Busy Busy

     It was a very productive day today.  We had our greens Hydrojected.  Hydrojecting is using high pressure water to blast a hole into the green.  This helps our greens breath.  It also helps dry them out when Mother Nature makes it rain.  Dan was very busy with the sprayer today.  We sprayed all greens and green surrounds.  We should be fungus free for couple weeks.  All greens were topdressed.  Topdressing helps smooth our putting surface and it also helps dilute the thatch layer so greens stay firm and not spongy.  We got behind on roughs because of rain last week and Memorial Day.  We will be caught up on roughs tomorrow.  We finished our bunker edging.  We also painted our yardages on the cart paths and spray painted all the 100, 150 and 200 markers in the fairways.  We fill divots on all par 3 holes.  Fixed the holes on cart path behind 5 green.  Karen was busy mulching.  Last thing we did was brush hogging at 12, 14 and 15.

 This is one of three Hydrojecting machines used today.  They were done in 3 1/2 hours.

Hole pattern 2.5 x 3

Update on Fairway Fertilization

     It has been 5 days since I fertilized fairways.  I stated in my blog in about week you would see darker green Fairways.  Picture's do not lie.  Picture below is # 4 Fairway approaching the green.  You can see we missed a patch.  The  area in the middle is not as green.  We will come back with walk spreader and fix this. 

 Looking back from # 4 Green

Bunker work

     With my summer help here we now have time to tidy up our bunkers.  We have been edging and pulling out the Bermuda and Zoysia grass growing into the sand.  This does take some time I have 4 men working on this it takes about 2 days to complete.  Great job Connor, Mike, Nathan and Nick.  Below are some before and after pictures.
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Before

 

Notice the long grass

Pulling Bermuda

 

Edging

 Final touch

Done

 

Fertilizing Fairways

     Today We fertilized our Zoysia grass fairways.  We used 24-5-10 with  50% XCU.  XCU is a polymer coated sulfur coat urea product that is a slow release nitrogen product.  It is very safe will not burn our turf and will last up to 12 weeks.  We only need to apply fertilizer one time for the entire growing season.  This saves a lot of time and money going out just once instead of 2 or 3 times.  We used 4 tons of product that is 160 50 lbs. bags.  In about a week fairways will appear darker green.  It will also help fill in any thin areas we might have.  We completed this just in time because rain is just a few miles to the west of us.

Our spreader hold 15 bags of product 750 lbs.

Golf Etiquette By PGA

Here is a good article on golf etiquette published by the PGA.  It is on PGA's website.  I think it has some very good information.  I am more concerned with maintaining course part of article.  Link below takes you to the article or you can read it here I copied and pasted it on my blog. 

http://www.pga.com/golf-instruction/instruction-feature/fundamentals/golf-etiquette

 

Golf Etiquette

What people can expect during a round of golf, from beginning to end:
Arrive:

• If caddies are available:
  
  • Remember caddie programs are an excellent way for young people to earn some money and be exposed to a sport that they can enjoy and might help shape their character.
  • A good caddie can make the round more enjoyable by giving you hints that might lower your score.
  • A good caddie can provide information on yardage, club selection, reading the greens and the layout of the course.
• Warm Up:
  
  • Try to arrive soon enough to give yourself time to warm up properly.
  • Work your way though the bag, beginning with the short irons, moving onto the mid-and long irons and then the woods.
  • It's often a good idea to finish warming up by hitting a few soft wedge shots before heading for the practice green and hitting a few putts.
  • Don't hit hundreds of balls and leave your game on the practice tee.
• First Tee:
  
  • Check the scorecard to learn any local rules.
  • Local rules apply only to the specific course you are playing.
  • If your playing companions suggest a match, it's a good idea to make sure everyone is comfortable with the stakes.
  • Make sure to place an identifying mark on your ball and inform the other players the type and number ball you are playing.

Avoid Slow play:

• When your group is not keeping up with the pace of play of the group in front of you:
  
  • Walk at a reasonable speed between shots.
  • Begin planning your next shot as you approach the ball by studying the strength and direction of the wind.
• When you reach your ball, check the lie, select your club, visualize your swing and shot, and then play your shot.
• From the time you select your club until you actually hit your shot, you should take no more than 30 to 45 seconds.
• If you aren't ready to play when it is your turn, encourage one of your fellow players to play.

Maintaining the course:

• Replace your divots.
• Turf tends to explode on impact, making it difficult, if not impossible, to replace the divot. In this case, you have two options:
  
  • You can use the toe of your shoe to kick in the turf around the edges of the divot.
  • Many courses often put containers of a soil/seed mixture on their carts and tees. If this is the case, simply fill in the divot with the mixture.
• Bring a rake into the bunker with you -- remembering that you should always enter the bunker from the low side at a point nearest to the ball.
  
