Slowly But Surely

We're doing about everything we can to enhance recovery of the severely winter damaged greens I showed in my last post. It's been a little over 3 weeks now, since the last post. All damaged areas have been aerated multiple times (with solid tines / shallow depth) to create sites for seed, seed has been planted, dark colored sand or dark pigments applied to retain heat, nutrients and other germination enhancers applied, and covers placed as often as needed. The only thing we obviously can't do is get our weather warmed up! We've seen a few warm days but clearly not enough to get the 200,000,000 or so bentgrass seeds (35 lbs x 6,000,000 per pound!) we've planted on greens to germinate just yet. Slowly but surely we're beginning to see a few sprouts and the covers which we place on when cool, off when warm or when we have to mow (the turf surrounding the damaged spots still needs frequent mowing) and back on again to keep the seed warm and moist. It's honestly a real pain, and a time and labor drainer but of course a necessity at this point.
We have made good progress on many greens and where we started the season with just 3 greens open for play we are now at 8. Specifically Nos. 5,8,12,13,14,15,16,18. More are getting close, like Nos. 1, 2, 10 (10days -2weeks - but no promises!) and others, Nos. 4,9,17 a few more weeks and finally Nos.  3,6,7,11 which will be longer yet. Warmth, germination, normal turf growth and spreading, plug planting from our turf nursery (when coverage is close to full we will finish it up with plugs -which we are working on everyday too) are all needed and will come, slowly but surely.

This large scale overseeding repair we've had to do will unfortunately create conditions you are not accustomed to as we move forward this year. The new seedlings will need time to establish and mature and will initially be fragile and prone to damage.  
The following are practices we will need to employ to insure establishment:
-Mowing heights will need to be kept higher than normal. The new seedlings need leaves for photosynthesis and we don't want to cut them too low to jeopardize this.
-Rolling will need to be minimized until plants have developed so we don't crush and damage them.
-Grooming practices (light daily vertical mowing) will need to be withheld to minimize damage.
-Watering will need to be done as needed to keep seedbed moist and may be needed multiple times on warmer, drier, windier days.
-Seedhead suppression products (certain growth regulators) will need to be withheld. In a typical year we use these to suppress Poa annua seedhead development which are unsightly and wreak havoc on ball roll creating bumpy conditions. These will affect germination and establishment of our planted seed and we cannot use them this year. We did and will continue to use on the minimally damaged greens, but those with significant injury will not be treated.

Yes all of the above is painful! Slow, leafy, wet, bumpy, are not enjoyable and certainly are not typical for us but this is not a typical spring for us either. On greens that are healthy we can perform many of the above practices and even on portions of injured greens if areas are isolated, and  eventually, slowly but surely, we will be able to return the practices to all greens.
Your patience and understanding of these unprecedented conditions are greatly appreciated.

Here's a look at how recovery is progressing:

 No. 1 Making nice progress. Plugging work coming soon

 

#2. Much improvement. All photos look better from a distance but this is only a short while from being open.  Side Note: Note the 3 divot marks at the lower portion of photo. Practicing right in front of a green! I'll hold my tongue...or fingers, and say no more.

 #3 Perimeter areas are hardest it. Will be some time before this can tolerate traffic.

 #4 Swale area in center. some recovery from existing plants but much more needed.

 #6 Drainage swale areas badly injured. Like #4 some recovery seen but will take more time here

 #7 Most injured area of all greens. Interesting that this was where the former tree (back right behind green - removed last fall due to damage and deterioration) created shade and root competition weakening the turf on the green. Going forward with tree gone the new turf will be much healthier and likely better able to tolerate stresses.

 #9 Making progress. Areas most impacted are where drainage is slow (plans are being formulated now to improve drainage on this and many other greens...more on this later) and where shade from the large trees front left of green and where nearly all traffic funnels to the 10th tee. Often it is several factors that result in turf being unable to tolerate cold or heat stresses. Poor drainage, shade, traffic, then ice... strike three...or four, you're out!

 

#10 Progressing well. This one along with #2, and #1 will be ready fairly soon.

#11 Most of damage is around perimeter areas. Clean-up pass stress?? Perhaps. #11 along with  #3 are in about the same state of condition. Will be some time before play can resume.

#17 Going to be a little time here but perhaps several sod plugs will move us closer to opening. Lots of plugs being planted from our nursery to many of the damaged greens. 

Slowly but surely we'll get things back to at least close to normal. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding!

On a more fun note:

 

I mentioned in April 'Clippings' column that I was going to start a few honeybee hives. The hives are here (two near Grounds Op. Center, and one on course in tall grass near 14 Champ. tee) and I installed the bees on Apr. 8. We've done a lot of work in close proximity and they really don't want anything to do with us, just interested in gathering nectar and pollen. Honeybees have been subjected to many problems (varroa mites, habitat loss, improper or excessive insecticide use, and more) and perhaps we can help a little by caring for a few colonies. And perhaps we'll get a sweet reward in time. 

