Well it looks like a wrap

Well it looks like we are finally finished here on the golf course for 2017. It was a great year of spending time with the membership in making Panther Creek a great place to play and be part of a family. All of our Ground's staff pass on our warmest holiday greetings as we press forward to a happy and blessed 2018!
Pretty neat photo this morning of the #10 green melted off due to the ground temperatures and lack of leaf tissue to insulate the snow cover. Picture taken by Asst. Jaime Stash.


Merry Christmas

End of the Season

I hope everyone is having a wonderful finish to the fall as we look forward to the quickly approaching holidays. As the golf season comes to a halt we are coming inside to start our winter work. Typically one of the most asked questions we have as a staff is “what do we do in the winter”.

 Let me begin with saying we keep four staff members on full time they are John “Homey” Bryant, Jaime Stash, Jakob Ewing, Jeff Caskey, and myself. The biggest thing we are able to complete in the winter months is the complete breakdown and reassembly of all the cutting units that mount on the front of our greens, tees, and fairway mowers. While the mowing units are being sharpened, Jeff the Mechanic services the traction units and does any necessary repairs before the unit goes out in storage ready for spring.

The winter months are also the time that all of the fertilizer and chemical programs are set up for the upcoming season. Putting together the chemical early order programs is a very important fiscal move allowing us to take advantage of big discounts and also setting dated terms from our various supply vendors.

Some of the other things we will get done before the spring include repairing, refurbishing and replacing the tee markers, trash bins, and enter/exit stakes. We will be making new boundary stakes and hazard stakes to replace broken or damaged existing ones. The cold weather months also give us the opportunity to do any repair around the shop such as drywall repairs, cleaning, painting and organizing. This year our goal is to paint all of the interior rooms of the shop along with repainting the shop floor. Another benefit the winter gives us is education. Just like any job field there are constant changes including technology, equipment, and turf protectant products. It’s paramount for all of our staff to stay abreast to these changes and continue to find ways to be a better well-rounded grounds staff.

As my sixth year comes to a close I want to thank everyone for their continued support. We had a tough summer but we have made it to the other side. We can only hope next year we will be more fortunate with irrigation and weather but regardless we will keep looking for more ways to improve. Please let me know if you have any questions or thoughts for the upcoming season.

Glorious Rain!!!

Yesterday after seeing a picture and a twitter post of a good friend in Omaha watering his greens I commented that if we didn't see rain this morning,we would probably have to fire up the troubled irrigation system and bury the course in water for a couple of days. Then mid-week re-winterize the system but for the sake of healthy turf next spring it would have had to be done.Many colleagues and turf friends have had to fire up their systems in the past couple weeks due to the turf wilting away and with no rain in sight. Lucky for us here in Springfield this morning we have been getting a turf saving rain. Now instead of going on twitter and making my friends jelous I'm just going to wipe my forehead and thank my lucky stars. Once the rain clears the area the course will be open for play. Have a blessed Sunday.

Frost to start today

Frost will keep the course closed this morning until 10:00am. Please come out and play today on some of this borrowed time we are being given this year!! It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day.

Course Opening at Noon

The golf course will open at noon today. Thank you for your patience this morning in waiting for us to thaw out. Have a great rest of the weekend!!! GW

Course Closed Temporarily

The course is closed today due to the low temperatures freezing the top of the greens. Looking forward to Sunday I would plan on being back open. Thanks for understanding.

December 3rd

Heavy frost this morning on the course. We will get you out to play as soon as it melts off. Please check with the pro shop on opening times. Please get out to play the next two days!!! This weather has been a wonderful chance to get out and play some bonus golf but I think our luck is going to run out unfortunately with the drop in temperatures starting on Tuesday of this week. Have a great Sunday.

The streak has ended!! We have enjoyed a week without leaks but this morning we had a broken pipe behind #14 green. Luckily the weather is not as warm as last week so the turf can live through a day without water.

Aerification is finally here...

Fall aeration has finally arrived!! During a long year of very difficult weather conditions it’s time to relieve the soil of compaction, create pore spacing for gas exchange, and also add some much needed nutrient to the golf course grounds of Panther Creek. On Wednesday, September 20^th we began our process on Greens and Fairways.

The Greens process starts with the surface being aerified with a .400” by 6.5” coring tine, followed by a heavy topdressing, and then a two to three hour drying process. Once the greens are dry we take a sweep and fill broom in two directions to get all of the holes filled with sand followed by a cocoa mat drag which cleans up any leftover sand on the surface and incorporates it into the green canopy. The process only takes two days to complete on all 18 holes allowing us to keep 9 holes open for play at all times. I expect the greens to be almost completely healed in one weeks’ time.

Fairway aeration will begin the same day as the greens. The difference is the tine size: ¾” x 5.75”, along with the process of trying to redistribute the existing material back into the holes and turf surface. After the units have worked the area there is typically a 3 hour wait until the cores are dry enough to start working with. We start with a Haro rake behind one of our carts breaking and flipping the cores and then follow it with a flail mowing deck which breaks the cores into very small pieces. After the flail we’ll drag the loose material into the holes and then blow the fairway clean of any of the grass tufts that are left over. This process usually takes us three days to complete and the limited cart use on fairways typically lasts a week. We will be working on the tees during the following weeks after greens and fairways are completed. Play will only be minimally affected by the same process we use on fairways.

                We on the Grounds staff appreciate the opportunity to do this type of maintenance on the course knowing full well it takes some of the best time to play golf out of your season. I know moving forward that this work being done on an annual basis will lead us as a club to better turf and also to a better preforming golf course.

As always if you have any questions or concerns please contact me anytime.

Greg Willman

gwillman@panthercreekcc.com

546-1469

Lincoln Land Charity Championship

After reflecting on the past couple of weeks with the Web.Com Tournament preparation week followed by the event week there is a group of gentlemen I want to shine the lights on. This staff picture to the left is the staff that came together to put out some of the best conditions I have been a part of with tournament golf. Everyone stepped up whether they were weed eating bunkers and ponds, to wading waist deep into #16 pond cutting down and removing cattails. I couldn’t be happier with the effort that was put forward along with the positive attitude everyone came to work with everyday regardless of how much sleep they had gotten the night before or how little they were able to spend time at home. With 8 days straight of starting work at 4:30am for the morning shift and then retuning and working until 9:00pm into the night all of these team members “came to play”.

                                                                                                                     Along with the staff the vendors that do business with the agronomy department also came to the rescue will all of the food and drink that was provided the entire week of the tournament.  

A couple of additional props goes to MTI Distributing from St. Louis for doing the special wrapping on  the hoods of the 5 carts they gave us to use for the week. This was really a nice touch that I saw last year at the Ryder Cup that was held at Hazeltine National. The other goes to SiteOne supply who provided us with blue and red tournament golf shirts to wear during the event. This made us all feel really special and like a unified team on the course.

 FINALLY the biggest thank you goes to the Panther Creek Country Club Members, and Board for allowing us to work such a fine event, and to really put our course on display for the best young players in the game. I hope you were as proud as I was to see Panther Creek on display and showing its teeth!!!! Have a wonderful summer.