Summer Projects Update

As many of you know, my staff has been hard at work on hole 14 for the past two weeks.  A few people have asked what we are doing so I thought it would be a good idea to explain in detail what has, and is going on. 

Those that are around in the summer, or even during the occasional rain during season, know that 14 fairway gets to be very soggy in the tee shot landing zones.  Conversely, the roughs on hole 14 begin to burn up very quickly if they are not watered almost daily.  To deal with the different watering demands meant that I had to quit using the sprinklers that watered the fairways and the roughs and use a lot of man power to hand water. The hand watering allowed just the roughs to be watered while withholding water from the fairways to try and dry them down.  The process of hand watering a golf course when you are already very tight on available man power during normal times really puts a damper on what can be done.

To solve the problem I used a very simple solution that is used on another very important part of the golf course, the greens.  Around the greens there are eight sprinkler heads, four that water the green and four that water the green slopes.  A common golf maintenance slang term is "4 in's and 4 out's."  This way, I can control exactly how much water is applied to the putting surfaces by just turning on the in's and I can water the slopes by turning on the out's.  This type of "in and out" set-up is what I did on 14 fairway. 

Originally 14 fairway had two rows of heads, one on each side of the fairway, that rotated 360 degrees.  This watered the fairways and the roughs, but you could segregate the two. If the roughs needed water, the fairways that didn't need water got watered anyway.


To separate the ability to water the roughs from the fairway I had the crew take one had and split it into two. One will be dedicated to watering the fairways that need very little water (the "in" head) and the other will be dedicated to watering the roughs that need more water (the "out" head). Essentially, two heads rotating 180 degrees.  Now, with increased control on how much water is applied, the playability can be controlled better.


Part of splitting the single heads into two separate heads meant that we also needed to install additional control wires and that is what the trenches were dug for. We hit lots and lots of rocks but were able to get the trenches cut in.



Each head has a power wire that runs back to the controller. The controller has a wireless receiver that picks up a signal from the central computer in my office.  The central computer controls which sprinklers come on and for how long. The new heads will be added to a very specific irrigation program that can be manipulated to apply very precise amounts of water to a very specific place without watering where it doesn't need it.  When it comes to water application for golf, its all about control!  By the way, this type of dual head fairway irrigation control is what Atlanta Athletic Club installed on the Highland course to prep for the PGA Tour event.


Despite all the new added water application control that has been added, there is still a remaining problem. What about when Mother Nature decides she is going to irrigate the course for days on end even though we do not need it? We have to be able to remove the unwanted excess soil moisture. Erick and Casey started the process of installing subsurface drainage in the wet spots on hole 14 so when Mother Nature gives us all of her wonderful rain that we so desperately need, we can still play golf.

The process is really quite simple; excavate a trench 18 inches deep, install a perforated 4 inch pipe, back fill with rock and sod over the rock. The problem is that it is a time consuming ordeal. Just the excavation part of the process with two machines digging usually takes 3-4 hours, and that's if we don't run into a problem.


This is a drainage problem! This rock was so big a large construction back-hoe almost couldn't pick it up.


Usually when we find one large rock to remove that means there are others close by and we actually removed three rocks close to the surface about the same size as the one above. Removing these rocks usually tears a lot of ground up. Don't worry, we will fix it. Promise!


As the drain lines are dug, if you watch the materials being removed you can tell where the issues are even if it is dry. In this picture look and see how white and sandy the soil profile is. All that sand means great water peculation downwards and a nice, firm surface.  This is also one reason why we sand the fairways heavily in the summer.


In this picture look at the completely different soil profile. It is much darker. The darker color isn't from soil organics, its from a different type of soil. These wet areas that were dug through have a clay type soil called marl.


Here is the Uniform Field Soil Classification System definition of Marl"Marl consists of fresh water sedimentary deposits of calcium carbonate,often with varying percentages of calcareous fine sand, silt, clay and shell fragments. These deposits are unconsolidated, so marl is usually lightweight. Marl is white or light-gray in color with consistency ranging from soft paste to spongy"

Here's another picture of the material in a wet spot


When the golf course was reconstructed, the contractor did his best to not use any marl. We have a few small pockets here and there but nothing excessive.

