Monday, March 26, 2012

The Secret Life of Golf Courses...

From my pals at Golf Course Industry Magazine

 

The secret life of golf courses

General, Industry News, GCI News, Misc.
Shhh...don't tell...but there's more to them than meets the eye. Check out this exclusive article featured in GIE Media's newest publication, A Garden Life.
| March 21, 2012 |

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EDITOR'S NOTE: This an exclusive sneak peak of a piece that is appearing in the premier issue of A Garden Life, GIE Media's newest publication and its first consumer publication. This article was authored by GCI's Pat Jones, but keep in mind that A Garden Life's target audience is garden lovers and others who enjoy the outdoors. Nevertheless, it's a pretty interesting piece that offers an appreciation for the work you do and the industry you represent.

Check out the A Garden Life website
HERE.

And for all of you tablet users, be sure to download the A Garden Life iPad app
HERE.

And if you're an Android user, click
HERE.
Sadly, in a few weeks, the world’s perception of golf courses will once again be hopelessly warped by the annual telecast of The Masters.

Yes, I said “warped.” Why?

The legendary Augusta National Golf Club which hosts the famous old tournament is, quite simply, perfect. The emerald green color is perfect. The sharp edges of the white sand bunkers are perfect. The azaleas that frame the best-known holes in golf are perfect. Even the pimento/cheese sandwiches and mint juleps are perfect. Perhaps too perfect.

I love Augusta – and I’ve been their many times in my “regular” life as a golf writer – but the world’s most famous golf course is by no means typical. The club spends millions every year to implement an elaborate and sophisticated program to ensure that the place is absolutely in peak condition for the week when the world comes to watch.

The process reminds me a bit of the carefully executed blooming plans of die-hard rose aficionados trying to achieve the best possible color and consistency just in time for flower show judging – only down at Augusta it’s done across 130 acres of Georgia red clay that’s lovingly covered with a pampered blanket of manicured turfgrass shaded by towering Palmettos and literally thousands of hothouse annuals and hand-picked perennials.

Augusta at Masters time is spectacular, sumptuous…and surreal in the truest sense of the word. In a way, it’s like Brigadoon – the mythical Scottish village of Broadway fame that can only be seen by outsiders once in century. Essentially, it’s a once-a-year trick that CBS Sports and the members of the club play on the world. So, judge ye not based on what you’ll see on your HDTV screen come the second Sunday in April because Augusta is, to put it bluntly, the least typical golf course on the planet.

I ask you to forget what you think about the warped world of Augusta and consider instead the “secret life” of the most typical course in the world:
  • It’s probably within 10 miles of your home. There are 15,500 courses in the U.S. – more locations than McDonalds – and they are everywhere from Denali National Park in Alaska to Death Valley in the Mojave Desert.
  • Instead of being ultra-private, it’s far more likely to be open to anyone who wants to plunk down $35 or so to play 18 holes. Contrary to popular thought, three-quarters of all courses are public access.
  • If you walk – and more and more people are choosing to do that now instead of riding those funny little carts – it’s a good 5-6 miles of exercise. Expect to burn about 1,500 calories when you hoof it for 18 holes instead of riding.
  • It’s often the only major greenspace for miles – home to critters, birds, butterflies and a surprisingly diverse community of native plant species. The transitional areas between the open grassy space in the fairways and the trees and native grasses that often frame them are magnets for wildlife.
  • The turfgrass there is more than just a big open space for a well-hit shot to land. The 70-150 acres of grass on a golf course is a bit of an ecological wonder. Large stands of turf filter pollutants from the water that moves across them and exchanges vast amounts of carbon monoxide for pure oxygen. Those billions of little grass plants also cool the atmosphere and create a permeable place for groundwater recharge.
  • Much attention is paid to the greens – the fragile putting surfaces that are the focus of Joe Hacker’s love/hate relationship with the game. But most areas of the course are naturalized. Weed-free? Ha! Completely absent of bugs or pests? No way. You simply can’t contain Mother Nature, so most courses strive for a balance between the needs of t he game and the realities of managing a vast open space that invites invasive species.
  • It’s typically managed by a professional course superintendent with a four-year degree in agronomy or another natural science who’s licensed to use pesticides and fertilizers and who likely got into the business because of a love of nature and the outdoors.
  • The majority of typical golf courses are going to great lengths to reduce inputs like water and chemicals. Why? To reduce costs and lighten their environmental footprint.
  • The typical course superintendent is amazingly passionate about what he or she does. They’d better be since the greenspaces they care for are enormous complex things that require incredible devotion to soils, plants, water and living things. I know thousands of them – quite literally – and they are largely people who are highly motivated by the same sense of concern I feel among my friends in gardening.

