A Change in Weather

It looks as though winter is finally here! Only a couple days late for a white Christmas. This little winter storm has brought severe weather to much of the Midwest. We have received a wintry mix over night and throughout the day. As of now the temperatures are hovering around freezing and have not caused any major issues. However, over the next few nights the temps will dip into the lower teens and may ice things up a bit. That being said it is time to drain our irrigation system to prevent any damage. This is a fairly simple process which involves opening three dump valves around the course and the water comes rushing out. We then go around to sprinkler heads in the low areas and open the valves to get any remaining water out of the system.

Catching up on education

Every year the Heart of America Golf Course Superintendent Association holds a two day educational conference. This is an opportunity for superintendents as well as lawn care companies to learn about the new advances in our industry. There are also certain classes that allow us to re-certify our pesticide applicators license in both Kansas and Missouri. Many vendors attend and sponsor this event to show their support. In doing so, we are able to build our network with not only them but other superintendents in the area. These events especially help new members, such as myself, to establish good relationships. As we returned Wednesday, the two inches of rain we received has restricted us to more tree work. With trees shading the greens and tee complex, holes five and six are next on the list. These trees will be removed to promote healthier turf growth

Beautiful Weather

What a beautiful week we have had here in Kansas City! It hasn't been the typical December weather we are used to with temperatures reaching into the 60's. Hopefully you were able to get out to the course and enjoy a round of golf. With the higher temperatures we continued our normal operations of mowing and course set up. Having a couple frosty mornings there was time to rebuild the rock walls on numbers 10 and 11. These rock walls served as old property lines before the course was built. Since they were falling down and no longer level we decided to clean them up a bit and make them more uniform.

Rain Rain Rain

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend and was able to eat all the turkey and mashed potatoes that you could! It wasn't the most ideal weather to spend time outside with rainfall totaling just over three inches. That being said, most of the bunkers have been washed out. It has taken a few days but we were able to push and rake the bunkers to try and dry them out a little bit. This is also the time of year when we begin tree cleanup. At times it can be tricky on deciding what trees to take out and what trees to leave. There are many factors that come in play when selecting a tree for removal. Overall turf health, tree health, location and playability are just a few of them. You might also notice that we will be taking around a pole saw and limbing up a little ways to raise the canopy. In doing so it will allow us to better maintain these areas and give the course a cleaner look. As you can see from the pictures we started on the second hole. Our main goal was to push the tree line on the right side back just a little bit for easier mowing.