Green Expansion Project Update: Week of June 8

If you’ve played recently you likely have noticed the Green Expansion Project work (as I described in Paul’s Weekly Golf News two weeks ago) we have done over the past 10 days. It measures the equivalent of a full sized, fairly large green (over 7000 sq. ft.) so it should be noticeable and hopefully you can see where ultimately you will see many new future hole locations.  All of these areas will become green surfaces in August when we perform the re-grassing process. 

 All of the expansion areas (like above area between the green and the rough) will become putting green height with Re-grassing Project in August. In spring of 2016 a 24" collar will be allowed to grow to a higher height of cut.

Just as a reminder, these areas (and no areas) are not going to be “ripped up” or “plowed under” or “dug-up” or “blown up” when this happens. The mixture of turf species will be killed, we will perform several cultural processes such as aeration and verti-cutting (not sod stripping!) and then we will plant pure creeping bentgrass directly into the verti-cut lines and aeration holes in the dead turf which will act as an erosion blanket protecting the new seedlings as they germinate. This dead mat will also hold some moisture to aide germination. You might look at what we are doing with these expansions as us simply putting down the padding before we then put down the carpeting. We’re not going to rip the padding back up before we plant the grass carpet! By doing this now we will have surfaces that will be as similar to the greens as is possible, compared to the bluegrass surface we removed or seeding into bare soil, when we grow in the new greens. Doing this now (compared to waiting until Aug. 3^rd) allows the turf to root well (so it can withstand the aeration and verti-cutting that is needed that day and the 4^th and 5^th as we prepare for fumigation) and allows us to topdress it several time so that it becomes as close to our green surface as is possible prior to the Aug. 5-6 possibly 7^th if needed, fumigation process. 

 This is the most "blown - up" that it gets. It's just scalped grass, with some aeration holes, and some verticut lines, prior to fumigation and then (10 days later) drop seeding. Wider lines above is the XGD Drainage last fall on this Lower Practice Area green. All XGD work is now complete on all other greens where improved drainage was needed.

If you haven’t noticed the new expansions then you surely have seen the sod stripped from the front of #12 fairway and #18 fairway. This sod was harvested (recommended by our course architect and approved by the G&G Committee) and is the source of the sod used for  the new expansion areas around the greens. When we complete the necessary harvest from these areas we will then plant seed of a Kentucky Bluegrass variety. This same Kentucky Bluegrass variety will be seeded when we kill off and re-seed a perimeter swath, 6-8 feet, around all the fairways in August shortly after we re-grass all the fairways.

So far we have addressed 11 green surfaces. We first stripped the sod in the expansion areas (some was reused in other rough areas, some was undesirable mixtures of grasses and discarded) then we excavated over 100 tons of regular clay loam soil, replaced it with over 100 tons of a blended sand and organic soil (as similar as we can get to the 5-6” layer of 25 years of sand topdressing and natural organic accumulation currently on our greens) and then harvested, from #12 or #18 fairways, and laid over 7000 sq. ft onto the new expansion areas. We also lifted, removed or added mix as needed, on approx. 1500 sq ft. of current putting surface to provide smoother transitions off the greens or better surface flow of water, or to acquire extra hole locations. This work was a lot of effort and time (nearly 10 full dawn to dark days) but in the long run you will have larger greens with many new hole location possibilities and with a base or foundation as similar as possible to the existing greens.

 An area adjacent to the right greenside bunker at #14 where sand has accumulated from sand blasted out. We stripped existing green, removed accumulated sand, smoothed grade, and re-laid the green sod.

 Some greens required relocation of sprinkler heads from what was collar to what now will be putting surface. This area is on #14 just beyond the right greenside bunker. 

Same area as above on #14. Existing lifted sod and new sod being installed (from fairway 12 or 18) after irrigation heads moved, soil backfilled and compacted, rootzone mix added and compacted, and smooth graded.

We are not quite finished as we have 7 more greens to address but 5 of the 7 are very minor in the amount of expansion and no others will require appreciable soil replacement like many did on the first 11. We plan to continue to press on with this work a couple days this week but we will avoid Thurs-Sunday with Kiltie Days and then the weekend. Thank you for your understanding.

 Back right area on #3 green be excavated and flattened to provide an interesting and challenging  future tournament hole location. 

As we were out there last week doing this work I heard from many of you expressing excitement for the future green expansion areas. I too think our green surfaces will ultimately have a lot of new interest and I’m really excited about the new grass variety we will have in August. If you haven’t visited the Lower Practice Green you should do so. It’s healthy (with less disease control inputs than all other greens), attractive, smoother than any other turf surface on the course, and poa annua free. It’s what your future greens will become! Have a look. I think you will be very pleased.

