Storm Damage

Time as slipped by these past weeks, as staff has started leaving or working less hours as they head back to school, family obligations, such as, Dr. Appointments (eye and dentist), school shopping, a quick 3 day vacation to Indianapolis for Drum Corp prelims, and helping the move back to school, projects getting done, (was going to post a specific project we worked on, but trying to squeeze it in before the vacation days, I wouldn't have done it justice), superintendent chapter volunteer obligations, watching the exciting PGA tournament finish, and just running around kept things busy.

                     


First some pictures from our trip to Indy.  First time at Lucas Oil, but we spent many of times driving by on our way to visit family in Indiana or when we would come back from World Percussion Championships in Dayton.  The dream of the boy and us was he would be marching with a Drum Corp in Lucas.  We had attended a couple of audition camps through the years, but not this past one.  He did do winter percussion this past winter, but didn't try out for DCI.  I think the trip was a little bittersweet as he saw people he had auditioned with in the past, and with his making a winter percussion group this past season, it was probably his best chance to march in the summer, alas this was his age out year, the last year he could have marched.  The second picture is him checking out the field for the first time, the third is a picture of my favorite corps, Casper Troopers, one of the ones he had auditioned for.  His favorite is Santa Clara Vanguard (mine too back in the days of the late 70's when we watched on PBS), this year's champion.  I think it's important to spend some family time together, especially before he headed back to school, I think getting away from the course for a few days refreshed me as well.    

 The view as we are crossing the river into St. Louis, I was following the PGA via Tiger Tracker and other superintendents who had spent the week volunteering at the tournament, this was right before play was called.  we turned Southwest on I-44 and avoided all the rain that was plaguing the tournament.

We did hit some rain before we arrived home, where it had really poured.  There was some wind as well, but we weren't sure of the extent, until later that evening.

After we had arrived home, I knew I had to go back to the course, because the forecast when we had left that previous Wednesday had not called for the rain we had received, and the irrigation computer was set to run.  Upon arriving at the course, I shut the computer off, and went out to turn off three controllers that are not communicating with the computer.  At that time I saw we had received 2.5" of rain, and did see some debris down, but it was dark by that time.


The next morning we were greeted with branches and debris everywhere.  With the greens full of leaves, we concentrated first on clearing them and tees with blowers and picking up the loose branches.  The rain had come down so fast the night before, and we had been so dry, it was possible to allow carts and golfers to play, and with the nice cooler weather they did.

                      

With greens cleared on day one, the next day we mowed greens and collars and approaches.  With just two of us in that day, we continued with picking up smaller branches and debris and blowing off fairways.  On Monday, which was another day we were short handed and had two of us in, we concentrated on mowing fairways and greens again, spraying greens, picking up branches and blowing debris further into the rough.

                     

Tuesday and Wednesday when we had the most staff members in, we were able to set the course up for play and the crew really attacked the larger items needing removed by chainsaws.  Above are some of the small trees and larger branches or tree leaders that had broke.  Below was our nicest Ginkgo tree where the top had blow out of it.  Of all of our Ginkgo's, Murphy's Law I guess dictated the nicest one to be damaged.  I didn't even realize it was a Ginkgo, it was such a big and nice tree.  Our park's tree crew did say that it will live for short time until it starts rotting out from the missing top.  It might give us some time to get a new tree in it's place before we have to remove it all together.

               

We were able to finally repair and rake our bunkers on Thursday, all in all the crew did a nice job, and our customers didn't have any complaints about course conditions during the clean-up.  I attribute that to the prioritizing of cleanup and regular maintenance returning to greens and tees first, then fairways. Also to the crew's constant work, the golfers seemed to appreciate their efforts.

The next step will be the tree crew coming and removing some of the hangers in the Sycamores up where we can't reach them, assessing the health of the trees remaining, and looking at getting replacement trees in place for trees we lost or will loose in the future.

As always,

Thanks for reading!

Mel


     

Tournament Experiences

I just finished my second opportunity this week to experience golf course maintenance being performed at some of the highest levels.  I completed 5 evenings of mowing fairways at the Price Cutter Charity Classic on the Web.com tour, held at Highland Springs Country Club.  I thank Derek Wilkerson, CGCS, the superintendent at Highland Springs for giving me the opportunity.  I was able to hear discussions on how they kept the moisture in the greens during tournament week, I got to see the detailed work that included, hand watering of greens, raking bunkers specially for tournament play, filling of divots, setting up the course, blowing of clippings, many things we do not do at our facility.  Of course some of it is resources and how we prioritize them, but I do think the work that we do regularly on our course could use a little detailed improvement.  Despite a poor weekend weather forecast that caused plans to be changed on the fly, (which poor weather never materialized, just some light rain for the middle of the final round), it was amazing to see how the standard of course setup was not compromised due to that forecast.  Contingency plans were made, so they were prepared for the worst, but thankfully those plans were not needed.

