Golf Course Maintenance Update

Well our first freeze is finally over, but as you know it's early.  Winter, officially called the Winter Solstice, doesn't start until December 21st.  As of this writing we are not seeing much damage from the very cold temperatures we experienced for almost 10 days. Just some discoloration here and there. We'll know more as we come out of the thawing phase. We did develop a disease called Fairy Ring prior to the freeze on #18 green and the small chipping green. There are over 52 different kinds of Fairy Ring. This particular one is very noticeable in just the middle and towards the back of #18 green.While we don't anticipate any turf loss it makes for a rather odd look, which left unchecked could cause some problems. The Fairy Ring you may be familiar with is usually a large circular dark green ring with mushrooms growing from it. Generally this is caused from decaying organic matter.

Fairy Ring

This can be controlled by a fungicide, which we will be applying once the greens have thawed out. We're not sure why only #18 and the small putting chipping green were affected. Hopefully it is contained to just these greens as we have not seen any other greens with the disease.

Over the past several days the maintenance crew has been busy clearing out some areas on #5 of salal bushes. Areas to the right and left out about 200 yrds from the tee have received some needed removal to help pace of play. Generally in these areas, finding an errant tee shot could take a while. Additionally, we have removed the two large trees to the left of  #5 green. These two trees where causing some significant problems with sunlight to the green and also contributing to some turf decline in and around the front left of the green. With the added drainage in this area and some new sod on the way this area will be in much better shape to play from. We've sanded the area quite heavily so we've marked it as "ground under repair".

#5 drainage

#5 left of green

#5 tree removal 

We've also removed a significant amount of salal and under brush to the left of #5 green. This area will now  be a playable spot if a golf ball kicks left of the bunker.

Left of #5 green

As a result, we expect to see more sunlight to the green and it will also allow golfers to find their golf ball should it enter this area.

Golf Course Maintenance Update

Over the last several weeks the golf course maintenance crew has been busy on a couple of projects. You may have noticed in the rough on  #4 we have completed the improvements to the turf and drainage in this area. The old matted sod was taken out and new drainage and sod added. Once this area is open for play  the area should now be in good condition to play from.

#4 left rough at about 130 yards from the hole

Another area we are currently working on is the surround area on #7 green. We have taken out the sod in a couple of areas surrounding the green that was not draining. We will be addressing the drainage issues and replacing the sod in the next few weeks once we have some other areas ready for sod.

Back of #7 green

You may also have noticed the trees we've taken down behind the green on #7, some of which you can see in the photo above. This has really opened up the light to this area. In addition to the trees next to #3 tee we also had the trees immediately behind the green trimmed up. With these trees trimmed and the elimination of the trees next to the #3 tee we are now getting much more direct sunlight to the green.

#7 green before tree removal - notice the amount of shade effecting the sunlight to the green

#7 green from a different view before removal

#7 green after tree falling

Unfortunately as of this writing I haven't been able to take any photographs with direct sunlight as our days have been pretty gray and overcast. What little sun has been out it is now able to cover almost the entire green. We have a few more trees blocking the light that are located next to the restroom which we may consider taking out as well. You can see this from the photo above.

Another area of concern I've noticed recently has been the ball marks on all of the greens. Typically this time of the year the turfgrass has gone somewhat dormant so the recovery of ball marks are slowed way down. In many cases they don't recover until spring. It is vitally important during this time of the year to take the extra time to fix your ball marks correctly. In the photos below you will see some ball marks that were not fixed very well and one that with a little extra work is completely fine.

Poorly repaired ball mark 

No repair

Properly repaired

With your help in taking the extra time to fix ball marks correctly we can minimize the unsightliness and help improve the surface quality of the green. Poorly repaired or no repair ball marks can have an effect on ball roll.What works best when trying to repair the mark is to gently work in from all sides with a repair tool or tee, if that's all you have, until you have the area filled in with surrounding material then lightly pat down with your putter. If done correctly, as you can see by the divot above, you can hardly tell a divot was present. 

Maintenance Update

While September was the wettest since, oh..... probably ever, the golf course stood up to Mother Nature pretty well. We have seen however, the development of some new soggy areas in and around some greens. For example, #7 green has some areas to the right and back of the green in the surround areas and we also have an area next to the cart path at the #15 green and a small area to the rear of #17 green. Our plan is to cut the sod out in these areas, place in some drainage and re-sod. This has worked well in some other areas around the golf course. In addition to some of the green surrounds, we developed a drainage problem on #4 rough to the left of the 150 yard marker. You may remember we did some drainage work in this area last year. Our main goal was to replace the mainline pipe that was catching water by the green and from a bog on #5. This provided a clear path to the lake, which eliminated the water in the swale. Unfortunately the area towards the lake, a popular area if you slightly pull or hook your tee shot, had a lot of thatch and was in a low point along the line. In order to correct this area, we are pulling the sod and adding additional drainage and will re-sod.  

