Rain on the Way

It appears we are in for a change in the weather which should bring in some more unneeded rain over the next 2 days. There is an approaching front that looks like it could possibly bring some frozen precipitation with it as well. The past couple of days have been quite nice in helping to dry out the overly saturated golf course, and let's hope we can dodge this next bullet.

Yesterday we were able to get out and finally mow the tee boxes for the first time in about 10 days. Luckily with the temperatures we have been experiencing, the grass has not been growing at all. Along with this little bit of mowing, we were able to get a rough mower out to mulch up leaves around the practice areas. The rest of the course is still a little too wet to put any mowers out, however we will attempt to get some blowers out to clean up the fairways.

Looking forward to the rest of the week, it looks like today will be our only day to get out and clean up some of the leaves and debris that have accumulated over the past couple of weeks.

Good luck with staying warm and dry today, it is shaping up to be a nasty one later this afternoon. From all of us here in the maintenance shop, Happy New Year!!

Wet & Windy

Mother Nature is really making her presence known today. Overnight a strong cold front moved through the area bringing in some pretty stout winds. It looks like these winds will stick around for most of the day, which should make for an interesting round of golf. Unfortunately, along with this front came another 1/2 inch of rain. Hopefully the forecast is correct and the next couple of days will not bring us anymore rain.

Reminder the golf course will be closed Friday, December 25th, but will reopen with normal operating hours on Saturday.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

Another Rainy Day

As we begin the work day, it seems that Mother Nature has once again rolled out of bed with what seems to be either a bad hangover from last night's Christmas party or a serious head cold from the terrible weather we have been experiencing. Unfortunately we were sprinkled on last night to a tune of almost two-tenths of an inch of rain, resaturating the already overly saturated golf course. After checking the weather records for this month, we have received nearly 4 inches of rain, along with nearly 2 inches of snow. After doing some research to determine just how much rainfall is equivalent to 2 inches of snow, I came up with a very easy solution. Always remember that 10 inches of snow equals 1 inch of rainfall. Using this equation, if you divide 2 by 10, you get .2" of rainfall. This is a rough estimation, however when I compared this number with the recorded amount of precipitation from our weather station, it was exactly .2 inches during the two day period that we witnessed the snowfall and melt.

Looking forward to the rest of the week, we are getting ever so close to the Christmas holiday, in which I might add, the golf course is closed. However, remember walkers are always welcome, just don't forget your rubber boots. Due to the wet conditions, our work load has been greatly reduced down to small projects such as repairing the tee box yardage plats. We have noticed that over time the concrete blocks that the yardage plates were placed in, were beginning to crack. We removed the blocks and have now set the yardage plates into a stronger concrete mix.

In closing, I would like to again wish everyone a safe and Merry Christmas along with a Happy New year.

Looking Back & Peeking Forward

WOW!! Where did this year go? It seems like we were just beginning 2009 and now we are looking forward to 2010. Looking back on 2009 we have had our fair share of challenges. Whether it was the summer drought, the December snow, or the extended period of wet weather we have been stuck in for the past 2 months; we have managed to come out of it all with our heads held high and looking forward to the future.

Reflecting back on this past year we witnessed some great improvements in many areas of the golf course, beginning with consistent playing conditions. We were able to tackle some necessary capital projects last year including renovation work done on the fairway bunkers and repair and replacement of the main irrigation source, our water well. One major improvement we made this past year was our preventative applications put forth to decrease the effects of pest outbreaks, such as those pesky mole crickets.

Looking forward to 2010, many of the objectives we had in place last year are again evident. One major change will be the implementation of aggressive cultural practices to the fairways and tees to help eliminate prolonged wet, sloppy conditions. Incorporating several aerifications into our maintenance schedule will aid in keeping our fairways and tees playing more consistent.

In closing, I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. As always feel free to send any questions, comments, suggestions, or funny jokes along to myself at steven.chernosky@ourclub.com.

Wow, what a week this has been. I can not remember a week that we have experienced weather like the past 6 days. Temperatures at night have been cool enough to almost warrant starting a fire in the fireplace, yet the afternoons are nice enough to play 18 holes in shorts. The weather has put a little confusion into the minds of the turfgrass, but in no way has it been detrimental to course conditions. The shorter days and lower sun angle have made their mark on a few areas of the golf course, mainly 5 fairway which is situated in a location that it sees hardly any sunlight during the winter months. For this reason, we will be implementing our winter path only rules here to reduce thinning out of the turfgrass. We witnessed great results last year by rotating weeks of keeping carts on the path and allowing cart traffic onto the fairway so we will put it back into place this year.

Looking forward, the club will be hosting the annual PGA Tour Qualifying School again this year beginning on November 16th and running through the 21st. There are minor preparations out of the ordinary that will be taking place for this week long event, however no changes to our normal maintenance practices will be made. This means we will not be double mowing and rolling the greens and fairways. We are scheduled to begin actually RAISING mowing heights dependant upon weather conditions. However, this past week has been conducive to decent turf growth, so we have stayed with our late-summer/early-fall heights which are lower than our winter mowing heights.

