Reducing Par 3 Tee Box Wear

     To help reduce wear on our par tee boxes we have temporarily installed mats to be hit off of. The goal is to reduce divots taken on these tee boxes over the course of the winter when our bentgrass is not growing and filling in divots. With fewer divots in our par 3 tees this will give you the golfers more usable teeing space come next spring. We have installed these mats on the blue and white tee boxes as they are the most commonly used tee boxes.  Come next spring these mats will be removed and sod will replace them. I know we have several tee markers missing on the course. Since 2019 I have not seen a year where we have had more tee markers missing whether they have been tossed into the native or have ended up in your garden is irrelevant. We have exhausted our reserves and have placed an order for more tee markers. Please leave them in the ground.

     Winter is upon us and our golf days have become shorter and the number of days to get a round in have began to dwindle down. As reminder, "If the forecasted weather at 1:00pm on weather.com is 34 degrees or colder, the course and practice facilities will remain closed for the remainder of the day". An e-mail will be sent out by 9:00am each day if the Winter Play policy is in effect. As for days that we will be open myself and my staff will be in contact with the pro shop regarding frost. We tend to see frost on days where we are below 40 degrees with calm to zero wind. The warmer we are going into sunrise and the more wind we have through the early hours of the morning will either prevent or reduce the severity of the frost. We have pushed the envelope a few mornings to help get golf off and have seen minor frost damage in our rough on holes one and four. I am okay with pushing the envelope with rough frost to help get golf off and moving as I know your good golf days are limited and want you to be able to get out and get your rounds in. 

Best,

Grant

Fall Update

We have finally made it to cooler temperatures and more importantly RAIN! Ponds were able to fill up and there will be plenty of water to get us to winter. Along with full ponds we have gotten one of our new pumps installed and it has been running. It has been amazing seeing what just one new pump can do compared to the pump we were running off all summer was doing. Just off the single new pump we can run 200-300 gallons per minute more than the pump we used through out the year. 

Along with getting the new pump installed there have been several other projects that took place over the October and the first part of November. 

Rip Rap has been places along the edge of 2 and 5 Tee Boxes and the dam has been repaired. The rip rap will help limit erosion and further loss of our tee boxes. 

Small drain projects have been completed so far. Installing the drain boxes on holes 9 and 13 will  prevent the bird baths that have developed over the years. Have had many ask "why not just put sand or sand there?" The answer is that wouldn't have solved anything. you need a place for water to go. A catch basin was installed in both locations to collect water and drain lines were installed of the basin to transfer excess water to the creeks at both locations. 

 

These were also perfect opportunities for our assistant Kaenin to learn a new skills so next time he can take off on his own. He has been doing well in his new role and making it my goal through this fall and winter to get him prepared and so he can tackle any task that comes his way next summer. 

                       

As many of you have noticed we have lost some fairway at the beginning of hole 13, and it has been turned into rough. Blue Springs Country Club and Shiloh Springs Golf Course suffered turf loss on their greens and collars. To help assist them getting their collars back we have parted ways with the part of the fairway that is never played from. We are happy to help assist other GreatLife courses.

Going forward we will pick back up on taking out any dead trees that could be a hazard first. Following that we will begin to start clearing underbrush on holes 2,3, and 4. We have acquired a chipper and the plan is to chip all the cleared underbrush back into the area it was pulled from. I would also like to get the chipper back to the dump this year and begin cleaning that area up as well.

Aerification Wrap-Up & Drought Conditions

 Thank you all for putting up with our aerification process. I know its not as enjoyable to play on after and my goal is and will always be to heal the greens in and get them back to smooth as soon as possible. Overall it went pretty well with the exceptions of a few equipment break downs. I am very pleased with our size and spacing’s of the holes punched in the greens. Normally in the past we see pretty decent heaving across the greens. Heaving is the raising of the turf causing an unnatural and uneven putting surfaces. This season we were able to avoid the heaving. We will continue a rotation of mowing and rolling to help smoothness and to maintain desired green speeds. With temperatures hopefully dropping we will begin to see less growth and if we can reduce the stress on our greens (promoting healthy turf) by mowing less and rolling more while maintaining adequate greens speed we will. If we need to continue to mow daily to achieve desired green speeds we will. This is not set in stone, I will monitor greens speed and do what is needed. Tee aerification is still under way. We have half the course completed and will continue to deep tine tees once I can get some moisture back into the tee boxes. With low soil moisture we can experience weak roots and weak roots can lead to pulling and tearing of the turf and aerifying.