Area behind #7 Green

Area between #7 Green and cart path

#4 Rough looking back towards the tee

Another angle looking towards #7 tee

We are also considering some tree removal on # 7 and #3 tee. There is a patch of trees that during the winter months is blocking any kind of direct sunlight we may get in the afternoon hours. Because the sun is at such a low angle in the sky these trees are in affect acting as a light blocker and as you know living plants especially turfgrass need light to survive in a healthy state. #7 has been a very poor performer during the winter months due to the affects of this diminished sunlight.We've already seen the benefits of removing select trees around greens. One example is on #3 green where trees were removed towards the back of the green. #7 is virtually blocked by sun the entire day during the winter months. Removing some of these trees will help in this effort and will benefit the tees on #3 as well.

#7 Green looking towards the #3 black tee

In addition to these trees, the large trees directly behind the green are creating some shade issues too. Our plan here is to limb up the trees a ways to help eliminate the problem.

#7 Trees behind the green that can be trimmed

Maintenance Update

It's been a busy summer in the maintenance department as July and the first of August brought us all of the Member Guest Tournaments together within a few weeks of each other.

We are very appreciative of the many favorable comments regarding the golf course during all of the tournaments. The crew worked very hard to bring you the best conditions possible. As with any golf course, we will always have areas to improve on and we work hard to identify them and make changes for the better. We appreciate any and all feed back, it really does help in this process, thank you.

A view up #10 from #18 green prior to the Men's  MGI

Bunker Update
We have been working hard to get the bunker edges and sand distribution in the bunkers in good condition. Some have received some new sand, but most just need the sand moved around a bit. We will continue to address problem areas as we continue to improve our raking and mowing techniques.
The following photo was taken on #10 fairway bunker. You can see how the grass edges are coming in nicely.

Irrigation Improvements
As many of you may have noticed we recently had another irrigation blow out on #15 in the front bunker. After many attempts to correct the problem,we decided it would be best to eliminate the lateral line from the bunker and move it around in front of the bunker. We think that because this area is one of the lowest areas of the golf course we may be experiencing what is known as hammering. As pressure fluctuates in a system it can create a hammering effect that can cause undue pressure in specific areas, which in turn can cause pipes and fittings to fail, especially with aging systems such as ours where pipe is 25 years old.

#15 Irrigation repair

I'm happy to report that so far so good on this repair. At least if it fails now we won't have the bunker flooded out.
We've also recently repaired some sprinkler heads on #4 and #6. As the irrigation system ages, we have been experiencing some underground wiring issues that has prevented many sprinkler heads from working on the automatic system at night. When this happens the sprinklers have to be turned on by hand from a selector located at the head itself. This can become quite time consuming for the irrigation staff which has to spend time away from other areas that may need attention. We've tried using wire location equipment with mixed results and often times we end up chasing wire all over the place wasting time. We only spent approximately an hour and half to complete each fix. On this day we were able to fix five heads.  We haven't given up on wire location equipment as we have tested some good ones and will be looking at securing something in the near future. It's not the complete answer, but will help with these kinds of problems and other wiring issues we face from time to time. As time allows we hope to repair five or six more heads with similar problems. Normally we wouldn't attempt something like this during the middle of the summer, but with the recent rains it has allowed us a window of time to get it done without disrupting our normal schedule of maintenance.

The following photos show what is involved in correcting the problem. We basically are tapping into a working sprinkler head nearby that can handle another head on the same station during the watering cycle.

Getting ready to sod cut from one head to another

With sod removed Irrigation Tech Jeff Ellison is digging the trench at about 8 inches in depth so that when we aerify this area the tines will not damage the wires.

Assistant Supt Jason Kelly and Irrigation Tech Frank Pablo make the necessary connections and place the new wire in the trench

Once  the trench is filled the sod is replaced

In a few days this area will be as good as new.

