Thank you, Mike!

It is with mixed emotions that we inform you of the departure of Assistant Superintendent, Mike Crane.  Mike has been with Laurel Creek for the past 13 years, and has been a key member of our team during that time.

Whether it was tackling weeds in the native areas with a 300 gallon sprayer and hose, or taking a more personal approach to removing undesirable plants one at a time with a dabber, Mike never shied away from the tough tasks.

We will definitely miss Mike's contribution to Laurel Creek, but wish him the best as he assumes the position of Assistant Superintendent at a private Club in Philadelphia.  Undoubtedly, he will be an asset to their operation!

Tough Weather for Turf

This past week's weather has been brutal, and is taking its toll on the turf.  So why do we often see turf loss during these dog days of summer?  Roots are often at the root of the matter.

As you can see in the illustration below, we are riding the annual roller coaster of root growth and loss, and are nearing the top.  Unfortunately, in this case, the top is when the roots are at their shortest.

Under these conditions, the ability of the plant to replenish lost moisture is limited, and there is little margin for error.  Too little water won't get the job done, however with extremely hot soil conditions, too much water can be equally disastrous.

August is around the corner, and while it hasn't been the best month in recent years, we will be happy to turn the page on July and look forward to some better grass-growing conditions in the coming months.  For now, we will tiptoe through the next few weeks.

Monarch Habitat

While the golf course may have a use for humans, it is also the place that many animals call home.  With this in mind, Laurel Creek joined the Monarchs in the Rough in 2018.   This program helps courses establish and maintain habitat for the Monarch butterfly, whose numbers have declined dramatically in recent years.

With the Monarch caterpillar relying on Milkweed, out of play areas on the golf course can serve as a great location for this food source for them.

So, while we spend a great deal of time and effort working to keep the course's native areas weed-free, don't be surprised to see some spots being left purposefully weedy, as we share the land with these beautiful butterflies.

Move along...there's nothing to see here.

Independence Day is now behind us, and if things have been a bit quiet on the blog front, let's take that as a positive (aka, no news is good news).  There's little doubt that no two years are alike, and while 2019's rainfall has given us some flashbacks to 2018, we'd like to think that we learned from last year's weather extremes, and are better prepared to handle them.

As previously mentioned, we are continually tweaking the operational plans on the golf course.  With most changes we make, if done correctly, you will never see them.  Here are some examples of this:

Crabgrass Control--After having breakthrough on collars the past couple of years, we made a carefully timed pre-emergent herbicide application to them this spring.  So what do you see?  Nothing that should't be there--the picture below is from 2018, with the collars having no Crab this year.

Take-All Patch--This disease took up a lot of blog space over the past several years, but not so much in 2019.  It appears that the fungicide treatments we made last October, prevented disease development and symptoms this spring.  Again, the picture below is from 2018.

Practice Tee--The cool season grass is entering the time of year when the seedlings struggle, and are constantly threatened by disease.  We installed Bermudagrass on the back of the upper tee in June, and it is now ready for use.  As it thrives in the heat, this turf will provide a great hitting surface for the next few months.

July has been awfully hot and humid thus far, and we've got a lot of summer left to contend with.  It will be great if  we can continue to report on "nothing" for the next several weeks.

Doing right by divots

We are often asked if divots should be replaced, or filled with the bottle mix on the cart.

The USGA provides an excellent answer to this question in a brief video:
Divots 101—Know When To Repair Or Replace

Deja Vu

It's been a while since we whined about the weather, but after this past week's incessant rain, we started having flashbacks to last year.  Thus far, it feels as if June is perfect weather for only a few folks to spend much time on the golf course:

A mallard is enjoying one of the few greenside bunkers that has yet to be renovated.

Similar to last year, April showers weren't really an issue this spring.  In both 2018 and 2019, we were within 4% of the historical precipitation average for the month.  However, once we hit May and June, the skies opened up.  This year, we recorded over seven inches of rain in May, and with 10 days remaining in June, we had already surpassed the monthly average by 57%!

What July and August will bring us is still unknown.  At this time, perhaps the old adage, "Prepare for the worst, and hope for the best..." is the only advice we can follow.

CANI on the Course

If you haven't heard the acronym "CANI" before, it stands for constant and never-ending improvement--or as we like to say, raising the bar.  With the goal of always seeking to better every phase of the golf course operation, we already have a Word document labeled "2020 Planning Notes" in progress.  This contains a list of changes we'd like to make in the future, dealing with everything from staffing, to fertilization and fungicide timing.  In early fall we will review the ideas and goals in this document, and include many of them in our business plan for the upcoming year.

Often times the improvements we make from year to year are minor in nature, and typically won't be noticed by a golfer.  However, these small tweaks can contribute to the overall quality of the product we are able to present to our members each day.

What's truly rewarding is when a suggested operational change comes from the front line staff.  A good example of this led to the way in which we are now mowing the approach on #11.  In the past, we would often see wear from the triplex mowers trying to negotiate this narrow area.  One of our full time employees, Jeff Stewart, suggested that we start hand mowing this approach when we cut collars.

When we looked at the cost (a few extra minutes of mowing) versus the benefit (improved turf condition) this change made complete sense. A simple, yet great idea--but that's not the best part of this story.

As Jeff is typically the person tasked with mowing collars, this idea actually increased his workload, and added to the 15 mile days he often puts in for us.  However, like many of the staff, Jeff has the ability to look beyond his own job, and focus on the big picture of what we are trying to accomplish.  We are truly fortunate to have such engaged team members, and look forward to continually raising the bar!