Raising sprinkler heads

Happy Holidays.

Sprinkler head that needs to be raised

During the slower months of the winter, we try and tackle some of the projects that can’t be easily done during the summer. Repainting tee markers and ball washers are two indoor tasks that aren’t easily accomplished during the busy months because those accessories are needed on the golf course. As the weather allows we also work on some outside projects, like trimming trees, that are easier when there are fewer golfers on the course. This year, another outside task that we have started is raising sprinkler heads.

Another angle of sprinkler head that
needs to be raised

Over time, sprinkler heads settle into the soil or the soil around them is raised through topdressing and they become too low in relation to the surrounding area. This causes a couple of main issues. First, the coverage and uniformity of water distribution is severely compromised. The stream of water that flows from the nozzle can be deflected by the grass and soil that surrounds the sprinkler. This leads to poor coverage, some areas don’t receive the intended water because it is knocked down, and then it flows to an area that was already receiving water and that area becomes too wet. The wet areas are usually right near the sprinkler and a puddle will even sometimes form, impacting maintenance and golfers. Second, this wet area affects playability. The puddle that forms around the head can lead to poor conditions from which to hit or walk. The rules of golf provide for relief from standing water, but not form soggy soil where no water is visible, so we are working to eliminate overly wet areas that are a result of sprinklers.

There are roughly 1,100 sprinkler heads on the golf course. We are by no means attempting to raise them all. Most of the sprinklers on the course don’t need to be raised and it would take too long anyway. To start with, we are focusing on sprinklers around greens only, since these have the most impact for agronomics and playability; the most important turf to water on the course is the putting greens and the most important shots hit on the golf course are on or around the putting greens. Selecting these particular sprinklers first allows us to finish a segment of the irrigation system. Rather than start on the first head on the first tee and slowly work down the first hole, we are zeroing in on our most important area. If we simply worked in order it would take at least one full off-season to complete all low sprinklers on an entire hole, so it would be many years before we reached a problem sprinkler at 13 green for example.

Completed sprinkler

As mentioned, this project would be difficult during the busy golf season because our staff would constantly be in the way of the golfers. However, working on this project in the winter can be equally as challenging. Frost slows us down and frozen or snow covered ground stops us completely.  So far this fall/early winter we have raised 28 heads around greens and we are finished through #9. We will skip 11, 12, and 13 greens and save those sprinklers for construction time, so our goal is to finish all of the greens’ sprinklers by spring.

Another angle of completed
sprinkler

The relatively mild start to winter has allowed us to get a good portion of this project completed already. Mother Nature will put the brakes on us soon enough, but we will pick back up before the golf season kicks off next year.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please do not try and remove a flagstick that is frozen into the cup. Turf damage may occur.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Bermuda grass incursion on putting greens

You may have noticed that we have some Bermuda grass that has grown its way onto the putting greens. At this time of year it is especially noticeable. While it isn’t an immediate threat to the putting greens, it is concern we will address.

We have several tactics to deploy against the Bermuda grass. However, everyone must remember two important things: 1. Bermuda grass is almost 100% indestructible. It can be severely retarded and even killed down to the very deepest roots, but it will ultimately come back; 2. We are in no danger of Bermuda grass becoming the dominant turf grass on the surface of the putting greens. The putting green maintenance, combined with the weather is far too harsh for the Bermuda grass to tolerate.

Same photo as one to the left. The red line marks
the edge between ryegrass collar and
Bermuda grass approach. The Bermuda grass has moved
from the approach into the collar.

Now, we need to clarify that there are two separate circumstances related to Bermuda grass creeping towards, and sometimes onto the greens. First, there is the Bermuda grass that is coming from the approaches where Master Plan work has been completed and Bermuda grass sod was laid. This is Riviera Bermuda grass and is the same variety as the fairways and new tees. However, this is not the Bermuda grass that is creeping onto the greens. This Riviera Bermuda grass is moving in lots of directions, including towards the greens, but it has not reached yet, and we are working on keeping it away. Everywhere there is Bermuda grass that has reached the putting surface is a different scenario.

This second scenario is a completely different variety of Bermuda grass. It is a common Bermuda grass and has probably been on Bretton Woods property for many years, even probably prior to any Bermuda grass being seeded in the fairways. It takes a significant hit every winter and then coupled with the greens maintenance program, it has taken a very long time to reach the greens. But it had already reached the greens for at least the past 3 years (my tenure) and probably back into Bryan's time as superintendent as well. This past summer was a tremendous summer for Bermuda grass, so it reached in farther than it had in the past and was thus more noticeable, but it did not accomplish all of this solely this year.