I’ve shared a bit about the secret life of most American courses. Now I’ll share my personal little secret: Despite the fact that I write about golf, golf courses and anything and everything to do with how they are run, I stink at the actual game. I am what is politely called a “high-handicapper.” If par is 72, I might break 100 on a good day. And that’s probably with a couple of “mulligans” and a few kicks out of the tall grass.

The point is that I’ve always loved golf courses – these enormous, beautifully crafted, living, breathing playing fields – more than the stupid game of golf. And, the less you care about how you play, the more you’re likely to enjoy it. If you’re an occasional player who sort of gave up on the game or someone who’s wanted to try it but you’ve been scared of embarrassing yourself, repeat after me:

IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER!
The beauty of golf, like the joy of gardening, can easily become lost in the futile quest for perfection. Let go of the score. Let go of your fear of embarrassment. Let go of your preconceptions of what those courses look like on TV.

Instead, just look around and drink in the surroundings. Lose yourself in the quiet of an isolated hole. Enjoy the inevitable delay while the doofus in front of you searches the woods in vain for $2 Top Flite. Listen to the wind and the birds and the gentle “thwack” of a faraway shot being struck. There is peace and beauty around you when you ignore the stated purpose of being there and just relax…and become aware of the secret life of golf courses.

Time to get aggressive

If you play the course over the next couple of days you will notice what looks like a little bit of scalping around the approaches. Well honestly, that's what it is. Hopefully everyone read my article in the Club's newsletter about how I am going to have to move up some of the more aggressive maintenance practices sooner due to all the warm weather.

After a winter like what we just went through, I'd guess that the course is an easy 45 days ahead of where it has ever been for this time I the year. That means the maintenance practices I would usually do at the end of April or the beginning of May has to start being done now. Things like slightly more aggressive grooming, like what we did in the approaches today, is what I mean.

These sort of things are typically done after the majority of our membership leaves for the summer retreats up north. Because its so warm so soon, we have to deal with the problem sooner verses later. Don't worry though, the temporary visual negative will go away within a few days and we'll be right back to the normal quality you're use to.

The Little That Couldn't Any more

Everyday the goal of golf maintenance is to produce a manicured course for the members to play and be out of the area before play gets there. That usually takes and army of men and a big fleet of equipment.

In the picture blow is one of our two blowers. It's a very simple machine, but very important. In the front there is a 20 HP engine that drives a turbine that is very similar to a jet fan system. Just like a jet engine, the more throttle you give the engine, the more thrust comes out of the fan on the back side. In our application though, the nozzle rotates so the operator can control the air flow to maximize debris cleanup. The blowers are one of our most important pieces of equipment because blowing the leaf litter and grass clippings is the last step we do before the golfers play the hole. Under normal circumstances using two blowers we are able to just barely stay ahead if play. Last week, one of our two debris blowers had a catastrophic engine failure. Now that we are one blower short, we are unfortunately going to fall behind.

So if the course is a little bit messier than normal, please know its not because I do not want to clean it up. I also know that the membership doesn't want to listen to the one good blower I have left zipping in and out of play around the golf course blowing debris while you play. We will do what we can to manage the situation while the engine on the broken machine gets repaired.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

The Martins Have Landed

Looks like the Purple Martins have found the new birdhouse unit by 8 green. Next time your playing stop for a minute and check them out. The all dark bird is the male, the one with a light colored breast is the female.

The Martin house on 17 hasn't been so lucky yet so I put some decoys on it to try and attract a few birds in the area.

The Right Place at The Right Time

Last night I was debating with myself whether or not to drag my butt out of bed on a sleepie Sunday morning to go into work. As I approached 8 green and looked north I could see something strange. At first there were two very faint rainbows. By the time I got my phone out and pulled up the camera app, this magnificent single rainbow appeared. One minute later, it was gone. Looks like I made the right choice to get out of bed this morning!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Spring is in full swing

Well, hopefully everyone had a chance to read my previous posting from the USGA on The Pros and Cons of A Mild Winter.  I think if you go look at the golf course right now you'll see exactly what the USGA is talking about.  Last week my irrigation water consumption almost doubled from the previous week's usage, 3.02 million compared to 1.8 million.  The warmer temps in the afternoon are starting to show us where the turf is a little weaker.  The good news is that right now the City of Naples has all the water we want, but more is not necessarily better.

