Winter isn't exactly the time when most of you think about the benefits of your membership here at Elcona CC. Typically snow is on the ground, some of you have hunkered down for a few months and many of you have traveled to warmer destinations. For those of you that are local during the winter, I would encourage you to continue to think about Elcona.
Sure, the clubhouse is closed for its annual shutdown in January and February but there are still activities that you can do to take advantage of your membership. Tom and Kayla continue to offer indoor lessons that are held in the warmth of the Cart Storage building. This is a great opportunity to keep your golfing muscles active and improve your game ensuring you will be ready to go when the weather breaks.
Grassland section looking south
Another benefit to your membership that I wish more of you would take advantage of is the availability of the Audubon Trail System. Regardless of the weather, these trails are open for hiking, mountain biking, trail running, snowshoeing and cross country skiing.
Grassland / Farmland looking west toward clubhouse
For those of you that know me well, you are aware that I am an avid runner. After the recent stretch of warm weather, a majority of our snow cover melted and gave me the opportunity to get back out on the trails and enjoy the winter scenery. The trail system consists of over 5 miles of trails that can be utilized in any way you would like. Below is an example of the route that I like to run on a regular basis. I used my Garmin GPS watch to map the run as I went to give you an idea of what a 3 mile loop looks like.
3 mile loop
These trails are maintained on a regular basis and are always available for use. We recently completed a project with a local Eagle Scout to increase the Bluebird populations throughout Elcona's property. Several nesting boxes were added along the trail system with the hope that many Bluebirds will be visible in the near future.
Grassland looking north
Every time I am out on these trails, I am amazed at the elevation changes and land types that cover our property. Over the course of this three mile loop, you are exposed to wooded areas, grassland, farmland and a little bit of the golf course. The elevation changes provide a great change of pace, but aren't too difficult for the casual hiker/walker to enjoy.
Wooded section near campsite
If you are suffering from cabin fever, this is a great reason for you to get out. After all, it's your club, so why not take advantage of it? Have a great rest of the winter and I hope to see you out on the trails. I know I'll be out there with regularity. Trail maps are available at the Main Office if you are interested.
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!
This is a longer than normal post, but I feel it is important that you please take the time to read it in it's entirety.
I have been wanting to address this for quite a while and this appears to be the appropriate time since I have been receiving numerous comments about the speed of the greens.
When I first started working here over 6 years ago, I was asked in the interview process if I was willing to post greenspeeds on a daily basis. I said yes, but was always concerned about the consequences. This was a new part of my daily routine and a new part of your daily golf game. I can honestly say that a day didn't go by when the speed of the greens wasn't met with great criticism regardless of what "number" was placed on the Starter Hut. No matter what the number was, it was immediately criticized for not being accurate. Some said the greens were faster than the posted number but a vast majority commented that it was extremely inaccurate and that the greens were significantly slower than the posted number. This routine had become the single most stressful part of my job and I was constantly amazed at how rounds of golf would be ruined before they even got started because of a simple number that wasn't to a players liking. With strong encouragement from the USGA and approval from the Green Committee and Board of Directors, we stopped posting green speeds two years ago. Without question, I feel it has improved everyone's mentality before teeing off and it has certainly eliminated a lot of unnecessary stresses for myself and my staff.
It has been and always will be a top priority for me to keep the greens as consistent as possible while maintaining a healthy playing surface. It is not uncommon for speeds to vary from day to day based on our rolling program and other external factors. During a typical week of the peak season (see below) we will roll on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so please keep this in mind. University research has shown that rolling more than 3-4 times/week in conjunction with a daily mowing schedule is the threshold before the turf can become overly stressed and show signs of decline . This is especially true for Annual Bluegrass, the predominant turf on our greens, in the heat of the summer (remember last summer?).
Contrary to popular belief, I do not have complete control over the speed of the greens on a daily basis. I have compiled a list of factors that will hopefully help you become more educated on some of the things that impact the speed of your greens.
Staff: We are only at peak staffing levels for about 3 months (Memorial Day to Labor Day) which means that there may not be someone available to roll on the day you are playing, especially in the spring and fall. We make every attempt to keep a consistent rolling schedule, but it doesn't always work as surprises can and do happen at any moment.
Moisture Levels: What can affect moisture levels? The two main culprits are rainfall/irrigation and humidity. It's no secret that firmer/drier greens tend to be faster and soft/wet greens lead to slower speeds. We combat this as much as possible by hand watering the greens in the summer and using products to help move water down through the soil profile leading to a drier, firmer surface.
Weather: What happens to your yard after it rains? It grows and typically grows much faster than it did before it rained. Rainfall provides the turf with clean, usable water that helps to flush elements from the soil that tie-up nutrients, therefore making the nutrients readily available to the turf. Nutrients lead to healthy turf which can lead to additional growth.
Nutrition: The turf needs food to be healthy. Just as with humans, the healthier it is, the more active it tends to be. Healthy turf will grow more than unhealthy turf.
Growth: Turf is a living, breathing entity. It doesn't just grow at night when most of us are sleeping, it grows during the day as well. This means that the greens will usually be slower in the afternoon than they are in the morning. If they didn't grow, we wouldn't have to mow them every day.
Growth Regulators: Growth regulators work and work very well, but despite what you may think, they do not completely stop growth, they merely slow it down. Over the years we have found a schedule that will provide very consistent results from day to day, minimizing surges in growth, but like everything else, the performance of the product is predicated upon several of the factors listed above.
The game of golf should not revolve around a number that was originally intended to measure consistency from green to green NOT the speed of the greens (this alone is a topic for another post). Having said that, please understand that my staff and I try our hardest to give you some of the fastest (within reason), most consistent and enjoyable greens in the region on a daily basis, but sometimes outside influences lead to results that are temporarily out of our control. Please consider which factors may be at play if the greenspeed is not to you liking on a particular day. Lastly, I would encourage you to spend a few moments before each round on one of the practice greens. They are maintained EXACTLY like the greens on the golf course and will give you a good reference as to what the greens on the course will be like.
Thank you for reading and please let me know if you have any questions or comments.
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.
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