GCSAA , USGA host successful Education Conference's

The Golf Course Superintendent's Assoc. of America's Education Conference continues to be a vital resource for the golf industry as 5,272 seats were filled for more than 100 seminars, Feb. 7-11 in Orlando, a 13 percent increase from 2010. "The GCSAA Education Conference continues to be the best venue for golf course superintendents to keep abreast of the latest trends in golf course management," GCSAA CEO Rhett Evans said. "I think it says a great deal about the passion our members have for education and their facilities that they travel from all corners of the nation to spend three days in seminar rooms."Content for the seminars focused on the professional development of attendees, including agronomy, business management, communication, environmental management and leadership. Numerous additional educational sessions, panel discussions, and forums that touched on such subjects as the nation's economy, diversity, media/public relations, etc., were offered as well.

Among the education offerings I attended were: a seminar titled Managing & Dealing with Winter Injury; Lessons from the Links (Judy Rankin); Magic of Teamwork (Pat Williams); and Cheers, Tears, & Fears: Hosting a Major Golf Championship. In addition to the GCSAA Conference, the USGA Green Section Conference was held during the week long activities and various season's best "Turf Tips" presentations were made. These are always educational and offered great "take home" ideas. All of these GCSAA and USGA offerings provided valuable information and ideas which I'll incorporate into our plans and programs for the golf course. The Golf Industry Show, 180,000 sq. ft. of all the latest equipment, supplies, nutrient and plant protectants, irrigation products, and essentially everything one could imagine related to golf course management, was on display for two days during the week.

 The Golf Industry Show - Everything imaginable in Golf Course Management

In addition to these sessions I was fortunate to be acknowledged at the event, Celebrating Certification, along with 44 other colleagues, for achieving 25 years of Certification. "Twenty-five percent of GCSAA's Class A members have achieved the highest level of recognition through the CGCS professional designation," said Robert M. Randquist, CGCS, who was elected GCSAA's president at the annual meeting held on the last day of the conference, Feb. 11, and was also another one of the superintendents honored for 25 years of CGCS designation. "This program requires their demonstration of a higher set of competencies in golf course management through testing and practical application. Employers can feel confident they employ a career professional who has made a strong commitment to professional development."

To qualify for GCSAA's competency-based certification program, a candidate must have at least three years experience as a golf course superintendent, be employed in that capacity and meet post-secondary educational requirements and/or continuing education points. The candidate's knowledge, skills and abilities are validated through the development of a portfolio consisting of their responses to skill statements, case-study scenarios and submission of work samples; an on-site inspection of their golf facility; and a rigorous six-hour examination covering competencies relating to agronomic, business, communication, environment and leadership domains.
 
Maintaining certified status requires renewal every five years after the initial date of certification. To fulfill certification renewal requirements, a candidate must participate in 150 hours of continuing education and professional development. There are a total of approx. 140 superintendents with 25 years or more with the CGCS designation and I am very proud to be part of this group and feel fortunate to have participated in this program and benefited from the outstanding continuing educational offerings throughout these past years.

Portions of this post and photo courtesy of GCSAA

Skokie CC Retains Audubon Certification

It's been a busy period these past couple months with: Equipment Maintenance and Refurbishment; Tree Management Activities; Snow Removal (especially clean-up of the "Blizzard of 2011"); and most recently, Attending the Golf Course Superintendents Assoc. of America's Annual Education Conference and the Golf Industry Show. I've written about a couple of these items and want to recap the latter in another, soon to be published, post, but upon my return from the GCSAA Conference, I found the following news in my mailbox and thought I would spread the good news.

It's confirmation that we have retained our Certification Status as an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. The following letter briefly explains the program and in the near future I will post additional information about our continuing efforts in this program, but for now, the letter below should give good insight into the program.

We became Certified in 2001 and retaining this designation requires bi-annual submission of our continuing stewardship efforts, case studies of projects we have implemented, satisfactory visits from outside environmental groups, and/or extensive survey completion. It's a good bit of effort annually and at each re-certification cycle, but it show's our commitment to continually striving to improve our stewardship of our property and, in the simplest terms, it's the right thing to do!   

