Maintenance Update 01/31/2012

Good afternoon all!  I just wanted to give an update on the status of the golf course after the heavy rains last week.  We received a total of 5.25 inches from last Tuesday afternoon through Thursday morning.  On Wednesday morning, the creek rose out of the banks and covered much of the golf course.  Fortunately, it had receded by Wednesday afternoon.  However we were left with quite a mess!  The following is a list of items we are currently in the process of tackling:

• There was debris (sticks, logs, leaves, grass clippings, trash, etc) washed over much of the course.  It has been quite a while since we have seen flood waters (September 2010)  The majority of this has been cleaned up, particularly from tee to green.  There is still some debris in some out of play areas and we will get to this as time allows.
• Flood waters did not reach any greens.
• Holes #2, 6, 7 and 8 had substantial silt deposited, as well as several other isolated areas.  We are currently in the process of cleaning this up as best as possible.  We are using a large hose tapped into our irrigation system to blast as much as possible.  While most of the course is dried out, #7 and 8 are still quite wet and will remain cart path only.
• We have moved the rough mower down to 1 inch.  We started mowing the roughs today and this will help chop up much of the smaller debris.  I typically lower the height of the roughs once we start spring green up, but with the amount of clutter left behind from the water, I felt it was necessary to go ahead and drop the height now.
• The gabion basket erosion control on the south side of the creek on #10 in front of the tee failed and the wall has fallen.  This type of wall is engineered to protect from erosion from flood waters travelling parallel to the wall.  The water was so high that this area became a spill-way and water was flowing over the top of the wall.  The water started eroding behind the wall and it was just a matter of time before it collapsed.  We are in the process of looking at our options to get this area repaired, including rebuilding the baskets with a concrete cap to protect the baskets from the perpindicular flow of water.
• The bunkers are still a mess, as we have not had the manpower to start their repair.  Once we have a better handle on getting #7 and 8 back in better playing condition, we will start pumping and moving the sand around in the bunkers.

As I mentioned, most of the course is dry enough to be under the 90 degree cart rule.  Please use caution when driving outside of the fairway and watch for wet areas.  Areas that will remain cart path only include: #2, #6, #7, #8, #12, #16 and around #17 green.

Thank you all for your understanding and patience while we get the course back in shape!  Here are some photos I took Wednesday and Thursday morning.

Cart bridge on #10

#8

#17 green

#2 green and bridge

View from Putting Green

#4

#6

#14

Front of #2 green

#8

Failed wall #10

#17

Maintenance Update 01/17/2012

Good morning and Happy New Year to everyone!  2012 is off and running and we have had some great weather to start the year.  We were fortunate to receive about 2.5 inches of rain with the last storms over the course of three days.  The creek rose quite a bit, but the rain was slow enough for it to fortunately stay in it's banks. 

Cart Traffic

Unfortunately, this time of year, any rainfall we do receive means we will need to be cart path only for several days.  While this was the case last week, I appreciate everyone's efforts in staying on the paths while we were on them and watching out for wet areas once we went off.  Cart traffic through wet areas can make a mess and the tracks can and will be evident for some time.  Just a few reminders concerning cart traffic over the next couple of months:

• Be aware of wet areas, either from rainfall or irrigation, and keep carts out of these areas.  These areas are primarily around tees and greens and fescue areas under trees.
• Please keep carts away from tee and green complexes.
• Holes #7 and #8 will remain 'cart path only' through the winter.  If you take the ropes down to play a shot, please replace it.
• Traffic control ropes are going up in many areas where necessary.  Remember the turf isn't growing this time of year.  Once an area gets trampled down, it will be that way until green-up.  Carts should use varying entrance and exit points to and from the fairway and not use the same 'trails' through the roughs.

As we head into the spring, Nathan and I will be discussing new traffic control methods as well as an alternating schedule of having holes cart path only during green-up.

Hole Locations

The Ultimate Scramble has been re-scheduled for this Saturday morning at 9am.  We will change one of the hole locations to the 'Ultimate' spot on Saturday morning for the event.  So afternoon golfers won't have to play these locations, the pins will be rotated to a normal spot at the conclusion of the tournament.  We will then change all of the locations on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

Weed Spraying

I started our annual winter weed control application on the fairways and roughs last week.  However, to continue, the wind can't be blowing over ten miles per hour to avoid any drift.  I will continue as the weather permits and plan on completing the project within the next two weeks.  I will also be making a separate application to the greens to control the small population of poa annua.

