Winter Maintenance

Inevitably I am asked every winter, “What is there to do at the golf course during the winter months?”  Simply put, a lot!

Painting

During the winter we bring all of our ball washers, benches, garbage receptacles, cups, flagsticks, and range tee dividers inside so they can painted.  All of the tee and green supplies get broken down, prepped, primed, painted and reassembled. Items like our range tee dividers get sanded, cleaned and receive several coats of stain/sealer. 

Equipment Repair and Maintenance

Ridgeway has close to a million dollars worth of equipment in the maintenance department and it is our job to preserve your investment.  One of the steps we take in preserving Ridgeway’s investment is preventative maintenance.  Throughout the offseason all of our preventative maintenance gets done on our equipment which includes:  oil changes, new filters, new bearings, hydraulic hoses, etc. are a few of the items that get replaced during the offseason.

A majority of our cutting units consist of reels and bedknives, both get taken apart and ground so that they are sharp once the season begins.  Each reel and bedknife is examined for age to see if any replacements are necessary.  Its takes months not days to look at every single piece of equipment and do the work necessary to have it working correctly when we need it perform at its best.  

Irrigation

We look into our central control computer which runs our irrigation to see if we can improve how our system runs. Every sprinkler can be tweaked to meet the demands of its particular environment. We can make adjustments if need be or reconfigure the system so we get the most out our watering.

House Cleaning

A majority of the work done this offseason is completed inside, because of that; we shuffle equipment around to make our work easier.  Once we get our painting and equipment maintenance done we clean/ organize our shop the way we would like it for the golf season.   

During this cleaning process we take inventory of irrigation parts, chemicals, fertilizer, tools, and supplies so that we know what we need once the hectic golf season starts. 

Tree Management

This season the greens and grounds committee has selected a few trees that had issues with the following:

1.       Dead or dying. A few of these trees on the property where completely dead.  Many of these where elms or ash which had succumb to disease.  The committee had concerns with safety because of falling limbs.

2.       Loss of form.  Many ash trees on the property where planted so closely together that they started to lose branches, or die off slowly.  Because these trees are weak, wind storms have made many of these trees hazards to the golfer and from an aesthetic point of view, ugly!

3.       Overcrowding. In few instances trees that are crowding other larger specimen trees were removed to allow for the longevity and vitality of our most prized trees.

This season’s tree removal is very small but a nice improvement.  It’s nice to see healthy trees that are allowed to now reach their full potential.

Along with a few tree removals we have also concentrated on removing overhanging limbs on the property. This will allow for greater playability and make mowing rough less dangerous for our employees. 

As you can see there is plenty of work that needs to be completed in the cold Wisconsin winters.  So much so that we have to make sure we stay on schedule so that it gets completed before our season begins.  So far we are ahead of schedule and we can’t wait for the 2014 golf season to begin!!

Transitional Period

The end of the golfing year brings a transitional period where the focus moves from surface preparation to gearing up for the winter ahead.  In many cases shoot growth of grass plants has stopped and mowing is not necessary.   Focus now lies in preparing for the upcoming winter months.  Here are many of the items that must or have been completed going into the offseason:

·         Mow native areas.  These areas must be mowed once a season preferably in the fall to help reduce weed populations.  It is also nice to thin out the native areas so that they do not become too thick. Burning also works but can negatively affect the fescue grasses which are the desired turf species in these native areas.  The choice to mow over burning is a better option to preserve the turf species that we desire. 

·        Irrigation winterization.  The entire irrigation system must be winterized and the water blown out of the lines so that it does not damage the piping system.  This task will take place November 11^th and 12^th.

·         Fall fertilization.  Shortly after plants stop growing is a great way to enhance root growth and strengthen the plants for the upcoming winter.  Because the shoots of the plants have stopped all of the nutrients are stored and used up in the roots which enhance overall plant health.

·         Snow mold.  A fungicide application to fairways, tees, approaches and greens for snow mold takes place shortly before the first deep freeze or snowfall.  All of these areas are sprayed to prevent snow mold.  This takes a coordinated effort because of the amount of leaves, shortness of the day, and air temperatures affect how and when the application will take place.

·         Sand topdressing.  As in previous years we will again be sand topdressing our tees, approaches and greens before winter to protect the crown of the plant from the harsh winter ahead.  This is also a great way to incorporate sand into our profile without affecting play since the course will be closed for several months.

·         Deep-tine aeration.  In conjunction with sand topdressing we also deep-tine our putting surfaces right after we close the golf course for the season. We have done this the past 3 seasons and our outstanding root profile is testament to how well this process works.  The side benefit is these deep 9-10” channels give water a place to hide during winter thaw cycles.  Water in these channels is better than pooling up on our putting surfaces, which can cause all kinds of winter kill issues like crown hydration and ice damage.

