A fresh face for #17

I apologize for not having pics and updates for the last few days, especially given that we have started one of the biggest projects since I came here 7 years ago.  As many of you know, we have begun renovations on the bunkers for #17.  The left trap had become unmaintainable and unplayable, so with the support of the committee, I hired a professional golf construction company and retained the advice of Shawn Smith (from Arthur Hills and Assoc) and we started digging Tuesday.

Normally, when a course renovates bunkers, you would hire a golf construction company to do all of the work, with a little support from the maintenance staff.  This is the best way to get fast results and not let the golf course conditions suffer at the expense of a big project.  To save money, the maintenance staff is doing ALLof the grunt work, while a professional shaper does the heavy lifting.  The shaper is the key to moving the dirt efficiently while our crew handles the finish, drainage, and sod work.  This has been an enormous undertaking, with the crew working sun-up to sun-down, while also performing their normal, early morning maintenance on the rest of the course.

Obviously, if we are serious about future bunker improvements, using our maintenance crew is not a viable option for large-scale renovations.  My hope is that through completing this small portion, the membership can see the value of professional work as well as the value of our current master plan.  I will speak further about this once the project is complete.  For now, see some pics from Tuesday.  The Wednesday pictures are a little more dramatic, but the damn things wont upload!  I will hopefully get them out soon.

Scraping out the old sand.

This is Simon.  He is from Texas and with Eagle Golf Construction.  He is an absolute Wizard with the controls.  I have worked with many golf shapers in the past, and he is world class.

Getting the sand out of the larger trap.

We use plywood to save as much turf as possible.  Little difficult in the rain, however.

With the sand coming out, it's time to start moving dirt.

Taking down the left edge.

And finally, some bedrock.  We hit a lot of this throughout the project.

Starting to take shape.

More bedrock.

Let me level with you...

As we all know, #15 tee has been one of the worst playing surfaces on the entire golf course.  Over the years, the right side has settled fairly dramatically, and a nice 'crown' has developed in the center of the tee making the middle 5 feet the only acceptable teeing ground on the entire tee.  I have wanted to do something about it for years, but only now have we had the full time to commit to this project.

If we had all the money in the world, my first option would have been to have a professional shaper laser-grade the top  to perfection and re-build the entire tee as outlined in the master plan.  Unfortunately, when you only have time and money to do a tee or two at a time, hiring professionals is seldom economically prudent what with fuel cost and mobilization.  So, for now, your maintenance staff is doing what it can to level the tee surface, widen the tee a bit, and hopefully make the entire tee surface usable for our players.  This repair will serve us well until the timing is right to do some more serious renovations.  We are not professional shapers nor do we have professional equipment, but we do have enough experience and 'good eyes' on the crew to "do it up old school" and eventually get a good result.  Given the condition of the tee, there's no way we could make it worse.  We have done the best we can with what we have to work with.

The tee had deteriorated to the point where the right edge was almost 10 inches lower than the middle of the tee!  I was shocked at the difference when we brought out the transit and shot the grade.  To bring that up high enough, we were forced to widen the tee also to provide enough support material to make a change in grade of that magnitude.  Ultimately, it will allow us to have a tee wide enough to use the entire thing.

In just a couple of days, we have managed to strip the tee sod, push out the crown, and add about 60 yards of fresh dirt to the tee.  We layed the salvaged sod today, and will finish with sod from our nursery tomorrow.  With good weather and rooting, we should be able to play on it before the year is over.

Check out the pics below.

With a rainy start to the week, we thought the project might get scrapped.  We were able to start building up new edge and moving material to support the new width of the tee.

We shot and set some rough stakes and just started piling and packing.

Machines and a lot of elbow grease from the crew shaped in the new edge.

The rain let up, so we decided to start stripping sod.  Heavy divot areas just fell apart, but we did manage to save about 60% of the existing tee sod.

You can really see how focused the divot wear is in the middle of the tee as a result of the uneven surface.

Sod was stripped and palletized and moved with our skid loader.

The crown in the middle of the tee was the result of years and years of filling divots.  There was about 2-3 inches of green sand even once we got to the proper level!

Once the grades were shot, we placed some stakes and started adding dirt to the left side.  Between 6 and 9 inches of material was added to this edge to level the tee.

Looking at the black tape on the stake, it's easy to see how low the middle and edge of the tee was, and this was after we had already rough-graded it.

