Course and Project Update, 4/25/15

Gorgeous tulip bloom behind 18 green

Even through the freezing temperatures we experienced this week, the tulips and daffodils held their spectacular color, adding to an already beautiful backdrop along green and tee complexes.  With the drier start to spring that we have had, it has been nice to produce firm conditions without being aggressive in our daily maintenance.  With each week, I am gaining additional staff where we will begin to regularly walk mow greens and increase our frequencies maintaining areas as well.  I have been proud of my staff for their efforts and hard work in getting the golf course into season shape, while working hard on our numerous Spring projects.

Our preemergent applications for grassy weeds and early season broadleaf weeds will be completed this coming week.  The high winds that visited Elcona all of last week hampered any plans of applying those.  There is still some time to apply these preventative applications to your yard if you have not as well.

 

The terrace project continues to march along.  Last week, ConCreations was onsite to demo the existing concrete around the Club and Fireside Rooms, and pour a new slab of stamped concrete in those areas to match the existing colors and patterns of the walking path outside the Ballrooms and View.  It was quite the process, as the pictures abo show.  Seeing a boom over the building was quite the show!  The remaining sod in the new area was transplanted to some open stump holes on the course, and a gas line was run both to the location of the new firepit and a future grill hook up on the north side of the new terrace edge.  Irrigation was re-routed around the new paver area and any topsoil that was in the area was removed by hand to ensure wires and pipes were not disturbed.

 

The next steps in this project involve setting the final grade for the pave stones.  We will be adding or taking away subgrade to make a even base to add our aggregate base layer, which will be compaction gravel.  The gravel must be a compacted level of at least 4" in depth.  On top of that gravel will be a 1/2" layer of sand, which serves as the base for the actual pave stone.  Before all of these aggregates are added, we will be taking several readings with survey equipment to establish and marking these on wood stakes.

18 green also continues to be on schedule for its grand opening one week from today.  In the last two weeks, it have been aerified both with 1/2" cores and 3/4" solid deep tines to further smooth the playing surface and create new channels for air, water, and roots to go.  This aerification has also allowed the generous application of topdressing sand to further smooth the surface as well, as you may have noticed.  The height of cut currently is at .165", which is .04" above the other greens on the course.  I will have more information on the green later on in the week, so stay tuned!

Sod work continues to be completed as well.  Areas that are both newly laid sod and yet to be completed will be marked as "Ground Under Repair", so please continue to take relief if your ball lands in these areas.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.  I have enjoyed seeing many familiar faces return to Elcona, along with some new faces as well.  See you on the course!

Ryan

18 Green Renovation, Day 6: Finish

Thanks in large part to a joint effort by our crew and Oliphant Golf, we were able to get all of the sod back onto 18 green and finish the project.  The rains overnight and at lunch time were a bit of a hindrance, but it was also nice to see that the green drains water the way we want it to (back to front). 

Soil amendments were applied first thing in the morning, before sod was laid.  These amendments serve two functions:  aid in the rooting of the replaced sod, and help enrich the soil below for the long term health of the green.  The green sod was then laid from the middle to the back, and then middle to front.  We did have to cut into our green nursery sod for the false front, which is another great reason to have that on hand!  By twilight, we were able to roll the green for the first time. 

This project turned out great in my opinion.  There are great little subtleties throughout the putting surface and plenty more pin locations.  Today we will be cleaning up the jobsite and placing a fence around the area.  The reasoning is simple for fencing:  excess foot traffic leads to excess wear and tear.   The sod, especially the greens cut, has been under extra stress with its removal and replacement, and needs time to heal in. Please stay outside of the fence.  By doing so, it will pay huge dividends come spring time.  I will have another post in the next couple of days on the next steps agronomically we will take to get the green ready for play in 2015. 

Ryan

A foggy start to sod work

Our crew loading the sod on the practice green

Ground view of the green

The new 18

Laying the last pieces



Cleaning the surface with blowers

Greg washing silt off of the sod

Rolling the new surface in the dark

18 Green Renovation, Day 5: Visualization

After moving earth for the past 4 days, today was a day where we could visualize the final layout of the new green on 18.  Soil was moved from the transition area in the middle to the crown of the bunker face to raise and contour the area so that water drains to either side of the bunker, not into it.  Oliphant's main shaper worked on fine tuning the middle of the green further to its final grade as well. 

