Happy Halloween!!

What's up Charlie "BROWN"?

The short story way too long about the brown on the course is that in early Oct the course was lush and green, which meant I was mowing a lot. In and effort to save labor on mowing and use it somewhere else I decided to spray the fairways with a growth regulator to slow them down, a very normal program. With the grass not growing as much, I would be able to use the labor to concentrate on finishing projects like mulching tree beds. Since I was going to spray the fairways anyway, I also decided to add a nutritional package into the mix. This is also a very common practice, the proverbial two birds and one stone concept. Sounds redundant, but with the grass not growing towards the sky all of the growth is in the roots...this is a good thing. We sprayed, the next day immediately noticed what is call tip burn. Tip burn is similar to a chemical burn on your skin. The only problem is, not only did the plant get the burn...the growth regulator kicked in and did its job of slowing the grass growth. So now the grass isn't growing up which would allow me to mow off the brown-ish parts.

When I noticed the burn I immediately called the vendor of the fertilizer product and had him come test the material used. Turns out there was a manufacturing problem with the fertilizer and the chemistry was all out of whack. The good news is that the growth regulator should be wearing out soon, which mean the grass will grow out so I can mow off the brown parts. To get ready for the growth regulator's demise in the plant, last week the entire course was fertilized and will be again next week. When this cold snap is over with there will be plenty of food to push the plant growth again.

In addition to the fertilizer, all of the higher ridge contours between drains on the course will be sprayed tomorrow with a wetting agent to get the irrigation water to penetrate the higher areas before it runs off toward the drain. This is the byproduct of the fast and firm concept. The dry areas are called "localized dry spot" or LDS. If you ever see a golf course that doesn't have any LDS, you can bet the farm they are over watering. Our goal with the wetting agents is to try and unify the soil moisture content, or in basic term keep the high spots wet and the low spots dry.....not an east task on a golf course.

We'll be back to normal shortly and in the meantime, enjoy the extra roll.

Practice how to properly practice

Practice makes perfect, right? Wrong! Perfect practice makes perfect, regular practice makes habits. Did you ever think about how you practice? I’m not talking about visualizing the shot and staring down the flag like you’re a gun slinger with an itchy trigger finger. I’m talking about your practice habits and what the turf looks like after you’re finished. How many times have you been to the range late in the day and there isn’t a good piece of turf to hit from by the bag stands? I know what everyone does; they move back behind the bag stands, some people move the bag stands, & some just take the bucket over to an area that doesn’t even have a bag stand. It’s not an uncommon problem at facilities like ours that has a small range tee. So here’s the big question…are you a shotgun blasting divot whacker or are you a sharp shooter divot whacker? Now I know you’re reading this going “What in the world is this guy talking about!” Well, it all has to do with how much ground you chew up during your practice session. A shotgun blaster will literally make the ground look like it has a thousand bomb creators in it while consuming a large area to hit only a few dozen balls. A sharp shooter will make the ground look like they took a pair of scissors and cut out a small piece of the turf to hit balls.




Sharp Shooter Divot Pattern, all divots are so close the turf is totally consumed
 

 


 

 



Notice in this picture how the divots are so scattered about.  There is no where to stand where you are not standing in a divot.  There isn't more than 100 divots in this hitting station, but the station is ruined by 10 a.m.

The idea is to conserve divot space, so here’s a quick how to on practice tee use.  First, find a piece of turf that is about 18” to 24” square.  Looking down at your practice area, place the first ball in what would be the upper left corner of your imaginary square.  After hitting the first ball, place the next ball just below the new divot in the same column, hit, then place ball #3 just below the previous ball’s divot, and so on.  Work your practice square in columns to conserve space.  Now whether you start in the upper left or lower left really isn’t important, but it is important to start on the left (or the right if you’re standing on the wrong side of the ball).  The reason it’s important to start the first column of divots in your practice square on the same side as your forward foot is that all of the divot materials are going to fly forward, making a mess.  If you start on the opposite side of the square (the same side as your back foot) when you make a divot you will be throwing sand, grass, and debris all over your practice square of nice turf.

 

Here's how it should be done................................