Once we got it all smoothed out, we broadcast a thick layer of sand/compost mix and drug it with a steel mat to get all the little bumps and birdbaths out.

In just two days we have managed to start laying sod again.  We will hopefully button things up tomorrow.

Frost delays explained - with terrible production value

We had our first frost this morning, which is a little early for us.  It reminded me of this terrible little movie that my friends at PACE turf put together.  While cheesy, poorly written, poorly acted, and a little too reminiscent of Rose City Motors commercials, the points are good.

A perfect example of what I've been blabbing about

Unbeknownst to you, or even me to a certain extent, I've had a case study in progress in the pot bunker on #17.  All season, in response to questions about the conditions of the bunkers and the sand, I've spoken about 'contamination' and 'runoff' and 'sand faces' and 'lack of drainage'. Right now, there is a perfect example of what I've been talking about that makes it easy to illustrate.

Each of the last two seasons, we have dug out #17 pot bunker, reshaped, and added fresh sand in an effort to make it somewhat playable.  Balls entering the trap have a tendency to roll all the way to the back, and we did this to minimize it.  The important point is that we have added brand-spanking new sand to this bunker this season, and most of you are familiar with what it looks like now-back to hard, contaminated, and mostly muddy.

The take-home message here is that the quality and consistency of the bunker sand is always directly proportional to the quality of the construction and drainage.  As far as construction is concerned, this bunker was "perched" up like a pimple as opposed to "dug out" like a crater.  Once traffic, maintenance, and constant sand splashing about added up, the edges began to erode.  With the buildup of sand, the edges were constantly trimmed back, exposing more and more soil on the face of the trap.  Now, with only a few good rains over the course of 1 season, you can plainly see in the pictures below that the sand is completely contaminated.     As far as drainage is concerned, there is none.  The trap will only drain as fast as the clay and soil beneath allow.  This makes for standing water that carries contaminants from below the sand as well.  All-in-all it's a losing battle.  If this trap is to get better, it needs to be rebuilt, not unlike many traps on the course.  Many members seem to think just continually adding sand will make all the traps just splendid.  Adding sand does help most bunkers for a limited time, but it is easy to see in this situation that's not the case. 

Below, check out the pictures.  You can see plainly (look at the bright patch of sand) what the sand looked like when it was put in around June 1st and what it looks like now after only one season.

The brightly colored spot is what the sand looked like fresh.  The bottom of the photo shows the color of wet sand, and above the bright spot is dry sand in the trap.  The color difference is dramatic wet or dry.  The new sand I used was actually dug out of #8 greenside trap on the same day at the same time.  So it has even spent a season in play-not brand new sand!

I made sure to put the fresh sand in between the wet spot in the trap.  You can see how much brighter it is than the dry and wet sand.  The consistency is also more soil-like than sandy.  This only took 1 season with the poor condition of the trap.

We hope to rebuild the traps on 17 this fall weather permitting.  With the help of our master plan architects and a professional shaper, we will work to create an attractive and more playable hazard that will make a great par-3 even better. 

I'm wearing a jacket at 2 in the afternoon! Must be time to aerify something!

As a lovely afternoon chill blankets the golf course, I start to get the itch to punch some holes!  Normally, we would be considering aerifying the greens about now, but since we moved green and fairway aerification to October, we will get started with the tees.  Today, we were able to get 12 sets of tees aerified and hopefully finish them off in the next couple of days.  If the predicted poor weather comes, bear with us as we cannot punch tees in the rain.  We will try to finish them no later than next week. 
If you played today and wondered what the little 'grooves' in the fairways are, we have also started 'verti-cutting' fairways.  Using a row of vertically oriented blades that look similar to an asterisk, we are lightly thinning the canopy and standing the grass blades up. This activity also severs 'stolons' (aka lateral growth stems) to stimulate 'creeping' to help fill in weak areas.  Also, verti-cutting serves to lightly 'de-thatch' the fairways by removing excess dead grass tissue and other organic matter in the upper profile.  This will hopefully make for a healthier canopy as the plants start to throw down roots.  Also, it should provide a better canopy to allow our upcoming granular fertilizer applications to get down into the soil and less susceptible to mower pickup.

Now that the stresses of a difficult summer are behind us, we are just starting to do the things that will make us healthier for next season.  I will keep you up to date as we go through our steps.  As a side note, Greens aerification will be Monday, October 3rd.