Same photo as one to the left.
The red line marks the edge between ryegrass
collar and the putting green. The
Bermuda grass has moved from the collar
to the green.

Both situations are issues, and we are working on, or have developed a plan, to tackle each problem. The Riviera Bermuda grass that is moving in from the approaches is being dealt with in two ways. First, this past week, we seeded Bermuda grass spots in the collars with ryegrass. The seeder is 5 feet wide so only areas where we could fit the machine in were done, but we made passes straight across nearly every approach to sharpen the line between collar and approach. This is the first time we have tried this and the results will take time and even then may not be enough. So, we are also formulating a plan to sod out the Bermuda grass from the collars. This is the plan for the very narrow areas of collar where the seeder will not work. Our first step will be to salvage the ryegrass from the large approaches on 11 and 13 next year during construction. We will then replace Bermuda grass in collars with this sod. This will not complete all of the necessary areas though. Next, since ryegrass sod is not readily available for purchase, the plan is to use Kentucky bluegrass sod, which looks very similar, and then seed ryegrass directly into the sod. Using sod will give the instant completion, but Kentucky bluegrass does not perform very well in this region, so we will immediately get ryegrass seed in as well. If the seeding we did does not perform well enough, we will sod some of those areas as well by the same process. Sod work that is not completed using repurposed grass from holes 11 and 13 will wait until the fall of 2017 and beyond.

Same photo as one to the left. The red circle
shows where the Bermuda grass that is currently
in the collar originated. The Bermuda
grass started in the rough and did not
come from any sod associated with
the Master Plan.

Our more immediate tactic for targeting the Bermuda grass that has actually made it onto the putting surfaces will be in progress over the next few weeks. We will be physically cutting and removing the Bermuda grass that has stretched onto the greens. We waited until now because we want to use the cold weather to our advantage. In the summer, we cut (verticut) the Bermuda grass to invigorate its growth and doing the same thing in the cold weather will either entice the Bermuda grass to try and grow or leave it vulnerable to damage from cold temperatures. Either way, the Bermuda grass is injured significantly, possibly even more so as winter wears on, and thus set back next year. We will fill in the voids with a mix of sand and bentgrass seed. Again, we will not be able to remove all of the Bermuda grass, but what we don't remove is hopefully stunted next year, and what we can remove is replaced with bentgrass.

Unfortunately, there is no curtain that will entirely prohibit Bermuda grass from moving in different directions. This will be an ongoing issue that we have to manage. However, we do expect to be able to manage the issue as we move forward.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Winter cart path rules are now in effect in order to protect the dormant Bermuda grass.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Fall wrap-up

As the season winds down, rather than focus on just one topic this week, the Grounds blog will cover several things that have been going on in our department.

Work continues on the bunkers on #8. Cleanup of the trash material is down to the final few loads and sod work will begin in earnest this week. Sod will be completed as quickly as possible. Right now, our only hold-up is balancing labor hours between the bunker project and regular course maintenance, with blowing leaves being our biggest time consumer right now.

Speaking of leaves, we continue to battle the yearly chore of moving leaves from one place to another so that we can pick them up and get them off the course. You can read more in-depth about leaf cleanup here. The last 10 days have seen a great deal of leaves fall because of some of the blustery days we have had. This is good and bad; good: wind brings the leaves down and helps to shorten the “leaf” season. Instead of the leaves falling for two and a half months, the timeframe can be shortened. Bad: trying to move leaves around when the wind is blowing hard and constantly shifting. Sometimes it seems futile to even try. And when it is calm enough for us to blow, it usually means a cold morning.

Cold mornings mean frost. This word is hated by golfers and maintenance departments alike. Golfers don’t like to be held up and we don’t like the mad scramble that ensues trying to get the course ready. Click here to read more about fall frosts in particular. We constantly push to get the course opened as early as possible. The stressful part, though, is that we are dealing with a condition that if not handled properly, can actually kill the very grass we try desperately to keep alive and maintain. Every second and minute counts for us and the golfers when dealing with frost, too soon and we could have damage, too late and everyone is frustrated. So far we have had 4 frost delays this fall, but only one significant one. They will only get worse form here though, so please be ready on cold mornings.

Lastly, we fertilized greens this past week. Similar reasoning is involved for fertilizing the greens as was discussed for fertilizing the rough last week. While the products are different, the science behind the decision is the same. The greens have come to the end of a long summer and fall, and are due for some food. We “spoon-feed,” meaning we give tiny amounts of soluble fertilizer, during the season, but this application is for the remainder of the year and into spring.

As the seasons change, so do some of our tasks. Instead of many hours mowing and watering, now we have many hours blowing and working on projects, but we never run out of things to keep us busy.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please leave bunker rakes inside the bunkers when you are finished.

