Preserving the Practice Facility

The Grounds Committee and the Board of Governors have concluded we need to limit the amount of days we allow for practice on the new tee.  The tee has received a great deal of play in the limited amount of time we have been open (opened to grass on July 3).  Play will be allowed on the grass from Wednesday through Saturday.  Practice will occur on the Mats on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  The turf is less than a year old and needs more time to mature.  Players practicing have also created a large amount of divots that will take a considerable amount of time to heal before the played area will be ready for play again.  You can see in the photo taken, this is less than 3 weeks of practice.

We also need to have players improve the way they practice.  Please view the video created by Dan Meersman, Director of Grounds at Philadelphia Cricket Club.  Dan gives an excellent presentation of how to properly practice.

It's a Team Effort

It takes a dedicated staff to prepare the golf course on a daily basis.  Whether its the extensive seasonal and daily planning, setting the mowing units for daily mowing, making sure the back pack blowers are working properly, filling divots, mowing playing surfaces or making sure the gardens have been weeded and flowers deadheaded, it's all important and everyone on the staff has a part in making it happen.  We have an outstanding staff this year.  From the seasoned veterans down to the rookies with only a few weeks under their belt, they have done a great job this year.  We have a long ways to go before the snow flies, so if you see them on the course, be sure to say a little "thank you."  I know they will appreciate it.

Weather

One thing about working outside, we get to see some pretty cool things that happen with the weather, such as this shelf cloud moving in this morning.

Happy Birthday

Its not often I have a "Happy Birthday" post, but it's also not everyday that one of our staff members turns 80.  Our Rough Mower operator for the past 15 years "Pistol Pete" Geier, turned 80 today.  Pete started working at Minikahda back in 1993 following his retirement from Control Data.  Pete had a brief stint as one of the guys of our divot crew but we soon realized he would be a good fit for mowing rough.  Despite his wife's attempt to get him to call it quits, Pete has returned for another season.  Pete typically works Monday through Thursday allowing himself plenty of time to spend a long weekend at his cabin.  Having an individual we can count on day after day to mow the rough provides us with many benefits.  Pete knows how the rough   grows, which areas grow the quickest, where he should and shouldn't mow and as our mechanic says, we have a talking hour meter because he always lets the mechanics know when the oil needs changing and when the blades need sharpening.  Thanks Pete for your years of commitment and dedication.  I hope you have a great birthday celebration.

Practice Facility

The new practice facility opened on May 26th on hitting mats only.  All comments have been positive about design and layout.  We will continue to keep players on mats until we feel the turf on the tee will be healthy enough to tolerate daily play.  Based on the amount of practice we are seeing off the mats I expect to see a great deal of practice off the turf.  We will be closely monitoring the traffic to make sure turf recovery will match the amount of play off the turf.  Currently our practice has been to allow unlimited ball usage, if there is an increase in players practicing we may need to either limit ball use, hours the range is open or close it earlier in the fall.  All options we may consider if necessary.  Otherwise, enjoy!

Clink these photos for 2 great panoramic views of the practice facility.

Spring Projects are Keeping Us Busy

 XGD Systems was here on April 23rd-26th installing internal drainage into greens 1 and 6.  These two greens, on average, are our wettest greens.  It was time for us to make a decision and use what tools are available to us to improve the overall playing condition of these putting surfaces.  Each green took two days to complete and once finished were ready to play on the following day.

 The crew from XGD, of about ten guys, was extremely efficient during the process. Each man had a specific job to do each and every step of the process.  It was like watching a finely oiled machine work in complete precision.

Trench lines before they were filled and compacted

Tamping and filling of trench lines

The completed product as final clean-up was taking place.

The completed product on 1 green following .66" of rain in less than an hour.

The front right of 17 green following the same rain event.  It's quite obvious this green will be a good candidate for the XGD internal drainage.

 Nick Folk has been extremely busy the past two weeks repairing and sodding a few of our weaker bunker faces. The photo above shows the repair of the left greenside bunker on #10.  The edge had deteriorated to the point where it needed repair.  At some point the entire face may need to be rebuilt as you can see the 8-10" of sand that has built up over the past 10 years.  Thankfully the quality of the turf on the face is in extremely good condition and is really not an issue to be concerned about at this time.  Greenside bunkers on 5 and 7 were also repaired.

The approach bunker on the left side of 7 was re-sodded and we were also able to do a little reshaping of one of the back slopes which now allows the player a little more room to swing their club if their ball is in the right corner.  

 The new bunker on the inside of the dogleg on 7 was a concern for the members that they could not see any  sand from the tee.  On the recommendation from our Architect Ron Prichard, Nick raised the face of the bunker so more of a flash of sand will be visible from the tee.  This "little" project took over a day to complete as it was a real fineness job to make sure the sod matched the existing bunker and to make sure it looks as if it was part of the original construction.  Nick did a great job making sure it all turned out right.

 Perennial gardens have been planted at the new tennis facility as well as at the driving range and 10th tee house.  Horticulturalist, Ryan Hogan, along with some of our seasonal staff did a great job with the installation.  I'm sure everyone will enjoy the new looks these gardens will provide.

