Merry Christmas!

I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday and shared time with your families. I have posted a picture out onto my parents back deck at their home in Ohio. My family and I came up here for Christmas. I know it is cold in Texas right now but just remember it could always be worse. We are expecting around a foot of snow here today! So stay warm and enjoy time with those you love. I will be posting about golf course events on my return.

# 7 Fan Relocation

For those of you who have played this chilly morning week, you may have noticed the disappearance of the fan on number seven green.  We have taken the fan and posts down for a couple reasons.  First, we needed to do a yearly preventative maintenance on the the mechanics of the equipment.  We are also moving the fan to a better spot which should help the health of that green.  The fan is being moved directly behind the green.  You can see in the bottom two pictures a view looking back at the green where it will be placed.  This spot should get the much needed airflow on the areas which are under the most amount of environmental stresses.  Those stresses include high traffic, to much shade, and tree root competition.  The fan is also being positioned in a due south direction.  This is likely where it should have been placed originally, since our prevailing winds through the summer come out of the southerly directions. The idea behind having a fan is to place it in the same direction the wind blows to help accentuate the flow.  You can also see the drilling out of the hole with the auger-rock bit in the pictures below.  The support for the fan must be placed 31/2' below the surface. We will trench the conduit line next week and have the infrastructure completed by the beginning of next week.

#16 Tree Trimmed

One our newest team members and certified arborist, Shannon Slivinske, climbed into the tree to properly prune some of the new growth at the top of the tree in front of #16 green.  She reduced the canopy by 5 to 10 feet at the top to help allow your approach shots a little more accessibility to the green complex.  As you can see from the picture below Shannon actually had to climb into the tree, with proper safety harnesses, to make the appropriate cuts.  Next time you see Shannon please thank her for her hard work.

Verticutting and Deep Tining on Greens

Yesterday we spent the day deep tining and verticutting greens. Vertcutting is a process that in years past we were not able to complete at this time of the year due to the health of the green. Because the overall health of the Greens, in respect to the density, has improved dramatically over the last several years this is a process we are now able to complete earlier in the year. This is a process that just as in the condition of the Fairways it will also help dramatically improve the condition of the Greens.

Dead tree removal

This week we will begin removing the dead trees from last year's drought. We left trees that showed signs of stress after the drought last year to see if some of them might come back this year. Unfortunately many of the trees did not. Many of you notice the orange tape we've used to mark these trees over the last couple months. We did this to help us locate them after the leaves have started to drop.

We also have an abundance of firewood from the last two years at our shop. Any member is in need or want of some firewood for the winter season please contact me I'll be happy to help.

November Native Mowing

Our second mowing of the native areas on the course is currently underway.  We started on the course last Thursday.  The mowers are on #11 this morning and I anticipate with the lot mowing already complete in the new Fairway Homes section we can have the remaining holes completed by the end of today.  This process is a long arduous one and will be great to have this task behind us until next May!!
 

Biennial Inter-seeding

Last Monday we spent some time inter-seeding the greens.  It was a several step process.  The first step began with a light verticutting.  Then we mowed and cleaned up the debris from the verticutting.  After the debris was cleaned through mowing and blowing we poked holes with our bayonet tines for the seed to drop into.  We used drop spreaders to disperse the seed onto the greens.  These spreaders are a more accurate way to disperse seed than rotary spreaders.  The greens were then rolled to initiate seed soil contact.  Topdressing was applied at this point as well to aid further in creating good seed soil contact, which is crucial to seed germination.  We also applied a fall granular fertilizer, as we typically do, to provide a constant food source as the temperatures fluctuate so much at this time of year.  We want there to be a food source available when the temperatures are conducive to growth on our greens.

We began this inter-seeding program two years ago.  The idea is to introduce potential for new growth into our greens.  We are using the same grass type as what is currently in the greens.  You may have heard of some people trying to change grass types through this process.  However, we feel the cultivar we have is well adapted to our environment here and see no reason to change.

