DEAD ELM ON #6 REMOVED IN DECEMBER

This large dead elm on #6 was taken down in December. Its demise was a lightning strike that occurred in the summer of 2009. Whether a lightning strike will actually kill a tree or how long after a lightning strike will it be before a tree dies is really unpredictable. Arborists think many factors come into play; moisture inside the tree and in the ground at the time of the strike, intensity of the thunder storm and the overall health of the tree are just a few of the factors they mention as contributing to survival or death after a strike.

For this season, we will sod the stump hole with bluegrass and the area will remain rough as it was. In the future, when funds become available,  we will proceed with the plan of Golf Course Architect, Todd Quitno of Lohmann Golf Designs which widens the fairway 15 yards where the old elm stood this will make hitting the fairway much easier, but he also plays with your mind by extending the pond up to the site of the old elm also. Risk and Reward at its best on this short par 4. Quitno embraces many of the same design philosophies of the great, early American Golf Course Architect, William Langford, and hole #6 is one of the of five holes Langford designed here at Westmoor.

JERRY NELSON "IS" THE MASTER OF FLOWER POWER. HANDSDOWN!

Soft spoken, but a man with an extensive wealth of gardening knowledge, Nelson delivers the spectacular. He's the "Mailman" when it comes to consistent deliveries. Some landscape companies and master gardeners can talk a good game but fail in delivering a "knock your socks off display" year after year, not so with Nelson, you will be walking bare foot and be happy your doing it.You see, this is a year round deal for Jerry, if he's not speaking at a winter gardening conference in the upper Midwest, he is attending it, with a mission of attaining plant material and a design that will WOW his costumers. 
Having trouble believing me, well tune into his weekly radio Gardening show on WRJN AM 1400 out of Racine every Saturday morning from 7:05 to 8:00 and you will hear the Master at his best. Or take a garden tour at his home, he is a Master Gardener, you know, and in many gardening minds, he is the Master of the Master. He is also a prominent member of many gardening societies one being the Wisconsin & Illinois Lilly Society.

So last week, when I saw Jerry going over his plan for Westmoors 2011 Seasonal Displays, with our Horticulturist, Jim Hicks, I got excited, because I knew the "Mailman" was about to deliver once again!!

In the photo above, Jerry is on the left side and Jim is on the right. Jerry Nelson can be reached by calling his company, Classic Gardens, at 262-835-2530 or 262-951-1463 or emailing him at jerryn72@gmail.com

CORRODED WATER LEVEL CONTROL STRUCTURE, AT 17 POND, REPLACED WITH CORROSIVE RESISTANT STRUCTURE, LAST NOVEMBER

Last March we sleeved our galvanized metal irrigation wet well and intake pipe with a plastic composite material because our sodium chloride rich pond water (result of Hwy salt runoff from I-94) had corroded the metal away. Late last November, we replaced the corroded metal intake pipe, pond level control structure and exit pipe with a corrosive resistant plastic PVC Water Level Control Structure we purchased from Agri Drain Corp, out of Adair, Iowa  www.agridrain.com  You can see from the photos above how corroded the metal intake pipe was and what the new PVC Water Level Control Structure looks like, along with some of the methods we used to install it. Other than the backhoe, and its operator, Chuck Christoph of Christoph Excavting, this replacement operation was done all in-house. Great Job by Mark, John, Jim, Zac, Nick and Bryan!!

2010 ASSET PERFORMACE EVALUATION. #1 ASSET: THE GREENS

How do you go about evaluating the performance of your greens? Well, Chris Hartwiger, Senior Agronomist with the USGA who operates out of the Southeast Region of the US put together a wonderful, and nearly all encompassing, Putting Green Performance Pyramid that provides a building block check list arranged in a fashion to determine a greens overall strenghts and from those strengths it tells you how far and how long you can push that green to attain a peak performance. If you are missing some of the foundations building blocks, lowest level of the pyramid, than you can expect some deterioration of the putting surface if you push the green to peak performance for too long of a time, especially if weather conditions are not favorable.

The weather in 2010 in SE Wisconsin was more akin to the weather of St. Louis and Memphis where bent grass survival is tested annually.This weather was a fantastic test for our one year old, Penn A-1 pushup greens. Eighteen of our greens performed beautifully, our 11th was ok and within our "Standard" for excellence, but our 6th, with its lack of air movement, sunlight, limited cupping area and a congested entry point had a problem. The growth became stunted and the stand thinned a bit. To protect it from further damage we roped of its narrow entry point, raised the height of cut and went to a mow one day and roll the next schedule. These actions protected the quality of the surface but slowed the speed to below our "Standard". Having one green perform below our "Green Standard" is not what we like to have but if this weather pattern is more a trend, than an aberation, this substandard for #6 will reoccur. To insure this doesn't happen we need to install a fan or fans for air movement, thin out trees and undergrowth to the southwest of the green for sunlight an air movement, educate golfers on where to enter and exit the green and make sure our green venting program, a program that produces a small hole or slice in the green for oxygen infusion and the exodus of harmful gasses is adhered to on a 2-3 week schedule throughout the season. With all of these elements of the pyramid corrected on #6, and our venting program intact, we will have a significantly better chance of achieving our standard, even with, The Memphis Weather Blues. To view the entire USGA Pyramid article, by Chris Hartwiger, please view my January 22, 2011 blog post.

NIEMIEC / MEJCHAR INGENUITY = SUSTAINABLE BENT GRASS

It's no secrete that bentgrass loves acid fertility and iron. Give bent a consistent diet of iron sulfate, ammonium sulfate and it will thrive, but how do you do that efficiently, safely and economically? Well with a little background information from our friends Jeff Johnson and Nick Folk of the Minikahda Club in Minneapolis, MN. our staff headed by John Niemiec and Mark Mejchar with some assistance from Nick Narlock built a 1550 gallon mix tank that will mix inexpensive agricultural fertilizers into a deluxe diet formula that will keep the bent grass happy for a long time while making its ugly cousin poa annua rather sad. How did the boys do it? Well, you let these guys look at someones mouse trap, Minnikada's in this case, and they  can't resist the urge to build a better one, and they have. This setup will have better agitation and the ability to download faster so we can crank out the loads to our fairways and greens in a timely fashion. And they put it all together for less than $2,200. This setup will save our club Thousands of $$ over the course of the next few years and make our members and our bentgrass, very happy! Once again American Ingenuity Pays Off!

Wow! 6 hours, shop to Moorland

The Putting Green Performance Pyramid USGA Green Section Record. Chris Hartwiger

DON'T UNDERACHIEVE ON YOUR GREENS UTILIZE ALL ELEMENTS OF THE PYRAMID