Japanese Beetles

I wanted to talk about an issue people may be dealing with at their house.... The emergence of the Japanese Beetle. At Minor Park this July, Japanese Beetles have reek havoc on the American Lindon trees we have on holes 14, 16, & 17. You also may have noticed them on your roses bushes at home. These pesky insects love to defoliate the leaves, eating everything but the veins. Luckily for the American Lindon when a tree defoliates, as long as it was healthy to start it will not die. So after the beetles emerge, mate, eat every leaf in sight, and return to the ground to lay eggs, the tree should be able to regenerate its leaves. Here is the life cycle of the Japanese Beetle.

Here is also a link for more information on the Japanese Beetle and how to control them

Japanese Beetle Wiki

Japanese Beetle Feeding

New Mowers and Roller

About 2 weeks ago Minor Park was able to purchase 2 brand new John Deere 2500B Riding Greens mowers to replace our 10 year old Jacobsen GKIV.  One of the Jacobsens was rotated down to our tee mower to replace a 15 year old unit. The other was shipped over to HOA to update one riding greens mower. We were also able to purchase a 5 year old Graden Tournament Roller. This roller will allow us to skip mowing on really hot days and be able to keep greens smooth and consistent on those days. These pieces of equipment are very important to keep greens in great shape at Minor Park. Here are a few photos of our new equipment:

Native mowing

Its that time of the year..... Native mowing! This bi yearly adventure will allow you to find your ball easier and possibly an extra one to continue your round with. Come out and see us at Minor Park.

Flower Time At Minor Park

In the next couple of weeks we will be receiving our annual flowers from the City of Kansas City and our annual 45 cubic yards of Mulch. We will began by mulching our tee features and when plants start arriving we will begin planting  on 3,7,12,&17. New this year we are getting in 8-10 yews to be planted around the lesson tee at the Driving Range. Our plan this year is to start building a boarder around this tee to aid with some privacy and help catch a stray ball that may shoot out from the main driving range. If you haven't starting getting your plants out at your own house...now is a great time to start!

Aerification Dates

Due to rain and shared equipment we have decided to move our aerification dates from April 5-6th to our new dates of April 10th-12th. We are hoping that we can start on Monday and have all completed by Wednesday. We will be doing 9 holes at a time and monitoring the weather as we go. Feel free to keep up to date on course closings or aerification information on our Facebook or twitter accounts. Hopefully you can come out and enjoy a round of golf between the rain days. 

Irrigation on 15....AGAIN

If you have been out playing in this unseasonable warm weather you may have noticed that the earth was once again dug up on hole 15.  As we were charging up our irrigation system to start watering this very early season we had an eruption. For the 5th time in 2 seasons we had water gushing out of a massive leak. This time we had to replace another 20ft of pipe. What I was told was that Minor park is equipped with the first generation pvc piping. Here are a few pictures of what we have experienced this last go around.

 20 ft of new pipe

New Bridge Rails on 15

We were able to have the city come out and install new boards on the bridge behind 15 tee.  As the winter progresses along we are busy on updating course accessories, servicing equipment, and getting everything ready for the quickly approaching season. Hopefully you are able to enjoy the nice days mixed in with the cold days.