Tournament prep

The opening rounds of the Match Play Championship were this past weekend, with the final rounds this upcoming weekend. What does the Grounds department do differently to prepare for some of the more prestigious tournaments at Bretton Woods? Luckily, we don’t have a tremendous amount of extra work needed to get the course in shape for the event.

We have a full schedule of tournaments at Bretton Woods. Some of the tournaments are more casual and fun, while a few of them are true competitions to decide the year’s best golfer. We want the course to play well year-round, but we do like the course to shine just a bit more for some events compared to others.

Weather still plays the biggest role, no matter what tournament it is, especially those events during the summer. Pushing too hard for a one- or two-day event can cause damage that lasts for weeks. We are very cognizant not to overdue our maintenance at the expense of the rest of the season’s worth of golf.

Our other mindset is that we don’t ever want the course to get too far away from championship quality. Our championship quality is relative- we are not a tour stop for any events- but we do like to maintain a baseline that is very solid. Then, working from that point allows us to make small changes to peak during the event, rather than needing several weeks to prepare. We also don’t want the course conditions to bounce back and forth drastically. We want the course to play a notch or two different than everyday play, instead of being a completely different track.

To raise the bar for the big tournaments, our biggest change is mowing frequency for the in-play surfaces. Greens will be mowed every day, which is usually the same outside of tournament preparation also, but during the summer we do occasionally mow every other day. But tees, approaches, collars, and fairways will all increase frequency from 2-3 times per week, up to 4-5 times per week. This keeps the surfaces looking and playing their best. This is what we mean by tweaks instead of extreme changes. We don’t suddenly do things that we haven’t done all season. We don’t change the mowing heights by 50% or alter how we mow. The course plays very similar to how it has all year, but just a little better.

Tournaments are an exciting time, and we want the course to play well. But maintaining the course at a high level throughout the season enables us to make small adjustments for the tournament and still improve the conditions.

 

 

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please do not practice on the course. Taking extra shots leads to unnecessary divots and ball marks. Thank you

Also, as part of a Golf Committee initiative to improve course etiquette, we have included links to videos teaching proper on course etiquette. Please take a moment to watch:

Ball Marks - How to properly repair

Golf Cart tips

 

 

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Fall Bermuda grass preparations

We have been fortunate that the last several years have been some of the strongest Bermuda grass seasons we have ever seen. The Bermuda grass has been healthy and strong from April 1^st and that is a testament to the work we do at this time of year. Believe it or not, September and October are the two most critical months for ensuring healthy Bermuda grass the next season.

Air temperatures, soil temperatures, and day length all start to drop quickly in September. These are all triggers telling the Bermuda grass that it is time to prepare for cold and dormancy. Growth slows, the leaf color changes, and the plant starts to store carbohydrates for the winter rather than using its energy for aggressive top growth.

Knowing this, we try to give the plant as many vital sugars as possible at this time. We don’t want the Bermuda grass lacking for any nutrition as it prepares for the cold. In a similar vein, the plant also needs adequate water to move these nutrients throughout its roots and shoots. So, with these two ideas combined, over the next several weeks we will apply 2 different seaweed extract products and 2 different wetting agents to aid in carbohydrate storage and soil water retention.

The plant is also more susceptible to attack at this time too because it is not growing as vigorously. And this is precisely when the pathogen that causes Spring Dead Spot (SDS) infiltrates the Bermuda grass plant. Even though the symptoms don’t appear until the spring, the damage is caused now and into the early part of the winter. The pathogen is especially keyed in to soil temperatures and has a very specific range when it is most active. So, we start monitoring soil temperatures September 1^st and when we hit the threshold temperature, we make our applications.

Lastly, in response to the slowing growth, we adjust our mowing frequency also. We mow less not only because the plant is just not physically growing as much, but also because mowing is stressful and we want minimize stress as possible. The height at which we mow the Bermuda grass also changes. We raise our height of cut because the more leaf tissue that the plant has, the much better chance of winter survival it has.

Even though the Bermuda grass season is winding down, we are no less vigilant in our program. Properly caring for the Bermuda grass now is what helps set up a good season the following year.

 

 

 

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please do no practice on the course. Taking extra shots leads to unnecessary divots and ball marks. Thank you

Also, as part of a Golf Committee initiative to improve course etiquette, we have included links to videos teaching proper on course etiquette. Please take a moment to watch:

Ball Marks - How to properly repair

Golf Cart tips

 

 

 

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Leveling low spots in the fairways

One task that has been on the list for many years is to level low spots in the fairways. There can be many reasons why there are low spots: old drain lines, irrigation lines, settling of past repairs, or even simply uneven ground. We are not looking to make the fairways tabletop flat, some natural undulation is welcome, but we do want to eliminate the unnatural dips and low areas as best as we can.

These low areas can be handled in different ways, but we are choosing to add sand over the top of the turf and slowly raise the low section to match the surrounding soil. The other most common way to handle low areas would be to cut the turf off the top, add soil beneath, and level the spots in that manner.

Cutting into the turf and leveling the soil below would be very time consuming. Hand digging each low spot, some being long drain lines would take a lot of labor and would involve tearing into the fairways amongst play. And anytime you disturb the soil, you risk settling unevenly afterward. Lastly, ensuring the grass is level at the surface is difficult too, and to be done correctly also takes time and patience.  