Remember to click on the above to enlarge and then use your browsers "back" button to return

 

More details will follow about this program, our efforts and projects over the past fifteen years or more, and potential future environmental projects I have in mind.

Equipment Maintenance & Refurbishing Progress

As the cold and snowy conditions continue, at this point in the winter we have made good progress on both outdoor projects, our equipment maintenance and repair activities,and our course furnishings refurbishment. Over the past month and a half we've spent several days outdoors working on tree management tasks (as mentioned in previous post) but on the many bitter cold days we've all been indoors preparing all of our equipment and furnishings for the season ahead.

Our general servicing tasks for every powered equipment unit includes: oil changes (engine & hydraulic), all filters changed, drive belts/chains adjusted and/or replaced if worn, wheel bearings checked and repacked with grease, electrical wiring & lights checked, brakes serviced and pads replaced if needed, and body components checked, repaired, painted as needed, and finally waxed prior to spring use. Additionally, reel mower units are sharpened (replaced if badly worn) after bearings are checked and replaced if needed, bedknives (the stationary "blade" on a reel mower) are replaced and ground and "trued". Height adjusting rollers are checked, bearings replaced if needed, cutting drive and traction drive belts are checked and also replaced as needed. Also for many reel units (all green, tee, approach, fairway, intermediate, and range tee mowers) an additional attachment is incorporated called a "groomer". It's a spiral vertical blade arrangement used to stand the grass blades up, prior to cutting, similar to as a barber combs one's hair to stand it up before clipping. Groomers require additional bearing, housing, seal, and belt checks and often these precise and high speed rotation components require many part replacement needs.

 Mike, our new ace Equipment Technician, puts the finishing touches on this tee mower, one of nearly 25 such units used on greens, tees, approaches, range greens, chipping areas, and more.

 A few greensmowers (background) and fairway mower cutting units (foreground) ready for spring

Additional equipment servicing includes the traction units of all of the above cutting units, (diesel fairway units, triplex riding units and all other mower and special use powered units such as: Greens Rollers, Rotary Rough Mowers, Mid-sized Utility Vehicles, Fairway & Green Sprayers, Aerators, Topdressing Spreaders, Tractors, Skid-Steer Loaders, Pick-up Truck and Dump Trucks.  There is indeed a significant amount of equipment (valued over 2 million dollars) required to maintain and improve the course and grounds and as well, a significant amount of preventive maintenance and repair required. Keeps us quite busy all year long!

 One of four fairway units serviced, sharpened, and ready for action. Many larger units such as this require significant time and effort during our winter maintenance period.

While all this equipment servicing is in progress, our course furnishings are also being refurbished. Our furnishings include: tee markers, ball washers, flag poles, tee benches, trash receptacles, some tables and chairs (around half way house), flower boxes, and all of our wooden bunker rakes. Cleaning, sanding, and painting or varnishing tasks are performed on all of these items and readied for use in early spring.

 Tee Bench refinishing - completely sanded and a fresh coat of varnish is applied

 Wooden Bunker Rake - Over 150 are hand sanded and a weather sealer stain is applied

So hopefully the above gives a little insight into what we've been up to inside the Grounds Operation Center over the past month and a half or so. We still have plenty to do but we're making very good progress. I'll post again soon about our progress on the Tree Management Activities, mentioned in my previous post.

Hope you are enjoying your winter, wherever you may be!

Recent Tree Management Activities

As the new year begins, and favorable weather conditions exist for our planned tree management activities, I'd like to provide an update on this work. Before doing so however, I want to show a couple photos of some snow removal work we performed on a couple greens on Dec. 31st. As you may recall in each of the past two years we have come out of winter experiencing turf damage (due to ice encasement) to a couple greens and our #8 fairway. Given this repeated situation we keep a watchful eye on the greens and will remove accumulations when in place for extended periods. This snow removal is necessitated by the fact that trees on the South, Southeast, and Southwest sides of greens #3 and #11, block sunlight, (which is lower on the horizon during fall, winter, and spring) preventing snow melt and potentially leading to ice accumulation and possible injury. 

