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.

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.

Weekend Update

Hopefully, the rain has stopped for awhile.  1.75 inches this week.  We were able to mow fairways Thursday and again Friday.  The back nine was mowed with a walker pm Friday.  It's not filling in as fast as I would like because of the cooler cloudy days.  Next week looks better for that and for finishing the front nine greens.

Carts should be good for the weekend.  Just be carefull of the wet areas.  As we finish up aerifing, the mulching season begins.

We had an early morning visitor this week

The seed on the new hill has germinated.  In a couple of weeks, we will plant an area of wild flowers that you will be able to see from the pro shop.

Rain

Another day of rain.  1.6 inches since Sunday night.  With the wet conditions, we will finish aerifing the front next week.  The plan is Monday 1,2,3,4, Tuesday 9, Wednesday, 5,6,7,8.  We will then finish up the tees and small fairways.

Tuesday, September 27

More rain.  The back 9 is closed until further notice.  We had another .3 inches of rain last night on top of 1 inch.  No carts on the front.  This really puts a hold on aerifing.  We may have to wait until next week. to finish the front.  The grounds staff will switch to a 6:30 start on Wednesday due to darkness.  This means no shot gun starts until 9:00.

Monday September 26

We had an inch of rain overnight.  The front is open for walking.  I don't see any aerification until Wednesday.

Aerification Update for Friday, September 23

The putting green, which was aerified on the 12th, is healing up nicely.

Here, Jose is finishing up green #18.  That completes the back nine as of Friday.  If weather holds up, we plan on starting the front on Monday.  We again will put a temporary pin in the fairway.  Just be aware of the workers as much of the equipment makes noise and they can't hear you.  If it's dry, we should finish the front on Wednesday.