Friday, December 21, 2012

December 2012

frosty view down #1
December brings great change to WR as temperature changes affect turf in a myriad of ways. The overseeded rough is thriving, greens are fast. Temperatures drop, allowing for misty and frosty mornings (and great photos). This winter will see much activity at WR as we continue to remediate the native areas, remove diseased trees and generally tighten up our entire operation. Stay tuned for regular photo updates.
I have listed 3 department 40 (maintenance) associates who were awarded overall club employee of the month awards. We appreciate all their efforts. Have a safe and enjoyable holiday season.
A myriad of bird life on site

Cleared left side of #5 brings greenside bunker back in view
View from #8 tee toward #7 tee

Cleared view from #8 tee to #7 green





Oscar Trinidad - Assistant Mechanic/Greenkeeper. Employee of the month August (14 years service)
 
Eric Gifford - Assistant Super. Employee of the month September


Mike Rodriguez - Greenkeeper. Employee of the month October (23 years service)





Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Verticut and Topdress greens

Tuesday saw us topdress and verticut greens. This is done to dilute the thatch layer by adding in sand. This improves air and moisture movement and firms the surface as well as smoothing it out. The sand fills the vertical slits made by the blades. Water is then applied to work in the sand.
Vertical grooves filled with sand
Sand applied

3 or 4 passes is all that is needed

6 min water immediately after and 30 minutes in the night

Monday, November 12, 2012

THE WAY IT WAS

Here are some early pictures of WR. Enjoy



Saturday, November 3, 2012

DIVOT FILL

Thanks to all of you who take the admonition to "leave the course in better condition than you found it" to heart. I certainly appreciate the efforts to fix ball marks, observe traffic stakes, minimizing the # of carts on the course and the divot fill. The divot fill is a tricky one as unfortunately the best laid plans of mice and men can sometimes be counter productive. Take a look at the following 2 photos and note which one indicates the best filled divot


(1) PYRAMID POWER

(2) PYRAMID POWER + ACCENTS

(3) SWEET!



If you chose #3, you are correct. It is actually the same divot! The dilligent golfer poured the divot mix into the divot in pictures #1 and 2. Unfortunately it is way too much, causing the dreaded pyramid ( I get it, sand and pyramids right. They seem to go together). The problem is that this sand then passes through the reels on our fairway unit. Picture operating a pair of scissors in a bucket of sand. You can imagine the abrasiveness and the dulling of the blade that results. The goal with divot fill is to only replace the soil removed. Picture 3 displays the correct depth. Please note that it is not to the top of the grass, but rather to the top of the soil, which is below the thatch. The bermudagrass will simply creep over the sand, returning the playing surface to its original condition. Voila!  Filling to the grass top will result in crowning, a phenomenon cleary evident on our par 3 tees (example #17 White)

The finished product shown in #3 was achieved by simply kicking the excess sand with a sweeping motion into the surrounding turf. It's actually a "personal topdress"! Unless you can perfectly meter out the correct amount of sand from the bottle, the sweep will be a necessary additional step. Please note that if the thatch layer has merely been tufted up and no soil is showing, you do not need to add sand.

Hopefully this helps and thanks again to all of you who support Dept 40's efforts here at WR.

Friday, October 26, 2012

EMERGENCE!!!

It's been a busy month since my last post, so hopefully we can improve the regularity of the future posts. We are now 3 weeks post over seed and we are making great progress. No rain to speak of, however the temps have been good and our more intensive prep this year is yielding excellent results. Enjoy the photos, especially of the corralled coots. Note the great color of the non over seeded fairways

#12/11 pond from #12 green

#1 from behind the green

WR coot penitentiary !

#11 from behind #11 green

#12 green from tee

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Sod and Stuff

Here are some photos from the past week. We resodded the walk up to #1 green with common bermudagrass and also included the gold tee on #2 and the red tee on #8. We are asking all players to avoid steppping over the rope on #1 as the sod is moist and slippery while we establish its root system. Please pull your cart to the back of the green
PLEASE DO NOT PARK HERE

SIGN DIRECTS PLAYERS TO PARK AT BACK OF GREEN

PLEASE AVOID WALKING INSIDE ROPES

THE MORE WE STAY OFF, THE FASTER IT WILL ESTABLISH

We also cleaned out the creek between #10 green and #11 tee. We do this 4x/year.
We also laid sod on #8 red tee and that came out nicely. In a week, we will roll it with our greens roller. Please avoid using the tee. The red markers have been temporarily placed on the front of the white tee, adding 15 yards.

#8 RED TEE

Despite the very challenging summer, there are always some nice shots of the course available as the following illustrate:

#5 FWY

#2 GREEN

#1 FWY (THE GEESE NOT SO COOL!)




Sunday, September 9, 2012

Congrats Eric!

Eric Gifford, our current Assistant Superintendent was recently selected from hundreds of applicants nationwide to participate in the Green Start Assistant conference to be held later this year in Nth Carolina. His essay on the 3 biggest challenges to the golf industry caught the judges attention and Eric will be off to learn in late Nov. The conference will cove rmany aspects of our profession including agronomy, human resource management, budgeting and PR. This, combined with AGC's own excellent Assistant Superintendent Advancement Program, will have Eric ready to continue his excellent progress at WR and be on the fast track to becoming a superintendent. Well done Eric.
Eric with Bayer Environmental Rep Gordon Vosti


Here is a recent photo of the pond work on #10/18. Quite the progress from 2010

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Green speed

The following article was taken from a recent industry publication. Tim Morgahan spent 21 years with the USGA selecting sites for USGA events and is now principal at ASPIRE golf. Tim has seen a lot of courses and has a good understanding of what it takes to prep a course for theat special week of play and how challenging it is to provide those conditions week in and week out (we do try!)