  • Whenever possible, avoid walking on the steep face of a bunker.
  • After hitting your shot, rake the area you played from, as well as all your footprints and any others within reach.
  • Rakes should be left either in or nearby the bunker.
• Important to repair any pitch marks or indentations caused by the ball hitting the green.
• Using a tee, knife, key or repair tool, repair the mark by working the edges towards the center, without lifting the center of the mark. Don't tear the grass. Finish by smoothing the area with a club or your foot. Try to get the area smooth enough to putt over.
• Just remember that while the Rules of Golf allow you to repair pitch marks on your putting line, you cannot repair spike marks on your putting line until after you have putted.

On the green, remember:

• Don't step on your fellow players putting lines -- the imaginary line that connects the ball to the hole.
• If your ball is on a player's line, volunteer to mark the ball.
• If you're ball is not furthest from the cup:
  
  • Mark your ball, either with a plastic marker or a small, thin, dark coin such as an old penny.
  • After you have marked your ball, place your putter down at a 90-degree angle with the heel touching your marker.
  • Move the marker from the heel to the toe of your putter. Reverse the procedure to return the ball to its original position.
• Do not stand where you might distract a fellow player and don't move.
• Don't make any noise when your fellow player is preparing to putt.
• If you don't have a caddie and are asked to tend the flagstick, make sure you aren't standing on anyone's line.
• Hold the flagstick at arm's length so the flag doesn't flutter in the breeze, and make sure your shadow doesn't fall across the hole or line. Loosen the bottom of the flagstick so it doesn't stick when you try and remove it by pulling it straight up after the other player has putted. The flagstick should be removed right after the player has hit the ball.
• If you lay down the flagstick, lay it off the green to prevent doing any damage to the green.
• Generally, the player closest to the hole will tend the flagstick.
• After everyone has putted out, immediately walk to the next tee.

Miscellaneous:

• If you hit a tee shot into the woods and suspect that it might be either lost or out-of-bounds, the Rules of Golf allow you to play a second or provisional ball.
  
  • You then have five minutes from the time you reach the spot where you suspect the ball landed to find the ball. If it is not found within that five-minute period, you must declare it lost and play your provisional ball with a one-stroke penalty
  • If, however, you play the provisional ball and subsequently find your original ball in-bounds, you must pick up your provisional and continue to play the original ball, in-bounds.
  • Out of bounds balls are assessed the penalty of "stroke and distance."
  • For a complete discussion of the Rules of Golf, visit the USGA's web site.
• For safety's sake, never hit when there's a chance you might be able to reach the group ahead of you, and anytime you hit a shot that you think even has remote chance of hitting any other players, yell "fore" immediately, and make a point of apologizing to any players your ball lands near.
• Displays of frustration are one thing, but outbursts of temper are quite another. Yelling, screaming, throwing clubs or otherwise making a fool of yourself are unacceptable and, in some cases, dangerous to yourself and others.
• As a player, you also have a responsibility to learn and understand the Rules of Golf.
• Five of the most common Rules are those deal with Out of Bounds, Lost balls, Unplayable lies, cart paths and water hazards.
• Moving on, if your group stops for refreshments, either at the turn (the end of nine holes) or following the round, volunteer to pay for them, as well as offer to buy drinks for the caddies.
• Whoever pays at the turn, however, should not be expected to pay for refreshments at the end of the round.
• Finally, at the end of the round, shake hands with your fellow players, congratulate the winners, console the losers, and thank them for their company. At the end of the day, the great pleasure of the game is the time you get to spend with your friends whether old friends or new friends you just made through the game.

For a complete discussion of the Rules of Golf, visit the USGA's web site.

Ball Marks

As I am changing cups today I am seeing a great number of ball marks on greens.  Some have more than 30.  We should not see any.  All ball marks should be fixed.  This is part of the game to repair your ball marks.  A good rule is to fix your mark and two others.

Bunkers

     We have been busy today fixing our washed out Bunkers.  After 3.60 inches of rain in the past week and a half they are now dry enough to work on them.  Bunkers were washed out pretty good this time.  The bunkers have been washed out since May11th when we received 1.9 inches of rain.    They were to wet to work on them last week. It rained another 1.8 inches Monday and Tuesday of this week.   It took 7 people 8 hours to complete this job.  That is more than half of the staff.  The silt is so bad in some bunkers  we have to hand rake through the silt so the bunker rake could  work. I can tell you this is not a pleasant job to perform.  No one of my staff is happy when weather man says significant rain is expected.  We hold our breath and pray for the best.  Next weeks forecast does not look too promising, they are calling for rain everyday except Monday.  For now they are raked enjoy while you can.

