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!!

Mulch Beds

If you have been on the course in the past couple years I am sure you have taken note of the mulch beds. A lot of them include a hole sign but there are others that do not. All of these beds have been overtaken by a plethora of plant material, mainly perennials that have continued to get larger and larger every year. I started in 2006 and there have been minimal changes to a vast majority of these beds until this Spring. This week we embarked on revamping all of these beds that have become unsightly.

Every bed needs cleaned up, which is normal process for this time of year. Then all of the existing plant material is dug up and removed, while dividing any ornamental grasses and other perennials such as lilies. This plant material has simply become too large for the occupied space. After all the plants have been removed and divided the material is then replanted in a more organized and correctly spaced design. We are using a majority of the current plants along with some new additions where applicable.

I hope that everyone enjoys this fresh take on some existing herbaceous and ornamental features, as the crew is putting a lot of time and hard work into these improvements. I have included some pictures of the process to date.

Spring Update

I am happy the weather changed and we are finally able to play some golf. The week upcoming doesn’t look promising with Mother Nature but, soon the sun will be shining and we can resume our spring. We are continuing to clean up the course and get ready for the season. Some of the early season work on the course includes edging the bunkers as well as starting to trim up all of the broken branches from the ice this past winter.

A spring project that was completed this past week before the course opened was the new concrete approaches on bridges #5 and #6. This is a picture of the approach on #5 which was particularly rough due to large amounts of water over the past twenty years eroding the dirt from underneath it therefore compromising the integrity of the concrete. Before the new approach was installed we drilled steel rods into the existing path and bridge abutment. This will help in the future to negate that problem from occurring again. We also stuffed all of the concrete after it was demolished into the cavity under all three approaches that were rebuilt. The reason for this work to be done while closed is the fact that it needed three to four days curing time before carts could resume usage. It turned out very well and I hope it goes as long as the bridge lasts.

The grounds department has been exploring new ways to communicate with all of the members in the past couple of months. We have started a new turf blog along with Twitter and Instagram accounts. Our goal is to give the members of Panther Creek a more up to date look at projects and work we are doing along with putting faces with the names of the staff in the grounds department. We will be using all three lines of communication on a regular basis so if you would like, those are places you can go for information.

Turf Blog:  http://pcccgrounds.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @PantherGrounds

Instagram: @PantherGrounds

 

I hope to see you all on the course very soon,

                                                    Greg Willman

                                                    gwillman@panthercreekcc.com

                                                    546-1469