Maintenance Update

The golf course maintenance team has been busy catching up on mowing the past couple of weeks. The rain we had set us back a bit.  Fortunately we had a good week of weather and we were able to get caught back up. Our irrigation crew has been very active also,  fixing and replacing bad or damaged heads and valves from the winter months.  More recently we have been focusing on our bunkers.  Over time the bunker sand shifts, generally towards the back and to the low end.  Much of this is due to rain events. Our goal is to redistribute the sand back up to the high end and in some cases up the face to the edge of the grass.

#18 green side bunker

With some modifications to one of our mowers called a fly mow, we will maintain a higher cut along the edges to soften the look.  The mower actually floats on a cushion of air. It does a good job on very steep hills and mounded shoulders on bunkers.  Lift kits help us get to the desired height of cut and will keep the edges looking good.
 

Fly mower

 
 The photograph below shows the back edge of a bunker on #18 after some sand redistribution.

The photos below are of #1 green side bunker where we are pushing sand back up to eliminate the large flat face on the greens side.

#1 Right green-side bunker

 

#1 Right green-side bunker

Below is the finished product. More sand is now back where it belongs. Much of the sand that was in the back of the bunker has now been redistributed to the upper face and weak areas.

#1 Right green side bunker

As you can see here on #3 sand is being taken from the back edge where there is plenty of sand and  redistributed around the bunker.

#3 Front green-side bunker

Notice the large face, again a product of sand collapsing from a very steep face.

#3 Front green-side bunker

#3 Front green-side bunker

Once again a finished product with less of a face. Additionally, there is less sand in the back and more in the bottom and front where it was lacking.

#3 Front Green-side bunker

More and more bunkers will be done in the days and weeks ahead until we have them completed.

Another functioned performed recently has been what we call a "wall to wall" fertilization. We applied a special blend of fertilizer to the entire golf course. This is a follow-up to an application we put down several weeks ago. This time we increased our nitrogen amount to help get us almost through the summer months. It takes up to 18,000 lbs of fertilizer to accomplish this task. Supplemental spray applications will be done also.

Assistant Supt. Jason Kelly spreading fertilizer on #1 fairway

Golf Course Maintenance Update

#11

It's been almost four weeks since we conducted aerification on the golf course and things have healed up nicely. We still have some areas in the fairways with a light coat of sand, but this should continue to get better as we get more good growing weather. We also have the front nine rough to aerify as well. I had hoped to get some of the approaches verticut and sanded by now, but weather and other factors have delayed this process. We are looking at the schedule to see how we can fit this in without too much disruption to play. We also are about to apply our post aerification fertilizer to the entire golf course.

Much of our time lately has been working on the irrigation system. Typically after the winter months there are issues with valves and damaged sprinkler heads that have to be repaired. When repairing valves, this involves digging down to a lateral line which is connected to the main line. Many times this can be quite deep and digging can be difficult. Based on how deep and how it's configured to the main line, repairs to valves can be very time consuming.  Sometimes the entire plumbing has to be redone. Frank Pablo Jr. and Jeff Ellison, our two irrigation techs, do a great job of identifying the problems and make the repairs as quickly as possible.

Members have commented recently that the grass in some fairways are thin. I agree, and we are working on a more aggressive plan to try and stimulate more growth in these areas.  Part of the problem, as we all know, is due to shade and some of it may be due to a lack of increased inputs in past years to help with winter recovery and addressing soil issues . Our goal this year is to target some of these areas with increased agronomic inputs to try and address the root cause of the deficient turfgrass. Hopefully over time this will improve to give us a much thicker stand of turfgrass. 


The pictures where taken on Wednesday the 8th on a beautiful sunny afternoon.  I never get tired of taking pictures! 

 #10 

#12

Aerification Update

I'm pleased to announce that our spring aerification process is in its final stages. As of today, April 19th,  we have finished aerifying and sanding the greens, collars, and tee complexes. We've also finished aerifying the fairways, and will now topdress them with sand over the next several days, weather permitting. We also are going to be verticutting and sanding the approaches to the greens as well. Our last aerification will be in the roughs, which we plan on doing next week. Once these final processes are done our spring aerification will be complete. We would like to express our sincere thanks to the membership during this process as I know it's an inconvenience.

#10 Tee

#9 Green

Additionally, you will notice that our snack shack/restroom at the 9th hole has a new roof and new support posts. We are planning on putting in a new counter as well. When weather permits, we plan on painting the building utilizing the same colors that are on the clubhouse. The food and beverage department is planning on utilizing the building this summer, stay tuned.

Snack Shack/ Restroom Before

Snack Shack/Restroom After