 # 18 bunker before

 Yes that is our loader.  We filled it up 5 times to move sand back up hill on 18 bunker.

 # 18 finished

 Left bunker on # 4 before we raked

# 4 after we were done

Driving Range Tee

     First day the tee is open shows some promise but we have a lot of work to do yet.  Below you will see 3 pictures one of them is the correct way we would like you to take divots.  The other two are not.  That is not to say more people used the linear method just to have someone come behind them and tear up the area.  The second picture will take well over a month to heal.  We are working on putting signs down on tee to help educate membership.

Big hole at top is not what we want.  Back side someone used linear method.

 This is what we do not want.  This area is 3 to 4 feet wide by 2 feet deep. Thanks for the topdressing

 This is perfect.  Good lines and topdressed.

Driving Range

     As I stated last week the driving range grass tee will be open tomorrow.  Please use the linear method to take your divots.  If you see a fellow member not using this method please ask them nicely if they could switch.  Our grass tee needs all the help we can give it.

Rough

     I know some people are rough around the neck with the height of our roughs this spring.  I would like to say when I was hired as your Superintendent 11 years ago one of the biggest complaints I got was the roughs were very inconsistent.  Over the years we have over seeded, fertilize, applied pesticides for grub control, broadleaf weed control, crabgrass control and disease control.  We have also implemented no carts in the roughs.  Most of our roughs have no irrigation and still thrive year after year.  If we did not do these things we would not have roughs, we would be playing off thin turf  or bare ground in many areas around the course.  I take great pride in what we have accomplished with the roughs. 
     Spring is always a big growing time for our cool season turf in our roughs.  They have been asleep all winter with all the stored food they saved up from last season.  When the temperatures rise they begin to wake up and grow when the optimal temperature is met they  grow like no one business.  Add some spring time rain, thunder and a little fertility from our Pre emergent crabgrass control.  It can get out of control at times.  It really gets out of hand when we have mower problems.  We can mow the entire golf course in 2 days with 3 mowers running.  The golf course roughs get mowed 2 1/2 times per week.  This should be ok, but if it rains too much in the week or we have an outing that closes the course or we have a break down some roughs only get mowed once per week.  This has been the case in the past 2 1/2 weeks.   We have had 2 mowers down, it has rained and we had an outing.  Things have gotten better we have one of our mowers back so we can mow the entire golf course in 2 1/2 days.  I am hopeful the 3rd  mower will be back next week.
     At the present time we mow our rough at 2 1/4 inches.  It stays at this height all year.  11 years ago we mowed our roughs at 2 3/4 inches.  We have trimmed 1/2 inch off height of cut.  We have denser and healthier turf now.  We are going to start spraying some growth regulator down on the roughs that grow the quickest.  We can slow growth up  by 50%.  We will start spraying next week to help us get through the spring growth.  After spring mother nature gives us her own growth regulator and that is summer heat.  We will work very hard to give you the best product possible.  I hope this answers some questions you might of had about our roughs.
Thanks,
Ed Wachter

Rain

    

     1.4 inches of rain last night.  Carts on path today.  We have debris down everywhere.  It will be a cleanup day for entire crew.  Got to love spring thunderstorm.

#7 cart path looking from # 10.

Driving Range Tee

     I know everyone is wondering when will the grass tee be open on the driving range.  We will open the tee May 14th.  This is 2 weeks early.  We normally wait until the end of May to open the tee.  With the warm weather in March and April  we are 2 weeks ahead this year than we were in past springs.  We need the night temperatures to warm up so the Zoysia grass on the tee will grow and fill in divots you make while practicing.   We are trying to change the way you take divots from the grass tee.  See picture below.  If you use the linear method healing time will be dramatically reduced.   Our range tee is undersized and we need all the help we can get to keep the tee in good shape.  The USGA has an article on this method.  Hit the link below picture to go to the article.  Thanks for your patience.  Please obey the signs at the tee.  Stay off the grass and use mat.

 

http://www.usga.org/course-care/2014/09/does-your-divot-pattern-help-or-hurt-the-golf-course-21474873114.html

Rain

Over the weekend we received 3 inches of rain.  The golf course is saturated.  We will be on cart paths for a few days.  No red flags will be issued at this time.  We will check course daily and let you know as soon as possible when red flags will be allowed.  Thank you for your patience.