Course Happening During Another Wet and Cold Week

The cold and wet weather continued this week, frustrating both golfers and maintenance team members alike.  After nearly six months of winter weather, residents of southeastern Wisconsin and its turgrass could use some warmer temperatures.  Fortunately, the course did survive the winter with only very isolated patches of damaged turf, unlike courses throughout many other parts of the country.  Even though the weather has been less than ideal, the maintenance staff has been busy preparing the course for the golf season.  While course access has been limited to walking due to continued wet conditions, we have utilized our time to prepare other areas of the course so that we can dedicate our entire team to course conditioning practices and mowing once we finally dry out.

9 White Green

 The White Nine putting greens were aerified on May 5th.  Unfortunately the cold day and night temperatures have hampered their recovery.  It is unlikely that the greens will completely recover by its reopening on Memorial Day Weekend.  Should this be the case, the pro shop will route the 18 hole golf course from the Red Nine to the Blue Nine, leaving the White Nine as the "family" nine until the aerification holes have completely filled in.

Blue Nine Bathroom Water Suppply

 As many members have noted, the course bathrooms on the Blue Nine have not yet opened for the season.  Upon pressurizing the water supply to the bathroom, a leak was discovered.  Since we had no drawings from the initial construction and well installation, golf course staff was tasked to excavate the site to determine the cause of the leak.  After an extensive investigation, we determined the cause of the leak was an old buried air tank.  A new tank has been purchased and installed, and the water supply has been reconnected.  The bathrooms are now again in working order.  Staff will repair the work site next week.  Hats of to Bob and Ricky for their hard work on this project.

Since course access has been limited, staff has continued knocking off punch list items in preparation for Memorial Day.  All bunkers on the Red and Blue Nines were edged.  The White Nine bunkers will be edged next week.  The seeded stump holes have finally germinated, in large part due to the insulating covers.  We will remove the covers and hand mow all forty-five of these areas in the coming week.  While we will apply a broadleaf herbicide to the entire rough next week, we were able to sneak out and treat all bunker edges with a combination of post and preemergent control.  It is no secret to most homeowners that the past winter was very hard on most evergreen trees and shrubs.  Due to the extensive damage, many plants at the club's main entrance were replaced under the guidance of staff horticulturist Susie Jushka.

Bunker Edging

Seed Germination

Broadleaf and Preemergent Control 

Plant Installation at Club Entrance

Be prepared for a soggy golf course and thick rough this weekend.  Due to the saturated soil, we have been unable to send out our mowers to cut the rough.  Should conditions allow, we will begin mowing the rough over the weekend.