Merry Christmas

I wasn't to sure about this whole blog thing at the beginning of the year when I started this one for the golf course. Well after the first year I would have to say I have really enjoyed writing and posting articles about the golf course. To all of you who have followed me this year I hope you have enjoyed my postings and will come back next year and follow me, maybe even tell your friends. I've had almost 3,000 page views this year and this will be my 84th posting. With so many views I either have some actual followers or my wife has been kind enough to view my blog almost 3,000 times. I would like to believe that it is actual followers, but if not at least my wife is up to date on my blog. I wish everybody a Merry Christmas and happy holidays.

Painting the Driving Range

We have already had more days below freezing this year than we had all of last year. Last year we experimented with turf pigments and had great success with them. This year has been a different story for us and all golf courses that have used pigments. Here at the country club we have already had three days at 25 degrees, last year we barely got below 30 a few times. With a pigment the leaf blade absorbs the chemical which in turn raises the turf canopy temperature upwards of five degrees. This allows the turf to stay greener longer due to the extended life of the chlorophyll in the leaf blade. We learned that with colder temperatures pigments are not the Country Club's best option. Now after all that I have said we have chosen to go in another direction. We painted the driving range Friday morning with a turf paint. Turf paints are not absorbed into the leave blade like the pigments they coat the leaf blade instead. This process is not harmful to the plant at all. Painting is a one time spray and must be applied to dormant grass in order to get the best look. Why does it need to be sprayed on dormant turf you ask? If sprayed on green turf or even semi-dormant turf the paint will fade away like a pigment does, once all the chlorophyll is taken out of the leaf blade due to winter dormancy.

Blue Bird Boxes

Over ten years ago blue bird boxes were made and placed throughout the golf course to encourage bluebirds to make our course their home. Over time these bluebird boxes have broken or have rotted and had to be taken down, which lead to very few bird houses left on the golf course. A group of early morning walkers felt that the bluebird population had dwindled down to almost nothing and wanted to correct this. Dudley Bowen, Mike Shelton, Byrd Warlick, Whitney O'Keefe, Brannon Sell, Bob Kirby and Grady Smith donated their time and money to make brand new bluebird boxes hoping that the bluebird population would return to what it once was. If you see any of these gentlemen be sure to thank them and do not forget to be on the lookout for a whole new population of birds in the near future. 

Shop Improvements

With cold temperatures and rain scheduled to last throughout the day, we took advantage of this and did some painting in the maintenance building. A fresh coat of paint was painted on the crew room, hallway, bathroom and secretary's office walls. Sometimes it just takes a new coat of paint to transform the shop into a brand new looking one.

Continuing Education

Furthering my education is at the top of my list of most important steps to improving my career. I am very fortunate that the Club allows me to continue my education through online seminars and live seminars. Over the past two days I attended the Carolina Golf Course Superintendent Association's annual conference. Over the course of two days I took twelve hours of continuing education classes. The first class was about how to better understand turf diseases and the products that are needed to control and prevent them. The next two classes were about interviewing and the business side of golf course management. I learned a lot during my classes and am looking forward to using what I learned.

Fireplace

With the fireplace opening up last weekend the golf course crew has gone into the wood splitting business. We recently purchased a wood splitter so that we can split our own wood. We have been stock piling wood from some of the trees that have come down on the golf course to accommodate the fireplace.

THIS IS MY OFFICE

The Georgia Golf Course Superintendent Association recently made a video that will be used to promote the golf course superintendent profession and the golf industry in Georgia. Please click on the link below to watch the video and be prepared to be amazed. 

https://vimeo.com/78408239

New landscaping at patio

Over the last month the golf course crew has been pecking away at irrigation and landscaping additions around the patio and fireplace. During a typical irrigation and landscaping project they would be done all at once, but due to the high volume of construction traffic we were at the contractor's mercy. We would only install irrigation and plant new plants once the contractors were finished with certain areas. It did not make sense to do all the necessary work and then have to go back and replace broken pipes or worse, plants that were destroyed. With the grand opening scheduled for last Friday night we worked late Wednesday and Thursday to make sure that all landscaping around the fireplace and patio was completed. Below are pictures of the irrigation and landscaping process.

 

Driving Range

This winter will be the first time we have tinted the driving range. Towards the end of the growing season we cut a fairway into the driving range rough. This will give us a distinct outline of fairway and rough. The idea behind tinting the range floor is to allow the golfer to visualize their shots while hitting into a green fairway and target greens. The first picture shows the right half of the range tinted and the second picture shows the entire range tinted. 