 No. 3 Green - One of only two greens on the course, (the other was #11)  which still had snow remaining after a year end thaw and rain event. The next day, Jan. 1, temps were forecast to drop well below freezing, so we cleared snow and slush to prevent otherwise certain ice accumulation. 

 Surface cleared - Note heavy tree growth behind. A few trees closest to green have been removed (consistent with our planned 2011 Tree Management) to improve sunlight quality throughout the lower light periods of fall - winter - spring, providing benefits such as helping plants harden off and prepare for winter dormancy, melting of snow and ice, and enhancing spring warming and green up. Summer sunlight is of course essential as well, as it drives the energy producing process of photosynthesis. Many trees still exist off property in Forest Preserve, so we will still need to keep watch on this and #11 green, but maximizing sunlight can only provide valuable turf health benefits, and improved playing conditions, year round.

 No. 3 Green, early October, nearly half of green is shaded. The tree removal recently conducted will improve sunlight during this important time when turf is manufacturing and storing carbohydrates and preparing for winter stresses.

Before I continue this update on other recent and planned tree work I want to remind all Skokie members to be sure to refer to the Jan. issue of the Skokie News where an article was written by our Grounds & Greens Committee Chairman. In October last year we had a complete review (after a decade) of our Restoration process, procedure, philosophy, white paper, continued efforts, and more. We also had our Restoration Course Architect, Ron Prichard, tour the course, address the G&G Committee and provide recommendations for continued course improvements going forward. Please be sure to read our Chairman's letter as within it details the reasons behind one of the accepted recommendations, that being some tree removal.

The objectives of our current 2011 Tree Management include:

-Thinning crowded growth areas to improve quality of remaining trees.

-Thinning poor quality specimens to accentuate premier quality specimens.

-Thinning trees in certain areas where light and air movement has become limited compromising turf quality.

-Removing trees in certain areas where root competition has diminished turf quality.
-Removing trees that may interfere with a recovery shot from a hazard. (Eliminating the "double-hazard")
-Thinning trees in crowded areas where traffic is forced to confined areas, leading to thin and heavily compacted turf areas very difficult to play from. 
-Removing trees that fall within our 5 "D" guide (see Tree Management Archive)

The 5-D’s that guide our tree removal actions:
• Diseased - significant infection that is untreatable or too costly to treat.
• Decayed/Dead - significant decay, or complete death, resulting in structural weakening and hazardous conditions.
• Damaged - significant structural damage from high winds and/or lightning.
• Disfigured - Unattractive shape from over crowding of adjacent trees or from damage.
• Disruptive – Affecting playability. Causing traffic concentration, excess turf loss from shade, root system impacts to turf and drainage tile systems.

   

A few examples of these conditions follow:

 Diseased - Nearly half this apple tree is damaged by Fire blight 

Decayed - This Silver Maple could have come down by itself in the next wind storm

Damaged & Disfigured - these two Silver Maples have little, if any, value and only drain funds by having to prune, trim around, manage leaf drop, and root cut/jet nearby tile lines that fill with roots diminishing drainage effectiveness.

 Disruptive - Many trees behind 5th green creating ever increasing shade which will ultimately reduce putting surface quality. Several have now been removed and will be replaced by a low berm with natural grasses similar to berm visible on right side of above photo.

Disruptive - Shade and Root Competition gives little chance for turf survival.

An example of the volume of roots that can enter tile lines and compete against turf for water and nutrients.

So hopefully the above shows a sampling of what we consider prior to making any tree management / removal decisions. Other factors considered include: play strategy; cost/benefit of poor quality specimens; disease and insect control cost/benefit; (example: Do we continue to treat a poorly shaped spindly American Elm for Dutch Elm disease or an insignificant Green Ash for Emerald Ash Borer?)  and enhancing vistas throughout the course. Many factors indeed, are considered into our decision process. I'll post more information and photos soon regarding our current tree management progress.

