Course Update 8/8/19

Aerification season is underway and all 29 greens were DryJected this week.  This year we moved aerification of greens and fairways to the week after Men's Invitational to take advantage of "summertime weather" for faster healing and recovery, a full complement of staff to complete aerification while keeping the other courses open for play, and we are trying to avoid likely weather delays in October that occurred the last two years.  Another advantage to aerifying now is that once the playing surfaces heal, golfers won't experience any disruption for the remainder of the summer and well into fall.  More clubs in our area are moving their aerification practices to early August for the same reasons.

You may be wondering why we don't DryJect more often and stop pulling cores.  The answer is that DryJect is just another "tool" we use to help manage the organic matter (thatch) in the greens.  The process injects sand to dilute the thatch, but does not actually remove anything like traditional core aerification does.  We've found that DryJecting heals considerably faster compared to core aerification and is the best process for this time of year, while still accomplishing our goal of diluting the thatch.  Later this fall we plan to pull cores to physically remove the thatch and topdress to fill the holes.  The healing process in late fall is relatively slow, but open holes during the winter helps water drain from the putting surface, limiting the amount of ice buildup and potential for winter injury.

Click Here To Learn More About DryJect And How It Works

As mentioned above, core aerification of fairways was also scheduled this week, but was postponed due to a threat of thunderstorms for several days.  The process has been rescheduled for Monday, 8/12 thru Wednesday, 8/14, with 9 holes closed each day.

DryJecting the practice green.  The staff uses the yellow buckets to scoop dry sand from our large utility vehicles then dumps it into the hopper on the DryJect machine.  The machine connects to our irrigation system through a 1" diameter hose to receive 120 psi necessary for the injection process.

Here is the DryJect machine in action.  A little sand remains on the putting surface around each injection hole but 90% is in the rootzone where it is most beneficial.

We drag the greens once they dry out to work any remaining sand into the turf which further dilutes the thatch.  After dragging, the greens are rolled to smooth out any tire tracks which also helps firm up the putting surface.

This is Grove #8 green taken Saturday morning.   This green was DryJected Tuesday and has been rolled two days and mowed two days since completing the process.  Most of the holes will be fully healed in the next few days given our current weather.

This was taken while changing cups a day after DryJecting and illustrates the results of the process.  The light colored column of sand towards the top of the picture is a recent DryJect hole.  It penetrates through the dark colored organic matter and into the original greens mix approximately 4.5" deep.  During the injection process the high pressure water will penetrate down as well as sideways depending on the density of the of the rootzone.

Lakes #4 Rough Project

Over the winter we removed 95 trees on Lakes #4 down the right side and at the end of the fairway.  The goal was to provide more sunlight and airflow to the fairway and rough to improve the health and density of the turf.  Having achieved that goal, the next phase of the project is to repair the areas where the trees were removed and provide ideal playable conditions.  Anyone familiar with the areas know what conditions were like given the surface roots and sparse turf.  A contractor started spreading topsoil this week and grading the existing terrain to address the roots and stump holes.  After the grading is complete the contractor will use a special attachment to remove rocks and sticks, leaving a clean seedbed for the new turf.  We will then seed the areas with a turf-type tall fescue/kentucky bluegrass blend that is an ideal mix for golf course rough.  These areas will continue to be Ground Under Repair so please use the drop areas provided to the left of the cart path until further notice.

Here you can see the contractor grading the area to the right of the cart path on Lakes #4.

Six truck loads of topsoil (approximately 130 tons) were hauled in and dumped in specific areas that needed to be raised to match the contours of the existing terrain.

All the stump holes and other depressions around the rain shelter have been filled in and graded to allow for proper water runoff.

2019 Drainage Project

This year's drainage project is underway, and work began near the green on Grove #1.  This has been a problem area since last year when we set a new precipitation record and progressively got worse this spring with the excessive rainfall.  A significant amount of water is seeping from the hillside along the right side of the cart path and draining over the top and underneath the path.  The runoff made a soupy mess of the fairway and approach in the areas we had to rope off because there wasn't drainage to collect the excess water.  To correct the problem we had the contractor install new drain lines and clean gravel along the base of the hill to the right of the cart path.  The new drains will intercept the water before it reaches the cart path and move it off property.  The new drainage is already helping to dry the area out and the contractor will resume work after the Men's Invitational.  Grove #1 and #6, and Orchard #1 are the three holes with the greatest need of drainage and will be addressed as quickly as possible.

