Trimming the tree....

During the holiday lull between Thanksgiving and New Year's is a good time to wrap up all those little extra projects around the course to get ready for the impending golf season. So took the opportunity to do a holiday tree trimming....golf maintenance style. 

One of the big oak trees just off of number one tee was dying. As you can see in the picture, the normally uniform in color tree rings have a distink black layer. This is what was slowly killing the tree. 

The rot had made its way deep into the base of the tree so just trimming off the dead parts wasn't going to save it. 

Another issue with the remaining trees just off the first tee was how much the branches were starting to overhang into line of play. While the tree crew was there I had them cut a few branches off to open up the right hand side. 

Now players that hit a draw can play the ball down the right side and bring it back into the fairway. We have a few more items to wrap up next week and should be ready for "Golf Season - 2015" no problem. 

Range tee reopened

The rye grass on the range tee has germinated and the maintenance staff mowed it for the first time yesterday. 

My staff will seed and sand the range divots Monday - Friday until the weather is warm enough that the Celebration grass can grow fast enough to recover and keep up with divot production. 

Although the rye grass germinates and grows quickly, with the amount of play and practice the small tee gets the plan is to still use the mats one week a month. The mats will help tremendously to give the range tee a reprieve so it can try to recover. 

Dont forget to fix two!

A breathing fresh air

This week the maintenance staff has started "venting" the putting surface. Venting is a new name for an old practice called winter aerification.  The new term was created because aerification is usually associated with big hole and long recovery. Wherein venting uses very small holes and there is no recovery time. 

This is a normal venting setup on a machine. The tines are 1/8 solid spikes used for just poking some vent shafts into the soil to allow air exchange and water infiltration 

This is what summer aerification is all about, soil exchange using big holes....big difference!

After the putting surfaces have been vented, a roller is used to smooth them out with no affect on playability. You might see a tiny open hole every now and then but no major surface disruption. 

The purpose of venting is increase soil gas exchange and allow better water penetration during a time when the greens are under the most stress. Benefits of the venting can be substantial. The increase in oxygen in the soil surrounding vents will trigger a massive root growth explosion...the better the roots are, the better the shoots are.  Additionally, the vent holes allow for a dramatic increase in water infiltration with allows me to better manage soil salt build up, localized dry spots and surface playability. 

Keeping up turf vigor

With multiple night time lows in the upper 40's the turf on the golf course has started to slow down a bit. The drop in vigor coupled with cart traffic could cause series damage if not dealt with. A couple of ways to help the turf is to control traffic, but to also spot fertilize where the turf receives heavier wear. Kenny, the Second Assistant, has been out applying a little extra nutrition to areas that receives concentrated cart traffic. The extra food help boost the plant's wear tolerance. 

Overall, the course continues to remain in excellent playing condition. The green speeds are tracked daily and have been a consistent 10.5-11 on the stimp meter. 

The maintenance staff has been busy tidying up details while a lot of members are away for the holiday season. We are putting out lots of mulch and cleaning up areas. I also had the flowers in front of 18 red tee replaced with something more colorful.  

 

And the flowers in front of the clubhouse are blooming wildly as well. 

Last week the maintenance crew seeded the range tee with rye grass for the winter. The seedlings are just now starting to pop up between the bermudagrass leaves, so it won't be long before we can move back onto the turf to hit. When the range is opened back up, remember how you hit balls is just as important as using the proper technique to hit balls. Since the range is so small, try to consolidate your range tee usage to lines of divots as compared to 30 divots spread out all over. 

Lastly, as season gets into full on action mode,  I'd like to ask each of you to "fix two." That tag line will be seen a lot and it means fix your divot and another around you. Repair your ball mark and another beside you. Don't just do one, fix two! 

Range tee seeded with rye grass

It's that time of year again where the maintenance staff seeds the range tee with rye grass. The reason the tee is seeded is the rye grass germinates in 7-10 days and quickly grows to cover the divots. My staff sands and seeds the previous day's divots every morning, Monday through Friday. Daily divot filling, along with the hitting station rotation Tony and I have come up with, and now with the new mat hitting stations should allow the tee to have as greatest a chance as possible to continually be a lush turf hitting surface. 

The tee was seeded on Monday. I have asked Tony to keep golfers on the mats for 2 weeks to allow the seed to germinate and establish itself before we start beating it up. I know everyone doesn't mind using the mats, but really wants to hit off of the grass. Thank you for your patience. 

Cool weather....course holding up

The course is holding up well despite the last two day's low temps in the high 40's. However, we will see some delayed response to the weather by the wkend. The reason for the delayed response is from the soil's heat buffering capacity.  Once the soil temperatures dip below 55 degrees, all plant growth shuts down. Fortunately, the cooler weather is short lived and the forecast for the next week is back to the normal low 80's during the day. 

All of this means the green are going to increase in speed as the metabolic response to the cold slows the grass growth on the putting surfaces.  When the putting greens turn slightly purple-ish in color, you'll know they're fast. They turn off color due to the stop in production of the green chlorophyll in the leaf. 

Guest Speaker

Today I have the preveledge of being a guest speaker at a Carolinas Chapter Club Managers Association event in South Carolina. I'm speaking on a panel about two topics today. The first is "New Trends in Agronomy and How They Impact Golf Course Renovations & Operations" and the second is "New Innovations in Golf Course Maintenance and Their Impact on the Club's Bottom Line."