The transition from puttable green, to false front, to approach was completed today also.  Sod was laid back down onto the new approach and rough surrounds from the front to the middle of the green, after fertilizer and other soil amendments were added. 

Words cannot express how happy Greg and I are with the crew that is completing this renovation.  They are highly experienced, efficient, and dedicated to their craft and we are lucky to have them here at Elcona.  Hats off to Cam and his crew. 

If the weather holds together, tomorrow will be full of sod replacement and fine tuning a couple of transition areas mainly where collar and rough surrounds meet.  Once all of the higher mowed turf is laid, greens sod will be replaced.  We will have as many guys as we can efficiently have complete the job, and the goal is to be complete.  Enjoy the pictures, and let's hope that the heavy rains stay away another day!

Ryan

Cam marking final transit measurements

Work on approach to green transition

Work on bunker face slope

Approach sod being placed while Greg scopes the final grade

Javier shaping the front of the green one more time

Completed approach. You can see where the false front will be.

Green after Day 5.  Starting to really come together!

Course Happenings for April

     April certainly has been full of ups and downs weather wise.  From 2" of snow on the 15th of the month to upper 70's and dry on Easter weekend, it has seemed like a roller coaster ride of weather to deal with when executing all that we need to do on the grounds. 
    



   Besides completing our aerification on greens, tees, and fairways successfully, we also are in the process of applying pre- and post-emergent weed control around the golf course.  Another critical spring application to our Poa annua greens is for seedhead suppression.  Note that this first of two applications does not eliminate the presence of seedheads on our putting surfaces, but is effective in greatly reducing the number of them that affect ballroll.  As in previous years, we have place checkplots, such as the one in the left picture, to measure the success of the timing on the application.  To learn more about why we place these on certain areas, Greg posted a great blog article here.

  

Another project that we have completed is the area between 6 green and 7 tee.  Several large trees were removed over the winter and were replaced with four Amelanchier species.  These trees will be smaller and more compact, and add a dramatic white background in the spring with its blooms.  Sod and seed were added to fill in the bare areas.  Many of you have commented on the new look from the green or tee, thank you for those. 
 

Perpendicular grain on 7 fairway

Lastly, we began verticutting tees and fairways this week.  Our tees have a good amount of thatch in them, making them spongy to the feel.  Some thatch is good, acting like a mulch barrier protecting the plant from extreme temperature fluctuations and moisture loss. Thatch also gives the turf some cushion from cart, mower, and foot traffic. Too much thatch leads to soft playing conditions, potential for mower scalping, and increased desiccation of the root system. 

Verticut mower on 1 fairway

Vertical mowing is also a great tool to create a more upright standing plant, which in turn creates a better quality of cut for our regular mowers, and a tighter lie for your ball in the fairway.  The picture top left shows the grain issues we are facing in the fairways today, and the bottom left picture shows the unit in action and the clippings that the vertical mower leaves.  This will be a regular bi-monthly practice for us unless weather dictates otherwise.  Keep in mind that it will take many vertical mowings for the fairways to get to where we need them to be.  For more information on vertical mowing and its benefits, a great article can be read here.  See you on the golf course!

Ryan

Practice Green Repair

 

Green after sodding 4/16/14



One project that you probably have noticed is the small Practice Green next to the clubhouse.  I had closed that green to traffic in March in the attempts to further aid its recovery from the severe winter damage that it sustained on the far east side.  After three weeks, no major recovery was taking place, so we had to sod the dead turf using new sod from our greens nursery.  This sod will require lots of rolling and topdressing to further smooth it out, and we have begun mowing it at a higher height to slowly work the new sod down to the height of other greens on the golf course. 



Green one week after sodding

     The green will remain closed until the roll and playability of the green matches the conditions on the golf course and the height of cut is the same as the others on the course.  I appreciate your understanding with this repair. 

 

Ryan





Never a Good Time

As we head into the holiday weekend, you will undoubtedly notice an area of soon to be dead turf in the middle of #14 fairway. This was caused by a blown hydraulic hose on one of our older fairway mowers. Since we are scheduled to aerify fairways next week, the repair to this area will have to wait until after the aerification process is complete. Luckily we have plenty of sod on our nursery. Like the title says,  there's never a good time for this to happen.

SodFest 2012

It has certainly been a while since I provided any type of update on this blog, and for that I apologize.  The Grounds Department has been exceptionally busy this Fall working on several projects. Most notably the sod work around the greens that has been an ongoing project since early Fall.

