Thursday, December 23, 2010
Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday!
The Reflection Ridge Maintenance Department wishes everyone a warm and happy holiday season.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Baby, it's dry outside.
In order to maintain moisture on the golf course this winter, we've drained and recharged the irrigation system twice. Today, 12/20/2010, makes it three times. So in the event you are driving by the golf course tonight, or looking out your kitchen window and you see irrigation running, it's nothing to be alarmed about. As a matter of fact, if we don't receive any moisture this winter, we will be taking advantage of mild days and utilizing the irrigation system often.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Summer of 2010 made the Wall Street Journal
The Ugly Summer of 2010
by John Paul at golfjournal@wsj.com
The sustained record-breaking heat across much of the U.S. this summer, combined with high humidity and occasional heavy rain, is killing the greens on many golf courses. A handful of high-profile courses have already had to close, and if the heat continues, others are likely to follow. Golfers themselves deserve part of the blame for insisting that putting surfaces be mown short and fast even in weather conditions in which such practices are almost certain to ruin them.
Huntingdon Valley Country Club outside Philadelphia, which dates from 1897, shut two of its three nines two weeks ago because of serious turf disease caused by the hot, wet weather. The Philadelphia area in July had 17 days of 90-degree-plus weather, six more than average, mixed with flooding thunderstorms of up to 4 inches.
The U.S. Golf Association last week issued a special "turf-loss advisory" to courses in the Mid-Atlantic states, urgently advising greenkeepers to institute "defensive maintenance and management programs" until the weather crisis ends. Most of the danger is to greens planted in creeping bentgrass and annual bluegrass (also known as poa annua).
"Physiologically, these are cool-season grasses that do very well when the air temperature is 60 to 75 degrees," said Clark Throssell, director of research for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. "They can cope with a few days of 90-degree weather every summer, but when that kind of heat lasts for days at a time, they have extreme difficulty."
Temperatures for weather reports are measured in the shade, but greens baking in the midday sun can reach 120 or 130 degrees. When grass spends too much time in soil that hot, it starts to thin out, turn yellow and wither. Most bentgrass strains will collapse entirely with prolonged exposure to 106-degree soil. The grass doesn't go dormant—it dies.
Grass does have a mechanism to cool itself. It's called evapotranspiration and is analogous to perspiration. The roots draw up water from the soil and it evaporates through the plant's leaves, dissipating heat. But when greens are scalped to a quarter-inch, an eighth of an inch and even shorter, the leaf surface available for transpiration declines.
Prolonged heat causes other problems. One is that root systems shrink, sometimes to within a half-inch of the surface, reducing the amount of water drawn up to the top. Humidity and heavy rain make things even worse. Humidity retards evaporation, while soggy soil stays hot longer than dry soil does. Puddles and saturated soil also create barriers that prevent needed oxygen from getting to the roots.
Even when the combination of these factors doesn't kill bentgrass and poa annua greens outright, it weakens the turf significantly and renders greens more susceptible to fungus and disease.
Bermuda grass, by contrast, thrives in temperatures in the 80s and 90s but cannot survive cold winters. That makes Bermuda the logical choice for courses in the Deep South. High-prestige clubs in the so-called transition zone, which includes parts of Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Texas and the Midwest, have long put a premium on having bentgrass greens because of Bermuda's historic liabilities as a putting surface. Bermuda greens were coarser, bumpier and had problems with excessive "grain," caused by the bristly blades growing in one direction (generally toward the setting sun) instead of vertically and thus unduly influencing the speed and direction of putts. Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, claims to be the first course south of the Mason-Dixon line to install bentgrass greens, in 1936. Hundreds of clubs have followed since.
But they pay the price, even in years with less brutal summers than this one. Colonial, for instance, has five or six fans around every green, stirring up 25-mile-per-hour breezes around the clock to help keep the greens cool. The club in summer has four full-time employees who do nothing but hand-water the hot spots on the greens every day. "Keeping the greens alive till that first cool spell in September is all we hope for," said the club's head pro, Dow Finsterwald Jr.
