Greens Mower Check

We double checked the greens mower today by mowing #18, everything looks great so the plan is to mow the greens Saturday morning before the course opens for the season. The chipping green is very saturated so we will skip that green, we will also not be cutting the putting green due to its rather poor condition in spots. There shouldn't be much if any snow left after the beautiful weather today. There were some bunkers that had a lot of snow when the crew made there way around today so they skipped them. Those bunkers will be addressed soon but should still be playable if you happen to find yourself in one.

It was kind of rushed to get the course ready for the opener on Saturday. Since we only had 2 days to prep I know we ran out of time and missed a few things here and there. The water coolers will be out early next week if we do not get them out over the weekend. The hazard stakes still have ice in the ground sleeves so they should be able to go out after some warm temps this weekend when that melts. Seed/soil boxes and mix will be out starting Monday if it does not get done on the weekend. And there is quite a bit of debris cleanup that will occupy a lot of our time over the next week or two, especially around greens and tees.

What A July, What A Wind!

How many days with 90+ degree weather so far this year? I think we are at 25 and counting. The month of July was something that is for sure. We had multiple days with soil temps at or over 100 degrees, it was a challenge keeping the turf cool. Collar areas took the brunt of the stress and there are quite a few poor spots to show it. We will be sodding a couple of the worst areas with bentgrass sod from the nursery area, and aerifying, seeding, and topdressing all the collars to help with a quick recovery. The recent cool down has been greatly appreciated that's for sure.

And now for the topic everyone has been talking about the last couple of days, the storm that blew through on the 3rd of August. Here are pictures to give you an idea of the damage and cleanup challenges we are facing right now. We hope to have 75% of the work done this week and the rest finished up by midweek next week. In all we will lose 17 trees due to the damage caused, some completely came down but many are so badly damaged that they need to come down. There are hundreds of hangers and fallen branches. Once the course is cleaned up and the hangers have been cut down we will start with the removal of the trees. A huge thanks to the members that showed up Sunday morning to help rake and pick up sticks, the effort is really appreciated by the staff. And a special thank you to Dean Geiger for the continued help he is giving us to load and remove brush from the golf course.

March Madness 2010

( 2010_03_27 - Opening Day 2010 )

How cool is this?!?! The weather has been above average, the course wintered great, and the golf clubs are getting dirty. With about 200 rounds in on opening weekend, IVGC is getting off to a great beginning in 2010. We have plenty of maintenance staff on hand that we are getting a lot done to get things in shape right off the bat. As you make your way around the course in the next few weeks you will see some vole damage around greens, tees, and a fairway or two. Those spots will quickly recover as we rake up the dead turf and the temperature warms a bit. Like I mentioned before, there is some gray snow mold spots around which will also get a good treatment of raking. Aside from the superficial issues, the turf appears to have come through winter in good shape.

What is amazing over the last couple of weeks is how dry it has become. We went from 2 feet of snow, a couple weeks of rain, flooding in certain parts of the state currently going on, and Island View is getting very dry. Hence, we pressurized the irrigation system today and plan on watering things over the next couple of days like it was a summer day in June. And if the temps climb into the 70's this week, despite the brown grass, we are going to think it is June. The irrigation start-up has gone very smooth, almost too smooth and we are waiting for something to blow out of the ground. So far, dare I say it, we have had no issues with leaks or broken parts. I think the fact that we did not have a lot of frost movement this spring, because it went out so quick, helped a lot by not moving the underground pipe and sprinklers around. And with the prolonged snow cover I think we had a lot less frost then winters of recent past, which was averaging a busted length of pipe every spring. So, so far so good it would appear. I wouldn't count out a change in the weather to more "normal" conditions any time soon however.

Get out and take advantage of this unusually early start to the golf season.