Its been 10 years since the restoration and during this time some of the tee surfaces have sloughed off leaving us with an uneven teeing surface.  We continually look for these areas. Rick Krause has leveled many over the years as the soil settles.  This year is no different.  These two photos are of the back of the white/blue tee on 5.

 The red/green tee has also sloughed off on the east side.  This is the second time re-leveling of this tee has been performed.

Following a recommendation from the Grounds Committee to expand the size of the Ball Drop at #6 we have since tripled the overall size of the area to aid with improving the overall condition.  We will be using tee markers to dictate the area of the Ball Drop that will be used that day.  Thanks to my former Assistant and current Superintendent at Olympic Hills CC, Jake Schmitz, for providing us with the sod for 5 tee and the Ball Drop here on 6.  He has plans to renovate his nursery and was giving the sod away.

 The front right of 17 green has healed very nicely.  We still have the height of cut a little bit higher in this area and will slowly begin to lower it over the next few weeks.  Hopefully by some time next week we will remove the ropes and open this area for play.  Thank you to the membership for showing extreme patience as we bring the condition of this area of the green back to proper health and condition.

 17 following the removal of covers in March.  You've come a long way Baby!

Spring Projects

Lead Assistant Nick Folk lead a crew this week stripping turf on the dogleg bunker on 7, the two left bunkers on 7 as well as the 160 bunker 16.  As you can see the turf quality on the bunker was quite poor and needed to be replaced.  The poor turf quality was in part do to our efforts to allow the turf on these faces to be thin and wispy.  Since it was decided last fall by the Grounds Committee to abandon the wispy look and go with completely mowed bunkers, there was a need to re-sod these four bunkers.  

Next week our staff, lead by staff Horticulturalist Ryan Hogan, will begin the process of planting the perennial gardens at tennis and the driving range.  Our staff spent this past week prepping the beds and making some minor changes from the construction last fall.  We have a great design, completed by Heidi's Lifestyle Gardens and are excited to see the final product in place.

 Prepping the driving range bed.

You've Got to Love the Colors in the Spring

 A perfect Donald Wyman Crabapple by 18 tee

The view of the mass planting of tulips in the spring never gets old.

20 Years and Counting

It's not often when a grounds department has an employee that's worked 20 years on the seasonal staff.  Barry Bloomgren has returned for his 20th year on our staff.  Beginning on the staff when he was 16 years old, Barry has done almost every job the seasonal staff members do, from mowing, trimming, raking bunkers, etc.  For the past 10 years or so Barry has worked exclusively on weekends mainly helping to mow greens, occasionally rake bunkers, fill water coolers as well as complete the tee service task.  It's great to know we can count on Barry to be here almost every Saturday and Sunday to help with the weekend set-up.  Thanks Barry for all your years of service to The Minikahda Club.

Making Progress

Aside from our normal spring clean-up projects we have seen excellent progress on the 17th green as well as the grow-in on the driving range.

 17 before our efforts to over-seed

2 weeks later we had excellent germination.  We continue to maintain a cover for protection during the cool nights.  This area will remain roped off for the remainder of the month of April and until we are confident in the maturity of the new seedlings.  Care will be required the remainder of the season for this location especially since this is a high traffic walk area as well as the low spot on the green.  

The range tee continues to show progress.  Some areas lacked good germination and seed cover so those areas were over-seeded this past week.  By next week expect to see germination.  We will continue to fertilize to push the bent to fill in and establish.  The tee has been cut once and next week a second mowing will be required.

The range fairway and target greens are also looking fantastic.  Timely rains, warm temperatures and some fertilizer have all contributed to a quick establishment.  We're hoping a first cut to the fairway will happen this week.  Before that happens we will roll the surface to smooth out any imperfections to help insure a good first cut.

Practice Facility

Yesterday we removed the cover from the practice tee.  Overall the tee looks good and there was significant germination.  Though some of it looks spotty with continued warm weather as well as timely fertility applications, in a few weeks we will see a more consistent growth pattern.  Nick and I fertilized the tee with an organic fertilizer and next we will be applying a starter fertilizer that will offer more phosphorous to the young seedlings. We are months away from opening the tee and are currently looking at early July for the opening.  We also see very good germination on the fairway and target greens.  These areas will go through the same establishment process as the tee and should fill in nicely over the course of the next few weeks. 

Yesterday we removed the cover from the practice tee.  Overall the tee looks good, there was significant germination.  Though some of it looks spotty with continued warm weather as well as timely fertility applications  , in a few weeks we will see a more consistent growth pattern.  Nick and I fertilized the tee with an organic fertilizer and next we will be applying a starter fertilizer that will offer more phosphorous to the young seedlings. We are months away from opening the tee and are currently looking at early July for the opening.  We also see very good germination on the fairway and target greens.  These areas will go through the same establishment process as the tee and should fill in nicely over the course of the next few weeks.

Welcome to our New Horticulturalist

This winter we hired a new Horticulturalist, Ryan Hogan.  Ryan has an extensive background in landscape management.  Ryan has owned and operated his own Landscape and Design company and until recently has been employed at Tangletown Gardens in Minneapolis.  Ryan earned his B.S. Degree in Forest Resources from the University of Minnesota and recently completed his Masters Degree in Horticulture, also from the University of Minnesota. We are excited to have Ryan on staff.  We are quite certain you will see an improvement to the overall look and appearance of our gardens.