Course Notes, 1/17/17

Temperatures that are 25 degrees above normal are forecasted for the coming weekend, and a few of you have inquired at the golf shop if the course will be open this weekend for play.  Although it may seen like a good day on the surface to get the sticks out, as always the story down below tells a different picture.

Soil temperatures warm much slower than the temperature of the ambient air.  As the frozen ground thaws from the top down it becomes quite soft in a hurry.  The resulting moisture from the excessive rains we have received in the last couple of weeks has no where fast to go, even with our well-draining sandy soils.  Rutting can also often take place with cart and foot traffic (both golf and maintenance) creating additional maintenance and wear on the turfgrass that is not needed this time of year when the turf is not actively growing.  It is quite easy under the current conditions to create footprints, even on greens.

Root shearing can also take place, where traffic can cause turf roots to rip from the crowns of the plant due to the soft conditions above.  Damage can stay hidden from this until later on in the spring when soil temperatures become more optimal for growing turf.

For these reasons, the golf course will remain closed this weekend.  This warm wave of weather has also hampered our outdoor work where we have to pick and choose where we can perform our duties without causing more harm than good.  Much of our work this week has centered in native areas and along the US 20 fence line.  The pictures below depict some of that work.

Before picture of a large pin oak in 12's native area.
The bottom growth depicts the natural growth
habit of the pin oak. 

After picture of the same tree after the bottom growth
was trimmed out. 

Our tree service also dropped 7 oak trees in
preparation of the halfway house project.

Our tree service fell a large silver maple next
the purple beech at the Range Hut.  This maple was impeding
the top growth of the more desirable beech.

If you have any questions, please contact me at ryan@elconacc.com.  Thank you for your understanding, and have a great day!

Ryan

Course Notes, 1/2/17

Happy New Year to everyone, may it bring all of us good golfing and great weather!  The golf course has experienced 2 heavy snows, and 2 subsequent melts in the last month.  December's temperatures ranged from a low of -14 to a high of 58.  Turf is hanging in there nicely thanks to timely melting of any ice formation and nice insulation from snow cover during those very cold nights.  So far, so good!

The staff and I were busy beginning our annual tree work in December.  We are about halfway through as I write this article. Most tree work this winter is a continued effort of executing Elcona's Tree Management Plan, reviewed each year by the Golf and Greens Committee.  Some of the tree work this winter is suggested from the Master Improvement Plan submitted to Elcona from Hills/Forrest.   I have included a few pictures below of some of the work so far:

3 Blue Spruce were removed on 9 tee to better reveal the nice Sugar Maple on the left, as well as better scatter cart traffic at the end of the asphalt path.

2 Locust were removed on the right side of 15 for their knack of producing much litter in the fairway.  The locust closest to the fairway was rotting in the trunk, and the picture above shows a sassafras sapling growing inside the crotch of the tree.   

The locust to the right of the blue tee on #4 was removed.  This, along with several other locusts on property, were impacted by the Imprellis herbicide.  Unknowing to any of us, this tree was severely rotten inside, and posed a danger to anyone on that tee if the winds were correct.

Another picture of the locust removed on 4.  

Finally, I included this picture of Bowser and I on 3 green, not only to show everyone that we still had a bit of snow on the ground, but to show off Gus (the large burr oak to the right of 5 green).  Thanks to consulting with 2 of Northern Indiana's more knowledgeable tree experts, we have a plan in place to maintain Gus's presence at Elcona for many years to come.  I will have a blog article on that in the coming weeks.


If you have any questions about the golf course, please feel free to email me at ryan@elconacc.com.  Again, Happy New Year to everyone and I look forward to what 2017 brings!

Ryan

Course Update, 2/6/16

5 Green on February 1.

What a difference a year makes.  At this time last year, we were in the midst of a 17" lake effect snow storm.  Ice cover was not a major concern, but was in place in lower areas of the golf course.  This year we have had quite the roller coaster.  Each time we receive a significant amount of snow, it is followed by above normal temperatures that easily melt it away.  Tee, fairway, and rough turf achieved a level of dormancy finally over the last couple of weeks, and the greens are slowly catching up.

I have noticed some greens have a two toned appearance to them currently, which is not a concern to me.  This is where ice and snow cover took a bit longer to melt, and protected the turf underneath from colder air temperatures.  The lighter turf color is where turf was exposed to the elements for a longer period of time.  Again, not a concern, but one of the neat attributes that Mother Nature can show throughout the seasons.

