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. 

 I'm pretty embarrassed looking back to see how long its been since I last posted on here so I appologize, but I have been a lot busier this year than years in the past.  Unfortunately, that does not seem to be changing anytime soon.  Our mechanic left for another job in September and I have not yet been able to find a replacement.  What that means is I am now also the mechanic.  This is NOT my area of expertise! And wouldn't you know, in the span of 1 month I had to rebuild 2 small engines.

The roller engine needed a new camshaft so dismantling the entire engine was needed.  Incredibly enough, it runs again.  Then a week later a small piece of metal broke inside the green's mower engine and went rattling around for a bit.  What we ended up with is something like engine gumbo.......

We actually had the same engine upstairs from a previous mower, but it had carburetor issues.  So I Frankensteined 1 out of 2 and that son of a gun fired up and mowed greens for 2 weeks. Ugh!  Now it seems to be leaking fuel from the carb so the journey isn't over yet.   Hopefully soon we will have a solid Technician replacement, but until then.....

Since my last blog in June, nothing really changed much as far as course conditions.  I was quite impressed with how well tees and fairways held up through the entire year.  I know we had a pretty decent summer with timely rains, but we dealt with some pretty stressful periods and the bent just kept on recovering.  My 2022 plan includes all the new fertility that I used in 21, but I added more applications in the shoulder months.  We just recently applied our overwintering fertilizer to greens and tees so I would expect a rapid green up come next spring. 

I don't know exactly how to word my feelings on the range tee so here is where we are at.  The bluegrass we chose has literally come back from the dead three times this year and shocked me.  Unprovoked by me, the sales rep started telling me how in year 2 is when the plant really starts tillering and filling divots like bermuda. I think this is what I have yet to see in order to be completely satisfied. Irrigation failure was the cause of the injury so I am confident that it will be resolved.  

We were able to complete tee aerification this year with a lot more efficiency and a lot less damage.  Due to a solid stand of turf through the summer, tee tops were able to withstand the punching and now we can continue a healthy cycle of fall aerification in order to keep adding sand to the rootzone for firmness and drainage.  

I would like to give a very large thank you to Cheryl Shackelford for her efforts and ability to add some color to our landscape beds throughout the course.  She put a lot of hours into the prep, planting, and care of those beds and it showed all year long.  

I believe that after this week of freezing temps, our bentgrass will finally start going dormant.  I hope to start the planning stages of this years drainage projects.  Hole #13 will be getting all the drainage love this off-season as I plan on trenching through each valley along the left side of the fairway.  Each small valley will have its own system in place with a drain box at the fairway edge similar to the other holes we have done.  This should add up to about 1000 feet of tile when we are all done.  That hole did pretty well this year, but there was about a 3 day period where I saw it start turning black in the valleys due to excess rainfall.  This should take that worry out of play and I am all for less worry.

The last thing that I will touch on is tree work for this season.  I typically start my planning with where I want to take the boom lift when I rent it in January.  Its not an easy transport so I have to plan an efficient route.  With as big and heavy as it is, just driving it down the cartpath isn't a great option.  This year I am going to concentrate the lift along holes 11-16.  I would also like to get it out to 3 tee to trim the large trees on the left side.  We were able to sneak in a little brush clearing this summer and early fall to give us a head start.  At this point Manuel and Mario have almost finished the right side of #14, Ashton, Kaenin, and I have put a good dent in #15, and we still plan on taking a lot of brush out on #16.  Having the brush cleared before I get the lift makes limb clean up a lot easier.  There are a few key limbs I want to take off some oak trees on #11 and the walnut by the left bunkers on #12, but I plan on spending quite a bit of time around #13 tees and green.  I can't drive over the bridge there so hopefully I can find a path through an empty lot in order to get to #14 fairway.  I am going to try and limb the large trees right of #14 fairway by reaching over the creek.  With all the erosion in the area driving that lift over there is a no go.  I am hoping that more sunshine along that creek will promote the native grass to cover the ground better.  After that, #15 shouldn't take too much time and then I want to take another stab at the right side of #16 on top of the old dam.  That is the main rundown on the lift pruning, but I still have some dead trees to take down around the course this winter.  Holes 1,7,and 9 all have dead trees that will be addressed this year.  From all of our tree work these past couple years we have created quite a bit of firewood.  I used to do this at Deer Creek and now I would like to start it here as well.  We are selling firewood from the shop if anybody has a need.  It is all split and seasoned and stored under cover.  I'm not looking to retire from it so we sell it cheap.  $100 for a pickup truck load and you can stuff it in the cab as well ha ha ha.  I split the money up between my guys, but I make them buy something they can use at work.  Usually boots, coveralls, coats, etc...  Contact me through the golf shop or email and we can get you squared away.  