My staff is finishing the last drain on 14 today and then we are moving on to 13 fairway. There are 3-4 areas on the right side of the fairway we will be installing additional drainage into. No additional irrigation heads are planned for 13 at this time.  

I saw this unbelievable rainbow the other day and it just made me think what a wonderful place we live in.  More to come later.

Aerification week...why all the holes

Its that time of the summer again, time to punch all of the holes in the ground.  Trust me, I hate it as much as you do!  Yet, like many of the things we do regularly to stay in shape, like working out or eating that salad when you really want a double cheese burger with fries, all of the hole punching is a necessary evil to keep the course healthy.  The health benefits of the aerification include compaction relief, soil gas exchange, organic matter management and increased water infiltration just to name a few.

With all of this in mind, I wanted to quantify how our agronomic programs have done so far this year.  Fortunately, the two USGA regional agronomists were in the area to do some site visit to other clubs and agreed to swing by CCN for a quick "look under the hood."  While the USGA was here we discussed all facets of our summer agronomic programs; aerifications, sandings, verti-cutting and the frequency of each.

The USGA was pleased with our green's management since the renovation and the surface the programs are producing.  The aerification programs are yielding a good soil profile that should provide acceptable receptivity to the greens while allowing for all the physical properties that are required .  It was the USGA'S recommendation that we do not change our aerification programs for the greens. 

Next we talked about the fairway programs, specifically thatch management and sandings.  Like the greens, we want a little bit of soil organics, but not too much.  We maintain the ratio of soil to organics on the greens primarily by core aerifications, meaning we pull cores out of the ground and then clean them off.  Traditionally the process would be the same on the fairways except we wouldn't clean off the cores.  Instead of removing the cores we would let them dry, drag a steel mat across the material to separate the soil from the thatch and then blow off the thatch.  Since opening the course after the renovation I have not core aerified the fairways due to all of the rock that is in the ground.  Instead of pulling cores as we do on the greens, I have used a different tine that just pokes a hole in the ground.  The reasons for only poking holes and not pulling cores is to 1) find all of the rocks so we could remove them without pulling up rock onto the grass 2) allow the grass to develop a little mat layer.

Here is a picture of a new solid tine of 3/4" solid steel side by side with a well used tine. Notice how much steel is worn off from hitting all the rocks.


Here's a picture of a little gem hidden just under the grass layer


And here is what these little gems do to the machines. We break lots of parts on the fairway aerifier, that's why I got an extended warranty on it!


After inspecting the soil profiles on several holes and talking about our fairway management programs that include aggressive vertical mowing and grooming, the USGA was satisfied that we are on track to have a high quality playing surface in the fairways doing what we are doing.  Additionally, because we have been so aggressive with removing surface rocks from the course, next year we will switch to a traditional core aerification in the fairways to be even more aggressive with organic matter control.

Similar to when you say peanut butter you almost immediately think of jelly, when you say aerification you almost think of sand!  In today's golf maintenance world that even includes the fairways.  My concern with our fairway sanding program was that we were either not doing enough and should abandon it or it was a program that really was just a feel good measure and was ineffectual.  I was wrong on both accounts!  The two USGA agronomists agreed that when it comes to sanding fairways the more the better, especially on the back where all the rock is.  I was told that it is not uncommon that after 5-7 years of heavy sanding in the summer it is possible to build up a good four to five inch layer of a high quality sand based profile. This is our goal, especially on the back 9 holes. We want to build a sand cap over all of the rocky soil. That's going to take time, but we have initiated the process and do repeated sands to the fairways. All of the sand will help maintain the fairways firm surface as well. This translates into better drainage and better roll off of the tee.