                  

On the left is one of the tour trucks down at the maintenance area. In the middle is the 10th tee as I headed out to start mowing back nine fairways during the Tuesday evening practice rounds.  On the right as I was mowing down 11 fairway.  I was pretty proud of that mow line, although not every stripe was as good as that.  We were not cutting much grass, (although I could see the clippings pretty well), I found the shadows from the trees and the angle of the setting sun made some passes more difficult.  

                  

As these pictures from Wednesday evening after the Pro-Am finished show, mowing later in the evening was a little tougher.  The picture on the right shows the lights on the cart that was blowing behind me a couple of hundred yards away.

                

 This was the set up for Thursday and Friday evenings, (and Saturday as well). Equipment was staged with the slowest pieces to head out first.  The maintenance building is down by the eighth hole, Derek would be up at 8 tee, and call for us to start engines, the group in the fairway would have played their second shots or third shots into this par 5 hole, and the group on the tee would have hit their drives, at that point we would all head up the maintenance road toward 8 tee and into the subdivision going toward the entry road.  Once there, we would hold until players on the par 3 4th hole had teed off and we then headed down the entry road, those going to # 1 would go down the outbound side, we going to # 10 would head down the inbound road.  Work could start on # 1, but they couldn't cross the road to # 2 until play had moved onto # 5.  They would have to keep that distance behind play, and we could start mowing on # 10 and then to # 11.  Since going to # 12 would take us behind # 9 and # 18 greens, we would drive out through a vacant lot to proceed down to 13/14, depending on the job we were doing, some could work their way back to # 12, they had me move onto 14.  13 was a par 3 so no fairway, # 12 was mowed after # 9.  On Saturday with the early finish, I did go to # 12 after # 11.  I was just amazed at the orchestration that occurred to move us into position to maintain the course while avoiding golfers.

I took the chance to ask a lot of questions, especially of their mechanic, he would meet me on the course once a day to check the reel to bedknife setup and since I had a demo machine, he would check on its operation.  I really liked this mower, and will definitely look to demo it at our course.  
 

                   

 Also It must be said, that many thanks are passed on to our distributers who provided food for the crew.  BWI, GreensPro, Turf Professional Products, and Van Wall Equipment all provided food.  All in all, it was a great experience and I look forward to doing this again.

               

As always, Thanks for reading!

Mel

               

 

Fairway Goosegrass is back again

Despite our best efforts this season, we ended up with goosegrass again in our fairways.  And it showed up much earlier this year then in the past.  I'm guessing the warmer then average May and June had something to do with that?  May the average lows were 8.1 degrees above normal and the average highs were 9.3 degrees above normal.  In June the average low was 5.4 degrees above average and the average high was 5.5 degrees above average.  We really didn't have any excessive rain fall that could have affected our pre-emergent applications.  April was 5 degrees below normal for both average highs and lows, but it obviously did not reset the window for goosegrass germination.  March temperatures were average.  

We did make our pre-emergent applications on dates that I thought were appropriate.  Our first application of Prodiamine 65 WG (Resolute) on March 9th and 10th.  I did make one application at 1 lb. product per acre and another at 1.5 lbs. of product per acre.  We also made another application on April 10th mixed in with our fairway fertilizer application.  It was also Prodiamine (Barricade), applied at 150 lbs. per acre, the Prodiamine was a .5% product and if my math was correct it provided .75 lb. ai/Acre.  I did not notice a difference of control between the 1 lb. product per acre and the 1.5 lb. product per acre.  The goosegrass still came up heavy in areas.  I have already decided for next season, that I will be making the change to Oxadiazon for our pre-emergent.  It is much more expensive, but compared to the cost of post emergent herbicide applications, time it takes to apply and playability issues, it hopefully will be money well spent.

So how did we attempt to get rid of the goosegrass?  We first started doing some spot spraying with Foramsulfuron (Revolver) at 2 oz. per gallon and MSMA at 1 oz. per gallon mixed together.  We eventually went to straight MSMA at 1 oz. per gallon.  Both of these applications worked fairly well, but we were getting large areas of goosegrass on some holes, and Foramsulfuron was not cost effective at the 17.4 oz. per acre rate, and MSMA can not be broadcast over large areas.  Pictures below are goosegrass that had been treated with either the Foramsulfuron/MSMA mix or with MSMA alone.  

