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.