The contractor is digging test holes on Grove #1 to find existing drainage.  If they find any we can flush the pipes to determine their functionality and may not require as much new drainage in a given area.

Another test hole that found an old drainage basin, but it wasn't connected to anything.

Installing 4" corrugated drain pipe and gravel to the right of Grove #1 green.

We found an old drain line coming out of the hill that still worked and connected it to the new line running along the cart path.

We decided to install a drain line along the left side of the cart path before the green to prevent additional water from running onto the the fairway and approach.

Working away from the green on Grove #1 and the ditch is already catching water seeping from the hillside.  This is before any pipe or gravel are installed.

Divots & Divot Mix

Now that the season is well underway, I thought it would be a good time to talk about divots.  When you hit a shot from a tee or fairway and the divot stays intact similar to the first picture below, you want to replace that divot.  If replaced within 24 hours of being removed, it has a very good chance of surviving.  Obviously you want the soil side down, and once in place, you want to step on the divot to smooth it out and make sure the existing roots contact the soil.  Sometimes a little divot sand can be applied if the divot doesn't fill the entire void.  If the divot explodes when striking the ball, there's no reason to try to gather all the little pieces.  They won't survive so the best course of action is to fill the void with divot sand.

Speaking of divot sand, we purchase a special blend of sand that is dyed green and contains a nutrient package designed to help the seedlings grow.  The divot sand comes in 2,000 pound (1 ton) super-sacs and we have a "Divot Mixing Area" in the maintenance building where we add bentgrass seed to the sand/nutrient blend using a standard cement mixer purchased from one of the home improvement stores.  During the summer, we go through one super-sac of divot mix per week between the divot bottles on the carts, the six refill stations throughout the course, in the divot boxes on the tees, and what the staff uses when filling divots each day.  By the end of the year, we will have used 25-30 super-sacs, at a cost of $410 each.

**Please use the divot sand only on tees and fairways.  Using the mix in the rough and along cart path edges leads to contamination and undesirable playing conditions.  Rough-height bentgrass is also more susceptible to disease and dies out easily during the summer leaving large areas of dead or thin turf.**

This is a fairway divot and should be replaced since it stayed intact

Void where the divot came from

Divot was replaced and stepped down to smooth out.  No divot sand was needed

Fairway divots weren't reusable so the voids were filled with sand

Tee divots improperly filled with sand.  Notice how the sand is piled up between the divots.  This wastes sand and dulls the mowers

"Divot Mixing Area" at the maintenance building

Bees In The Bunkers

Some concerns have been mentioned about the "bees" that invade our bunkers every year. They are actually Sand Wasps (Bembix species) and surprisingly pose no threat to humans.  Keep in mind that our staff maintains the bunkers daily and we are constantly disturbing them. NOT ONE STING!

Sand Wasp (Bembix species) burrowing in the sand

For a few weeks every summer we have little friends make homes in our sand traps. These fast fliers are officially known as the Bembix Sand Wasp. They dig numerous burrows in cool, moist sand (ie- bunkers) to lay their eggs. Juvenile wasps, known as larvae, emerge from the eggs where they remain in the sand and grow into adults. Adult females congregate together in large numbers when making nests to bait their prey. The higher populations of larvae in nesting sites attract flies, beetles, caterpillars and grasshoppers. These insects are captured by the female wasp and taken back to the burrows to be fed to the growing larvae.

The existence of these insects in the bunkers is a nuisance to golfers, but beneficial to the course as they help to control the population of flies and detrimental turf beetles by preying on them.

The greatest concern for golfers is that they will get stung by these wasps when entering a bunker to play a shot.  Studies have proven that this particular wasp is not aggressive and of no harm to humans.  Both male and female wasps will not sting humans unless they are stepped on or smashed between your hands.  When approached by a human the sand wasp will initially swarm, looking for food, and then go back to their burrows to protect their larvae.

