Progress Report

The nice weather last week is much welcomed and an early spring means we were able to do a lot of work on the course last week. Plus the bonus of having college students on spring break was also a big help. Here is a look at some of the work that was done last week:

Over 500 linear feet of drain tile laid in 18 approach.

18 approach rough graded and prepped for bentgrass sod. Waiting for bentgrass sod . . .

Over 30 pallets of sod laid near areas of greens and tees on bare areas.

Prepped, graded, seeded, fertilized, and mulched areas behind #12-2 green, right of #14 green, and left of #11 fairway near the maintenance shop.

Bare turf area left of #12 green was leveled, drained and is in the process of being sodded.

Irrigation pump repairs made.

Irrigation system charged up for the season.

Primo/Proxy application to greens to suppress Poa seed heads.

#13-14 woods areas fertilized and seeded again.

Daily maintenance, cups, mowing greens, etc.

As you can see last week was a productive one, however their is still a lot of work ahead of us in the coming weeks. The good news is it early and in April we will see steady progress on the course. This week we will need to focus more attention to mowing and surface preparation as the warm weather has us over 5-6 weeks ahead of schedule. Believe it or not this week we will have to mow rough, last year it was first mowed in mid May, what difference a year makes!!

I will keep a steady flow of information and updates on the blog in the coming weeks . . . enjoy the early spring!

The XGD Difference

As we prepare the golf course for opening I thought it would be appropriate to briefly discuss how XGD drainage is doing on #9 and #12 greens. Once the snow melted and the frost dissipated it became clear that those two greens were the greenest coming out of winter. The reason being is that the soil temperatures were 8-10, sometimes 12 degrees higher than the other non-XGD greens. Because of the efficient evacuation of water, it warmed these greens up, whereas the other greens are still over saturated which in turn keeps the turf, at this time of year, cooler. The reverse will happen in summer were #9 and #12 will be cooler than the other greens because water moves down and out of the soil quicker. Moderating the soil temperature and avoiding over saturation, which was all to common on these two greens, will be a big plus going forward to providing better putting surfaces. Even though we have had XGD drainage in for a short time, I am pleased with the results. It’s amazing when you can take 2 of your wettest greens and make them some of your driest. What an investment in the long-term future of these putting surfaces.


The pictures are laterals where the drainage was installed, the replaced sod has all but blended in to the green and is level. The small holes you see are from the deep-tine aeration that was performed late last November. The holes are spaced out and the ground is soft so after a few greens rollings they should start to disappear completely.

Twitter

To help communcate daily I have added a Ridgeway Country Club maintenance twitter account. To follow daily maintenance and to get updates in real time sign up and follow. It's a great way to find out about frost delays, weather delays, carts no-carts and to check up on any other daily maintenance practices.

Their are 2 ways to receive these updates. One is by coming to the blog and looking at the top right corner of the page. All of my tweets will appear there automatically. The other option is to sign up and get these updates on your phone. Go to twitter.com, sign up and follow Ridgeway CC Turf and you should receive tweets automatically to your mobile device if you so chose. This is another tool we can use to help communicate daily activities and events. Thanks.

2012 Aeration

When golfers hear the word aeration they begin to cringe, to greenskeeper's, aeration is a way to help turfgrass plants become healthier and able to withstand the stress put on it by golfers, machines, and Mother Nature (See previous blog posts). In technical terms aeration has many different forms, some are more invasive to the playability of the course than others. Core aeration, the practice we have implemented the past couple of years on greens, is the most invasive and can take 2 weeks to 1 month to recover depending on conditions. This practice was necessary at Ridgeway to remove unwanted organic matter from our putting surfaces. Remember organic matter can hold water in the upper part of the soil profile and create problems in warm, humid and rainy weather. Because we have done a good job of removing organic matter we are now concerned with compaction, root growth, and water infiltration. We are now better served to go with a program that relies less on pulling cores (more invasive on playability) to solid tining, needle-tining or deep solid tining.

The past 2 seasons we core aerated greens a total of 4 times and in 2012 we are not core aerating putting surfaces. In lieu of core aerating we will be solid tine aerating more often with small needle tines, which has little if any affect on playability. This will allow us to grow roots down to 8", relieve compaction and dramatically improve water infiltration. Because our season is already short we will have minimal disruption in play on our greens in 2012.

In the future most of our practices will revolve around surface preparation. This means trying to grow the plant less, which intern produces less organic matter and thatch. Growth from excessive fertilization and excessive watering overtime only makes more thatch and organic matter. That means we need to core aerate more, verticut more, and topdress heavier to dilute and remove unwanted organic matter/thatch. This then means more interruption in playability to correct organic matter and thatch. By growing the plant less, fertilizing only to meet the plants basic needs, watering intelligently, and growing roots of the plants not shoots, we will have less need to core aerate our putting surfaces. Instead of 2 aggressive core aerations a season we will use small diameter needle tines more frequently. More aeration with little to no disruption means both superintendent and golfer are happy! !