 

Ball #2 directly behind the first divot

 

A complete row of divots using all of the avialable turf.

I got almost 20 shots off this one row.

 

Here is almost 60 shots off of the range tee 

The total size is only 12" x 24"

 

 

I’m a big believer in using things and enjoying them, but also always trying to leave something behind for the next person to enjoy too.  I think all of those who use the Club want the next person to enjoy it as much as they did, and that goes for the practice facility too.  So remember, it’s not just about practicing….it’s how you practice.  So be sure to check your grip, take the club back nice and easy, keep your leading arm straight, keep your head down, swing through the ball, and then just move the next ball over a little bit for the next shot.



 

 



Sod projects

As many if you have seen recently, I had my staff do some sod work on the course over the last couple of days. The reason for the new sod is that there were some thin areas in the roughs that I recognized as being below our standards and I wanted to take a position of having them fixed now, as compared to spending a lot of money on fertilizers and waiting for them to fix themselves. In reality, it was more cost effective to re-sod the areas due to the large volume of sod I can buy at one time. I can buy 5 pallets of sod for $2000, or I can buy 16 pallets of sod for $2000 and fix the problem immediately. There's a tremendous economy of scale a gained by "bulk buying" in the scenario. So to save time and money, new sod has been installed and should be all grown in within a week or so. Until then, please do not drive on the new grass so that it can have as much opportunity to establish as possible.

Little man in the sea

I think I had something different in mind when I was negotiating my employment deal and Mr Kikendall said I would have unlimited use of the company yacht. The fountain motor on hole 15 had to be taken to an electric motor shop, it needs to have the motor shaft bearings replaced.

Fountains

I am in the process of repairing all of the fountains on the course. The one on hole five fell victim to an alligator's desire to use the float as a basking platform, Mary's pond fountain blew its nozzle off over the weekend and the one on hole 15 has something jammed up inside of the impeller. All necessary part are on order and will be installed as soon as they come in.

Hedge row on Solana

Just a quick update on the hedges on the north side if Solana. Although the hedges look like dead sticks, they are alive and well. They are leafing out very nicely from their hair cut a few weeks ago. Another week or so an they will be all green again.

Solona Road landscaping

I'm happy to report that the Solona Road landscaping project is completed. The new median landscaping looks wonderful. The project was a combined effort from the community home owners association and the club and was spearheaded by John Wolski. Another great improvement for the Club.

Clubhouse green revisited

I was asked yesterday why the clubhouse green is now so flat as compared to what it used to be.  The simple answer is that is needed to be rebuilt due to the original improper construction.  Short cuts were taken during construction which would never allow the green to be reflective of CCN's high standards.  The Board of Directors approved a plan to modify the surface contours to correct the original short cuts, total budget was $5000.  Large undulations can be built into a USGA green but to do so correctly means a complete removal of the old green, then a completely new green built.  The cost to do a completely new green of that size is approximately $40-45,000. To help illustrate how poorly the green was originally constructed I have reposted part of my blog which explains how a green should be built as compared to what the clubhouse green used to be.

 

 

 

Clubhouse Green Renovation Update

The work on repairing the clubhouse green is nearing completion. Here is the progress in the project thus far.

Step one was to strip off all of the existing grass. A sod cutter was used to cut the grass into strips. The strips were then cut into smaller section that were rolled up and loaded into carts for disposal.

Once all of the grass was stripped off a grid was laid out on the surface (the red dots) to tell the staff where to dig the holes down to the gravel drainage layer. This "pot holing" process is the only way to be able to check the soil profile to see where the sand depth is out of the 12-14 inch parameter for soil depth of a USGA green. The stakes are then marked at 12, 14 & 16 inches from the point and buried in the holes with the points of the stakes resting on the gravel layer. Once the grid of stakes are buried in the soil profile, it is easy to determine what action needs to be done to the surface. If you can't see the lines you have to remove sand, if you can see all three of the lines you need to add sand.

In this picture you can see that the sand is almost up to the top 16 inch line. This means in this area that approximately 2 inches is to be removed to get it to within the 12-14 inch parameter.