Winter Beauty

With a year marked with weather extremes (and at times a rather frenzied pace!) now coming to a close, I found these following photos to be a nice, quiet, calm way to end it. They had this affect on me when I took them, and I thought you might enjoy them as well.

Best Wishes for a Healthy, Happy, Peaceful New Year!

Free Skate Style Ski Trail Open

I know its been a while since I've posted and I'd like to say it's because I've been golfing or biking in some warm clime or hitting the slopes out West, but no, just been busy in the shop, dealing with snow removal, and working on a few things out on the course when weather cooperates.
I'll post again soon to update you on our course activities and our equipment maintenance and accessory refurbishment activities. Equipment maintenance is indeed our main emphasis at this time of year and our new Equipment Technician, Mike Gavinski, whom joined us just a few weeks ago, has been making great progress on some badly needed repairs and has a good start on cutting unit sharpening. I'm really pleased with Mike and with a little help from Jacob, Steve, and Ryan, I'm confident that all of our equipment will be ready to go come spring. More on this work later.

We've had a bit of snow this winter but it wasn't until recently that we had enough to permit any trail grooming activities. We do not have any specific ski trail grooming equipment, but on Monday we hooked up our fairway rollers and developed a loop around the perimeter of the course. It's a 2.7 mile loop and approximately 12 feet wide. The roller has packed the snow fairly well and grooming it a few times has made it firm enough (along with the nice 12 foot width) to skate ski. I much prefer the downhill style but I might just have to give cross country and the free skate style a try this year.

Jacob begins trail grooming process. Roller packs snow quite well.

First pass complete. Future grooming included a brush attachment which eliminated the tire marks and better smoothed the surface.

 
If you're so inclined to try out our trail you may want to get out soon. The forecast is calling for warmer temps and possibly rain. But should this occur and disrupt the trail, we'll be sure to get the roller back out when more snow falls.

Enjoy the trail, or off trail if you prefer, but please if you do go off trail, avoid skiing and/or snowshoeing on the greens and tees. The packed ice that can develop could lead to turf damage next spring. Thank you for staying off these areas!

Now, come to think of it, maybe I need to take a trip somewhere to better learn about the art and science of ski trail grooming!

A Whirlwind of Activities Completed

It's been a week (or I should say less than a half week) of frenetic pace as we completed several "winterization" tasks. The forecast is showing temperatures to fall into the teens overnight Thanksgiving into Friday, and remain below freezing thereafter, for at least a couple days. These extended low temperatures will likely begin to freeze the soil surface and so in essence, it was time to "put the course to bed".
In the last three days we've accomplished:

• Deep, Solid Tine Aeration of Greens
• Rolling to Smooth (Greens)
• Sand Topdressing & Brushing (Greens)
• Plant Protectant Applications for Snow Mold Diseases (Greens, Tees, Fairways, & Bunker Faces)
• Late-Season Nutrient Applications (Greens, Tees, Approaches & Fairways)
• Covering of Greens and several Tees
• Winterizing Irrigation System
• Renovation of Tee Surrounds at No. 10. (near completion)

 Jacob (on #2 Grn) and Rafa (on #13 Grn) performing Deep Aeration (1/2" dia. x 10" deep)

Having second tractor/aerator unit (our much older unit was down for repairs several times during process) was compliments of  Lake Shore Country Club and Supt., Jeff Frentz. This was a HUGE help and we couldn't have completed all we needed to this week without, "getting by with a little help from  our friends" !

 Channels created will aide moisture movement off surface and provide oxygen and gas exchange during winter months, and help allow deeper root growth in spring.

Rolling followed Deep Aeration and then Sand Topdressing (shown above) followed. Applying sand now helps protect the crowns of the turf (the point where shoot growth originates) throughout winter.

 

 Brushing, (to smooth and incorporate sand) followed Topdressing.

 

 Plant Protectant Applications followed to guard against Snow Mold Diseases. All Greens, Tees, Approaches, Fairways, and Bunker Faces were treated.

