Pins

Well, it looks like we will be returning to normal temperatures this week. The pins will be placed back in the temporary positions on Monday, December 28th for the remainder of winter. I hope everyone had a chance to get out and take advantage of these unseasonably warm temps and knock a few balls around.
Happy New Years to Everyone at the Crest!!

Temporary Greens

I hope everyone has taken advantage of this amazingly warm weather and worked in a few extra rounds this December. Normally by now the frigid air is upon us and the pins are in temporary positions. The typical winter weather looks to be back this weekend with highs in the low to mid 40's and below 30 at night. When the greens are frozen and have a chance of slowly thawing out it creates a soft layer on top that will be damaged with traffic.With this we will be Changing the Pins to the temp holes. Next week looks favorable and we will change back to regular greens. Once the temperatures get to back normal the following week we will close the greens for good to reduce any wear from overuse and no ability to recover. This will set the greens up for great conditions heading into next season.

Fairway Punching

This week and next, we will be punching fairways. This will not interrupt play as we are using 3/4" solid tines. The tines will penetrate 3-4" into the soil to help break up compaction and open channels to facilitate drying. These holes will remain open until spring and when we begin fertilizing, the pellets will reach deeply into the root zone.

9 Tee Extension

9 tee has always been a problem due to the size and location. The tee will stay overly wet with a lack of sunlight coupled with little airflow. These two conditions will cause the roots to shrink and reduce vigor. The small teeing area also adds issues as there is limited space to set the tees. I've increased the teeing area to help alleviate wear. By providing 9 additional teeing positions to hit from, this will allow for more recovery time.

Sod removal

Removing soil to finish grade. The depth is 8"

Ready for sand. We used original mix from the overly large 18 Blue tee.

Finished Tee. We will have 21 teeing positions from the back 1/3 of the white tee to the front 1/3 of the black tee.

14 Revamp

We had a very productive week and completed the revamp of 14 approach. The landing area was widened 20+ feet to accept those long iron shots into the green. I decided to use the sod from the right hand side of two approach(the approach to nowhere) so that once everything heals the grass will blend in perfectly with the original approach. No-one sells,grows our construction blend(princeville bentgrass) and would cause an unsightly line where we reworked.

Removing sod at the approach edge and bunker.

The first step was to remove the sand and liner.

Seth on the backhoe shaping the new bunker.

Smoothing out the approach after 20 cart loads of fill.

After getting the grade close, sand was spread to fill in any small imperfections.

Bentgrass sodding begins.

A drain line was carved out in the bunker and will empty into the pond

Drain piping installed

Backfilled with pea gravel

Sand-trapper bunker liner was installed

Finished Approach

Projects, Projects

My staff and I are very busy completing a few big projects here at the course. The first work started last week on 9 tee to extend the middle(white) tee to help alleviate the stress and wear seen over the course of a season. The extension will give us 9 extra positions during set-up to spread out the normal wear.
The 14th  green complex remodel is almost completed and I'm very pleased with the results. Moving the existing bunker to the right and re-doing the rough area with approach height bent grass will increase the landing area to this very shallow green. The last bit of touch up as well as finishing the bunker will be completed on Friday. I will post pics of both projects very soon.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

My staff and I would like to wish the members and staff at RiverCrest Golf Club a Happy Thanksgiving!

Spike,Spike,Spike

With shorter days, reduced sunlight and lower temperatures, the time the turf has to dry out increases dramatically. It is very important to facilitate drying the soil with aerification. Last week we punched the greens with bayonet tines to introduce oxygen into the soil. This vital oxygen helps the plants roots heading into winter and allows a release of undesirable gases from a saturated rootzone. After spiking the greens, we doubled rolled the next day ahead of golf and resumed mowing a day later.

up close

1 green completed

Results after 1 Pass

Death from Above

If you were wondering what all the brown spots on 16 green are you have to look above. No, there wasn't a crazy party last weekend with spilled beer and liquor, that would be a travesty (Cause I wasn't invited). The damage is from our (un)friendly neighborhood Blue Herons. The fish that the heron consumes are highly acidic and moments after the bird goes the grass is destroyed. We have actually watered down the spots within minutes to no avail. Kevin will begin repairing the damaged spots using plugs from the LC green.