I hope you all have a chance to come out and enjoy the forecasted warmer temperatures coming up.  See you on the course!

Chuck McCaskill, CGCS

Maintenance Update 12/16/2011

Good morning all,

Well it hasn't taken much time (just some much cooler weather) for the grass to go dormant and the leaves to finally fall.  The last couple of weeks of sub-freezing nights robbed the turf of the rest of it's color.  And after this summer's drought forced trees into hibernation (causing them to hold leaves longer than normal), they have finally shed their leaves.  Unfortunately, with the wet weather we've recently had, we have been unable to get out and pick up all the leaves.  We have worked to keep the greens, tees and fairways blown off, but any wind just scatters them back out.  We will resume picking them up as soon as we can get the tractor and sweeper back on the course.

Tomorrow's "Ulitmate Scramble" marks the end of the 2011 member tournament season.  If you haven't played in it before, it can be quite a fun time.  One of the highlights of the tournament (and why I call it the Superintendent's Revenge tournament) is that I get to put hole locations anywhere on the putting surface.  This includes any and all areas that would otherwise be deemed 'not legal'.  I know there are often times that my set-up guy puts a hole location in suspect spots (and I diligently work with him on this), but imagine all 18 hole locations in the middle of slopes or too close to edges.  Nathan and I went out this week and picked all of the hole locations and, with the current speed of the greens being rather quick, will have to invoke an automatic three-putt rule.  As of this morning, there are only nine four-man teams signed up.  Without a few more entries, Nathan will cancel the event.  While it's going to be a little chilly at the start, the skies will be clear and it should be a beautiful day to have the event.  Contact the pro-shop today to get signed up!

With the turf on the greens going dormant and the final tournament passing, we will be going to the three-hole cupping system next Monday.  Weather permitting, we will change one hole Sunday, one hole Monday and the last hole Tuesday.  Two of the three cups will have covers and we will rotate them based on the amount of play.  Also based on play, after two to three weeks, we will change all three cups.

We are also entering the time of year when it may be necessary to cover the greens.  My general rule of thumb is that if the temperatures are going to remain at or below freezing for more than a 24-hour period, we will cover the greens.  We have already seen overnight lows in the lower 20's, but the highs the previous and following days were in the 40's.  If the situation arises where we have to cover, I will be sure and let everyone know on this forum.

This week we made an application of iron to the fairways.  While the turf is dormant, there is little delineation between the fairways and rough.  The iron does nothing more than "stain" the turf a darker color so that the fairways stand out from the roughs.

In closing, it's been a tough year for golf courses all over the state, but I feel our staff has provided a good product throughout the year.  We do the most with what we have to keep the conditions as consistent as possible.  While we are still about ten inches behind normal precipitation for the year, we are hopefullly nearing the end of one of the toughest droughts in decades.  As Christmas and the New Year approach, I hope you all enjoy time with your families as well as safe travels.

Happy holidays!
Chuck

Maintenance Update 10/18/2011

Howdy all,

I sincerely apologize for not getting any updates out in a while.  It has certainly been a whirlwind past couple of months. 

With the recent changes in weather, it looks as though we will be heading in to the winter with relatively healthy stands of turf on the entire golf course.  Just as it was looking pretty grim, we seemed to receive fortunate and opportune rainfalls.  We received a small amount just before Diamond Cup, which really helped to green a lot of the course up for that event.  We have received right at about 6" over the past 10 days, with the last half-inch coming in late last night. 