My foray as a beekeeper with my first full inspection. They can be a little disturbed when their hive is opened up, hence the veil and white suit (apparently white is calming), and there are 10,000 at this point, which will grow to 60,000 or so, so I'll likely continue to use the veil! Many beekeepers eventually abandon the protective equipment, just shows that these girls (yes mostly females) aren't that sassy after all! My queens are in good shape and I've seen nectar and pollen being placed in the comb and tomorrow marks the 21st day which hopefully will show the first brood emerging.  

And another fun note:

Hawks Win! Hawks Win!

Round One wrapped up with a 5-1 victory!

Bring on Round Two. 

Let's Go Hawks!!!

Course & Projects Update

I know... It's been too long since I've posted, but not because I haven't had much to write about. Much to the contrary for sure! Last time I left you we were thick in the process of repairing/restoring turf cover to areas damaged by the late July record flooding and record temperatures. Also we've been active assisting with various items related to the Paddle Project, installing drainage in several fairways, and lately addressing several typical fall tasks such as; deep tine aeration (fairways), core aeration (tees), fairway topdressing and solid tine aeration (select fairways), and daily leaf blowing/mulching throughout the entire course. It's been a very busy couple months for sure! The following photos and caption information will hopefully give you a little recap and update of many of these tasks/projects:

 

Remember the flooding in late July? 12 inches of rain in a 10 day period...

 

 It resulted in many "bird bath" areas (low spots which held water for long periods) dieing and requiring re-grassing efforts such as sodding and/or this aerification and overseeding procedure

 The small aerification holes provide improved soil drying and ideal locations for...

 

 seed to be planted and protected during establishment.

 A light covering with a sand/peat mixture further helps to provide good seed/soil contact and aids moisture holding during critical seed germination period.  Unfortunately additional heavy rain occurred after several areas were complete and the entire operation had to be repeated. And actually due to even further untimely rain events, in some cases we repeated this work three times!

 but...eventually we had good germination and today these areas are filling in and recovering quite well.

 We picked a bit of bad year to perform several green expansions, locations where we are recapturing former putting surface areas which had been lost over many years due to cautious mowing practices. These areas were very gradually lowered in height from approach height, down to green height, over the entire early spring through mid-July period. They were beautiful until the 100 degree day of July 22nd, and the flooding and extreme high heat and high humidity period that followed for many days, at which time we saw significant thinning. This wasn't all together unexpected, as in 1999 and 2000 when we did similar expansion, we had similar turf loss. Fortunately the following year these areas had little to no thinning. I'm hoping this is the situation next year!

 In the past I experimented with this technique whereby we aerated a thin area and removed cores, then aerated a good quality area to serve as healthy stock cores which we then inserted into the thin area holes. This provides some improvement in appearance and eventual spreading and recovery, but mainly so that mowing equipment (we still need to regularly mow these areas) would be supported such that seed, we also plant in these same areas, is somewhat protected from compression damage. Above is an example where we employed my "core transplanting" technique. Why not? They do it with hair, why not with turf? It works!

Projects: We've had a few!!

 An earlier project, after we completed installing a new cedar shake roof, on the Half way House, was replacement of the tired fencing and landscape on the south side.

 Paddle Project site work...installing storm drain lines (shown), and sump pump discharge drains (not shown) between courts.

 Paddle Project site work...saw cutting area prior to trenching, from Grounds Operations Center to new Paddle House for data, phone, and cable lines.

 Plenty of concrete rubble beneath the pavement made this a bit of a challenge!

 One thing that this years flooding showed us was the exact locations where we need more drainage!

Our goal is to place additional lines and drop inlets in all these areas...there are many and this will take us a year or more to complete, but we'll keep working at it as long as it takes to help prevent, or at least significantly decrease, flood damaged turf in the future.

 Here we are working on #18 fairway (the same location as above photo)... We've installed about 1000 ft (in 3 different fairways) so far and hope to do at least as much before the ground freezes.

 An earlier location (#13 fairway) nearly fully recovered from flood damage and subsequent drainage installation and then seeding and core planting procedures. Drainage works!

 It's that time of year...Aeration. Tees aeration is complete, fairway core aeration and greens aeration will begin next week, October 24. Tine size of greens will be 3/8th inch so putting quality will not be terribly affected.

 Core processing includes dragging to reincorporate the desirable sand mixture that exists and then blowing and removing the small turf/mat remains.

 Several of our fairways (lower, slower to drain) have been sand topdressed over the past couple years. This practice has begun to show benefit such as surface firmness, surface smoothness (improved mowing quality), surface drainage, and divot recovery. Other benefits will occur over time.  We're applying sand to these fairways again at the present time. 

Solid tine aeration post topdressing. Another benefit... With sand topdressing we do not want to remove cores (as we will soon do on many other fairways) and as such we do not have the core processing issues (nor mud mess issue should damp conditions occur during process!) that conventional core aeration has. It's a much cleaner, less potentially problematic process compared to conventional methods. More later on this...

