Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to FCCC membership and co workers.

Frost Delays

   It is that time of year again we need to discuss frost delays.  When temperatures dip down  to freezing and below frost forms on the grass blades.  If you walk on the turf the frozen turf will break much like an ice cube.  This will cause damage to the turf.  Please wait until the Maintenance staff opens the course to play.  That includes the putting green.  I have had some people in the past think it was ok to practice putting when we have a frost delay.  Please go into the Clubhouse and have some coffee or hot chocolate until the frost burns off.  The colder it is the longer it takes to burn frost off.  If we have cloudy skies it will delay the opening even longer.  Below is a video from the USGA on this topic.

New Equipment

     If you have been out playing golf you might of seen some new equipment maintaining our golf course.  We have a new seeder, topdresser, leaf collection system for our Ventrac and 2 new used utility carts.  Also in early 2019 we will be getting two new fans for greens 10 and 11.

     The  new seeder will helps keep our roughs in top condition.  The only seeder we had did not slit seed.  It was a aerator and dropped seed in aerification holes on 4''x5''  centers.  We now can lay seed in rows 1.5'' apart.  With all the new sod from the bunker construction and the new sod we are laying around our green perimeters this seeder will help keep our rough in top condition.

     Our old topdresser was 20 years old and very unreliable.  We must topdress greens to have good greens.  This machine is state of the art.  You program it to put down a certain amount of sand and no matter how fast or slow you go it puts out the amount you calibrated for. You get consistent topdressing from green to green.

     The leaf collection system is a great tool to help us eliminate leaves.  In the past we blew the leaves and mulched them.  Now we can pick them up and remove them.

    Last we purchase 2 used Utility carts.  Dan and I have been using 2 old golf carts to work out of.  Golf carts are not made to work out of.  They are made to play golf.

     The 2 new fans will be here in February/March.  These fans will help # 10 and 11 greens.  These two greens lack air movement.  Air movement is what helps turfgrass cool itself in the summer time.  In the summer the prevailing wind is from the southwest.  10 and 11 greens have no air movement when the wind blows from the southwest.  The new fans will be mounted on a pole and will oscillate to cover the entire green.  We had some portable fans we used on #10 green in the past.  These fans were not big enough and did not oscillate.  We need a minimum of 3 mph air movement over the entire green.  You will see a noticeable difference in these greens next summer.
   

Im Back

     It has been a while since my last post.  We have had some technical difficulties with At&t.  Our phone and internet was  broken for 2 months.  The last month we have been very busy on the course and now I finally have some breathing room to starting blogging again.
     Lots of things have happened since my last post.  # 10 green we had to sod, plug and over seed a big portion of the greens.  As you can see from the picture we lost a lot of grass that runs through the middle of the green.  The reason the turf died was because of a broken drain line.  We received a 2 inch rain June 30th.  All of the water leak out of the broken drain line into the green profile.  This over saturated the green profile and cause rapid root suffocation. You can see a perfect line on either side of the dead area.  This is in the swale of the green.  We repaired the drain line and that took care of the problem.  The green will be back to normal next spring as we wait for the sod, plugs and seed to fill in.

     We did get 3 tee's Laser Leveled this past summer.  # 7 gold/red, #10 white and # 13 white and front of 13 blue.  We will continue to level more tee's each year.

 Schaefer-Meyer leveling tee # 7 red/gold

 Installing sod # 10 white

  Tim ready to water #10

     One of the last big projects we are working on is sodding our green perimeters with Turf Type Tall Fescue.  We have sodded a 9 ft. swath around 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and Putting green.  This is very labor intensive.  We are doing this project completely in house.  Cutting and removing the old sod and installing the new.  We plan to sod all 18 greens.  We are about 1/3 of the way done.

 Picking up old sod

 Installing new sod

 Almost done

# 5 completed

     Sorry for the long delay in posting.  I will try to keep you better informed in the future.  