When hot weather hits bentgrass courses, course superintendents also raise mowing heights. That yields more leaf surface and improves evapotranspiration but can slow down putts by a foot or more on the Stimpmeter, which measures green speed. "Better slow grass than no grass" is a mantra among greenkeepers, but the pressure from golfers to keep the greens rolling fast is relentless.
During the hot summer of 2007, ground crews at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, home of the PGA Tour's Tour Championship, tried every trick in the book to keep the club's bentgrass greens healthy. They hand-watered each green every 30 minutes during the hottest days, just enough to cool off the grass blades but not enough to add moisture to the soil. They ran fans and cut the greens with walk-behind mowers rather than heavy triplex riding machines, to reduce stress.
But nothing did much good. "It's such a helpless feeling. You watch the greens turn yellow and you know they're going to collapse, but there's just nothing more you can do," said Ralph Kepple, East Lake's superintendent.
For the 2008 season, East Lake replanted its greens in one of the new "ultra dwarf" strains of Bermuda that are hard for most golfers to distinguish from bentgrass, in terms of performance. The club is pleased with the decision, Mr. Kepple said—especially this summer.
Augusta National, the home of the Masters 90 miles east of Atlanta, is in an area that is often 10 degrees hotter in the summer, but it easily maintains bentgrass greens. The main reason: The course is closed for play in the summer. That's a luxury very few courses can even consider.
by John Paul at golfjournal@wsj.com
The sustained record-breaking heat across much of the U.S. this summer, combined with high humidity and occasional heavy rain, is killing the greens on many golf courses. A handful of high-profile courses have already had to close, and if the heat continues, others are likely to follow. Golfers themselves deserve part of the blame for insisting that putting surfaces be mown short and fast even in weather conditions in which such practices are almost certain to ruin them.
Huntingdon Valley Country Club outside Philadelphia, which dates from 1897, shut two of its three nines two weeks ago because of serious turf disease caused by the hot, wet weather. The Philadelphia area in July had 17 days of 90-degree-plus weather, six more than average, mixed with flooding thunderstorms of up to 4 inches.
The U.S. Golf Association last week issued a special "turf-loss advisory" to courses in the Mid-Atlantic states, urgently advising greenkeepers to institute "defensive maintenance and management programs" until the weather crisis ends. Most of the danger is to greens planted in creeping bentgrass and annual bluegrass (also known as poa annua).
"Physiologically, these are cool-season grasses that do very well when the air temperature is 60 to 75 degrees," said Clark Throssell, director of research for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. "They can cope with a few days of 90-degree weather every summer, but when that kind of heat lasts for days at a time, they have extreme difficulty."
Temperatures for weather reports are measured in the shade, but greens baking in the midday sun can reach 120 or 130 degrees. When grass spends too much time in soil that hot, it starts to thin out, turn yellow and wither. Most bentgrass strains will collapse entirely with prolonged exposure to 106-degree soil. The grass doesn't go dormant—it dies.
Grass does have a mechanism to cool itself. It's called evapotranspiration and is analogous to perspiration. The roots draw up water from the soil and it evaporates through the plant's leaves, dissipating heat. But when greens are scalped to a quarter-inch, an eighth of an inch and even shorter, the leaf surface available for transpiration declines.
Prolonged heat causes other problems. One is that root systems shrink, sometimes to within a half-inch of the surface, reducing the amount of water drawn up to the top. Humidity and heavy rain make things even worse. Humidity retards evaporation, while soggy soil stays hot longer than dry soil does. Puddles and saturated soil also create barriers that prevent needed oxygen from getting to the roots.
Even when the combination of these factors doesn't kill bentgrass and poa annua greens outright, it weakens the turf significantly and renders greens more susceptible to fungus and disease.
Bermuda grass, by contrast, thrives in temperatures in the 80s and 90s but cannot survive cold winters. That makes Bermuda the logical choice for courses in the Deep South. High-prestige clubs in the so-called transition zone, which includes parts of Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Texas and the Midwest, have long put a premium on having bentgrass greens because of Bermuda's historic liabilities as a putting surface. Bermuda greens were coarser, bumpier and had problems with excessive "grain," caused by the bristly blades growing in one direction (generally toward the setting sun) instead of vertically and thus unduly influencing the speed and direction of putts. Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, claims to be the first course south of the Mason-Dixon line to install bentgrass greens, in 1936. Hundreds of clubs have followed since.