CLICK ON THE 'PLAY' BUTTON BELOW TO SEE THE AERIFIER IN ACTION ON 17 TEE

We are using 3/4" tines at 2x2 spacing.  Lots of nice, clean holes.  This creates an opportunity for gas exchange, nice channels for new fall roots, and better drainage.

The vertical mower that chops up the aerification plugs.



After we chop them up with the vertical mower, not much but thatch and 'fuzz' left over.



Then we drag with a heavy brush to get the last of it broken up.

Andy blowing off the 'fuzz'

The final result.  A few holes not filled, but no big deal on tees.

A closeup of the fairway verti-cutter unit attached to our normal fairway mower.

Very subtle.  The right side of the picture is the 'grooves' from the verticutting.  The left side has yet to be cut.  We will do a much more aggressive de-thatching later this month.

Natural Area Test Plot - Take a look!

As many of you probably know, I seeded the old #14 tee with a 'links style' fescue blend.  The motivations behind this were 1.  Test the proper technique of seeding new species into an existing stand,  2.  Find the seeding rate that would work best for the course, and 3.  Show the membership what a properly planted 'natural' area would look like.  Well, I'm happy to report that it came out great, and looks just as I hope our native areas would look should we decide to kill and reseed these areas.

Looking at the areas, the differences are very noticable.  First, while the area looks like a 'wispy wheatfield', the finer, bunch-type fescue is less dense, making it much easier to walk through, find your ball, hit your ball, and much easier for us to mow down.

Secondly, and probably most important, (since none of you ever hit your ball into the native areas, hee hee) the more uniform height and texture is far more aesthetically pleasing than our existing mixed stand.  Currently, our 'natural' areas consist of a mixture of bluegrass, annual bluegrass, fescue, ryegrass, and whatever else has invaded over the years.  These grasses create a dense, messy, and often times 'fallen' look that is not desirable. 

Thirdly, the areas we have grown 'natural' do not have sprinklers.  Fescue type grasses survive in good health much better in un-irrigated areas better than the bluegrasses and ryegrasses. 

The point of the re-seeding will ultimately install a more appropriate and attractive grass to survive in these areas where no sprinklers exist.  It is important to note that the layout of these areas will not be taken lightly.  We will consult with members and architects to make sure that the proper lines and areas are re-grassed.  Please swing by the old 14 tee this fall and let me know what you think.

I mowed a pass around to better define the fescue.  A nice, uniform stand of grass that looks good tall.

The matted down grass in the foreground is our existing "mix".  Where Aaron stands is the re-seeded fescue.  It's easy to see the difference in uniformity from our existing grass to the new fescue area.

Old 14 black tee turned out looking good as well.

Here's the old, existing grass grown tall.  You almost can't see the ball, let alone hit it.

The less dense fescue offers a much easier view of the ball and the opportunity to make a play.

Again, the fescue offers a much more playable 'out of play area'

The grass is growing....finally

After a long and very hot summer, the pleasant late summer weather has made for some good grass growing conditions.  Weak areas in the rough such as #3, 13, and 9 that were seeded multiple times during the summer and again recently are finally getting the right conditions to grow.

Most of these areas were lost due to the excessive rain and subsequent heat around Memorial Day weekend.  Unfortunately, they were reluctant to regrow for a couple of reasons.  First, the abnormally hot summer made for difficult conditions in keeping the seed sufficiently moist, especially considering our priority was keeping the golf course playable and not a squishy mess.  Secondly, and more important, these rough areas are treated every spring with products designed to inhibit the growth and establishment of crabrass and other grassy weeds.  Unfortunately, these chemicals will inhibit ANY seed from growing in these areas, which has greatly influenced our ability to re-establish any new growth.  As summer comes to an end, these products are finally wearing off and the seed has finally started to grow.  Some areas, such as #3, however, are still showing signs that they aren't ready to allow any germination just yet.  We will give them another dose of seed in early september and hope for the best.

The bottom of #9 near the creek was hit hard by spring rains and heat, but there is a nice amount of seed starting to take.  Note the uniform rows of new growth in the bare areas.

Closeup of new seedlings getting started.

An area in front of #13 tee in the courtesy walk-up with a few rows of new grass.

