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.
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!
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.
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| 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.
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| 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
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| 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%...
It's often easy to just say that we could use more help in maintaining the golf course. But it's only by taking a deep dive into where the labor and resources are actually being used that we are able to more clearly see what we are (and aren't) able to accomplish, and why.
The chart below shows that greens and bunkers were the two biggest slices of the labor pie in 2023. Yes, the three acre area which is considered a hazard is consuming the same amount of manpower as the greens, and slightly more labor than the 32 acres of fairways we maintain.
Our seasonal H-2B employees have been absolutely fantastic this year, allowing us to devote more time to both greens and bunkers. In fact, the time spent on bunkers almost doubled from 2022.
With regard to greens maintenance, the additional time spent in 2023 is primarily the result of hand mowing the greens, instead of using a riding mower. This has reduced the risk of a hydraulic spill (like we had on #4 last year), when the smaller staff size forced us to use the riding mower.
There are some other numbers which may come as a surprise to many. For example, 1,165 hours have been spent on divot repair through October.
As the saying goes, if you can measure it, you can manage it. Many thanks to the entire team for tracking their time throughout the year, to Don Holgersen for collecting this information, and to Luke Kringler for presenting it in a manner that is easy for all to understand.
We hope all of the participants in Saturday's Superintendent's Revenge had a good time. This was the first time we were able to get this event pulled together, but hopefully it will not be the last of these.
If you felt that the pin placements were over the top, please direct your complaints to the Pro Shop staff, as they were the ones who chose these 18 never before used locations. While there is no such thing as an "illegal pin placement" there are USGA recommendations--clearly none of which were followed.
Bob and Brett may have chosen the pins, but the Grounds Department added their touch with some obstacles, misleading distances and more. Let's face it, you just don't see an irrigation controller in the middle of a green too often.
We even included a few new diminutive water hazards on #16. If your ball missed the hole, it was off the green and quite possibly wet.
If you answered "No" to this question, don't feel bad--after all, it is November, and we're not yet in a full-blown drought. But if you think back to October, despite the weather forecasters calling for rain every weekend, at best it drizzled on some of those days. In fact, for the entire month, we received less than one inch of rain.
So why don't we see the lack of moisture taking a toll on the turf now? There are several factors which contribute to the difference in how grass responds to dry periods in the fall, versus during the summer months. Obviously, the temperature is one of these, but in addition to that, the number of hours of daylight, the angle of the Sun, and the turf's root length all play a role.
In looking at the data from our weather station, even on bright, sunny days in the fall, the moisture loss is only a fraction of what we see every day of the summer. Additionally, when the frost melts, the heavy dew will provide some water.
A low pond level this time of year is unusual, and speaks to the dry conditions we've seen since the beginning of October.
Another indicator of how dry it's been is that we experienced zero No Cart days in October, which hasn't happened since 2008. One thing is for sure, if this lack of rain occurred in July, we would be dragging hoses, scrambling to keep the stressed turf going.
The bunker work in the golf course Master Plan led to a reduction in bunker area of almost 50%. In situations like this, one of the challenges we face is that any area which used to be a bunker consists of very sandy soil.
Growing grass on the beach is less than ideal, so in order to address this, we are going back through the areas where work took place over the past few years and adding compost to the soil. The material is first applied using one of our topdressers. After this it is aerified, then dragged in.
Additionally, the construction process may also leave an area heavily compacted. Examples of this are on #6 and 15 where the fairways were expanded. Again, aerifying will help to alleviate this issue.
As with many things on the course, this is not a one and done practice. The long term goal is to create a growing medium which is less compacted, and has a greater nutrient holding capacity.
When you think of aerification, something like this is likely what comes to mind:
However, we recently needed to de-compact a different surface which wasn't draining well:
Equipped with some large solid tines, the aerifier did a great job of breaking up the Har-Tru. Of course, afterwards it was rolled and broomed to present a smooth surface once again. These machines are definitely versatile!
Yes, what's pictured below is just a mechanical sand rake, so you may be wondering how this could possibly be considered exciting. Well, the Club owns two of these machines, and knowing they were aging, a new machine was ordered in September, however it has yet to arrive.
Not that surprising you may be thinking. True, delivery in one month might be asking a lot, however the new sand rake was ordered in September, 2022, and it's ETA is still TBD. Whether we see it prior to 2024, or not, is a coin flip at this point.
When both of our older mechanical sand rakes had breakdowns last month, we attempted to order the parts needed to repair them. Unfortunately, for one of the machines the parts have been discontinued. For the second machine, some of the parts were in stock, but others were backordered--having nine out of ten required parts is as good as having zero out of ten.
So for the past three weeks we have been forced to rake all of the bunkers by hand. Fortunately, our Equipment Technician, Don Robel, managed to find the missing parts through an aftermarket supplier, and he was able to at least get one machine up and running.