Course Update 7/11/19

Not counting today's storms, our total rainfall so far in July is 1.29" and we had measurable rain 6 of the first 7 days this month.  Our average is 3.90" of rain in July.  June finished with 9.01" of rain over 17 days, which puts us at 10.30" since June 1st and 18.77" since May 1st.  Since the beginning of the year we've received 29.64" of rain compared to our average of 19.52".  Over the past 191 days, 78 have seen measurable precipitation.

The excess moisture caused a surge in weed growth this year, and the hot/humid weather over the past week has created ideal conditions for disease.  White Clover (Trifolium repens) and Yellow Nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus) are the two dominant weeds present, and a fungus known as Dollar Spot (Clarireedia homoeocarpa) is responsible for the tan spots in the rough.  We've been spot spraying a mixture of herbicides the past several weeks to control the weeds and are seeing good results.  Once we make it through the entire property we will go back and re-apply in the areas where weeds are still present.  Beginning next week we will begin spraying a fungicide to control the Dollar Spot fungus along with a little fertilizer to help the grass recover.  Dollar Spot fungus only affects leaf tissue, not roots or the crown like other pathogens.  That's why the plant will recover after a fungicide application and produce new leaf tissue.  Our primary applications will be around fairways and greens, then we'll come back and spray other areas including around tees.  The fungicide we plan to use to for the Dollar Spot is also labeled to control Gray Leaf Spot, which if you remember is responsible for damaging the rough last fall.  Gray Leaf Spot kills the entire plant and why we scheduled several sprays beginning this summer to preventatively treat for the pathogen.

Here's a good example of what Dollar Spot looks like in the rough.  The pathogen is not isolated to golf courses, so you may encounter it in your own lawn.

Course Update 6/25/19

Last night's storms dropped 1.53" of rain that washed out all the bunkers again and left the courses with standing water in many areas.  That brings our monthly total to 7.59" and 16.06" since May 1st.  Tees, fairways, and approaches were too wet to mow this morning, but we mowed greens, changed cups, cleaned up debris, and started repairing bunkers.  Since all the bunkers washed we decided to perform some much needed edging and other maintenance.  The forecast for the remainder of the week looks favorable, with warmer temps and dry conditions which will help the courses dry out.

A lot of water was moving thru the property this morning.  About 8" is covering the spillway from the lake below the clubhouse.

Repairing the bunkers is a time-consuming process and the first step is scraping up the silt and other debris to keep it from contaminating the sand.  "Dirty Sand" doesn't drain well and will eventually result in inconsistent playing conditions.

Here the staff is string trimming the grass around the perimeter of the bunker then blowing out the debris, followed by raking the edges.

This bunker is ready to be spun by the ride-on bunker machines.

We continue to find drain lids in both fairways and roughs that are grown over and unable to remove water from the surface.

This drain was covered for so long the soil resembles the shape of the slots and the roots grew down thru the lid.

Here's a side shot of the sod that was removed.  It's approximately 1.5" thick and the drain lid came off when the sod was pulled up due to the amount of roots present.

Course Update 6/20/19

It's been another week of wet weather, almost 2.7" since 6/13.  That brings us to 5.48" so far in June, and nearly 14" since May 1st!  I can't remember the last time I worked on a property that was this wet for this length of time.  As mentioned in last weeks post, we're doing our best to maintain the courses given the current conditions.  Mowing greens is performed daily since they're sand based and drain well.  Unfortunately, repairing bunkers also seems to be a daily occurrence.  Tees were walk mowed on Wednesday since they're too wet to support the normal riding mowers, and we're planning to walk mow approaches tomorrow as long as we don't get too much rain tonight.  Fairways haven't been mowed since last Friday, and probably won't be mowed until next week.  The smaller, articulating rough mowers have been out all week and are making good progress with minimal impacts.  We haven't been able to send out the larger rough units for fear of them sliding into a bunker or pond, and causing major damage.  Since we're unable to perform our regular mowing practices, we've stayed busy with detail work such as string trimming around trees, pond and creek banks, edging around and cleaning off irrigation heads and drains, daily filling of tee divots, and pruning low hanging branches over cart paths.  We also started replacing the rubber mats covering the steps on the Lakes side driving range tee, similar to what we did on Lakes 2.

