Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Ron Kittle and Drainage

Ron Kittle dropped by today to work on our baseball bat bench.

With another .55 inches of rain last night, we were unable to mow.  This gave us an opportunity to continue drainage work on #14 fairway.

Here, Juan and Jesus wrap up their work.  There are several more spots at the beginning of the fairway we need to address.  Improved drainage will save turf in the future.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Rain Total 2.3 inches

Total rain for the past 2 days is 2.3 inches.  We'll do our best on Friday to get the course ready.  Please check in with Pro Shop about carts.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Rain then cold

It looks like a couple days of rain.  We were catching up with leaf mulch, but this rain will slow us down.  The ashes are about done, oaks and cottonwood are starting, maples next and last the willows.  Willow are the hardest to control because they don't blow or mulch nicely and keep coming until the snow flies.

Just a reminder, we are probably going to have frost by the weekend.  Please check in with pro shop before going on the golf course.  Walking on a green with frost can damage the turf.  You will see foot prints for several weeks as it damages the crown of the plant.  The next couple of days we will change fluid in the ball washers so they don't freeze.  We will also bring in water coolers on cold nights.  November 1, we'll start bringing in course benches and ball washers as we let staff go.  Jose and I will keep Juan around until Thanksgiving.  He is the most versitile staff member.

I would also like to introduce Butch Liptak.  He will be our new mechanic.  He has 26 years experience as a golf course mechanic at Beverly Country Club.  He will work mostly mornings from 7 to lunch time. 

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Meet the Lansing Grounds Staff


Tees aerification was completed today.  The greens are healing up nicely.  Fall is a great time to come out and play.  You may want to bring some extra balls as the leaves fall.

Meet the 2011 Lansing grounds staff

Left to right

Dan Augdahl, Golf Course Superintendent, 4 years at Lansing, 25 plus on golf courses.

Dennis, Groundsman, 2 years at Lansing, main jobs include greens, rough and bunkers.

Salvador, Groundsman, 3 years at Lansing, main jobs include tee service bunkers, and flower bed maintenance.

Juan, Groundsman, 4 years at Lansing, main jobs include greens, tees, fairways, rough and handwatering.

Jesus, Groundsman, 2 years at Lansing, main jobs include, cup changing, greens, fairways, rough and landscaping.

Jose, Foreman, 5 years at Lansing plus 4 years at Woodmar, main jobs include everything.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Greens Aerification Complete


This is #5green.  It was the last green we aerified on Thursday.  We applied about 35 tons of sand and dragged it into over 1 million holes for the 18 greens plus putting green.


This is the putting green.  It was aerified on September 12.


This is green #18.  It was aerified on September 23.


This is green #5.  It was aerified on October 6.

This shows the importance of aerifing early.  The later we aerify the longer it takes to heal up.  As the days get shorter and cooler, recovery slows.  The entire process took us 7 working days.  On the best days we completed 4 greens so we didn't go into overtime.  With the smaller staff, we had to put other jobs on hold as we needed the entire staff to help.  Our aerifier only goes 4 inches deep.  I hope we can get back on the deep tine (8-9 inches) next fall to improve the root zone on our greens.

Next week, we plan on finishing the tees and small fairways.  We need to finish as I need to start cutting staff after next week.