Rolling Road GC Golf Course Management

This week has not been the best for golf.  Cloudy, cool, on and off rain and drizzle.  It hasn't been that great to work in either.   The team started off the week - and will most likely finish off the week - battling leaves.  It is a very satisfying job cleaning up leaves, but also can be depressing cleaning up a hole then turning around to see it covered up again.     Another round of winterizing fertilizer was applied to the short game area this week.  These late season applications will help fight off Spring Dead Spot for next year.   This week we started cutting down the high grass areas.  With our new Turf Tidy machine this process is a breeze.  Before we had this machine the team would have to cut these areas with a rough mower then hand rake all the debris.  The Turf Tidy not only cuts the high grass but also cleans up the debris in one easy pass.    The team was able to repair the failing drainage between holes 14 and 18 this week.  The drainage was poorly installed and co

The story this week was frosty mornings and windy afternoons.  The course is really shining with the fall colors setting in.  The crew stayed productive this week even with morning delays.   The crew started off the week working on weekly details.  With the cold weather and grass starting to slow down these details will hopefully start turning into bi-weekly assignments.   With frost delays starting earlier this year we were able to use the mornings to get some of our early winter jobs completed.  The crew took advantage of the cold mornings to trim back some of our ornamental grasses until the frost lifted.   Also with some of the morning delays, we used that time to catch up on some education.  This webinar was about Fine Fescue areas and how to better manage them.   Once the team was able to get on the course it was a battle with the leaves almost every afternoon.  The guys did a great job keeping up and, with less wind on Friday, we hope to have the course looking tidy for the week

The week started off with beautiful weather.  We had some rain on Thursday but the week ended how it began.  The team had a very busy week for the second week of October.   On Monday and Tuesday the team was able to complete another round of aerification on tees.  We solid tined the tees with a half inch tine followed by a heavy topdressing, verti-cutting, brushing and then applying a fertilizer application.    On Tuesday morning we sprayed what I hope is our last application on fairways.  Here is Matt giving me the stink-eye after I told him that the application we did 14 days ago was the last one.   On Tuesday and Wednesday the team completed some small sod projects around the course focusing on the cart path entrances and exits on the back 9.   With rain in the forecast for Thursday we completed our fall fertilizer application on all fairways.  Also we had one of our irrigation contractors complete the wiring for the new clock.  All we are waiting on now is the clock, wh

  Not a great week of weather.  The remnants of Hurricane Ian gave us 5 days of clouds, wind and dropped almost 4 inches of rain.  The team made the best of the weather by staying busy between the rain drops.   On Monday we started off the morning in the shop cleaning and organizing after a crazy summer.  Once the rain stopped the team completed a full bunker detail including moving sand where needed.   On Tuesday we were held hostage again in the shop for the first part of the morning.  Once outside the team continued working on the new tees by filling in sod seems with sand.  We also were able to finish repairing two remaining irrigation leaks.  Fernando and Eddie made sure to let me know that we are currently 100% leak free for the first time since we started the irrigation system up back in March.    Not much to say about Wednesday.  This is the 18th fairway at day break.  The team did appreciate the much needed break.  This team has been crushing it all year - day in and day out -