I apologize again for such a long time between updates.  I know that the blog is enjoyed by you all and I hope to get back on a regular schedule with writing them.  Until next time, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Changes and Improvements

 I am sorry for my absence here on the bloggisphere, but I believe I have a lot of good information to cover in this edition.  Plus, equipment issues have raised my blood pressure to new heights over the last couple weeks so some time at the computer will do me well.  First off, after a very long two months, I have hired my new assistant.  His name is Ashton Box, and comes here from Brookridge Country Club.  He has jumped right in and is really taking a lot of weight off of my shoulders.  

So in my humble opinion, our golf course is outstanding right now and I have a lot of confidence moving forward that we will remain in good shape.  Now I could still write a novel about things I don't like or areas that need improvements, but that will always be my curse that comes with the job.  The following are some areas that I have made adjustments in and the results that we are seeing because of them.

Green's Fertility

Fertilizer and nutrients make the plant grow.  I know, mind blowing right?  That is great and all, but turf that is growing a lot is slow (talking green speed) and it is more prone to disease.  Nitrogen is the main nutrient that causes growth and green color.  It is also how turf managers quantify how much they are feeding their turf.  A typical rule of thumb is a tenth of a pound of Nitrogen per thousand square feet per week to keep a bentgrass plant in good health, without overdoing it.  My first year here I sprayed a tenth a pound every other week on greens in order to try and keep things lean.  It did alright.  Last year I played with some different and higher quality fertilizer on the every other week schedule, but only sprayed half a tenth of a pound of Nitrogen.  I saw better results due to the new fert having a combination of amino acids in the mix.  I won't go down that rabbit hole, but amino acids are good.  I still was not satisfied with the off week between applications.  This year I have been spraying the same half a tenth every week and I really like the results.  We are keeping the dark green color and I havn't seen any flushes of growth.  Now as far as the lower putting green goes, it is getting a lot more food than any other green.  This is so it can take all of the traffic that it receives.  It still gets the same sprays as the others, but I have applied monthly applications of a slow release granular fertilizer at the rate of 3 tenths of a pound of Nitrogen.  I havn't putted on it myself, but I imagine it is a bit slower than the others and for that I am sorry.  It is not a true representation of the greens on the course, but I really just want to keep it alive.  Everybody uses the lower green instead of the upper green and I completely understand.  I wouldn't use the top one either.  I feel like it is a sorry excuse for a practice green since it is nothing but a skinny hill of bentgrass.  

Tee Fertility

This is what I am most excited about.  We had a lot of grass to grow on our tees and I believe we are accomplishing that!  Like the greens, I have increased the quality of fertilizer for the tees and I am applying it more often.  1 big thing that is contributing to the goal is that I have stopped using a growth regulator on tees.  I mean, if I want to grow a lot of turf in an area, why in the world would I spray something that slows down growth.

I have thrown a lot more granular fertilizer on tees this year than in the past couple years and I will keep up that trend as long as I am here.  I have added a couple photos of a bare spots that are filling in and if you look close you can tell that the blades of grass are super fat and long as they are stretching over the bare spot.  This is due to the amount of fertility that I have in the turf and it is just proof that its working.  