To make sure we are using the water as efficiently as we can, I use water conditioning products called surfactants.  Surfactants are fancy molecules that allow water to do different things, an old Superintendent saying is "Surfactants make water wetter."  The boiled down reality is that most surfactants work on breaking down the cohesive properties of water, or the properties that make it puddle like in the picture.


When a soil gets completely dried out, it will actually repel water.  In order to re-wet a soil, massive amounts of water are required to actually drive the water into the ground.  Since golf is not a water sport, applying enough water to re-wet the sand in the picture above would make playing conditions completely horrible.  Yet, by simply adding a very specific molecule to the soil (the surfactant) which breaks down the surface tension of the water droplets, the water is able to penetrate the completely dried sand and re-wet it.

Watch this short video on the power of surfactants to re-wet completely dried out surfaces.


As you can see in the video, the surfactant allowed the water to immediately penetrate the soil.  Having the water immediately go into the soil is important as it reduces the amount of water needed.  Nobody like playing a golf course where the ball plugs in the fairway and has no roll.  The surfactants influence on the water helps us maintain a firmer surface which make for a better playing surface.  The surfactant also cuts down on the amount of localized dry spots on the course.

Since we are heading into the hardest time of the year for watering the golf course, I wanted to let everyone know that water application efficiency is always of the highest priority.  I use surfactants all the time depending on the course's needs.  The goal of my surfactant program is to try and unify moisture content throughout the soil profile.  The products I use are great at re-wetting dry areas, as well as allowing excess water to move on down through the soil profile so wetter areas dry out a little bit.  It's a delicate balancing act to have enough water moisture content in the soil so the plant stays healthy, but not too much which cause playing conditions do not deteriorate.  Surfactants help me to balance the grass's needs while maximizing playability.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Florida Regional Update from the USGA

Pros And Cons Of A Mild South Florida Winter

By John H. Foy, director, Florida Region
February 29, 2012


In addition to the persistence of moderate to high disease pressure, plant parasitic nematodes are another pest problem being encountered on recent TAS visits in South Florida. Irregular shaped areas of weak, chlorotic turf and no roots are classic symptoms of a nematode problem.

TAS visits most courses are reporting that increased rounds are being hosted. It has also been encouraging to hear that as a result of innovative campaigns, a number of clubs have successfully increased membership levels. Furthermore, the very mild to warm temperatures have helped reduce turf damage from carts on courses in the southern half of the state.

On the other side of the coin, increased pest pressure has been a concern at many courses. As previously reported by Todd Lowe, leaf spot disease problems typically subside in early January with cooler temperatures and lower humidity. Yet, during the mid to latter part of February, warm temperatures in combination with higher humidity levels and overcast conditions resulted in a perfect storm scenario for leaf spot disease and other fungal pathogens. At one point, disease pressure was so high that outbreaks occurred even on putting greens receiving aggressive preventative fungicide treatments. With the extended weather forecast calling for more of the same, continuing fungicide treatment programs on putting greens is advised. Exercising care with nitrogen fertilization and making sure that sufficient levels of potassium and magnesium are maintained can aid in reducing the susceptibility to leaf spot disease outbreaks.

Another pest problem that is starting to be encountered is plant parasitic nematodes. With a lack of cold weather, there has not been much of a slow down in activity of these microscopic, worm-like organisms that feed on the root system of the turf. The resulting root system damage greatly impairs the ability to take up nutrients and moisture, and on putting greens this results in irregular shaped areas of chlorotic weak and thin turf coverage. Very shallow and disfigured roots are classic symptoms of elevated nematode population levels, and laboratory assays of soil samples submitted from courses recently visited have confirmed the existence of this pest problem. Eradication of nematodes or any other pest organism is economically and environmentally impossible. Limitations in available curative nematicide treatments have made it even more difficult to keep nematode population levels suppressed below damaging thresholds. Thus, more so than ever before, employment of agronomically sound and proven basic management practices to produce healthy turf growth and minimize other stress factors to the degree possible is a mandated survival strategy. Space is not available to review all aspects of an integrated nematode survival management program. For more specifics, please do not hesitate to contact Todd Lowe or myself.

Invoices for the 2012 Turf Advisory Service (TAS) have been mailed to courses in Florida. The cost for a TAS visit is $2400 for a half-day and $3400 for a full-day. Payments made before May 15th result in a $600 discount – rates of $1800 and $2800 respectively. You can call our office, 772-546-2620 to schedule your visits at anytime. We look forward to working with you to discuss disease, nematode, or any other issues regarding golf course maintenance.



Source: John Foy, jfoy@usga.org, or 772-546-2620