Green repair

The staff have spent the last couple of days repairing some of the heat stress and vandalism damage that occurred late last season.  Plugging and topdressing some of the blemishes and areas that were large enough to utilize some plugs from the edge of the green.  Normally, we take plugs from our nursery but it was reseeded this past fall and is not ready to be used at this time.  The plugs will allow some of these areas to speed up their recovery.  The sand will smooth some of these spots and protect the grass plants that are trying to regenerate into some of the voided areas.  Bentgrass's growth habit is up and out sending new stolons out the side of the plant which allows it to spread laterally somewhat.  The topdressing sand will protect the edges of the new tissue from exposure to extreme environmental conditions over the next month or two such as cold, heat, wind and moisture or lack thereof. 

Tom filling in some of the areas where plugs were utilized for repair.  Lady checking out the action as well, looking for a varmint.

Repair to the 3rd green with some small turf plugs and green sand to repair vandalism from carts late last fall.  We utilized some 4" regular sized hole plugs as well to fill in some of the areas from last summer's damage.

First snow of the season

The first snow of the year.  Around 1/2" of snow fell on Thanksgiving Day and combining the 19 degree low temperature had led to the cancellation of the Turkey Trot Tournament.

4.11" of rain over the last couple of days filled the lake and the bunkers.

We've had another break-in at the maintenance facility on Monday evening.  Damaged a number of carts, doors, and did some damage to the 3rd green.  The damage is not severe but removed some turf about 1" wide by about a 15' arc.  This area will be sanded and should heal over winter.  We are taking further steps to secure the facility and with some evidence we found after the crime and with the work of Normandy detectives, we hope to get a number of folks picked up over the next few days. 

Snow over the 10th fairway

Damage to the 12th green

Last evening, multiple individuals broke a pane of glass out of one of our shop windows and took 3 carts out on property.  They stole my digital camera that I use for the blog but left everything else in place.  The 3 carts were found out on the course in the area of 3 and 4 where they have been entering the property.  They did some damage to our #12 green which you can see in the picture below.  The damage should be able to be repaired fairly quickly.  The green was aerated yesterday which probably helped to reduce some of the damage due to the heavy application of sand.  There were some turn marks on the 2nd and 15th greens but they did not break the turf's surface.  Hopefully, we can catch this group of vandals and get this damage stopped.

The left side middle of  #12 green