Regrassing Project (on two areas) Begins

I know it's been a long time since I posted last mentioning our progress at that time. Since then we of course made great progress on getting the greens back to a playable condition but it wasn't without time (and more than expected was needed due to unusually cold temperatures) and significant efforts by my staff. Many different procedures were employed such as spiking, aerating, topdressing, seeding, sanding with pigmented sand to absorb moisture, fertilizing frequently, watering daily, and ultimately sodding when the other procedures had to be repeated several times due to heavy rain events. The time of year was just getting too late, special events were just around the corner, summer's potential stress was looming, and we had a nice amount of "home grown" nursery turf to use if needed. And, as it turned out, it was! Nearly 10,000 square feet of green height and fairway height sod was used were winter's wrath remained. The areas were repaired and back in play before long and we were able to get on with the season. That was now about two months ago. It's been a nice two months for growing turf for sure. The rather cool conditions have helped roots grow deeper than usual at this time of year and the lack of significant heat has made "nurturing" the many new seed and sod patches a little easier than what otherwise could have been. We do know that if given the time, seeding would be preferred as sod can indeed be easily stressed on very dry, low humidity days. It's getting better all the time and hopefully we can keep it in good shape for about another year when we say goodbye (as approved by our Board of Directors and communicated at our Town Hall meeting) to our existing green and fairway grasses and replant with new, more stress tolerant, more disease resistant, more attractive, and, most importantly, more playable grasses!

This Regrassing Project actually began over the past couple weeks with work on our Turf Nursery and our . Lower Practice Area (between 3 tee and 11 tee. The Grounds and Greens Committee, with support from the Board felt that going through the process on these areas would: 1) Provide a practice area (in addition to the Range which will remain open) next year when the course will be closed (Aug. 3rd, 2015) and 2) have a supply of green and fairway height turf, of the varieties we intend to use next Aug., should we have grow-in washouts or other unexpected damage, and 3) provide current experience for myself and staff with the entire regrassing process from pre-sterilant seedbed prep., pre-plant prep., seeding procedure, and establishment or "grow-in" procedures. Some of these processes are shown below with many occurring today just prior to the soil sterilant application.

 Having used all our turf nursery we thought it would be wise to expand it since area existed adjacent to it and one never knows when it might come in handy in the future. We expanded by 50%, now 15,000ft2. Drain lines and about 7 semi-loads of sand was used.

 Original area on nursery where sod was removed for repair purposes was tilled, smoothed, and cleared of debris.

 Soil was brought in to build side slopes and new addition sand was smoothed, compacted, and leveled with original area. Sod was then placed on slope. Area ready for next step, soil sterilization, to control and plant material and weed seeds present in the rootzone.

 Meanwhile work proceeded this week at the Lower Practice Area. Here the green is receiving the XGD Drainage System installation. Drain lines are installed on 6' spacing across the entire putting green surface. 

The next step was to scalp the green, trying to remove all the green tissue and organic mat so that the future seed has optimum seed to soil/sand contact.

 Verti-cutting (like De-Thatching) in 2 directions future removes organic mat and creates channels for seed to lodge within and stay protected.

 Mult-tine aeration, multiple times, followed to provide avenues for the soil sterilant to penetrate and function better.

 After a Deep Tine Aeration, to further move sterilant into soil, and a few sand topdressings and smoothing procedures, a ring of sod is cut outside the area planned for sterilization.

 Tubes are laid across the surfaces to distribute the plant/weed seed control product underneath the plastic tarps

 With tarps in place the sod is replaced where it was prior removed to provide a tight seal.

 Here the thick cut sod is being replaced to seal the tarp at the Turf Nursery

 With tarps in place sterilization began and within about an hour at each location the application was complete. We are required to keep at least 25' out from the treatment area for 5 days at which time the tarps will be removed and an airing out period of an additional 5 day will be allowed before we begin seeding processes. When the tarps are removed it may very well be possible that a pungent odor will linger for a day or two. This is only the result of the decaying process of the plants, seeds, and soil organisms and should dissipate within a day or two. 

 The Lower Practice Area Green. Site of what will be some beautiful new turf in a couple months. About mid-October you will be asking why you can't use it as it will look ready by then. It will of course need time to establish and mature before we can subject it to golf shots and extended traffic. Your patience, however, will be rewarded with beautiful turf on the green as well as the chipping area (which we have expanded some) surrounding this entire green. 

I think you will be pleased with the results! 

I will update this project regularly, on this blog, over the next several weeks. I also tweet often so follow me @scc1897 for periodic updates on this and other activity on the golf course.