Blog update

     I have been little behind with my blog post.  Not by choice.  We have been without phone and Internet for 2 months here at Maintenance facility.  Ameren put a new pole on Hwy A across from the shop entrance.  They bore right through our phone line.  We have to have a new line installed from across Hwy A to shop.  It seems AT&T is having trouble getting permits from Highway Department.  We have had 5 scheduled completion dates come and go.  Our next scheduled date is 9/11/18.  Hopefully we will be fixed next week.  I will catch you up with course activities once we are fixed.  Thanks for reading my blog.

Update

     What a summer we are having.  Despite all of the negatives Mother Nature has thrown at us the golf course is holding up.  We do have some battle scars. We hope to keep anymore damage to a minimum.  My staff and I are trying to keep the course in the best shape possible.  My earlier post I told you how we were taking care of our greens.  We will continue alternating mowing and rolling through the month of August.  We will be over seeding all of our greens in the middle of August.  We are trying to incorporate as much of the newer bentgrass varieties into our older greens. This is the third year we have done this.  The newer bentgrass is a much better variety than the older bentgrass the greens were seeded with 30 years ago.  The newer bentgrass is more heat tolerant, disease resistant, and finer leafed which gives you a better ball roll.  Over time our greens will have more newer bentgrass than old.  This has been a very hard year for all golf courses in the Midwest. Dr. Lee Miller our Extension Turfgrass Pathologist from the University of Missouri sent out the letter below to all golf courses in the Mississippi Valley.   This explains the difficulty our turfgrass is going through.  He explains it very well.  Again, thanks for reading my blog.  I hope you find it useful and informative.

This Season Unprecedentedly Sucks

In many cases, a diagnostic analysis and microscopic scan can’t absolve the weather cards this region has been dealt… seven-two off suit and in for the big blind. Likewise, magical elixirs from sprayer boom nozzles don’t alter the growing environment or provide instant recovery. The fact of the matter is that European born bentgrass prefers 55 – 75 F, which was nowhere to be found in spring 2018. The second coldest April, followed by the warmest May on record is one of the biggest anomalies on record in Missouri, with the last one in back to back months occurring in a cold December 1989 and warm January 1990. Those growing grass then, did you care? Probably not, since you probably didn’t even need to mow it. June did what June does, providing another blow and ringing in as 6^th warmest on record.

Spring, not winter, is the time to put money in the bank with bentgrass root growth and structure to get through the summer marathon. Also, recall last fall. The lack of rainfall had many recharging irrigation systems to get through Thanksgiving and supply bentgrass roots with enough water to get past old, dry, and cold man winter. Bentgrass putting green root systems, the fibrous source of quality golf in Missouri, have not had consistently good growing conditions since spring 2017.

If misery loves company, know that 59 samples have been submitted to MU since June 1. For perspective, 4-6 samples on average are processed per week, meaning twice that have been submitted in the last six weeks. Other than physiological decline, lance nematodes, Pythium root rot, and black layer are most often observed this year as being the primary or contributing factor to bentgrass decline. Prevent root diseases, manage water in the root zone precisely, and don’t get rough with the surface (no verticutting, smooth rollers, roll instead of mowing if possible, etc.).

“Survive and Advance” is an ESPN “30 for 30” production about the magical run of Jim Valvano’s NC State Wolfpack team. I graduated from NC State so hold that team and its underdog nature in the highest of regards.  While Coach Valvano is perhaps best known for his bravery and selflessness in the face of cancer, he also led that 1983 team of young men through nine elimination games in a row, seven of which they were losing in the last minute (hence the moniker “Cardiac Pack”). Not to be overly dramatic, but the individual bentgrass plants on your putting greens are that team this year.  Weather in this upper transition zone is always challenging, but this year it’s like playing against Phi Slama Jama.

Let me know if I can help. Hang in there. Support each other.

Lee Miller, Ph.D.

