Let the clean-up begin!  

The Celebrity Classic was a large event and we had a mess on our hand this morning.  I started again before 4 AM getting the aerifiers prepared.  We had to core aerify the Driving range tee where the Big tent was located and we solid tine aerified the Greywalls putting green (after it had major wear from foot traffic all day long).  

The Trash was all over after the raccoon's and skunk's got their share last night and the wind blew it around for us.  Stakes, arrows and ropes were down in most areas and event supplies had to be hauled off the course (bleachers, cars, canopies, extra trash cans etc).  We did not see any other areas of turf damage beyond the normal untouched ballmarks left on the putting surfaces, so that was nice.  

Divots on the Teeing surfaces were filled plus our normal daily mowing had to be performed before play started at 7:30 AM.  

It was a great event for a great cause (The Beacon House) 

The behind the scene work put into this event by my staff was amazing.  The extra course prep work, event supply prep work and clean up effort was very difficult considering our very limited resources.  But at the end of the day my Grounds Staff was amazing!  Great Job Guys and Thanks!!

Heritage Asst. Andy McCormick took the Long Drive guys out for a round after the event.  Bobby Bradely (pictured above) hit his first 500 yard drive.  He hit it 514 Yards on #7!  Amazing!!

Bill Laimbeer watches as the the Long Driver Guys Kill it 425 yards Plus!  He tried to out duel the duo but was probably 120 yards short of them.

Greywalls Asst. Mike Klein was a big help at the first tee and the Flower girls wanted a photo op with him.  Later he sat in the party Limo for a rest ...... or was he just waiting for Jim McMahon to get back?

Here are the two Hosts of the Big Event Coach Tom and Coach Steve

Andy, Mike and I filling up after a very hard morning and week on the course.

This says it all!!!!!

Jim McMahon at the top playing bare-foot and rocking the Money shorts.  

Below The Crew took a break from grooming to hang with Tully Blanchard (WWF) and Robert Brooks (Ex-Packer)

Izzo and Mariucci getting some screen time before the event.

The Big Tent on the Heritage for the Celebrity Classic, all 36 holes today.  The courses could not look better! Great job to 'The Crew'.

This Doe is helping the crew by munching down some saplings on the #18 Greywalls hillside.  Now if we could only get her to convince her cousin on the Heritage course that sapling are much healthier than Hostas.

On my way out on Friday I discovered an irrigation leak on #3 Greywalls.  The pipe malfunction took place to the left of the green.  The pipe blow out because the installer was very messy with pipe primer causing an area of weakness (as seen in bottom photo).  The pipe blew on the bottom side and bored a hole (middle photo) deeper than a shovel.  After around 18,000 gallons of water filled the approach like a water bed, it began to discharge out of the root zone 35 yards away.  I purchased the parts Friday night and made the repair Sat. morning.

Sometime when you have old equipment it just takes team work to get the job done!
Our Heritage all-star Scott Hudson (right side) is getting a helping hand from our Heritage Ace-Mechanic 'Nitro' Dave Anderson.  It took two of them to walk-mow the nursery because the drive on the walk mower has failed (a common problem on 17 year old mowers).

The rain during the last two weeks has been great.  May of 2006 was the last time this property had rain in this quantity and in this quality.

The Greywalls Groom Crew working on the bunkers.  Thill was out mowing rough so Joby, Jake and Tyler had to operate without him.  They are doing some fine work!

The Monday rain did not slow The crew down!  While The H crew and I topdressed the Heritage greens, Thill took the lead over Jake and Joby as they groomed up the Rocks on #6.  Great work fellas!

Looks like an angry golfer had his way with one of our signs.  I really hope that made him feel better.
We do spend our own time making these signs, so when one is damaged out of a 'complete lack of emotional control' it does get a little personal.

Here is Joby mowing his first fairway of the day last week.  At least we know he checked the oil before he left the shop.

How does a potential rain event continue to dry up on the edge of Marquette for 15 hours?  We are in such a unique summer micro bubble.  This entire town is hydrophobic.  Just amazing!

Topdressing Greywalls on monday went well. We had one equipment failure and a short rain delay but we still were able to get the job done. Great job crew!

We had to pull the intake out of the wet well in the Heritage pump-house.  The lower metal piece of the flapper valve broke in three chunks causing pump prime issues.  I will have one made at a local machine shop and then put it back together.
The joys of a 60 year old pumping system.

What a thunderstorm!  It rained very hard yesterday afternoon and is raining very hard again right now.  I expect to find many bunker and cart path washouts this morning.  A little delay may result this morning so we can get out and prep the course before play.

We had two fairway mowers go down in the past week.  One on Greywalls that was sent to the dealer for a factory covered repair (hydaulic wheel cylinder) and one on the Heritage that lost a hydraulic pump.  The Heritage mower is torn down in the shop as we wait for parts.

A few bees (thousands) found a nice resting place on a rock behind #18 Green next to the path going from lower 16 to upper 16.  Andy took care of the swarm this early morning while they were inactive.  Quality work by 'The Crew'.  

With the low humidity levels and mega low dew points all spring mowing has been difficult on the fairways.  Limited growth and no dew makes it difficult to see where you are mowing and the guys do not want to leave any misses, they just hate when I find them and ask them about it.
Thill is happy as ever mowing on #18, why? because we have morning dew!