MAINTENANCE UPDATE

Just to bring everyone up to date on course maintenance. The maintenance staff is up to full level for the summer with 12 people including Marty and me. The bunker edging was finished last week before the Member/Member tournament. Fans are up and waiting on the two power companies to Finish there work. They should all be running by mid June. The greens aeration this week came off with out any major problems, all though the heat made it tough on the crew. The greens should be back in shape by next weekend. The over-seeded tees have been sprayed to kill the rye grass so that the Bermuda can start growing and filling in. With the warmer night time temperatures the Bermuda is growing more and filling in winter kill spots, spring dead spots, and high traffic areas. The maintenance staff will be working on these areas to help fill in with additional aeration and fertilize applications. There is some additional sodding planned for some spots this next week as well.We will be pouring a concrete walk way on #2 walk bridge next Monday. Hope this helps keeping everyone up to date, but if you have a question just contact me or ask the next time you see me.

MEMORIAL DAY 2011

Time to remember and honor military service members and their families who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country to keep us free and safe. Enjoy this Memorial Day with others here at the Club or elsewhere.

Spring Dead Spot

Spring dead spot is a turf disease that affects Bermuda grass starting in the fall. When the turf goes dormant in the fall everything seems to be fine. But in the spring, when the Bermuda grass starts to green up, the patches of turf that were affected by the pathogen in the soil, cannot take up water or nutrients and causes these small to large circles. There are several fungicides that can be used in the fall, but none are cost effective and can be hit or miss as well for reliability. Most of the golf course has minimal spring dead spot, but the worse holes are  #1, #9, #14, with #11 being the biggest problem. To treat these spots the heat this next week will help start growing the Bermuda back-in, along with additional fertilizer we are applying to these areas. These areas are not to be confuse with traffic wear or winter kill areas. The below picture was taken on number #11 fairway for spring dead spot.

Sodding at Driveway Entrance

This project was budgeted for July, but we were able to go head and do it now. The small strip of fescue lawn between the entrance driveway and cart path to #1 tee. This turf has not done well, even with irrigation, because it just gets to hot from heat reflected by all the hard surface areas. Since there are several small patches of Bermuda already growing great there. We took out the remainder of the fescue and installed Bermuda sod in its place. There is a small area on the slope above the cart path that will be sodded as well in a couple weeks after greens aerification. We will be doing some more Bermuda sodding on the course at that time.



preparation for sod



installation of sod



finished

Verticutting Greens



Emmanuel verticutting greens



We verticut greens this past Monday, which helps with thatch control and water infiltration . We then top dressed and worked the sand into the small slits left by the verticutter blades. This also helps smooth out the ball roll as well.



applying light topdressing



Fan Project Update

Marty and Jr finish digging holes for fan bases

This last week the crew, installed the 4 ground posts for the new fans on #1,#2,#12,and #14. The electrical contractor installed the three new power meter mounts and are waiting on code inspections. Once the inspections are approved, they will start trenching and installing conduit for the wire. Trenching should start Wednesday this next week, along with the power companies being able to run power to the new meters. So be aware of workers on the course not use to golfers and golf balls. We are planning on starting play on the back, on days they are working on the front two holes. As part of this project, the course crew will be repairing the stone walk bridge on #2. We are installing a concrete walking surface and adding some additional stones to the top.



After pouring concrete around base poles



More Light Rain Overnight

With the light rain overnight (.16) and last few days rain showers cart are still off the path. The main reason for this has been the dry weather before and the rain has been light enough to soak into the ground. We have missed the heavy down pours that produce washed  out bunkers and standing water. So this morning the guys are mowing and raking bunkers.

GREENS FAN PROJECT

It's been ten years in coming,and starting this Monday morning the fan installation project will start. Fan locations will be at the rear of #1, #2, #12, and #14.  The first phase will be the installation of mounting  posts in the ground, along with an electrical contractor installing power panels and lines. Duke Energy and Energy United will be running power to the panels. This phase will take about two to three weeks depending on the weather. The last phase will be mounting the fans, and connecting the power. The plan is to have the fans up and running by June 1st. The fans actually arrived this past Friday, two weeks ahead of the original scheduled delivery date.

50" Turf Breeze greens fans

AUGIE'S FIRST YEAR




  I was reminder by a lot of people that Augie has not been in the Blog since his arrival last May.  So since he just turned a year old, here are are few pictures from over the past year.









first day at work 8 weeks



meeting Hammie the shop cat








play time





Nap time in the office





daily morning run to check the course













move up to chair for nap time





big enough to get his own drink




















today 5-7



GREENS AERATION RECOVERY

Greens are healing very nicely and really benefited from the 1.07" rain we had Tuesday night. We will be topdressing some more this coming Monday to fill some open holes.

