Clover

Clover is a hard weed to control and one that can be found almost anywhere on a golf course, including fine turf areas.  This time of year is a great time to spray for clover because its white flowers make it highly visible for spot spraying.  Fairways, tees, and rough are being spot sprayed for clover this week.  The product is very effective and kills off clover very rapidly, so we should see results soon. 

Irrigation or Irritation??

Since the beginning of May, we have received only 0.5" of rain here at Ridgeway – quite a change from the last two seasons.

In times like this, we use our irrigation system more regularly than normal.  Because of excess rainfall the last two seasons, there hasn’t been a need to run our irrigation system.  You may have noticed that we are in the process of repairing several irrigation issues on the course.  We are concentrating most of our efforts on installation of new sprinkler heads with proper yardage plates. 

You may see some small areas of exposed turf during replacement of the faulty sprinklers.  Also, if you play early in the morning (before 8 AM), you may see some sprinklers running to provide adequate water to areas that have been deficient in irrigation.  Your patience is appreciated while we are working on these issues.

One final note, areas that may appear a bit off color during these dry conditions just fine – they will green up quickly when we receive normal rainfalls. We will continue to water newly sodded areas to ensure that they remain healthy.  In the meantime, enjoy a little extra roll on your drives!

Walk Paths

Below is a picture of one of our walk paths.  As you will notice, like many on the course, they are starting to look bare and unsightly.  There are many reasons why some are becoming an eyesore: i.) less efficient irrigation in these areas ii.) lower height of cut which during drier times turfgrasses become thin.  iii.) compaction from carts, mowers, and walkers.

The last point is very important because members/guests tend to use the walking paths like cart paths.  This is not the intent of these areas and if people continue to drive down them it will only get worse. Please stay off of walking paths with golf carts as much as possible so that these areas can have a more attractive look. 

Natural Areas

This year the greens and grounds committee decided to bring back naturalized areas to Ridgeway Country Club.   Naturalized areas provide a host of benefits that can enhance the golfing experience.   Benefits include:  enhanced wildlife on the course, beauty (particularly in late summer when these areas turn brownish red), contrast/texture of grass types, and reduction in labor costs.  The reduction in labor costs mowing rough is one of the main reasons we have decided to bring back these ecologically friendly areas.   The areas that we have been selected for naturalization in 2012 are: behind #2/12 green, between #13/14/5 the area left of #15 fairway, between #16/7 fairway, left of #11 near maintenance and the new mound system on #18. 

Careful planning by the greens and grounds committee allowed us to select areas that will help reduce labor costs but rarely affect the golfer.   One thing we wanted to avoid is penalizing the golfer or having to look for balls in long rough.  The areas that have been selected are well out of play and will add a nice backdrop to the existing “maintained” turf.  Birdhouses have been added to these areas to enhance the amount of wildlife calling Ridgeway home.   So far every birdhouse is being utilized by mosquito eating bluebirds or tree swallows.

The beginning of this year is important because some of the areas were seeded this spring with a mixture of fescues and need to fill in over time to have a consistent look to them.   Examples are behind #2/12 and #13/14/5 area.  These areas will start to show maturity and once seed takes hold we will spray for weeds and it should look as good as the areas on #16.   Once these areas fill in they are going to help cut down labor costs while enhancing the natural landscape.

Memorial Day Weekend Update

Since I last posted a couple weeks back we have received little if any rainfall.  The past couple of weeks we have had to replace our well pump that fills our pond.  Unfortunately we had complications with the new pump.  We have had to ration the water focusing on greens first, tees second and then fairways last.  You may have also noticed a number of grounds employees hand watering fairways and tees to focus on areas that really needed the water.  Fairways have become very hard and a little off color, but still very healthy.  The good news is that the well pump finally got fixed last night and we where able to irrigate fairways for the first time this year.  Because fairways are very dry we plan to irrigate the next couple of nights to catch up.  Mother Nature looks like it might help us out as well, with good chances of rain in the next few days.  That being said our fairway, green and tee turf is very healthy with very deep roots which is always a good sign.

This spring has been a good one to get a lot of work done on the course.  A few items will be addressed in the next couple of weeks. 

1. Many of you may have noticed the new plants around Prindle's Pub, next week mulch and curbing is going to finish off this area. 
2. Our seeded areas are coming up nicely and this morning we are removing most of the netting and mulch.  Remember that these areas are still ground under repair. 
3. Many of our hole signs are out on the course however a few are absent because we need to relocate them to a better location.
4. This past week we have been working on repairing many of the sprinkler heads on the course we hope to rap that up soon and apply yardages to sprinklers that are currently missing yardage numbers.
5. A vast majority of the tree removal areas have been filled, seeded or sodded.  #13 still has some work to do and is a priority for us.  Also we will sod out the area in front of #5 fairway.

So far it has been a really good year! A lot has been accomplished and we hope to rap up these few small items so the membership can enjoy the rest of the golf season without interference.  Enjoy the nice weather we have been having and have a great Memorial Day weekend!   

Course update

 From Tuesday night thru Thursday Ridgeway received 4.5" of rain.  The heaviest rain came Wednesday night and Thursday morning where 3+" fell.  The course is flooded in areas and very wet.  Ridgeway will be closed for the second straight day.  We will concentrate our efforts on cleanup and water removal.  The pictures below tell the story! All pictures were taken Friday morning after a day of drying and still there is a lot of water throughout the course.



The bottom of the range looking at

one of the target greens.



Mud and debris from the storm.up.



#4 fairway at the bottom of the hill.
Over knee high water.



Looking at #11 green from the fairway













Roots!!

Last fall before we closed the golf course down for winter, we deep-tined our putting surfaces.  We went with 7/8" tines that went down about 10-11".  The main reason we did this was to avoid water ponding on our greens over winter.  The picture below will indicate we have another side benefit from last fall's deep-tine procedure, deep elongated roots.  The last couple of weeks we have noticed roots like the one in the picture coming out of the deep-tine holes.  This will have long lasting benefits as it is a great indicator of plant health. 

Next week we will again be deep-tining our putting surfaces.  No need to worry about playability since the tines will be much smaller and will have almost no impact on play.  But it will have a HUGE impact on increased root depth.  Look at it this way ... roots live in air not in soil.  Our soils here at Ridgeway are a heavy clay mixture, which makes it hard for roots to find away to go deeper because the pores (air spaces) are so condensed.  Our putting greens have about 3" of sand topdressing on top of a heavy clay subsurface layer. By poking holes down 8-12" we allow easier access for roots to grow deeper.  With that we also have many side benefits of less compaction, better water infiltration, and better gas exchange. Deep-tining is something we will do on a regular basis and I think you will like the results.

This is a picture of our cup-cutter.
Notice the long white roots hanging out the bottom!
The roots in the deep-tine holes are about 9-10" deep.
All the more reason this has to become a staple in our management program