Greens Aeration -Postponed One Week

With the unseasonably warm and dry weather we've been experiencing expected to last through this weekend, I decided  we will delay our greens aeration for one more week. Our original plan was to begin yesterday, Oct.11, but with such beautiful weather, as well as our fairway aeration work still in progress, we'll now plan for this work to begin Monday, Oct. 18th.

The weather outlook shows mild and dry conditions (except for perhaps a slight chance of rain tomorrow), all week and continuing through this weekend.. Beginning next Tuesday however, it looks like cool and wet weather settles in for a few days, and thereafter temperatures remaining rather cool. We should be able to get all the greens aerated next Monday prior to the forecast wet weather.

So, the quick take home message from this blog is, take advantage of this wonderful weather, take off work and come on out for another round or two before conditions dramatically change!

As I mentioned previously, we are still in the process of core aerating (and reincorporation tasks) fairways, so you may experience some cores present or processing in progress. After today we will have approx six fairways to complete. All sand topdressed and solid tine aerated areas; fairways (Nos. 3,4,8,11,13,14) and all approaches, are now complete.

 Conventional Core Aeration in progress On #17 Fwy.

Approach & Fairway; Topdressing & Aeration Activities

If you've played recently you've likely seen sand application and solid tine aeration on all approaches and a few entire fairways. This work will likely be completed within the next couple days and then we will proceed with conventional aeration (core extraction) and reincorporation or processing . What's the difference? Why do we treat some fairways different than others? Why do we have to do any of this at all? Read on and hopefully many of your questions will be answered. 

Why do we do any of this aeration and topdressing activity?
Mowing activities, maintenance vehicle traffic, cart traffic, walking traffic, rain, and more all have a compressing or compacting force on the soil, and aeration procedures are utilized to relieve this compaction and provide many additional benefits.

The benefits of aeration include:

• Creates space for new root growth.
• Improves oxygen movement into the soil, and plant and soil microbe by-product gas movement, out of the soil.
• Improves water movement into the soil, capturing rainfall and reducing run-off.
• Improves nutrient movement into the soil and provides ideal time to apply deficient nutrients or plant protectant products and/or other desirable soil amendments.
• Severs plant parts which in turn initiates new growth thereby improving plant density.
• Overall promotes a healthier, more drought tolerant turfgrass stand.

 

Conventional Coring and Reincorporation of sandy rootzone material on Tees

 Solid Tine Aeration - (Sand was applied before aeration)

We employ both solid tine aeration, which removes no soil, (creating only an open channel in the soil), as well as conventional core aeration, where soil is extracted. Many times we will drag a flexible mat and/or a brush to pulverize these extracted cores and reincorporate the soil or sand that exists. In general we reincorporate cores on greens (unless we are using to propagate our nursery), and on tees, as the rootzone material on these areas is a desirable sandy material. On occasion after longer periods of time (years)  we may remove cores completely if the organic matter percentage in the rootzone increases to undesirable levels.

Regarding the fairways, we core aerate and reincorporate (which acts as a soil topdressing) some fairways, and on others we apply sand topdressing then follow with solid tine aeration. The aeration helps incorporate the sand into the turf canopy.

 Typical Conventional Core Aeration (last year-soon to begin this year). Cores will be pulverized and reincorporated into turf canopy.

Whether it's soil topdressing from reincorporated cores or sand topdressing, why do we care about topdressing? 

The benefits of topdressing include:

• Smooths the surfaces, filling in minor depressions.
• Dilutes (with sand topdressing) and helps decompose (with soil topdressing from reincorporated cores) thatch material or the biomass of plant parts just beneath the turf surface
• Improves surface firmness and ball roll qualities (sand topdressing)
• Improves surface drainage over time as repeated applications build a modest layer (sand topdressing)
• May help reduce excessive earthworm populations (reducing annoying casts) - (sand topdressing)
• Reduces soil compaction which in turn helps root growth - (sand topdressing)

 As you can see there are several important benefits to topdressing in general and sand topdressing provides a few added benefits. For 20 years now we have sand topdressed our greens, and for 10 years (since our course restoration) we have been reincorporating the desirable sandy mix on our tees and supplementing with sand topdressing.  For perhaps 8 years now we have sand topdressed our approaches and now, because of the many benefits and improvements we've seen with sand topdressing, beginning last year we expanded our topdressing program to include several fairways.