All of the green surrounds, or at least a 7-8 ft. pass around each green has been stripped and had new sod laid in an attempt to improve playing conditions during the summer months when certain types of turfgrass are stressed beyond what they can handle.  For more detailed information and a video explaining our circumstances, please click here to revisit a previous update from this blog.

Finished sod work around a green. A MAJOR improvement!

If you recall, three greens on the golf course (#2, 7 and 15) had "mowouts", or areas of lower mown turf, around them to make the playing conditions more favorable. These mowouts were established in areas where there was an extremely high population of bentgrass. By mowing these areas lower, the ball had a better lie and shots from around the green were more manageable.  These areas have since been stripped of the bentgrass and received new sod. Going forward, this sod will be maintained at rough height, thereby eliminating the mowouts.

The contaminated mowout around #7 green has been replaced 

with clean sod and will be maintained at rough height.

The 7-8 ft. pass around each green will be staged down in the spring to match up with our Intermediate cut that we have always maintained around the greens. I am sure you will notice a significant difference, not just visually, but in the conditioning as well.

All totaled, it took 76 pallets of sod just like this one to complete

the project. With that may pallets, you can see why the crew dubbed this 

project SODFEST!

Please contact me if you have any questions and I promise that the updates will be a little more regular in the future. There will be lots of updates to post as we have some minor projects with some of the tees, tree work and our usual winter maintenance around the shop and golf course. Have a great remainder of your Fall!

Course Update: Greens and Green Surrounds

By now it should not be a surprise to any of you when I say that there has been a dramatic change in course conditions in the last 4-6 weeks. The extreme heat has finally taken its toll on the greens as well as the turf surrounding greens.  Please indulge me while I make an attempt to explain what is happening in each of these respective areas.

While the stress from the heat on the greens may not be visible on the surface, there are plenty of symptoms visible below the surface. Throughout the spring and early summer we had some fantastic root growth thanks to a strong agronomic program and some great growing conditions.  Unfortunately, once soil temperatures reached 80 degrees and higher, the roots began to die off and will not return until temperatures consistently drop below the 80 degree mark again.  With the record setting high temperatures this summer and lack of rainfall, we saw some unbelievably high soil and canopy (surface) temperatures which severely impacted the health of the greens.  Please see the photos below for root depth comparison photos as well as soil and canopy temperatures. (click for larger view)

117 degree surface temp.  FYI: This is not good!

100 degree soil temp at 2" depth

Good rooting of the Annual Bluegrass on the greens
prior to the heat

Current root depth on greens. FYI: This
is not good either!

For those of you wondering why the greens are so soft and why green speeds have been slower even though the weather is showing signs of cooling off, this picture showing the current rooting depth is the reason.  When roots are this shallow, or even non-existent in some cases,  we have to be extremely cautious not to add any additional stresses to the turf that would give it a reason to die off.  We are constantly on the lookout for any signs of wilt and regularly syringing the greens to keep them cool. As you can imagine, it doesn't take long to dry out and for the condition of the greens to head in the wrong direction.  As Mother Nature hopefully begins to think about cooler weather patterns, new roots will be initiated and our regular management practices will return to normal. Ironically enough, we have now entered a rather wet stretch of weather that will help recovery, but with the lack of roots less moisture is being removed from the soil which also helps contribute to softer conditions. We continue to roll on a regular basis, but we are also promoting improved plant health which has led to additional growth. Please keep this in mind as you enjoy your round and stay tuned for an upcoming post on the hidden factors of green speed.

Regarding the poor conditions around several of the greens, we are once again battling our old friend Rough Bluegrass (Poa trivialis). This is now the third straight year of extremely hot weather, and it's no coincidence that this is the third straight year that we are facing poor conditions around the greens (this year being the worst). Under high temperatures, this turf, much like Annual Bluegrass, does not want to survive.  It enters a state of dormancy and will not recover until weather conditions are more favorable.  More often than not, full recovery, if at all, will not occur until the following spring. Because of this, we have elected to begin replacing these areas with Kentucky Bluegrass purchased form a local grower.  This will provide a quick fix to the problem and will also minimize the chances of these conditions returning in the future.

Rough Bluegrass on the perimeter of #8 green

Rough Bluegrass close-up. Notice how there are no roots
present, only the stolons.  Most of these areas can be rolled
just like a carpet because of poor rooting.

Click Video below for a more detailed explanation.

