Kudos to crew

Today we will finish up topdressing on the aerated greens.  First time I can remember aerating and topdressing in a snowstorm.  And for that I want to give kudos to my small crew that for some reason keeps showing up to work in 35 degrees/35 mph wind.  It has not been pleasant to finish up our spring aeration session but thanks to my crew we will get it done as scheduled.  

As greens start to heal up from aerification, we will start to focus more on putting quality and you should see a noticeable improvement in the next couple of weeks.  The rest of the course has just been sitting there for the past three weeks with the weather we have had.  At one point we were ahead of schedule and now the turf seems to be at or behind what is normal for late April.  But that is not unusual for spring in Nebraska and we really don't see our turf doing much until we get into May.  The next 3 weeks should see much improvement in that regard.

There has been a delay in the VFD that controls our new irrigation motor due to supply chain issues but we are happy to report that it is now installed and we will start programming it today.  Super excited for this upgrade.

So while it has been a little bit of a trying aerification season, we are certainly excited for the upcoming golf season and are expecting great conditions.

 

Spring Progress

It's been a warm and windy start to April for sure.  The warmer temps have allowed us to get a good portion of the fairway aerification done (only holes 2 and 3 left).  Hope to finish up this week which will allow us to move greens surrounds aeration up to next week on the 13/14th from the 26/27.  That way we can get out of your way sooner while weather may not be ideal for golf.

The course is farther along than most years but when it is 80 degrees people wonder why it's not greener?  It just takes time for grass to get moving when soil temperatures are still in the forties.  So even though you are in your shorts, the turf's legs are still in the fridge!  

As we have said many times before, April is our set-up month with aerification and fertilizer and chemical applications coming in the next few weeks that prepare the turf for the prime golfing months ahead.  So while many of you expect fast greens right out of the gate, we are certainly not pushing for superb playing conditions at this point.  As we transition out of aerification season and weather conditions become more stable our focus will shift towards better playability.

We were able to execute our burn on Monday on a very warm and dry day.  Fortunately the wind stayed manageable but even with that the fire was quite volatile.  So we were able to complete most of the areas, but we left some on the outside of #14 and #2 just because it was too dangerous and difficult to control the fire like we wanted.  But all in all another good burn day for Wild Horse.    I appreciate my staff and some extra volunteers for their hard work to pull it off.  It has become a rite of spring here at Wild Horse, but should not be taken for granted.  We have been doing this for twenty years now and feel pretty experienced at it, but it is still a relief to get it done right without incident.