Heading into October has shown no signs of relief in the terms of moisture. We are currently between severe and extreme drought conditions according to the National Integrated Drought Information System. 

Our irrigation ponds are running low. The question has been asked “If you had a fully operating pump house would the course be this dry?” We wouldn’t have been as dry as soon but we would’ve been buying city water much sooner. With only one pump we can only put out so much water throughout the night and that is not enough. As a department we have been running water throughout the day to help get as much water out as possible. I have heard complaints the grass is wet and not enjoyable to drive across throughout the morning, yet the ground is hard. I understand the complaints, we have to continually put out water to keep the grass alive. We are unable to get enough water out to help thoroughly saturate the soil. That is where the rain comes in. Turf managers can only do so much with the use of wetting agents as we are using and pond water. September blessed us with the lowest total of rainfall for that month in the last twenty years, a whopping 0.84in. Currently we are sitting 4.58in short of the average rainfall through September since 2000. I have included a chart below showing rain totals by month dating back to the drought in 2018. These numbers have been taken from the national weather service.

  Jan   Feb   March   April   May     June     July    Aug    Sept    Totals

2018  1.13   1.32   1.65     1.04     5.47      3.71    5.29    4.46    1.3      25.37

2019  1.78   2.15   3.29     4.22    12.82    7.64     2.49    7.65    6.82    48.86

2020  2.8     0.68    3.91    3.34    3.64      1.96    10.02   2.46    1.47    30.28

2021  2.47   0.54   3.55     4.86    5.47      7.12     2.75    5.24    2.1      34.21

2022  0.79   .067   5.14     2.35    8.46      4.73      2.3      2.41    0.84    27.69

Mean  1.14  1.44   2.71    3.81     5.43      5.34     4.04    4.74    3.62    32.27

Without adequate and timely rain the soil has not been able to maintain the moisture it needs to adequately grow turf. Along with the pure volume a good rain can give us it also provides water with the correct ph levels being more beneficial to our turf. Along with saturation and water at the correct ph, when rain falls nitrogen is pulled out of the atmosphere tying to the rain being placed in the soil. Without the help of mother nature it is and will always be an uphill battle.

To end on a bright note the new pump ordered in April has now been completed. I am working with them on finding a time the can come out and install it, my time frame is as soon as possible. Theirs however is more complicated but they have helped us out and turned around in Omaha and made it hear the same day earlier this season when we were in a pinch so I trust they will have it to us as soon as possible.

I plan on finishing up the natives this month and begin our tree work at the beginning of November. Remember if any branches are hanging over your property line you can cut these on your own if you'd like. If you do have these branches or even trees you're concerned about on golf course property please reach out and I will come meet with you. 

September Update- Apologies for the Wait

 With fall approaching I have finally made the time to sit down and write a blog. It was a stressful summer for the course, which also means it was for myself and the staff as well. Going into the summer I was aware of the issues the golf course faces. We were down to two working 75hp pumps and irrigation satellite boxes that are out dated making them extremely hard to find replacement parts for.

It was beginning to look more promising when we were able to get the inoperable pump pulled and sent off in April. At that time we were able to get a new pump ordered and it was to be installed in June. June passed by us long ago and the latest update I have been given is to expect the new pump at the end of September. I am being told the manufacturer is currently building multiple pumps and it is taking longer than expected to be able to get parts in to complete the pump.

Not long after the inoperable pump was pulled I had no choice but to turn off a second pump. This pump had begun to spin irregularly forcing wear on its bearings. Due to the irregular spin water was being dispersed throughout the pump house. To protect the electronic panel in the pump house and to prevent further damage to the pump, the pump needed to be turned off.  