But they pay the price, even in years with less brutal summers than this one. Colonial, for instance, has five or six fans around every green, stirring up 25-mile-per-hour breezes around the clock to help keep the greens cool. The club in summer has four full-time employees who do nothing but hand-water the hot spots on the greens every day. "Keeping the greens alive till that first cool spell in September is all we hope for," said the club's head pro, Dow Finsterwald Jr.
When hot weather hits bentgrass courses, course superintendents also raise mowing heights. That yields more leaf surface and improves evapotranspiration but can slow down putts by a foot or more on the Stimpmeter, which measures green speed. "Better slow grass than no grass" is a mantra among greenkeepers, but the pressure from golfers to keep the greens rolling fast is relentless.
During the hot summer of 2007, ground crews at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, home of the PGA Tour's Tour Championship, tried every trick in the book to keep the club's bentgrass greens healthy. They hand-watered each green every 30 minutes during the hottest days, just enough to cool off the grass blades but not enough to add moisture to the soil. They ran fans and cut the greens with walk-behind mowers rather than heavy triplex riding machines, to reduce stress.
But nothing did much good. "It's such a helpless feeling. You watch the greens turn yellow and you know they're going to collapse, but there's just nothing more you can do," said Ralph Kepple, East Lake's superintendent.
For the 2008 season, East Lake replanted its greens in one of the new "ultra dwarf" strains of Bermuda that are hard for most golfers to distinguish from bentgrass, in terms of performance. The club is pleased with the decision, Mr. Kepple said—especially this summer.
Augusta National, the home of the Masters 90 miles east of Atlanta, is in an area that is often 10 degrees hotter in the summer, but it easily maintains bentgrass greens. The main reason: The course is closed for play in the summer. That's a luxury very few courses can even consider.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Frost Call.
To a man, all of us down at the maintenance department hate having to make the frost call. The pressure of getting the golf course open when members and their guests are wanting to play is actually excruciating. We are mindful of players having schedules to keep, but sometimes mother nature just doesn't cooperate.
Before I started working on golf courses, I had never paid attention to frost. It never occurred to me frost is more likely to occur when it is clear and there is no wind. The temperature can be perfect for frost, but if it's overcast and windy, frost either won't occur or it will be light. The other thing we have to concern ourselves when conditions aren't favorable for frost is ice or frozen turf. Either situation will not permit us to allow golfers on the course.
The problem with frost on golf courses is the damage that occurs if weight is placed on frosty or frozen turf. This damage is more prevalent on golf course turf because there isn't a buffer between the blade and the crown (the most crucial part of turfgrass) due to the low mowing heights. For instance, you could probably walk across your frosty lawn to get your morning paper and not cause any damage because there is 3 to 4 inches of turf between the weight of your foot and the crown. On a golf green or fairway there isn't enough protection.
The best way to describe what happens when you walk or drive a cart on frost or frozen turf is we are literally breaking the grass when it's frozen. It is no different than if you dropped a full glass of water on a hard floor. The glass breaks and all the contents leak out. In the case of turf we break the cell membranes which causes internal damage to the plant. This typically results in death and when this occurs in Kansas, the effected area is replaced by poa annua or some other undesirable weed.
Nonetheless, please understand that when maintenance personnel are making a frost call, they are making a very important decision with regard to the health of the golf course.
Before I started working on golf courses, I had never paid attention to frost. It never occurred to me frost is more likely to occur when it is clear and there is no wind. The temperature can be perfect for frost, but if it's overcast and windy, frost either won't occur or it will be light. The other thing we have to concern ourselves when conditions aren't favorable for frost is ice or frozen turf. Either situation will not permit us to allow golfers on the course.
The problem with frost on golf courses is the damage that occurs if weight is placed on frosty or frozen turf. This damage is more prevalent on golf course turf because there isn't a buffer between the blade and the crown (the most crucial part of turfgrass) due to the low mowing heights. For instance, you could probably walk across your frosty lawn to get your morning paper and not cause any damage because there is 3 to 4 inches of turf between the weight of your foot and the crown. On a golf green or fairway there isn't enough protection.
