Autumn Season

Fall is officially here and we know this not only because September 22nd has past, but mostly because the leaves are changing colors, and dropping like crazy on the golf course. The grounds crew has been very busy and will continue to be until we close the course up for the season. We completed fall aeration on greens and tees and I am very pleased with how well everything has healed up.

With limited staff, we have been trying to keep up with daily set up as best as we can. Some areas of the course may not get mowed until later in the morning or afternoon only because we are short with fall staff. On that note, with cooler temperatures and less daily sunlight, the growth of the turfgrass has started to slow down. We are mowing less due to this as well.

About 75% of the leaves on #3 have already fallen, but many other trees on the course are just starting to change colors

During this time of the year, bunkers can be a lot more work than usual. They tend to fill up with leaves and we aren't able to go out and rake them while full of leaves. We will continue to do our best to send out a few employees when possible to blow the leaves out of the bunkers, mulch the leaves with a rough mower and then complete a full bunker raking.

The list is very long for the grounds crew for the rest of the fall. Besides daily set up, greens, rough, fairway and tee mowing, we have a lot of course accessories to take down and critical snow mold preventative spray applications to complete. We have to blow out the irrigation system towards the end of October, pull the fountain, river and pond pumps in and continue to mulch up all of the leaves that are falling and will continue to fall thru the next month. Also, every piece of equipment needs to be pressure washed before it gets too cold so that each piece can come in to the shop for winter maintenance. We hope to begin a driving range dress up project and finish limbing up some pines throughout the golf course.

It is very important to send the turfgrass into winter on a healthy note so it can survive our harsh winters in Grand Forks. We will continue our fall fertilization program and complete our snow mold preventative applications towards the end of October.

In my opinion, this is the best time of the year to come out and play our picturesque golf course, so come enjoy our last month of golf at GFCC!