·         Leaf removal.  Most of the trees at Ridgeway lose their leaves late in the fall which means a majority of the leaf blowing and mulching will be done in November. 

The end of the season also means colder morning temperatures and frost delays. Please be reminded that frost delays are necessary to protect turf from injury.  On days when frost occurs, you can expect play to be delayed at least until 10 AM.   This past week the earliest anyone was able to tee off after frost was 9:30.  Just a reminder when scheduling tee times this late in the season.

Busy Times

It always seems fall is one of the busiest times for the greens and grounds department. The fall of 2013 is no exception as we have been very busy attending to small projects and areas of the course that need tender loving care.

Range Closure

The south half of the driving range tee is closed for the remainder of the 2013 golf season. The north portion of the range tee will stay open in the mean time.   The reason for the closure of one half is so that we can grow-in the south half of the range tee before winter.  Once the course opens in the Spring of 2014 we will flip and hit off the south portion and close the north portion. 

One of the problems with the range tee in the past is that it fills in nicely but the ground underneath is unstable making the ground explode after a shot.  In order to curtail this problem we are going to be using a more organic divot mixture (60% sand 20% topsoil and 10% peat) which will give us a few more advantages: i.) increase germination ii.) give us better water holding capacity which is more desirable in this instance iii.) provide more stability in the soil structure so that it holds together better.

Today we are heavily over seeding, fertilizing and topdressing with the new “organic” divot mixture.



Heavy topdressing with seed
mixture.

New divot mix!



 

Approach Aeration

Starting Sunday night we started core aerating our collars and approaches.  We core aerated from the last fairway sprinkler head up to the putting surface and around the collar.  It is a multi-step process which has went very smoothly so far.  Later this week we will be topdressing the approaches again to make sure all of the holes are filled.  You can expect collars/approaches to be heavily sanded for the next week until the area heals in and sand works its way into the turf canopy.

One of the goals going forward is to make our approaches play like our putting surfaces.  We want to achieve the same firmness from approach to green.  This will ensure a shot landing on the approach can reach the green.  So far in the past couple of seasons we have been able to add about 1” of topdressing sand to the surface of our approaches.  We will continue to strive to provide more consistency from approach through the green. 
 


Tony aerating #11 app.

Finished product.

Sod Nursery



As I have mentioned before the surface of the nursery is seeded.  After 8 days, we started to see seedlings emerge from the sandy surface.  By the start of next week we will be looking at giving the nursery its first mow.  The bluegrass and fairway portion are almost ready to be seeded and will be completed by the end of the week.  






8 days after seeding






 

Sod Nursery Project

Last Thursday we completed the greens portion of the sod nursery over by the maintenance facility. There are many steps and hard work that go into building a sod nursery. Here are some of the steps we have been working on in the past couple of weeks.

1. Leveled the sub grade with a bulldozer.
2. Removed large rocks.
3. Installed irrigation to the nursery which consisted of 600+ feet of pipe, several sprinklers, electrical wire and fittings to hold everything in place.
4. Added 3-4” of sandy loam mixture over the sub grade to the greens portion of the sod nursery. Presently our greens on the course have 3-4” of sand in the upper portion of its profile, we replicated that scenario on our nursery by adding this mix so that it matches perfectly with the greens on the golf course.
5. We compacted the sand and leveled it smooth.
6. Next we seeded the surface with an improved variety of bentgrass and added a starter fertilizer.
7. After seeding we used our sand pro rake with its knobby tires to make small dimples in the sand. This allows for a good place for the seed to germinate because these little dimples hold water and do not allow the seed to blow away or run off.
8. Over seeded the area again with an improved variety of bentgrass.
9. We covered the surface with our permeable greens covers to incubate the seedbed in cooler weather.
10. We have been watering the nursery light and frequently since seeding and covering the surface.

There is still some work to do before we seed the fairway and rough portion of the nursery. We have to level the surface and in some areas remove some small rock before we seed this portion of the nursery. Once completed we will have 13,000 square feet of greens sod, 7,000 square feet of collar/fairway sod and approximately 3,000 square feet of rough sod.  We hope to see some germination in the next month.

Thanks to all who played in the fall fling and supported this great long term investment!

Stay tuned for updates and pictures of this project.

Course Update 08/29/13

The big story the last couple of weeks has been the heat and humidity.  Overall the golf course has handled the heat very well.  The greens and tees are in very good shape.  The fairways are a little stressed particularly on holes and in areas where large trees are depriving fairway turf of much needed water.  We have been watering a lot however, we have to be careful to avoid disease (which tends to thrive on leaf wetness) and soaking low areas that are not drying out in this humidity.  Once the heat subsides and humidity normalizes the fairways will look much better.

