Monday, January 26, 2015

Cheesebrough Wooden Accessories factory tour

Last week I was down in East Lansing for the Michigan Turfgrass Conference I had the opportunity to visit the Cheesebrough Wooden golf Course Accesory factory.  It is a small family run operation in Lake Odessa Mi. that is turning out the finest products you will ever see on a golf course.  I was very impressed with the skill level and attention to detail in their products.  I look forward to doing business with them in the near future.  
A stack of their raw material, boards soon to be flagsticks 
Shop tools used in production
More shop tools used for product production, the racks behind hold the wooden rake handles and raw cut flagsticks before finishing. 
Rope stakes
Tee Markers
Flagsticks on a drying rack 
Hazard stakes drying
Putting green stick
Putting green stick
Fat flagstick
Andy holding a fat flagstick for a Full view 
Close up of the quality
My favorite is this flagstick, it is the P84 perennial design.  

Check them out at...
www.cheesebrough.com

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

2014 in review

2014

Another odd season slow to start then cool moist conditions persisted
Water use was very minimal 36% below our 11 year average
(all 36 holes = 17.8 million gallons used this year 27.5 million is our 11 year average) 

The addition of a walk behind Field and Brush mower made a big difference in our management of some key natural areas on the course.  Look for that to continue.

Green expansion started last fall on the remaining 5 Langford green (4,5,7,10,13). As with the other expansions in progress these areas will remain at approach height until density increases and a transition in turf varieties occurs. 

Several greens damaged (16/17-GW) from snowmold were a challenge to recover because of the early cool temps but once temperatures rose, recovery was rapid.  We were able to keep those greens open for play but with obvious limited pins and 'recovery' playing conditions until mid-August.  We were very lucky to only have those two areas damaged with the length of the 2013-2014 winter; most course did not fair so well last spring. 
An additional adjustment was made this fall to our fungicide program on those two greens because it has become an annual issue to some degree on both those surfaces. 

UW once again is running a very extensive snowmold fungicide trial on our 11th fairway of the Heritage course.  A great deal of information was learned last season from our site and they are excited that we continue to host them. 

The door shut hard and early this November with a 3 foot snow storm. 
Being weather hounds we knew this was coming and I had the guys kick it into hyper-drive.  Working around wind, leaves, rain and freezing temperatures my spraying and winter prep program went on every available moment when condition were proper including several nights of spraying.  October and the first week of November was a complete blur but the large task of proper winterization was a success. 

The early snow did eliminate the entire late season project list that I wanted to complete but that is life in Mqt.  

Winter conditions right now look fine as the majority of the snow crunched and settled during the last two warm ups.  I have found ice on several greens that did not have deep snow pack on them before the two above freezing event occurred.  Winter monitoring will continue. 

Looking for an early spring next year

Both courses continue to shine and benefit from our long term sustainable management programs. 
The Grounds Focus is always on the game of golf and prioritized to our Greens-Approaches-Fairways-Tees and playability of those areas as they relate to the game. 
Rising costs without rising budget funds continues to be a challenge and we continue to stretch for more efficiency within our operation but as time goes on they become more difficult to achieve because we are so dialed in. 

A big thanks to my staff again this season, they rock!

Grounds information sources continue at…..

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