Looks like it's time for a motion activated water cannon!!

Late Season Aerification

In the coming weeks our staff will be aerifying greens, tees , and fairways.

The greens will be vented using a bayonet tine(1/4" X 1" X 6") which leaves a small slit on the surface. This process will help reduce compaction and more importantly help with gas exchange. The slit is wide enough to allow beneficial oxygen to enter the root-zone.
Later in December we will deep-tine the greens using a 1/4" by 10" tine which open channels to eliminate any standing water heading into winter.

 
The tees will be core aerified in November with 3/4" tines to remove as much thatch as possible heading into winter. We will top-dress heavily to fill the holes as well as cover the plant for winter protection.

The fairways will be punched using 3/4" solid tines in November as well as a two direction slice in December. This will aid in water removal as well as compaction.

New Arrivals

After many years of trusted service the club had to replace our two Toro Sidewinder rough units. These machines had been running flawlessly for 10 years but one developed a major issue. The frame on the mower cracked and split,  dropping one side about 3". Fearing this may happen to the other unit with similar hours we decided to pull the trigger on two so we wouldn't get stuck in a bind. The toro units have sliding decks that will move a few feet from side to side allowing the operator to move the tire tracks thus alleviating wear marks.

9 Tee

After another busy season, 9 tee has not been able to withstand the traffic. Every year this tee gets completely chewed up due the heavy amount of play teeing from the blue tee markers.  There are several determining factors impacting this tee.
    1.  The tee is tucked against a housing community and with numerous trees surrounding airflow is lost.
                This increases the time for the soil to dry out and will typically lead to shorter, compromised roots.
                Additionally, when summer arrives and the sun is directly overhead the turf and soil heat up
                rapidly causing extra stress on the plants.

    2.  Sunlight is reduced in the morning and afternoon due the above conditions and this will lead to thinner,
         weaker plants as well as increased drying times.

    3.  Between 75-80% of rounds played annually are taken from the blue tees.
                 This causes an issue for tee placements as a broad range of player abilities are hitting from the
                 same tee. This limits the space we have to chose from as higher handicap players will have
                 trouble reaching the fairway and better players must wait for the group ahead to clear the green.

    4.  The issue this season was the excessive rain in June and first half of July caused the saplings of typical
         "weed" trees such as cherries,poplars, and sumac to grow quickly partially blocking the view of the
         right side of the fairway. The extremely steep bank to right of the tee makes access difficult and unsafe.
         Spraying isn't option right now as the vegetation is stabilizing the steep tee bank.

The wear on the both tees is concentrated on the left side only due to the obstructed view. I have cut down the majority of saplings on the right side so the whole tee can be utilized.
When teeing off on nine, Please use the whole area between the markers.
I measured the wear areas yesterday for re-sodding and it was approximately 350 sq. feet. This is the same size as the gold tee on number 1.
  
 My plan early this fall is to extend the white tee back to the front of the blue tee. There is 18 feet of rough separating the tees and would give us 6-8 additional tee placements by renovating this area. This will provide 12-15 tee positions, or approximately two weeks, to allow more plant recovery time. Once winter arrives we will  take steps to find and make a safe access point to address the trees on the right throughout the season.

I will post our progress once renovation begins.

Fall Aerification

I was a bit apprehensive Saturday starting aerification after looking at the weather forecasts and seeing mid 90's for Monday - Wednesday. I thought this could be disastrous but with little to no room on the
schedule to make it up we decided to push forward.
The crew agreed to come in early with morning temps looking favorable to get started. As the guys began to arrive at 4:30am we were excited to get moving. By 5:00 the first tee was punched and clean up began.

There was a ton of work ahead with deep tining approaches as well as punching greens but the men kept after it. By 10:00 all of the tees were punched followed by the clean up crew.

As the heat soared Josh and I were racing around the course throwing on heads to keep the grass cooled off.