From bottom to top these pictures show the greens after being verticut, the holes being poked, and our own Brad Sladek putting the seed out.

Please Remember to Vary your Traffic Patterns

As a reminder to our members who question where they should drive or whether the "90 degree rule is in effect" just vary your drive patterns. The design of our course with the native grasses intermittently placed between the fairway and cart path does not lend itself to a true 90 degree rule.  Therefore it is extremely important that we vary where we drive.  It is evident at several locations on every hole that this action is not always practiced. Cart traffic can be very detrimental to turf.  We need to be even more aware of this potential issue now as the weather changes.  The Bermuda's growth pattern is transitioning from root to shoot.  This means instead of putting energy into leaf and recuperative development; the plants are storing carbohydrates in the roots for reemerging next Spring.  Driving a few feet either side of where the visible traffic pattern makes all the difference.  Varying cart traffic will help in maintaining our courses integrity and play ability.

Aerosol Sprays Can Cause Turf Damage

While inspecting the the course yesterday morning a brown spot in number one fairway caught my eye. Upon further inspection I realized it was were someone had either applied a bug or sunscreen spray. You can see where the footprints remain good turf quality but all around them the leaves have tip burn and are discolored. I know that most people would not think twice about applying such products anywhere on the golf course, but maybe now we will in an effort to not damage the turf.

This week we will be doing a very thorough job on bunkers and checking depths for adequate sand levels. Fairways will be lightly verticut. The greens are healing perfectly with some more plugging to be completed through the remainder of the week.

Fall Weather is Here!

Our Fall greens aerification went extremely well and is healing even better. The timely rain has certainly helped in the process. Even more so the cooler temperatures. If we can all remember back the last year we were experiencing 100° temperatures all way until the end of September. This Fall aerification is extremely important to getting the greens back into a healthy putting surface after the stressful summer months.

We have begun to really eliminate the black layer which existed in our greens just a couple years ago. I've taken a picture on number 3 green where you can see the black layer is more dissipated and 3 inches below the soil profile as opposed to being right at surface level as it was in 2010. You can also see in the picture where a tine hole from last week is filled with clean sand. The clean channels allow better water penetration, less compacted soil for roots to grow down, and fertilizer penetration into the root zone for better up uptake of the plant.

We have also been completing sod projects around the golf course on the green services these projects should be completed by the end of the month and we should have 100% coverage over the green surfaces through the winter. The greens are the best condition I have ever seen them come out of a summer season even with not ideal summer conditions with 34 days over 100° when are average is 12. we are also in seasonal more Multum pictures this year as opposed to last. Temperatures ranging from mid-80s and lows in the mid 60s are seasonal averages for September. This is why we schedule our aerification this time of year to help with recovery and getting the most benefit for roots to start diving back down and recuperating after a long tough summer.

The fairways are in terrific condition. I hope you can come enjoy the cool Fall weather and get out and play on a golf course that is in great shape.

Another Timely Rain

This summer has been quite the contrast to last. We received another 3.1 inches of rain at the golf course between Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning. The rain Sunday night was quite strong and caused a lot of run off on the golf course. This had an undesired effect on our bunkers which were the worst I've seen in quite some time. However, it was quite advantageous to have completed our aerification the week prior allowing deep penetration for the water into our soil profiles throughout the golf course corridor. We are still in the midst of cleaning up, especially bunkers. We should have this completed midday or early afternoon. The rain has also brought a lot of fire ant mounds up to the surface which will be treating later this week.

Summer Stress is Definitely here for Greens

Some of our usual suspect greens as I like to call them are certainly starting to show some signs of summer stress. Greens that have poor air circulation or some that have sod from last year are showing signs of stress. We have mitigated the stress levels as best we can through this summer with blowing air through the drain tiles and precision watering practices. However even the utmost care is no match for mother nature. I do feel that the damage is very limited and the greens in total are the best they have ever been at this time of year. We will over the coming weeks begin to plug out the bad spots prior to our fall aerification. I anticipate full coverage through the fall and a great winter with the greens. You will also be able to see tree work and clearing being completed around some of these greens as in years past.

