The Waiting Game

When we aerified the greens just prior to Thanksgiving, we weren't expecting several days of frigid temperatures to alter our plans.  As mentioned last week, there was still work to be done on the greens, prior to covering them.  Specifically, we needed to:

• Apply additional topdressing sand
• Broom the greens
• Roll the greens several times
• Apply fertilizer
• Apply fungicides and a plant growth regulator

With lots of fresh holes in the sand-based greens, temperatures can fluctuate much more quickly in the upper part of the rootzone than in the topsoil fairways.  The nighttime lows lead to frozen greens--not a good time to be putting heavy equipment on them.  Thus patience has been required.

Although the wind was quite oppressive on Thursday, the greens were thawed and we were able to complete the application of topdressing sand.  While we may be dodging rain drops this week, the temperatures should be good to complete the needed processes, and put the greens to bed for the winter.

If "A" is for aerification...

...then "I" is for inconsistent.  The late November greens aerification took place last week, and as always, we were at the mercy of Mother Nature.  Monday brought some blue skies and great conditions for the first step of the process, which involved applying sand topdressing and solid tine aerifying the greens.

However, conditions were dramatically different on Tuesday, when we had to deal with morning showers.  By the time the rain stopped, we had received 1/3", which was enough to make the second phase of the operation quite challenging.  

The aerifiers were fine under these damp conditions, but the cleanup crew had to be very careful when trying to remove the cores.  This is the first time we felt the need to place plywood in order to prevent damage from the core harvesters.  The moisture also caused the topdressing sand to "bridge," or cover the aerification holes without actually falling into them, and filling them up.

So while the aerification we performed was actually quite consistent, the ever-changing weather lead to varied conditions on the greens--some having many open holes and others appearing to need no additional sand.  

More rain on Thanksgiving helped to move some of the sand down into the holes.  We will be adding additional sand as needed this week, prior to covering the greens.

The finish line is in sight...

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past three months, you have heard about the drought we've been experiencing.  A quick look back at rainfall totals shows how little precipitation we received:  

• September--80% below average
• October--100% below average
• November--44% below average (as of 11/24)

Cumulatively, from September 1-October 31, we were 6.86" below average.

While we were able to survive this time by relying on the irrigation system, that just doesn't provide the uniformity that rainfall brings.  The other impact of this weather pattern has been the need to devote resources to hand watering.  Over 120 hours per week have gone into this task throughout the fall--a time when we would have preferred to be addressing other needed projects on the golf course.

It's been a minute since we had to empty the rain gauge.

Obviously the rain this past week was welcomed.  Historically, the end of November is when we prepare to winterize the irrigation system, and the possibility of needing to run sprinklers in December  would have been no fun.

While the recent rain will help to perk up the turf, we are at the time of year when growth slows down significantly.  It's unlikely that areas which were stressed and thinned throughout the year will now recover until next spring.

Wrapping up tee work...

This year's tee work was completed last week.  One of the much needed improvements was the rebuilding of the Honors tee on #16.  While we still wouldn't call it a huge tee, it has doubled in area, and is no longer the size of a postage stamp.

The Palmer/Champion tee on #14 also got releveled.  

While we would always prefer seeding to sodding surfaces, given the timing of this project, we opted for some store bought grass.

Superintendent's Revenge?

Given the hole locations for this past Saturday's tournament, many players may have been uttering expletives directed at the Grounds team.  However, we can't take credit for these.  

No, the diabolical pin placements were not selected by the grass-growers, but chosen by the Pro Shop staff.  So the next time you see Bob and Brett, be sure to let them know how much you truly enjoyed their sense of humor!

Of course we did add a few obstacles and distractions ourselves:

When changing cups, it can often be challenging to find a small paint dot on a green, indicating the hole location.  However, in this case it was pretty easy--we just walked to the area of each green where we would never ever consider putting a pin, and that's where the dot was... 

Back in the dirt...

Several tees are being improved this fall, starting with #2.  The Champion/Palmer, and Medal tees are being combined into one large tee.  This will eliminate the loss of usable teeing ground that we previously had at the front of the rear tee and back of the forward tee, along with picking up the area that was rough in between the two old tees.

As you stand on the new tee, it appears to be significantly longer than the old tees.  However, the back of the tee and front of the tee are unchanged from the old tees.  The fact that the new tee appears to be so large just shows how much unusable area there was in the past.

This additional teeing space will allow for greater flexibility in daily setup, as well as tee marker rotation for turf recovery.

Never saw that before...

For several weeks there have been a couple of small black spots on some greens.  It wasn't until we actually started poking around, that we discovered the unusual cause.

While removing the turf covers last March, we apparently missed a few of the staples used to hold them in place over the winter.

Iron is often applied to the greens to give them a nice color (without stimulating growth), however it is well known that too much iron can temporarily turn the turf black.  It looks like the rusty staple was overdosing this small area--mystery solved.

Fortunately none of our greensmowers ever had a run-in with this piece of metal throughout the growing season.