Reshaping Greens Surrounds

This winter we have focused on recontouring several of our greens surrounds to agin have the proper surface drainage thy once had.  Through years of adding topdressing and other cultral practices the original slopes around the greens can become lost.  This in turn may sometimes cause water to pool on the greens surface after a rain or irrigation cycle.  This pooling is detrimental to the turf and in some instances can cause some turf loss.  We removed up to an inch and a half of material in some places to regain the original slopes.  We removed the plastic barrier in these areas to add even more of a drainge potential.

Moving Mainline on #15 Fairway

Earlier this month the staff completed moving 100 feet of our irrigation mainline.  Included with that was two lateral valves and all the wiring for 35 heads.  The Turf Care team worked diligently and had all the work completed in a week.  You can see in the pictures blow the progression from digging the new trench, completing the wiring, and backfilling the bedding material around the pipe.

July Verticutting Complete

After the rain delay last week, we got the previously scheduled verticutting of fairways and approaches completed yesterday.  As I stated a few blogs ago, players are able to see that this cultural technique can improve your ball placement in the fairways.  Below are some pictures of the end result.

The seasonally cooler temperatures and 3.4" of rain last week were a welcomed break to another grueling Texas summer. The only area of turf on the golf course that is showing any signs of detriment is the greens.  The greens showed signs of stress this past weekend with what were relatively moderate temperatures, for July in Texas.  The reason bentgrass did so, even though it is not grown in its desired climate, is it has in most hot and dry times here the ability to harden off.  When it has times of cooler temperatures for 3 or 4 days it has the inherit trait to revert back to its genetic code and become more susceptible to higher temps.

We can confidently speak to this point since we use moisture meters.  Areas that were showing signs of heat stress were well above their normal threshold.  The great thing about moisture sensors is that it puts a number to the visual sign.  It is factual, not a guess.  I feel based on my commentary that the signs of stress you see on the greens is superficial.  I expect the few, small areas to heal quite quickly and no longer be visible. It is quite an unusual phenomena that I have been witnessing for the past 8 years and wanted to share some of my experiences with the membership.

Verticutting in Fairways

Heat stress on Greens. 

Putting Green Closure at Practice Area

This was a post from last summer.  I have heard some chatter as to why we close the putting green during the summer stress.  I thought this was a good reminder.  Please read below.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words so......the bottom picture was from 2011.  I think it is a place we don't want to go back to.

I know some of you are wondering why a green that looks perfectly healthy would be closed to play. Well we are trying to be proactive in minimizing the stress level to that green this summer. Once plants show the signs of stress, it is typically too late for them to recover fully. So when dealing with plant health it is better to be on the proactive side of management then the curative side.

The facts are this green is purely undersized to be the main putting green for our club. If its role was to only hit a few practice putts and then head out to the course it would be fine. However it's current usage is such where golfers will spend much longer sessions on it. Thereby increasing traffic stress to levels that the green cannot handle in the summer months. In a perfect world the 10,000 square foot green would be at the practice area and the 3,500 square foot green would be at the clubhouse. Our world is not perfect. I would ask our membership to bear that thought in mind throughout the year. As I stated earlier even though turf might not show symptoms of a problem doesn't mean it is not under stress from a problem.

Deep Tine Discoveries

While we were going doing our monthly venting of our greens, we made a discovery. The first green we have started on for the last 4 years, the practice putting green at the practice facility, had a little surprise for us.  A loud crash and bang; out of the ground came a large piece of metal.  It had obviously been buried since construction of the green some 10 plus years ago.  Pretty amazing!  The metal was folded over itself and was not in great shape. We have plans to deep tine this coming Monday July 1st.

Aerifiying High traffic Areas

This past Monday we spent time aerifying high-traffic areas. These areas receive a lot of cart traffic and not only have turf health implications but also play ability issues.  We made it around all 18 and cleaned it up ready for play on Tuesday.  In the picture below, you can see the aerifier operating on #7 fairway and rough.  We started this program last year if you recall.  I think we have seen a lot of benefits from doing this program monthly through the growing season.  The course received 0.3" of rain Monday afternoon.  The rain slowed down the clean up process; however at this point any rain is a great thing!

                                

Verticutting Really Starting to Pay Off

I know the main complaint out of our membership over the last few years has been tight lies in the fairways. I also know that this year I have heard many positive comments on the fairways providing the lies that everyone has been looking for. This has mainly been due to the aggressive verticutting program we have implemented over the last few years. 

When I took over four years ago, our height of cut in the fairways was .450". Today our height of cut is .600".  That is just a shade over an 1/8 of an inch. Not to much change really, right?  The real game changer in the lies in our fairways has been the verticutting. 

Previously we had not changed mowing directions as we should have. This got the Bermuda grass to grow in one direction and "run" along the ground as opposed to grow upright. With the use of the discs of the verticutting machine, that stops that growth habit of the Bermuda.   

Now with changing the mowing direction and our vertical mowing we are changing the way our balls lie in our Bermuda fairways. This is a process we will not be backing off of either. We are seeing the positive results so now it becomes part of our maintenance routine.  We have on the calendar to complete another aggressive verticutting in the second week of July. Please be prepared for the fairways to again react very favorably to this process.