Aerification complete!

Our scheduled aerification of fairways, tee tops, and approaches could not have gone better. We finished pulling cores yesterday around noon. We have cleaned up everything through number 11 completely and have started our fertilization application to the front nine fairways. Due to our turf care teams hard work yesterday the entire golf course is open at the start of play on Tuesday morning. We even had enough time to get back around onto some of the entrance areas and wear traffic areas that we are hoping to get to later in the week but should have that completed by this morning.

Some other of the projects that we got completed yesterday included verti cutting of fairways and approaches prior to mowing. Top dressing greens. We are out putting the stones back in the tee boxes, fertilizing fairways, fertilizing greens and back to our normal schedule.

Verticutting on Tees

We have completed another verticutting on the tees last week and they are healing wonderfully.  It was a very aggressive verticutting however it will pay off dividends in the long run, just as it has in the fairways.  We gave them an application of fertilizer this past Monday to help push recovery.

Great Start to the Week!

We got another .6" this Sunday bringing our seven day total to 3.1", not too bad for the middle of the summer and much better than last year.  The turf care team was very busy yesterday and got a lot of work completed.  We verticut the first 14 fairways yesterday and our finishing them up today.  Greens were sprayed with a product to protect against the little algae that is out there and were heavily topdressed.  We edged cart paths, heads, and valves in fairways.  We verticut and mowed all approaches.  We will spray fertilizer and wetting agent later this week over all the bermuda.  Our team worked diligently and effectively yesterday and today to get a lot of good work accomplished.  We are off to a great start this week!   

Turning Boards

In an effort to keep improving our golf course and keeping it in top condition we have purchased some new tools. We have noticed over time that areas around the bunkers where there's not much room for mowers to turn become thin and start to wear heavily in the summer months. To help alleviate this stress from the collars around the greens we have purchased some turning boards. These boards are made of high density polyethylene and are lightweight and easy for the staff to move around. I have attached two pictures were you can see the wearing on number one green's collar in the foreground and our staff member turning on the new boards.

For those of you around yesterday afternoon you are already aware we had a couple more rain showers go through the golf course. That rain brought us another half an inch. Which brings our weekly total up to 2.2 inches. Certainly a welcome surprise for what is typically one of the driest months.

More rain!

The golf course received another half an inch last night. The golf course is dry and fairways are open to cart traffic. It is instances like these where our sand capping in fairways is superior to native soils.

This weather has been a nice change of pace for us and we have been able to get some other projects completed that typically when were trying to keep everything green and growing we were unable to complete. One of these projects sodding at the back of number seven green some of the Bermuda grass that has a hard time growing due to the shade. You will also be signing some other areas such as the back of number eight, the front of number 11, and the front of number 12 tomorrow.

Rain!

Tonight we had our first real rain event since the middle of May.  The course recieved 1.2" of rain with the afternoon showers that rolled through Cimarron.  We are very optimistic on the possibilities to have some more over the coming days. 

The Heat is Here!

Along with the summer solstice the heat came right with it.  This week has come with days in the hundreds and a few new record highs as well.  The turf care team has been well prepared for this weather.  We have been out handwatering fairways everyday hitting any stressed areas.  We aerified entry and exit points in the roughs adding some more soil amendments.  The same moisture holding amendments we used in the fairways last month.

We will be venting the greens this coming Monday the 1st of July.  Above is a video shot this morning showing how beneficial these vetings are to gas exchange in the profile.  This air movement was done with just a backpack blower hooked up to the drain tile. The last time we deep tined was almost four weeks ago but as you can see the channels are still open allowing air exchange to occur.  The picture quality is not the best through downloading but pay attention around 13 second mark and watch for bubbles coming up through the water. 

