A Blast of The Past

 Hello Members of Oconomowoc Golf Club,

As we watch the rain fall from this last week, we wanted to give you a look into what this kind of rain would've done to the course pre bunker renovation!

Lake front property?

Belly flop or flop shot?

After even the smallest rain we knew that we would have to go and pump out the bunkers

Everytime we tried our best to get as much water out of the bunker as we could, but could never get it all!

Once the water was out we would have all hands on deck in order to push and shovel the sand back up on to the the face of the bunkers. This process was one of the most labor intensive and physically demanding . To do every bunker on the course could take as long as 3 days with all hands on deck, to then have the possibility to wash out again the next day!

Its safe to say that their are still lots of things that we are learning with the new bunkers but we are extremely happy with how they have stood up against the recent storms!

As always please reach out with any questions!

First day of school, Cart paths and so much more

 Hello Members of Oconomowoc Golf Club,

You may have noticed a couple more roped off sodded areas around the course. No we aren't doing another renovation, we are just touching up a couple areas that were affected during or after the bunker renovation finished up. A lot of these areas being cart path on and off points, these areas are a pinch point for carts and are tremendously affected by the condensed cart traffic.

We have had success with a product called Traqmatz that helps protect the plant from the ware of cart tire traffic. That is what the black mats that you see out on the course and in the pictures are. Over time the turf will grow around and absorb the mats to the point that you may not be able to see them. But they are still doing their job underneath the surface.

Our team works extremely hard 7 days a week to give the best possible product to the membership. So we ask that you take a little bit of consideration when decided where and how you drive your carts. The picture below shows a tire rut that was left in front of 5 green.

This is Dylan, Dylan is a amazing member of our team. But he is also a Senior at Oconomowoc High School and apart of the KMMO hockey team. He had his first day of school the other day but not at the Highschool, he is apart of the youth apprenticeship program. So he spends his morning working and learning at the course and then spends the 2nd half of his day sitting in class leaning about not as fun stuff!.

He got up to early for his parents to take a first day picture so I asked him to pose!

What is happening on 10 green?

Hello Members of Oconomowoc Golf Club,

We hope that you are enjoying the recent freezing temps of 70 degrees as much as we are! You may have also noticed that we started several projects around the course. One of the most impactful being the changes to #10 green. As you all know we included an expansion of 10 green last fall included with the bunker renovation. We noticed over time some settling of the green expansion and this created an uneven putting surface. This has been the leading reason preventing us from lowering the height of cut to match the other greens on the course.

As you can see their were several of these depressions across the greens, preventing us from being able to get a smooth mow.

We first cut and peel back the sod then add a greens grade sand mix below the surface to smooth out the sod. The difference in color in the pictures above is the line of the old edge of the green to the green expansion.

We then gave the final product some fertilizer and water! We are going to continue doing different cultural practices in order to improve the playability of the green. We hope to restore 10 green to the same playability as all of the other greens as soon as Mother Nature allows!