I think the above brings us to present on special projects and special tasks underway. I'll try not to keep away so long before the next post!

July Recap in Pictures

The last month or so has been challenging in many ways (a nice way of saying cruel!) with record rainfall, extreme and prolonged humidity, wind storms, power outages, paddle project site work, tournament and event preparations, turf disease, flood damaged turf, mosquitoes, flies, cart recovery from channel, and probably a half dozen other "challenges"! With all this fun I haven't had much time to blog. Each of the above could be an entry on it's own but I thought today I would recap the past month in photo/caption form.

 Mid-July, Mowing and more frequent rolling in early preparations for Derby

Bunker prep with sand depths of all checked, sand redistributed and added as needed, surfaces smoothed, runners (turf that has encroached into sand) removed, edges compacted and smoothed. They were all ready for Derby.

 Rafa and Javier perform annual pre-Derby "harvesting" of cattails at pond #18 
(and other ponds too)

 Jacob, Carlos, Alo, add fabric and stone and then level in areas which will be under the five new paddle court locations. Gravel helps melt water drain better, keeps area (and heaters beneath) cleaner and drier, and makes heater servicing more accessible.

 Believe it or not irrigation was needed through first 3 weeks of July. We had only approx. 1" of rain from the middle of June through the third week of July. Hard to remember it being dry huh?

 On this day we were seeing a nice dry sheen and a little spritz was needed to limit any wilting and potential mower injury.

 Jacob adds just the right amount of water, only where needed, to keep surfaces fast and firm.

Then the rains came and in about 12 days (July 23-Aug. 3) we were left with 10+ inches.

 Here in afternoon on July 23rd I'm turning on a few sprinklers in the flooded areas to add cooler water to the rapidly warming water. Perhaps it helped to lessen the damage, as in these areas the resulting turf loss is minimal.

 As the waters receded this was a familiar sight. Here Urbano squeegees on #3 fairway.

We put a lot of wear on these this year! 

 This guy's wondering where the water went? It quickly drained in this bunker on #2 but the sediment that the flood waters left behind would need to be hand scraped and discarded to prevent contamination and potential future diminished drainage.

 By the way... It's been damn hot at times! 101 degrees in the shade!

 With all the water gone (and hopefully heavy rain and extreme heat past) we now see areas were turf is damaged. Repairs have already begun and include additional drain pipe installation where needed, and one or more processes such as aeration, sand topdressing, spiking, seeding, and sodding.

 This goes in the category of "Anything is possible on the golf course!"

 

 It was a miserably hot day so Jacob didn't mind jumping in to secure a tow strap to the front bumper. We pulled it out with our 4X4 Dump Truck and now Ed has a new bridge railing project!

 Back to the Paddle Courts. Here I'm digging for the main electric feed from the Grounds Operations Center. We've got some additional drainage to add near the courts too and landscaping to install before long.

 Mornings and sights like this help us forget the many "challenges" we've faced this year.

Looking forward to a long, mild fall!

Spring Course Prep & More

Course activities at this time of the year are always very busy. Spring start up tasks such as: mowing of all turf areas with increasing frequency; bunker grooming (cleaning, leveling, smoothing); fall and winter debris remnant removal; winter tree management completion (pruning and approved removals); prairie burning; placing course furnishings; early season nutrient and plant protectant treatments; overseeding rough areas; sod patching of winter damaged areas throughout course; filling and pressurizing the irrigation system; and more, are all keeping us hopping! Additionally, we always manage to have a project or two going.

The following photo's show a few of the above tasks and projects in progress:

Fairway mowers clipping off the winter coat

 Bunker Prep - Clean-up, leveling, raking

Irrigation System Pressurization - A full day process to gradually refill, purge air, and pressurize to standard operating pressure. Out of nearly 2000 sprinkler heads less than a half dozen needed repair. It's "all systems go"!

Repair of a blemish (likely from an inconsiderate deer) using hex plugs from our homegrown turf nursery. Can you tell where the plugs have been placed? I think you would agree that they match quite well.

Plug on left showing one of the benefits of deep tine aeration...enhanced root growth. Plug on right is from the damaged area with no visible roots.

 

The aforementioned turf nursery. Planted last fall. Most of this nursery was used last year to patch winter damaged areas in spring and flood damaged areas in late summer. Hope I don't need to use much of it at all this year!

 General debris clean-up proceeding well.

One of a couple current projects: Our sod squad installing sod in various areas including tree removal and winter damaged locations

 Project 2: Replacing Half Way House Roof. Here Javier and Miguel are stripping old shingles. Felt paper has been installed and we will follow with cedar shakes in lieu of asphalt shingles. 

So that's a quick glimpse of our current course work. I'll keep you posted on our projects and other course activities as they progress. Let's hope for some consistently mild weather anytime now!