This topic is one I will continue to discuss on the blog and if anyone has any questions on this or any topic I encourage you to call, email or stop by the shop I'd be happy to discuss them or show you around our maintenance facility. Thanks … golf season is just around the corner!

Busy Time!

Having worked in golf course maintenance all my life, their is never downtime on the golf course, even in winter. Typically at the golf season's end the greens and grounds committee, head golf professional, superintendent, and general manager walk the entire golf course and prioritize work they deem to be important to the golf course for the upcoming "off season." This year is no different than many, we have many improvements we are working on going into the 2012 golfing season. A list of work includes:

• Continuation of tree management in which over 50 trees were transplanted throughout the property (see previous posts).


• Drainage work on holes #11 and #18 (see previous posts). Later this spring behind #13 green and repairing the area in front of #18 green and adding much needed drain tile.


• Removal of the large brush pile near the maintenance facility so that we are able to create a large sod nursery.


• Preparing site plan for Schmaltz landscaping at 5/13 building. The plan is to improve the area around the building with some newer plants both annual and perennial. And getting a plan to enhance our new wildflower area near the pond on #13 by adding perennial plants on the southern end near the break of the hill. Because this is a large area, small clusters of plants will be planted every spring till it is filled.


• Repair and preventative maintenance on our existing fleet of equipment


• Grinding and sharpening of all of our mower reels and bed knives. Coming out of winter the reels are sharp and ready to go!


• Painting and repair of benches, ball washers, baskets, cups, etc.


• Checking and making improvements to our irrigation central control system.


• Snow removal.


• Meeting with vendors to make orders and talk pricing for the upcoming year.

This time of year also means budget time at Ridgeway. Labor, projects, capital improvements, and best practices are looked at in their entirety and up for review by the greens and grounds committee. Line item by line item is looked at and tweaked to fit the needs of the coming year.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and I am excited to start the golf season sooner than later!!

Tree Transplanting

Finally the ground is frozen enough to transplant some of our smaller trees to more desirable locations. On December 4th the greens and grounds committee took the time to decide which areas of the golf course needed a few trees to make up for some that we have lost. Instead of cutting down smaller trees that are poorly placed, we have decided to locate them in more desriable areas. About 45-50 trees will be transplanted throughout the property. The results are great and it is a program that we will continue to improve on year to year.

Drainage and Tree Management

Drainage



The greens committee and I have put drainage as one of our top priorities going forward. Many of our turf struggles are directly related to drainage and the lack of evacuating water efficiently. Two areas of the golf course that have been habitual problems for ponding and holding water are the top of #11 fairway and #18 North of the fairway. The picture top left is #11 and top right #18, notice how poor the turf quality is due to poor drainage.

The lack of snow and warm weather has allowed us to get most of the drainage in these two areas done. All that is left is sodding over the top of the drain lines, which will be done in early spring. This added drainage will help evacuate water rapidly and grow healthier, denser turfgrass plants.

Below the pictures show some of the work on #11/#18, most of the work was done by trenching and removing the native soil. Then 4" perforated drain tile was added with 3/4" stone and finally the top layer was back filled with soil, which is now waiting for sod. Also small 4" catch basins where added in low areas to remove surface water. The large tile shown in the pictures is 24" plastic culvert pipe that will act as a catch basin in the low area in #18 rough. We also install them in areas where a large number of tile lines meet like #11. We place these large catch basins in the rough in out of play areas. Once the drainage grate is installed, it will allow water in and not be a hazard for the golfer!




Other locations we are considering for drainage next year are: #18 approach/surround, #4 fairway low areas, #14 fairway/rough, and #16 fairway low area. As I mention these areas, we all know how bad they look and play, which is why we are making it such are large priority. We also are evaluating surface and subsurface drainage on our putting surfaces. The installation of XGD subsurface drainage on #9 and #12 is a great addition. In the future we hope to do more in realm of greens drainage both surface and subsurface.

Tree Management

Winter is a great time for tree management. Last week, I toured the course with the Greens and Grounds Committee as part of our ongoing tree management program. We analyzed nearly every tree on the golf course based on the following criteria: i) tree health; ii) effect on sunlight, airflow, and nutrients to fine turf areas; and iii) short and long-term effect on maintenance, playability, and design.

This winter, we will transplant 40-50 trees to more desirable locations throughout the property. Disturbed turf areas will be filled and prepared for sod so that course opening preparations are not delayed.