TCCC Grounds Blog

Many of our oak trees on the east side of the driving range that died from the disease oak wilt, came down over the last two weeks and on to the main power supply leading into the city. We had the wind recorded at our weather station near 12 at over 40 miles an hour.

I gave the city the green light to start clearing the snow so their contractors could get access to the top of the range. They even had one of their small sanding trucks help with traction for the big dual wheeled bucket trucks.

These oaks ending up getting infected by oak wilt from the TCL&P tree contractors about 7 years ago.

The tree company will remove some of the large pieces of the oaks then will be back in the spring to clean up all of the brush and stumps.

I have been working with TCL&P for a few years with plans for them to remove the dead oaks in their easement before the winds brought them down onto the power lines. We are sorry for the time our city residents were without electricity.

Nate Ensman, my longest tenured seasonal team member mowing greens. Last winter, we were actually mowing grass the first week of February and open for golf!

This is Scott Werly, the second assistant superintendent. He is spreading sand on the greens, collars and approaches. We make this topdressing application every three weeks all season long. The sand is brushed in two directions, rolled and watered to help work the sand into the canopy. This sand helps eat away at the thatch, which keeps them firm and smooth.

Rolling in the sand after the double brush. If you look closely you can see the aerification holes from our once a year deep tines that go down 7-8 inches.

This was an early spring project on the left of five green. The root encroachment from the woods were well into the green which took much needed water and nutrients from the left collar and putting surface. We have our stump grinding contractor drop the spinning blade and root prune down 12 inches to cut the roots.

This is the green committee meeting during one of our monthly meetings April-November. Our meeting mission is to conduct our meetings out on the golf course making 4-6 stops to review the agenda topics.

One of my return trips serving my national association on the board of directors for the GCSAA. Always an outstanding view of the golf course, the city and three bodies of water, four if you count the pool!

The Secret Garden project came together very well this year. The landscape plantings from 2023 flourished and matured quite nicely early this summer. The walkway area is flagged for installation.

The clubhouse construction project, under budget and it opened two weeks early! Congratulations to the the renovation committee for all of their hard work, time and planning.

The south view of the golf course while having cocktails turned out amazing.

An amazing view for all!

The first few stones of the secret garden walkway.

A little too close to the camera on this one it looks like. Thank you to my son Luke for carving out time last June to get the walkway installed. We ending up not keeping that straight left stone line and merged that left turn into the walkway for a pergola covered seating area in the future.

Maybe something like this or more open for family photos.

One of my favorite days when our potted plants show up from Plant Masters in Suttons Bay. We added five new planters to the pool deck; the ones in the back row on the trailer and are planning for more in 2025.

Watering in the sand topdressing on the chipper green for 7 minutes.

A view into the secret garden of the viewing deck and the walkway under construction. The plan is to get an outdoor viewing scope so you can see boats and the water out on the bay to the north.

The completed walkway in front of the butterfly bench. The three butterfly bushes grew so much this summer that I had to keep trimming them back so you could sit on the bench.

My equipment manager Mitch Hunt up on the 1st tee and putting green. You can expect to see Mitch inspecting the morning equipment about 30 minutes after our grounds team leaves the building.

Our new pool containers in action. We will need to fill these tall planters with sand this year as the wind can be fierce around the pool during storms.

During the driving range renovation in 2005, the city required us to install this river bed of rocks to slow up the storm water coming from holes 1,18,10 and 9. It works extremely well to slow up the storm water but is such a massive leaf collector and there is never a good time to do it with all of the cart traffic to the range.

Adele Hilton, shown here facing my grounds team is a certified EMT and I asked her to train the team on our AED. Adele starting working for us back when she was 15 and is also one heck of a hockey player. She still works part time for us as she serves the Grand Traverse county area saving lives.

My 4th of July closest to the line artwork on 11 fairway.

The Club has been an outstanding partner when it comes to junior golf. The TCJGA has been hosting their events at the Club for over 30 years! We also host both boys and girls high school matches. Always a highlight to the summer schedule hosting the Downtown Showdown!

Purple flowers on the ever growing butterfly bushes and yes we had tons of butterflies.

All you need is Love!

Another view of the Love.

I spent the entire time with the crane operator while they lifted the new air conditioning unit on top of the pool house. Their first and second idea to get the crane close certainly wasn't going to work for me and protecting our turf, trees and paths

A screen shot showing our irrigation system at 11:07 pm. We can max out our pump station with 1,500 gallons a minute and at this time we were pumping 1,402.

We don't get very much damage around the property but this is usually the worst of it besides a few tipped over trash cans.

I had the opportunity to attend the Thursday evening pm shift and both am and pm Friday shifts during the USGA Junior Amateur at Oakland Hills on the South Course. It was an outstanding opportunity to watch the maintenance operations and how their director of agronomy, Phil, leads and motivates 120 people.

I have loads of pictures but will share two of them. This one shows 13 people back pack blowing the grass clippings after the pm fairway mowing. There is also a team of 13 people back pack blowing the rough to help it keep from laying down from foot and tire traffic.

Yes, this is the rough during the USGA Junior Amateur. You could lose a shoe in there as well as a golf club if you set it down. Maybe this will be our 2025 rough height at The Club?

The secret to creating the Olympic rings for the Ladies Member-Guest was painting over a hula-hoop then filling in the center with paint. Pretty artsy for this guy!

Our Michigan Hall of Fame golf pro Scott welcoming the ladies and their guests.

My hydrangea pool house planting from 2021 is filling in and maturing very well. We need to straighten the hydrangea trees next spring.

A world record found on 12 fairway after a busy Thursday.

Perfect preparation for the Perry Hannah Invitational.

Such a great idea for the PHI gift favor shopping and for evening cocktails.

A PHI sunrise!

Your grounds team at work on five green.

A September sunrise as they move south each day.

Ready for our golf course hayrides.

Always a family favorite during our fall fest.

Fall colors with an amazing playing surface.

Always a fall and spring project.

Working on the high traffic areas.

A new fairway mower for 2025 arrived in the fall.

This brought back some old high school memories...picking range balls.

Scott Werly grooms our cross country trails daily.

My office and Dan's with clean carpet going into the winter. There is always work to do for my staff even in December before their winter layoffs.

Mitch working on rebuilding the pump in our green and tee sprayer.

Our spare fairway reel rack with bed knifes ready for sharpening and installation.

Precision is a must to get our smooth playing surfaces.

Reels, reels, reels in the winter.

Locked in and ready for a tune up.

Both of our greens mowers in for winter maintenance. Note no hydraulic oil hoses. That hose you see is all electric and powers the reels to turn.

I came across this one in an old Club membership book. Ed Playter was hired as the golf course superintendent in April of 1922. Ed retired in 1962 after serving 40 years. This month I am starting my 28th year as your golf course superintendent and am really looking forward to the Golf Course Improvement Plans that will start in late August.