Preparing for Battle - First aerification is next week

This week the focus has been in prepping all needed materials and supplies for next week's assault on the golf course. The first aerification of the year signals the start of what I call the annual "100 day war!" For the next 100 days everything we do will be for next winter's golfing season. All the verti-cutting, aerifications, sandings, and whatever else is to ensure we make it through until the summer of 2012 with as good a golf course as we had in 2011.

So I thought I would use this posting to show you some of my weapons of choice. These are very specialized pieces of equipment designed to do specific jobs. One of my favorite machines is the verti-cutter! You hear me saying all the time we verti-cut this or we verti-cut that, and only see the results and not what is used to do it. "Verti-cutter" is a trade name taken from the process of vertical mowing. As seen below in the pictures, the blade that is normally horizontal (first picture) has been turn vertical (second picture), hence the "verti" part and we all get where the "cutter" part comes in. The verti-cutter picture below is of a green's verti-cutter. Notice the small blades and narrow spacing. This verti-cutter is set to cut 1/8" deep into the turf. This way it digs a little, but not too aggressively. Since we verti-cut all the time we can go less aggressive than say the fairways.

In this picture I took a normal reel mower and stood it on end and shot the picture looking down the length of the cutting unit to show you how it cuts. A reel mower uses a helixed reel with multiple blades using a fixed knife on bottom to produce a scissor action type cutting. Very precise cut! The helix in the real is critical to producing a constant scissor action while the reel travels over the ground.


This picture is of a green's vertical mower. It is made for ripping out material, not precision.


The blades of the green's vertical mower have a carbide tip that is super hard and stays sharp. If anyone is wondering of the power of these units, see the picture below. This picture is of the concrete floor in my shop where someone turned on the verti-cutter while it was sitting on the floor. Its a good visual on what it does to the surface of the green and attests to the power of the unit. Yes, those are grooves in the concrete caused by the carbide tipped vertical mower blades used on the greens!



In the fairways we use the big brother to the green's vertical mower. This machine uses extremely large vertical blades that are set 1/2" to 1" deep. The reason for such an aggressive approach is that we only have one or two chances all year to do this procedure.



The main reasons for verti-cutting, regardless of where, are to eliminate thatch and control grain. Thatch is the dead plant material building up on top of the soil and grain is the tendency of the plant to lay over in a particular direction. Hopefully everyone has seen the short video I did on verti-cutting the greens a few posts back. You can look at the green and see a "swirl" type pattern or large color differences to identify the grain. In the fairway the swirl can become very accentuated and tight. The picture below is of the grain in one of our fairways. Grain is a natural phenomenon in every grass and is a little more pronounced in the Celebration because of its aggressive growth habit. Remember, we haven't verti-cut these fairways since August of last year.



In this picture I pulled up on some of the swirled grass just to show you how much it was laying over, about 3-5 inches. The only way to eliminate this is to physically remove it. We will do this by verti-cutting first, which rips out the thatch and stands up the grass that is laying over, then we will scalp off any remaining material by circle cutting the fairways. The result will be a plant that is more upright in growth habit.



Here is picture of the process


Here is short video of the process in the fairways so you can get a sense of how intensive the whole ordeal is. Just remember, after verti-cutting we have to clean up the whole mess too.






One of my other favorite machines is the aerifier. This machine is without a doubt, the second best piece of equipment I have. The first is the walking greens mower, but the aerifier is what allows me to maintain such great putting surfaces. The action of the machine is really quite simple, pound a metal tube into the ground and pull it out. Sounds simple right?! Actually, these machines are very highly engineered pieces of modern turf equipment. With an aerifier, everything on the back of the machine has to be synchronized to produce a balanced operating aerifier head.

In this picture notice the vertical arms that are connected to the big flywheel at the top. These arms are called stomper arms for a good reason and travel up and down at massive speeds with tremendous force to shove the tines into the compacted soil.



