More Cocoa Please!

     What you see in the picture above is our newer coca mat being pulled by a John Deere Gator on our 17th green. One of my first purchases almost three years ago was a cocoa mat. The cocoa mat is primarily used to brush in our top-dressing sand. Well, the original cocoa mat had finally reached its useful life so we recently acquired a new one and this morning we took it out to use it as a pre-brush before the greens mower. This is something Tom and I have been discussing for a while so we decided to give a try this morning. The idea being that it would help stand up the turf before the greens were mowed. Our final consensus was that it was a good idea and did seem to increase the amount of clippings in the baskets in comparison to our previous couple of mowing's which should result in a smoother surface.

No More Leaves Please!

As you can see in the photo above we have plenty of leaves falling from the 170+ Elm trees that line the entrance road to the course. From about the beginning of October to the first of the new year we spend almost every morning blowing and cleaning up the leaves. In the last week with the cooler weather the majority of the leaves have finally turned yellow and really started to fall. Though this is not a favorable job by anyone on the staff it's neat to see the leaves changing color and giving a different look to the course. We do apologize if your ball ends up in one of our piles but with a small staff and the increase in the amount of leaves falling this time of year we will probably only be able to get the piles cleaned up a couple times a week.  

End of November

     Can you believe it's the end of November already? I hope all of you reading this had a great Thanksgiving with family and friends. I was fortunate to have the last week off for a much needed vacation. It's not always easy to turn my work switch off but I really tried my hardest this time. It makes it easier when you have a great staff. 

     This last week the boys knocked out all of the mowing by Wednesday and even had time to tackle a couple of small projects. A lot of credit needs to be given to my entire staff for making my job easier and the course looking great week in and week out.

    The projects this last week included a new split-rail fence to the left of #15 green. This was another step towards eliminating the (not so)permanent rope lines on the course. The next fence project will probably be down the cart path on #4 from tee to green.

    

    The next project at the top of our list for this week was the (almost) dead pine tree down the left side of #18 fairway. This tree took a turn for the worst last winter and has slowly been losing its green needles since. We will be planting some cypress in a few locations down the left rough of #18 very shortly.

     With December right around the corner the maintenance staff all hope you get to get out and play often in the next few weeks especially with no rain in the ten-day forecast.