Turning it green!

If you have not been able to get out and enjoy this beautiful weather, the guys have turned the place green the last 4 days. They have put down approximately 2 acres of grass. Hopefully the rain will hold off and they can get a couple more holes finished. 

Range update!!!!

Holy mackerel! Has it really been 3 weeks since we started the range project? With member-member and aerification time has flown by. The next thing you know it will be Christmas. Barring anything unforeseen, the project will be completed by the end of next week. The crew will be wrapping up by laying sod and doing a few odds and ends.

Short game area

This is the view from bridge of the short game area. In the immediate foreground is the practice bunker. The grey looking area is the chipping green. This bunker can accommodate 6 players hitting to an actual green, to give you the on course feel to your practice session. We will be seeding the chipping green in the coming weeks and it will be ready for play in 6-8 weeks. There will be fairway height grass all the way back to the bridge from 12 green. Adjacent to the right of the chipping green, the flat area is the championship/blue tee. Where the cart is parked in the middle of the picture is where the new white/blue tee is located. The other flat area (not pictured) is the new gold tee. These tees will be sodded within the next 10 days and will be ready in a few weeks.

Fairway practice bunker

 The one piece of feedback we got for the range was the need for a bunker to practice fairway bunker shots.   This will give players a 40-50 yard shot into the chipping green. In turn, you will be able to turn the other direction and hit onto the range for practice of any distance you chose. This will cover any situation that you may encounter during your round. The area between the bunker and the green will all be fairway grass. Fairway also extends off the left hand margin of the picture. This coupled with the area between the creek and green gives players multiple angles and distances up to 50 yards to hone their short game.

close up of grass, not very exciting.

 The main tee was sodded about 10 days ago and is coming right along.  The new tee is comprised of bermudagrass. This is different than the grass on course but was chosen for its ability to recover from divots. The sod's roots have tacked, and as you can see above the seams have started to knit. We are hoping to mow it for the first time either late this week or the first of next week. At this point we are looking to have the tee open around the middle of September. Soon we will open the mats to allow wood and long iron practice. The far end of the range will remain open until the grass tee is ready to have someplace to hit mid to short irons off turf.

More of an on course feel.

In front of the tee is rough height grass. This is to give the practice experience a more realistic on course feel. With any sport, simulating real "in game" situations will help improve your experience and sharpen your skills.     The project has progressed well and I believe the new range will be a great amenity for the club for years to come.

Not all grass was created equal.

As we are hopefully coming to the end of the dog days of summer, the different types of grasses on the course are becoming more visible. Through the summer the greens have held up well with the exception of a few areas on the new expansions. Other areas have not been as fortunate.

Not exactly desirable conditions.

The picture above was taken in the fairway on #12 in one of the birdbath low areas that held water most of the spring and summer. The green grass where the ball is sitting is 100% bentgrass. The surrounding dead area was 100% Poa Annua. Bentgrass has a better ability to withstand wet feet and does a better job of deep rooting than Poa. One thing to remember Poa Annua's common name is Annual Bluegrass. It is an annual plant. Just like the geraniums and impatiences you plant every year, they die at the end of the season. These areas will be seeded in the coming weeks with bentgrass to prevent this from happening in the future.

New rough sod at the beginning of #1 fairway.

The same situation has been apparent in the rough as well. The photo above is of the newly sodded area in front of #1 fairway. The foreground is the old hodgepodge of grasses and the new sod that is mostly fescue is in the distance.  In a rough grass situation, fescue stands up to heat, drought, and wet conditions better that Poa or ryegrass and is more disease resistant as well. Like the fairways, thin areas in the rough will be seeded soon with fescue to deliver a better stand of turf in the future.

Best looking spot on the range tee.

I found this area on the range tee to be interesting. As anyone who has practiced recently will tell you, the range tee has taken the summer on the chin. The few areas that are green, and not weeds, were bentgrass, bermudagrass, or like above, a mixture of both. 

Speaking of the range tee, we will start construction on Monday, August 5th. The grass we have selected to cover the tee is a new variety of bermudagrass that is more cold tolerant and has a finer texture. The reasons we chose to go with bermuda are, it is growing like gangbusters when the tee is being used the most (May-October). Bermuda stands up to wet conditions very well. The first course I worked on was all bermudagrass except for the greens. I remember having runners growing out into the ponds. The final reason was bermuda's ability of recover from divots. The picture below was taken when I visited the sod farm this week. This area was harvested the first of May. The deep green area in the middle was bare ground, 36 inches wide. The margins of the picture was where grass was left for it to recover the harvested area. If you'd like to read more about the variety of bermudagrass we've selected, click here and here!!

Picture from sod farm.

 

Holes and hydros. (and holes IN hydros)

This is what it looks like right after it happens. We all know what it looks like a few days later.

I guess, when it rains pours. And no, I am not talking about the weather earlier in the summer.  We've experienced our third hydraulic in as many weeks. In the past 3 years here at BCC I can only remember 2, both in the rough. In the previous 9 years before I came to BCC I only remember 3 or 4. All three of the recent leaks were on different parts of the machine, and in the fairways.

