Course Recovery and Going Ons

With the warm temperatures and ample moisture we have received the last couple of weeks, the course has continued to recover well. My guess is that we are at 85% compared to where we were last fall. Increasing fairway and approach/roll-off density is what we will continue to work on.

 

#1 Gray Hawk - April 7th

 #1 Gray Hawk - May 11th

#1 Gray Hawk - June 9th

#1 Black Bird- April 7th

 #1 Black Bird -May 11th

 #1 Black Bird -June 9th

The week of May 26th was somewhat nerve-racking. The heat and humidity that week provided conditions perfect for an outbreak of the disease called “damping off.” In a normal year, with mature turf, I wouldn't be concerned about this particular disease, but juvenile turf plants under high fertility programs are the perfect host. Not wanting our recovery process to lose ground, we applied a preventative control product and made it through unaffected. This is by far the earliest in the season that I have ever pulled this particular product off the shelf. Hopefully we won’t need it again until pythium season gets underway.

The fallen cottonwood tree on #6 Gray Hawk has been cleaned up, for the most part. There are still a few branches in the lake and a giant stump that needs to be ground out, and that work will continue this week. Fortunately, we dodged a bullet last week when the hail storms in the area missed the golf course. I know of a couple of courses in the area were hit hard by these storms and repairing hail damaged greens is an incredible challenge. If you play a course that happens to have any storm damage, please try to be understanding and patient. I assure you they are working hard to get things back in shape.



#6 Gray Hawk (after tree cleanup)

Because last week’s storm missed us, we have been afforded some time to catch up on things that the spring recovery and tornado clean up had prevented us from addressing earlier. We are using every resource we have to keep up with the rough mowing. This is a full-time job and the guys are doing what they can to keep up. Once again, I have to ask everyone to please be patient (I realize I sound like a broken record). A spring flush of growth is natural and lately it has been exacerbated by high moisture and good growing temperatures. The turf will naturally slow its growth with the onset of summer heat. I can assure you we are not mowing it any higher height than we have in the last eight years nor are we fertilizing it any more than normal.

We have started edging bunkers again and this will be a season long process. We never found the time to do this last year, so it is a definite point of emphasis for this season.

On a less positive note, a couple of weeks ago (on a Tuesday) we had golfers vandalize some greens. Here is a picture of the damage that was found on the greens of #8 and #9 Red Feather. If anyone has any information that leads to these people being caught, there is a reward. Going forward, anyone that provides information leading to any individual who has vandalized the course is eligible for a reward. Details of this new "crime stoppers" system can be found at the pro shop. Thanks for your help.