The best way to describe what happens when you walk or drive a cart on frost or frozen turf is we are literally breaking the grass when it's frozen. It is no different than if you dropped a full glass of water on a hard floor. The glass breaks and all the contents leak out. In the case of turf we break the cell membranes which causes internal damage to the plant. This typically results in death and when this occurs in Kansas, the effected area is replaced by poa annua or some other undesirable weed.
Nonetheless, please understand that when maintenance personnel are making a frost call, they are making a very important decision with regard to the health of the golf course.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Dormant Seeding
Dang bermudagrass! There are two things we are certain have survived since the dawn of man; cockroaches and bermudagrass. Superintendents around the Midwest are inundated with the annual question, "What are you going to do about the bermuda?".
As many of you might have noticed, we were extremely proactive with the seeding this fall and we will continue doing this annually. However, it is obvious we need to kill the bermudagrass in order to make the rough uniform throughout, but as many of you know, that's easier said than done. For one; bermuda is a survivor and it physiologically withstands death much like a worm. Cut a worm in half and both halves survive. Totally squash one half to death and the other half is still wiggling. This is what happens when you use a contact herbicide like Roundup. The vegetative aspects of bermuda are so extensive a contact can't effect the entire plant. Some of you may have experienced situations where you sprayed Roundup on an area, killed it, seeded, which resulted in a dense, beautiful stand of grass only to have bermuda reappear three years later.
What is the answer? Well, the application that will insure bermuda not returning for at least six years, is a soil sterilizer. Soil sterilizers if used properly in conjunction with aerification will fumigate the soil to a depth of six inches after it is watered in. Of course this is an elaborate process and requires the services of a licensed pesticide applicator and falls under various state and federal laws regarding it's use. This is something we may consider down the road, but it will require extensive planning.
In the meantime, we are going to do something we've never done before. On holes, eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen, we are going to attempt "dormant" seeding. This requires us to seed after the soil temps are consistently below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. We will drill the seed with our seeder.
The rationale behind this type procedure is the seed will remain dormant because there isn't enough heat to germinate the seed. In the spring, as temperature rise, the seed will germinate well ahead of when the bermuda breaks dormancy. We chose holes eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen obviously because these areas have the most bermuda. Granted, the bermuda will still be there, but at least will have increased fescue populations and the holes will look like the rest of the golf course earlier in the year rather than the blotchy appearance they typically have in the Spring.
We look forward to seeing the results.
As many of you might have noticed, we were extremely proactive with the seeding this fall and we will continue doing this annually. However, it is obvious we need to kill the bermudagrass in order to make the rough uniform throughout, but as many of you know, that's easier said than done. For one; bermuda is a survivor and it physiologically withstands death much like a worm. Cut a worm in half and both halves survive. Totally squash one half to death and the other half is still wiggling. This is what happens when you use a contact herbicide like Roundup. The vegetative aspects of bermuda are so extensive a contact can't effect the entire plant. Some of you may have experienced situations where you sprayed Roundup on an area, killed it, seeded, which resulted in a dense, beautiful stand of grass only to have bermuda reappear three years later.
What is the answer? Well, the application that will insure bermuda not returning for at least six years, is a soil sterilizer. Soil sterilizers if used properly in conjunction with aerification will fumigate the soil to a depth of six inches after it is watered in. Of course this is an elaborate process and requires the services of a licensed pesticide applicator and falls under various state and federal laws regarding it's use. This is something we may consider down the road, but it will require extensive planning.
In the meantime, we are going to do something we've never done before. On holes, eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen, we are going to attempt "dormant" seeding. This requires us to seed after the soil temps are consistently below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. We will drill the seed with our seeder.
The rationale behind this type procedure is the seed will remain dormant because there isn't enough heat to germinate the seed. In the spring, as temperature rise, the seed will germinate well ahead of when the bermuda breaks dormancy. We chose holes eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen obviously because these areas have the most bermuda. Granted, the bermuda will still be there, but at least will have increased fescue populations and the holes will look like the rest of the golf course earlier in the year rather than the blotchy appearance they typically have in the Spring.
We look forward to seeing the results.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
What do you all do in the winter?