Note: Starting in November, through February, posts will be reduced to once per month. Thank you.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Painting the maintenance building

It is fortunate that at Bretton Woods, the maintenance facility is well secluded from the golf course. It is located out of view and is not an eyesore. Nevertheless, making sure that the building is still maintained and remains as attractive as possible is important. That is why this fall we had the exterior of our building painted.

Some golf course maintenance buildings are located centrally on the course. While this is convenient for the grounds staff in travelling to each area of the course, it is difficult to hide the building. Great care must be taken to block the view of the building so the building doesn’t detract from the golf course. We do not have to go to any great lengths to hide our building though.

Not only is our shop located far to one side of the course, but we have a couple of other factors working in our favor. First, the building is built at the bottom of the driving range, which as many of you know, is on a hillside. A portion of the hillside was carved out and the building was set into the hill, giving a natural cover to the facility. Second, several trees were planted or left standing around the building to provide cover as well. A new coat of paint has only enhanced the cover already provided from the hill and trees. We went from a light mint green that contrasted the trees and grass, to a nice hunter green that fits in much better.

Painting the shop has helped blend the building in even more to its surroundings and has given it a new look. Even though our shop is not the most highly visible, a fresh coat of paint has gone a long way in upgrading the home base of the Grounds department.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please leave bunker rakes inside the bunkers when you are finished.

Note: Starting in November, through February, posts will be reduced to once per month. Thank you.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Fall fertilizer

We finally seem to be in the fall season (despite the forecasted temperatures of this upcoming week!). We have had our first light frost, and the leaves are all turning. We have turned our attention away from the Bermuda grass for the season now and are focusing on the cool season grass in the rough and on the greens. One of our yearly tasks at this point is to get our fall fertilizer out in the rough.

Fall is one of the best times to fertilize the rough. Temperatures have cooled and the growing conditions are terrific for the cool season grass. There are still 2-3 weeks of growing time left in the year before the cold really sets in. Part of the fertilizer we put down at this time of year is released to the plant and carbohydrates are stored for the winter. Root growth is also increased and it helps the plant prepare for winter, but also helps the plant prepare for next season as well. With stronger roots now, the plant will start spring off strong and ready to handle the heat stress of the next season.

About half of the nutrients are released in the first 3 weeks after being applied. However, the other half is a slow-release formula that lasts through the winter and even into early spring. The chemistry of the slow-release is soil temperature dependent, so as the temperatures get very cold, the release of nutrients stops. When soil temperatures climb again in the spring, nutrients begin releasing again. What we end up with is a nice curve of available nutrients for the rough that matches the late fall, winter, and early spring growth habit of the grass. By applying the fertilizer now, we get the nutrients into the soil so that they are ready for the plant when needed.

Even though it seems the summer of 2016 barely ended, we are already putting measures in place to make the summer of 2017 better. Fertilizing the rough now will help us build a strong stand of rough for next year.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please leave bunker rakes inside the bunkers when you are finished.

Note: Starting in November, through February, posts will be reduced to once per month. Thank you.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Ball mark seeding

Every golfer knows about ball marks. They know they are supposed to fix them each time one is made and most golfers know how to fix a ball mark properly. However, as any golfer or Superintendent can tell you, the number of people who fix their ball mark is far less than the people who know they should. As a result, the Grounds department tries to aid in ball mark repair.

If we are out doing maintenance on the greens and we see fresh ball marks, we repair them. This is much more difficult in the summer months when our time is stretched thin already. Spending time scouring the greens looking for every ball mark that needs to be repaired is not our best use of time. If we can spot two or three per green as we work, we are making a difference.

However, in the spring and fall, when we save time by not managing the Bermuda grass, we can spend more time on fixing ball marks. We continue to fix marks that are fresh and easily repaired, but we also spend time adding a sand and seed mixture to those pitch marks that can no longer be repaired. We recently bought a tool designed specifically for this task. It is a small tube that the sand/seed mix is loaded into. Placing one end over a ball mark on the green, we push and release the top of the tube and a small amount of our mixture is released into the ball mark. We smooth out the pile in the ball mark so our mowers don’t hit it and we move on to the next mark. It is quick and easy.

We use bent grass seed in the sand and seed mix for two reasons. First, we have two types of grass on our greens: bent grass and annual bluegrass. Annual bluegrass is not available for purchase, so that leaves us with bent grass only! More importantly though, even if we could buy annual bluegrass seed we would still buy bent grass because it is a superior grass species for putting greens. Bent grass is more disease tolerant, more drought tolerant, and an overall more preferred putting surface. So, the great thing about adding the bent grass seed to our ball mark fixing program is the addition of more bent grass into the greens. While, we are nowhere near changing all of the grass on the greens over to bent grass, any more that we can add will slowly help the greens.