Trying to make your greens faster? Think twice before listening to those members who have a need for speed. Their desire could be your demise. What is it about fast greens that is directly related to manhood?
Nearly everywhere I go, no matter the geographic region, I meet supers who have been tasked by members to make the putting greens faster.
But the non-agronomic individual, typically a low-handicap player, doesn’t understand what he is asking of his superintendent, of himself, or of his golf course. Saying he wants the greens a foot faster, does he understand what it will mean to his game, let alone to lesser-skilled golfers? I doubt it.
And by trying to comply with this request, the superintendent could very well be his own worst enemy. Of course, you want to keep your job and please the members. But where do you draw the line?
I’m tired of seeing superintendents playing green-speed chicken, trying to outdo one another, with or without the resources and at the risk of losing turf. You know who you are. You’re not doing the rest of us any favors by swinging for the fences all the time.
Compare the superintendent who lives at the edge with the one who has been around for a while – and wants to stay around – who wants his customers/members to come back, play again, and enjoy themselves, and who doesn’t want to put any unnecessary stress on his course, especially in the hot summer months. Who do you want to be?

Design. Green size, surface contours, pitch and slope – these design features affect green speed and the ability to set hole locations. Any pre-1960 golf course, built when green speed was not an issue, presents challenges due to undulations and the era’s construction methods.
There’s a big difference as to where holes can be placed on the green – depending on pitch and slope – when you go from 10.5 to 11.5 on the Stimpmeter.
Speeding up greens takes away good-quality hole locations. That makes the game easier for the better player since most holes will eventually end up near the middle of the green. And while we’re talking about the Stimpmeter, just who is taking the readings? Does this person really know what he’s doing? I can speak with authority on this subject…as can my knees.

Player ability. Here’s something you’ve probably noticed about golfers: They think they’re much better than they really are. That self-delusion leads to an interesting fallacy about greens, that a “fast green” is more challenging. I don’t believe it.
On fast greens, you hardly need to tap the ball to get it moving, so you’re usually putting defensively. Slower greens require determining how hard to stroke the ball, how far will it roll, how much affect break will have – in short, the skills of putting. I don’t know about you, but I like to be responsible for my putting success (or failure), rather than be at the mercy of super-slick greens.

Pace of play. Faster greens mean slower rounds and a snail’s pace of play, particularly at daily-fee and resort courses. Even private clubs will notice slower rounds on busy days. Consider investing in some lights for night golf.

Firmness and moisture. Maintaining firm, smooth conditions is definitely the healthier choice for turfgrass than keeping it wet and soft. But firm and fast requires patience and resources, and the firmer and faster you want it, the more time, material, and manpower you need.
Furthermore, the practices necessary to achieve and maintain these conditions are invasive – cultivation, coring, sand top dressing, regular heavy rolling – all need to be conducted when the turf is healthy and growing. So, the faster the greens, the longer and more often the course will be taken out of play. How will your low-handicappers like that?
One more point about resources: Maintaining firm, fast turf requires labor, equipment, and resources means more money. Enough said.

Stressed surfaces. Speedy surfaces are stressed surfaces, and it’s when turfgrass is stressed that some of the most common issues rear their ugly heads: nemotodes, bacterial wilt/etiolation, and anthracnose. And don’t forget the other effects of stress: hair loss, lack of sleep, and unhappy families.
There was a popular expression when I was growing up that sums it all: Speed Kills. In our industry, it can get you fired.
So slow down your greens for healthier turf – and your sanity.

Friday, August 17, 2012

#2 bridge is in place!!!!!





Yes it is true! After scheduling adjustments, our new Fibrecore bridge has finally been placed across the creek on #2. It came out really nice and we will be refining its landscaping in the coming weeks. Eventually that entire rough section leading up to the old bridge will be regrassed, once the underlying DG has been removed and good soil added.Eagle golf got a great kick out of demolishing the old bridge! We please ask that you obey the ropes and please avoid turning sharply off the ramps up to the bridge as these areas are still soft. We now join Arnold's Bay Hill CC and Merion as the only courses in the US with the Fibrecore Bridge. Enjoy the photos




Staging area 7am

Push and Pull with 2 loaders



could not roll it so we lifted it
Swinging the bridge into place on foundations

Bolting the flanges
DG added and compacted
Finished ramps. Landscaping to follow
Not a bad look

And remember, this is what we had before


Close to the edge
WR got their money's worth
Certainly enough cement

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Kikuyu spray, fwy aerification and pond clean

This week saw application #1 of 3, 30 day apart applications of Drive + MSMA herbicide to rid fwys and appraoches of the dreaded kikuyu. This is on #10 approach and was taken 5 days after application. We have sprayed 125,000 sq ft and have another 65,000 to go in round 1


                                                               KIKUYU SPRAY #10



Smoked it!
Die! Die! Die!



The fwy aerification is under way with 3,14,17 and 18  complete. The process is aerify with 3/4" tines, Drag plugs then blow. A gypsum application was made this week to soften the soil. We are asking all members and their guests to please stay off the fairway being punched. The hole will be clearly marked with CART PATH ONLY ON THIS HOLE signs

#18 FWY AERIFICATION 08/08/12
Each day the hole to be aerified will be cart path only



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                                                                    #10 POND CLEAN


Slow work

A well earned break