In this picture of the soil profile of the large humped area of the green you can see where there is almost 20 inches of sand, 6-8 inches will be removed to be within the allowable parameters. This is one of the reasons why the area was always drying out...way too much sand. 

In this picture you can see that there is barely 12 inches of sand. This was taken on lower drop off area by the pool.

Here's the solution, start moving sand with shovels and rakes. Not a lot of fun, but highly effective.



The end result is that all the stakes show a consistent soil depth of 12-14 inches...perfect for greens.

Once all of the soil depths have been corrected and are now within the 12-14 inch parameter, the surface was tilled and fumigated to sterilize the sand before planting.

The fumigation of the clubhouse green occurred yesterday, Monday - July 16th. The fumigation plastic tarp needs to remain in place for 24 hours before being removed. Once the plastic tarp is removed the soil is allowed to air out for 24 hours before planting can occur. It just so happens that I have MiniVerde sprigs being shipped here tomorrow, Wednesday - July 18th to replant the clubhouse green with. Once planted, it will take 10-12 weeks before the green is playable.

Stay tuned for more updates on the clubhouse green as it grows in

Solona Road median is being planted

I'm pleased to announce that the Solona Road median project is underway...and almost done.  This project has spanned 3 CCN Presidents and almost 4 years in the making, but it is finally here.  Enough with the words, time for the pictures.



median plants being unloaded

the view looking West
 

looking East

 

 



Bunker maintenance

The golf maintenance team is just finishing up the sand shuffle and compaction process for the season. All the bunkers were checked to make sure there is a uniform 3-4 inches of sand throughout the bunker, followed by a compaction process that will help eliminate the dreaded fried egg lie. This process provides or the exceptional playability of CCN's sand traps.

Clubhouse putting green is reopened

The long awaited reopening of the clubhouse putting green is here. Erick and Trevor did a wonderful job of correcting the soil inconsistencies and growing in the putting surface on time and on budget.

Cleaning the dirty out of dirt

A golf course maintenance operation generates a lot of waste.  Horticultural waste is one of the largest waste areas.  I solved that problem a few years ago by initiating a program of recycling 100% of our horticultural waste.  Now we turn all of that dead plant material into landscape mulch.  We even turn old wooden pallets into landscape mulch.  For those who have never seen the process, here is a short video that shows the process. 

Along with all of the horticultural waste, golf maintenance generates tons of soil waste...literally tons!  Every time we do a sod project, a bunker project, do rock removal or basically anything we generate dirt with unwanted material in it.  The dirt is full things like rocks, sod, grass clippings etc.  Like any other pile of junk, over the years we have just been making the dirt pile larger and larger until we have run out of room.  Over the last several years I have just had the dirt pile hauled out as I knew of no way of separating the good stuff from the bad.  This year however, I found a system of screening all the rocks, sod scrapes, limbs and other unwanted materials from the good stuff.  It's no fancy system, we've all done the same sort of thing at the beach with a sand screener, it's just that this screener is jumbo sized.  Here is a short video of the process.  The screening machine has a series of openings that get progressively smaller.  Anything that doesn't fit between the screen holes is forced out by the high frequency vibration and downward angle of the screens.  In this video I screened the dirt down to 1/2 inch sized material.  Meaning anything 1/2 inch or smaller made it all the way through the screens to the finished product.



As you can see the process is simple, and surprisingly the resulting material is pretty good quality.  Which is great because not only does a golf maintenance operation generate a lot of dirty dirt, we are also needing a lot of clean dirt for all of those same projects.  The screened material will be stock piled and the waste generated from the process will be collected and hauled off site.  If I had to guess, I'd say we are recycling 90-95% of the

Clubhouse green update

Below is a picture of the clubhouse green all grown in. We are aiming at opening it up next week, but first I'm going to needle tine the surface and roll it very well to really smooth out the surface. Erick and Trevor, our Assistant Superintendents, have done a great job of growing in the green. My job, other than making sure Erick and Trevor were doing their job, was to do the weekly Celebration removal. If you look at the foot prints in the dew you can see my inspection pattern. Believe it or not, the Celebration grass finds its way onto the putting green and survives easily. So if you see a guy looking all sad with his head down wondering around the putting surfaces it's probably me, not some random wacko.