While we are excited about the opportunity to continue to add bent grass to the greens, we realize that not every ball mark that we seed will germinate perfectly and fill in as 100% bent grass. Under normal putting green management, it is very difficult to get seed to germinate, grow, and survive in the same circumstances as mature turf. Regular mowing, infrequent watering, low fertility, and regular golfer traffic are all factors working against the seedlings. If we were trying to get all of the seed to germinate and mature, we would have to mow less, water much more often, fertilize, and manage play either by closing a section of a green or an entire green. None of these steps are necessary simply for ball mark healing. However, the sand portion of our sand and seed mix is important also. When the seed does not work out, the sand still fills in the depression of the ball mark, which provides a smoother putting

surface. Also, having the sand in the ball mark makes it easier for the surrounding grass to grow into that area and heal itself. Over time, our greens heal ball marks effectively without any help from us; otherwise there would be ball marks everywhere, which isn’t the case. But, having the ability to add some seed can only help.

Last week, we finished seeding ball marks on the entire course. Over two days, we spent about 7 hours to fill every one we could find. We plan on doing this 1-2 more times this fall/early winter. It has served as a great visual reminder of how many ball marks there are that go unrepaired. We will continue our maintenance of ball marks, but any help from players only benefits their putting.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please leave bunker rakes inside the bunkers when you are finished.

Note: Starting in November, through February, posts will be reduced to once per month. Thank you.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Native area mowing

Across the golf course, we have certain areas that we leave un-mowed through the season. We have been working to make those areas more “native grass areas” rather than “wild areas.” This year we tried a few new steps to get to the results we want. There was some success, but overall we did not achieve the look we hoped for. As we head into fall, we are starting to mow down these un-mowed areas as part of the small amount of regular maintenance that we do perform.

Native grass to the left of #18 tee

The native areas on our course were born to try and save resources- labor, time, fertilizer, etc. - and have accomplished that goal. You can read more about our concept of the native areas for Bretton Woods here. As we balance keeping the inputs minimal but still having an aesthetically pleasing product, each year we have to make adjustments and find creative ways to manage the native areas. Our plan for this upcoming fall is to get two separate cuts done on all of the native areas, which is double what we have done in the past.

In the next couple of weeks we will be mowing down the vegetation in the native areas. Then, towards the middle of November (weather permitting) we will try and get a second cut. We hope this second cut will be very damaging to any weeds that regrow after the first cut. By cutting the weeds a second time, especially while it is, or soon will be cold, any weeds that may try and live through winter will now be particularly susceptible to death instead. A second mowing in the late fall will also start us off in a better situation in the spring. We will be able cut again in the spring before too much growth has occurred and get an early handle on any new weed growth.

Native area between #16 and 17

While it is a slow process, mowing is the easiest way to manage the growth of the native areas. By adding in at least one additional cut, we hope that it will help save time down the road, as well as provide a better product going into next year.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please leave bunker rakes inside the bunkers when you are finished.

Note: Starting in November, through February, posts will be reduced to once per month. Thank you.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

#8 bunker project

Fall is a great time for projects. The weather is cool, with occasional rain. The stresses of the summer that require most, if not all, of our attention start to fade away, so our time can be directed to other aspects of the course. We have several small projects planned this fall, but our one main goal is to redo the bunker faces of all the bunkers on #8.

Similar to what we have done in the past, we will be renovating the worn out edges of the bunkers on 8. Please read two previous blogs we have posted for more in depth details of the process, here and here. We started this process last fall and it went so well that we were able to finish holes 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9. All of these holes were the first to be renovated as part of the Master Plan, and have reached the age that the edges were due to be cleaned up. We had initially planned to do #8 last fall, but that didn’t work out. Then we planned to do it this past spring, but that didn’t work out either! Between all of the other projects we were working on, and a warm spring that jump-started the Bermuda grass, we ran out of time to get #8 finished.

This fall, though, #8 bunkers are at the top of the list. Over the next few weeks you will see the Grounds department staff working through these bunkers. As the project progresses, one or two bunkers may be in a state of repair for a period of time. The bunkers in which we are working will be ground under repair, and will have a sign marking them as such.

Weather permitting, we expect to finish by the end of October, just in time for the sod to heal before the weather turns really cold.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please rake your entire disturbance within the bunker, including all of your footprints, not just the area from where you hit.

Note: Starting in November, through February, posts will be reduced to once per month. Thank you.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Weather station

The weather drives nearly every decision we make. Do we mow or roll greens? Or both? Or neither? Can we mow fairways? Or are they too wet? Or do we have to mow them today before they get too wet? Do we need to make a chemical application before a storm? All of these questions and more are determined or guided by the weather. Recently, we upgraded the weather station at the Grounds department facility to help us with some of these questions.

