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