Rolling around on top of the covers...

 As we mentioned last week, uncovering and recovering the greens is an extremely labor-intensive activity.  Obviously if we are mowing or spraying the greens, this is required.  But what about when we want to just roll the greens?  

Well, you never know until you try, so we ran a triplex with vibratory rollers across a green, then peeled back the cover on just that one green to see the results.  We were happy to find out that this provided the same smoothing to the green, with no damage to the cover.    

The team's backs are going to appreciate not removing and replacing several thousand staples again this week!

Sorry Ron...

 With the greens being covered for the winter, many might believe that this was a Ron Popeil special, where we could put them to bed, and not think about them again until the spring.  

However, the moist environment under the turf covers can act like a petri dish for certain fungi, meaning the covers need to be removed for additional plant protectant applications.  Additionally, while the greens aren't growing quickly, we still want to mow them periodically over the winter.  

The team has become quite proficient at pulling and replacing the tarps, but it is still a very labor-intensive process, taking a full two days to complete each time it has to be done.

The Rollercoaster Ride

Just a couple of months ago, we were noting how dry it was.  In fact, during the entire month of October, we received less than one inch of rain.  Fast forward to December, and it was an entirely different story, as multiple storms led to a whopping 8.40" of rain for the month.  This is more than twice the "normal" total of 3.70".

We've been damp and dreary for most of December and January.

Just as 2023 ended, 2024 is also starting out in unusual fashion.  With only a couple of days left in January, the precipitation total stands at a hefty 7.30".  Combined with December, you're looking at well over 400,000 gallons of water falling on every acre during the past two months.   

Water, water everywhere...

As is often the case, when we closed the books on 2023, the precipitation total for the year was close to average--actually within 10% of the historical number.  However, the peaks and valleys (all or nothing) rain events do appear to be occurring increasingly often.  

What do these weather extremes mean from a both a turf management and golf playability perspective?  If this trend continues, facilities may very well need to invest in both state of the art irrigation systems to precisely add needed water, as well as expansive drainage systems to remove excess water.

Thank You, Luke!

It is with very mixed emotions that we share the news of Assistant, Luke Kringler's departure from Laurel Creek.  During his time at the Club, Luke has consistently embodied  our core values, earning him a fistful of Employee of the Month awards.

Among his many achievements, Luke established a state approved turf apprenticeship program at Laurel Creek, which can provide tuition assistance for turf students.  Additionally, Luke has upgraded our department's record keeping, employee training procedures, and labor tracking.  Given all of this, it isn't surprising that Luke was recognized by Turfnet for being one of the Rising Stars of Turf.  

While we are sad to see him leave, there is no doubt that Luke will continue to do great things in the golf industry! 

2024 is Here

The calendar may not agree, however for the Grounds team, 2024 is already here.  While there are still some daily maintenance items we address, the vast majority of our efforts are currently being put towards creating a successful 2024 season.

A great example of this is the pre-emergent herbicide application which is taking place.  This is one of the most important late fall tasks, as we are preventing annual grassy weeds from showing up six months from now.  

The big cover-up

 Last week's aerification had #17 green starting out like this:

However, after all of the aerifying, sand, brooming and rolling, this week has it looking a bit different:

Yes, over five acres of turf covers were installed on the greens.  With our H-2B employees finished for the season, this was a huge undertaking for the remaining staff. As usual, another great job by the team!   

More Math

This past week's late fall greens aerification was a new experience for all of us.  The weather during aerification typically has the team more concerned with keeping hydrated in the heat, than making sure we are wearing enough layers to stay warm.  Below average temperatures in late November prevented us from getting out first thing in the morning.

Aerifying greens with snowflakes in the air, is unusual.

Since the plan is for this to be the only major aerification event of the year for the greens, we need to impact as great an area of the putting surfaces as we have previously in the combined spring and late summer punching.  To that end, we started last week by applying sand, then aerified with a deep solid tine, and brooming of the greens.  

This was followed by a .5" hollow tine on a very tight spacing of 1.33" X 1.5".  We then removed the plugs, applied additional topdressing sand, and a second brooming.

Solid tining completed on the left, and hollow tining on the right.

So how much of the putting surface area were we able to impact with these hollow tines?  Well, the 1.33" X 1.5" spacing gives us nine holes per foot side to side, and eight holes per foot front to back, for a total of 72 holes per square foot.  The area of each .5" hole is: .25" X .25" X 3.14 = .19625" squared

That's a whole lot of holes.

When we multiply the area of each plug removed by the number of holes per square foot:  .19625" X 72 holes, we find that 14.13 square inches of material was removed per square foot.  

With 144 square inches in a square foot, the hollow tining impacted approximately 10% of the greens' surface.  As always, when you look at the greens, most people would estimate this figure to be quite a bit higher than 10%...