We check the weather multiple times a day. Here are a couple of past posts, one about dry weather, another about wet weather, and a third about cold weather and how these conditions affect the course. We use several online resources, including weather.gov, weather.com, and others. We also subscribe to a weather service that gives us twice weekly video reports plus any alerts for hazardous conditions. Each of these adds a piece of information to the puzzle, yet none of them is on site; we use them to compare and contrast to one another to come up with a general idea for the weather at Bretton Woods. But, we also use our on-site weather station to complement the other sources as well.

Digital display in the office

Our new weather station is an AcuRite brand wireless station. It detects all of the basic weather variables like temperature, humidity, wind, and rain, along with a list of other useful information that it provides. It comes with a color, digital display for the details, which sits in the office. Again, we add this to all of the other information what we gather to make our decisions. One of the coolest upgrades that our new weather station provides, is its ability to be linked online. We can check the current weather at BWRC from any computer, tablet, or smartphone. Computers and tablets link online through an AcuRite supported site to which our weather uploads. For the smartphone, AcuRite has a free app that we have downloaded. Once we sync the app to our specific weather station, we can check the weather on our phone from anywhere. Lastly, online and through the app, we can set alarms when certain conditions are met. For example, we can set an alarm for a pre-determined amount of rain and, once we receive that amount, the system automatically emails or texts whomever we have set as the recipient.

With this information we can make a quicker judgement about all of our agronomic decisions. If we received a large amount of rain, we can plan accordingly. Perhaps the amount of rain has made it too wet to mow; knowing this information sooner may allow us to alert our staff and have fewer employees come to work and save the hours for a drier day. It can also aid in communicating to the membership regarding course conditions. Using the same rainstorm example, knowing sooner allows us to update the website and Pro Staff that we are likely cart path only, or vice versa, determining that we dodged a storm even though they were very nearby.

Very rarely is too much information a bad thing. In our case, having weather details from many places helps us to fill in the blanks regarding what is happening at Bretton Woods and how best to react. We can’t predict the weather yet, but our new weather station should help us monitor it better.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please rake your entire disturbance within the bunker, including all of your footprints, not just the area from where you hit.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Nutsedge

Nutsedge is a particularly pesky weed. It pops up nearly everywhere, is very unsightly, and can be difficult to manage. Lately, due to the scheduling and delaying of some of our regular mowing practices, the nutsedge has become very apparent across the golf course. We are in the midst of eliminating as much nutsedge as possible.

Nutsedge is not a grass or broadleaf weed, it is a sedge, and thus behaves much differently than other plants. It grows rapidly; often reaching 2-3 inches above the turf grass in a short time, and thrives in the warm summer months. It has a very light, lime green color compared to the turf grass and sticks out very prominently. The plant produces tubers in the soil that can turn in to hundreds of new plants and these tubers can survive several years in the soil before germinating.

If you have been out on the course lately, it is likely you have seen the nutsedge in many locations. One of the main reasons it has been so apparent is that we have adjusted our mowing schedule slightly recently. The seed that we planted around the greens has emerged and is growing well. As a precaution so as to not injure the new seedlings, we have limited our mowing around the greens to 1 time per week. Putting less stress on the new seedlings will help them establish and reduces the risk of tearing them out of the ground with a machine. Unfortunately, this has allowed the nutsedge to shoot up and be very noticeable. A similar scenario has unfolded in the rough around the tees. In this case, we have simply reduced our mowing frequency to focus on other aspects of course maintenance.

We have seen the nutsedge emerge in many places, but two of the more consistent problem areas we see are the new construction areas. First, sometimes when the soil is turned and graded for construction, dormant tubers in the soil are exposed and can break dormancy and begin to grow. This is partially to blame for the many new nutsedge plants that can be seen on the newest holes. Similarly, nutsedge can be transported in the sod we lay for construction. As the sod begins to root, new nutsedge plants will spring up as well. Unfortunately, neither of these situations can be prevented, but our treatment will include these areas as well.

We have now treated the nutsedge in the green surrounds and those plants will be dying soon. We will be treating the tee surrounds this week and we expect to see similar control within a few days. We use a specific chemical that targets nutsedge and nutsedge only. It is designed to be safe on nearly all turfgrass and can be sprayed directly over the top. While the chemical is very effective at killing nutsedge, that is all it is effective at managing, so it is a very specific treatment that only targets the one pest.