Here's another area on #13 courtesy walk-up that hasn't had any seed come up.  I suspect the herbicide we use for crabgrass control in the spring is still inhibiting seeds from growing here.  The patch of grass in the middle is a patch of ryegrass and bluegrass that survived the summer stress.  The bare area was likely all bentgrass and poa-annua, which are weeds in the rough.  A textbook case of why these species are not as well adapted under stressful, wet, and hot conditions.

More good seedling growth.

International additions to our crew

Just last week, two new crew members arrived and started work.  Their names are Yin Jingqi and Zhou Shuang.  They go by Steven and Andy and will be working here from mid-August through mid-November.  

Steven and Andy are 2 of over 70 participants in the Michigan State University-China turfgrass internship program.  The golf and turf industry is beginning to boom in China, and there is a need for turf professionals.  Currently, most new golf projects in China are managed by Americans, with limited number of Chinese with any type of golf experience.   After passing an english proficiency test, the students are sent to East Lansing for a few weeks of basic training before being carted to golf courses all over the US.  Just in the Toledo area, there are a total of six between HMGC, Toledo CC, and Sylvania Country Club.

It works perfect for us operationally, as the students arrive right as our American students head back to school for the year.  More importantly, it has shown to be a great exercise in goodwill, cultural diversity, and an overall wonderful experience for our staff.  If you get a chance, stop and say hello.  They are great kids and so far have proven to be great additions to our group.

Yin Jingqi (aka Steven) heading out for a spray.

Zhou Shuang (aka Andy) working on some drains.

Timeless, common sense turf maintenance circa 1935

Below is a link to an article captured from the USGA Green Section record.  There are several good articles and regional updates as usual, but the article that stood out to me was this clipping from the from 1936 related to a particularly nasty summer of 1935.  I found it interesting that the basic principles and practices we apply to deal with stressful weather today were somewhat understood in the relative infancy of 'greenkeeping'.
As summer winds down, we have been lucky to avoid any disasterous turf loss to this point.  The greens have struggled at times, but for the most part remained intact. I have spoken with several superintendents that have reported moderate to severe turf loss.   Last year, we had some thinning on several putting surfaces due to stressful temperatures and disease pressure.  The pressure this year has been worse due to record temperatures, but we have been most fortunate to avoid any major disasters so far.  With September approaching, we can look forward to more moderate conditions while we hopefully start rebuilding our roots again. 

Keeping intensely maintained turf healthy and able to withstand traffic is only getting more difficult.  Higher member expectations and modern technology have led to lower cutting heights making it tough to keep plants healthy and viable under the stresses of daily play.  It takes a lot of attention, education, and rigid chemical and agronomic practices to keep things up to snuff.  What it boils down to, and what is reflected in the article is that we are still just growing a plant.  While we have far more knowledge and resources available now, common sense and diligence are still the superintendents best friend.

Click here for some wisdom from 1935

What was in that rain?

The same storm that knocked out our pumps (see previous post below) brought a lovely 0.6" of rain to the course Friday.  While the water was welcome, it did produce some remarkable growth on the golf course.  We had the entire golf course mowed and manicured friday leading into the weekend, and by Sunday the greens started to look more like tees!  Areas in the rough were as tall as 5 inches, and the fairways, which were mowed Saturday, were extremely shaggy.  I have never seen this type of growth in late July. 

The upside of this was a noticable greening of the course.  The downside is that the greens, rough, and tees were growing at an unbelievable pace.  Greens were slow, and the tall rough made for a huge mess to start the weeks mowing.  We are continuing to get large amounts of clippings from the greens each day, and we will have to ramp up the mowing to stay on top of the rough.  We have applied extra growth regulator to hopefully slow the growth rate on the greens and we will roll as long as temperatures and stress levels allow.  Please bear with us through this rare, late-season flush of growth.

Last week I volunteered on the grounds crew at Inverness for the US Senior Open.  They were battling the same thing.  While they were mowing and rolling at night and the morning, they were also seeing a tremendous amount of clippings in their buckets despite the extra mowing and extra growth regulator applications.

With the continuation of record hot temperatures, we are still in 'survival' mode.  Our goal is to get through the next couple of weeks with as much healthy turf as possible.  As long as it remains hot, we are limited in what we can do to keep the course firm and fast without compromising the health of our turf.

This rough immediately adjacent to #6 green, was thick and up to 5-6" tall.  US open rough has nothing on us!