Our annual tree work has shifted to stump grinding and clean up.  One tree that was a subject of conversation and that I have wrote about here was the large Black Oak near #1 green.  This tree rapidly defoliated in July and, according to the two experts I had look at it, succumbed to Oak Wilt.  It was removed on January 26th by our tree service.  If you would like to read more about Oak Wilt, here is an article from Michigan State.

Black oak stump 

Insect boring/fungal growth on a limb

Insect boring 1" from the bottom

Close up of cracking in stump

In observing the tree as we were cleaning up the debris, we noticed a couple of other problems the tree had. There was a direct insect trail bored throughout the the entire tree, and some cracking within the main trunk of the tree.  All of these symptoms, as well as the Oak Wilt symptoms observed when the leaves were dropping in July, probably together played a roll to its demise.  We are unsure if the insect boring led to the fungal infection, or vice versa.  According to Michigan State extension, it is a very troublesome disease to diagnose.

The takeaway I have had from this tree is learning about Oak Wilt, how to prevent the spread of it, and how to best protect Elcona's other Oak inventory from this.  While there is no reason to be overly concerned about it at this time, Oak Wilt is something that we will be continually monitoring within our tree maintenance program.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.  Have a great weekend!

Ryan

Course Opening!

16 green complex

I am happy to say that after a much too long winter, the golf course will be open this Sunday, March 29th at noon.  All snow and ice has melted, and the ground has become frost free.  But what can you expect to see when you next visit the course?  For starters, we will have began mowing playing surfaces, continued clearing leaf litter and other debris from the course, and will start raking bunkers next week.  While we do our best to achieve great course conditions from the start of the season, we will be doing these on an "as needed" basis.  Patience is required for the full quality of Elcona's golf course to truly shine.  A recent USGA article further explains why, which you can read here.

As for other parts of the golf course, you will notice some trees that were removed as part of our annual tree maintenance program.  More Ash trees had to be removed due to their demise from the Emerald Ash Borer, others were removed to continuously improve playing conditions.  I wrote a more in-depth summary of our tree work you can read here.  The staff and I have filled and leveled all stump holes with topsoil, and when the weather is more consistently warm, will be seeding or sodding them, depending on their location relative to play.  Until then, these areas are to be considered ground under repair.

The renovations on 13 and 18 tees are almost complete.  We will be bringing in a heavy roller to smooth 13 tee from the settling that occured during the winter, and the staff and I put a finish grade on 18 tee yesterday, which makes it ready for sod and re-alignment next week.  I will have a more in-depth post later on.

18 tee ready for sod

In the next week, the staff and I will be charging the irrigation system, continuing our course and pond clean-up, and continuing on our spring projects.  The season is here, we are excited, and I hope to see you on the golf course 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

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

Course Opening!

The view from 12 tee

I have been waiting for 7 weeks to say this.....the golf course will be open this Friday, April 4th!  All 100+ inches of snow and ice has melted, and the ground has become frost free.  But what can you expect to see when you next visit the course?  For starters, we have began mowing playing surfaces, continued clearing leaf litter and other debris from the course, and will start raking bunkers next week.  While we do our best to achieve great course conditions from the start of the season, we will be doing these on an "as needed" basis.  Patience is required for the full quality of Elcona's golf course to truly shine.  A recent USGA article further explains why, which you can read here. 



18 green after repairs

With our necessary removal of snow and ice (info posted here and here), we have had some repairs to perform on the greens.  It is quite nice to have a large nursery to do these repairs in house, as the picture on the right shows on 18 green.  The other thing you will notice are the shovel marks in that picture.  To completely remove ice on some greens (5, 10, 12,18, large practice green were the heaviest in terms of ice) we had to chip and crack the ice with shovels.  These marks will heal in on their own, with the help of aerification and warmer temperatures from Mother Nature.

5 green 3/25/14

5 green 4/1/2014

5 green suffered bruising injury from topdressing sand that was mixed in with the slush and ice that was removed.  As the pictures show, this green has slowly recovered with some new green tissue starting to peek out of the crown, and should be just fine with some warmer temperatures.  Other greens that have similar injury is 2, 4, 8, 9, 12, 14, and 17. 