Not long after we experienced issues with the computer panel in the pump house. We were able to run the pumps manually over night while I worked through the night making sure the pump ran sufficiently. After two weeks of that the parts finally found their way here. This winter we will be reconfiguring the panel in the pump house. My pump technician was unable to determine a direct cause to this failure but the software is long outdated and the company that designed the control panel has fallen out of business.

With one 75hp pump and nearly 50 acres of bentgrass it was making for a long summer. With one 75hp pump our system is only able to pump 1000gpm of water out on the course. With such little flow it is impossible to get all the water out on the golf course throughout the night. Along with not being able to pump enough water out during the night we have outdated satellite boxes that are constantly going down. These satellite boxes are supposed to receive a signal from my computer that has the times for the boxes to turn on the sprinkler heads. With boxes constantly going down and not downloading planned watering we had to run water manually early in the mornings.

Having to run water cycles in the morning is less than ideal. For the golfers it mean wet fairways that are undesirable as well as disease in the summer. With hot nightly temps and even hotter day temps wet bentgrass is very susceptible to disease. We saw this in several fairways throughout the summer and they are finally able to recover now that we are hitting cooler nightly temps. Unfortunately there is no turn-key solution and it will take time for these areas to heal in. 

Throughout the summer I have been spraying fairways every two weeks to help combat the diseased fairways and tees as well as spraying them with wetting agents. The wetting agent I have been using, and that has been used here in the past helps water penetrate into the soil as well as break apart hydrophobic soil allowing the moisture to be held in the soil rather than runoff the soil surface. However, pond water can only do so much. We can get by with our irrigation water but nothing can beat all the natural nutrients you get from a rain.

Tees that have struggled through the year have started to recover and are currently being seeded to help speed up the heal in process. Larger fairway spots will soon follow. In the past it is apparent fairway spots that had struggled were seeded with varieties other than the Princeville bentgrass that makes up most of the fairways. I have located a supplier for the Princeville seed and are currently using it. 

The range tee took it on the chin this year to say the least. When the range tees was graded two years ago there was a noticeable clay layer in the range tee. This clay layer prevented strong, long and healthy roots. Once the heat set in the range tee gave out, they did not had strong enough roots to get by. We have since seeded the range tee and ask all golfers to hit range balls from the mats for the remainder of the year, to give the range tee the best chance of filling out this fall. The range mats will hold a golf tee therefore there is no need to step off the front of the mats to hit driver, you will be asked to return to the mats. Next spring we will be aerifying the range tee to give roots a channel to get through the clay as well as spraying plenty of wetting agents to help maintain moisture throughout the soil profile.

The range tee one week prior to turf loss. It is my belief with the plan above we can sustain growth. 

With all that said I am pleased with how the golf course looks and plays today. Given the issues we have faced that are a result of an aging irrigation system that continued to fail I am pleased with the amount of grass we have been able to keep. When I took the job my director made it clear to ownership if we end up with just one pump, grass will be lost. That conversation got the ball rolling to get new pumps. New pumps are on the way slowly but surely. I will continue to make repairs to our satellite boxes as we as make it known that an update is necessary to be able to provide a top notch golf course that is expected by the membership as well myself and my staff.  Are there areas that can continue to improve? Absolutely!

Going into this fall my main focus is on getting the struggling fairways and tee boxes back to healthy turf through the use of fertilizer, wetting agents and moisture. With cooler nights and days upon us we have already seen areas begin to heal. Healthy turf is thriving and areas that have struggled are slowing coming back. The course will get there it just takes time. Once again there is no turn-key solution. All you can do is provide a healthy soil through fertilizer and wetting agents, providing an optimal conditions for turf grass to grow.