After a short break for lunch, the guys were surprised to find that Tom Currie, one of my sales reps offered to buy pizzas! This was just the ticket to keep them motivated. They worked feverishly and by 5:00pm they had cleaned up the tees through 15. The greens were also completed and the approaches punched through 14.
Tuesday morning the rest of the tees were cleaned up and we began to fertilize. After each tee was completed we threw down a healthy dose of irrigation to wash in the fert and give them a much needed drink.
My assistant Dave, meanwhile, was fertilizing the greens and watering behind.

On Wednesday Mike Zellner and his crew from Dryject arrived and began the sand injection process. Everything went smoothly and they completed the greens just before a pop up shower arrived. Once the sand dried again went took our brush over the greens and rolled behind.
A perfectly timed rain came late Thursday night and gave the course a much needed break.

A bit stressful, but a fabulous effort from the crew to complete everything by Thursday morning before the golfers were back.

Saturday Morning

Monday Morning and already healing

Sodium induced wilt

This season has definitely been feast or famine. We have either gone long stretches with out rain or the faucets are stuck open.
After 45 days in June and July we received over 22" of rain. Too much rain for extended periods will cause the plants to shorten up their roots as moisture is plentiful. The good news is the roots of the plants on the tees and greens still look great. This is due to the sand make up of the profile. The water can penetrate more effectively through this zone and will dry out much faster. On the other hand, the plants on the fairways and rough are sitting on a layer of rock and clay. The pore spaces that allow water to flow are much tighter and the top1-2" will stay overly wet.
The issue that we are dealing with now in the heart of summer is the rain has all but stopped.
High temps during summer combined with a lower relative humidity dries out the plants even quicker. ET is known as evapo-transpiration and is a measurement of how much water is lost from the plant. ( for example; an acre of corn will lose 3-4000 gallons of water per DAY and a 80ft oak tree will lose 40,000 gallons of water per year.) As the plants transpire or perspire more water is pulled from the roots to cool off the plant. On a 85 degree day with a relative humidity of 35%,  a whopping .33" of moisture is lost. To irrigate this amount back to the plant almost 700,000 gallons must taken from the pond. Our irrigation pond on holes 14,17 contains about 2.5 million gallons.
The other issue when solely relying on pond water is the make up of that water. Our irrigation water contains very high levels of sodium and carbonates.  When we consume a very salty meal we become dehydrated and must drink copious amounts of clean water to feel good again. If you put a teaspoon of salt in your water you would still feel dehydrated. This is actually what is happening on the fairways and rough. The term is known as sodium induced wilt. The more water we put down to keep up with the ET rates, the more sodium is introduced and the faster the plant dries out. When we finally get a good soaking rain the sodium will be washed away and we start over.
As you know, our style over the past 6 seasons has been to keep the course on the dry side when mother nature allows. This not only makes for a healthier plant, it also produces better playability with increased firmness and roll. When you run on the edge to keep those conditions some browning out may occur.

Punch,Punch,Punch

What a difference a month will make. After grinding it out through May with only .15" of rain and pond levels at record lows our wish was granted. We received just over 14" inches of rain in June. It seemed like it was never going to stop. The last weekend in June the course was inundated with 6.5" of rain in less than 48 hours.
This will definitely reduce our stress levels momentarily, but soaking wet turf can have detrimental effects. Roots do not have to dive deep in search of water and can begin to shrink. This can become a problem if the temps decide to soar. Wet wilt can damage turf as the shortened roots can't take up enough water to cool off the plant, especially plants mowed at greens height. The minimal leaf surface on greens reduces transpiration rates and the plant will over heat. The saturated soil complicates matters as it doesn't contain adequate amounts of oxygen.
A great tool we have at our disposal are venting tines. These tines are solid and can penetrate deep into the root-zone, introducing that vital oxygen into the soil as well as helping it to dry out.

This Monday and Tuesday will will punch greens to open small channels into the root-zone. After a few rolls behind the aerifier the greens surface will be putting smoothly again.