The small practice green next to the clubhouse took a decent hit from the winter weather, mainly from the freeze/thaw cycles and cold temperature exposure.  This part of the green does not get any sunlight in the dead of winter until mid afternoon, so winter was harsher on that portion than the rest of the golf course.  I am cautiously optimistic on its recovery, as there is some signs of growth, but we may have to re-sod the turf if it does not recover soon.  I will keep you posted on any repairs that would be necessary.  Until further notice, that practice green will be closed from putting and traffic. 

The new view from 7 tee

As for other parts of the golf course, you will notice some trees that were removed as part of our annual tree maintenance program.  The picture on the right is the new view from 7 tee.  We removed several ash trees that were in poor condition due to Emerald Ash Borer, and will be replaced with 3 or 4 Amelanchier trees behind the green in their place, farther to the north than the old trees.  These new trees will give some backdrop to the green while allowing a better growing environment for 6 green and 7 tee.  Trees were also removed along the north side of 13 cart path, again for the betterment of the turf and cart path in the surrounding area.  The staff and I will be leveling stump holes, and seeding or sodding them, depending on their location. 

Pink snow mold on Range Tee

Finally, we did have some pink snow mold pop up, mainly on the range tee.  While we are still diagnosing why this tee was more severely affected than the rest of the golf course, we have treated it with a curative fungicide, and with warmer weather and mowing beginning on the tee soon, the turf should grow through the infection and recover.  We have also spot sprayed other smaller outbreaks on tees and continue to monitor greens and fairways. 



Overall, I am still pleased with how the course came through winter.  We as a staff cannot wait to get the season started, and to welcome all of you back to Elcona.  I look forward to seeing all of you out on the golf course!

Ryan

Winter Update and Course Opening

It's getting closer, but the snowfall this week is making it difficult to know when winter will end.  To date, we have had a very successful winter. Our normal tree removal has been completed, stumps have been ground and cleaned up, and all of our equipment has been serviced in anticipation of the coming season.

Tree removal between #9 green and #10 tee

Stump grinding on #15

The golf course remains healthy with the exception of a few small areas of disease on a couple of tees that are historically problematic.  The picture below was taken on #5 Blue tee and shows some active pink snow mold. The fact that we do have some minor disease is not a surprise given the several freeze/thaw cycles we have seen this year. it is not a cause for concern at this point, but we will pay close attention to it once the snow melts.

Active snow mold on #5 Blue tee

One project that was completed late last fall was the renovation of the Blue and Black tees on #7.  Because of the proximity of these two tees and the excessive wear and tear that the Blue tee receives, we joined the two tees together to generate additional tee space. This will hopefully lead to better turf quality and a better looking tee.  I am thrilled with the outcome and hope that you will be as well. 

New and improved Blue/Black tee on #7

Regarding the opening of the golf course for the year, it will not open until the frost layer is permanently out of the ground.  The current depth of the frost layer is only about 4-6".  The reason we wait to open the course is because damage could occur from excessive foot and cart traffic that would prolong the recovery of the turf in the spring from the harsh winter months.  Picture a container with a water-soaked sponge in it that completely fills the container.  If you press your fingers into the sponge, there is no place for the water to go except to the surface where you are pressing your finger.  In this analogy, the sponge is the water soaked soil, the container is the frost layer that prevents water from draining and your finger is a golf cart or excessive foot traffic.  Hopefully this gives you an idea of the displacement that can sheer fragile roots, unsightly rutting and poor surface conditions.  This is a common practice that has been employed by the club and my department for a number of years. 

Just because the course remains closed, you can still utilize the club.  Beginning March 7th, the club re-opens for activity on Thrurdays, Fridays and Saturdays during the month of March so come out and enjoy a great meal, hike/ski the trails or get some practice at the indoor hitting area.  Have a great remainder of the winter and stay tuned. Those of you that have subscribed to the blog by entering your email address at the top of the page on the right side will be the first to find out when the course will re-open.  See you soon! 

Justification for a Tough Decision

Change is never easy, especially when it comes to impacting something that you have grown accustomed to and have developed an appreciation for.  With that being said, sometimes change can mean opportunity.  This was the case regarding the tree removal project behind #12 green and along side #13 tee this past winter.  We had a clear opportunity to improve the health of a very important green.