The tines on the machine can be changed to accomplish different tasks. In the summer I use a hollow tine on the greens which pull a core out of the soil profile. When the stomper arm pushes the tines into the soil they are filled with a core. When the stomper are goes up it takes the core inside the tine with it. Then when the stomper arm goes back down and pushes the tine into the soil the next time, the new core pushes out the old core that was already in the tine. Notice how the inside of the tines is curved at the top, this is to eject the cores away from the aerifier.



In this picture are two different tines, one is for winter aerification and one is for summer. Same machine, just different tines for different objectives.



Once everything has been verti-cut and aerified it will be time to start the sanding process. We use specially screened sands for different things. The size and shape of the sands used is very important. Also important is whether or not we add amendments to the sands. When a green is first built, the reason for adding organics in the sand profile is to help the sand hold some moisture and nutrients. After greens mature a little bit and build up organics in the soil profile on their own, its time to stop adding organic amendments to the top dressing. We are now at the point where we really need to control how much organics we let build up in the soil of the greens. To manage soil organics we completely remove all the cores after aerification and back fill the holes with straight sand. Using straight sand at this point maintains the physical performance standards of the soil profile by continually diluting any organics left over. Excess organics in the soil leads to many problems such as sponginess, water logging, disease, and poor quality turf

This picture shows you the difference in some of the sands we use. I took a handful of green's top dressing sand in threw it into the divot sand we use. Notice the drastic difference in color...same sands, two very different uses for them. The divot sand has some organics blended into it to help hold some water in the sand while the grass divot heals. The organics also help take away some of the stark whiteness of the sand. The sand used on the greens has no organics and promotes drainage and firmness.



This winter I got a lot of questions on why I switched from the green divot sand to the new stuff. The answer has to do with soil science. The green sand is made by filling a giant mixer, think of a cement truck type mechanism, with sand and green latex paint. The sand and paint is mixed together until all of the individual sand particles are completely covered with latex. That latex, once buried in a divot, will remain there just a green until the golf course is reconstructed again in another 46 years. That "green" doesn't breakdown very well once the sun cannot degradate the latex.

The newer material I'm using is regular sand mixed with compost. It still maintains all of the soil physical properties of the sand that the latex eliminates, helps with a little soil moisture retention that the green stuff didn't do, and is a lot cheaper to buy. Its a win, win, win! In the beginning I was buying the new sand that was mixed with some rough grade compost and it has some small "stuff" in it that was objectionable. Now I'm buying materials that are screened so that issue shouldn't be a problem anymore.

Green Speeds

The link below can be found in the left column of the blog under USGA  Weekly Updates but I thought I would post again here.  I believe if the USGA wanted to make the Open a really hard challenge it isn't with turning the golf course into an "EXTRA CRISPY" piece of land, its with the greens.  Don't make them faster, make them slower....really slow!  I'd love to see those guys have to cock their wrists and whack a putt instead of gently tapping the ball and watch it roll 15 feet.  Just my opinion, but read for yourself what conditions were like back in the late 70's for the Open.  On our worst day at CCN our greens are faster than what were "tournament conditions" back in the day!

US Open and Green Speeds

Finally some rain

We finaly received some rain over the weekend.  A total of two inches came down hard and fast.  As expected our drainage system did a wonderful job of removing the water off of the playing surfaces, but we did get a little bit of damage from the storm.  Some of our bunker sand washed a little and we had a couple trees in a preserve area snap.  Nothing too drastic or unexpected.


What stinks about the whole deal is the crew spent all last week going through the green side bunkers checking sand depth and making adjustments where needed. Now they'll have to do it all over!

Here is a new resident on the course. You'll have to look close, he's about 4 feet long


With the water table down as far as it is, the wading birds have been getting their fare share of the bounty of our lakes and littorals.


Remember this old view into #18 green and all the "salad" as one member used to call the thick rough that used to block the approach? I just through this in for fun. I look at the old pictures all the time and just think to myself "Thank goodness we renovated!"