 

I have also been topdressing tees regularly this year in order to start building a better rootzone for the plant and a better footing for the golfer.  By the looks of things I would say that it is working, but in reality I know that topdressing needs to be a routine in order to see the true benefits.  I believe I see proof of these improvements, but I see a much firmer tee surface coming in the future.  I will continue feeding the tees throughout the year, but through the heat of the summer I plan on using an organic fertilizer mixed into my topdressing sand.  Walk spreading tees is no fun at all so if I can take care of 2 things at once and be able to drive as well.....sign me up!  The organic fert will have no chance of burn in the heat so I feel pretty confident.  One other chemical that I plan on introducing to the tees is a silicon product that will act as "the little blue pill" for turf.  I tested it last year 1 time and it was pretty dern amazing.  I plan on spraying it every 2 weeks and it should really help with traffic tolerance throughout the heat of the summer.  Due to the fact that I am not using growth regulator on tees, I am needing to keep them mowed quite often.  I am trying to get them mowed 3 times a week and so far I am succeeding since I have found a handful of good employees this year.  I know in an earlier blog I had said that I wanted to mow fairways 3 times a week and tees twice.  Well I have flipped that around due to another change I made with growth regulators in fairways.  I'll go over that as well soon.  So far so good and the more I mow the tees, the more the turf will grow sideways and continue to fill in bare spots.  

Fairway Applications

I made another adjustment when it comes to chem/fert in fairways as well.  Less fertilizer and a combo of 2 different growth regulators.  In the past we have used a high rate of just 1 growth regulator and it had worked ok until last September when it failed miserably.  The regulator that we had been using needed to be watered in before the plant would take it in and start to use it.  This could take up to 3 extra days before the plant would slow its roll.  Not good enough for me, especially when the stars don't always align for me on what I want to do on certain days.  So I have cut the rate of that same chemical in half and I have added another regulator to the mix.  The new addition gets absorbed by the leaf tissue immediately so I know it starts working the day I spray it.  So far it has worked very well and we are not having many clippings left in the fairways.  Only time will tell me if it is going to last once the summer rolls through and the plant starts processing the chemicals quicker.  I have also cut down on the amount of Nitrogen I am spraying on fairways in order to lessen the chance of disease.  So far color has been good, but I am planning on adding a few new nutrients to the mix that will aid in keeping it green with no additional Nitrogen.  

Now that we are starting to get into some normal summertime heat, we are hand watering greens each morning and will continue to do so until November probably.  Nothing is changing with the way we perform this task, but I want to let you all know what it is exactly we are doing.  We use moisture meters each morning to pin point each dry area on each green.  Since they are all different from one another we can't just turn the sprinklers on and expect to have consistency.  These meters give us a percentage of moisture at a depth of 3 inches.  Since this will be my third year watering these greens, I now know exactly where to go on each green when scouting for dry spots.  Ashton is still picking this up, but it will only take a handful of hot days in order for him to gain the same knowledge.  On average, we will take a reading at 35 - 50 spots for each green.  Slopes dry out fast so naturally, Staley greens take a few more stabs with the meter than most.  Below is a picture of the screen on my meter.

If I really wanted to dive into the weeds with this technology, my meter can read salinity levels and you can bluetooth it to your phone to build maps of each green and a lot of other really cool stuff as well.  Ain't nobody got time for that.  So we read 1 number and that is the 18.5 you see there.  So that is telling me that the spot I am in is 18.5 percent water and that is actually the number I shoot for in the mornings.  If it is below 18 then I take more readings around that spot and build a map in my head of how big of an area I am going to need to water and how much water I want to try to put there.  If we can get the green to an 18 percent in the morning then it will last all day even if it gets into the high 90s.  

As I type this it is June 10th and I am happy to announce that the range tee grass will open up tomorrow morning.  Its a little later in the year than I had hoped for, but the wet and cloudy spring we had kinda held me back a little.  I'm very pleased with how much the new grass has taken off in the last couple weeks and it has me very optimistic about our ability to have it open for an entire golf season in the future.  I do ask 1 thing from you all while hitting balls up there.  Please try to create lines of divots instead of excavating a big hole.  This will help with the regrowth of each area and our ability to come back to that spot down the road.  If I am left with giant pot holes then the grass will not regrow and we will have to rely on a fully seeded recovery which will add a lot of time before we can use that spot again.  Below are examples of divot rows versus divot craters or a divot shotgun blast.  

 

Our plan is to use the grass tee every week from Tuesday through Sunday and to use the mats every Monday.  All outside tournaments and events will use the mats.  One new rule we are going to put in place is that anytime it reaches 95 degrees or hotter then we will move to mats only.  This will help keep stress from foot twisting off of the grass in the extreme heat.  Hopefully we won't ever have to use that....ha.  

