Opening day!

The golf course opened today to nearly a full tee sheet. Still have a few areas that need cleaning up but thanks to the help from a group of volunteers, we did a great job of getting the course ready to go! This summer should be a great time!

Final cleanup...

Spring as finally sprung here at Bully Pulpit and we couldn't be more excited! The opening day was moved to this Saturday, the 27th, and we have alot of work to do to make sure the course is looking great for the first tee time.

One of our main issues so far this spring has been the clean up of aerification cores. Due to all the moisture we've gotten lately, it's been really difficult to clean up cores in a timely fashion without making a mess. We've been dragging the cores with the Core Buster Drag Mat from Par Aide and it is doing a tremendous job of breaking up the cores and returning some of the soil back into the ground.

After tomorrow, course clean up should be officially complete and we'll be ready to rock come Saturday! Take care.

Never saw this coming...

Started today mowing and cleaning up teeboxes in preparation for our opening on Monday. Well, that idea was quickly squashed when a period of sleet/snow came out of nowhere. I was put to work helping repair a cattle guard on the property to prevent cows from accessing the golf course. Not what I expected to be doing today, but the guard turned out very well!

Snow update 4/21/13

Went to check out the golf course tonight when I got back to Medora and was very pleased with what I saw! The snow melted an awful lot over the weekend. The extended forecast calls for warm temperatures beginning on Thursday so hopefully we are ready to roll for the season very soon! The last photo is a comparison between 1 week ago and tonight.

Another day...

Well, another day of watching snow melt here in Medora. With temps around 40 and ample sunshine in the afternoon, the melting process is coming along at a decent pace. Forecast this weekend calls for more moisture but we have our fingers crossed that its going to be in the form of rain and not the dreaded white stuff! Spent a fair majority of today shoveling more channels into our greens to help speed up the melting process.

Aerification tine holders

Over the years, many random containers have been used to store aerification tines when not in use, including cat litter boxes! We were able to use some random wood we had lying around and fashion up some better containers. Below is before and after:

Completed clubhouse signs

We mounted the completed clubhouse signs and they look great! Prior to the "Golf Car Return" sign, there was just a white piece of printer paper that showed players where to go, so this is a major upgrade!

After hanging up signs, we spent the rest of the day shoveling channels in a herringbone pattern on greens to help expedite the melting process.

Clubhouse signs

Since there's so much snow on the ground right now and business is so slow at BP, we decided it was a good time to make some new signs for the Sagebrush Grill and the Golf Car Return area of the clubhouse. Attached is the before and the finished product. They turned out great!

Pump Screen Repair

Here at Bully Pulpit, we have a very unique irrigation system. We pump all of our water out of the Little Missouri River into two ponds that we use throughout the year. The water in the "Little Mo" is extremely dirty, which causes alot of problems with our pump screen. Today, we had to pull out the screen and make some repairs. Caked onto the screen was a great deal of mud and vegetation (and about half a dozen catfish.) We had to completely scrap one half of it and build a new half using a sturdier, more rigid mesh hoping that helps in the future. We also welded on a 2 "feet" on opposite ends of the screen to prevent the screen from sitting on the floor and collecting sand and gravel.

NYC

By far one of my favorite experiences of my first session at Rutgers was getting to spend time in NYC. Such a great city! I definitely recommend a trip to anyone who has never been! Here are some of my favorite photos that I took:

Bully Pulpit

I look forward to taking more pictures of the course once the season gets started! This truly is a beautiful golf course. Here's just a sample of what I was able to get before the snow hit.

Greetings

Hello, my name is Andrew Stoldorf and I am currently the Grounds Intern at Bully Pulpit in Medora, North Dakota. I am enrolled in the Professional Golf Turf Management School at Rutgers University and one of our requirements for the 2nd year is to keep a daily journal during our internship. I will update my blog throughout the summer as much as I can!

I've been in Medora for 2 weeks now and snow has caused a very slow start. We were just hit with about 16" yesterday. Looking forward to it melting and for the season to get started!