Sweet Dreams Wakonda...

The 'blankets' are down and Wakonda has officially been put to bed for winter. We made a strong push before Thanksgiving and our greens are now prepared for whatever this winter season has in store.
Pictured above you can see the covers on 16, 17, 1, 4, and 2 green. With the course closed we have already begun preparing for next season. On nice days we plan to continue to mulch leaves, prune trees, and cut down dead trees.

Today we have begun the process of refinishing yardage plaques.

The plaques to the left have had the brass polished while the plaque on the bottom, right has only been power- washed. The plaque on the top, right has been cleaned, polished, and masked and is ready for a fresh coat of paint.

The work is all done by hand and is very time consuming but well worth the effort to maintain the plaques which are very expensive. We will repeat this overall procedure on each piece of course equipment- hundreds of posts, plaques, and trash cans to be reconditioned.

GOLF COURSE TO CLOSE SOON

Enjoy the golf course while you can! We will close the course for winter Sunday at dusk.

We're in a chess match with mother nature and she has us in check. Weather forecasts have a chance for snow and bitter cold temperatures around Thanksgiving. The challenge is to keep the course open as long as possible but to be ready for winter before the first snow storm/ deep freeze.

This week we applied fungicides to the tees and fairways to protect them from snow mold. We also placed the protective green covers throughout the course. The short holiday week next week will be extremely busy for us. We have to blow all the water out of the irrigation system on Monday. The greens need to be sprayed to protect them from snow mold. After that we will apply some organic fertilizer and topdress them with sand. The last step is to cover the greens with the protective tarps.

November Rain

It's a rainy day today- not good for golf but a chance to catch our breath. Our staff now consists of only 5 people. Maintianing our 140 acre property is a challenge with such a small staff. The task at Wakonda is especially time consuming because of the number of large trees which shed tons of leaves.

We have several important projects in the coming weeks in preparation for winter. The driving range net has been taken down and is the first step in our winter preparations. We also have to spray the greens, tees, and fairways with products to protect our turf from snow mold. The week before Thanksgiving we will have to blow all the water out of our irrigation pipes- this process is accomplished using a giant diesel powered air compressor. Finally, just before our first snow storm, we topdress the greens with sand and cover them with plastic tarps to protect them from the extreme winter cold.

This week we had a drainage consultant do a study of Wakonda Club's drainage needs. Drainage was a big topic of discussion with the USGA agronomist this summer. He highly recommended that we have a specialist do a study on our drainage situation.

Dennis Hurley of Turf Drainage Company of America spent two days walking the grounds with flags, paint, a voice recorder, and GPS. He will study our water flow issues and develop a comprehensive plan for the property.

Pictured above, the driving range net was taken down on Monday, November 8. Below two staff members are working to prepare our plow/ dump truck for the rigors of winter snow removal.

We were excited for the arrival of our new TORO equipment. Almost all of our equipment is on a 4- year revolving lease. Pictured above you see 2006 model year carts being loaded to leave the property. Below staff members are in the process of labeling new carts for our preventive maintenance program.