Rolling Road GC Golf Course Management

  Last full week of October.  The weather has been warm this week and the course is starting to show its fall colors.  The team had a great week accomplishing weekly tasks and starting a new phase on our irrigation upgrades.   The fans on holes 6 and 11 have been brought into the shop for the winter.  These fans played a huge role this year with the brutal summer weather we had.  Fernando will be completing winter service on the fans to ensure proper function for next summer.   Our winter herbicide applications have been completed in native areas.  These applications help reduce winter and spring weeds.   It is crazy to think after all the rain we received in late September that we would be talking about wild fires and droughts.  This week we are back on the drought monitoring map.  With no rain for the last 21 days and less than a quarter inch of rain for the month of October it is very dry on the course.  Fall seeding and fertilizer application have been pushed off due to the lack of

  After a couple wet and soggy weeks it was great to have the sun shine everyday this week.  The team took advantage of the beautiful weather and had a very productive week.   On Monday we finally got caught up on spraying all the short grass surfaces after being behind due to last week's rain.   The crew found some time this week to start some winter items.  They were able to get all the ornamental grasses around the club trimmed down.   This week the team cut down all the native areas around the course in preparation for their winter herbicide application.    Phase 2 of the irrigation upgrades and expansions was completed this week.  All the old satellite boxes have been removed and upgraded.  The irrigation database has been reprogrammed and the irrigation system is ready for sprinkler additions. Also with the upgrades and reprogramming all sprinklers around the course now are individually controlled which will provide more accurate watering.  We will be testing the irrigation s

  What a tough couple weeks.  13 days in a row with measurable rain.  All we can say about this week is Mother Nature won and still is undefeated.  The course has received over 6 inches of rain the past 2 weeks and has had no days with sun or wind to help areas dry out.  The team did their best this week focusing on a lot of details and mowing when they could.    As you can see from the pictures above it has been a challenging week.  We have been behind on mowing and spraying the course with everyday rain, fog and mist.   The team had a great week continuing to work on irrigation upgrades.  We were able to install 3 more satellite boxes this week and run a new communication wire from the offices to the satellite box on hole 18.  With the 3 boxes installed we only have 4 more to complete for phase 2 of the irrigation winter upgrades.   Lastly, for the remainder of the week the team will be focused on hacking down the rough and playing  catch up on mowing and spraying.  Please bare with

  Rain, fog, drizzle was the story for this week.  The only thing we didn't have this week was the sun.  Even with all the rain the team had a productive week.   The team ended last week installing over 150 new sprinkler head internals on the fairways.  They checked every sprinkler for proper function and replaced all the bad internals.  This was phase 1 of our irrigation winter projects.  The crew used the rain this week to our advantage and continued to replace satellite boxes.  They were able to replace 3 this week leaving only 7 more to go.  We also started reprograming the irrigation system for individual sprinkler control.  We now have 3 complete holes reprogrammed and we are happy with the performance so far.     Thursday brought unexpected heavy rains.  We received just over 3 inches of rain Thursday morning which brought our weekly total to 4.1 inches and our monthly total to 4.5 inches.   Lastly, for the remainder of the week the team is going to try their best to get all

  Halfway through September and the final full week of Summer.  The maintenance team had a very productive week even with rain on Wednesday.   The team started off the week getting ready for the forecasted heavy rains for the middle of the week.  They were able to mow all short grass ahead of the Monday outing to get ready for the sprayers.  On Monday and Tuesday we were able to apply Wetting Agent to greens, tees and fairways to help the rain infiltrate the soil.   After the Wetting Agent application on Tuesday and before the forecasted rain on Wednesday the team continued to work on some stubborn Fairy Ring areas applying fungicides to the infected areas and hand watering the products in.    On Wednesday the crew used the light rain and drizzle to our advantage, cleaning/organizing the shop, completing some much needed irrigation repairs and getting some details finished around the course.  We did get some rain on Wednesday even though it wasn't the forecasted 1-2 inches it was w

  What a way to end a month and start a new one.  Congratulations to all players in the Club Championship last weekend.  The weather this week was awesome.  The team had a very busy and productive week.     We started off the short week with another round of aerification on greens.  The team was able to punch, clean up and top-dress all 19 greens on Tuesday.     On Wednesday the team moved on to tee aerification.  They top-dressed and punched all tees followed by a verti-cut and brush roll to incorporate the sand into the holes.   Lastly, I would like to introduce an new member the to RRGC Maintenance Team.  This is Conner Madsen.  Conner is joining the team as a Co-Assistant Superintendent.  Conner has worked on a golf course his whole life and comes to us from  Hillendale Country Club where he was the Assistant Superintendent for the last 18 months while attending Penn State's Turfgass Program.  Please say "hello" to Conner when you see him around the course.      Thank

  What an amazing week of weather.  We received over 2 inches of rain on Sunday evening and with the temperatures we had this week the course really perked back up.  The crew had a great week.  With Sunday evening's rain the main focus at the beginning of the week was details.  The crew performed sand depth checks on bunkers, and topped off all divots on tees and fairways after storm clean up.    This week we were able to spot spray weeds that popped up in the rough.  The weeds have been a challenge this year because of the hot weather.  Pre-emergent herbicides break down over time by moisture and soil temperatures.  The hot weather this summer has made our pre-emergent applications break down faster this year than during normal years. Also this week the team was able to top-dress all approaches and tees to help with firmness and reduce scalping.   Even with the 2+ inches of rain the team continued to work on the "Localized Dry Spot" in fairways.  We applied another round