We have been working on some smaller projects and have a couple of updates:

Deep-Needle Tine Update

The greens have healed in nicely from the deep needle-tining that took place on Monday.  The greens are smooth and very few tine holes are visible.   I will update the blog showing the root development within these channels in the upcoming weeks.

 Core aeration of trenches

Tuesday morning we core aerated greens where trenches are located on #4, #9, #12, and #17.  We cored aerated these areas to help level and blend in the sod and plugs.  After we removed the cores we sand topdressed, brushed out the excess sand and over seeded.  These areas are small but we will try to keep the hole locations on these greens far enough away so that it has minimal impact on play.

A couple days after deep-tining and no holes!

Core aerated area on #9 green

 

Sod nursery

This week we have be working near the maintenance facility on the new sod nursery.  Last week the area was rough shaped and the past few days we have been diligently working on fine shaping the sub grade.   The important thing is to remove as many large rocks as possible and smooth out the surface.  To best achieve this we are using a Harley rake to perfect the sub grade.

Early next week we will be installing the irrigation for the nursery.  And next Thursday and Friday we will be adding 90% sand and 10% soil mix to the top 3” to achieve the same soil structure as what is currently on our putting surfaces.   Once the 90/10 mix is leveled  we will be ready for seeding and growing the nursery.

Chris leveling the nursery.

Cart Path Expansion

Last week we added some crushed asphalt to #5/13 tee area.  This area receives a lot of cart traffic and felt it was a good area to expand.   5/13 cart path and the newly added cart path on #13 green need to be leveled, tamped and then seal coated.  We had some issues with our vibratory tamper and are looking to correct 5/13 tee to make it as presentable as #13 green cart path.

Have a great holiday weekend!  

Deep needle-tine aeration

Today we will be deep needle-tining our putting surfaces.  This process is one that we do several times a season, the last of which was in mid-May. It uses long solid tines to poke small holes into the soil.  This process is not core aeration where lots of soil is removed and picked up.  Deep needle tine aeration is minimally invasive and has very little impact on play when compared with tradition core aeration or standard deep-tining.  Heal in time after core aeration and standard deep-tine aeration is anywhere from 10-14 days whereas deep needle-tining is healed within a couple days.  

As far as playability goes the greens will be a bit slower and may be a little bumpy early in the week.  As the week progresses, the bumpiness will subside although some small holes may still be visible.   

It is important to understand that there are many types of aeration and that all of them are critically important for having healthy turf on golf courses.   We utilize all types of aeration at Ridgeway but use deep needle-tining as our preferred method on greens.  The reason we chose this method more often than others is because we are able to do it 5-7 times a season without impacting the playability of our putting surfaces.  Since going to deep needle-tining we have seen our roots double in length and increase in mass.  This has translated in healthier more robust turf for the long term.

For an explanation of the different aeration methods here is an article that may help:

http://grounds-mag.com/mag/grounds_maintenance_products_practice_aeration/

If you have any questions about aeration or any questions about the course in general feel free to email me anytime. Cheers!

It’s been awhile!

My lack of posting the past few weeks is not for a lack of activity on the golf course, quite the opposite, as we have been very busy nickel and diming little projects on the course.  Here is an update on some of the items we have tackled in the past few weeks:

• We added drainage to the wet area behind #13 green.  So far after a couple of storms the area drains perfectly.
• Added cart park area near the new drainage on #13, enhancing the overall function and aesthetics of the cart path.
• Added sod to numerous bare areas i.e. Area near #12 ladies tee.
• Removed stone and under brush near the parking lot landscaping and added mulch.
• Added copper sulfate and biological controls to lessen the amount of algae in the pond on #5.
• Removed pesky weeds in #13 native area.
• Removed suckers and low hanging branches on the course which includes the two large suckers near the pond on #13.
• Aerated newly sodded areas and raised the height of cut.  We did not fill in the holes with sand to allow for less scalping in these areas.

In the upcoming weeks we will be busy with a number of other items:

• Pruning dead and hanging wood from trees on the course. Also pruning overhanging branches on holes like #4, #11 and #18.
• Fill in soil around the new septic mound and planting native grasses which will hide the electrical boxes and other components.
• Fix a few of the faulty irrigation heads on the course.
• Prune areas around cart paths i.e. #14 green to #15 tee box.
• Core aerate, topdress and seed trench areas on August 26^th. Because these areas are small they should have little effect on play.
• Deep-needle tine and topdress all putting surfaces on August 26^th.
• Paint the trellis by the range tee.
• Work on the new sod nursery by the maintenance facility.