Just a Poke

We will be spiking the greens on Monday 15th and Tuesday 16th. This process is necessary to relieve compaction which facilitates root growth heading into summer. A second important outcome of spiking is channels will be opened allowing vital oxygen to enter the rootzone. The great thing about using these cross-tines is that I can achieve the necessary agronomic goals while limiting surface disruption to the golfers.
A double roll behind the aerifier usually is sufficient to bring back smooth and puttable greens.

Spiking one green with cross tines

Bunker Rehab

Over the last couple of years we have been renovating  bunker faces.  The build up of thatch had created many bare spaces and crevices that caused practically impossible recovery shots.  

This time around we worked on the bunkers on  8,15, and 18.   We began stripping the old patchy fescue grass, and brought it down to bare soil.    

 

 

 Once this was completed,  fertilizer and insecticide was put down in order for the sod to have a better growing environment.  Once the areas were prepped and ready the sod was laid. We used fine fescue this time around Instead of turf type tall fescue.   

 

 

 These areas will be native areas with the grass left to grow long.   This was done to keep the original look and “teeth” of the course.

15  Fairway bunker

8 Fairway bunker

18 bunker

ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE...

Maybe the one good thing about below average rainfall this spring, was that the pond water level had dropped. This gave us the opportunity to fix the rock wall next to 15 tee.  The first step, and the worst one, was to pull out all the rocks that had fallen into the pond.  When this was done the remaining dirt that had slid into the pond had to be removed. 

  Once the first two steps were completed our guys were able to start re-stacking the wall.  This time around, drainage was installed behind the wall and back filled with clean stone in order to help alleviate pressure.

 

This pipe will give the water an escape route and should protect the wall from falling in the future

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Once the grass seed begins to pop you will never be able to tell that it fell!

SWEET RELIEF!!

After 40 days with above average temps and .3" of rain (yes, that is correct, point 3) since April 21 we finally received a MUCH needed soaking rainfall. At the time of writing we have received 2.1" of rain and coupled with cloudy, cool temps, this will go a long way to alleviate and help to recover some of the brown(wilted) turf.

When I'm forced to rely solely on irrigation water for extended periods certain issues arise.

      One is that our pond water contains very high levels of sodium and bicarbonates.
If a high rate of bicarbonate is added this will bind up pore spaces and cause nutrients in the soil to fall out of suspension making it more difficult for the plants to recover.
      When sodium levels increase dehydration becomes an issue. The problem that occurs is every time we introduce more water the sodium continues to rise and the cycle repeats until a good rainfall flushes the soil. Another issue that can take place with high sodium is a condition known as sodium induced wilt. Wilt can occur within a short period even after it was just watered.
       Last week alone, my staff and I put down 1.7 million gallons through the irrigation system. That is unbelievable considering the total amount used last year was a little over 8 million.

For the numbers people: To irrigate greens,tees and fairways with just 1" of rainfall we would need to run our pumps from 1:00 PM until 12:00 PM the next day and would use 1.4 million gallons. Our irrigation pond holds about 3 million total.

     This past weekend we had a very successful Member/Member tournament with the course in fantastic playing condition. The weather was perfect for the event but remained in the high 80's with bright sunshine and strong breezes which dramatically increased the likelihood of wilting grass.

I will always try to maintain this course on the dry side which helps with root growth especially heading into the heart of summer. Shorter roots can't reserve water and will dry out quickly. They also can't retain essential nutrients that help a plant recover in times of stress.


The wilted spots on the course that were on the edge are recovering quickly and plenty of new green shoots are emerging due the perfectly timed rainfall that flushed that sodium. The brown tips that were effected will grow out and be cut off with the mowers in a few days.

New Range Mats

Here is some old news, but thought we would post it so it doesn’t seem like all we are posting is bad news these days. At the end of March, We installed new mats from Turfhound at the range.

After a few drill bits and a couple hours of prep time measuring and setting up the frames for proper alignment these babies were finally installed and look great. The fact the mats have trays insure that they are always straight and won’t slide underneath the golfers feet. They also have tee holders so golfer could hit their ball off of a real tee and also at the height they prefer. They are holding up great and have only heard good things about them so far.