Winter Painting Projects

When the weather outside is frightful...We head inside to paint! Below are some before and after photos of the Rock Nine Tee signs. Also, all ballwashers, garbage cans, tee markers, enter and exit posts, and benches get a fresh coat of paint.

Lets Go Royals!!

As a baseball fan I have enjoyed watching the Royals this year and was lucky enough to have gone to a few games.  As a turf grower, I always like to see what kind of pattern the baseball fields will be mowed, and am always amazed at how they do it.  Since the Royals are in the World Series for the first time in 29 years I thought it would be fun to attempt dressing up the range tee with the KC symbol. Much respect for the Grounds Crew at Kaufman Stadium because mowing artistic designs is not easy.  The photo above is what the tee looked like after our attempt. Lets Go Royals!!

October Thunderstorm

This tree got my attention while driving the course after one of several storms rolled through the area today. Looks like lightning buzzed the side of it. Pretty amazing!

Maintaining Footgolf Holes

Footgolf is in full swing and it has been a great addition to Heart of America.  Since opening May 1st there has been a lot of play, creating some compaction and wear around the holes.  This past week we used a small pedestrian aerifier and pulled some plugs to relieve some compaction.  After raking up the plugs we topdressed around the holes to smooth out any rough spots. Finally, we fertilized the turf to promote growth.

I imagine this is what its like maintaining a soccer field where the goalie stands for 90 minutes. Ha. Photos below are of the process.  

Zoysia Winter Kill

If you have been around lately, you may have noticed some "not so green tees and fairways" especially on the Rock Nine.  This is the result of an extremely harsh winter we faced.  Zoysia is a warm season turf and though it does winter hardy better than any other warm season grass, the winter of 2013-14 was just too much for some of the turf to survive.  The bulk of the damage is along the base of the bluff where it receives little or no sun.  Our game plan is to remove the dead turf with the sod cutter and replace with healthy zoysia. We are stealing some sod from #7 fairway on the River Nine to fix some of the damage on the Rock Nine.  Below are photos of what we have accomplished so far.  

Dead Zoysia

After we removed the dead turf

Snatching #7fairway healthy zoysia

The finished #8 Rock Tee