Another thing to look forward to is our Fall Aerification. This will take place September 26th and 27th. The front 9 and lower putting green will be closed on the 26th and reopen on the 27th. The back 9 and upper putting green outside the pro shop will be closed on the 27th and reopen the 28th. Yes it does hurt to punch holes into the putting greens but it is important to do. This process will help reduce the compaction on the greens as well as create for pore space for water to infiltrate to soil as we all channels for roots to grow. A heavy topdressing will be put down to fill these channels with sand. Sand has a much larger surface area than clay and silt. A larger surface area results in more pore space as sand can not pack as tightly as clay and silt. Larger pore space results in better water movement throughout the soil as well as more room for roots to grow. 

With all that said I have truly enjoyed being able to return to Staley Farms as your Golf Course Superintendent and will continue to do everything I can to provide the best playing conditions day in and day out here at Staley Farms Golf Club.

Bests

Grant

Winter 21' - 22' Overview

 Well this winter definitely did not go as I planned, but I feel like we still made a lot of good progress.  Around mid January is when Brent resigned as Director of Agronomy and I began thinking I had a really good chance at replacing him.  With that in my mind I began changing my plans of work to be done this off-season so that I would not be leaving the next person with a whole lot of disarray.  We received quite a few small snow showers which kept us indoors for quite a bit.  We made the best of it and were able to complete a lot of tasks in the shop.  The guys sanded and refinished all the traffic stakes as well as built a new set of 50.

They also built new hazard and o.b. stakes in order to mark down the right sides of 13 and 14.  The out of bounds will be the property lines along #13 and the native cut will mark the edge of the hazard along with a few red stakes.  On #14 out of bounds will be marked just on the west side of the creek.  Red hazard stakes will be placed on the eastern edge of the creek.  We were also able to repaint all our tee markers and ball washers.  

While all that was going on I was able to do something that I have been dreaming about for a year.  Last year I cut down a walnut tree on 15 to try and bring more sunlight to the area where carts get back on the path down by the bridge.  I also bought a chainsaw mill with the idea of making something out of the wood for the course.  Now I am a complete amateur when it comes to woodworking, but I had a lot of confidence in my head for whatever reason.  I had always wanted to get into the craft, but its funny what 2 small kids will to to a person's hobbies.  I let my slabs of wood sit and dry all summer long and actually came out with some decent lumber.  My plan was to build boxes to replace the ones that hold our divot sand on 2/5, 8, 13, and 16.   Well one down and three to go.

I plan on placing this on 16 since the tree came from only 100 yards away.  Next off-season I hope to be able to build 2 since now I have a blueprint in my head at least.  Plus the one on 2/5 is gonna need to be built from 4x4s in order to handle a cart head on possibly in its future lol! 

We also did a little horse trading and swapped some firewood for flooring tile which is a sentence I never thought I would use.  I had been noticing Ashton starting to take more ownership in his role as Assistant here so I handed him a bathroom remodel project in order to keep that trend going.  He did the whole thing from start to finish and it came out really nice and has improved our break area 100%.  

With my new projection on this off-season I decided to pass on renting the boom lift for tree trimming so I didn't end up leaving Grant a huge mess to clean up as he started.  Instead, I took the lift money and put it towards the stair project at #17 green.  I knew I could complete that pretty quickly once everything was in place.  And I could use the mini-x to rip out the busted steps from 12 as well.  Win win and it turned out great!

The seed net is in place just to keep washouts to a minimum until we get sod laid down. The same goes for #12, where sod will be laid down in place of the current seed net.  With the closure of Deer Creek we are hoping to harvest as much good turf from there once the doors close.  Since I worked at Deer Creek for a couple years, I know right where to send Grant and his guys for the best.  This sod adventure is also the reason that Ashton is scraping and leveling out the area on #5 where carts get back to the path from the fairway.  Once we get everything leveled over there we will be able to rope it off and lay sod when we get it.  

I believe that covers everything that we have been working at this winter.  I still have a head full of projects that could fill 5 more winters, but it is now time for Grant to build his own ideas.  He did ask me to write down the things I would like to see done throughout the years so I will for sure do that, but trust me, he will put some good thumbprints on this course of his own!  Thank you all for reading and following along with the blogs for the last couple years as I truly enjoy writing them.  I know Grant will continue keeping it up to date, but there is no way that his GIFs will be anywhere in the same ballpark as mine.