 

Fairway Topdressing in Action

 Topdressed Approach #1 awaiting Solid Tine Aeration

Why are we solid tine aerating and sand topdressing some fairways, and employing conventional core aeration and reincorporation on other fairways? 
I believe all of our fairways could benefit by sand topdressing (and we wouldn't have to play through wet muddy cores again should rainfall come unexpectedly, like could happen while we conventionally aerate many fairways -I'll explain more later) but we do have large fairway acreage which would requiring purchasing a lot of sand, a commitment to continue the program annually for several years, and labor and additional equipment investment. It certainly doesn't come without cost and other issues in the future. However, many clubs have sand topdressed their fairways for many years enjoying several benefits and there are some costs that are similar regardless of aeration method. Given our large fairway acreage and desire to evaluate the program before expanding to include all fairways, we selected a few (a third of the fairways) to begin sand topdressing and solid tine aeration. We solid tine aerate sand topdressed fairways as once we begin a sanding program we do not want to bring up soil cores and reincorporate them, as a layer of sand followed by a layer of soil creates layering that can be detrimental to water movement and lead to turf decline issues. So once we begin we will no longer "pull cores" and potentially be subjected to an unexpected rainfall and the mess that would follow, hence my reference to not having to play through muddy cores again.

We have several fairways that are in low lying areas (their surfaces are fairly close to the level of our main water reservoir, the channel between holes #3 and #11) and/or are some of the slowest to completely drain and dry following heavier rain events.These fairways are #3, #4, #8, #11, #13, and #14. The next few potential candidates could be #15 and #18, but we'll see how the program progresses on the first six mentioned.

  Sand Topdressed Fairway (#11) showing Solid Tine Aeration nearly complete. 

Brooming, Rolling (if needed) and Watering complete the process.

I'll keep you posted as to our daily work progress (which you can also see on the status board outside the ProShop) and on this blog in future posts, but I'm certainly happy to get your feedback as well, on whatever your experience is on these sand topdressed fairways. It will take a few years before we see full benefits but you may notice a little firmer feel and perhaps a little extra ball roll before too long.

Weather Relief & Turf Recovery Progresses

How do we spell relief? (No it's not ROLAIDS, like the old commercial...though we needed plenty of them this summer!) it's spelled, COOL. And to be more specific it's cool nights and cool soil temperatures, along with mild daytime temperatures and lower humidity. All of these weather factors, for the past two weeks, have finally become conducive to turf growth and recovery, and seed germination and establishment. What a difference a couple weeks make. It gives us a whole new outlook!

Over the last several weeks, in addition to bringing the rough back to a manageable length, we've performed several and repeated recovery efforts for thinned areas throughout the course including: small tine aeration; spiking; hand tamp dimpling; seeding; topdressing; applying germination enhancing nutrients, bio-stimulants (root promoting hormones), and wetting agents (to help retain moisture near the seed), and syringed daily. These efforts along with favorable weather have produced very good results and I'm sure we'll see coverage improvement with each passing day.

 Thinned area on #13 green, late August

Same location showing excellent germination of seed in hand tamp dimpled areas.

Photo taken today 9/15

Most damaged area on #13 green, late August

Same area showing germination throughout. Establishment and spreading of this bentgrass should proceed well over next few weeks.

To aide establishment and complete recovery a cover is being installed each night to retain warmth when very cool overnight temperatures are forecast.

 With outings, and most events behind us we will begin typical fall aeration activities very soon. Tees will be addressed first followed by fairways and then greens. The tee work has little impact on play but fairway and green aeration certainly do. At this time our scheduling will like be the last week in September for fairways and the second week in October for greens. Once again we will be using a fairly small tine size on the greens (approx. 3/8" diameter) but spaced closely. Recovery should be rapid at that time and playability should not be dramatically impacted. Topdressing will follow this procedure and we will be collecting the extracted cores to re-grow our nursery which was depleted this year from the extensive ice damage last winter. I'll blog about these activities as work commences.

 Tired of photographing turf, photographer (me) catches a Belted Kingfisher enjoying the day (or maybe admiring No. 12 green!) while perched on bridge railing

Hope you find the time to get out and enjoy this beautiful weather!

