Course Notes, 2-17-17

A typical April forecast, not February!

I think I am not overstepping my bounds by saying that all the weather forecasters had a BIG "swing and a miss" with their winter forecasts.  With 50's and 60's in the forecast the next 7 days, as you may have guessed, the golf course will be open with carts available starting Saturday at 12.  Hours will be 12-5, and its availability will be evaluated on a day by day basis.  The course will remain closed Monday for course maintenance.  With night time lows a few days reaching freezing, opening at 12 will allow any frozen surfaces to thaw and safely allow traffic.

Our stump grinder in action

While it is nice to have the golf course open for play so early, there is still much clean up to do from our annual tree work and general debris that has accumulated over the last 3 months.  We will be out and about grinding stumps from this winter's tree work next week.  Please exercise caution when equipment is in the area, as these noisy machines and the concentration needed to use them may not allow the operator to see you right away and allow him to move out of the way.  These stump holes will be 4-6" deep when cleaned up, and they will be flagged for everyone's safety.

Halfway house site

Please also exercise caution when near the site of the old halfway house.  Directly to the east of the old structure is where the new septic field has been installed.  This ground is still soft and settling, and cannot withstand any traffic at all.  We will have an update on that project in a future blog post.

Keep in mind that the average temperature for this time of year is 35 degrees and that the staff and I will manage the turf as it is appropriate for this time of year.  What does that mean?  It means that mowing will be done as the weather and growth dictates and other practices, such as raking bunkers, will be done on an as needed basis.  Please understand that seasonal employees are brought back based on historical dates that have been determined by both average weather and budgetary guidelines set for the year.  We are not usually fully staffed until Memorial Day.

If the weather continues to remain warm for an extended period, I may need to re-evaluate returning dates for some employees just so we can keep up with the growth of the turf.  February is not the time to push green speeds or mow the turf at normal summer levels however.  While the greens have some nice green color right now, the turf growing quite slowly, there is a greater time for recovery from wear.  Also, the spring time is the time to develop and grow a deep, healthy root system.  As I have mentioned many times, the deeper the root system, the better probability the turf can withstand summer playing expectations during hot summer conditions.  Mowing height is directly correlated to root depth.

While it is looking like some turf will need a mowing in the next week, it will be at much higher heights than typical summer heights of cut strictly because of the above paragraph.  Rolling will be utilized when needed to smooth the greens, but will not be an every day occurrence.  Here is a link to an excellent USGA article further explaining decisions that I have to make with early warm weather, and how it possibly impacts our operation and budget throughout the course of the year.

A trimmed up look right of 3 green

Oak trees pruned up along 15

As you are out on the course the next week, you will also notice we have been out pruning up several oak trees.  As I referenced in blogs articles here, here, and here,  winter is now the suggested time to prune these trees due to the emerging threat of oak wilt.  We have about 7 additional trees to work on when the ground firms back up before the golf season hits its full swing.

If you have any questions, please contact me at ryan@elconacc.com or call me at the maintenance facility.  Enjoy these April-like conditions and I look forward to seeing you on the golf course!

Ryan

Time for Golf!

#7

I am happy to announce that the golf course will open on Friday, March 11 at 12 p.m. for play.  Tee times will begin at 9 a.m. this Saturday and Sunday.  The staff has done a great job with the clean up from winter's wrath, and the turf has started to show some growth thanks to well above average temperatures.  Over the next few days, we will begin mowing and rolling playing surfaces, and getting the bunkers back in shape in anticipation of a great 2016 golf season at Elcona.

15 green

One note of caution:  As we have focused solely on debris clean up, we have still many empty stump holes and areas where we have ground roots down that need to be filled with soil.  These areas will be flagged or roped so that they are easily identifiable for you, and they should be treated as ground under repair.  We will begin filling them next week, starting with the areas closest to the normal route of play.  If you have any questions, please email me at ryan@elconacc.com, or call the maintenance facility.  I hope to see you out on the golf course this weekend!

Roots being ground from the cart path exit at 15 tee

Ryan

Stump hole on #2.  Caution around these! 

Course Opening, Conditions and Happenings- 3-19-15

I appreciate your patience while the staff and I continue to get conditions where you expect them.  There is still some areas of frost in the soil profile, mainly in more wooded areas where there is less sun exposure this time of year (mainly holes 4, 6, 12, and 13). Other areas are too soft for traffic, and a couple greens have not firmed up to the point where they can successfully accept approach shots.  Rest assured the golf season is very close! 

 

Almost all of our playing surfaces have fared  well through the harsh, historic winter we experienced.  The pictures below depict some crown hydration injury that occurred during the melting period experienced last week.  There is a good amount of green leaf tissue deep in the crown area of the green profile, so while it may look brown for a while, I am anticipating these areas to fully recover with more consistent warmer weather.  As with some of the winter injury areas we experienced last year,  it will take some additional time for these areas to heal. 

Small Practice Green winter injury

Crown hydration damage on 4 green

 

18 green came out of winter in fantastic shape!  Root growth was dramatic and the sod matured well heading into the winter.  Since we removed and re-used the existing sod to keep the green surface consistent with the others on the course, we will soon begin the process of getting it ready for daily play, which involves multiple topdressings and aerifications to further smooth the surface out.  We will also begin mowing the green at a higher height of cut (.225") and gradually lower it to the same height of cut that all other putting surfaces are mown at (.120").  There will inevitably be some scalped areas that we will have to plug out with our nursery, and there will be lots of rolling as well. Stay tuned to the blog for further updates! 

 

The picture on the right depicts one of our busiest spring time projects each year.  Stump removal and clean up from our annual winter tree work involves cleaning all shavings left behind from the grinder, getting the area matched as close with the surrounding slope as possible, and then filling the hole with topsoil.  We will be either seeding or sodding the area depending on their proximity to normal play when warmer weather comes our way.  These areas are to be played as ground under repair.  I posted a more in-depth post on this process, viewed here. 

Thanks again for your patience and understanding while the staff and I get the course ready for the upcoming season.  In the meantime, come out and enjoy March Madness in the newly renovated bar room and the specials that Chef Casey and Anne have prepared for you.  See you out on the course very soon! 

Ryan

 

The winter grind.......

Harold grinding a stump on #14

One of our larger jobs in the early spring is grinding all stumps from the winter tree work we performed and prepping those areas for soil, and either sod or seed, depending on their location on the golf course. 



Quite the pile of soil and grindings

Above you can see Harold using our grinder on an oak stump along #14.  This stump grinder makes fairly quick work of most wood types, except for the hardwoods like locust.  The picture to the right shows what is left for the staff to remove once grinding is complete.  It is important to remove as much of this vegetative material so that the sod or grass seed that will take its place will grow well.  As you can imagine, soil that has a large amount of wood shavings has a much lower nutrient value to turf than topsoil!  These grindings and soil are hauled to our compost pile, where they can become useful material again after decomposition.



 Any chance we get, we utilize the equipment available to make our job more efficient.  The pictures below show our removal process.  We use two front end loader buckets to sweep the majority of the grindings into the truck.  Even though this speeds the clean-up process, there is still a fair amount of hand work to make sure the area is fully prepped for topsoil fill.  Our goal is to remove and fill all these holes before activity on the golf course picks up steam, to minimize the impact during play. 

 

Ryan