Tree Damage

We lost a Ash tree today.  With the strong winds one of the forks of this Ash tree broke off.  Their is quite a bit of rot in the place of the break.  This tree is on hole # 2 between cart path and fairway.

Fore The Golfer: Frost Delays and Turfgrass Health

Below is video from USGA on frost delays.

Frost Delays

We are in that time of year that we may have a frost delay.  Early tee times before 10:00 a.m. are most prone to frost delay.  I have seen frost last well past 10:00 a.m. but most cases it is gone by 10:00 a.m.  Below is a little education on Frost and how the turf is damaged.

Frost

Frost is a form of ice and can only survive at temperatures of 32 degrees Fahrenheit and below. But that doesn’t mean the measured air temperature must be 32 or below for frost to form on a surface. Green grass, for example, absorbs sunlight and heat during the day, then loses heat when the sun goes down, so the grass’s temperature may be lower than the surrounding air temperature. This temperature differential causes moisture to condense on the grass during the night. If the temperature of the grass then falls below freezing, the moisture may crystallize into frost. This can occur even when the nearby air temperature is in the upper 30s, particularly when the air is calm.

When and Where Frost Occurs

Frost may occur overnight, but it often forms at sunrise, before the temperature begins to rise. Frost formation on grass is possible in any location in which the blades’ temperature falls to 32 or below, even if temp would reach into the 70's

Damage to Grass

Frost itself doesn’t damage grass in the way that it may damage other growing things, such as citrus fruit. However, golfers walking on frosty turf may harm the grass quite badly. Because the grass on putting greens is cut so low, around 1/8 inch, it is particularly vulnerable to damage when it’s covered by frost. When a golfer walks on frost-covered grass it is more likely than normal to break and suffer ruptured cell walls.

Delayed Impact

The damage caused by walking on frost-covered grass may take two to three days to appear. By that time the damaged blades may turn purple or black, eventually fading to a very light brown. If the plant’s growing point is undamaged, however, the grass should regenerate. If the growing point is damaged, the plant may die. Additionally, weaker grass, even if it doesn’t die, may be more susceptible to disease and weed formation.

Under Brush taken out of 7 and 8 ditches

We have cut out under brush on holes 7 and 8.  Under the direction of Art Schaupeter a Golf Course Architect out of St. Louis , Missouri  we opened up these areas.  Art stated we should be able to see shots that go right of 7 green, plus the trees were blocking the right side of the green when tees were on the right side of all 3  tee boxes.  On hole 8 the right side of 8 green was blocked by trees and under brush even if you hit the ball in the fairway.  If you hit ball into the ditch and took your drop you had no clear shot to the green.

 #7 Before

 # 7 After

 # 8 Before

 #8 before Cypress tree removed

# 8 after Cypress tree was removed

Winterizing Irrigation system

The Monday before Thanksgiving we blew all the water out of our irrigation lines.  This is a pretty big job.  We first open up drains and heads in low areas to drain out as much water as possible.  We have to rent a large air compressor.  We pump air into the irrigation system at the pump house.  This pushes all the water out of the irrigation heads that we turn on 1 station at a time until all water is pushed out.   We have 263 total stations.  It takes 8 to 10 hours to push all water out of our system.

 Compressor hooked up at pump station

 Water being pushed out of system

 Air and water being pushed out.  Notice the fog.

Sprinkler head almost purged of all water.

 

Winter Home

Karen has been busy digging up all her tropical plants.  These plants have to be placed in a warm environment or the cold will kill them.  She has just the right place in our green house.  Picture below shows the green house filling up.  Without the green house we would have to buy some of these plants yearly.  Most of the plants are in the beds around the swimming pool and in some of her large pots.

Blimp

Did you see the Blimp flying over Washington.  Here is a picture of it looking from 17 Green.  We could not figure out what the writing on it said.

Seeding

We have been very busy on the golf course.  We are over seeding our green surrounds with a turf type tall fescue blend.  We will also hit some of our weaker rough areas. 

 Dan seeding # 8 green surround

 We punch a hole and drop seed in one pass

Grass seed will germinate in holes.

Rain update

We have received more than 4 inches of rain and it is still raining.  We have not done any mowing since Wednesday.  Maybe we can mow greens this weekend.

Rain go away

Here are some pic's after a 3 inch rain this morning.  Golf course is soaked.  Ditches, lakes and oh yes Bunkers are full of water.  We just finished fixing bunkers from our last rain storm last week.  It took 5 people 12 hours.  All washed away.  Looks like it is going to stay wet for next 4 or 5 days.