Another part of this week's activities was to go around to all of the bunkers and repair any of the settling of the sod faces that created unfair shots. In other words, we raised any areas around the bunkers faces where little depressions have formed that made an attempted swing at the ball unfair. We repaired the majority of the sod face depressions by cutting the sod and filling underneath to raise where needed. Then after the sod was put back the areas where heavily top dressed by hand to ensure a smooth transition line across of the face. In a few weeks the sod will heal and the sand will disappear and all that will be left is a perfect bunker face.


One of the important concepts that the USGA reminded me of is to not get crazy aggressive with late summer maintenance practices. Due to the high heat index during this part of the year the turf will be slow to recover. With this in mind I wanted to make sure we didn't cut of our nose to spite our face so to speak, so we did what we had to do without jeopardizing our long term health. The course made it through the aerification very well and should heal up very nicely. Our only blemish will be some areas that are not sodded where there were some extremely large subsurface boulders removed. We do not have enough on-site area to cut sod from to replace what was torn up, so I will order it on Monday for Tuesday delivery. All of these areas will be marked with a white circle and players can take relief without penalty under the "Ground Under Repair" ruling. Additionlly, any other areas that are not 100% will be sodded so that we can have full turf coverage going into the fall season.

Chipping for Par instead of dropping for Bogey

Those of you around CCN have been able to observe the progress and the completion of our big summer project on 15.  I'm happy to report that it is 99% completed with only a little landscaping to add to hid the underground drainage pipe ends on either side.  I'm not going to write a whole lot just give you a picture sequence so you can see the transformation. Don't worry if some of this sequence looks like the previous posting, I'm reusing some of it to help tell the story.

This is the area before anything was done. I had some surveyors come out and define where the Club's property was.


The first order of business was to clear out the invasive pepper trees.




Next I had a drain pipe installed and fill hauled in to cover the pipe. Thanks to our friends at Moorings Park for supplying the dirt, and Dave Benson for arraigning for us to get it at no cost, I had almost 35 truck loads of dirt hauled in to fill the area.




After the dirt was hauled in it was time to irrigate


Then reshape one more time


And then just add grass...about 1.5 semi trucks worth of grass





We cleaned up the edge and added mulch to dress it up



We have also removed the unused cart path on hole 8 where everyone exits the fairway near the green and expanded the cart path by 9 tees

You can see here where the staff removed the old cart path material, backfilled with good soil and sodded the area.


Here is the new cart path location


My staff still needs to add some cart path material capping to the new cart path but the new routing should be much better.

Second aerification week: "Surviving the Cut!"

When I was growing up my Dad was a Fireman and also the fire department's mechanic.  When ever I wasn't in school or out creating havoc on the neighborhood I'd be at the shop with him tinkering around getting all greasy.  He used to always tell me "This is the part of a fire department nobody ever thinks about!  Everyone only thinks about the shinny fire truck putting out fires, nobody ever thinks about what it takes to keep the trucks on the road."  He was right, right up until the point I had grease up to my elbows and in my hair I never thought of anything but Dalmatian puppies, heroes and saving the day when I looked at a fire truck.  Not so much any more!  A similar perspective is often taken with golf.  Call me jaded from having an insiders perspective but when I see a golf course on T.V. like Congressional my first thought isn't how beautiful it is or how fast the greens are, I think "What does it take to make it look like that?"

This is the whole reason for this blog.  As those who are paying the bills I think it is important for you to know what it takes to have a great golf course year round.  Many of our members are only used to golf up north where the grass only grows for less than half the year, that changes everything drastically.  Up north two aerifications on the greens is a good program, CCN does it 4 times.  Up north you play golf during the active growing season, CCN's golfing season is during the non-active growth part of the year.  As you can imagine, there are many drastic differences in northern golf verses southern golf and that translates into drastic cultural practices differences when it comes to what you do.

As the title of the post suggests, this course closure was all about cutting things back.  We cut back the grass, the bushes, the trees, the bunker faces...we went cut back crazy.  As usual this go around for CCN we aerified the greens using our normal aerification techniques.  For those statistical people, we removed around 15% of the putting surface.  Aerification is the most important thing we do to the greens!  This process removes the most organic material and allows for massive organic matter dilution in one fell swoop.  After aerification the cores were removed and the greens were top dressed with straight sand, brushed, then rolled repeatedly to smooth them back out.