Fairway verticutting is complete.

I know that some of the early Tuesday golfers saw the debris left behind by the verticutter. We started yesterday morning and finished up this morning at about 10 o'clock. Verticutting should allow more plant propagation and a more upright growth pattern to help the ball sit up in the fairways. It also helps reduce the thatch layer in the fairways. Looks pretty messy out there right now but another mow and some more blowing and things will really tidy up! We also gave everything a little fertilizer and monthly application of wetting agent to help the plants retain moisture in these arid summer months.

Early Start Today!

Work began well before the sun came up today out on the golf course. A few us came in at 3 o'clock this morning to start deep tining the greens. By 11 o'clock today we will have deep tined, rolled, sprayed, top dressed, and watered the greens all prior to the heat of the day. This allows us to maintain the health and playability of the greens we desire along with minimizing the stress to the turfgrass plant through the summer months. It will be very difficult to see these 5/16th inch diameter holes by the end of the week. However with a working depth of 12 inches deep the benefits to the plant will be seen long after this week.

When the Club is Closed the Turf Care Department is Open for Business

Due to the Memorial Day holiday the Club was unusually closed for a Tuesday. However the Turf Care team was here working hard. We take full advantage of the course being closed to get jobs done that would be difficult to accomplish with play.  Some tasks that were completed yesterday are greens were topdressed, fairways lightly verticut and mowed, native areas mowed 7-9, and greens were fertilized yesterday.

We have also been starting to hand water fairways do to these high temperatures we already seeing for late May/June.  We have made many head adjustments to help remedy localized dry spots, but sometimes nothing is more efficient than a hose.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

It has been another productive week. Aerification holes in all areas of the course are healing wonderfully and are barely visible. Most of the sand has worked its way into the canopy on the greens. We have lowered the brushes on our green's mowers. This brushing allows our green's mowers to stand the leaves up prior to the cutting reel of the mower. This helps minimize the amount of layover in the canopy. The minimization of layover creates a more upright growth pattern in the green surface and more consistent playing condition. These brushes were one of the new technologies which I alluded to in the E blast introducing our new fleet.

In the picture below you can see the the brush and reel set up on the mower. Also pictured is our roller and green's mower on number eight this morning. We are up at summer mowing heights. The greens are stimping 10.5 today.

What a Difference a Year Makes!

Last year at this time we were fighting hundred degree temperatures and sustained 20 mile an hour winds. This year has been much more kind to us. Even though we've had what would be considered a very warm spring. The beginning to the summer has been terrific for all grass species. Growth on greens has been surprisingly good even with these low 90° temperatures we've had over the last several days. Typically we'd see a decrease in grass clipping yield when temperatures reach this mark however with back-to-back mowings yesterday and today I'm surprised to see how much we are getting off the greens. This is a strong testament to the their health due to the agronomic practices we've implemented over the last couple of years.

Greens were top dressed yesterday. Today we are spraying them with the foliar fertilizer. We are also finishing our fertilizer application to a few of the holes on the back nine which we were unable to get to at the tail end of last week.

Red Dotted Lines in Fairways?

In some fairways there are some areas that are outlined with red dotted lines. These lines are indicators for the staff to have gone around and added a soil amendment after the aerification. This soil amendment helps retain moisture in the soil. Even after making numerous sprinkler head adjustments we still have not been able to maintain adequate soil moisture in certain areas. Therefore with the holes currently being open we took advantage of this time to add something to better retain moisture in these areas.

Main Line is Back Online

Caleb Fox did an excellent job leading the crew who repaired the mainline break out on the driving range. We were able to get the system pressurized by 730 last night. This is quite a relief due to the fact that we need to get out and hand water greens today. This was our fourth such break out on the driving range to our mainline since I've been here. Our mainline was improperly bedded with an inappropriate amount of rock underneath to avoid puncture breaks from the bedrock which it lays on. You can see in the picture below Caleb and a couple other crew members putting the final touches on the sleeve which reconnected the pipe. In the other picture, you can see the puncture hole which the bedrock put in the line cracking the entire 20 foot section.