Clearly the bar is not set too high for us, when we are excited (perhaps elated) to be able to have a single trap rake functioning. For us, that was exciting!
It seems obvious that some of the turf industry has yet to catch up to supply issues, and this makes equipment purchasing that much more challenging. In the past, you could place an order for a piece of equipment in the fall, and request delivery in the spring, knowing you'd be good to go when the turf woke up. Today, you need a really good crystal ball to project what equipment may need to be replaced two plus years out...
To many, this is the best weather of the year for golf. But with the fall also come the falling leaves. There are days when we can clear the course of leaves, and an hour later it looks like we were never there.
In order to address this, we will be placing a few blowers around greens that quickly become covered in leaves. Just grab the blower, pull the trigger, and you're in business.
The idea for the blowers came from a Laurel Creek Green Committee member who had seen this used at another course they played. We always appreciate hearing tips and tricks, and seeing if they can work for us!
This winter we plan on addressing several tees which are in need of releveling. However, we already jumped into project mode this past week by beginning our tee work on #8. The reason for the early start is because we are seeding the tee. So, why seed and not sod this particular tee?
After working on a tee we have three options: Reuse existing sod, buy sod from a grower, or seed the tee. Sod grown on a farm offsite often struggles the first couple of years, since it was established on a different soil than we have placed it on. Option two, stripping and reusing the existing sod can work well, but #8 tee was starting to have Goosegrass contamination, so we opted not to use the sod that was there.
The third choice, seeding, requires some patience, but typically yields the best long-term results. If you look at #3 tee as an example, which we regraded and seeded a few years ago, it has performed quite well.
For the balance of October and November, we will move the Medal tee markers around to alternate tees. Once we get past Thanksgiving, we will be able to place a mat on the tee and allow it to play from its normal location.
If you're wondering what the red paint on #7 approach is for, these are markings to delineate plots for turfgrass research. With this area perennially having Take-All patch, it provides a great location for turfgrass pathologist, Steve McDonald, to conduct fungicide trials.
The various plots receive different products, at different rates and different frequencies over the next month. The efficacy of each protocol won't be assessed until next spring, when the symptoms of Take-All are seen--or are not.
Wile it might be better if we didn't have such good Take-All Patch, we are always happy to help with any turfgrass research project. The results can provide us with additional tools and information, as well as any other golf course that is facing the same challenges.
As the days grow shorter, this past week's fall Member-Member event marks the last time of the season that we will have a 5:30 start time for employees. Sunrise is now closing in on 7:00. 
Mowing by moonlight can definitely be tricky, and prepping the course with artificial lighting is challenging to say the least. As we started out on Friday morning, the brightest light was the glow of the Clubhouse in the distance.
Of course, while there may be fewer hours of daylight, we're pretty sure the days aren't actually shorter--they all still have a full 24 hours in them.
With a couple of dozen members of the golf course maintenance team spread out over 200+ acres each morning, there are literally a lot of moving pieces. Knowing where everyone is supposed to be at all times can be challenging. In the past, job assignments could only be viewed in the break room:
With many maintenance practices having several steps, keeping the flow progressing smoothly can be critical to our success. Thanks to the work of Assistant Superintendent, Luke Kringler, seeing and updating job assignments can now be done on the fly. For most end users, it's as simple as downloading Google Drive onto their phone.
The screenshot above is an example of the information that can be seen. While we typically discourage employees from looking at their phones during work hours, this is definitely one time we need everyone to use the available technology, so we can all be on the same page.
During extremely dry periods, people often refer to off-color turf as dead. In reality, more often than not, turf suffering from environmental stress (such as heat or lack of moisture) is not dead, but dormant. For example, the straw colored grass shown below will bounce back as soon as it receives adequate rainfall.
One thing that should be kept in mind, however, is that dormant turf can be severely injured or even killed if additional stress factors are added. That would include mowing or golf cart traffic. This is one reason why walking only courses are often able to maintain dryer, firmer conditions, than those that see significant cart traffic.
In looking back at August, as a whole it was pretty close to average both in terms of temperature, as well as precipitation. The daily high temperature for the month was just a tad low (about 0.25 degrees), and the rainfall was roughly 10% below average. However, the timing of the rain was quite lopsided, with over 92% of the month's precipitation occurring in a five day period, from August 7-12.
We have always maintained that it takes one good soaking rain to evenly heal the fairways following aerification--we are still waiting for that.
Looking ahead, September may also very well end up being average. However, in this case, the rollercoaster ride looks like it won't just be rainfall, but will also include some wild temperature swings. While we started the month with some gorgeous cool temps, the first full week is less than ideal, including several days in the upper 90s.