Here are some of the things we have and will be working on:

• We repaired the cartpath entering the bridge on #10.  The old slab had sunk about 10 inches, pulling the rebar out with it.  We broke the old section out and drilled new rebar into each adjoining side and re-poured.  Certainly makes for a much smoother entrance.
• I recently re-painted the edges of all of the tee boxes.  Using ropes and stakes, I was able to make sure the edges were straight and the front of the tee was as wide as the back of the tee.  Some tee boxes were made a little wider, some a little smaller.  I also corrected the alignment of many of them so they are directed toward the center of the fairway.  We are currently in the process of verticutting them and anticipate spreading overseed this Thursday.  We will also be seeding the driving range tee and target greens much like we did last year.  Once the seed is down, we will be running watering cycles a couple of times during the day, as well during the evening, until the seed is established.  That being said, the teeing areas will be a little wetter than usual during the next couple of weeks.
• Once the seed comes up on the tees, we will begin mowing at roughly 5/8" and slowly move the height down to 1/2" over the winter.
• We will be changing out all of the flowers around the club this month with cool season color.
• As the cooler temperatures come around, the leaves will be falling with a flurry; especially with the dry conditions we had all summer.  We will work diligently with the blower and sweeper to keep the course as clean as possible of leaves and debris.
• I will be spreading the fall pre-emerge fertilizer this week on the majority of the golf course, excluding areas where we plan on spreading seed.
• We will be marking areas under trees to re-seed with fescue in the coming weeks as well.  Once we put the seed in these areas, we will put ropes around them to keep cart traffic out until the seed is established. 
• The current mowing height on the fairways is 1/2"; intermediate rough is 1" and primary rough is 1.5".
• The mowing height on the greens is 1/8" (.125).  Depending on the weather outlook for this winter, I may adjust a little higher.  Right now the greens are very thick and dense and I feel we are very healthy going into the winter.  The green speeds are a little slower than I would like, but the recent rains have created some fat leaf blades and its difficult to increase the speeds without lowering the height and/or verticutting. 

Again, I apologize for the delay since my last update.  As always, if there are ever any questions, concerns or suggestions you may have, don't hesitate to contact me.

Have a great rest of October!
Chuck McCaskill, CGCS
aggieturfman98@gmail.com

Maintenance Update 08/17/2011

Good afternoon all,

What a blessing we received this last weekend in the form of a half-inch of rain.  While it's not very much, it was over the course of about four hours and was able to soak in nicely.  It was also enough to fill up the creek and give us some much needed irrigation water.  Hopefully we are nearing the end of the brutal summer heat!

We succussfully aerified the greens this past Monday for the last time this year.  I know it seems like we do a lot of aerifying, but it is very much needed and very beneficial.  When I started last year, the greens had an incredible amount of thatch and grain.  You could run your hand one direction across the surface and they would feel smooth, but go back the other direction and it was just the opposite.  By aggressively aerifying, routinely verticutting and topdressing, we have managed to get the grain and thatch under control.  My staff has been doing an incredible job staying on top of the greens this year.  I have done what I can to teach them that you can't treat all 20 greens the same.  Each one is in it's own little micro-climate.  One may need a little extra water; one may need a little less; one may need a little extra sand; one may or may not need to be verticut.  They have taken very well to this idea and have done a great job of doing what is necessary on each green.

We will be closed this coming Monday (Aug 22nd) to aerify and verticut the approaches.  Having to water the greens and surrounds every night, the approaches have become very thick.  Aerifying and verticutting will help thin the stand of grass so we will be able to maintain our mowing height.  I asked that the club be closed while we do this so we will be able to accomplish it all in one day, instead of dragging it out over the course of a week.  I would expect the approaches to be healed in just a few weeks.

We will be opening all of the newly sodded tee boxes this week.  We rebuilt the green tees on #9 and the white tees on #14.  We placed new sod on the red tees on #1, the back of the tee on #7 and the red tees on #10.  I realize there are several other tee boxes with bare areas.  I will be marking and measuring these areas so we can get more sod to repair them.  I hope to have this process completed in the next two weeks, depending on when we can have some sod delivered.

I have also received questions about the bunkers and if we are going to be adding more sand to a few of them.  In my opinion, the bunkers have plenty of sand; it may just be in the wrong place.  I will be looking at each bunker and checking the depth.  If sand is excessively deep in some areas and thin in others, we will move the sand around.  If I determine that sand needs to be added, we will do so as well.  I realize that two of the three practice bunkers around the chipping green are literally unplayable.  The drain lines exiting both of these bunkers are completely sealed up with either tree roots or mud or both.  I hope to be able to tackle this problem in the near future.

