What a great sunrise this morning at 6:23 am

The course received 1.75 inches of rain yesterday.  As seen in the pictures above it was a pond filler!  The Heritage Orianna retention area filled up in a matter of hours and we are now able to pump that water up to the Heritage irrigation pond between #2/#3.

We are very happy to get the rain but it also created a lot of work for 'The Crew'.  Bunkers were washed out (as seen above) and many gravel washout areas need to be shoveled up.

Pictured here is the crow-crew flying away on #7.  You will see these birds working together in areas on the fairways and approaches as they are after cutworms feeding on the turf below.  These birds are a great biological control of a nasty little pest.

Amazing Rain for July!  The entire area needed this moisture event.

After topdressing the greens and incorporating the sand into the turf canopy with a coco-fiber drag mat we then clean up the surface with a set of brush reels.  These reels pick up all the the larger sand particles left on the surface (sand that can't be worked into the turf surface).  We had a brush reel malfunction on the right side of #16 green on Greywalls.  The reels dug into the green and tore out the grass.  

The top is a picture after it happened and below that is a picture after we overseeded/fertilized and repaired the area.  The turf on that side of the green is very weak from excessive traffic and is also the first area on that green to dry out.  The thin turf and limited root structure on that slope made it easy to uproot during the malfunction.

The Heritage is just peaking out for British Open week!  Here is the 13 Hole looking fantastic and playing even better!  Wonderful ball roll - it is so much fun to play the game under proper dry conditions.

It was great to see all of the UPGA Juniors on the Heritage Course this week.  We had a wonderful turnout, originally planned for around 35 golfer but ended up being 70 plus!

I put new signs out on the 'Short Game Practice Area' next to Grove Street.  I hope the signs will remind people that this area is not a driving range tee.  It is an area to work on your short game only.  Drivers and other long clubs hit from this area create a safety hazard on number one of the Heritage.  Plus all of the extra balls that land or roll to the left side of that hole makes it very difficult to find your ball while playing.

We added a drain line down the valley behind the 17th green on Greywalls.  This area always holds excessive moisture.  The digging was very tough as it was filled with rock (go figure).  The guys actually had to retrench around one chunk that was probably bedrock.

Great work Guys!!

Came across our 4-pointer on Greywalls yesterday.  Looks Like he is now a 6-pointer.  These two were munching in the Native area between #7 Green and #2 Fairway.

Looks like two of our fawns had a little fun in the 13th back green-side bunker last night.  We know of at least 4 little guys hanging out with mama deer on the property.  We have not seen any of the big bucks this year, they must be mounted on a wall somewhere.  We do however have three strong looking young bucks running about on a daily basis.  There is a 4-point and spike with some nice long tines; plus there is a button buck that we see on the Heritage regularly.  

The crew has been out doing some selective weed removal the past few weeks.  We try to reduce the population of several species before they flower, seed and spread even more next season.  Spotted Knapweed and Common Mullein are on the top of our hit list.  Both of these weeds spread very quickly and are very detrimental to the game (hard to swing a club through them).  Hand removal is our only option in many locations because of the severe terrain, it is also a more environmentally sound control tactic.  

Pictured above is 'The Doc' Thill sporting the proper head protection along with Jake and Kyle.  

They have a cart full of Mullein (or as they like to call it elephant ears), Good work guys!

My kids like to play this game called 'Angry birds' on my i-pad.  I might come up with another version called 'Angry golfer'.  Here we have yet another divot taken out of our putting surface.

Topdressing the Heritage Greens went very well yesterday.
I Fertilized the Heritage Fairways today and will be making wetting agent applications to the Greywalls and Heritage greens this week in order to gain better water efficiency and help reduce Localized Dry Spot (LDS) formation.

Verti-cut week at MGC.  

We did the Greywalls greens and Approaches on Monday before topdressing and did the Heritage Greens and Collars today in preparation for topdressing on this coming Monday.
We completed this task using our less aggressive standard blades and did not go as deep as we do in the Spring and Fall because of the heat and humidity.
Ball roll continues to be our number one goal, we like it to be smooth and consistent for the day from #1 green to #18 green.  

Looks like Joby is the pump-man today helping the rest of the crew fill up after our Friday Mow-day.

Another violent act of rage took place on the 10th green of Greywalls.  This persons putter head taught the putting surface a lesson.

Some extra maintenance is going into filling the divots on fairways this week on Greywalls.
With the factory in full production and divots not being replaced properly 'the crew' has to go out and fill the voids by hand just as we do on the teeing surfaces.  Pictured above is Ryan Thill aka 'The Doc' leading the guys on this task.  Many of the collection areas were as bad as we have seen them.
Great Job Guys!!

This is a picture of a core sample from our Heritage Greens.  The rooting continues to improve in depth and quantity.  Preparing the turf early in the season is how you make it through a tough hot summer.

What a storm!!  It showed up on the radar around 4 am as a nasty Red cell right over Marquette and the Golf Course.  Scouting for damage this morning.

Andy caught this little guy helping himself to some left overs.

We verti-cut and topdressed the Greywalls Greens on Monday.  It went very well minus the 95 degree heat.  We will verti-cut the Heritage Greens on Friday and topdress those greens on Monday.