 

Weather and Tournament Stresses & Recovery Efforts

It's been ten days since the last post (Western Am. Recap) and we've now (hopefully) seen the extent of the stress caused by both extremely difficult weather conditions (high heat, humidity, and moisture the past 7-8 weeks) and an extended period (over 2 weeks) of maintaining tournament turfgrass conditions. The combination of the two, as we now know, led to turf decline and thinning in low spots and high traffic areas on several fairways, and on a few green and collar area surfaces. We certainly have some work still ahead of us for sure but every day we're making progress.

The Ugly Summer of 2010.
This is just one of the titles from dozens of recently published articles from sources such as; The Wall Street Journal; USGA, CDGA, GCSAA (Golf Course Supts. Assoc. of America), USA Today and many others.

The Ugly Summer of 2010 can be read at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748704017904575409411501359450.html
Other titles include:
Golf Course Superintendents Concerned with Greens
Heat Hits Area Greens
Unusual weather puts stress on area golf courses
When it comes to the heat, Courses Fighting Nature
Need A Break: Heat plays havoc with greens
Scorched earth: Recent stretch of heat and humidity has blistered area courses
Hot weather turning putting greens to toast
(you can goggle these articles if you would like to read)

and then there is the USGA - Turf Loss Advisory article:
http://www.usga.org/course_care/regional_updates/regional_reports/midatlantic/Special-Notice---July-2010/

and, Heat Putting Strain on Golf Courses:
http://www.usga.org/news/2010/August/Heat-Straining-Golf-Courses/

and another good USGA article relating to Poa Annua - Annual Bluegrass loss, which is a major species component of our turf on greens, collars, approaches, and fairways.
http://www.usga.org/course_care/regional_updates/regional_reports/northeast/ANNUAL-Bluegrass---A-Fitting-Name,-Unfortunately---July-2010/ 

All of these articles relate to the weather extremes and turf decline issues throughout various parts of the country but as many of you know (and as I've mentioned before) we have a terrific local source of turf/weather information as well as advisor on turf disease and other maladies, and that is the CDGA's Director of Turf Program, Dr. Derek Settle. Derek is our "Turf -Doctor that makes house (course) calls", as well as a weekly author (along with other contributors from the CDGA) of the Scouting Report. His weekly report has detailed this ugly summer and last Fridays report mentioned some supporting statistics. A few excerpts follow but you can access the entire report and view photos at:
http://www.cdga.org/pdf/082010TurfScoutingReport.pdf

Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle - CDGA
Unkind! It looked as though we had completed our last test – an especially hot period with a total of six days straight of 90+ degrees (Aug. 9 to 14). Our forecast was a cool break. And so we waited. On Tuesday, Aug. 17 it happened and Chicago’s high temperatures were unable to cross 80 degrees. Amazingly, we learned 2010 had set an all-time record for a consistently warm summer – 46 days straight of daytime highs at least 80 degrees. Summer 2010 now holds number 1 with 1955 number two at 42 days. For my part I have watched this season unfold with usual diligence – life of turf is entirely dependent on weather that is sometimes unkind!
Summer 2010 is now compared to two other summers of recent Chicago memory (1988 and 1995). Hot summers seem to hit the upper Midwest about once every decade. For example, up to this point, 2010 now ranks as the 9th warmest with an average temperature of 75 degrees. Interestingly, years that experienced significant turf loss in superintendent’s memory are also highly ranked (1988 = 2nd warmest and 1995 = 5th warmest). For newer golf courses and young superintendents early in their career, this has been their most challenging season. From start to finish problems have been continuous and difficult. Unkind summer 2010, are you finished yet?

I sure hope so! If you have looked at some of the Scouting Report you'll see photos of turf damage from heat, humidity, flooding, traffic stress, disease, insects, and more from throughout the region. If you haven't yet, here's a sample of turf thinning post Western Am.