Greens last Saturday 4-30

Greens this Saturday 5-7

LAST WEEKS GREENS AERATION





Emmanuel and Humberto starting on #1

 

The greens are starting to recover from last weeks aeration. Which went fairly well with only a few minor equipment issues and getting my new assistant Martin Pugh up to speed on the course and crew. Here is the series of events on Tuesday and Wednesday last week. 



Marty and crew picking up plugs on #14













Jr topdressing





Chris blowing sand in holes









Watering in sand after rolling on Friday 4-29





EARTH DAY 2011

wild turkey that live on # 2  #18

On this Earth Day; I thought it might be great to look at residences of the golf course that the crew and myself appreciate seeing everyday.

Blue birds that use are thirty houses

Red Shoulder hawk at range pole

One of many pairs of mallards on the lakes

Some of the young watching flower beds being planted

And the newest resident at # 5 along the river

GREENS AERATION IS TUESDAY APRIL 26th

We will be aerating the greens,this coming Tuesday April 26th using 1/2" tines and topdressing. We are doing the practices greens on Monday after 11:00 to get all the kinks out the machines and make sure the new guys understand how the process will go. Check out the video link regarding the need for aeration and how the process takes place.  Look later next week on the blog for pictures of the aeration day, and how the greens are recovering from aeration.    why we aerify greens video

MAINTENANCE UPDATE



creek # 4 cleaned



What a whirlwind the last few weeks have been, since the last post. We have been busy on the golf course and other areas. The weather has been up and down with temperatures, the wind has been tough to deal with in spraying operations. Here are some of the things that we have been getting accomplished: The greens are starting to grow with warmer soil temperatures, so winter cups are gone. We have sodded some areas that had not healed from last fall. The light verti-cutting and topdressing process has started to smooth them  out. We are skipping verti -cutting on putting green, #1, #2, #14 since these greens are still healing, with a lot of young bent grass seedlings from last fall. The crew has done a great job on cleaning creeks, mulching tee sign areas, and starting to mow rough to clean up dormant material. The dormant Bermuda grass doesn't just turn green again. The green grass is actually new growth from the bottom of the plant. A general rule of thumb (and scientifically proven) is that Bermuda will not reach peak growing potential until the day time high and night time lows  add up to 150. Which in this area  happens about mid to late June. Another big impact on work being accomplished is summer help coming back to work, so you will see some familar faces and some new crew members.









sodding spots # 2 green





new drain # 11 cart path





Alfredo Jr verti -cutting greens







 

ORNAMENTAL LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE



trimming crape myrtles



The end of February, Thur March is the time to start working on early spring cleanup of our ornamental plantings beds, and large mulch areas. Alfredo Sr. has been doing most of this work. Like trimming crape myrtles, hollies and plants in the parking lot islands. His latest focus is on trimming lirope, and ornamental grass plants that helps provides some contrast in the stark winter landscape. We have also started putting down the pre-emergent weed control in the beds, before adding new pine straw around the club house. This is a big job since we have over 2 acres of bed space just between the club house and golf course.



spot spraying existing weeds and application of pre-emergent



MORE RAIN IN FORECAST

#4 walk bridge under water

Augie checking out #5 flooding

The golf course has held up well despite having around 1.40 " of rain over the past weekend. We missed a flood on Monday for the front side. The Yadkin river was at first forecast to crest at 22.5 ft, but only got to 18.5 feet. So the river only effected #4 walk bridge and along the # 5 cart path. Another rain event is expected Wednesday with more heavy rain moving in overnite.  Unfortunately , the cart path only rule will be in place while the course remains wet. The maintenance staff will continue to repair washout areas in bunkers to make the course as playable as possible. We  have been working on cleaning #18 creek bank and spraying rough  last week. There will still be more clean up in these areas over the next three or four weeks.

U.S. SEASONAL DROUGHT OUTLOOK

Some one asked me today if it was going to be a dry spring and summer. I told them that based on Data from NOAA that it looked very likely for the spring.The following map is the expert assessement for the next  three months. Usually if the drought persist or intensify in these months, it will be a hot dry summer "GREAT". I added a link to the climate prediction center to look at all the maps for temperatures,  preciption, and drought monitor.

