Off Season Review 2012-13 Feb. 26

With the exception of some of our die hard year round golfers, much of our golfing membership never sees the golf course during the off season. Sometimes off season projects are obvious, but often times golfers who only golf during the heart of season don’t even notice the changes and hard work our grounds staff puts in over the off season. It’s always good when completed projects seamlessly fit in to the natural features of the landscape and don’t jump out to the golfers. Many winter projects also address problems with infrastructural items, such as subsurface drainage that is also not immediately noticeable. So to answer one of the most popular questions I get during the off season “What do you guys do during winter?” I put together this power point slide show. Hope you enjoy it.

Hole # 8 is still heavily shaded at 10:30 am in mid-May

Hole # 8 is finally in full sun late in the afternoon during Sept.  Unfortunately at this time a day the temperatures often exceed the optimal temperatures for the turf to convert the light to stored energy through photosynthesis

Lingering snow on the green and down right side of hole # 8 illustrate how heavily this hole is shaded.

One of the projects we have been working on this winter is the 8^th hole.  First, we reclaimed lost putting surfaces on the front right of the green and back of the green.  Currently, we are working on thinning trees down left and right side.  The trees down the left side have encroached to the point where they force golfers to the right side an already undersized tee box.  The trees on the right side severely shade the green and most of the hole.

The most obvious impact of shade is a reduction in the amount of light available to the turf. Grasses, like all green plants, convert light energy into carbohydrates via photosynthesis. These carbohydrates serve as the building blocks and energy source for plant growth and development. Thus, if a plant does not receive enough sunlight to manufacture sufficient "food" (carbohydrates), its vigor and growth will be reduced. In addition to reducing the total amount of light available, tree shade also severely limits the amount of useful light reaching the turf. All wavelengths of light are not equally effective in photosynthesis. Green plants absorb (and use for carbohydrate production) primarily orange, red and blue light, while they reflect mainly green and yellow (which are not very effective in photosynthesis). Therefore, the majority of light reaching shaded turf is likely to be light which has filtered through the tree canopy and is low in the wavelengths most valuable in photosynthesis and carbohydrate production.

Aside from altering the light reaching the turf, some trees produce surface roots which compete with the grass for nutrients and water. This competition further inhibits the ability of the grass to grow, and it becomes very difficult to maintain a turf of desirable quality. Increased relative humidity and decreased air circulation in wooded areas favor development of turfgrass diseases such as powdery mildew, as well as encouraging moss and algae problems.

Once we get the trees down and cleaned up, we are planning to add a proper approach and make a few grade tweaks to highlight some of the already existing features of this hole.  We have high expectation for this hole in the upcoming season and look forward to finishing the upgrades.

Golf Course Update 1/1/2013

New forward tee boxes on hole #2

 

The new forward tee boxes on two are shaping up nicely, this past week we sodded the rough grass around the new tee and removed the old one.  Originally, we were only going to build the back one but due to the length of this par 5 we added the forward tee.  This will give us more options for setting this hole up.  There will now be separation between the 1 and 2 teeing position with ability to occasionally move the 3 tees up.  The tee surface will be sodded later this winter or early spring to allow for any settling that might take place.  Waiting to sod it will also allow us to evaluate whether any additional drainage needs to be added prior to sodding.  Either way it should be open before the 2013 golf season.

Work on reclaiming lost greens surfaces has also continued.  Greens number 5 thru 8 have been completed.  Currently the crew is working on green number 4, this will be our last green this season.  Reclaiming these areas continues to reveal many new exciting hole locations.  Typically it’s the more challenging hole placement that have been lost.  It’s going to take some work to get these new areas into puttable condition this coming spring, but once we do, it will be fun to able to challenge the golfers with these placements.

Reclaiming Putting Surfaces 12/1/2012

Reclaiming lost Putting Green Surfaces

 

A couple of our winter projects, reclaiming lost putting areas and relocating the forward tee on 2, were understandably a little slow to get started thanks to huricane Sandy and a nor’easter the following week. Fortunately the course fared very well. The storm took out several trees, but all of them were in out of the way areas and needed to come down anyway. There were small branches, leaves and debris everywhere. All things considered we got really lucky here.