Winter is an extremely important time for the maintenance department. Maintenance departments take this time to service and thoroughly clean the equipment, restore the cutting units, tree work, irrigation upgrades, as well as projects when weather permits. Last year we made considerable upgrades to the maintenance shop. Like any structure, such as a house, we needed to address painting, caulking, insulation, plumbing, etc. We also worked on making the shop more organized. This included making pallet shelving in order to free up floor space.
Back to the equipment. As many of you have noticed, Doctor Loewen has made considerable investments with regard to equipment. Our maintenance staff is extremely grateful because these investments have made us more effective and efficient. We intend for these tools to be effective throughout their depreciation period and in some instances longer. So, in addition to our preventative maintenance standards set by our Equipment Manager, Dave Hacker, it is necessary to have a comprehensive winter overhaul program as well. This may include bearings, belts, tires, brakes, etc, and this requires the assistance of the entire maintenance crew because Dave's winter is spent sharpening reels and overhauling cutting units. Let me put it this way, our hours in the winter time are spent wisely.
Here are some pictures to illustrate what our winter involves inside the shop when it's too cold to work outside.
Back to the equipment. As many of you have noticed, Doctor Loewen has made considerable investments with regard to equipment. Our maintenance staff is extremely grateful because these investments have made us more effective and efficient. We intend for these tools to be effective throughout their depreciation period and in some instances longer. So, in addition to our preventative maintenance standards set by our Equipment Manager, Dave Hacker, it is necessary to have a comprehensive winter overhaul program as well. This may include bearings, belts, tires, brakes, etc, and this requires the assistance of the entire maintenance crew because Dave's winter is spent sharpening reels and overhauling cutting units. Let me put it this way, our hours in the winter time are spent wisely.
Here are some pictures to illustrate what our winter involves inside the shop when it's too cold to work outside.
Equipment Manager, Dave Hacker, inspecting a reel.
Pallet shelving built by John Robinson last season to create more floor space
This is our state of the art grinder. This was purchased last year and Dave uses it to grind our reels to manufacturer specs.
Facility Manager, Sam Bannister, putting the finishing touches on our new tee markers.
We completely sandblasted and repainted the pump platform. It was in pretty bad shape. The guys did an excellent job. They didn't like that sandblasting either.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Inaugural Blog
Welcome to the Reflection Ridge Maintenance blog. I thought this would be a more effective way to communicate what our department does on a daily and weekly basis beyond what we are able to convey in the monthly newsletter.
During my twenty plus years on the maintenance side of golf course management I have not only witnessed the evolution of how we maintain golf courses, but also how the golfing customer views the maintenance of their home course . Our height of cuts are much lower, the equipment has improved dramatically from a technology standpoint, and golfer expectations have become more demanding. Our profession has become dynamic and we feel this media will allow us to enlighten the RRGC member what we are doing to satisfy our customers.
Granted, the basics are still the same. Turf needs water, air, nutrition and sunlight to sustain itself, however, the conditions with regard to height of cut, rounds per year, and desired playing conditions have intensified our management practices beyond the basics. We will update the blog to keep everyone abreast of projects, course conditions, as well as daily operations. Furthermore, we will use the multi-media aspects this blog site provides to illustrate our management practices as well as give additional insight into our profession.
Sincerely,
Stewart E. Hanson (Stew)
Golf Course Superintendent
Reflection Ridge Golf Club
During my twenty plus years on the maintenance side of golf course management I have not only witnessed the evolution of how we maintain golf courses, but also how the golfing customer views the maintenance of their home course . Our height of cuts are much lower, the equipment has improved dramatically from a technology standpoint, and golfer expectations have become more demanding. Our profession has become dynamic and we feel this media will allow us to enlighten the RRGC member what we are doing to satisfy our customers.
Granted, the basics are still the same. Turf needs water, air, nutrition and sunlight to sustain itself, however, the conditions with regard to height of cut, rounds per year, and desired playing conditions have intensified our management practices beyond the basics. We will update the blog to keep everyone abreast of projects, course conditions, as well as daily operations. Furthermore, we will use the multi-media aspects this blog site provides to illustrate our management practices as well as give additional insight into our profession.
Sincerely,
Stewart E. Hanson (Stew)
Golf Course Superintendent
Reflection Ridge Golf Club
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