Let's hope the weekend forecast holds true and we get some much needed sunshine and lower humidity to start drying out!

Course Update 6/13/19

Heavy storms hit again Monday night dropping 1.35" of rain and washing out all the bunkers.  Fortunately, there wasn't any hail and only minor debris to clean up.  It seems like that's the pattern we're stuck in and for every few nice days we get hammered with severe storms.  Not counting the rain this afternoon, we've received 2.8" of rain so far in June.  Our monthly average is 4.15" and we're not halfway thru the month yet.  Going back to May 1st, we've received 11.25" of rain over 43 days, which is almost one third of our total yearly precipitation.  We're making the best of it and trying to schedule maintenance activities based on the forecast.  For instance, on Monday we verticut, mowed, and topdressed Grove greens again because we still saw some depressions from the hail damage two weeks ago.  The forecast called for rain Monday night, which worked out perfectly to wash the sand in.  On Monday we also core aerified, topdressed, seeded, and dragged the back driving range tee on the Orchard side to speed up divot recovery.  One of our goals this year was to improve the condition of the tees given their age and increased usage.  Other activities this week include spraying tees and greens, fertilizing tees, repairing an irrigation leak on Grove 6 fairway, trimming around and cleaning off irrigation heads, drains, valve boxes, and yardage markers in fairways/rough, and refurbishing the steps to the silver tee on Lakes 2.

This is how much material was removed after verticutting the practice green on Monday.  Topdressing sand will settle into the turf canopy and fill in where this organic material used to be.

Here's the practice green after topdressing on Monday.  It appears heavier than it really is, and one time around with the drag brush is all that is required to move the sand off the putting surface.

Core aerifying the back driving range tee on the Orchard side to relieve compaction and allow for better infiltration of water and nutrients.

Here's the range tee with a heavy topdressing over the aerification plugs.  After topdressing we spread a generous amount of seed to help with divot recovery and to fill in thin areas.

Here's the tee after dragging to break up the aerification plugs and work the topdressing sand and seed into the aerification holes and low spots.  The material remaining on the surface is thatch from the aerification plugs that will be blown off.  We expect to see germination in 5-7 days and this tee should be fully recovered in 3-4 weeks.

Another one of our projects this week was replacing a ductile iron tee on a 4" irrigation mainline.  Of course the leak was right in the middle of the fairway and about 2.5 feet deep, so we needed a large hole to work in.  The smaller pipe coming out of the tee is a 2" lateral line that supplies water to the irrigation heads in the rough above the fairway bunkers.  The green hose is the suction line for a trash pump to remove the water coming into the hole.

This is the underside of the 4" tee that was leaking.  Like most things in the ground for over 20 years, the casing of the tee was deteriorating and the rubber gasket started to push out of the tee from the pressure of the irrigation system.  These types of repairs are becoming more common given the age of our irrigation system.

David Farr is removing the old rubber mats from the steps on Lakes 2 that were falling apart and created a safety hazard.  The steps were then sprayed with an anti-microbial cleaning agent and power washed to remove the grime that had accumulated over the years.  New rubber mats have been ordered and will be installed as soon as possible to make the steps much safer.

Course Update 6/4/19

Thank you to the maintenance staff for all their hard work last week during some of the worst weather we've seen in years.  Also, thank you to the membership for your patience and understanding during that same time.  We received 5.8" of rain from Saturday, 5/25 thru Thursday, 5/30, then another 1.1" of rain Saturday night into Sunday morning.  Unfortunately, the heavy rain Saturday night washed out all the bunkers again and left a lot of debris.  We started the cleanup process yesterday along with mowing greens, tees, some approaches, and rough.  There are numerous areas throughout the courses that still have standing water, but the recent dry, cool weather is helping to remedy that.  Today we're mowing fairways for the first time since last Monday, continuing on rough, and repairing bunkers. 

During the month of May, we received 8.5" of rain over 20 days, while our average rainfall is only 4.4" for the month.  Year to date that puts us 5.26" over our average precipitation and we've had measurable rain events 55 days so far this year.