We have reclaimed lost putting areas on the 8^th green with sod from old 9 green. Since old 9 green is one of the original greens, it’s rootzone sand material matches up to all our greens except for 11, witch was add in 2005 to make the driving range possible. Once the sod is rooted down it will need to be aerified, rolled and topdressed agressively with sand. Reclaiming these areas brings the bunkers back into play and creates many new hole locations. The increased hole locations along with the increased overall size of the green will spread out the traffic stress and should help improve the overall health of the putting green. Next we will reclaim areas on the back of 7 green and a small area on the right of 6. Next spring we will reseed old 9 green and then use it again next fall after the reverse the course tournament to reclaim more lost putting areas.

To find the original green we use soil probes to locate the edge of greens mix. The greens were originaly built with a 12 inch USGA spec sand followed by a geotech fabric and then a coarse gravel drainage field. The frabic keeps the finer sand from contaminating the coarse drainage stone. The use of fabric in our greens construction is unusual and not recomendend by the USGA. Typically a smaller gravel is used to avoid sand migration into the drainge stone. 

The original 17 green (now 8) plan from 1988. D. Palombo Associates

Reclaimed putting surface on the front right of 8 green

Reclaimed putting surface on the back left of 8 green

 

 

Course Update 11/1/12

November Golf Course Update

As the traditional golf season winds down and the leaves start to fly.  Work certainly doesn’t slow down for the grounds department.  While much of November will be dominated by leaf clean up, this is also a good month for applying soil amendments, fertilizers and sodding.  We also have some small renovation projects planned.  The ladies tee on two is going to be moved closer to the cart path and expanded so that it can properly accommodate the I and II teeing positions.  We also have plans to reclaim to some lost putting surfaces on a couple of greens.

Despite cooler air temperatures in late fall that limits turfgrass leaf growth, soil temperatures remain warm enough to promote root growth and promote beneficial soil microbial.  Late-season fertilization lengthens the fall/winter green period and enhances the rate of spring green-up without stimulating excessive shoot growth, thus allowing the turf plant to maintain higher levels of carbohydrates than when spring/summer fertilization is used. This provides both aesthetic and physiological benefits to the turfgrass.  Nitrogen applied during early spring increases shoot growth rates and decreases the levels of available carbohydrates in the plant, resulting in depressed root growth rates. Late-season nitrogen applications have no similar negative effects on root growth and, in fact, increase root growth during mid-winter to early spring. Better carbohydrate storage and root growth ultimately result in a more stress tolerant turfgrass plant during stress periods.

As golf courses age it is common for features of the course to slowly change.  It is always interesting to see how golf courses evolve over time.  Putting greens often shrink and become more circular, fairways and teeing grounds fall out of alignment, and bunkers become contaminated, lose their original shape, and develop higher mounds from sand being blasted onto the slopes. Kings Creek is no exception to this, many our greens have shrunk and lost significant putting area.  This fall we are going to reclaim a couple of our greens.  We are going to start with the 8^th green, it has lost 3 to 4 feet along the front right and back of the green.  The increased square footage will help spread out traffic and create several new hole locations.  While the green will be larger and easier to hit it will also bring the green side bunkers back into play.

Turkey Shoot (Superintendent Revenge Tournament)

November 16

 

HEY GOLFERS! IT’S PAYBACK TIME…
For all of those ball marks, divots and folks who don’t obey the daily golf cart rules…this is a chance for: for me and the grounds crew to seek REVENGE.  This year’s Turkey Shoot tournament is going to also be the Superintendents Revenge tournament.  The Superintendents Revenge tournament is intended to be a really fun event where we set the course up in a really fun and challenging way.  Crazy hole locations and obnoxious course set ups are the norm for this event.   We have lots of great ideas and are looking forward to setting up for this event. 

 

Course Update. Irrigation, Rough, Bunkers 10/1/2012

Irrigation System Update

Toro has identified a problem with the electrical component of our sprinkler heads and electric valves.  The decoder and solenoid assembly has design flaws which cause them to eventually fail resulting in a variety of different symptoms.  The week of October 22 -26, Tanto Irrigation Company along with Toro and there local distributor, Turf Equipment and Supply Company will be changing out this part on every sprinkler head and electric valve.  As we get closer to the date we will communicate more specifics on the change out. 

Eagle irrigation, the original installer of irrigation system will also be here this fall to lower some fairway irrigation laterals and address a few other small installation issues.  We are trying to coordinate this for the same week if possible.

