Tuesday May 30th

 After much planning and coordination with a lot of entities the restoration work has begun.  This is Me standing in front of Duinincks construction trailer.  They began moving equipment in early last week and started work on Thursday.  Duininck is under contract for bunker restoration, irrigation relocating, cart path restoration, and working on the dike on Meadowbrook lake.

 The first step in restoring the bunkers is to till them in.  Here they are working on the bunker in front of #1 green.  When they finish tilling they use a bulldozer to move the tilled material around.  This process should be done by the middle of this week.

Here is a picture of the left green side bunker on #9.  I will be taking pictures and posting them frequently to keep people updated on the progress of the project.

Tuesday May 9th

The next few weeks the blog posts will be a little more interesting as we are preparing for Duininck Construction to begin working on their part of the restoration of the course.  They will be restoring bunkers, cart paths, the washed out area on the dike that seperates us from lake Meadowbrook, and moving irrigation controllers out of the flood plain.  There will be large equipment moving about the course, so again please stay off the property until the course is ready to open.

 Tom Doble has been mowing the large rough areas with his new rough mower now that the turf is actively growing.  It has been nice to work with some warmer temperatures.

 We began the process this morning of removing over 350 stumps from the course.  These stumps are from Ash tree removals in 2014, flood damaged trees, and stumps that look to have been on the course for many years.  The stumps will be ground, debris removed, back filled, and seeded.

 One of the stump grinder operators working on the left side of hole #1.  It will be nice to have the stumps removed!

 It has been one week today since we aerified the greens.  As you see they are healing in nicely and enjoying the air space that we created.  We will be doing this process again in the early part of June.  One of the perks of having no golf until later in the summer.

We continue to seed fairway areas like the one here on #8.  Now that night time temperatures are staying a little warmer we should start to see some of the seed in these areas begin to germinate

Tuesday May 2nd

 This morning, we are aerifying greens.  This extremely important process has not been done for over two years, and the greens are showing it.  Aerifying allows us to remove organic matter which causes greens to be soft and puffy, and also scalping when mowing.  It also allows for gas exchange that is crucial in the heat of the summer when the turf is respirating, and needs oxygen in the soil.  We will fill the holes with sand, which will help with air exchange, water infiltration, root depth, and firming up the surfaces.

 Since my last post, we have continued to seed fairway areas that did not fill in last fall.  This picture is from the top of the hill on #1 fairway.  With the coming warm temps, these areas should start germinating soon.  We have many areas like this, and we will be seeding them throughout the month of May.

 I will continue to show pictures of damage due to people using the property while the course is closed.  This picture shows ball marks and a divot taken from #2 green.  The green is littered with ball marks that have not been repaired.  Please refrain from using the course until we are open and ready for play.

Another picture of someone using #5 fairway as a driving range.  There are areas like this all over the course, this type of use will only make it harder for us to open the course in the best condition possible.

A bit of good news is that we have recently purchased some new equipment.  The picture above is of Denise mowing #4 green with one of our new Tri-Flex greens mowers.  I will post pictures of other new pieces of equipment in later posts.

We have a lot going on this week, and I will be posting one or two more times to keep everyone informed.  Thanks so much for your interest, and following this blog.  We had over 400 views this last week, which is great!