All in a day

The weather finally warmed up about 2-3 weeks ago. The grass is now responding, oh boy is it responding! About .5" of growth per hour!! The close to 10" of rain in the last 2 weeks probably had a little bit of say in that and now we need to mow. I mean mow. "And when you guys finish hole 18, don't even think of washing the unit off, start again".
The warmth and plentiful moisture finally woke the turf up and it was all we could do to stay on top of it. This past week the rough machines logged as many hours as I've ever seen. The primary rough was cut 4 times in 5 days to stay fair for golf. The fescue areas were chopped down 3 times and raked up. Due to the slow start this spring, I've learned my lesson on using fertilizer to wake things up. I decided to hold off and let nature take it's course. I can't begin to imagine with a lb. of N on this rough what we'd been up against. Once we get some dryer, warmer weather heading towards mid summer we will apply a slow release product to keep the turf green and healthy through the season.

Prepping for the busy next three weeks of tourneys. Member/Member - Ladies Member/Member- Rivercrest Day Member Guest.

Just completed rough and fairway mows. See ya here again tomorrow!

Divot crew

Thank goodness for morning dew. Although the walk mowers hate when the triplex shows up ahead and steals it!

Final Day! We might just get lucky and get this in. Forecast looks rough

The dome was up! The tourney was a success and dry! INCOMING!! as the awards ceremony wrapped up

Unleashing!! 5 minutes after the picture above

Bunker Work II

The left bunker on 8 green was a difficult bunker to maintain. Members commented to me that a golfball hit towards the rear of the bunker wouldn't roll down to the flat and made for an extremely difficult  shot. We constantly checked optimum sand depth but this wasn't correcting the problem. The face just didn't have enough slope. Steepening the face was obviously a solution for playability but would lead to a amintenance nightmare. Every storm would wash this sand to the bottom adding hours to our tight schedule. I decided on sodding the face as we've done to many bunkers which will give golfers a smooth, flat stance to hit from and less time cleaning up after a heavy rain for us.

Good old eastern PA soil. Or should I say rock

Much cleaner appearance and better playability.

8 right side bunker. Reshaping the edges and prepping for new sod.

Great new finished appearance

Bunker Work

We spent most of the spring rehabbing bunkers due to appearance and playability. 18 greenside was one that was bothering me the most. The fescue face made mishit shots extremely difficult to play and overwatering from normal green applications caused difficult growing conditions. I opted to change to turf type tall fescue which will be maintained on a regular basis. The sod faces around the course we have improved have held up beautifully. Golf shots, if you were unlucky enough to end up there are much more manageable.
The before and after shots are dramatic!

I couldn't wait to jump in the backhoe and rip out this eyesore.

Lets Go guys!, sod will be here at 5:00 am. All hands on deck

When is it going to ever warm up? First pieces laid bright and early