With the extremely hot weather, my staff has started working at 5:00 a.m. each day.  This has helped us get the course ready prior to play (for the most part) and enables my staff to go home before the major heat of the afternoon.  I realize some early birds may catch up with us mowing and changing cups and I apologize for that.  Some days we have a lot more going on than others and we are just doing what we can with the resources we have to provide the best conditions possible.  If we end up getting in the way, I appreciate your understanding.

I had a member make a comment to me about the yardage markers on the driving range tee, mentioning that they were difficult to read.  We responded quickly and re-leveled and re-painted all of the them.  Like I always say, I appreciate any and all comments and if there is anything we can do to remedy a situation, we certainly will!

Hope to see you on the course!
Chuck

Maintenance Update 07/26/11

Good morning all,

We are right in the middle of what is turning out to be a scorching hot summer.  I believe we are in a stretch of 20+ days of seeing temperatures over 100 degrees with this week being the hottest.  We have not seen any measurable precipitation since early June.  The golf course is holding up relatively well to the conditions.  We have been relying heavily on the two wells to produce our irrigation water.  One well has been producing about 120 gallons per minute and the other around 60 gallons per minute.  The tee and green complexes are watered each evening, but the rest of the course only gets watered every two or three nights.  I have eliminated irrigating the out of play areas and am concentrating on keeping the tee to green corridors in good condition. 

One negative impact of using well water for irrigation is what it does to the soil.  Based on the chemical composition of water pulled from the Paluxy aquifer, which provides water for most wells in this area, compaction occurs much more easily.  Despite the amount of water we apply to the course, it is still quite hard.  We have been treating the greens and tees via mechanical and chemical means to combat this. 

Here are some things we've been doing over the last couple of weeks:

• All of the tees were aerified and holes filled with sand.  The sand will help aleviate some of the compaction along with gypsum applications.  After we aerified, the remaining ryegrass from this past winter died, leaving several bare areas on the tees.  We totally rebuilt the green tee box on #9.  It was elevated about six inches with sand and we coated it with aerification plugs from a few of the approaches.  It has started greening up nicely and we should be able to open it back up in the coming weeks.  We have also resurfaced the entire red tee on #1, the back of #7 and the entire red tee on #10.  Depending on the materials we have left, we will do some modifications to the white tee on #14.
• The greens were aerified one week ago today and have healed up very nicely.  We removed 3/8" cores and filled with sand.  With the extremely high temperatures and the need to water frequently, the turf on the greens tends to get quite "puffy".  Before we aerified, the walking mowers were causing some scalping so we turning to just using the tri-plex.  After aerifying and aggressive verti-cutting, we are back to using the walking mowers.  We will continue an aggressive verti-cutting program along with topdressing with sand to combat the scalping.
• This past weekend, we lost a big tree on #4 (which happened to be one of the most penal trees on that hole).  With a little bit of wind, the trunk just snapped.  This is quite common under extreme drought conditions. 
• Mowing heights are as follows:  Greens are at .120"; Approaches, fairways and tees are at .450"; the intermediate rough is at 1"; the primary rough is at 1.5"; the fescue is at 3". 

I have heard a lot of great comments about the course.  I always appreciate hearing that and I certainly pass it along to my staff.  As always, please contact me if I can be of any assistance.

Thanks,
Chuck

Aerifying Tees 06/28/2011

This morning, we started the process of aerifying tees.  The process will be much like the greens.  We will aerify, blow the plugs off to the side, topdress with enough sand to fill the holes, and drag the sand in with a metal drag mat.  Since the sand is still very wet from the rain last week, we will need to let the sand sit on the surface for a few hours to dry, which will allow it to be dragged more easily.

Since we will be doing this while play is occurring, we will only do about 6 holes per day.  We are doing our best to impact play as little as possible.  This morning, we aerified 4, 7, 8, 9, 16, 17 and 18.  Wednesday morning we will aerify 1, 2, 3, 10, 11 and 15.  Thursday we will finish with 5, 6, 12, 13 and 14.  Friday morning I will be spreading fertilizer on the tees and watering.

Again, I apologize for any detrimental impact to play we may cause, but this will be very beneficial in helping alleviate the "hardness" of the tees.

Thanks,
Chuck