Firming up perception

If nothing else, it adds some valuable yardage to your drives

Unfortunately, the public perception of golf courses is not always the greatest, but Superintendents are doing everything they can to clean up that old image of “chemical dumpers” and “water hogs”. RiverCrest was designed with over 40 acres of native grasses, which don’t need fertility or irrigation to thrive and actually are ideal without it (this is why the natives get so thick with rainfall). 

We have effectively cut down water usage the last two years by 26% over the previous five. The plant will slowly adapt to its environment, creating stronger turf that can handle times of drought stress. Next year we are continuing to dial in our programs which includes moving sprinklers to more effective locations, using different soap based products to break surface tension and move water more evenly through the soil, and adding additional connections for watering localized dry spots with hoses.

One of my big pet peeves is driving by an office building or home and watching the sprinklers run because of the day of the week or time instead of necessity. We set our irrigation computer daily based on plant needs, weather patterns, or an occasional fertilizer application that needs to be watered in. Hopefully you all know that RiverCrest is doing its part to help the environment and prepare our course for the future, while also providing firm playing conditions throughout the season.

I found a little tidbit while I was doing some reading: There was a recent study that showed Golf courses in the desert of Las Vegas used 37% less water than homeowners to maintain their turf. 

Below is a video with some interesting data about the turf we grow and golf on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K-aoWqM85M

Frost!!

With our first frost delay of the year this morning, I just wanted to update the membership on what our plans are for the rest of the year (as long as the weather channel is wrong in saying 6" of snow on Saturday afternoon). The cool temperatures will really slow the plants growth and cutting will be minimal from here on out. We will continue to topdress the greens weekly, helping to protect the crowns of the plant through the winter. Our plan is to soil relieve the greens and tees one more time before winter to eliminate any compaction and oxygenate the soil. It is a similar look to a pencil tine aerification, but instead of poking a hole straight down, it kicks and shatters the soil profile.

As far as winter play is concerned, weather dictates everything, but here is my plan. We will cut the cups in the fairways/rough in early December, but wait to switch the flags over until December 22nd. Squeeze in a few more rounds while you can!!!

Trees on 1

Number 1 and 4 greens are taking much longer to recover from aerification and the overall health of these two greens are consistently lower than the rest. Both are smaller greens as far as pin positions to spread out traffic. They are also located in the worst growing environments on the property. Air movement and morning sun are very scarce throughout the entire season, causing much weaker turf during stressful periods. We dodged many bullets and proceeded with caution to get us through another tough summer, but any little change in weather would have broken our thin ice. Unfortunately, there is not much more we can do on 4 as last winter we thinned out some trees on the right and cleaned up the underbrush between it and 16. We were going to wait until the winter to remove the grove on 1, but with the effects it had on slowing the healing and delays it would have caused with frost, we decided to move forward and strengthen the turf for next season. Below are some of the pictures taken at 9:00 before the removal and if the sun shines in the next 2 weeks, I will add some updated pictures. We will be adding some smaller plant material this fall to fill in the void we created, but in the meantime we are just letting the green breathe.

Range Tee

I was not pleased with the range tee during the 2010 season and the quality of turf we provided for you to practice on during the summer months. I knew the heat and drought stress contributed to the thinner turf in July and August, but we also made other adjustments over the winter to improve this season's playing surface. We enlarged the tee with hopes of allowing members to use the grass portion from Thursday to Sunday. We also heavily seeded with the fastest germinating turf (ryegrass) and continued to add divot mix and additional seed every Tuesday. We encountered another tough summer with a lack of rainfall and some steady stretches of above average heat and once again the grass did not fare very well on the tee.

Excuses don't go very far in our industry and you just play the hand you are dealt by the often relentless Mother Nature. With that being said, we are making another adjustment to the tee and switching the turf over to bermudagrass. It is a southern turf which aggressively grows laterally and is better suited for drought conditions. This "Patriot" variety was established for athletic fields to handle the wear and tear of football and soccer in the Mid-Atlantic climates. The one challenge we will tackle with overseeding is dormancy. Bermudagrass goes dormant in October and does not green up until May. We will utilize ryegrass to maintain the surface in the shoulder seasons.

I did not want to rip up the tee again this fall to make the transition so we came up with a clever way to switch it over without any disruption to play. We swapped out 600 cup size plugs throughout the tee with the new Patriot bermudagrass. It will establish itself this fall, but we probably will not see much lateral movement with cooler temperatures late in the year. In May we will switch some of our practices to favor the lateral growth of the new turf are hoping by season's end the tee will be almost completely transitioned (it will actually choke out the rye as it pushes to the side). I will keep you updated with progress as we move through next season and hopefully we can utilize the turf portion of the tee on a consistent basis in the future.

Irene

The hurricane was not as damaging as predicted, but still left all of the sand in the bunkers washed to the bottom and debris everywhere. We did have one totally uprooted tree by the shelter on 8, but it fell out of play and easily cleaned up this morning.

The good news is significant rainfall jump started the greens into recovery and many of the holes are already closed. We were able to get a roll and a cut on them this afternoon and they should be fully healed and ready for the holiday weekend.

Hope to see everyone at the softball game tomorrow night!!! I know after a full day of shoveling bunkers, my staff will be in great shape to run a few bases.

Conditioning the soil

The goals for fall aerification were to remove as much of the top organic matter as possible, give the roots oxygen to breath /create a gas exchange, relieve compaction, and create sand channels to increase water infiltration to the rootzone. The turf is very worn down at the end of the season and precaution must be taken with the turf to ensure proper recovery, therefore we perform a portion in-house and have a contractor bring in their less aggressive machines to finish it off. We began by pulling smaller cores from the top 4" on a very tight spacing, allowing the top layer to breath and dry out from all of the rain. The plugs were pulled to the side, hauled away, and any remaining debris blown off. We topdressed heavily with sand and brushed over the green two times to fill most of the holes. On Tuesday we rolled the greens after they were dry to eliminate sand sticking to the drums and creating a mess. This set us up for Dryject to bring in their machines on Wednesday. These sand injection machines are the best at punching a straight sand channel through the profile. We adjusted the pressure way down for our greens to aggressively attack the top layer with a fat channel. This procedure is very labor intensive as the machine needs to be filled with buckets (we used nearly 40 tons of sand for three machines). We followed that process with a brush and another roll before we added the organic fertilizer as the finishing touch. All goals were accomplished and the healing process has already begun. Below are a few pictures of our three day adventure:

The core aerifier pulling plugs from the green with the box attachment dragging them to the side, reducing foot traffic before the holes are filled.

This is the Dryject machine adding more sand to the profile

This is a picture taken last season after the spring aerification. You can see the distinct layer at the top that we have targeted with our agronomic practices

The top layer is not nearly as evident and a perfect sand channel was added from the dryject machines on the right. All of the small punctures on the playing surface are from our machines, while the larger ones are from the sand injection.

Aerification Update

We were very fortunate to have three great days with cool conditions and sunny skies to aerify the course. Michael had all of the equipment running to perfection and the Assistants kept the organized chaos moving full speed ahead. The crew took full advantage, working very long hours with no complaints and leaving very healthy turf behind. We still have a few fairways left to finish due to holding back the tractor on Monday with the soggy conditions. The first few groups will catch the slicer on 16 or 18, but that will be the only interference tomorrow and we do not need to close down any holes. I will attach a few pictures in the coming days explaining the process and reasoning in depth.

Chainsaws are sharpened and ready for whatever Irene may bring…