Extension Turfgrass Pathologist

Course update

     What a summer we are having.  The heat and humidity are full throttle.  It does not take hardly any activity to be drenched in sweat.  The turf has the same problem we have it cannot cool itself when the humidity is extremely high.  With the added pressure of high temperatures this can be very hard on our cool season turfgrass.  Greens are the most susceptible to problems.  We are taking precautions to help our greens make it through this rough time.  On Monday we vented our greens with 1/4'' holes.  This helps the root zone of our greens get much needed oxygen.  It also helps keep our root zone drier.  What happens when you have a wet area like your shower at home that stays wet or moist?  You get mold and mildew.  We do not want our root zone to get mold.  That could be devastating.  We are also alternating mowing and rolling our greens.  Mowing is very stressful on our bentgrass greens.  We want to minimize as much stress as we can.  You will see a little slow down of ball roll.  This will be temporary until we get cooler temperatures.  When night time temperatures get below 70 degrees our bentgrass greens can recuperate.  They get no rest when night time temperatures are in the high 70's or above.  We cool down a little next week.  I know I can't wait. 

 Nick venting greens.  It takes 6 hours to vent all greens.

 Holes are 1/4'' on 2.5''X2.5" centers

Tim rolling our greens.

Course update

     It has been 1 month since my last post.  We have been very busy the past month.  I guess the biggest news this spring was there was no spring.  We set a 124 year record for the hottest May.  That is a record I wish we didn't break.  April was one of the coolest months on record.  We went from nothing growing to full throttle in a matter of days.  Despite the cold then hot weather the golf course is doing well. 
     The greens are in great shape.  I have been using some new products to help our greens fight off Nematode pressure we have been dealing with the past 4 years.  I am using a combination of Organic and biological products in conjunction with nematicides.  Looks like it is working so far.  We have outstanding roots in our greens.  I have tested 4 greens for Nematodes.  All 4 that were tested came back positive for nematodes.  2 of the greens had 3 different Nematodes over the threshold the other 2 just had 1 over the threshold.  The biological products go out every month and we have been using 2 different nematicides alternating them every 2 weeks.  I am keeping my fingers cross that we will not see any damage.  We do have a spot on the front part of 12 green.  It is not Nematode damage.  Looks like it is from urine.  I believe a dog or maybe a deer urinated on the green.  It was on the old flag stick.  We will have to plug out the spot.

If you look at bottom of the dead spot you can see the half moon ring where old cup was.

     The rest of the course is doing very well.  We did have some bermudagrass winter kill.  We will need to do some sodding on # 17 fairway.  It did not get cold enough to kill all the Bermuda out right only small patches and some other it just thinned out.  We will be treating all of our fairways and tees this year to eliminate bermudagrass.  We did a test last year on 3 different fairways. It work very well.  This will be a program we will have to commit to for a few years to get a handle on the bermudagrass encroachment in fairways tee's and green surrounds.

     We have a few projects we need to work on this summer.  We will be adding drainage to our low areas in 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 10, 15, 17, fairways.  We will be installing a new catch basin in front of 12 greens. We will be leveling at least 3 tees this summer.  # 7 gold/red, #10 white and # 13 white.

Thanks for reading my blog I hope you find it informative.  See you on the course.

     

   

Driving Range Tee

     The Driving range tee is now open.  We have some new item down on the tee this year.  A clock with the yardages to the 3 flags on the  landing areas was purchased this year.  Our yardages on the tee do not move very far but you will know the yardage to each flag.  We have also purchased two new signs on the proper way to use our driving range tee.  If you use the linear method the turf will fill back in the lines in 2 weeks.  It takes a  month or longer for the concentrated method heal.

 We have 2 signs just like this one placed on each side of the hitting areas.

Please use the linear method.  We still have members that still use the scattered and concentrated method.

Course Update

It has been a month since my last post.  My staff and I are very busy.  Here are some of the projects we completed.

1. The entire golf course has been sprayed for broadleaf weeds
2. The entire golf course was sprayed for crabgrass.
3. We are in the middle of spraying the entire golf course for grub control.
4. The wet area to the east of #2 green has been repaired.
5. #8 right rough has been repaired and sodded.  New irrigation heads on the right side of the fairway will help us water the rough from the fairway to the ditch.
6. Blue tee on # 6 has new zoysia sod on the front 25'.  It has become very thin coming out of winter.
7. We were able to fix some of the bad spots around our greens.  #1, #10, #11, #13 had some bare areas we fixed.

