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