Fall Projects - Fairway Expansion

With the dog days of August past, and Labor Day's Club Championship "in the books", it's now time we turn our attention to various late summer / fall tasks as well as a few more involved projects.
We began the task of aeration, on the greens, on Tuesday after Labor Day. We used a small diameter, closely spaced, solid tine, which left only minimal surface disruption which today, Friday, three days later, is barely visible. We performed this task to relieve compaction from the twelve days of straight rolling, as well as to provide several other important benefits such as; to improve air movement and gas exchange from the rootzone; provide avenues for new root growth; and to plant new seed in any areas that were thin from the summers many stresses. This isn't the last time we will do this aeration work, this season, as plans are to use a slightly larger diameter tine in early Oct. and then a larger tine yet in mid to late Oct. I'll keep you posted as to when these tasks will be addressed as we get a little closer to Oct.

In the coming weeks we'll also be performing other maint. tasks, some of which are done regularly throughout the year (like greens topdressing every two weeks) and others, performed during these cooler, less busy, post Labor Day period, such as tee aeration, and fairway aeration and sand topdressing. Additionally, our fall project list includes: Fairway Expansion, Green Surround Repair, Rough Improvement - Bentgrass Control & Overseeding, Chipping Area Leveling and Expansion, and a bit later on, Bridge Reconstruction. I'll cover all of these projects in this blog (periodically) as we work on them, and will Tweet activity several times daily so if you're inclined follow me on Twitter @scc1897.

We've actually started three of the above projects but at this time I just want to address the Fairway Expansion work we have done on Hole #11 and started on hole #4.

When we did our course restoration back in 1999-2001, Fairway Repositioning and Expansion was one of the objectives of our Architect, Ron Prichard. We repositioned several and added about 1 1/2 acres of fairway turf. At the time this was all purchased bentgrass sod, and as an aside, it looked noticeably different from our mixed bentgrass/poa annua turf, for many years. Cost was quite high and so many areas did not get the expansion that Ron originally envisioned. And I do think his thoughts have since evolved to where he feels more of this expansion would benefit, as well as challenge, players of all levels. Our plan at that time was to cut most of the proposed expansion areas, which includes areas close to the front sides or leading edges of bunkers, as well as the areas behind or the shoulder areas behind bunkers, as intermediate rough and plan to eventually convert these areas to fairway turf over time. Many areas have since been addressed in this manner and include #3 left side, #4 near approach bunkers, #7 near bunker on left and at green, #8 near bunker rt. side near green, and #9 in approach area. All of these expansion areas generally open up options for different routes of fairway play and some likely make players think a bit more before hitting too close to certain bunkers that perhaps now a ball might not have as large an area of rough in front which formerly may have helped stop a ball from entering. These expanded areas may give a bit more relief to a wayward shot but might also bring tall rough a little close into play. Where the back shoulders of bunkers have been converted to fairway turf, a ball that challenges a bunker (which may be a more direct line to the green) and successfully clears it, is now "rewarded" with a nice roll further down the fairway rather than hanging up and stopping in the taller rough. Basic Risk / Reward at it's finest!

Several Expansion Areas remain throughout the course and you can see where we will eventually convert by looking at the width of the intermediate or short grass rough surrounding the fairways. Eventually we will have just a single width mower pass of 5' or less surrounding all fairways, except for a few areas at beginning of fairways such as #2. The wider areas toward the inside of the fairways will be converted from intermediate bluegrass/ryegrass to our own fairway turf of bentgrass/poa annua.

Back in 1999 I grew an entire 10,000 sg. ft. nursery (it's in the area between 7&8...been reestablished 2 more times since for green expansions and fairway repairs) from aeration cores collected from the greens. It's a simple and effective plant propagation technique that I had used twenty years prior to establish new bentgrass tees at a former golf course I managed. I actually had learned that this technique worked as a grounds crew worker at a country club during the summer of my college years. We had some damaged areas on the fairways and so we aerated healthy areas, collected cores, and spread and tamped them into the damaged areas. In a short time we were mowing and the damage was soon recovered. Since this time I've used this same technique to establish more nursery greens, ultimately used to expand nearly all of our greens over time, as well as to establish the entire greens of #5 and #11. It is high successful and aside from being relatively quick, it's inexpensive, and most importantly, the resulting turf is an exact match of the turf species in the "donor" area. In other words the turf in the expansions will look the same, perform the same (for better or worse), play the same as the original green or, in this case, fairway area. Using new seed or new sod, aside from taking longer to establish -seed, or costly significantly more money - sod, will most certainly yield a surface dissimilar to our existing fairway surfaces.

