October Update

The agronomy team at LGCC has been very busy the last month taking advantage of this spectacular fall weather.  After wrapping up aerification on the entire golf course, a few small projects took place on the golf course, and now we are into full swing with fall leaf clean-up.  Leaf clean-up is always interesting because it is very important to have the course clean so everybody can find their golf balls, but as soon as we clean the course it is covered again the next day and then we have to go back out and do it again.  Not a real rewarding task on the course.


The warm fall weather is a big benefit to us because it keeps the soil temperatures up and thus keeps the turf growing.  This growth is essential after fall aerification because we are different than a lot of northern golf courses and we stay open all year around.  If we do not have adequate growth after the aerification then we will go into winter with open holes.  This effect of aerification will impact playability all winter long and also open up the turf canopy for desiccation.  Other courses that are snow covered and closed during the winter have less of a priority on healing 100% because they will not be playing golf over the winter and they can finish healing in the spring.  This creates a small window for us to get our aerification done in the fall because I do not want it to carry over into late fall. Once the growth stops, it stops very abruptly, and whatever we have for recovery and turf conditions is what we will be playing on for the next 4 months.

Its always an abrupt but exciting change as we are so busy in the summer trying to babysit the turf day to day and just make it to cooler weather in the fall, and then when the cooler weather arrives we jump right into an even busier process of aerating the golf course

After greens aerification

4 weeks later

Remember as the turf goes dormant and does not re-grow or repair itself, it is very important to scatter our cart traffic to different areas of the course so we do not get those same “paths” from driving in the exact same place as the cart before us. Also, please remember that we are now in frost season and being conscious of any early morning traveling you may be doing on the golf course.  Please check into the golf shop before going onto the course.

October is one of our critical and most anticipated months, both for myself and for our members, as I get to cultivate the golf course with plans to bring it back to summer condition and deliver the conditions again that you see below.

16 green

17 green

7 fairway