In light of the fact that the drought is no where close to being over, coupled with the fact that our available irrigation water is limited at best I have decided to hold off on doing our annual Curfew application next week. The active ingredient in the Curfew requires a certain level of soil moisture followed by immediate heavy irrigation and since I can't guarantee either at this point I thought it prudent to postpone the event. Once we are assured of a constant delivery of irrigation water I will reschedule with Tony and let everyone know.

High and Dry

It is time for dancing lessons!  Rain dancing lessons that is.  We are now having our main irrigation supply of re-use water from the effluent plant shut off almost every other day now.  I have to hand it to Erick though, the course is looking no the worse for the wear considering.  Erick has been doing a great job in managing the water very judiciously.  When he can't run the big sprinklers, Erick sends out a team of guys to hand water.

The guys use a special adaptor to tap into the sprinkler heads with a hose to apply the water where it is needed.  This type of application is 100% efficient.  The difficult part is getting enough hoses going to be able to cover the entire golf course.  After hand watering with a hose, the employee reinstalls the sprinkler head and flags the head so the Assistants can go back around and check to make sure the irrigation head is in correctly.

On my last posting I talked about the use of wetting agents and how they break the surface tension of water to increase infiltration.  When someone at the course hand waters they are using wetting agents also.  Instead of spraying them on the ground, we use a tablet in a hose end applicator.  Notice the upside down clear jar with the white tablet sticking up out of the ground.  Applying the wetting agent this way is very accurate in the application of the material.  You can always tell if the person hand watering is using a wetting agent while using a hose because it makes the water looks sudsy.  

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If you were wondering why the fountain on 16 tees was off, here you can see why.  The fountain motor is sitting on the bottom of the lake and is causing the float to stick up above the water.  I turned the electricity off so the motor wouldn't run and suck up a bunch of debris into the fountain assembly and possibly damage the impellor.





Lightning...Do you follow the rules

The other day we had an event happen that hasn't happened in a long time here at the Club. A thunder storm rolled through the area and although the golf course didn't get a "frog strangler" as my Dad calls it, we did have the lightning detection system go off. Now I know we are all safety minded and went for the nearest shelters, right?! More like "yeah, right!"  My guess is that many people, including myself, look up after hearing the sirens go off and see the dark clouds way off into the distance and say to themselves "I've got time, the storms not even close."   The Club's policy is that when the sirens go off, you are required to cease play a head for a shelter or the Clubhouse and remain there until the "all clear" signal is given! 

Many of you probably are unaware the detection system is set to activate the warning sirens when there is an electrostatic discharge (a bolt of lightning) within 5 miles of the detection unit on top of the club house.  This is why many times when the systems is activated the imposing storm may still look way off.   5 miles is a long way if you were traveling by foot, but 5 miles is a milli-second for a bolt of lightning.  In fact, lightning can strike an object 10 miles away.  So don't think about whether it looks safe or not, you should think "I'm within reach!"  Just remember the core of a bolt of lightning is roughly 6 times hotter than the surface of the sun....don't chance it.  Once you are aware of the warning system alerting golfers of a strike, please head for shelter.  All of the storm shelters and the Clubhouse have lightning protection.

All of this begs the question of "What does the Club's sirens sound like and what do they mean?"
There are two different sounds emitted from the sirens.  The lightning warning sound is a repeating high - low sound.  The all clear signal is the same sound over and over. 

Remember, don't wait for the sirens to go off!  Use your best judgement because if you wait for the sirens, you are already within striking distance.  Once I have a chance to record the actual sounds of the siren I will post them on the blog. 

Lastly, if you want to receive an email when the blog is updated, you can now sign up for the auto notifier on the top left.  Just enter your email address and when I hit the "publish" button it will send you an alert.

Making Water Wetter....

Recip season is finally here!  That's my unmistakable sign that summer has made it out of the last turn of the warm up lap and is heading for the starting line! 