When will the solid rainfall come? It might be time to turn to the "Magic 8 Ball" to get that answer--the crystal ball is currently down...
With phragmites surrounding many of the 14 ponds on the golf course, we have begun cutting it back in an effort to restore the views. When dealing with a job like this, having the right tools is important, and our Ventrac tractor gets the job done like nothing else.
Removing 12' tall phragmites helps provide a cleaner look, and improved sight lines off the tee.
A good amount of the phragmites is growing in the water, so working from inside the pond would be helpful. All we need is a nice cold winter with some ice!
Sorry Sixers fans, we're definitely not talking about "that" process. No, we are referring to the aerification process we do each year on the fairways.
As we continue to make adjustments, one common theme we've found is that in this case, bigger isn't better. For example, while a tractor-mounted aerifier may seem to be more productive, the walking aerifiers are more maneuverable.
Yes, the way we go about the cleanup process, is definitely labor-intensive. Again, could we use a tow behind or tractor-mounted blower? We could, but those just don't provide the same quality of finished product that a team of 10 backpack blowers do.
Hopefully everyone has had a chance to read the letter which was sent to the membership, explaining the change in our greens aerification protocol and timing, going forward. Still, if you've been on the course this past week, you may have been surprised to find that the greens don't look like Swiss Cheese covered in sand.
While we did run the aerifiers across them on Monday, we used an extremely small tine.
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| It's tough to see a hole just four days post venting. |
While aerification is an important and necessary cultural practice to maintain healthy greens, pulling a core in August--the month with the shortest roots of the entire year--can add stress to the turf in the short-term. In contrast, the greens appeared to perk-up immediately after last week's "venting" process.
So, while the greens may be missing the traditional holes in August, it's unlikely that golfers will be missing the holes. No longer losing a few weeks of good greens in May and August should be something everyone can appreciate.
An irrigation controller can make a great home for any number of creatures. There's no rain or snow inside, and the small transformer keeps it pretty comfy during periods of cold weather.
While we try to discourage animals from taking up residence in the controllers, it's not uncommon to find ants, wasps, mice, and even snakes.
However, this past week, while working on an irrigation issue, we came across one arachnid we've never encountered in the past:
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If one Black Widow isn't enough for you, with two egg sacs, there's the potential for a couple of hundred residents.
Looks like we need to put some new No-Pest Strips inside this box!
We are happy to formally welcome our H-2B Visa seasonal employees. Javier, Ernesto and Abraham arrived last month, and Max has now joined them.
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| The guys are preparing to celebrate Javier's birthday! |
You might think this is an unusual time to be bringing golf course staff onboard. However, with several summer employees about to return to school, having these new team members will be a great asset throughout the rest of summer, and the busy fall season. They are all hardworking gentleman, and we are hoping to have them rejoin us in spring of 2024.
One sure sign that we are in the dog days of summer is seeing the same inputs in green management result in slower green speeds. Contrary to what many golfers believe, we rarely, if ever, change mowing heights even when it is nasty hot. In fact, with no Nitrogen applications and increased plant growth regulator use now, you might expect a leaner turf plant and less friction on the putting surfaces.
In reality, these warm, wet conditions in the soils may allow nutrients to become available to the turf. Additionally, the plants aren't that different than we are in trying to keep somewhat cool during the heat. While we may sweat, plants lose moisture through transpiration--so if you're feeling sticky this time of year, there's a good chance that the turf is as well. Apparently doing the same thing and expecting different results isn't so farfetched.
Like most golf courses, we often need to put a riding mower and roller on the greens. To date, this has always meant the potential risk of a hydraulic leak and turf loss. While it doesn't jump out at you as it did earlier this year, the leak we had on #4 green caused some significant damage and is still visible.
Fortunately, there are now some game-changing options: Mowers which have zero hydraulics. Yes, just like our cars, we can now go with a hybrid mower on greens.
We placed an order for one of these mowers last month. While it does have a small gasoline engine (as do our walking mowers), the reels, steering, and traction are all electric, not hydraulic. Given the ongoing supply chain issues, we likely won't see it until next spring, but look forward to greatly reducing the risk of turf damage in the future.
We opened the Clubhouse putting green this week, just under eight months after it was seeded last fall. Looking back at the green in December, it has made great strides. Since seeding, this green has obviously been managed differently than those on the course, and is currently down to a 1/8" height of cut. By comparison, the greens on the course are mowed at 1/10". Additionally, we increased fertility on the green to get it to fill in over the winter, leading to what is now a more course-textured leaf blade.
By combining one of the top performing Bentgrass varieties with Pa-33, Poa annua seed, the end result will be a putting green which closely matches the 34 year old greens on the golf course. However, it would be unrealistic to expect an eight month old green--whether seeded or sodded--to perform like 34 year old greens.