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/

MONDAY NIGHT STORM / GREENS

The Monday night storm bought some wind and heavy rain to the course. But we missed the hail and straight line 60-70 mile winds just to our south. The inch of rain did help the over all 3inch rain deficit that the area has been running. Of course it's extremely wet out there,so carts are restricted to the path and will be for the next several days. The cold weather at night is keeping the soil temperature at 46 degrees average on the greens. We have started to filled the irrigation system this week, so you may see a head or two come on to take out air in the system. The irrigation will be needed to water in applied chemicals on the greens next monday. We expect to find some leaks, that will need to be fixed before the turf season starts as well. Tuesday we had a small hydraulic oil leak with the greens mower on the putting green. A hose burst just as the operator was starting a pass across the green. The mower has a alarm on it that sounds if there a loss in system pressure. So he immediateily stopped and backed off the green. we flushed the oil off the green with water. The damage with hydraulic oil leak is not the oil, but the heat of the oil, it burns the turf. So there will be a strip about 6 inches by 4 feet on the edge of the green. Damage is always hard to determine this time of year since the turf is not growing that much.We have already topdressed it so, it will either fill in,or we will plug it with bent in april during some other scheduled green repair work.

SOIL TEMPERATURES AND TURF CONDITIONS

For Golf enthusiasts and anyone experiencing the winter blues. The last recent warm up is only temporary, in fact, winter is still some four weeks or so from being over. Historically North Carolina has the largest snow falls in March most years,and last frost date is mid April. Soil temperatures play a big part of turf and plant maintenance.  Just because the air temp is over 60, the soil temperatures is right at 40 degrees on greens and Bermuda turf areas right now. Things don't start happening until soil temperatures stay at least 55 degrees over 4 -5 days. That usually happens around here mid march. So mid March is a big starting time for turf related work. There is still some healing that's needs to be accomplished over the next months on greens . Some topdressing / seeding and plugging will be done to encourage the areas to knit back into a complete surface. We will start spring applications of pre-emergent herbicides to control warm season weeds and diseases about that time. We are monitoring the,weather forecast,soil,air tempertures daily,so that we start at the optium time. So in the mean times we are working on area cleanup projects and tree work.

SURPRISE THIS MORNING

There never is a morning checking the course, that I don't see some of the wildlife living on the course. whether it's deer,coyotes,beaver,otter, fox, turkeys, hawks, or all the different birds. The last week I have been watching the blue herons on the front side pairing up for mating season . There are about four pairs of adult herons and several juveniles, that are on the course. The adults have been hanging out in the top of the pine tree behind #8 green early in the morning.  The adults have also been working on the nests in the trees at #5 tee along the river as well. The last four years a number of you have mentioned seeing the osprey fishing the lakes,and mistaking it for and eagle. Well I was surprised this morning to see a bald eagle setting on top of a dead tree just across the river. The osprey is a big bird, but this guy is huge with white head and tail very visible from 500 yards away. I didn't get a picture yet, but will be trying for a shot. He just moved to the top of my picture list.

WARMER- SUN!

There was heavy frost this morning. But the sun is out and temperatures are expected to be near upper 50's today and 60's for Sunday. This is much improved and hopefully you will be able to get some golf in this weekend. Next week looks good for warmer, drier weather as well. The crew did get started on cleaning #4 creek banks and should finish next week. We are planning to start on cleaning brush next to #18 green  after #4 is finished.

LIGHT DUSTING OF SNOW 2/10

Sorry no golf today, but should melt off this afternoon. The out look for the weekend and next week looks good. Forecast has upper 50's and 60's and still cool nights, so frost delays most likely.

BRUSH CLEANUP #2 CREEK / DRAIN REPAIR #4

The guys have got #2 creek cleaned up for summer. They also have been trimming pampas grass,and crape myrtles around the course as well. The two drains just off #4 walk bridge have been fixed. The muskrats had gnawed the ends of  the pipe off and damaged the grates, causing two sink holes.

PUTTING GREENS

Today we were able to do a little surface clean up and roll on the greens. No the greens are not growing that much, the mowers just clipped the grass and leveled out any frost heave. The guys also fixed any ball marks that were missed by players the last week or so. The warm weather the next three days may  green them up a little.  You may notice if you play this weekend the tree cleanup  that started on #10. The removal of some dead and mis-shaped trees that provide to much shade to the green. This early prep is also required for space to remove the large dead oak beside the green.

COLD SATURDAY

Cold today 30 degrees, windchill 18, wind out north/north west at about 5 mph, overcast sky, and it's 10:00am. Not a great golf day but still better than snow and ice. We are putting the blue and gold tee markers back out this morning, after a new paint job.