Water Management and Fall Work

 I apologize for my blog absence in October, but between some vacation time and extremely dry conditions I have not had much time to give to the computer.  This month I would like to address how I choose to water the course throughout the year as I know that is a major talking point among players.  I will also start to get into my fall and winter plans for our crew. 

This kinda got long on me so get your energy drinks handy.

The hardest part of my job is and will always be, judging the weather patterns and applying the correct amount of water each day of the growing season to each different variety of turf throughout the course.  This job would be a lot easier if our landscape was flat, but as we all know Staley has a little slope to it. My goal will always be firm and fast, but I won't sit here and tell you that your drive is going to bounce and run in the end of July just like it is now in November.  I do not however, want to see balls plug in fairways.  I know that there were a couple weeks in August that this place was way too wet and that is my fault.  Humidity spiked and the temps were around 95 for a long stretch and I wasn't brave enough to shut the water off until it was too late.  Ultimately I need to walk about 6 fairways a day next season in order to keep a closer eye on moisture.  

So there is my philosophy, but matching it up with the mapping of our irrigation system is another challenge.  Each satellite box can hold 50 wires to run 50 sprinklers.  The way that things are set up, each box controls more than 50 heads so sprinklers have to be paired up in order to water what we need.  Greens and green surround heads are never paired up in order to give us as much control as possible around the most important areas.  Fairway and rough heads are almost all paired with another.  Our sprinklers have a watering radius of 85 feet and are supposed to be triangulated throughout the course in order to water right up to the next sprinkler in line.  So with 2 sprinklers paired up I am running the same amount of water for a 255ft area regardless of the different slopes and valleys in that area.  Some areas on the course actually have 3 or 4 heads paired together so consistent watering is even tougher there. In the middle of the summer when temps are in the 90's I have to apply the amount of water in each area to keep the mounds alive and unfortunately that means that the valleys receive more water than necessary.  At this time, Grant is re-wiring all of our satellite controllers to where we will get better sprinkler match-ups in order to be more efficient with our water and to have more consistent moisture levels throughout the fairways.  

We have made it through about half of the tee aerification process and it has been as much of a nightmare as I had envisioned.  Maybe not so much of a nightmare, but I knew that it would take us quite a while to get it done.  We have had to replace a hand-full of parts on the machine as it started to rip up some turf on a few tees.  We have also had to put off the process all together due to some unseasonably warm weather. Now the weather has finally cooled off like it should be so we will pick back up and finish this week.  For the most part, the white and blue tees are the ones left to punch and sand so I will be moving tee markers around to accommodate our work.  The white tees will probably end up on the gold boxes more often than not so enjoy shorter irons into greens.  After that we will apply a slow release fertilizer to all the tees in order to store some nutrients in the plant over winter and hopefully have a quicker green-up in the spring.  We will apply the same type of fertilizer to the greens in the next 2 weeks as well.  Some of the tees will need another sanding to fill up the holes, but we can address that once we get holes punched in all of them.  I just keep reminding myself that this has to be done in order to have good tees throughout the entire year.

We have begun some underbrush clearing in parts of the course that have been annoying me since I started here and there will be more to come.  We have worked on behind #1 green and to the right of #5 cartpath.  These areas are not finished yet.  I will be going back through with the saws again to clear out dead and dying trees as well as raising the canopy.  It is part of my grand plan of getting everything limbed up throughout the native areas.  It is more work than can be completed in 1 or even 2 off-seasons, but we hope to make big dents each year.  A couple areas on my radar this year are left of #11 green, between #15 cartpath and #16 tees, and to the right of #3 green. All these areas need more sunlight and air movement to give us better turf plus they will look a lot better without the clutter.  There are also some more dead and problematic trees throughout the course that will need to come down this year. 

Back in September the topic of the left side of #11 green bank came up and the thinning turf in that area that will not stop a ball.  I can attest to this first hand as I played a round a couple weeks ago and a very well placed gap wedge checked a couple feet from the green's right edge, but ended up in the native.  Now some of that is due to the way #11 green is, but the turf on the left side of the green bank is extremely poor and thin and sure doesn't hold a ball.  I am hoping that I can get some decent sunlight on that turf after we do some clearing of trees and brush, but I just don't want to clear cut that side for a few reasons.  

• Against popular belief, I really do like trees.  They play a big part of our aesthetics as they frame holes.
• If you look through the trees there, you will see some large power lines just on the other side.  So a) I don't want to fall any trees into them, and b) I don't want that to be our visual from the green.
• It would take away our natural fence protecting patrons from falling off the cliff, and I would rather not put a non-natural fence up .

So other than some selective tree thinning I am thinking about maybe only mowing that green bank once a week instead of twice next year as well as some extra fertilizer.  I can also apply some extra wetting agent on that hillside because I believe that lack of moisture on that severe slope is adding to the decline of turf.  Speaking of the slope, it has been asked if adding soil to the slope could lessen the incline to help.  That would help, however in the front of the green where the bank slope is the steepest, the cliff edge is too close in order to raise the level without adding something to cliff wall.  From the middle of the green to the back I think there is enough room to do something like this.  This would all be a large undertaking, but definitely something to put on the discussion board when ownership wants to start talking capital projects.  One more thing that I will probably implement in order to help this situation is altering the mowing patterns on #11 green.  We switch directions everyday that we mow to keep the "grain" of the green from getting too strong.  On #11 if we are not mowing from front to back then our mower has to make a turn on the hillside in question.  This is just added stress on the weak area of turf 5-6 times a week.  If we just stick to mowing front to back on that hole alone, we may be able to help that slope out.  I will just need to monitor the tracking from the mower tires on that green. 

We are now in the time of year where frost delays will be very common.  Grant and I always try to make the best decision on start times to accommodate getting you all on the course as soon as possible, while keeping the golf course safe.  Below is a picture of the traffic from 1 foursome putting out.  If there were to be frost on the green all of these footprints would be dead by the afternoon.  This is why we take frost delays very seriously.  Here is the recipe for a frost.  40 degrees or less for overnight low, clear skies, and low winds.  If any of those cases are not there, then there will be a good chance of no frost.  

I think that about exhausts my pertinent information at the time.  I would like to thank all of those who have voiced or typed their appreciation of what my staff and I do on a daily basis here at Staley.  There are a ton of extremely stressful times throughout our year and getting those compliments really helps our psyche.  I won't speak for all of us, but I at least love what I do and really enjoy my time here. 

P.S.  

    I think the range tee is coming along so much better than I expected due to the unseasonably warm weather we have had this fall.  I still see some good cool season grass growing weather in the next couple weeks so I have at least 3 more fertilizer apps planned to continue to push it.  I hope everyone can squeeze some more rounds of golf in before winter sets in and please continue to stop me with any questions or comments.