OK, I think that is it for now.  The heat is here and hoses are out.  Please remember, humidity rules all.  It determines how much water we need to put out and it determines green speed for the most part.  The more humid, the slower and tackier the greens will be.  Hit em straight and continue to stop me on the course with questions.  

On the lighter side of things, proud Dad moment.  For those of you that don't know, my Dad is a PGA Pro down at Fayetteville Country Club and my wife is taking my 4 yr old next week to his Jr. Golf program.  I don't know if he will get into the sport, but it sure seems my 1 yr old is getting interested.

 

 Well once again Mother Nature has proven that she is in control, and also that she can't make up her mind on what season we should be in.  The redbud and cherry trees sure did look good in the snow though.  I thought the golf course woke up better this year than my 2 previous springs.  I think that the warm temps we had are probably the biggest cause of that, but I also like to think that the slow release fertilizer I put out last fall did it's job.  I believe I will continue that practice and hopefully we can green up like that every year. 

 Aerification time came around as the greens were looking their best, naturally, and I was very happy with how it turned out.  I changed up my rotation a little and I think it paid off.  The order of steps in the past had been; sand, aerify, drag, and then roll.  I just thought that all the tire tracks from dragging caused major waves in the green and were miserable to try and smooth.  This year we rolled right after the aerifier did it's thing, and then drug the sand into the holes.  I think this made the green much firmer which in turn lessened the waves from pulling the drag mat around.  This is another practice that I plan on continuing.  Our weather luck ran out shortly after and has really slowed down the healing process. We started having consistent frosts and the past couple nights have been below freezing.  We are almost completely covered back over, but it feels like its taken forever.  I have a few pictures below to show some proof of our progress and why it is so important to aerify regularly.  Not that I have gotten any complaints because I aerify, but sometimes its just nice to see something working, especially when that thing is as annoying as greens aerification.  

The first picture is from last fall and the last three are from the past 2 weeks.  We have a lot of good looking roots throughout the entire rootzone, however the new, clean sand channels are where you find the best.  

At the moment I would say that the drain lines installed this past winter have been a success.  I would still like to see how they perform after some summer downpours.  There is still a lot of work to be done to get these areas back to a solid stand of bentgrass, but I have a plan.  In the past couple weeks I have seeded these areas in hopes that I can get some bent to compete against the poa that is taking over these places.  When fall arrives I will begin using a brand new chemical which kills poa annua out of bentgrass.  This is the first chemical ever that could make that claim.  This guy is going to make a billion dollars! 

There are quite a few courses in our area that are starting to use this product, but mostly on their greens.  Our greens at Staley are actually pretty clean, but I plan to start testing this in our fairways.  I have spoke with the developer of this product about my plans and he has built me a small program to follow.  He will be making a trip to KC in the near future and plans to visit me to look over the areas I am thinking about.  It is a slow death to the poa, which allows me to continue to pump bent seed into these areas before there are large voids of turf.  I will probably start my trials by spraying 1 boom width down the middle of these drain line areas before I start attacking other areas.  If this works then I could really clean up some of the fairway edges and troughs so I am pretty jacked about this.   

I feel pretty good about the range tee grow in, but I would feel a lot better about it if we could get some sunshine and warmth.  I continue to fertilize and topdress weekly and I believe that we can probably start using it by June 1.  I have mowed it once and plan on mowing it again tomorrow morning as long as we don't receive too much rain tonight.  Throughout the season on Mondays I hope to heavy sand and seed each divot row from the week before. With golf not starting until noon I believe I should be able to accomplish this before we move to work on the course.  

One last thing I need to address is that Grant, my assistant, is no longer my assistant.  He accepted the Superintendent position at Prairie Highlands at the end of March.  He served his 2 weeks notice and has now moved into his new role.  This is awesome for him and will be a very good start to his career.  I was very lucky to have him for as long as I did, but now I must find a replacement.  At this point, I have not had any luck with my postings.  Our industry took a big hit with the recession in 2008 and we have been seeing the affects in the last couple years.  From 2008 to 2010 a lot of courses closed their doors across the country which placed a lot of qualified superintendents in the unemployment line. At that point assistants were going up against former supers for job openings.  This kept most assistants an assistant for a lot longer period than previously.  Before this it was very common for an assistant to make the big jump after only 3-5 years.  Now it is pretty common for somebody to hold that title for over 10 years, like yours truly.  This ultimately made people lose interest in this career and student numbers in turf programs have been on a steady decline for quite some time now.  So I need a little luck!  

