PEM Matting on Stairs

Jamie Stash and Clayton Savage installing the PEM Matting on the last of the stair cases here at Panther Creek. This product will help protect our members and guests on those heavy dew mornings assuring them of safe non-slip footing as they walk to some of our steep inclined tee boxes. This is a product I have seen at many courses and ran into the booth at the GIS Conference in San Diego last year only to find out they are a company out of St. Louis. So needless to say shipping was pretty affordable especially when I found out John McCarty a member here at the club works in the area a couple times a week and was willing to make the pick up. A huge thank you to him for taking his time to make us better and more user friendly on the course.

Emerald Ash Borer

The ash ree pictured is next to #8 Green. This tree is infected by the Emerald ash borer and is beyond saving at this point. Of the tree we were planning to treat this is the first to be beyond saving today.

Spring tree colors

These two trees were just beautiful this afternoon against the dreary sky. I love the color of Redbuds in the spring. Just fantastic!!!

Bunker Drainage

Bunker Drain on #5
A few things the grounds department has been working on the past couple of weeks. We have finished the installation of our first bunker drain. After our initial visit with the Tour Agronomist one of the things they thought would be a benefit for the course is to install drains into our existing bunker tile lines. The reason for them is to allow us to either open the drains prior to a rain event or to open the drains after a surprise rain event. The one pictured was installed into the bunker on #5. Our hope was to allow the rain the most direct route into the drainage system and to hopefully take the silt that is washing into the bunker to also wash through the system. Our hope going forward is to install these into the worst of our bunkers first and then work toward getting all of them done. With sixty bunkers on the course this will be a process that takes some time to complete.

Bunker Edging

Staff finishing the last of the bunker edging for the spring. Next up we will be adding sand into the bunkers. We try to get to a uniform 3-4" throughout the bottom and 1-2" on the signs.

New lids for the divot boxes

The grain showing through on these Cypress box lids is very impressive. Member Glen Hodgson has done an excellent job building new lids for our par 3 sand boxes. Fine job as always from the Hodgson woodworking shop. 

Close to starting

First mow of the season. Dodging rain drops. The start is near. Hopefully this week.

  I lost one of the most influential mentors in my career last night. Bill Byers CGCS passed away at his home in rural Adel, Iowa.
  If there is a Mount Rushmore of Golf Superintendents and turf professionals in the state of Iowa this gentlemen would be on it. Without Bill's help in the winter of 2003 giving me a chance to change my career path to managing private country clubs I wouldn't be where I am today. It only hurts to know that I never told him how much I needed a break at that time just two months after losing my father to cancer.
  The article below is a small piece on Bill that is posted on the Iowa Golf Association's website highlighting Bill's induction into the Iowa Golf Hall of Fame in 2006. As I type this I remember the evening of the ceremony when my wife and I spent the night celebrating with Bill, his wife Terri and all of the other DMGCC Alumni present.
  Golf Course Superintendents are a family, and the only way into that family is to live the golf course life working alongside individuals who share the same goals. He will always be a special person in my life. He will be missed by everyone who knew him.

WILLIAM BYERS, Adel

Year Inducted: 2006
Category: Superintendent

  Bill Byers has been a best friend to the golf courses at Des Moines Golf and Country Club for 48 years.  When the club moved to its current site - construction on the two courses started in 1966 - Byers took a 450-acre piece of bare ground and turned it into a challenging test considered good enough to host the 1999 U.S. Senior Open. His passion for taking care of the 36-hole facility, and the unpredictable challenges that Mother Nature provided, has been recognized by a long list of achievements.

  Byers was named the Iowa Golf Course Superintendents' Association superintendent of the year in 1969 and 1982. He was also presented with that organization's distinguished service award in 1998. The Iowa Turfgrass Institute presented Byers with its Meritorious Service Award in 1994.

  "The manner in which Bill Byers has distinguished himself makes him an ideal candidate for induction into the Iowa Golf Hall of Fame,'' said Jeff Wendel, CGCS, of Ankeny.  A Certified Golf Course Superintendent since 1976, Byers is a former board member of both the Iowa Golf Course Superintendents Association and the Iowa Turfgrass Institute.   "Bill has been a mentor, an innovator and a consummate professional throughout his career,'' said John Newton, CGCS, of Veenker Memorial in Ames ".  He has shared his expertise with operations of every size and has made course conditions and consequently Iowa Golf better through that generosity.''

Cindy Panther Creek's perfect employee

All she does is do her job. Cindy working the geese on #13 pond.

Quick moving snow storm

Well we had a couple of inches of what is now very very fast melting snow. Driving was certainly entertaining this morning.

Lincoln Land Charity Championship

Bill Calfee President of the Web.com tour speaking to the large group of local Business men and women at the VIP reception at Panther Creek Country Club.

Beautiful weather the next few days.....

With spring almost upon us and after having endured the cold of winter it is not a surprise that we are all excited to get out and play some golf!  This time of year, more than ever, is the time to exercise patience. Checking the frost level in greens we really aren’t that close to being able to safely open to play without doing potentially harmful damage to our putting surfaces. Due to the unseasonably warm weather expected the next few days it’s understandable that when other daily fee courses begin to open we start to feel the pressure to follow their lead.

Due to the maintenance level we as a staff and you as  club members have for our golf course the damage issues we would face compared to a couple of rounds of “Indian summer” golf is not worth the cost. The soil temperatures at this point are only suitable for the growth of Poa Annua which will fill every ball mark and cleat mark made this time of the year. In addition we have only seen a couple of days of thawing weather which means we have a long way to go before the frost is out of the ground and the golf course can be opened.

The biggest issue we face with this decision is the frost. As I have outlined in previous articles with frost remaining in the soil profile, water from the thawing ground on top has nowhere to go and so the top layer of soil becomes completely saturated and unstable under foot and cart traffic.  This puts fine turf areas (especially putting greens) at risk of becoming severely damaged if traffic is not held off. 

As a staff we will monitor conditions of the frost line on a daily basis to determine when the course will be ready for play. This is the worst part of my job due to the fact that I want the course open as much as anybody but, I need to have conditions right so we don’t have issues later in the year because we jumped the gun. Once the course is ready, and is dry enough we will put the flagsticks in the greens and open the course for play.

Thank you very much for being understanding during this unseasonably warm time and please exercise patience as you await the beginning of the golfing season at Panther Creek Country Club.

Greg Willman

gwillman@panthercreekcc.com

New staff visiting

New members of the Panther Creek team getting a tour of the maintenance facility. Excited to start 2016!!