This picture is of an aerification plug from a green. All of the "bio-mass" of brown stems and thatch (the dark colored sand on the top half of the plug) is what I want to control. We want some to give the greens receptivity, but not too much which causes performance problems.


On the rest of the golf course is where we really went to do the heavy work. We still aerified all of the playing surfaces and top dressed them, but the main focus of the week was cutting back everything. By cutting back I mean


I achieved this by lowering the height of cut all the entire golf course. Remember at the beginning of summer when the grass on the course started getting real swirly as seen in this picture

and you could pull up on the grass and it would stand up 6 inches tall


the way you get rid of all that is to verti-cut like we did last course closure


As well as by reducing the mowing height like we did this time to chop off any remaining grass still laying over. The look of the scalping is much more dramatic in appearance than its affect on the grass. I reduced the cutting height on the fairways from 1/2" (.500) to just over 3/8" (3/8" = .375 and the fairways are at .400). The tees, collars and approaches went from 3/8" to just above 1/4" (.375 down to .300). The roughs went from 1" down to 3/4" . The tighter cut will help produce a grass canopy that is more vertical and not so leggy. I am going to try and maintain a little bit tighter collars and approaches this season so that you can putt the ball from off the green even easier.

So even though a week ago it looked like this


In just 7 days it looks like this


Other areas that we cut back are very noticeable around the course. Once again I brought in the ficus hedge trimmer (the helicopter trimmer to some) to trim the perimeter hedges. It has been 3 years since the ficus have been trimmed so the initial look is pretty severe, but remember I did the same thing before and the trees were fine.

In this picture I tried to give you a sense of how much off the sides was being trimmed, it was about 4 feet of material. Sorry for my terrible photography.


I also had 1/3 of the top removed. Lowering the overall height will cause the plant to "thicken up" in the lower branches which will create more screening.


Just like the grass, the initial shock will not last long and soon you'll see new leaves popping out all over the ficus.

Many of you know that the Board approved an improvement project to the left of 15 green in the area that was basically an over grown drainage ditch. I'm please to say that my team has taken a useless piece of land that used to swallow golf balls like my kids do jelly beans and turned it into a phenomenal improvement I'm sure everyone will appreciate.

This is the area before anything was done. I had some surveyors come out and define where the Club's property was.


The first order of business was to clear out the invasive pepper trees.




Next I had a drain pipe installed and fill hauled in to cover the pipe. Thanks to our friends at Moorings Park for supplying the dirt, and Dave Benson for arraigning for us to get it at no cost, I had almost 35 truck loads of dirt hauled in to fill the area.




Our next step is to irrigate the area on Monday and Tuesday of next week and then we will sod it hopefully Thursday. This is going to be a major improvement in the playability of the hole. When completed, if you go left of the green you can scramble to try and make par instead of praying you make bogey!

Lastly this last week, we have made major strides installing the new signage for the Club at the south entrance. It has been a challenge, but we are almost there. First, just to get the sign in the right spot we had to move two huge royal palms.


At the same time as the trees were being moved I had an electrician start the install for the new sign lighting system.


Once the trees were moved and the foundation was poured for the sign, it was time to install our new monument. Lykins Signtek created the sign for us and did a masterful job. The sign is actually made out of Styrofoam and covered in stucco! Two guys could on either end could pick it up.


Here is our new sign. Thanks Mr. Dean and Mr. Kikendall for making sure this project made it to the finish line for the Club. The sign is beautiful. The remaining landscaping and fencing will be completed next week, but first we still have to get a couple inspections done.


For now, I have removed the old sign and am storing it at my shop. The old flower area in front of the old sign will be landscaped off with grasses so that it blends in with the rest of the area.


Thankfully the summer rains have kicked into full swing and the course is loving it. We no longer have water shortages from the City of Naples as they will soon be looking for places to put all of the water produced. Thanks for everyone who did their nightly rain dances, I think it really helped.