The "damage" done to the golf course due to divots during the Qualifying School has been a major concern to many over the past couple of years. This is a time of year when the turf's ability to heal itself is greatly decreased, but not completely stopped. We witnessed this last year by some warm periods during the month of December that actually helped the fairways heal quicker than in other years. If you think about it, the amount of play that we receive during Q-School is very similar to a normal week at Deerwood. The major difference in this week is that the divots are concentrated in certain areas, instead of spread out like a shotgun blast. Our plan, weather dependent, is to go out every afternoon after play and refill all divots, so if we do have some weather conducive for healing, the grass will have a solid medium to grow over and the divots will be level with the surrounding fairway.

With that being said, I am packing up and heading north to Fort Worth to watch NASCAR at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend; while I should be heading to the Hill Country and some deer hunting I promised the wife that I would take her to a NASCAR race. Enjoy the great weather we are experiencing for I am sure it will be changing soon. Have a great weekend and as always, feel free to pass along any suggestions, ideas, or questions concerning, well, just about anything. If I don't have an answer or opinion, I am sure I can find one or make one up.

BTHOCU!!

Another Rainy Day

As I sit here this morning typing this, we are again being hit hard with rain showers. It is that time of year again when as soon as the course dries out from the last front that moved through, we are inundated with another day or two of rain. I remember back only 4 months ago we were praying for any kind of rain, well I guess our prayers have been answered.

We have spent the majority of this week, trying to catch back up with the rough mowing that we missed last week due to the wet conditions, looks like we will be playing catch up to catch up next week again. Fairways did not fare too well during the wet conditions that we endured over the last couple of weeks with some damage being man-made and some due to Mother Nature. The fairways have become a little "leggy" with not much bottom to them due to the weather conditions. However, with a few more mowings, some warm temperatures, and sunshine; they should recover just fine before the growing slows to a halt.

The Rack sponsored Divot Day has been rescheduled for Tuesday, October 27 and if you have not signed up to help out, please do so. I want to personally thank Charlie Berger and Harry Bradstreet for taking the bull by the horns and putting this together. The Match Play championship is scheduled for this weekend and it looks like the deadline is nearing, so get signed up before noon today.

Sounds like the rain is beginning to fall again, which it will probably do for the majority of the day. Looks like we will be a busy bunch tomorrow, thank goodness for the new bunkers.

Fall is in the Air

Man the past couple of days have been some we need to bottle up and keep for a later date, but as usual all good things must come to an end. It looks like we are headed for some wet weather beginning Wednesday and possibly lingering on into Friday with an approaching cool front coupled with remnants of Hurricane Rick.

As the days begin to shorten and the temperatures stay a little cooler, the grass will begin to slow down a bit and we can turn our attention away from our summer routine and more towards winter projects. This winter most of our efforts will be put toward removing pine trees that have been stricken with pine bark beetles. My last count had the number of trees at 52, however that number seems to be changing everyday.

This week we do not have a lot on the schedule besides our usual mowing. The DWGA will be hosting an Interclub tournament here on Thursday so that will be a short work day for us. Hopefully the weather will not put a damper on those activities. It looks like the Deerwood Rack has put together a volunteer group to come out and fill divots on Wednesday morning at 9:30, so if you have the oppurtunity, come on out and join in on the fun.

Last week we began exploring the origin of the water leak in front of #1 green and after hours of exposing irrigation line, we were left scratching our heads in confusion. At this point we have not located the source of the problem, however the area has dried up and has returned back to its normal state, for now. We will continue to monitor the situation on a daily basis and take any measures necessary to extinguish this problem.

As always feel free to pass along any comments or questions you may have. Chris and I will be attending a great educational seminar today hosted by Syngenta, which will give us some insight on new pesticides and programs that they have for 2010.

Rain, Rain, Rain

Howdy to all that have stopped by to check out the new communication tool that I have set up at Deerwood. My plan is to use this blog as an informal communication tool to keep any and all up to date on the happenings in the world of Golf Course Maintenance. This will not replace my monthly newsletter that is sent out with Ricky's weekly update, however this will be a working diary of the daily happenings at Deerwood. I want it to have some humor as well as a lot of education for the inquiring minds. Feel free at anytime to speak up and pass along ideas or questions that you might have and I will do my best to include any and all information on any subjects.



It seems as though the rain will never stop and the course will never dry up. It has been over 2 weeks now that we have been in this weather pattern and things are pretty sloppy around the course. We have been unable to mow fairways and tees since Friday, October 9 and it looks like it may be a few more days. The forecast is calling for a strong front to move through either late Thursday or early Friday which will help to move this mass of moisture we have built over us far far away.



The crew has been hard at work doing as much as they can without making too big of a mess on the golf course. Our main focus this week has been on edging cart paths and cleaning up bunker edges. The greens are holding up well considering they have not seen adequate sunlight for at least 6 days now. The turf is thinning a bit due to the cloudy conditions, however the upcoming weather should help to perk them back up a bit. We made a preventative fungicide application today to ward off any Dollar Spot or Leaf Spot that may be working on the grass due to the cloudy, humid conditions we have been stuck in.



We hope to get out and do some mowing tomorrow, with tee boxes being our first possible target. Well until next time, pray for sunshine and drying conditions.