                   

In the past we have also tried a mixture of Foramsulfuron (16 oz. per acre) and Cargentrazone-ethyl/Sulfentrazone (Dismiss) (6 oz. per acre).  I had seen it suggested a few years back, we had mixed results, I blame most of it on the goosegrass becoming too mature and being late in the season before applying.  We did see good burndown of the weed, but we weren't sure of actual kill.  I have heard of people using one product and then coming back and using the other 10 days later and seeing better results.  We did not research it anytime after that, the cost of approximately $180 per acre was just too much for us to treat.

Then last year I heard of people using Topramezone (Pylex) on bermuda turf,  I thought that was crazy, since my first introduction to it was at the University of Missouri Field Days, where it was being used to remove bermuda from bentgrass fairways.  So I pulled up a label and found that it was indeed good to use on goosegrass, and one application would take care of the goosegrass, where three applications (or two if mixed with other products) would be needed to kill bermuda.  So I mixed up enough for 2 acres, and treated our cool season range tee, our cool season approaches, (we have 4 original greens which still have cool season approaches and collars).  I tried the .5 oz. per acre rate and low and behold we seemed to kill some goosegrass.  Below on the left is the collar of our chipping green, in the middle is where I sprayed a bunker edge, real interesting to me was the bermuda that was out in the bunker itself, and on the right some of the goose killed in one of our fairways.

                 

So this year when we had the issue again, I applied the Topramezone at the .5 oz. per acre rate with a methylated seed oil.  We had good results again.  The only issue was I would get asked constantly "what did you spray on the fairways" and "when will they look normal again".  I didn't really have an answer myself, I just knew that the bermuda would come back, so this year I documented it in pictures.

               

The picture on the left is on the day of application July 3rd.  The middle picture and the picture on the right shows the effects of the Topramezone 3 days after treatment on July 6th.  As can be seen, we are already starting to look at some ugly bermuda after only 3 days.

              

Now in the picture on the left was our 5th fairway which was taken on July 9th, six days after treatment, not pretty at all, in the middle picture we see the 5th fairway on July 16th, 13 days after treatment, (I should have got a little closer to take that picture), and on the right was the 4th fairway on July 19th, 16 days after treatment where it is only the goosegrass that is off color.  Best of all cost is fairly inexpensive, in the $30 per acre range.  I do need to search for options that might not off color the bermuda as much, I hear there are some strategies to do that.

Next on my radar is to treat my control patches of goosegrass in fairways, (otherwise know as misses), I am going to try applying Topramezone at the .25 oz. per acre rate, to see if the ghosting of the bermuda is less, and will that amount kill the goosegrass.  I am also looking to spray some of that tank on a practice green and the edge of another green on the golf course. I have taken the .5 oz. rate across our chipping green with no ill effects.  Of course the issue of goosegrass on greens will be for another post in hopefully the near future.

As always, thanks for reading!

Mel

Goosegrass sprayed, 6 DAT

 

Poking Holes for Summer Oxygen

We had a very busy week after the July 4th holiday.  With the above average heat, and a forecast that was calling for continuing heat, we went and pencil tined our greens.  This allows oxygen into the root zone, taking the place of water.  When too much moisture is in the soil, it pushes out oxygen in the soil, too much water in the soil will not allow microbial activity to occur, and it could also raise the soil temperature, just like a puddle on asphalt in full sun will be hotter then the air temperature around it.  We were also able to time the process before our regularly scheduled topdressing, (well we did push back the topdressing a week due to the July 4th holiday).

                  

The picture on the left shows the small pencil size tines, the middle shows the machine on our tractor (the tractor being my favorite piece of equipment we own), and on the right is the size of the holes left by the tines.  They were pretty much invisible to golfers within a day or two at the most.

The pencil tines we like to schedule once a month for June, July and August, with longer 1/2 solid tines that will penetrate down to 6 to 8 inches for May, and possibly September or October.  We still pull cores from our greens in April and either September or October depending on our tournament/outing schedules.  This schedule doesn't always happen as we have to share the aerator and sometime the tractor with our other two courses.

Since we have started this "venting" practice, along with better moisture management, we have seen our greens perform better in summer.