The native mowers got through hole number 4 yesterday. We will resume mowing native areas again next Tuesday.

The Aerification is Finished and all 18 are Open

Everything went smoothly yesterday. The back nine was open by 1 o'clock for play. Today we are doing normal morning prep for the golf course. And we are commencing mowing of all the native areas that border the golf course. A welcomed gift to a lot of you, I know. I posted a picture of the mowers on number one this morning. I anticipate this project to take several weeks as we will be working it in around our normal course maintenance.

We did run into one another little hiccup yesterday. As our mainline experienced a break out at the driving range. We hope to have this remedied by the end of the day today.

A Day Behind

With the rain showers that moved through yesterday. We received 6/10 of an inch. That is welcomed rain. This May alone we received the same amount of rain that we received over the course of 13 months last year. The rain could not come at a better time either due to the fact that 98% of our holes were already punched in fairways and rough which really allowed the water to penetrate down into the profile.

The only downside to the rain will be for any golfers trying to get out first thing this morning. The back nine holes will not be open until about mid day. We need to let the plugs dry before cleanup efforts can begin again. With a forecast of clear blue skies all day this shouldn't take too long.

The other bit of good news I can report today is that the greens have healed exceptionally well. As seen here in the picture below of number two green.

Some other side notes. The front nine will be open to car traffic today. Tees are being topdressed. Fertilizer application to fairways and rough is also going to continue to be applied today.

Front Nine Open for Play

The aerification is still going well the aerifiers are currently on hole number 18 and finishing up. The rains did slow down the clean up just slightly. But we hope with the rains clearing out this afternoon we will again be able to continue with cleanup as desired.

We were able to get the front nine holes cleaned up and they will be open for play. Unfortunately though the front nine will be closed to cart traffic until later on this morning as they need to dry out from the rain overnight. It is nice to get these rains while the fairways are open to allow better penetration down into the soil profile.

The greens are in exceptional shape given the time they have had to heal since last Mondays aerification.  We are getting a lot of clippings this morning which is great to see!  I would guess by looking at all the indicators you will barely see the holes by next week on our greens.  We will be giving them another shot of some foliar fertilizer later this afternoon.

Aerification Day Two

Things got off to another good start today at 5 AM with aerifiers starting on hole number five. As of right now at 10:15 this morning aerifiers are all the way through hole number eight and we hope to start clean up process after lunch at 11:30. If all goes well we should have more than just the front nine open by the start of the day tomorrow. Here are couple pictures one of number six after the aerifiers have moved through and one of the aerifiers working on number seven.

Good night to aerify!

Some of the turf care staff began aerifying all bermuda grass areas tonight at 4 o'clock. Everything got off to a very smooth start, which is more the rarity than the norm. But perhaps it is attributed to are well seasoned staff who have all been through this biannual process numerous times now. We will be working until 10 tonight and picking back up at 5 am tomorrow. We are hopeful that we will be done punching by mid day on Tuesday.

Second Mowing

Today was our second time getting the mowers out on the greens since the aerification. We do this to allow time for the grass to work its way through the sand and get as much incorporation of sand into the profile as possible. We have rolled the greens eleven times since the aerification
to get them rolling smoothly again.
Also wishing all the mothers Happy Mothers Day!

Aerification Status

May 12 2012

Greens aerification healing nicely, after punching them on Monday the 7th.  As the greens growth curve shifts from roots to shoots the recovery time on them should be relatively quick.  We also received almost 3" of rain out at Cimarron Hills this week which has helped all aspects of the course. 

Bermuda aerification is on the schedule starting Sunday evening and going through Tuesday the 15th.  There will be plenty of holes out there for a short time in preparation for the growing season.