The past few weeks have been very
busy in the Golf Course Maintenance Department.
Greens aeration was the main focus at the beginning of the month. The aeration process itself went quite
smoothly. The only obstacle has been
dealing with the weather. In years past,
greens aeration has been a 2-3 day event.
This year, however, it took just over a week to complete the process, as
we were forced to dodge rain storms. (See our previous blog post regarding
aeration and soil moisture.) We essentially
worked through the course in three “waves” in order to avoid the rain. After the rain impeded our aeration process,
Mother Nature decided complete her “double-whammy” in the form of low
temperatures and frost. Nighttime
temperatures have been dipping into the upper 30’s this past week. The cold snap has slowed the rate of growth
on greens, which in turn has slowed down the aeration recovery process. To combat this issue, and to provide the best
playable conditions possible, we are steadily feeding the greens light,
frequent applications of fertilizer. In
addition, they are receiving extra water, topdressing, and selective
mowing/rolling. The challenge has been
keeping all the greens as consistent as possible, while dealing with the fact
that the greens in each “wave” of completion is in a slightly different stage
of recovery.
While the frosty mornings have
hindered our operations on the course, they have afforded us an opportunity to
focus our labor in other areas. With the
extra help of our crew members, our horticulturist Robin Brockmeyer has made
great strides in cleaning up and adding fresh mulch to the landscape beds
throughout the course and clubhouse grounds.
The area surrounding the bridge on #18, and also the lower tee on #1
have been graded and prepped for sod, which we will be installing on Tuesday. We have also taken advantage of these frosty
mornings to catch up on maintenance and organization around the shop.
While the weather has certainly
been a bit of a challenge, it’s nothing that we’re not used to in Central
Illinois. We appreciate your patience as
the course continues to recover. Think
spring, and see you on the course!
Prepared by, Curtis Keller
Prepared by, Curtis Keller