Thursday, April 28, 2011

weather????

Well the weather has has not been kind, we have one tease day then back to wet and cold. The courses are very wet now. Carts may be unable to travel the grounds of the Heritage for the next few days, we will see what we can do for those who have a hard time walking around with their bags.

Work on Greywalls continues, we really need some warmer twmperatures to start our seasonal turf growth. We will be working on some darinage issues on number 4 tomorrow.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Opening Heritage

Spring finally came on Easter Sunday and hung around today (looks like it might leave again). It was long enough for us to open up The Heritage course for walking only; while we finished roping off wet areas and setting out our directional arrows. The 'Cart Jockey's' will be happy as carts will be allowed out starting tomorrow. Please watch where you drive as the course continues to dry up this spring and as always keep carts in the rough and use the 90 degree rule. Enjoy the course, it survived winter very well this year!!

Work is now full speed ahead on Greywalls to get it ready for an opening day. I will continue to post updates as work continues.

Friday, April 22, 2011

spring coming?

Waiting for all of the snow to melt and some warmer weather to arrive is taking much longer than a year ago. Once we get a change in weather our turf can dry out a bit and starts its seasonal growth. We hope to open the Heritage as soon as the rest of the snow melts and we can rope off all of the wet areas.
We started the Greywalls irrigation system today (22 days behind last years start date) so we can start all of our annual spring checks and adjustments. So far we have had only one leak; a broken pipe next to #17 green. We will be starting the Heritage irrigation system late next week or the following week depending on the weather.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Darius Oliver

Darius Oliver, the author and publisher of the highly acclaimed books, Planet Golf and Planet Golf USA is coming to Marquette Michigan all the way from Austrailia!!

He is coming to see your Greywalls course and will be talking and doing a book signing at the Peter White Library on Sunday May 8th at 4:00 pm.

I am sure the games best-traveled and most authoritative voice on golf course design and architecture will have many great stories to share with all of us!!

I hope everyone can get over to hear him talk!!

Monday, April 18, 2011

Tee Times 4 Turf

The Michigan Turfgrass Foundation (MTF) is holding an online auction of donated rounds of golf on May 1st - May 15th. It is a way to raise funds for continued turf research in order make our golf courses better. Many Golf Courses, Private and Public (including us), have donated rounds of golf to support the MTF. Everyone should check out the website, as you may be able to score a round at a private club or you may be able to get a reduced price on a round you were going to play this season anyhow. The website is...... www.TeeTimes4Turf.com

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Spring Conditions

Our annual spring clean-up is going well, we are in the process of cleaning up any trees, branches, sticks and leaves that came down this winter. We are also trying to put the first cut on our primary playing areas as they dry out enough to do so.

The turf on both courses came out of winter very well. Areas of desiccation seem to be ok with green crowns still in place below the brown tips, SnowMold damage is less than normal on Tees, Approaches and Fairways. All 40 of the putting surfaces look good. The Heritage greens look 100% clean and free of any snowmold and ice damage and the Greywalls greens look around 98% clean of snowmold (#3 and #17 had some activity). Some of the greens on both courses, which were exposed longer, do have some brown tip desiccation. This will grow out quickly once warmer weather arrives. I think the worst of our green damage this winter came from the paws of a fox, which dug up the old cup holes on several of the Greywalls greens.

The golf itch is here, all we need is some warmer weather to go with it!!

Monday, April 11, 2011

Melt down continues

The heavy rains and warmer weekend temperature really put a dent in the snow this weekend. Spring clean-up can really start now. On a side note..... While re-sealing and repairing some of our wood course supplies, Scot and I built 37 birdhouses and 7 bat houses; utilizing mostly scrap wood. We will be putting these on the property to help increase nesting sites for our bird population. This is something we will continue to do every season.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Weather looking better

The last two nights have been favorable (with temperatures staying above freezing) and the dramatic increase in day time temperatures with ample sun has melted most of our snow away. All that remains are the deeper areas of drift. Once the frost leaves the ground and the soil dries up a bit we will be in action. On Monday two more Heritage staff members Paul and Dennis will start (to help Scot and Clay) plus Mike will start on Greywalls along with Andy and Mario; as spring clean up will begin in the areas we can get to. It won't be long now before we are all hitting that little white ball around again.

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