Well I think that about wraps up what I wanted to touch on.  I will do my best to continue to update this blog each month, but I can't promise anything until I find my next assistant.  Good thing is that I seem to have been very successful in finding general laborers as long as they all follow through.  I have already trained 1 new guy on bunkers and tees and hope to have another starting next week sometime.  Then I have 2 college students and at least 2 high school students that will be starting with me once they get out of school.  If I could get bunkers raked at least 5 times a week, tees and approaches mowed 2 times a week, and fairways mowed 3 times a week you would be looking at a very happy guy.  

Lets all hope for more of these days

And not so many of these days

Please continue to stop me on the course with any questions and I will hopefully be updating the blog in May.

Winter Wrap Up

 Well here we go!  Seems that the golfing season is now upon us as we have the Shamrock Scramble this weekend and the MGA kickoff next.  It seems like only a couple weeks ago we were covered in snow and experiencing some of the coldest temps in a long while.  Yeah, it doesn't ever seem to transition slowly around here.  In this blog I plan to discuss our finishing touches to winter projects as well as some steps we will be taking to get the golf course into shape.  I am also going to touch on everybody's favorite subject, golf course etiquette, Wahoo!

Tree Work Review: 

  Now that we have gotten into March and are starting to send the greens mower out I suppose its time to put the chainsaws away.  We only have a couple more trees that need to come down and I am hoping to get them taken care of this coming Monday and Tuesday.  I apologize for the war zone appearance with all the limbs down everywhere, but the boys are gaining on getting them all hauled away.  We made a great stride this winter in opening up the sky around some tees and greens to allow air and sunlight to hit these areas.  The areas on 1,4, and 5 were pretty much just to beautify the course surroundings.  The pruning we did on 3 will not only allow for better turf on the right side of the green, but has made that hole a lot prettier from the tee.  The rough looking willow volunteers on the right still catch my eye from the tee so they will need to be removed.  By the end of Tuesday we will have removed 3 dead trees around 8 tee boxes.  The clearing we did between 8 green and 9 tees will hopefully give the white tee more air and sun plus makes the view back towards 8 a lot cleaner.  

  #11 green complex is a lot more open now.  Not that it will make that green any easier to putt, but hopefully we can keep some more grass on the bank.  We took 2 trees down in front of the blue tee on 12 since they were forming a chute to hit through and now we can utilize more of that tee box and spread the divots out a bit more.  I believe I have gotten more compliments on the removals we did in 13 fairway over anything else.  Hopefully it makes that tee shot a little less stressful.  The 2 dead ash trees came down to the right of 14 tees and 1 more on the left edge of 15.  And then there was "ground zero".  The area between 15 fairway and 16 tees.  This is only the beginning.  This clearing project will hopefully impact a handful of turf areas in a good way.  My initial thought last year was to try and get more sunlight on the cart exit area of 15 hence the boom lift pruning.  I also knew that this wooded area affected both tee boxes on 16.  The forward tee is the most humid place on the course, (even more so than 13 tees).  The big tee has also struggled with being to wet both of my years here.  These issues and my extreme hatred of brown patch led me to dive into this project.  There was a lot of fallen dead wood so I had been afraid to take the brush hog in there for fear of high centering.  So my weapon of choice was a weedeater with a steel blade.  We have removed a lot of underbrush and dead wood from the area, but there is still quite a bit more to do.  My ultimate plan is to have that entire wooded corner cleared up all the way back to the houses.  I will be leaving large healthy trees the whole way back, but I want to be able see up to 16 green from 15 fairway through the trees.  Another bonus to this area being cleaned up is that as I am screaming down 15 in my gator i'll be able to see people teeing off on 16 before its too late, haha.  