The clippings off of #8 green, which is one of our smallest.  This pile of grass is 3-4 times more than we would normally expect from this green.  Hopefully our growth regulator will trim this back, but with continued moist, warm conditions, our course is like a growth chamber.

This is the rough next to #10 fairway on Monday.  The extra growth created an extra mess.

A VFD is a BFD.

Last friday, we had a pretty good thunderstorm roll through the Toledo area.  The rain was welcome, but the lightning decided to knock out an electronic component that controls our irrigation pump station called a variable frequency drive (VFD).  The bad news is that we cannot use our sprinklers to water the golf course.  The only good news is that our pumps still function to some extent.  During the day, we can still use one or two hoses.  This will allow us to at least keep the greens watered and healthy through this record summer heat.  At night, however, we cannot control our irrigation system to water the tees, fairways, or rough.  I was able to get our pump service provider out to diagnose the problem, and a new VFD is on the way, hopefully to be installed no later than Wednesday.  Until then, we will be burning the candle at both ends to keep as much of the course healthy through the next couple of days.  Potential rain tonight will definitely be welcome.  You may start to see some 'browning' on fairways and tees over the next day or so, but with a little luck we should be able to recover these areas as soon as we can water again.  On the upside, the course will be firming up during this time which should make for some fun golf!

Extended heat and humidity causing problems again.

Last season was one of the most difficult growing seasons in many years.  So far, the summer of 2011 is doing whatever it can to show 2010 up.  Fortunately, thus far, we have held up fairly well in relation to last year.  The rains have been a little more timely this year and the lessons I learned from last year have helped me adjust our maintenance practices to hopefully be better prepared.  Other courses throughout the midwest have not been as lucky as us.

Below is a link to a press release from the Golf Course Superintendent's Association of America (GCSAA) that speaks to these struggles with the weather.  There are a few important points contained therein that describe some of the misconceptions from members.

1.  Cool-season grasses, which make up 100% of our golf course, do NOT like heat - especially Poa annua, which makes up between 40% to 80% of our greens, fairways, tees and rough.  When soil temperatures reach above 90, roots die and the plants go into 'survival mode'.  Under these conditions, it is best to be very cautious and 'baby' the course through the heat and humidity.

2.  Rain does not cure all of the problems.  Heat stress on grass and drought stress on grass are two different things.  Turf maintained as intensely as putting surfaces especially will often change color and die from extended periods of heat and humidity that no additional water will necessarily cure.  Many members think that rain will cure all problems.  While it does help to have a well-timed rain from time to time, it often will not bring some turf back from extreme heat stress.

3.  Traffic is important.  Managing cart and even foot traffic goes a long way towards keeping grass healthy.  Repeated foot steps on greens or cart traffic on fairways or rough will increase the likelihood of turf damage.  The yellow ropes and stakes we use here, while annoying to some players, are a necessity to minimize damage.

As I've said many times before, we will always attempt to do what's best for the long term health of the golf course while trying to keep the course fun and playable for everyone.  Take a couple of minutes and read the press release which I'm sure explains things better than I do.  Thank you all for being supportive of me and my crew while we battle the weather again this year.  Next summer has to be nice, right?


Click here for the press release from GCSAA

Maximize your driving range tee!

As many of you know, the driving range tee at Highland Meadows is very small relative to the amount of usage.  Year after year we struggle with keeping enough grass for members to practice on.  With Jamie Farr taking a year off, we have been fortunate to keep members on fresh grass most of the season.  However, as the season progresses, we are more than halfway through our available hitting surface.  With the summer heat in full swing, we are at a  point where growing new grass is not very likely even with our regular sanding and seeding of the surface.  That being said, there are some basic concepts that members can use to minimize the amount of damage they cause when practicing.

Below are some pictures of our range tee and below you will find a good short article from the USGA on how to "Practice Like a Pro".  The idea is simple.  When you take a divot, place your next shot directly behind the prior divot.  That way, the amount of grass removed will only be what the ball was sitting on.  You will get the same response as if taking a full divot, but your club will pass through the previous divot without removing even more grass.  Following this idea, you shouldn't wipe out more than a couple of square feet of turf even with an extended practice session.

In order to have grass to hit from, it will take a little effort from all of us.  Please also note that for the rest of the summer, we will be using the mats once or twice a week to stretch the tee as far as possible. 

The link to the USGA article is below.  Take a couple of minutes to read through it. 