Last week I had the crew needle tine the greens.  This procedure opens up the soil to let it breath a bit, but also softens the surface a little bit too.  A little softer is good, balls making creators in the greens is bad! If you read the USGA report I posted last week you learned that a gentle needle tining is a good thing, for both play and agronomics.  The trick is to balance the process with everything else that we have to do to the greens to avoid tire ruts from the heavy equipment that gets driven across the putting surface.

On the water front, to help combat the localized dry spots popping up here and there we have instituted a wetting agent program to get water to penetrate downward through the dry soils.  The term "wetting agent" is just a fancy way of saying we added a chemistry to the soil that breaks the surface tension of water.  Those who have spent time down here in the hot & dry season know that once our soils dry out they are actually very difficult to re-wet.  This condition is called hydrophobic (water repelling).  I won't bore you with the science behind it, but just know that just because you turn on the sprinklers, it doens' mean that the water is going where you want it to.  Due to the surface tension of water, when applied it could actually just sit there on the surface and not go down the way you think it should.  Watch this short 20 second video on the affect of adding a wetting agent to the soil to see what I'm talking about.  Notice how the untreated water just sits on the surface of the sand.
Wetting Agent Video 

If that sand happens to be on a slope then the water just runs off without going into the soil at all.  This is a classic example of what happens on a golf course in the Spring before the rains come.  Now add in the extra pressure of water restrictions and /or your supply of available water being cut back like what we are going through and you have some real trying times!  The good news is that once the rainy season comes around a lot of these localized dry spots will go away on their own.  Until then, at least we have a plan in place to manage the hydrophobic (water repelling) conditions. 

If you look close in this picture you can see some darker areas and some lighter areas. The darker area is where I applied the wetting agent and the lighter areas are where I did not. The reason for the difference in color on this very humid day is the freshly sprayed wetting agent doesn't allow the dew form a droplet on the waxy leaf tissue of the grass. Remember, the wetting agent breaks the surface tension of the water, thus allowing the dew to simply slide down the leaf blade into the soil instead of sticking to the leaf.  The dew suppression will wear off as the grass is mowed, but the soil activity of the wetting agent will remain for about 3 weeks.



Part of my routine quarterly maintenance is to do some soil sampling and have it any analyzed by a certified lab.  Much like the water put down on the ground, we need to make sure we are efficiently using what we nutrients we apply and that soil chemistry stays balanced.  Just because a nutrient is applied doesn't mean it is actually being used.  The report will come back stating what nutrients are in the soil, but it will also tell me what nutrients are plant available and there is a big difference.  The sample results will let me know if thre are any deficencies, imbalances, or surpluses that need to be unlocked.  Soil chemistry is very complicated, usually when you try to correct for one thing it screws up another.  Here one of my main fertilizer vendors is working with me to collect the samples randomly on #4 green.

When the samples are taken it gives me a chance to check the root system of the greens...if you have good roots then you typically have good grass. Notice the thick white root sticking up, that's a good sign of a healthly plant.


Here's a really good one, roots 4" deep on a grass mowed at less than 1/8"


Something new this Spring that we have not had to deal with in a while is the occurrence of a disease on the greens called fairy ring. These rings are caused by a fungus that feeds on decaying organic material in the thatch layer. The fungal mycelium creates a hydrophobic layer in the soil profile and that is what causes the discoloration of the grass. Notice how the fungus spreads in a circular pattern, hence the name fairy ring.


As greens age, it is a normal to start experiencing this issue. We always treat the problem immediately when we find a disease on the greens!  The discoloration should go away in a few days. 

Just a reminder for those interested, please click on the "USGA Weekly Green Section posting" link on the left side of the page to see what is happening around the country in golf. This week there is a great article written by a former USGA past president that was first published in 1960 regarding making the game easier. Also, there is a good article on green's height of cut you might want to check out.