A Nice Edge

As most golfers know, walking or driving across frosted grass can cause some serious turf injury.  So, what does the crew work on when we have frost delays in the morning?

One of the projects we address is edging cart paths.  During the growing season, this task often gets shifted down the priority list.  While we don't have paths from tee to green, there are still 3.4 miles of paths to be edged.  And with two sides to a path, that's a lot of edging to be done!

The crew has done a great job on this project over the fall, and the end is in sight.

Looking back towards #6 tee.

Paths nicely edged at #4 green.

A Great Deal

People involved in the golf course industry joke that when you add the word "golf" to a piece of maintenance equipment, you should also add a "0" to the price.  Unfortunately, this is often a bit too close to the truth.  Many of the mowing units we use are quite specialized and need to perform with surgical precision--adjustments to the mowing height of a greens mower are made in thousandths of an inch.

Another specialty golf item is the hover mower.  While we don't use these every day like a greens mower, this piece of equipment works very well for mowing steep areas such as bunker faces.  Our oldest hover mowers have seen better days, and were in need of replacement. 

Again, if you look into the cost of these, you'll find that they are pretty expensive--maybe not quite what you'd expect to pay for Bubba's hovercraft golf cart, but more than you'd think a small trim mower would cost.

Fortunately, thanks to the keen eyes of our mechanic, Joseph Ferman, we were recently able to upgrade our hover mowers at a bargain price.  Joseph regularly checks the used equipment section on TurfNet, a company which helps golf courses in many areas, including the buying and selling of used equipment.

As luck would have it, a Club in our region had decided to go with a different type of mowing equipment for their course, and no longer needed their hover mowers.  They posted these for sale on TurfNet, and it was a match made in heaven.

While we weren't originally looking at a fleet of hover mowers, this was a deal just too good to pass up, so we acquired six of them, all of which are in great shape.   Thanks to TurfNet and Joseph for helping us throughout the year!

More Drainage

The focus on drainage continues as we dug into the front of #18 green this past week.  While several of the projects we have planned for the winter will be quite visible in the spring, hopefully these green drainage improvements won't be one of them. 

That is, when corrected, it's unlikely that a former drainage issue on a green will be at the forefront of your mind.  Nobody's going to be standing on the greens during a rain storm just waiting to see if a puddle forms, or not.  Lets face it, when drainage works correctly, we often take it for granted.  Just as in your home, only when there's a problem with a drain do we realize how important it is.

Installing a new drain along the front of #18 green.

On #18, in addition to improving the drainage from under the green, we also did some work on the surface.  Once the sod was stripped, we shaved off an additional 1/2" of material from beneath, which was enough to allow water to run off the surface as it originally did.




Another nice repair job by the guys.

Greens Drainage

During the past couple of years we've seen areas of several greens fail to drain as they should.  Standing water on the surface, accompanied by saturated soils don't make a good growing environment for turf that's mowed daily throughout the golf season at 0.10".

Uncovering the cause of the drainage problem and the best solution often requires some "exploratory surgery"...also known as digging.  We decided to tackle one of the worst areas this week, and dove right in on #9 green.  After removing several tons of material, we found that the green's internal drainage  appeared to be fine, and it was the exit point that had become compromised.  That is, water was draining through the green's mix to the gravel layer below, but the water was unable to leave the green.

Creating a new "smile" drain at the bottom of #9 green.

With the changing elevation from turf to bunker to pond, and several obstacles to cross (such as drain lines in the bunker and irrigation lines in the turf), we opted to dig the new drain line by hand.  When the new line was opened, thousands of gallons of water that had been trapped under the green came pouring out.

Water comes streaming out from beneath the green.

New perforated pipe and pea gravel were installed, and despite some challenging weather conditions, the guys did a great job cleaning the area when finished.  The end result should be some much healthier turf in this area next spring. 

Good to see no standing water on the green after rain on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Why No Carts?

When the temperatures fall, conditions on the golf course can be somewhat deceptive.  For example, on Wednesday we received 1.35" of precipitation, or over 36,600 gallons of water on each and every acre of the course. 

As temperatures dropped below freezing, much of that moisture was trapped in the upper part of the soil profile.  Thus, if you ventured on the course Thursday or Friday morning, the frozen conditions made it appear to be much firmer (less wet) than it really was. 

Water was still running down cart paths Friday morning.

On days like this, what appears to be fine conditions in the morning, will often turn into messy conditions in the afternoon as the surface thaws.  The damage to the turf that takes place at this time of year from cart traffic is of particular concern as the plant is dormant and unable to grow out of it.

Cart traffic on wet turf can cause damage to both the foliage and roots.

 

#3 Tee Update

With several golf events taking place in September, we weren't able to re-grade and seed #3 tee until the beginning of October.  While this was about one month later than what is considered the ideal time for seeding, the tee has filled in nicely, and should be in good shape next spring. 

Interestingly, the one area that we will need to address over the winter is the perimeter of the tee, which we sodded after the tee was re-graded.  So, what happened to some of the sod?

As most people know, the usual concern with sod is making sure it doesn't dry out.  With cool temperatures the first week in October, and the pallet of sod stored in the shade, we really didn't need to worry about the sod drying prior to being installed.  Apparently, however, the conditions were perfect for the sod to actually start to decompose as it was rolled up.  When we picked it up from the pallet, there was no doubt that an exothermic reaction was taking place, as the sod was almost too hot to handle.

Fortunately, only a small amount of sod will need to be replaced.  With some other winter projects requiring sod, we will be sure to get a little extra to clean up the edge of the tee and have it looking good for the 2015 golf season.

Shifting Gears

The irrigation system will be winterized this week, and that always marks a significant change for the crew on the golf course.  With most of the leaves finished falling and a frigid forecast, mowing will now take a back seat to some project work. 

One of our favorite projects to tackle is drainage, and the fairway drainage we've installed over the years has been a tremendous help in several ways.  Thanks to these drain lines, we can allow carts out more quickly after rain events, get the fairways mowed without causing damage, and improve playability of these areas by having  them dry faster.

A drain line was installed in the swale on #4 approach several years ago, and as a warm up for some bigger drainage projects this winter, this week we added a couple of new laterals to this existing line.


Additional drain lines being installed on #4.