Our work on  #11 Fairway Expansion (in photos) follows:

 Wide intermediate rough behind cross bunkers at #11

Sod removal begins and all quality sod is used in other course locations where needed.

 Expansion closer to green (photo looking from #11 Green back).

 Area with majority of sod removed.

 One of the the recipient areas of intermediate sod, alongside cart path behind #11 Green.

 With sod removed we run aerator several times to loosen soil in prep for receiving cores.

Aerating the fairway area adjacent to expansion area.

 Collecting cores using snow shovels.

 Spreading thin layer of cores (2-3 cores thick) in aerated, fertilized area.

 "Dimpling" cores into surface with "knobby" tires of bunker rake machine (also not show was small amount of bentgrass seed dropped prior to dimpling process) to insure good soil contact, followed by a thorough watering.

 Roped off and ready to begin establishment.

 Close-up of cores and seed beginning to sprout less than a week later!

 About 10 days after planting. Beginning to show nice progress.

 Close-up of first area planted. Day 16 

 First mowing, 16 days after planting. Area looks like fully established from this short distance but will be a few more weeks before fully established and play is allowed. Great progress though!

 Next area underway is at first bunker on right side of hole #4

Fairway will be expanded and brought up higher on back shoulder.

 Sod removed and soil prepared.

 First area of cores in place, seeded, and dimpled.

Since this last picture was taken we have had a few days of rain causing the bare soil area to become too wet on surface to continue this work. We will resume early next week and complete this right side area and then follow with the left side bunker area directly opposite area shown in this above photo. Several other areas will still remain for this expansion work. We would like to expand another area or two but a few other projects are underway which will soon take precedence as the prime turf growing season wanes including; Green Surround Repair (replacement of damaged and/or multiple turf species contamination surrounding the Green surfaces, #11 and #13 already completed), Rough Improvement (controlling bentgrass contamination and overseeding) and Expansion and Leveling of the Chipping Area.  More on all of these projects very soon. Keep close tabs by following on Twitter @scc1897.

 

Grassing Improvement Projects

If you've had a chance to enjoy a round or two during the past month of record temperatures (7 degrees warmer on average, each day) you have likely seen activities adjacent to #9 tee and some odd circular brown spots on #2 tee. In both cases we are replanting with more desirable grasses.

On #2 tee we have sprayed the spots of perennial ryegrass (a weed on this bentgrass / poa annua tee) and reseeded with the more desirable, more compatible, bentgrass. Perennial ryegrass has it's place, such as on our range tee and in the roughs, but it's darker green color and more rapid leaf extension rate is unattractive when it contaminates our tees or fairways. A few of our tees have a few to several spots of ryegrass (and many of our fairways do as well) and we wanted to test a Round Up & reseeding process. Round Up (a product that completely kills plants but is deactivated upon contact with the soil) was used to kill the ryegrass and since it has no residual soil effects, we sowed the desirable bentgrass seed within a few days after treatment. With light and frequent irrigation, and now more consistently warmer temperatures, we should see seed germination within a couple weeks and we'll be on our way to a more attractive, more uniform tee surface.

  Darker green Perennial ryegrass being eliminated - Bentgrass seed sowed into brown patches

Another seeding project in process is in the area to the right of #9 tee. In an earlier post I wrote about us eliminating a large grove of invasive buckthorn in this area and that our plan was to re-grass the area to Fine Fescues and native Little Blue-stem.

 Tangled mess -"buckthorn patch"- before removal this winter

Buckthorn removed, remaining plants treated to eliminate

 At the present time we have treated to eliminate the existing plant material and have begun to haul in a mix of stockpiled soil, composted scrap sod, aeration cores, stump shavings, and other debris that we have accumulated over time. We will "topdress" the area and cover the many buckthorn stumps, which have been treated with a product to prevent re-growth. We've used this same "composted" material in other tall grass, out-of-play, areas and it has worked well as a seed germination medium. Also, aside from this being a good seed medium, it's a great way to re-use or recycle material that otherwise would have to be discarded, and it save the very high price of having hauled and dumped off site.

  Our own "composted" material ready to be spread

The hauling of material will continue over the next couple days and then smoothing, sowing seed, and covering with a seed blanket will follow. Additionally, while we have left a "band" of buckthorn along the fence, to retain it's screening effect, we will be planting several containers of a taller native grass called Indiangrass, along the fence line for added screening. The Fescues will give us cover this year but the native grasses will take a few years to establish completely. When they do finally mature this should become a much more attractive area than the former "buckthorn patch" that previously existed.
I'll keep you posted as to our progress.