  And my crown jewel....the large tree up on the hill in #16 rough.  Talk about a huge improvement.  Hopefully if you end up on the left side you will have some sort of shot under the canopy now.  I also did a little pruning on the right side of 16, but that area is not finished.  There will be some removals next year, I just ran out of time this year.  The drains we installed on the right side of 16 fairway will help dry that area out, but we need to get a little morning sun on it as well.  There are a handful of nice walnut and oak trees on that berm that will stay, but then there are some other scraggly looking trees that will need to leave. The tree at 17 green had just a couple low limbs removed in an effort to add some sunshine to the green.  And to finish things out, we removed 2 dead trees in the native on #18.  Well, actually the wind removed one and we took down the other. 

Goodness that was a full winter!  I can't wait until things start to leaf out and green up to see and feel the difference.

Fairway Drainage Review:

   Aside from placing the sod back over the trenches on 14 and 16, we have completed the holes that I was most concerned about this year.  I touched on holes 5 and 1 in a previous blog, but we were also able to finish up 14 and 16 fairways this winter as well.  With hole 14 being so small and with such limited fairway space, I felt it was an absolute must to attack the drainage issue that was smack dab in the middle of the landing zone.  I am pretty confident that we have made a drastic improvement here.  Below are a couple pictures of the "soil" that 14 sits on.  Its no wonder that drainage was so poor.

#16 fairway was the largest of the holes we did this year and I am pretty happy how it turned out.  We did a good job of covering the entire right side of the fairway which has been destroyed by soggy conditions the past 2 years.  The tree pruning I started over in this area will help keep this area dry as well.  

In the last blog I showed some pictures of the water cooler houses, or at this point in time, the large trash can houses.  I also mentioned and showed the refinished traffic stakes as well as a larger quantity for this year, but we had not gotten to the tee markers at that point yet.  During the deep freeze Grant and I sanded and repainted each marker.  We went through a lot of podcasts and coffee and come to find out, I am no picasso.  

I think that about sums up our winter, which I feel was very productive.  With daylight savings time behind us now we can expect to see a lot more play out there so I would like to go over some simple golf course etiquette.  

Please repair your ball marks on greens each and every time.  Failure to do so is detrimental to the putting surface as each of us has seen.  It wrecks the smoothness of the green and then when my mowers go over them they get scalped off and will take a long time to heal.  I know there is always a lot of discussion on how to do it properly.  Below is a demonstration on the proper technique.  If you push towards the center from the outside edge it will "knit" the grass back together.  If you pry up from the low point of the mark then it will rip and tear the plant from its roots.  

I mentioned last year that when it comes to fairway shots that take divots to please replace the divot and top off with sand.  If there is no pelt, but still a divot just fill with sand and smooth with your foot.  

And here comes the big one.....Golf Carts.  I know that I will probably never get 100% buy in with this, but I have to talk about it.  Please be smart with where you drive your cart.  Please do not drive through the native grass.  Please stay at least 30 yards away from the green.  Please stay on the cart path for the entirety of each par 3.  And probably the one that irks me the most is when I see carts that have pulled 2 tires off the path when they park at a tee or green.  If somebody needs to get around you while you are parked then they can drive around you even if you still have all 4 tires on the path.  I see this the most when carts are parking at the blue or white tee on #7.  All of these items cause damage each year with a normal number of golf rounds.  Now last year, all of these issues were worsened with the fact that most everybody drove their own cart each and every round.  I understand that the Covid pandemic isn't over and there are still new cases, but those numbers are lessening.  I am not here to tell you how to manage your health, I am just pleading for the health of our turf.  The more people that pair up in carts, the less traffic stress for the course. Our rough got absolutely pummeled last year and to top it off, it then went into its dormancy period during a drought.  If you would do just one thing for me, then please pay attention to where you enter and exit the cart path.  Try to spread the traffic out and don't just keep following the beat down path each time.  We will try to do our best by moving stakes around to adjust patterns.  

I will also add that my crew and I are not innocent in the etiquette category.  It will probably do us good to revisit stopping and waiting on groups to hit shots or putt out before we drive by.  

So here is to a great 2021 golfing season and hopefully it never gets above 90 degrees outside, lol!  Please continue to stop me on the course or in the clubhouse with any questions you might have.  

Happy St. Patrick's Day