                   

The photo on the left shows that the holes punched a day prior were not visible, (or I guess it doesn't show)  The photo on the right is a light topdressing being applied, topdressing is applied throughout the season, to keep greens smooth and to keep thatch diluted so greens do not get puffy and scalp when mowing.  The depth of the topdressing will match the growth rate of the turf, in the summer with our growth regulator program, and warm temperatures, we will not see much growth, and so we do a "light dusting" of topdressing.  We schedule topdressing of greens every two weeks weather and outing schedules permitting.  We will add verticutting in the spring and fall, and we have a spiker unit that we will use in the summer to just open up the green surface for them to breath.

To round out this post, I wanted to show off Lucy's new collar.  Thanks to GCSAA (Golf Course Superintendents Association of America) for sending this out, Lucy has been one of many dogs of turf to get a new collar.  She now feels official when she goes to work with me.

            

As always,

Thanks for reading!

Mel
 

Change of Blog Title

For those handful of people that check out my blog, you might have noticed I have changed the title of it, since the direction of the old title didn't really match what I was writing about.  The original idea was really to talk about the golf business itself, players, course layouts, the way courses were setup for daily play, how it might have affected their bottom lines, and/or introduced new players, golf equipment, and other items that might or might not of pertained to golf course maintenance.  But as I noticed, I really didn't get out into the golf world outside of my own little world, of my golf course.  I also was avoiding talking about maintenance aspects, because I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

But as I noticed when I would make a blog post, it usually had to do with something that was happening on the golf course, and not always going how I would have hoped.  So after some thought, I came up with a new title: The Follies of an Average Superintendent.  One of the definitions of Folly is "A stupid mistake"  Well I make those pretty regularly, so that sounds about right for part of my title.  Now I might be giving myself too much credit as far as being an average superintendent, but I do think with our resources, our clientele, our facility fits in the average category.

So with renewed focus, I plan to showcase what I'm trying to do on the course.  I pick up good ideas from those improving their facilities, their playing conditions, and I want to try to see if those ideas can work for us.

With support from my boss Lucy and my family Cindy and Nicholas, I thank you for your continued reading and I hope when you have seen a folly of mine turn bad, you will make suggestions to how I can avoid them, unless that is, I'm entertaining with my follies.  Thanks for reading!  

Old Tom and me

Cindy and Nicholas

The Boss, Lucy

 

Tournament Prep for Horton Smith Jr. Masters

Being at a course that really doesn't host many tournaments, doesn't mean the tournaments we do host aren't taken seriously.  The tournaments we regularly host are all for junior golfers, with a steady set of three.

We host the Horton Smith Jr. Masters every June, a tournament out of a series of summer tournaments that is conducted by the Southwest Missouri Jr. Golf Association at area golf courses.  We will host a high school boys JV tournament in the spring, and we always host the Pearson High School Girls Tournament in September.  Occasionally we will host another girls conference tournament and maybe a district tournament.  That fall schedule can sometimes really throw our fall aeration schedule out of sorts, but we will adjust aeration until after all fall tournament are completed.  We were once told we could go ahead and get the aeration done, but I just didn't feel right about not providing the proper conditions for a tournament.

As we got ready for this year's Horton Smith Jr. Masters, we were able to edge our bunkers.  We have bermuda runners creeping into the bunkers and we always work to edge them so hopefully there will be no rule issues.

                  

In the first picture one can see the bermuda runners encroaching in the bunker.  In the second picture we use a reciprocator to edge the runners.  Looking at the area outside the edge, we are seeing the need to really come in with a sod cutter, strip the sod, remove the built up sand and re-level the bunker.  We will most likely do that when we replace the sand at a future date.  As a post from last summer indicated, we look to renovate one bunker a season as our budget allows, removing old sand, repairing drainage and installing new sand.  We look for bunkers that are not draining to repair first.  In the third picture, all the runners were pulled out and raked into piles to be removed.

Of course this is the last step in our tournament prep, part of our planning goes back to once we were given the date to put onto our calendar.  Once we get that date, and depending on the day of the week the tournament is, we start preparing greens for the tournament and will schedule our topdressing, fertilization programs, growth regulation program, along with any plant protectants to make sure the greens are ready for the tournament.  That also extends to our tees and fairways programs as well.  

  
We hosted 80 players this year, with a one under 69 being the low score.

  Some of the hardware to be handed out later, in the 9 and under, 10-12, 13-15, and 16-18 age groups.
















We will go back and edge our bunkers again in late July or early August before our summer help goes back to school.  We might also look at some chemical control to the bermuda to help with making this an easier process.

Thanks for reading!

Mel