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

In honor of Breast Cancer awareness month we will be having pink flags for the remainder of October. 

Update on bottom left rough on number eight

As you well know if you have played golf since August the bottom left side of number eight rough has a forty foot long and ten foot wide wet spot that will not dry up. This is the first time this has ever occurred in this location. We are contributing it to all the rainfall we received this past summer. The left side of the cart path at the three cypress trees is holding large amounts of water as well. We believe a natural spring has been filled back up and is coming down from the woods left of number eight path and flowing into the rough. There is minimal drainage in this location and it has been sufficient enough until all of the rain. The spring is overwhelming the drainage and is not allowing the right side of the cart path to drain into the drainage left of the path. To help dry this area up a little faster a french drain was added last week and it seems to have dried up close to half of the wet area.

Traction matting added to number six bridge

Matting was added to the little walking bridge on number twelve last year for traction. It has held up good in the weather and seems to work well for golfers walking over it while it is wet. After observing this we added more matting to the first bridge on number six this week and we will be adding it to the newest bridge on number six in the next few weeks. Mill Suggs and John Dinuoscio are both veterans of their respected branches of military and have been working at the club part-time for thirteen and five years respectively. John and Mill are both jacks of all trades and also operate any equipment we have on the golf course. You usually can catch them mowing fairways or roughs throughout the growing season and working on projects such as six bridge as well. Without employees, but more importantly friends like John and Mill the golf course would not operate or be the same without all their hard work and dedication. So if you see them on the course don't be afraid to wave them down and say hello.

Overseeding

The rain never showed up this past Monday like the weather channel was calling for. We were scheduled to overseed the driving range tees, putting green surrounds, practice area and four par three tees on the course, so it worked out to our advantage that it did not rain and we were able to drop some seed. Overseeding is a very tedious operation, due to all the steps it takes to complete the process. First we must scalp down all the turf. This allows the ryegrass to have less competition with the bermudagrass during germination. After the turf has dried we then can apply the ryegrass. We use a three foot drop spreader to outline the perimeter, tees, trees or any other areas that will not be overseeded. We then use rotary spreaders and apply the seed in two different directions for optimum coverage. During the process you are bound to get some seed in places that are not meant to have it, such as outside the perimeter of the overseeded area. We then come back and spray with our walking sprayer one pass along the perimeter of the overseeded area with a preemergence. By doing this it prevents the seed from germinating, thus allowing for a nice clean perimeter.

Irrigation clocks

For almost the last year we have been without an irrigation technician. I took it upon myself to take over the irrigation duties and let me tell you, it has been a great learning experience. I have learned so much about irrigation this past year than I ever thought would be possible. Yesterday I tackled my first irrigation clock replacement. Our last original irrigation box died a few weeks ago, so I replaced it with a new one. There is almost a forty year difference in the two boxes. While this is not the most difficult task in the world, I have never really worked around anything electrical. After looking over all the wires and coming up with a game plan I gave it a go and it worked out just as I planned. The new clock now matches the others on the course and we are back up and watering.

Busy spray day

Today we sprayed two different chemicals on the course. The first one was sprayed on the green edges. We applied a herbicide that does not affect the bentgrass, but it does suppress the bermudagrass. We apply this product during the spring and the fall during cooler temperatures to help combat bermuda encroachment. The second chemical we applied was a fungicide on all of the zoysia tee boxes. We apply this fungicide this time of year to fight different patch diseases that occur during the spring. By spraying for the different patch disease now, we will not have to treat for them during the spring.

Winter Preemergent Completed

Since this past Monday Greg and I sprayed the entire golf course with a premergence for winter weed control. Spraying the entire golf course takes quite awhile, due to the fact we are spraying at a lighting fast pace of 4.6 mph. It would take up to 40 hours to spray the course if we only had one sprayer like we have had in the past. Since we purchased a second sprayer a few years ago it cuts the spraying time in half and saves one of us from going crazy having to drive so long at such a slow speed. If you notice any red lines on the turf throughout the course, that was from us marking areas that still needed to be sprayed. By not overseeding again this year it allowed us to use a chemical that cannot be sprayed if you plan on overseeding. This will benefit us greatly throughout the winter when we have a nice clean golf course.

Great Morning View

Personally for me the best time of day to be on a golf course is in the evening. Seeing all the shadows and just how different the golf course looks later in the day is very unique. Now being on the course when the sun is coming up is pretty nice as well. Here are a few pictures of the guys mowing fairways as the sun is coming up.