Please know that I am less than thrilled with these conditions however, given what we have been through this year, the overall health of the golf course is quite good.  Sure, we have plenty of black-eyes and are bruised from the fight, but we live to fight another day. Our gloves are still on as we have no plan on giving up and want to finish the year on a very positive note as we head toward the various club championships. Enjoy the remainder of the summer and hope for some cooler weather.

Collar Adjustments

Ball resting against green/collar transition

Last year it was decided to begin taking an aggressive approach toward eliminating the drastic transition from the green to the collar surrounding the green. It was also decided to reduce the width of the collar from two mower passes down to a single pass. Over the last several years, the sand that has been used for topdressing the greens has begun to build-up the collars in such a way that there is now a drastic transition from the green to the collar.  The reason for this is that the collars are mown at a higher height of cut as compared to the greens making it easier for the sand particles to work their way through the leaf canopy leading to less removal from the mowers. On the greens, since they are mown at a much lower height, a higher percentage of sand is removed during mowing leading to less build-up over time.  This transition between the green and collar has now led to a playability issue where it can actually be difficult to putt a ball that is on the green if it is resting against the collar.

Our initial thought last fall was to gradually lower the mowing height of the collar to transition it to greens height, therefore making each green slightly larger and the collar more narrow.  As we began lowering the mowing height on the inside portion of the collar, it became very evident that scalping was going to be a major issue and that a different approach was necessary.

A few weeks ago we began trying a couple different methods to minimize the transition which will allow us to begin reducing the width of the collar. (click on pictures for larger view)

Test #1: Strip Sod

This method will provide immediate results and decent playability but will take a significant amount of time and labor. The process involves stripping all of the collar, removing excess material (soil) to help the new soil level match the level of the green, re-laying the sod, tamping, watering and rolling.  It took three individuals approximately 3 hrs. to complete the process on only half of the big putting green by #1 tee.

Strip existing collar

Remove material to lower the level
of the collar

Re-lay sod in its previous
 location and tamp

Finished product after watering
and rolling

Test #2: Aggressively Aerify the Collar

This method will take a little longer to achieve the desired results, but the process itself is very fast and is expected to take less time and labor to complete.  The process involves 2-3 aggressive aerifications of the collar within a month or two, removing the cores, heavily watering the collar to soften it then driving over the saturated collar with a tractor to lower the level of the collar to the level of the green.  It took two individuals approximately 30 minutes to complete the process on the other half of the big putting green by #1 tee.  Keep in mind that this is not the final result we are wanting to achieve.  This process will need to be done 1-2 more times to get it to the point where it matches the current condition of the collar that was done with the other process.

Drive over saturated collar to begin
lowing soil level

Aerify the collar and a small
portion of the gree

Finished product with holes
remaining open

A couple of points to consider:

Test #1: This is not a perfect process.  Sod seams will be visible and there may be some inconsistencies  with evenness until the sod fully matures (this process is similar to the stripping and re-laying of the sod on #18 green).

Test #2: Holes will be visible for a period of time as we want to encourage the soil to fill the holes leading to additional settling of the collar.  If the minimal amount of holes on the green itself is a concern, we will need to fill them with sand, lengthening the amount of time it will take to achieve our goal.

Renovation Complete: #18 Green Est. 2011

After two very long days of working to get our renovation project done before the rains came, I am happy to report that the renovation of #18 green is now complete.  The comments from the membership regardingthe size, shape and contouring of the new green have been nothing but positive. It will undoubtedly provide a significant challenge at the completion of every round played here at Elcona Country Club.

Ramon and his staff from O&J Construction as well as Mr. Arthur Hills and his associate Brian Yoder have been true professionals to work with and every day of the project has been completed without any major setbacks or surprises.

The final day of the project was spent finishing the sod on the green, the collar mow-out and around the new bunker.  After the sod on the green was finished, it was cleaned, rolled and topdressed. The haul road leading from the cartpath was cleaned-up and sodded as well.  The last step of the day was to add the new bunker sand and to clean-up any remaining debris around the worksite.

Please watch for future updates that will describe our agronomic practices to the green for the remainder of the year and into next spring.  Click on pictures for a larger view.

The back of the green.

Completed green looking toward the fairway.

Beginning of the last day

Finishing the base of the bunker

New green after topdressing

The green after dragging the topdressing and the haul road after sodding

Adding sand to the bunker

Finishing the bunker