66 days.......

Hole #13.

66 days until the 2013 John Deere Classic begins.  With that, we are still in a cool and wet weather pattern. The Rock River has slowly receded, allowing many homeowners in the area to return home and start the task of cleaning up and repairing any damage.  Temperatures continue to stay below normal for the most part, allowing us to continue working on many course projects before we reach our peak mowing schedule.  Staffing levels are slowing increasing with seven college students starting within the next two weeks bringing our staff to a total of twenty-five.

Our Regional Director of TPC Agronomy, Mark Johnson, visited us on May 1st and 2nd.  During his pre-tournament visit, we toured the property and discussed setup and preparations for the Classic in July. We look forward to working with him again during this years Classic.

This week continues to be very busy with the aerification of all collars and cleanups, #4 green, and both practice fairways (Yeah I said fairway, not tee!  This slight name change may change your view on how you manage this area, whatever you may call it.) #4 green was also seeded, spiked, topdressed, brushed, and rolled on May 2nd after its aerification.  All this is in response to the near perfect results we received from our 2012 PoaCure application for control of Poa annua.  Although there is some bentgrass emerging from the old (or should I say dead) poa patches, we felt we needed to help expedite the process with only 66 days until some of the best golfers in the world grace us with their many talents.

Pepe (the tractor) and I spending a morning together on the Practice Fairways.

Seeding the Practice Fairway after aerification with the Turfco TriWave.

Paul Grogan, CGCS, and Ryan Abbate prepping #4 green for some seed.

View of dead and decaying Poa annua after aerification, seeding and spiking.

We also continue to chip at other projects like away at bunker depths and liner repair on our 74 bunkers.  Cutting of trees and underbrushing kept our staff busy into the winter and again early this spring.  From this, we were left with many stumps in need of grinding.  Ryan Abbate, AGCS II, took on the responsibility of grinding these countless stumps into large piles of fine pieces of mulch and woody debris.

Ryan having just a little too much fun!! (Notice the grin from ear to ear)