 Green perimeter showing turf decline

Most, if not all courses have experienced some degree of turf decline. Those courses that have recently re-grassed with newer, more stress tolerant turf varieties; have improved rootzone profiles (such as the USGA Green Spec. Rootzone); fewer trees; elevated courses and/or excellent drainage; extensive cart path systems; and didn't have to maintain tournament conditions for two tournaments in a very short span of time, had less turf decline. Our course has a high percentage of the much more fragile turf species, poa annua; has topdressed but older, slower to drain, push-up soil profiles; lower ground elevation on many holes that hold water until the diversion ditch level drops (even with pumping and the use of our irrigation system to pump down and lower the channel which in turn helps move water off fairways faster); many trees, very few paths, and hosted our Derby and then just a week later seven days of the Western Amateur Championship.

These facts along with the long high temperature record, extended period of high overnight temperatures, high humidity, and nearly 6 inches of rain in the 14 day period which included the Western Am. rain event of 1.2 inches, make it fairly easy to understand why turf damage and decline occurred.

No. 13 Green - Turf decline due to compaction (edges of greens receive extra wear and tear), shade, traffic (walk off area to next tee), and mechanical stress from repeated mowing and rolling.

Stressed area on #4 fairway- poa annua, heavy cart and equipment traffic, additional wear and tear on perimeter areas of fairway, in combination with weather difficulties... have all contributed.

So, hopefully the above information and the links to the various articles from the USGA and Dr. Settles' Scouting Report helps explain the weather and turf stress of this summer and the reasons behind the decline of our turf quality in some areas of the course. I suppose it could all be summed up by the saying "It was a perfect storm"! We were a victim of circumstances of lousy weather and intense turf maintenance.

Recovery Efforts Underway

I know this is already a very long post (I'll wrap up quickly) but it's been a very long year... this past month! As I mentioned in my last post, we immediately began turf relief procedures on the Monday following the Western Am.by ventilating the greens (aerating with pencil sized tines to oxygenate the rootzone and relieve natural plant gas by-products), raising the mowing heights, reducing rolling, eliminating double mowing, and replacing traffic control ropes.

 Ventilating - pencil sized diameter, shallow depth aeration

We have conducted the ventilation process a second time since then and we will continue to ventilate the greens periodically going forward. Root growth, compaction, oxygenation, and overall plant health and density will gradually improve. Our current, frequent low rate nutrient applications will be increased slightly as temperatures moderate. We must avoid forcing excessive growth as this will only deplete valuable energy reserves. Irrigation will be applied as needed and whenever needed to supplement plant and evaporation losses. It's probable that you'll notice softer surfaces than you have experienced to date but during this "recovery period" we do need to be maximizing  plant health which doesn't always translate to maximizing playability. Additional relief efforts include multiple spiking and overseeding on green surfaces and aeration followed by "topdressing" fairway damaged areas with a sand/peat/seed mixture.

 Multi-directional Spiking prior to overseeding with improved varieties and light rolling to close slits.

Aeration of a low, water damaged area on a fairway

Topdressing damaged fairway areas with sand/peat/seed mix

Smoothing and lightly incorporating mixture

With a little cooperation from Mother Nature in the form of cooler temperatures, lower humidity, and occasional but moderate rainfall (we're certainly due!); your cooperation in avoiding travel through stressed areas with carts, and avoiding walking on weak areas of greens when possible; and our G&G Dept. recovery efforts of aeration, spiking, seeding, topdressing, fertilization and irrigation; together we will recover from the decline we've recently experienced. 

I hope that I'll soon be able to post photos of new seedlings in all areas where needed and other thin turf areas well on the way to complete recovery.

Western Amateur Recap

I was thinking about what title to use for this first post since the Western Am. Tournament and thought about several:
Six Inches of Rain in Two Weeks Preceding Event Leaves Course Conditions Soft, or, Two Squeegee Sessions in One Day Wears Out Crew, or, Highest Average Humidity Since June 2003 Recorded on Rain Soaked Second Day of Tournament, or, Volunteers from Other Clubs Help SCC Grounds Staff Achieve Tournament Ready Conditions for a 7:30 Shotgun Start, or, Rain Soaked Mid-Tournament Ends Dry, or, SCC Volunteers & Family Provide Top Quality Divot Repair, or, Maintaining Tournament Turf Conditions During Extreme Weather Conditions Leaves Turf Stressed, or, Various Diseases Enjoy Post Tournament Petri-dish-Like Weather Conditions, or, Recovery Efforts Underway to Relieved Stressed Turf Areas, or, Long Challenging Rough Gradually Getting Tamed, or, Several Hundred Enjoy Western Finals, or, Players, Parents, Guests Highly Complementary About Course Conditions and Presentation, or, 2010 Western Amateur Tournament a Great Success! 