Unacceptable turf conditions due
to poor air movement

Unfortunately, this opportunity was born out of a couple of very stressful periods.  If you recall the previous two seasons we struggled to keep the turf on #12 green alive during the abnormally hot/humid conditions that we faced.  Truth be told, we came very close to losing the entire green on several occasions.  If the fan were not present, I feel very confident that the past conditions would have been far worse.  Last winter, with approval from the Green Committee and Board of Directors, it was decided to significantly reduce the tree population in this area.  This was a very difficult decision to make knowing how it could potentially impact the view of the 12th hole from the middle of the fairway.

#12 before tree removal

With careful consideration to the backdrop of #12 green, a plan was put in place to remove a majority of the trees in an attempt to take advantage of winds coming out of the west, northwest, north and northeast.  I had great confidence that we would achieve our desired results, but there was no way to tell...until the week of July 1st.  The first half of the week gave us three days with temps in the mid to upper 90's, while the second half brought 4 days with temps in the low 100's with humidity.  This unprecedented stretch of weather wasn't exactly conducive for maintaining turfgrass, especially our greens that are comprised of Poa annua.  However, it was ideal weather to test our decision of removing the trees.

#12 after tree removal

Looking back on that week of horrendous weather and surveying the turf conditions of #12 green the following week, the green survived the test and has unquestionably gone from what was easily our weakest green to arguably our best one.  The best news of all is that the fan was never used, although I did consider putting it out.

I will stop well short of claiming that we will never have another problem with this green, but at this point it seems pretty clear that the decision to protect our asset was the correct one.  I would hate to think of what the condition of the green would be like now if we hadn't made such a tough decision.

Please click on pictures for a more detailed view.

Am I Losing My Mind?

What do you notice about this picture?

Take a minute to look at the picture and see if you can find anything different or new (No, Waldo is not in the photo).

Anything?

I can hear it now: "He's crazy! It's only May and he's already gone off the deep end. There isn't anything different!".

While this response wouldn't surprise me and I assume that many of you have probably already had that thought that regarding me, the picture does show something VERY different and VERY important.

What are you supposed to be seeing?

The flag at #12 green is blowing in the breeze even with leaves on the trees!  For those of you that have been members at Elcona for a while, this is probably something that you may not have seen before, or at least not on a regular basis during the summer.  The wind on this particular day was blowing out of the northwest, which is common, but in the past, the dense trees between #12 green and #13 tee and understory plants that were growing along the fenceline all but eliminated every breath of air from reaching #12 green leading to extremely poor turf conditions on and around the green.

Remember all of the tree work that was done last winter in this area? This is exactly what we were trying to accomplish.  Here are some photos to remind you of how many trees we removed. Click on the pictures for a larger view.

 Click this link to go to a previous blog post with several more before and after photos.

At this stage in the game it would appear that we have accomplished our goal, but we still need to wait and see what kind of curve balls Mother Nature decides to throw us this season.  We certainly do not want a repeat of the last two summers where we struggled to keep this green alive. At least this season I feel we have a good head start on what may be coming down the line.

Mid-Winter Update

At this stage of the winter, there really isn't much to update other than that there hasn't been much of a winter, at least as far as very cold temperatures and snowfall is concerned.  We, the grounds department, have been very busy finishing our planned tree work, rebuilding equipment, refurbishing course supplies and putting our agronomic plans together for the upcoming season. Greg Stump and I are working on a plan to continue promoting our certification with the Audubon Society and hope to have some big news to announce in the spring. In my opinion, it could actually be argued that the winter is the most important time of the year for us because it lays the foundation for what we hope will be a very successful season.

Some other quick updates on what else has been happening:

The construction of the cell tower continues to move forward.  A completion date has not been determined, but, from the looks of things, it isn't too far away.

Fencing is now around the lease space

Some of you have asked how Mulligan is doing.  Rest assured, he has the shop protected from any unwanted intruders.  That is if he feels like getting up.

One last note:  For those of you that like to come out and cross-country ski when the snow is on the ground, we would prefer that you stick to the Audubon trails on the eastern part of the property.  Trail maps are available in the Main Office.  If you feel the need to ski on the course, PLEASE stay off of all greens, tees and fairways.  This will lessen the potential for damage to our fine turf areas.  Thank you.

That's it for now.  Keep checking back for more updates and have a great rest of the winter.
(FYI: Long term forecasts are  predicting a big drop in temperatures and an increase in precipitation, so we will continue to watch closely).