Visually, the nutsedge is as ugly as any other weed. We will be continuing our treatment of the nutsedge in the next few days.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please rake your entire disturbance within the bunker, including all of your footprints, not just the area from where you hit.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

New cart paths

As one of the final touches to this year’s construction on the golf course, we had some new paving done around the clubhouse. The new work tied together access from the Proshop towards the driving range tee, up from 18 green, and out to the parking lot. This was a much needed upgrade.

Particularly after leaving 18 green, the cart path was severely crumbled as well as much too narrow compared to the rest of the paths. We also dealt with a great deal of erosion along the edges of the path. Not only did this continue to degrade the asphalt itself, but it also washed quite a mess of soil, mulch, and other debris down into 18 fairway. When the new paving was done, we adjusted the sideways slope of the path to better control where the water flows. We also filled in eroded areas with fresh soil and re-mulched the area. We have already made it through a couple of pretty intense rain events with virtually no washouts.

Further up the hill, widening the cart path has given drivers much more room to maneuver their carts while staying on the path. In the past, the narrow and bumpy path, led to many people driving half on the path and half on the grass, or avoiding the path and driving on the grass completely. In that particular area, the wear on the grass was especially noticeable as well as destructive. We dealt with higher weed pressure from the compacted soil as well as muddy conditions after rain. Now, there is very little reason to not remain on the cart path after finishing on 18 green.

Visually, completing all of these sections of path has now given a much cleaner look from the clubhouse. Although the entire stretch of path was not redone, all of the worst areas were removed and replaced and tied in with existing path very smoothly. Now, looking out from the clubhouse, nearly all of the cart path you can see is older, but in good shape or is new, including near 1, and 10 tees, which were done last year.

Happy Labor Day.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please rake your entire disturbance within the bunker, including all of your footprints, not just the area from where you hit.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Bioswale

Summer is still going…so there has been less time for blog writing and more time for watering and keeping things alive. Construction finished up last week. The improvements were tremendous and we look forward to incorporating everything into our routine.

The last few days of construction consisted of finishing the bioswale. We will not go into too much detail regarding why we needed the bioswale, but it is a LARGE trench. It is 3.5’ deep, with 1’ foot of gravel at the bottom with a pipe, then 6” of sand, then 2’ of topsoil, then sod over the top. The idea is that water will drain onto the sod, filter down through the different layers and either be incorporated into ground water and never leave our property, or be completely clean if it does leave.

The bioswale looks far less imposing now than it did while it was under construction. So, since we are busy and the blog ideas are running thin, we will have a lot of pictures of the bioswale under construction to give an idea of the amount of earth moving that took place.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please do not climb up the steep face of the bunkers.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Recovery programs

August is winding down, which is surprising because it felt like it just started. We are managing the turf one day at a time right now. For the most part we have survived summer pretty well up until now. Bermuda grass is doing excellent, and greens are pretty good. One aspect that has suffered is anywhere we have ryegrass. Tee boxes on holes 5-9 and 11-13 have all declined in the last few weeks as well as spots on collars. Any ryegrass in the rough around the greens has also declined recently. This is not the first time this has happened and we are not making any excuses; we are as frustrated and embarrassed to see it is as you are.

We will be selecting a few more tees on holes 5-9 to convert to Bermuda grass this week. The ryegrass is an under-performing grass in the heat of the summer and requires more attention than we are sometimes able to give, and sometimes even declining with attention anyway. We have not determined exactly which tee boxes will be converted just yet. Once we do, the tee markers will be moved forward and backward to other tee boxes as the new sod heals. In previous years, when we have made this conversion, the new sod takes 10-14 days to be ready for play again, so this will not be a long-term inconvenience. All of the tee boxes have recently been reseeded to improve the turf cover heading into fall, and those that are not selected for conversion will begin to heal and fill in with new grass.

We will also be spot seeding the collars where the ryegrass has failed. Again, this is a combination of scenarios that caused a decline in the quality of turf grass. We expect the upcoming cooler daytime and overnight temperatures this week, as well as into September, to aid in recovery of the collars.

The rough around the greens has again started to suffer from the heat as well. While we are pleased that some of the changes we made from last year to this year did help, we are nowhere near satisfied with the quality of the current product. You can read here about some of the reasons for the decline and some of our recovery strategies. This season we also spent more man-hours hand watering the rough immediately around the greens. We saw a tremendous benefit from this and it is something we will continue to do. The linked post also talks about the adjustment of certain sprinklers, which helped, but we also changed the nozzles in those sprinklers to control how far the water is sprayed. We found that in many cases the water was being delivered too far away from the green. Our thought was that it is more important for the grass closest to the green to be the best rather than the grass a farther distance away. For example, previously the sprinklers were doing a great job of watering the grass 75 feet away from the green, but a poor job of watering 25 feet from the green. By adjusting the nozzles we have helped shore this up. Finally, we did spot seeding in the past around the greens, only in areas that were bare. This year we will be doing multiple passes the entire way around the green. We will use tall fescue seed which is much more heat tolerant than the ryegrass.

