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