Rough Grass

I’ve been getting a lot question about the decline of our rough grass.  Before I get into specifics of why we’ve lost turf in some areas, consider this.   Throughout this golf course the rough is composed of varying population levels of two warm season grasses, bermudagrass and zoysia, along with seven cool season grasses Kentucky bluegrass, Poa trivialis, Poa annua, perennial ryegrass, creeping bentgrass, turf-type tall fescue and fine fescue.  In case you lost count, that’s nine different grasses.   Now why isn’t the rough consistent?  Why does it vary so much from season to season?

The majority of the turf loss during the latter part of the summer can be attributed to a few reasons; disease, cart traffic and environmental stress such as shade, compaction and tree competition are the main ones.  Rye grass, poa annua, poa trivialis and Kentucky blue grass are all prone to decline from summer stresses and turf disease.  Turf disease can be controlled with plant protectants but the cost is significant.  The faded area around the tee boxes was perennial ryegrass, it was devastated by gray leaf spot in early August.  Perennial ryegrass was planted around the tee boxes this spring because of the extremely short establishment window it offers.  Letting these varieties naturally fade out and over-seeding with turf type tall fescue will slowly promote a more uniform and economically sustainable rough.  The newer turf type tall fescue varieties are currently the best cool season grass for our area.  They have a dark green color and are capable of producing deep extensive root zones that produce heat and drought tolerance.  They are also the most disease resistant of all the cool season varieties currently available.  The cost of over-seeding the rough is less than the cost of applying the protectants that would be necessary to support our current rough through the summer.  Ultimately the goal is to slowly promote turf type tall fescue by allowing the undesirable types to naturally fade out.

Bermuda grass and creeping bentgrass also represent a significant portion of our roughs in certain areas of the course.  These grasses both tend to do very well but are more suited to lower mowing heights.  At rough mowing heights they can be downright nasty.  Converting areas like this is a major project that we certainly want to do at some point, but is not a priority right now.

Please remember that carts are a major player in the decline of rough in high traffic areas.  An over whelming majority of the rounds played here are with a cart.  I’m not suggesting we get rid of carts, but it’s important that we recognize their potential impacts.  Keeping carts on the path around tees and returning directly back to the cart path at the black balls in the fairways will dramatically help these areas.  Remember, this your course.  Please take pride, and respect your fellow members. 

Bunkers

What about the bunkers?  We have 95 bunkers making up 3.75 acres which is more total acreage than our greens.  Typical high end courses normally average around 50 to 75 well placed bunkers, Augusta National has 44.  I bring this up because as we plan for the future it is important to understand the cost associated with each aspect of the course.  Most of the time quality is better than quantity.  Too often future cost of maintaining course features and improvements are overlooked.  An important factor with every aspect of the course should be sustainability.  What can we sustain at a high level?

The green side bunker renovation project that started last year on the back nine is still a priority for the club but has been postponed for a few years.  We have identified other more pressing areas of improvement that will help insure the success of future bunker renovations projects.  Many of the green complexes have sunlight, airflow and drainage issues that need to be addressed prior to future renovation.  However, we still have to have playable bunkers that can be maintained in the short term and while we want to keep inputs into our existing bunkers at a reasonable level, they cannot be ignored completely.  This winter we will be evaluating and prioritizing bunker drainage issues.

Fall / Winter Projects

As we move into the fall and start thinking about possible course improvements it becomes very apparent there are more opportunities than time or resources.  Listed below is a list of projects that we have identified as projects for this off season.  As always, the weather is major factor in winter months.  Last winters weather was exceptional for golf and projects.  We can only hope to be as fortunate this year.

·         Continue the first cut from the fairways around the greens.

·         Move and rebuilt two ladies tee.

·         Reseed and restore the driving range fairway.

·         Review and audit clubhouse area; irrigation, turf, landscape plantings, etc

·         Evaluate and prioritize bunker drainage issues and develop plan of attack.

·         Continue with stump removal and clean up from last winter’s tree removal

·         Tree work on 11 and 8, removals and pruning.

·         Removal of isolated trees around the course that are having a negative impact of premium playing surface that offer little architectural value.

·         Continue tree work along the marsh, starting at 3 tee working toward 6 tee.