Please remember all new construction is played as ground under repair.  Please pick your ball up and place no closer to hole outside the ropes.  It will take some time for the new sod to root.  We do have some fill under some of the sodded areas with it being wet you could do some damage if you walk into the ropes on #8.

 This is the area we fixed to left of #2 green.  We added a catch basin

 #8 right rough

 We installed 3 drains between fairway and cart path and sodded

Looking at new sod from 8 tee's

Front of the #6 Blue tee

Plant sale

     Kaley has been working very hard in the greenhouse this past winter.  Her hard work has paid off.  She is having a plant sale for our members.  If you are looking for some plants please come by and take a look.  She will be in front of the Clubhouse Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings.

Course update

     It has been a month since my last post.  I better get you all caught up on what has been happening on the golf course.  The weather has been the biggest set back for me and my staff.  Lots of rain and cool temperatures in March that carried into April.  We have seen 7 inch of rain since the first of March.  Despite the weather we did get some project completed.  The biggest project completed was our green aerification.

   We deep drilled 3/4'' holes 10'' deep on a 5''x5'' spacing. 

 We then came back over with our Pro Core and punch a 3/8'' holes on 2'' centers.

     The next big project we got done was some much need Irrigation on the forward tee on # 13.  That tee was built many years ago without irrigation.  We have had a hard time keeping good turf on the tee during drought years.  Now we will be able to grow some very good Zoysia on this tee.  The tee still needs some sod work done to it.  So please be careful stay out of the mud enter the tee from the rear.  We will sod it next week when it dries down.

 Trenching in new control wires for 13 tee

Tim finishing up wiring new heads up.

     Last winter we were going through the bunker renovation and we had a few issues with our Irrigation on hole # 6.  The construction company hit our irrigation system in 3 different places in front of # 6 green.  They tore up pipe and control wires that control individual sprinkler heads.  We were in charge of putting everything back together so we thought.  It was winter when we made the repairs so we had no way to check our work.  When we turned the irrigation system on we found out that 2 stations worked partially and 2 other stations did not work at all.  It took some time but we figured out what was wrong.  We did not get 1 control wire hook back up correctly.  We had to do a little trenching in front of 6 green in 2 place and reconnect the wires. Now everything is back to normal all stations working correctly.  I have the areas marked as ground under repair.  Please do not walk or drive inside of the white paint.  With the rain we received you could sink or mess up the sod.

 We trenched new control wire

 New wire installed and covered up

Sod relayed back over trench.

Burning Prairie

     On Thursday we burned the Prairie between 4 fairway and 5 tee's.  It was a little damp it took about 2.5 hours to burn.  We need to do this every other year. Burning rejuvenates the prairie by removing excess leaf litter and duff allowing more plants to flower, produce seed and grow taller.  It also increases available nutrients through indirect stimulation of microbial activity in the soil and releasing nutrients from the ash.  Burning exposes the darkened soil and allows sunlight to warm the soil quicker and extend the growing season for warm season native plants.  The fire also suppresses many weeds and non native invasive cool season grass.  Below is a video and pictures of the burn.

The grasses crackle when burning and  it gets extremely hot.

 Before 

Burning

Done

# 13 Brush pile progress

     We have been busy last couple of days cleaning up the brush pile  to the  south of 13 tees.  We used a Track hoe to pull out the large trees and brush.  We made some good progress.  The brush pile is not as tall. We still have to clean up more brush.  When we are done burning the brush we will plant some Ornamental grasses along the wood line to help hide the remaining brush. 

 Before

 Track hoe moving trees.

This is what it looks like now.  Brush pile almost gone.