This picture is prior to switching nozzles. You can see that nearest the green and farthest from the green are the healthiest. However, the middle section, between the two lines, is suffering. We made the decision to force the grass that may suffer further away from the green, which is shown in the second picture.

This picture was taken this summer, our first summer with the new nozzles. You can see that our strategy has improved
the conditions nearer to the green. Now, the turf that is suffering from drought stress is the farthest grass from the green,
and will have the least amount of impact on playability.

The golf course has its black eyes right now. We have started or will start a recovery program for each aspect that has suffered. We also have taken into account things that have worked this year to help us heading into next year, as well as things that may have worked against us. We continue to strive for improved conditions each day.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please do not climb up the steep face of the bunkers.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Power outages

As I write this, we are just getting reorganized after dealing with a power outage early this morning. There are a couple of extra concerns that the Grounds department has to be aware of whenever we have a power outage at the course.

Power outages can happen from the strongest wind storms or from the slightest breeze. A dead branch that is caught in the wind just right can fall across the power lines and knock our power out in an instant. In this case, last night, we had a decent thunderstorm roll through in the evening. Strong winds were the culprit this time. First thing when we arrived this morning we knew the power was out because our outside motion lights were off. However, a quick check of the property told us that power was only out to the maintenance facility and tennis, not to the clubhouse or pool. Since our power enters the property from several locations to feed our different buildings, when only one section is out, it means that power can more easily and quickly be restored.

Our first concern is whether the irrigation system had a chance to run before power was lost. Depending on when the cycle was scheduled to start and when the power went out, we try and reconstruct the chain of events. If we happened to have a dry storm, or we were only just hit by the edge of the storm, this becomes even more critical. Last night, the power went out before our irrigation ran, but luckily we did get a small amount of rain. If we had not received rain, we would have been scrambling to get all of our watering done as soon as the power returned. This can be very difficult because our full cycle of irrigation usually runs anywhere from 3-6 hours. The later in the day the power comes back on makes fitting this in, amongst golfers and the heat, increasingly difficult.

Another concern that we have is ensuring that our backup generators for the club’s well and wastewater treatment plant are operating. We have regular maintenance performed on these machines and both are setup to automatically engage when power is lost. These two generators are also fed from different power sources, so knowing what sections of power are out across the property is again important.

Lastly, if power is lost to the tennis bubble, we check to make sure the bubble backup generator is operating as well. If the bubble loses air pressure and begins to deflate, damage can be done quickly. The interior lights can be damaged when they hit the ground. Also, the bubble material itself can be punctured from falling down on the net posts.

Many of you probably remember storms much worse than last night. We were lucky to only have power out for a few hours, enough rain fell to not warrant a full irrigation cycle, and all of our generators operated as expected. Big storm or little storm, it keeps us on our toes though.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please do not climb up the steep face of the bunkers.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Driving range holes

More worn areas.

We completed aeration this past week and it went well. We expect all surfaces to heal quickly and playing conditions to return to normal heading into the busy fall season.

Examples of the worn areas.

We used hollow tines to aerate greens this fall, as we do each spring and fall. This means that the tine actually pulls material out of the green that we then collect and remove. Each year we use this material for different purposes. In the past we have filled stump holes or filled in wet areas along our maintenance roads. This material is actually a great way to build a nursery green as well. However, this year we stockpiled all of the material to fill holes on the driving range.

Over the years, wear and tear from picking range balls has caused grass to die. When the soil has no cover to protect it from the elements it can erode and a hole starts to form. Continued traffic from the ball picker continues to deepen the hole, grass struggles to reestablish itself, and a vicious cycle continues. This is not the fault of anyone; the range has to be picked, and that practice is tough on the grass. And, while our driving range is functional, it is not a top-tier practice facility. We choose to spend our resources on other aspects of the course and the property, so the grass suffers slightly. Yet, this does not mean that when given the opportunity, don't look for ways to make the driving range better.

Using the material removed from the greens this fall, we will start to fill some of these holes. The cores from the greens will be dumped into these holes, packed down, and seeded. The cores do a great job of beginning to grow on their own, and the soil that comes with them is very fertile. The seed we add takes advantage of this fertile soil and combines with cores to provide a full ground cover.

Our pile of cores.

This project may seem low-priority and unnecessary, but it is a problem nonetheless. It also is a great use for the cores. Instead of wasting their potential, we find a useful place that helps solve a problem on the driving range. This is not a one-time fix though. There are far more hole than we will be able to fill this year. We will barely make a dent, but it is a start.

