Deja vu

Here we are, it is August 8th and it is 100 degrees.  We have missed all the rain in the area the last few days and are praying for a good rain in the near future.  It is playing out exactly like last year, hot and dry.  As we stand now our main treatment pond is out of water, we are beginning to pull water from across the road.  Hopefully over the next few weeks we will get some rain to soak into the dry spots.

Welcome Winter

Winter has finally arrived bringing cold temperatures that are driving the bermuda grass into dormancy. The roughs are almost completely dormant while the short grasses are still holding a little color.

In the grounds department this winter, we are operating with the smallest crew in our history, 11 people. That includes 2 managers, 2 mechanics, and 7 on the crew. This number is down significantly from the past when we would staff 20 guys in the winter. We are trying to staff strong from March -November when our season is busy, then really back off when our play drops.

The winter tasks of this eleven man crew includes:

• Blowing greens
• Check bunkers
• Clubhouse and tennis maintenance
• Blow and clean up leaves
• Spraying for winter weeds
• Irrigation and drainage projects
• Preventative maintenance of equipment
• Grinding of reels for the mowers
• Hydrojecting of greens
• Mowing grass if needed
• Filling divots on driving range tees
• Cleaning of shop and equipment
• And other miscellaneous tasks

We thank everyone for another great year and look forward to the year to come.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Nick Cauley and the Grounds Staff

Grooming the Greens

topdressed green


groomer in action

this is what it looks like after the groomer has passed

It seems summer is coming to an end and fall is right around the corner. The temperatures and sun angle have changed, so the days are becoming more comfortable instead of miserable. Yesterday we groomed the greens for the last time this year. This was a process we did every Monday to help control surface grain and to work sand into the turf canopy.

The process goes like this:

1. topdress
   
2. groom
   
3. brush with mechanical broom
   
4. roll


5. mow


6. gypsum application
   
   

We have changed the order of this process since the first of the summer. Now we brush and roll before the mowers. We find that this makes the surface a little firmer so the mowers do not dig in and cause damage to the turf.

Tee Box Contamination and Renovation

The lime colored grass is zoysia, which came from the 10 acres of zoysia we have planted through out the golf course. the rest of the grass on this tee is 419 from San Antonio



we sod cut then removed the grass and organic matter

tee box being raked out and sprigged, the sprigs were cut from another spot on the golf course that consisted of a pure stand of turf, the white pipe is temporary irrigation that was installed for watering through out the day, we had to water the sprigs a bout 6 times a day to keep them moist

After 3 weeks of growing, looks pretty good, the grass is starting to knit together

After 3 weeks, about 80% coverage, to this point these tee boxes have received 1lb of nitrogen a week to assist them in growing over

When Squire Creek was built earlier this decade everything was sodded, except for the greens. The turf of choice was 419 bermudagrass, and most of this was brought in from Tifton, Georgia. The tees however are different story, the grass on those were brought in from San Antonio, Texas.

Since the tees have a sand base they used washed sod. Washed sod is where the soil is removed from the sod to create a bare root product. This also is used to eliminate sod to soil incompatibilities, help the sod knit to the soil faster, and reduce shipping costs.
When you use a turf from two different fields there are going to be some differences and it can present contamination problems. This is why we have chosen to re-sprig 4 of our tees.

If all goes well the tees should be open for the D-Cup and we may choose a few more to do next year.

The Army has Arrived

single worm down in the grass on #4

several armyworms in grass hanging from leaves

damage in grass on #9, coming out of tree

The armyworm has arrived at Squire Creek and all other nearby pastures. Their eggs are deposited on trees, flagpoles, and grass in groups of 100 or more. The eggs hatch into worms in 2-10 days. The larval body is dull black with several stripes alongside the body. There is a distinct inverted light-colored Y on the front of the head.During there growth cycle they curl up in leaf sheaths, suspend themselves from plants by threads, or crawl about on the ground. Sometimes a large number of larvae may suddenly appear moving across a golf course like an army, hints the name armyworm. When this occurs, large areas will simply disappear overnight, leaving only the thatch, crown, and root system behind. In our area, the fall armyworm is the most destructive turf insect we encounter, especially to bermudagrass.

We have several other grass types in the developement including; centipede, st. augustine, and zoysia. The armyworm does not seem to affect these grasses.

Stormy Weather

Bunker #6 greenside after last Friday's rain


#3 greenside bunker with new sand, I believe that rain was as back as it can get, as you can see this bunker could be raked out, the question is will this sand percolate like this in 3 years?

Lightening strike 4inch irrigation pipe at driving range

the pipe the lightening struck

the pipe repaired with 4inch pipe and 4inch knock-on,

if you look closely you can see red and yellow cables under the pipe, these hopefully were not affected by the lightening

The storms late last week brought much needed rain to our area. We ended up getting .75inch on Wednesday, .25inch on Thursday, and 3.5inch on Friday. The rain we received on Friday was a flash flood type downpour with a lot of lightening. When we receive this amount of lightening we run the risk of it striking trees, irrigation lines, and irrigation cables.

We are now in the process of picking up after the storm. If we do not get any more bad weather we will hopefully be back to normal on Wednesday.

Aerification

greens aerification 5/8 inch tines 1x1 spacing

tractor w/rolling aerator

This shows the whole process

Over the past three weeks we have been very busy on the golf course. Since we only aerify once a year, we get very aggressive on the turf when the time comes. The aerification process is a long, slow process that is very necessary from the health our turfgrass.

Aerification is done for several reasons:

• release of toxic gases from the soil


• improve wetting of dry or hydrophobic soils


• accelerated drying of persistently wet soils


• increased infiltration capacity, especially where surface compaction or thatch limits infiltration


• stimulated root growth within the holes


• increased shoot growth atop the holes
  
• disruption of soil layers resulting from topdressing


• control thatch, especially where soil cores are reincorporated or where topdressing follows coring


• improved turfgrass response to fertilizers
  

With this being said our process goes like this:

1. Greens- we aerify them with 5/8 inch tines on 1x1 spacing, this removes 32% of the surface per year (USGA recommends that you remove 20% of the surface per year).


2. Approaches and Collars- we use the same machine as the greens


3. Fairways- we use a rolling, pull behind machine, we try to go over them 4x and drag the cores in soon after


4. Roughs- same machine as fairways, we go over these areas 2x
   

I know what everybody thinks about aerification, but what we need to understand is how important it is for the health of our turfgrass.