More Wildlife

I pull up to the 13th green yesterday afternoon and low and behold a juvenile Red tail Hawk was on the ground. After a few minutes he flew into a nearby Oak tree. It's great to see all of the raptor bird species on the course, they are here for a reason and obviously between the Bald Eagles, the Great Horned Owls and the Red Tail Hawks, there is a large enough food source for them to thrive in and around our property.

10 Point Buck.

We are often asked if there are any deer on the golf course and I always say "yes, there are plenty". In fact this morning one of the guys on the staff saw 3 doe and 2 fawns walking across the 9 fairway. And then there is this massive specimen, the 10 point buck. Assistant Superintendent, Nick Folk, captured this photo of the big guy this past weekend. He is a beautiful creature but I know Nick would have rather seen him this coming weekend about 180 miles north of here.

In a few short days we will be coming to the end of our season. The month of October was a terrible month for golf. Due to the dry summer the rain we received was much needed. We had a little over 5 inches of rain for the month and did not need to use the irrigation system one time during the entire month of October. Additionally due to the below normal temperatures and the large volume of rain, which translated into some very low rounds for the month, we only mowed the greens 4 times for the entire month. That in itself might be a record.

We will finish making our final winter preperation fungicide applications this week and the final rounds for the seaon will be played this Sunday, November 8th. We will be blowing out the irrigation system on the 9th and if the weather allows, we will probably begin covering greens on the 10th or 11th.