 

 Ryan applies Nutrients (mostly slow release for early spring availability) after Plant Protectant App. had dried. Similar nutrient applications were also applied to Tees, Approaches, Fairways, Green and Tee Surrounds, and high traffic areas in the Rough.

 Final Greens task was placing and securing Greencovers.

Staples are used to secure them and they cannot be installed once the ground is frozen. Hence the urgency this week, as temps will soon be falling sharply!

 Winterizing Irrigation System - Compressed air is used to "blow out" all lines, sprinkler heads, pump station equipment, and pond fill lines.

It was a little cold outside the last couple days! 

Ice formation from a nearby sprinkler being activated to blow out water.

 Sneaking in an improvement project before the ground freezes (and sod becomes unavailable)

Replacing contaminated sod on slope surrounding No. 10 tees. 

 

Old tie steps and dated landscape was removed to provide a look more similar to all of our other tees. A small set of rough timber steps will be installed if deemed necessary in future.

Greens "Put to Bed" and ready for a long winter's nap!

With it being Thanksgiving today I can't help thinking about the many things I'm thankful for, but one for sure is my terrific Grounds Operation Staff. Time and time again during this challenging year, they have answered the call. Whatever the situation; from ice in the winter; to floods in the spring (and again in summer); to heat in the summer; to tournament preparations and recovery tasks; to completing myriad special projects; and now to multiple winterization tasks in a few short days, over and over again they have answered the call of duty!

I couldn't be more thankful! 

Happy Thanksgiving to All! 

Drainage, Drainage, & Insuring Drainage!

Coined after the familiar saying in the Real Estate business, "Location, Location, Location", in the Golf Industry, when asked what three things are needed to have a great golf course, the common response is, "Drainage, Drainage, Drainage". Obviously it's an over simplified response but it does underscore the significance of moving water off the course in a rapid manner to allow turf to remain healthy and play to proceed. With the mild weather of late, we've taken full advantage, repairing a significant drain collapse, adding additional drain pipe in another area, and insuring fall, winter, and spring drainage in certain areas, through high pressure line jetting.

Earlier in the year following the heavy rain during the Western Am. Championship, we discovered a near completely collapsed drain line which helps move water off certain areas of both #3 and #13 fairways. We used our jetting equipment to open the line as best as possible but we knew then that the line would have to be replaced.

Jacob truly getting "into" his work during Western Am. rain, finding submerged (and collapsed) line so jetting could proceed

Excavating collapsed line

New pipe and vertical "clean-out" in place, back filling and compacting underway

New tile line (and others existing) will help move flood waters like these off course more rapidly

There are many areas throughout the course where additional drainage pipe is needed to intercept water flow, and move excess off the course more rapidly. One such area is between the 8th fairway and the range. In heavy rainfall events water flows down the slope in front of the range tee, flows south around the first target green and deposits on No. 8 fairway. We do have drain tile and drop inlets or basins in the fairway area, but extending the existing line and adding additional basins will bode well for future water interception and removal.

Overview of new drain line layout at #8 fairway & range

 Tying in to existing 6" line, changing a restricted portion from 4" to entirely 6"

Trenches dug

Pipe prepared

Basins installed and pipe trimmed 

Back-filling and tamping following gravel addition to "blanket" pipe.

Project near completion with only sod replacement and clean-up remaining

We have several other areas where additional drainage is needed and hopefully we can do more before the ground freezes, but some additional drainage "insurance" we've been working on lately has been high-pressure jetting. Equipment purchased earlier this year allows us to jet out lines, cleaning soil, debris, and roots with nozzles that "jet" water up to pressures as much as 3500 psi. This has helped us open partial blocked lines as well as find where pipe or tile line deterioration has occurred. With the miles of drain lines we have throughout the course, this unit will in short order become one of our most valuable equipment investments!

Jetting Machine in use near Range Tee

Jacob jetting a line near #9 Tee - No underwater work needed here!

One more aeration session on greens (deep tine) is planned for next week and then winter preparations follow including: winterizing the irrigation system; applying late season nutrients and disease protectant products; and before long,covering the greens. I'll post as we complete this work