They all could be appropriate titles and they all tell a portion of the story, (as far as the golf course, pre- tournament preparations, and now post tournament care, is concerned) behind the 2010 Western Am. Championship.  There was little time for photo documentation during the event but I was able to snap a few shots with camera and phone camera, and was also provide some of the following photos courtesy of the WGA.

 Entrance sign (and tee signs, and many others) being installed

 Jacob and Ryan assembling scoreboard sections

Carpenter Ed making final touch-ups to Leaderboard

Greens mowing (double cut each morning, single cut each evening)

 Fairway Mowing - Performed twice each day

Greens Rolling - Performed twice each day

This was the calm before the storm!

And the rains came...twice each day...no just on Weds. Not a great amount total but two heavy downpours fell on soils unable to rapidly drain from being somewhat saturated from the 5+ inches having fallen in the prior two weeks.

Some of our terrific volunteers from other clubs and suppliers. Josh and Kyle (Interns from Onwentsia Club), Matt (Asst. Supt. from North Shore CC) and Craig (from ProGro Solutions), in this photo above. These four guys worked nearly everyday and we couldn't have done it without them! Others that helped at one or more times include Scott (Supt. Onwentsia Club), Andy (Asst. Supt. Exmoor CC), and several crew members from North Shore CC.

Arthur Clesen Inc., and BTSI provided tasty meals on two days of the tournament...a nice treat!

Jacob (getting waist deep into his work- literally!) and Ryan attempt to clear a drain to help move water off #3 and #13 fairways. Our efforts revealed a collapsed line which will need to be replaced soon.    

At one point we had to take a minute to go fishing!

 

With play resumed...I caught this familiar person wandering around. Something didn't seem quite right about this. I'm used to seeing him swinging clubs, not carrying them!

 Something else not quite right... Shoeless Jay?

One of many member volunteers whom helped replace/fill divots on tees and in fairways.

Thanks so much to all of you!!!

A few spectators during semi-final match

Many spectators enjoy play at #15 Green during final match.  Apologies for the lack of sharpness...Lots of coffee and little sleep for photographer this week! 

In the wake of the tournament we're left with a bit more work to keep us busy... 

 These players do take divots! We've re-seeded already.

 Rough mowing began before the final match ended. Most of the really long rough has now been mown and we will gradually (so as to not damage the turf and not leave excessive clippings) bring the heights back to a manageable length. Currently two large area rough mowers are in use every day.

 Tournament turf conditioning -repeated mowing, rolling, limited fertility, low irrigation inputs - creates significant turf stress and these stresses are compounded when conducted during high heat, high humidity, and high moisture conditions (exactly what we had during the tournament). Solid tine aeration (ventilation), shown above, was conducted on Monday following the tournament, to relieve some of the compacted conditions and help re-introduce needed oxygen to the root systems.

  Some areas were in fact damaged, and here Otto is replacing an area on No. 13 green with sod from our turf nursery, which has been grown from cores from all the greens and will blend quite nicely in a short period of time. You can see the small holes in the foreground from the "ventilation" process. Areas on a couple other greens that experienced thinning have been seeded and topdressed with a sand/peat mixture. We will repeat this seeding work as often as is necessary until full turf coverage occurs.

The 108th Western Amateur is, as they say, "In the Books". A hearty congratulations to victor, David Chung, and a heartfelt, "Thank You", to all those, staff, members, volunteers, and family, who contributed to this wonderful tournament.

Eli Comes to Town

With the rain suspended Derby (over 3 inches fell on early Sat. morning) completed on a beautiful Sunday we are now in the home stretch of making final course preparations for the Western Amateur Championship.
Before I go any further though, I want to congratulate Derby Champions, Jim Connors IV and Ken Coquillette. They shot a fabulous 17 under par on a course that, although rain softened greens were slower than usual for the Derby, had extra challenging hole locations and, rough that was plenty longer and thicker than usual! Indeed quite a score!  I'll blog a bit more about the Derby, prior course preparations, the 3" rain and our work to get the course playable to complete the Derby, and final course preparations for the Western, in a soon to be posted later blog. For now though, I want to tell you about our gazebo work now in progress.