Here's a shot from our range tee.  Look at the amount of grass left in between all the random divots.

Here's a spot where the player maximized their space.  No wasted grass here.

And the classic complaint.  On days when we are on the mats, stay on the mats!

Click here for the USGA article "Practice Like a Pro".

Of all the times to get rain.

For weeks now we have been begging for rain on the golf course.  Well, we finally got it.  As I write this on Monday the 18th, we are getting a series of t-storms that are dumping rain on the golf course.  Not sure how much we will ultimately get, but the timing couldn't be worse.

When daytime temperatures hit 90+ and nighttime lows hit 70+ for consecutive days, there are a myriad of fungal diseases that superintendent's stress about.  Standing water on the golf course will do nothing but promote the development of these diseases in these conditions.  Also, as we saw over Memorial Day weekend, the potential for 'scalding' of the turf exists, which could add to potential turf damage and loss.

We have sprayed a 'witches brew' of chemicals that will hopefully stave off the development and ultimately protect the plant, but Mother Nature always has a way of overcoming in extreme circumstances.  We will have to be diligent to ensure the course doesn't suffer more damage than necessary. 

In the event of severe disease outbreak, it may even be necessary to stop mowing, which will make it difficult to provide the level of playing conditions that you are accustomed to.  I will make every effort to keep the membership informed and also to keep the course 'up to snuff'.  Bear with us through this difficult stretch of weather, and I assure you we will do what we can to protect our club.

Stay cool!  Below is a post to a short turf-nerd explanation of disease pressure from MSU's Dr. Joe Vargas via the Michigan Golf Course Superintendent's Association Website.

Dr. Vargas Talks Turf-nerd stuff click here.

Better than nothing, but only barely.

Well, for the first time in what seems like an eternity, it finally decided to rain on us yesterday.  Lightning, thunder, and periods of rain wetted the course.   Between two distinct waves of weather, we received about 0.35 inches of rain here on the property.  Points south received a fair bit more, but we were spared the 'sheets' of rain.  While it was a welcome suprise, it was simply not enough.

Good, steady midseason rains are good for a lot of reasons.  First and most obvious, a thorough wetting of the soil will bring back the brown, toasty areas, especially those where there are no sprinklers.  A look at the photo below shows a plug taken from the rough this morning, after yesterdays rain.  0.35 inches, while it seemed like a lot, was only enough to wet about the top three-quarters to one inch of soil. 



 The darker soil near the grass is the wet soil (sorry about the blurry pic) and the light brown soil from there down is completely bereft of moisture.  The un-irrigated areas on our course are in profound levels of dryness that only a few, steady, all-day soakers or good thunderstorms can fix at this point.  While we will see some temporary green-up, any long term hopes for lush rough aren't likely.

Another benefit of midseason rains is a thorough 'flushing' of the soil profile with good, clean rain water.  The water from 10-mile creek that we irrigate with contains certain impurities and characteristics that only a good rain can flush from the soil, ultimately resulting in healthier turf plants.  Unfortunately, this wimpy rain wasn't enough to do much about that.

The forecast doesn't look good for rain in the near future.  Until then, we will keep things as healthy as we can and hope for a little help from Mother Nature down the line.

Repairs repairs repairs...

The downside of all the spring rain and subsequent hot weather was that some turf was lost, mostly in rough and areas of poor drainage.  The upside of that is we were able to determine where our drainage problems lie.  As a result, we have managed to clean or repair several areas where our drains were not working this spring.

As far as the dead grass, the scalded areas were left to recover as much as they could on their own.  Unfortunately, some did not recover, so we went ahead and slit-seeded these areas in hopes of getting a little germination.  With the high and dry skies, it has been tough keeping everything wet, but if we don't get much out of this effort, we will reseed in the fall, when growning conditions are better.

This drain tile on #14 was severed when the irrigation system was installed 15 years ago.  You can see the white pipe and hydraulic control lines running perpendicular to the tile.  It took 15 years to wash enough dirt into the break to clog the line.

We start at one end of the tile and trace it with a large 'fish'.  When we find another obstruction, we dig it up, repair, and continue to trace.

The slit seeder on #3 cutting seed into the ground.  Hopefully we have better luck than the farmers have had so far this year.

Happy Fourth of July!

It's been a great weekend for golf.  The sun has been shining, the course has dried out and has played fast and firm this weekend.  Everyone have a superb and safe holiday!