Fairway Aerification

The staff is currently aerifying fairways and we hope to have the task completed as soon as weather permits.  Aerification relieves compaction (particularly important with the heavy clay soils at MCC), encourages root growth and allows for beneficial gas exchange with the atmosphere.  Poa annua will never achieve the same root mass that creeping bentgrass sports but aerifying will help the turf through the hotter summer months.  This will also help the areas on fairways that were damaged over the winter that the staff intends to start seeding soon.  We apologize for the inconvenience this causes and appreciate the memberships patience.

Aerifying the 16th Fairway

Employee Profile

2015 marks John Drielts 30th year as a staff member here at Meadowbrook Country Club.  Rain or shine, John has never missed a day of work or been late for a shift!  His responsibilities include a multitude of tasks but the biggest are course set-up each day (cup cutting, tee marker placement etc.) and functioning as our irrigation technician. John has changed over 65000 cups and fixed a variety of irrigation lines, sprinklers and valves. 
John was born and raised in metro Detroit, graduated from Catholic Central High School and went on to attend Lawrence Technological Institute.  An avid Detroit sports fan, John can recite from memory a vast amount of statistics regarding the Tigers, Lions and Wings.  The staff would like to thank John for his long years of service and dedication.

John "Iron Man" Drielts

Opening the Course

Welcome back Members! The past month has been busy preparing the course for the opening so we apologize for the lack of new articles.  The winter, while seemingly long, was nothing like last year and the course is in good shape.  Aerification holes are still somewhat present on greens from late last fall but with climbing temperatures and more sunlight, they are expected to heal over quickly. 


To prepare the course for the opening the staff has a multitude of tasks to complete, as detailed in the list below. 

• Uncover Greens
• Roll Greens- Smooth the surface in preparation of the first cut
• Mow Greens- Generally an easy task but the topdressing sand used to protect greens over the winter has to be worked into the soil profile or used to fill open aerification holes before a mower can be utilized. 
• Spray Greens- A healthy shot of fertilizer and fungicides with specific activity towards cold- season pathogens. 
• Mow Tees
• Spray Tees
• Mow Fairways
• Clean chips from stump grinding, back fill the holes, pack and level to grade
• Prep these stump holes for seed or sod (sodding has already started but due to cold temperatures seeding will be an on-going task throughout April and possibly May)
• Debris Clean up
• Rake Bunkers, fix washouts from the spring thaw
• Pressurize the irrigation system
• Fix irrigation leaks (almost inevitable to have a couple leaks every spring if the ground has frozen deep enough)
• Clean mulch beds surrounding the Clubhouse
• Prune back Rose Bushes (+500 on the property!)
• Clean and place all golf accessories (flag sticks, tee markers, ball washers etc.)

The list could go on but as one can see, preparing the course for golf after winter is a daunting task.  Thankfully, we have a veteran and very skilled crew returning this year and they are more than up for the task.  See you on the course, enjoy.