Busy

     We have been very busy the past couple of weeks.  The rain we received was a welcome relief.  We received 6 inches of rain the last 2 weeks of February.  It took us 4 day to clean up the golf course from the rain storms.  We had limbs and debris down all over the course.  Despite all of the rain we were able to get a lot done on the course.  We sprayed all fairways and most of the roughs with pre-emergent herbicide.  The Hickory tree on the back right of # 1 green has been removed.  This tree was out competing the cool season turf for water.  This will give the cool season turf a chance now.  We have already mowed our greens 4 times This year.  We started to remove the brush pile from the clearing that was done last year down at 13 tees.  We will need 2 - 3 full days with a track hoe to get the brush pile cleaned up.  We are cleaning up the edge of the woods with our Rough Cut deck.  We are cutting the invasive Bush Honeysuckle.  This plant has become a very big problem in Missouri.  Bush Honeysuckle will choke out our hardwood forest if left to grow.  We removed the bridge down on 13.  We will be replacing the bridge this spring.  We helped the Clubhouse staff with the new tables and chairs.  Kaley has been very busy cleaning up her beds and burning the Ornamental Grasses.  The Green House is full of plants she is growing for this season. Rob has been busy in the shop.  Reel mowers have been sharpened.  Rough mower decks have been rebuilt and are ready to mow rough this spring.

 Spraying pre-emergent on fairways.

 Mowing greens first time 2/15/18.

 Removing Hickory tree back right 1 green.

 Working on brush pile # 13.

Winter

     Some of you might wonder what do we do when it is bitter cold  or wet.  If we can't get out on the course we stay busy refurbishing our golf course accessories.  Tee block, water coolers, bird houses, trash receptacles, and spike cleaners all get fixed and fresh paint or stain is applied. Winter is the time Rob goes through all of the equipment getting it ready for the next mowing season.  All  mowing reels and decks are torn down repaired and sharpened.  We stay very busy in the winter getting everything ready for the next golfing season. 

 Kyle staining Water Coolers

 4 down 3 to go.

 Fresh coat of paint on Tee blocks

Rob working on Ventrac decks

Fairway mowers reels all sharp and ready for 2018 season.

Driving Range Fence

   

     We have completed the Driving Range fence.  This has been a long time consuming project.  My staff and I are thrilled to have this project behind us.  The new fence will save us a considerable amount of labor looking for balls lost in the woods.  This  will also save the club money on lost balls.  We buy 300 dozen range balls every 2 years.  Hopefully we can cut that in half. 
\

 Attaching netting to post

Finished 

Hazard Marker

     You may of noticed our hazard markers are looking better.  We are using a planer to restoring them to new.  It does not take much to clean up the old faded color.  Hazard makers cost $8 each.  This will save us  a few bucks. If we can only keep the squirrels from eating them.  Here is a picture below to show the difference.

Faded markers looks pink.  Couple passes through the planer they look new again.

Driving Range Fence update

     We have finished the back portion of the driving range fence.  We will now work our way towards the tee on the North side. 

Driving Range Fence

     We have been busy this week  installing the new Driving Range fence. Our range is too small and balls are flying out of the range into the woods.  We are starting on the back of the range.  The fence runs from 4 rough all the way down to the wood line to the north side of range.  After this section is completed  we will continue down the north side of the range towards the tee.  We will try to keep the range open during this time but if it becomes unsafe for us we will close the range while we are working.  We are 1/3 of the way done on the back fence. This is a very time consuming job.  We have to run cable from the  top and bottom of the post.  The netting has to have a rope threaded through all 4 sides so we can tie it to the cable without tearing the netting.  It takes 3 people 4 hours to thread 400 feet of rope through the netting.  We then can stretch the netting from the top cable to the bottom and zip tie it to the cable.  It took 3 of us 2 hours to zip tie the netting to the cables and we are only 1/3 of the way done.  Like I said earlier this is a very time consuming job.  When we are done with the fence this will save the club many hours of labor looking for balls in the woods and the expense of lost balls.

Installing cable

 Threading the rope through the netting

 Installing the netting 

1/3 of the way done.  This will keep ball from being hit through the back of the range.