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.

Course Update 5/30/19

Another .85" of rain fell last night bringing our two day total to 4.25".  Fortunately, no additional washouts occurred and there wasn't any hail.  I mentioned in yesterday's post that our progress of repairing Grove greens was halted due to afternoon storms, so we finished those greens first thing this morning then turned to Lakes.  The overall process went much smoother today with everyone knowing their role, even with a few rain delays.  We ended up finishing Lakes greens in a rain storm and I am pleased to report that all the greens completed today achieved the same great results as yesterday.  Orchard greens are scheduled for tomorrow and I don't anticipate any issues as long as the weather cooperates.

In addition to repairing the greens, six staff members spent all day repairing the greenside bunkers on Grove and Lakes.  Pushing the wet, heavy sand up is a tedious job and the staff did a great job given the current conditions.  We will repair the fairway bunkers on Grove and Lakes tomorrow ahead of the tournament, along with touching up some of the greenside bunkers that need additional work.

Here's a closeup of our greens aerifier.  The machine has a 48" working width with six independent coring heads and four different forward spacing options.  This current setup uses sixty .25" solid pencil tines that will penetrate 3-4" into the rootzone.  These smaller tines will only last nine holes before wearing out enough that they cannot reach our desired depth so we usually install new ones after each nine is completed.  A complete set of new tines averages $500 after freight and tax.

Grove 8 fairway bunker washed out again after being cleaned up yesterday.

Every time our bunkers washout the sand becomes more contaminated with rocks and sediment from the surrounding native soil.

Hail damage on Grove 4 green Wednesday morning.

Grove 4 green this morning after completing all cultural practices.  The cup is in the same spot as yesterday.

Course Update 5/29/19

Last night's storms delivered 3.4" of heavy rain and nearly golf ball sized hail, washing out bunkers and leaving plenty of debris to cleanup today.  It was some of the hardest rain I have seen in years, and the sound of the hail was like standing next to a passing train.  We found ourselves saying "It could have been a lot worse" many times today as we assessed the property.  Yes, we are dealing with hail damaged greens, all the bunkers need to be repaired, and there is enough debris throughout the courses to keep us busy for days, but we didn't lose any trees and there weren't any landslides.

Repairing the hail damaged greens is our primary focus and we determined that combining numerous cultural practices delivered the best results.  All 29 greens received some sort of damage from the hail, but Grove got it the worst and that's where we started after completing the practice green.  The first step in the process is to verticut (or vertical mow) which removes leaf tissue, thatch, and Poa seedheads, leaving 1/16" wide grooves for sand to settle into.  Next, we mow the greens at their normal height perpendicular to the verticut direction to clean up any stray leaf tissue.  After mowing, we sand topdress the greens then aerify using .25" solid tines on a 1.5"x1.5" spacing.  This type of aerification, also called pencil tining, helps to work the sand into the turf and the movement of the tines being pulled out of the ground will pull up the depression left by the hail.  The final steps in the process are to drag the greens with a semi-coarse brush to evenly spread the sand across the putting surface and fill in any remaining hail damaged spots, followed by rolling to smooth any bumps and tire tracks.  More storms this afternoon interrupted our progress on Grove, but we'll finish tomorrow morning then turn to Lakes followed by Orchard.  We are very pleased with the final results on the greens thus far and plan to have the process completed by Friday morning as long as the weather cooperates.

Large piece of hail from yesterday's storms.

Hail damage on Grove 4 green.

This was typical of the debris encountered this morning.

All the bunkers washed out and will be repaired once the sand dries out and can be pushed back into place.

Lakes 7 pond near the drop area.

There was enough water flowing in this creek to push a large rock into the drain pipe and collapse part of the wing wall. 

Lakes #5 by the tees.

Lakes #5 by the green.  You can see how high the water got from where the log and debris line is above the pipe.  The log is close to 18" in diameter.

This is the putting green surface after verticutting.

Sand topdressing then aerifying gave the best results.

Here's a closeup of the putting surface right after aerifying.

This is the putting surface after brushing and rolling.  The aerifier holes aren't visible anymore.

The end result repairs the hail damage and makes for a great putting surface.

Course Update 5/23/19

Fairway aerification took place this week after postponing for over a month due to weather delays.  The same contractor was used during previous aerifications and all 27 holes were completed over four days (the fourth day was required due to rain on Thursday).  Because we only closed 9 holes per day the contractor didn't need as much equipment, but still used three tractors, two large aerifiers, and one recycling machine with a total value of $180,000.  They charge us $270 per acre to core aerify and recycle the plugs which comes out to $10,800 for our 40 acres of fairway.  The aerifiers were setup with hollow tines that removed a 3/4" diameter core 4" deep, which created 20 holes per square foot.  That equates to 34,848,000 holes across all the fairways.  That may seem like a lot of holes, but it only affected 5% of the total surface area.

Aerification is an important and necessary practice in providing great playing conditions.  CLICK HERE to learn more about the process and why we do it.

The contractor is coring Grove 1 fairway with the large aerifiers that have a 98" working width.

The maintenance staff uses a small, 30" wide aerifier around irrigation heads, yardage markers and drains to prevent damage by the larger aerifiers.

Once the plugs (cores) dry out enough they are broken up with two heavy steel drag mats that go over every fairway several times.  The goal is to separate the soil from the organic matter (thatch) so the soil can be worked back into the holes.

Once the fairways are dragged the contractor uses a recycling machine to pulverize the soil and thatch into finer pieces.

The debris on the surface of this fairway is thatch that was left after the recycling process.

The final step in the process is for the maintenance staff to blow the thatch and any remaining debris off the fairways and then clean off irrigation heads, yardage markers and drains.

This is an aerification plug from one of the fairways and gives you an idea of how much thatch we have.  The total length of the plug was close to 4", but some of the soil fell off prior to taking the picture.  There's approximately 1.75" of thatch which is considered excessive, and why our fairways feel spongy and tend to stay wet longer.