Drainage Basin Clean-up

This winter we have been working on cleaning up the Blue River over flow basins.  Inside the river bend (holes 2,3,4&7) many trees in the drainage basins have been taken down. The clearing is being done to return the course to its original design of a “links style” course.  Over time, these areas will be returned to a mixture of native grasses, wildflowers, and the present river birches.  The top three photos show the work that has been done and the bottom photo is an example of what it will look like.  

Heartland Green Industry Expo and Education Conference

Rob and I recently attended the Heartland Green Industry Expo which was held at the Overland Park Convention Center.  Conferences like these are extremely beneficial as we get to hear about the latest products and equipment, receive continuing education credits, and see nationally renowned speakers.   My personal favorite was listening to Pat Finlen, Certified Golf Course Superintendent (CGCS) from the Olympic Club.  The Olympic Club is located near San Francisco and it was host to the 2012 U.S Open. His photos and presentation were unbelievable. Bud White who works for the United States Golf Association (USGA) was also very informative.  It was a GREAT two day Conference.

New Synthetic Turf Range Tee

Our new Synthetic Turf Tee was installed the end of October.  In the past when we close the Rye Grass Tee Golfers were only allowed to hit from the mats at the back of the tee.  We now have the latest and greatest synthetic turf available, so tee it up and hit away.

September Accomplishments

It has been a while since I have posted and I wanted to get you all up to date on some of what we have been working on in September.  Also, I wanted to tell you all how happy I am that the summer of 2012 has finally ended.  In fact, while I am posting this, we are having our first frost delay of the fall.

September Accomplishments

• All thin turf areas in the rough that were damaged from the drought were overseeded with a slit seeder, we used a total of 2000lbs of a tall fescue blend.
• Range tee was shut down for the year to overseed with Rye Grass.
• All putting greens were aerified, fertilized, and topdressed
• All Zoysia turf was fertilized with a 5-10-31 to harden them off for the winter.
• All putting greens were also treated with a pre-emergent to prevent annual bluegrass.
• As you can see in the photos above we tilled the soil along the cart path of 7 River course, then we scraped the excess soil so water can drain off of the cart path and we planted a fescue turf.
• Sprayed all rough on the Rock course with a herbicide to kill broadleaf weeds.

Cart Path Drainage

There are several spots on the cart paths that hold water from sprinkler run off.  So to prevent puddles on the cart path like the photo below, we used the sod cutter and cut out some stripes of sod, then took out some of the soil and replaced the sod, thus resulting in proper drainage.