To over water or to under water?

The golf course was the greenest that I can ever remember it this summer thanks to all the rain in June, July and the first part of August. Since the middle of August we have received very little rain and the course is beginning to show signs of stress in certain areas. When it comes to watering we like to keep it on the dry side so that play will be at its best. Certain areas of the course receive excellent irrigation coverage and other areas do not receive adequate coverage. Instead of over-watering around the greens, tees and certain areas on the course we substitute a few overhead waterings with hand watering or roller-bases. A roller-base is a hose that has a sprinkler head on it that we can move around to water areas that do not get irrigation at all or just do not get good enough coverage.

Sodding bad edges on greens

Even after a not so hot summer you still can lose bentgrass. With all the rain we lost control of the water and that is one of the worst things that can happen to bentgrass during the summer months. Today we replaced some of the bad areas with bent sod. First we must dig up the dead section, then add soil and tamp to level it out. Finally sod is laid and tamped to match with the existing bentgrass. 

Aerification

Aerification is being completed as I am writing this post. We went with medium size tines this aerification, so that we could take out a little bit more organic matter. We did do another cultural practice before aerification called scarifing. This process uses blades shaped like a ninja star to dig down below the surface of the green and take out excess organic matter. Below is a picture of what scarifing looks like. 

Sod addition to number five

Yesterday our summer help Pablo, RJ and Abel built a berm and prepped under the two pine trees right of number five. There are three pines on the right side that have been one big pinestraw bed, but now have been turned into three individual tree rings. Sod was laid under the trees and on the berm to allow for better playability.

Fall Preemergence

It's that time of the year again when you should consider putting down a preemergence for winter weed control. I usually recommend applying a preemergence between August 15th and September 15th. Why such a big gap in dates? Weather dictates everything we do for weed control. If you have had a dry summer I would recommend applying your preemergent more towards the September date, but if you have had a wet summer like we have had this year I would go with the August date. The more rain you have had will more than likely cause early weed germination for winter weeds. Poa is one of the worst possible weeds you can have and it loves cool and wet weather. So stay ahead of those pesky weeds and apply a preemergence for a nice clean lawn all winter long.

6 bridge completed

As most of you know the cartpath between six green and seven tee shifted last month due to all of the rain. The cartpath had been shifting over the years already, but with all the rain it sped up the process necessitating us to have a bridge built. In total it was about a ten day process to take out all the old concrete and excavate the area where the new bridge would be built. Below are some pictures of the process.

Champion Green Update

Yesterday was three weeks to the day since we sprigged the lowest short game green with Champion Bermuda sprigs. So far the green is filling in nicely and we have begun mowing over the past week. We are planning on opening it for play in 2-3 weeks. It will not be putting green quality when we open it for play, but it will take shots and it will allow you to have another green to hit into.

Dew Patterns

During the summer months we check the dew patterns on the greens almost every morning. We do not have to check for a dew pattern if we run irrigation overnight or it rains a significant amount. Your probably wondering what a dew pattern is. The picture below will show you, but I will explain it in detail. Dew settles on the greens surface during the night and early morning. Dew is tiny drops of water that form on cool surfaces at night. We ride our golf carts around all angles of the greens before they are mowed to determine where we will need to hand water that morning. When we look at the greens we are looking for weak spots in the dew pattern. This tells us where we need to take a core sample and check for moisture. If a certain spot looks weaker than the rest we will take a soil probe and stick it into the green 3-4 inches to test the soil moisture. If the soil is wet then no water will be added, if its moist or dry we will add water depending on how much we think we will need to get through the heat of the day. You probably have seen someone driving around the greens in the afternoons looking at them and either driving by or pulling out a hose to syringe the spot that is wilting. We are looking for purple spots that can turn to black spots if not syringed in time then causing the grass to die.

Realigning Tees

Today I started realigning the bermuda tees with the fairways. Over time the tees get out of alignment due to mowing. One to two times per year we like to straighten them back up so when you tee off you are properly aligned with the fairway. This is a very time consuming process and takes me almost ten minutes per tee depending on the size, and there are nearly fifty bermuda tees on the course. In the picture below you will see four metal stakes in the four corners and a rope wrapped around them. I start at one corner of the tee and place a stake then I pick the corner in front of me and place a stake. Then I tie a rope to the first stake and pull it in a straight line to the next stake, moving the second stake left or right depending on the alignment. I then do the same step three more times and once finished we have a perfectly square and perfectly aligned tee box.