You can see sand added to low spots in the 
foreground and background. The most sand is
added to the lowest point and then leveled. The Bermuda
grass will quickly grow through this sand and raise the
low point up.

Adding sand over the top eliminates several of those issues. We don’t have issues with freshly displaced soil settling after we finish. And the turf is never removed so there are no problems with it being replaced uniformly. Although we can add sand fast and work through the course quickly, results are slow. But the results are also more consistent, and finer adjustments can be made.

Our goal is to make it around the course twice in the last few weeks of good Bermuda grass growth weather. We don’t want the Bermuda grass growing too slowly to move over the top of freshly added sand and have it sit at the surface for weeks on end. Then we will pick up the work again next year and continue until we are satisfied with all necessary low areas being raised to an acceptable level for the surrounding grade.

 

 

 

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please do not drive carts into the tall grass native areas. Because the carts are low to the ground, grass gets caught in the front bumper and then falls off back out on the course. Thank you

 

 

Also, as part of a Golf Committee initiative to improve course etiquette, we have included links to videos teaching proper on course etiquette. Please take a moment to watch:

Ball Marks - How to properly repair

Golf Cart tips

 

 

 

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Green surround sod

As we near the end of summer, the course always has a few scars from the stress of the season. Fortunately, this year the playing surfaces have weathered the heat and humidity of summer very well. Nevertheless, we do have some recovery work to do, and last week we started repairing some green surround areas.

The location at #10 green sod was needed

Poa annua, the main turf species on our greens, can be a great turfgrass in some situations (like on our greens) or it can be a terrible turfgrass (like areas in our rough). The greens receive enough attention to prevent major issues with the poa succumbing to summer stress. However, in the rough, while it does receive care, the stresses placed on the green surround turf can overwhelm the poa, which is what happened in the few places that we made repairs.

We placed new sod in green surround spots at the putting green, 10, and #17. In each of these spots there were multiple reasons for the turfgrass decline- high traffic concentration, poor irrigation coverage, poor soil conditions, and more. But each of these locations also had higher than average poa infestations. Because of this, when the poa died through the summer, large bare areas were the result. There are some other bare areas scattered around the course, but most are much smaller and more spread apart, and those will be much easier to reseed in a couple of weeks. Trying to keep very small patches of new sod alive is very hard and we don’t want to remove large areas of healthy grass just to replace a small area of dead grass. So, we focused on the 3 areas mentioned above because they were much larger areas that could be easily corrected with new sod.

#17 green after sod was completed

We typically make these types of repairs to the green surrounds at this time of year. We have had seasons where we are doing multiple locations using several pallets of sod because they year had been so stressful and significant amounts of turf had died. Luckily that was not the case this year, and with the sod laid and starting to grow in, we are ready to head into late summer and fall in good condition.

 

 

 

 

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please do not drive carts into the tall grass native areas. Because the carts are low to the ground, grass gets caught in the front bumper and then falls off back out on the course. Thank you

 

 

Also, as part of a Golf Committee initiative to improve course etiquette, we have included links to videos teaching proper on course etiquette. Please take a moment to watch:

Ball Marks - How to properly repair

Golf Cart tips

 

 

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Accomplishing other tasks

Today we have a local USGA Mid-Am qualifier at Bretton Woods. Many players will take up the entire course for most of the day. The Grounds staff expertly prepares the course for the event, but then it’s too busy to continue regular work, so what do we do? We use events like this as opportunities to accomplish other goals around the property.

Having such a large property- about 200 acres of varying levels of maintained space- some areas don’t always get the attention they may need. On days when the course is extremely busy and trying to work around golfers becomes pointless, we direct our labor to these outlying areas.

Up on the hill, towards the front of the property is a walking trail. Throughout the season, the grass creeps in over the edges of the path. Busy golf course days are a perfect time to edge and clean this walk path. We can use most of our s
taff and tackle a large chunk of the path all at once. Across several golf course outing days, we can trim the entire length of the trail.

There are a tremendous number of trees on the property. Many of them are along the perimeter of the property and we do not spend much time attending those. However, there are still plenty of trees in open areas that need the grass trimmed around their trunk, as well as regular pruning to maintain a healthy tree. When the golf course is occupied, we can head out around the entrance, tennis, pool, and open spaces out front to work on this tree maintenance and care.

We also use events like this qualifier to work on the soccer fields. Starting in mid-August, the upper soccer field closes for 4-5 weeks for annual maintenance. We repair worn out turf, aerate, apply compost, and fertilize the field. All of that takes time and labor, which we often can’t afford during a regular day. But having to stay off the course presents a great opportunity to work on the soccer field and finish most of our goals all at once.

Even though the course is extremely busy, having such an expansive property makes our list of work never-ending. Using our full staff allows us to cross several things off that list quickly.

 

 

 

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please do not drive carts into the tall grass native areas. Because the carts are low to the ground, grass gets caught in the front bumper and then falls off back out on the course. Thank you

 

Also, as part of a Golf Committee initiative to improve course etiquette, we have included links to videos teaching proper on course etiquette. Please take a moment to watch:

Ball Marks - How to properly repair

Golf Cart tips

 

 

 

 

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org