Five years ago, after a rain shelter gazebo was destroyed by vandals, we searched for a company that could build a structure similar to the one that we had at the #12 hole pond on #3 side. Our search ended in the company Rocky Knolls Gazebos, from Rexford, Montana (Northwest corner of Montana about two miles from Canada) owned by Eli Beechy and a few family members. Eli and family are Amish and are incredible craftsman, as hardworking as you get, and just delightful folks, and at that time Eli fabricated the gazebo in Montana, had it shipped here to the club, and the two of us constructed it in the fall of 2005. We were fortunate in that they normally travel, to erect these gazebos, only in the states of Montana, Oregon, Idaho, and Washington, but they have family in Illinois and also Michigan and we were able to persuade him to stop by here and put up a gazebo for us during a planned trip visit to family. So at that time, Eli, his wife Irene, and their two sons, Nathan and Samuel traveled here by train, I picked them up at Union Station and they stayed one night at a nearby hotel. Eli and I erected the gazebo at #7 tee on a Saturday and finished it up early Sunday morning.

 The original Rain Shelter Gazebo constructed in 2005 by Eli and Me

 

 Disfigured Willow and deteriorating Gazebo before removal

Gazebo at #5 Tee prior to removal

Fast forward five years... The rain shelter gazebo at #12 pond was rapidly deteriorating and one of our other rain shelters was also in pretty bad shape. It was certainly time for them to be replaced. I contacted Eli and asked about having two more built (I was thinking he could send kits and I would construct myself) and he said and then, to my delight, asked if I would like for him to put them up as he was planning another visit to family nearby around the first week of August. The first week of August is the Western Am. and that wouldn't work for us but with a little pleading he graciously agreed to shift his plans one week so the timing would work out and the new rain shelter gazebos would be in place before the tournament. Perhaps it was because we established a relationship five years earlier, or because I did my best to accommodate Eli and family five years ago, or because ultimately we decided to have a third gazebo made, but whatever it was Eli happily adjusted his travel plans.


So, in the previous post I showed our preliminary work with removing portions of the old gazebos (and still keeping the roofs in place should they be needed during the Derby) digging footings (8 per) for piers at each location, laying out the exact pier locations and pouring concrete. With this work complete last Monday - Wednesday the concrete would be cured before Eli arrived. Yesterday the truck arrived with the all the gazebo pieces and later in the day Eli and family arrived. They drove this time (they themselves can't drive but they hired a driver, Brent, whom also assits with construction) but this trip there are a few more family members. In addition to Nathan and Samuel, they have a few more brothers and sisters, including Ruth, Paul, James, Martha, and the youngest (7 months old) is Joseph. Large families are common among the Amish as Eli has 14 brothers and sisters and Irene has 13! Eli and Irene are certainly making good progress on building their family.

Instead of staying at a hotel Eli asked if I would be willing to let them pitch a tent and stay here near the Grounds Operation Center and so without this being a problem at all, we have some visitors on site for the next couple days. Their compound is in a comfortable location on the lawn area in front of the Grounds Staff  Bunkhouse. As of this morning at 9:30, Eli, Brent, Nathan (the oldest at 11 years) and Samuel, already have one gazebo nearly complete!

Here are a few photos of all that is going on at the moment:

 Hand unloading Gazebo sections bright and early Monday morn.

Lots of materials, Lodge-pole Pine, bark stripped by hand

Eli and boys loading first Gazebo

 Some of Beechy and Cross family enjoying shade on #14 while course closed (little guy in foreground is my grandson Clark Joseph)

 Most of Beechy family awaiting dinner. Brent grilling, Eli supervising, Irene tending to children

(Amish do not take pictures or pose for photographs but Eli and Irene do not mind me taking pictures)

The youngest of the Beechy family, Joseph. ( Posing pretty well here!)

Future Gazebo builder I'm sure!

Making fast progress. Gazebo between #15 Tee /#16 Green

There is a lot of work still to do but with extra help this time around they'll be done in no time. I'll post more later on the Gazebo construction progress and much more.