pipes while the rest of us stood on shore sipping hot chocolate (also known as preparing the baskets, gaskets and nuts/bolts depending on which crew member you ask). Having the irrigation system ready to go is always a great feeling.

In order to minimize any problems we also spend time checking each head. It's much better to have a break while we are here to fix it. So far all the greens and tees have been run briefly and we did have a problem on 13 green.

A cracked sprinkler body led to this river across 13 green

Rather than letting this happen all night, it lasted only a few minutes until we got to the isolation valve to shut it off. After a quick repair by Omar it ran like new.

A few other updates include the yearly burn of the prairie on 3, the first tee mowing for 2016 and the opening of both bathrooms and the ice machine near 6 tee.

Burned prairie and bluebird nest box near 3

We've also started monitoring our bluebird nest boxes for the year. A few nests have been started and a few are still empty but it's too early to tell exactly who is moving in.

Looking forward, fairway aerification is scheduled to start Sunday April 24th and we should have everything done by Tuesday April 26th.

I hope everyone gets a chance to enjoy the great stretch of weather we are having with a couple rounds of golf!

April 1st

The 2015 golf season started 1 year ago today. While that was no April Fools joke, someone or something is definitely playing one on us today. Everything looked great this morning. Even under a cloudy sky I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures. The best was off the forward tee on 9.

9 tee towards 9 green

And a few hours later...

Same day, different view

8 green towards the tee

The hail/snow won't last long even with the cool weather, although it will add to the general wetness of the course. Aside from the weather limiting play, everything is going smoothly on the course. We've mowed greens 3 times since opening on March 22nd and the front 9 fairways were all mowed. There are also a handful of spots in the rough that are growing enough to warrant a mowing once it dries out. The course accessories have gradually been put out, and only the benches remain inside now. The bunkers were also cleaned and raked with special attention given to the front left bunker on 3 green. We stripped all the sand that had been contaminated by pebbles from the drainage lines and replaced it with fresh sand.

We hope to work on a few other projects (including opening the bathrooms on 6 once we are sure there wont be any frozen water lines) but once the grass starts growing in earnest, it will be a full time job to keep up with mowing. Even if we get the two more snowfalls that equipment manager Dave is predicting it won't be long before daily play is a reality. See you on the course!