A filled and seeded hole.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please do not climb up the steep face of the bunkers.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Construction and aeration

July was a hot month; we are glad to see it behind us. As August gets under way, we have a busy stretch ahead of us so there are just have a few notes from the Grounds department for this week’s blog.

The first week of August is course aeration. We will be aerating greens, tees, and fairways. We strive to always have at least 9 holes open each day Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday are reserve days in case we have any equipment or weather related issues. You can read more about our fall aeration practices here. We appreciate your patience while we perform this necessary cultural practice. Please check in with the Proshop for additional updates regarding aeration.

The reserve days, Wednesday and Thursday, also allow us time to work on other projects while we are in maintenance mode. We will be doing some seeding, major work on the upper soccer field, and spreading compost. The link is to a post about the Orgro compost that we did two years ago and provides some basic ideas to why we are using compost on the fairways. We are not using Orgro this year. Instead, we are using our third different material in three years and we expect this to be the best material yet.

We are also well into this year’s Master Plan construction work. #2 has been opened for regular play. The new sod around the green and bunkers is growing in great and is ready for regular traffic. We will start rotating back and forth between the two separate tee boxes also, so watch for the signs.

#18 tee has just a small amount of sod to finish around the tee boxes and it will be complete. The Bermuda grass is already growing on the tee surfaces, so we expect to open them soon. We have already top-dressed them, and once they dry out from the recent rain, we will roll them and mow them.Then, going forward, we will perform modified maintenance on the new tees. They will be mowed at a much higher height of cut for the remainder of the season in order to protect them before winter. Barring any setbacks, we expect to open the new tees for the weekend of 8/6.

Construction continues to progress up 18 fairway. The new fairway bunker has been built and sod has been laid around the perimeter. The recent rain has plagued us on this portion of the work. Two separate storms, one that dumped 2.5” and another that hit us with 1.15”, have really slowed us down. However, progress is still being made, and this upcoming week the crews will continue placing drainage in the fairway, as they work towards the green. Next, the approach bunkers will be taken out on the left and 1 new bunker built on the right. From there, work will continue to the green where each bunker will be demolished and rebuilt.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please do not climb up the steep face of the bunkers.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Ball mark repair

Ball mark just after the ball has struck the green

Ball marks have increased tremendously on #2 green, due to more people playing over the water. As a result, we wanted to take this opportunity to remind players of proper technique. It is important for each player to repair their own marks. It only takes a few seconds, and keeps the greens in good shape for long term health and immediate play.

There are literally thousands of different repair tools that work well. The Grounds department does not recommend one tool over another. Every golfer should have their own repair tool every time they play. Even a tee will work to repair a ball mark, and every golfer for sure has a tee they can use. Below are a couple of resources on repairing a ball mark. There may be slight variances in instruction, but the basics are the same. Some keys are:

• ·         Don’t pry or lift the turf up

o   This will bring soil to the surface and there will not be any grass, resulting in a serious scar

• ·         Think about the angle at which the ball struck the green

o    If the ball didn’t fall straight down then the turf shouldn’t go straight up! Low trajectory shots have a shallower impact and the turf will need to be moved back towards the initial point of impact. High trajectory shots will leave a deeper mark and need to be fixed differently.

• ·         Take your time

Improperly repaired ball mark. Turf has been
lifted and soil is present in the center
instead of grass.

o    One try will not do the job, it will take 3 or 4 adjustments to get the mark back to near-original

• ·         Fix more than yours alone if you can

o   If everyone fixed their ball mark there would only be the most recent one to fix, but we know that is not the case. Finding another one or two ball marks to fix is only helping everyone.

• ·         Don’t do it like the pros

o   Professional golfers (not our staff) are notoriously poor at fixing ball marks. They are subscribers of the lift technique. This provides a quick and smooth surface over which to putt but does not properly fix the ball mark. Our professional staff has taken the time to learn and teach the proper technique, but touring pros are mostly concerned with making their putt.

Golf Course Superintendents Association of America ball mark repair recommendations

USGA ball mark repair recommendations

Finally, we do perform regular maintenance of fixing ball marks, but we can’t keep up. Far more ball marks are made than we have time to spend fixing. Yet, it only takes a golfer a few extra seconds to fix their ball mark immediately after it happens. This allows us to focus our resources elsewhere, but more importantly it keeps the putting surfaces better for everyone.

Improperly repaired ball mark that is very slow to heal.

Fixing your ball mark is an easy and important way to take ownership over the care of your course.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please don’t stand in one place for an extended period of time to practice putting. Your footprints can be worn into the green.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org