Catching Up

October has been a busy month. We have finished aerifying. We have blown out the irrigation. The leaves are falling. The Traver Creek Project begins next week. Some thoughts about what has been going on.

Last week, we had some scuff marks on #11 green one morning. As David was blowing the oak leaves off the green in preperation for mowing, he uncovered a broken deer antler. Apparently, two young bucks were working off some testosterone and one of them had a lot more than the other.

On Tuesday, we got the air compressor we use to empty the water from the irrigation lines so they don't freeze. Click here to read more about the process. This year, after we were done with the compressor, we took it over to Tony at Calderone Farms Golf Club near Grass Lake.

Here is a video I shot today on #9. The leaves on the oak leaves are falling like rain. This might give you some idea of the amount of time we spend in a day to keep the greens and tees clear of leaves. We also try to hit every fairway at least once. It can be frustrating to work for a half-an-hour to clear off a fairway, only to look back later and not tell that you have done anything. The only consolation is knowing that it would have been worse, if we had not blown it off before.

The Traver Creek Project is scheduled to begin on Monday, October 29th. The pond on #17 is being drawn down in order to facilitate dredging. It is about 2 feet below where it was during the height of this summer's drought. You can see the sediment build-up in the center of the pond.

New Forward Tee on #10

With the Traver Creek Project (also see http://travercreekproject.blogspot.com/) set to start at the end of October, we have begun construction of of new forward tee on #10. When Leslie Park opens back up in April, the front half of #10 fairway will be raised to eliminate drainage issues and re-sodded. Until the fairway is able to sustain play, we will use this new tee as the teeing grounds for all play on this hole. It will be around 220 yards long, but because of the creek running in front of the green, staff still thinks it will play as a par 4.

The new tee is on the right side, just after the beginning of the fairway. We stripped the sod and set it out in the parking lot while we built the tee up. The above picture shows the area after we stripped the sod and leveled out the hill that was there. We have just started to put down fill.

The workmen line up to dump the loads of topsoil.

Getting close.

This is pretty close to the final product.

The teeing surface is painted out and lined up.

Sod was taken from the fairway to lay on the tee.

The rough surrounding the tee got a little dry while in the parking lot, but should pull through.

Laying out the tee.

Now it just needs to grow in. It should be ready to go by April 1st.

September 2012 Weather Summary

The leaves have started to turn here at Leslie Park Golf Course. Soon, they will be falling off the trees and covering the greens. Until then, come out and enjoy some of the best weather of the year for golf.

The highest temperature recorded at Leslie Park in September was 86.2 degrees (Sept 3rd). The lowest temperature was 36.6 (24th) which was also the first day we had frost. The average for the month was 61.8 degrees. For the month of October, the average high temp on the first is 68. By Halloween, the average high temperature falls down to 55 degrees.

We received 2.22 inches of rain in September. The maximum daily rain was 0.62 inches on the 14th. 13 days had at least a trace of rain while 5 days had over a tenth of an inch. That brings the yearly total to 15.25 inches of rain.

The high wind speed was 24 miles per hour (5th.) Average speed for the month was just 1.6 mph.