 # 1 Bunker

 Left Bunker # 2

 Right bunker # 2

 Left Bunker # 4

 # 10 Bunkers

 Catch Basin 12 lake

Close up of #12 spillway

Sodding the old tennis courts

Here are some pictures of us sodding the old tennis courts.  This was a very bad sore eye for our club.  This will make it much more pleasant.  We can have some good Bocce ball games, Croquet or even a chipping area.  We will not open the area until next spring.

 Ready for sod

 We used big roll sod.  1300 yds. total

 Installing sod

 One roll would cover 3.5 ft. wide and about 80 ft. long

 almost complete

 Finished hand watering

Sprinkler set up to water

Aerification update

This is one week after aerifying the putting green.  Holes are almost completely healed.  We waited one week before mowing the greens.  We have been mowing daily since Wednesday.

Fall Aerification

     Another aerification has come and gone.  I would like to thank my crew for a job well done.  This is not a popular cultural practice but is necessary to have good quality greens.  We actually started this job 3 weeks out from our actual aerification date.  That's when we started vertcutting greens.  Verticut helps eliminate grain in the turf surface.  Bentgrass spreads by stolens.  Stolens are horizontal growth that grows above the ground surface.  If you get too much horizontal growth it is called grain.   You want upright growth for good putting surface.  Verticutting cuts these horizontal growing stems and leaves and pulls the material out.  The turf responses by sending up a new leaf were the stem or leaf is cut.  The new leaf grows straight up which eliminates or reduces the amount of grain giving you true rolling putt.  We verticutted 3 times in 3 different direction before we aerified our greens.

      Aerification is a labor intensive practice.  It takes everyone on our crew to get this job done quickly and efficiently.  Aerification does 2 major things for us.  1.  Bentgrass is a big thatch producer.  Thatch is material just above the soil surface that is composed of dead and dying leaves crowns and roots.  All grasses produce thatch, a little is good too much is bad.  Too much thatch can cause hydrophobic soils, give pathogens a place to live, cause the greens to get spongy or soft which gives you poor ball roll and a green not able to accept a proper hit golf shot.   2.  Just as the name implies air.  Turfgrass receives air from the root system.  By punching holes into the root zone of the turf this give a channel for air and water to move.    We top dress our greens with sand and brush it into the holes.  This fills the aeration holes and keeps the channel open to prolong the air movement into the root zone.   In about 7 to 10 days the holes fill in.  Aerification rejuvenates the greens they will respond with a flush of growth.

     I know for a short time greens are a little rough and unsightly but in about 2 weeks you will hardly notice what has taken place.  Below are some pictures of the process.

 Dan Verticutting #7 green 

Notice the lines verticut on right.  It pull up a lot of grass

 Aerating #18 green

 This is our core collector Rob made with parts in shop.  This pulls all cores to one end of the green.  We then shovel cores into cart.  This saved the staff 3 hours each day of  pushing cores off greens before we could pick them up. 

 Cleaning off  green

 After we clear green we blow any remaining debris off

 Applying sand

 #16 green after sand has been applied.

 Nick is brushing sand into aerification holes.

 Finished

We fill holes through out golf course with cores we pull off greens.

Tree Roots

Here is a link to the USGA about how tree roots affect golf.  http://www.usga.org/course_care/regional_updates/regional_reports/midcontinent/Tree-Roots-Are-Far-More-Extensive-(And-Problematic)-Than-Most-Realize---September-2014/
I have had to replace part of two drains this season due to tree roots clogging up the drain tile.  First one was 15 green now we have same problem on 6 green/bunker drain.  Roots entering drains is just one problem, tree roots compete with turf for the same nutrients and water.  When water is not plentiful trees win out over turf, the turf will start to go dormant.

Bunker Work

After 1.5 inches of rain our sand bunker took a beating.  With poor construction and drains silted over.  It takes quite a few man hours to get bunkers back in shape.  It took 4 people 6 hours to fix bunkers on front 9.  We will finish the back nine tomorrow.  Below is a few before and after pictures of our work.

 Left bunker # 2

 

 Notice all the mud on top of sand.  This is caused by bunker edges eroding away when we get big rain events.

 

 #2 finished

 

 #5 bunker  We have to shovel sand back up to high points in bunkers.

 

 #5

 

# 5 finished