For those unfamiliar with the workings of turf equipment, hydraulic fluid is the life blood of these machines. This fluid pumped at high pressure (1000 + PSI) and high temperture (150 + degrees F) and drives the motors the spin the reels to cut, and drives the power train to move the machine.  When one of the lines fails it spews the fluid on the grass, killing it on contact.

It is my experience that nothing helps reduce turf loss once the leak has occurred. I have tried scrubbing the grass with Dawn dish washing soap the dissipate the oil. I have also put down activated charcoal to try to absorb the oil. Both times it still resulted in a streak of dead grass.  Replacing all of the hoses is not a viable option either. It would be cost prohibitive replacing 30 plus rubber hoses and fittings, and numerous custom bent metal pipes.

Little holes everywhere!

This coming Monday (7/29) we will be doing a solid, deep tine aerification on all the greens. I know some are thinking, "why are you going to aerify now, when you are going to be closed for 2 days in just a couple of weeks?" What we are doing Monday is different than the core aerification in August. The purpose of the deep tine is to go into the soil profile and break up a hard layer of soil in the greens.

It's hard to tell, but there is a lot going on in this picture.

In the picture above the hard layer begins where the key is pointing between 2.5 and 3 inches. If you look closely you can see some old aerification holes with lighter colored sand going through the profile. At about 4 inches on the tape measure the layer has not been disrupted. The deep tine is going down 6 to 7 inches and fracturing the hard pan layer. This allows roots to go deeper and gets oxygen and water into the soil, making a healthier grass plant.  The core aerification we do later in August removes a plug to a depth of between 2 to 3 inches. We then fill those holes with sand to amend the soil and increase healing. It would be virtually impossible to fill the deep holes. The core aerification has a lot more holes and a shallower depth. It would take an enormous amount of sand and be extremely difficult to work the sand into the holes.

Roots holding strong to 4 inches, roots thin at 2.5 inches where the soil is cracking.

It's been a long time since...

Long time, no blog. Once construction wrapped up, I thought I would have more time in my day to do things like write. Alas, I forgot that the weather was eventually going to warm up and the grass would start growing. With the summer season upon us (it's going to get here one of these days, but it's 63 degrees at 3 pm on June 6th and raining cat and dogs) most of our attention has turned to keeping the place maintained and not having too many projects going.

One thing that we are doing that I'd like to bring to your attention is the use of growth regulators on the tees and fairways. We recently applied a product that is designed to slow the growth of the grass, primarily the Poa. With the growth of the Poa suppressed this gives the bentgrass a competitive advantage and allows it to grow over the existing Poa. With any luck we will be able to increase the bentgrass population and give you a better playing surface. So if you think the fairways have looked a little off color the last couple of weeks, you are correct. This product will turn the Poa a yellow color, similar to what it would look like if it was showing signs of drought stress.

Notice the leafy, dark green bentgrass versus the yellow Poa.

Something that I touched on in the current newsletter, but will touch on it again, is the basic etiquette of course maintenance. The three easiest things you can do during your round to keep the course in the best condition possible are; fix your divots, repair ball marks, and rake bunkers after you play out of them. When fixing ball marks and divots, repair yours and one other. If everyone did this, at some point you would only have yours to repair. And when you fill a divot, make sure it is filled to level then tamped down with your foot. If they are not filled completely, the edges burn out and there is little benefit or reduction in healing time.

One good, two half hearted attempts, and a couple of non efforts

Saying the weather has been screwy this year is akin to saying water is wet. But I think it's gotten to the point where even Mother Nature's creatures are confused (along with plenty of humans as well). It never ceases to amaze me the things I get to see out here.

Mr. (or Mrs.) Turtle, are you lost?

Above is a picture of a good size snapping turtle crossing a fairway, not a huge deal. Except it's crossing the 5th fairway, heading toward the road and mountain. I think he or she can't figure out what season it is and has decided to go sun on the rocks of the mountain to warm up.

Coming down the home stretch.

The light is at the end of the tunnel, coming down the home stretch, getting to the finish line, and any other cliche I can use to describe the fact that we are wrapping up the spring section of this project. 17 has been completed. All the sand is in the bunkers and all the sod has been laid. Of all the holes, 17 had the least amount of changes. The two green side bunkers are fairly similar to the ones that were there. The addition of the fairway bunker was the biggest change.

The construction on 9 has been completed and is awaiting the finishing touches. All of the bunkers have sand in them and the remaining sod will be laid in the coming days. The vista from the tees has changed significantly. 

View from the red and gold tee before.

The view after removal of trees.

Before, the green was completely blocked from view by the trees on the right of the fairway. With the removal of the pines down the right and the persimmon tree in the middle of the field of view, the entire green and the valley below. Remember, at the completion of the project, we will be choosing more hardy species and placing them in an area where they will not effect play.

Currently the crew is working on 18 and the tee on 16. All the old bunkers on 18 have been removed and the 3 new bunkers have been rough shaped. The approach will be shifted to the left side of the green where the front bunker previously was. A bunker will wrap around the front right of the green. This will be a significant change to the appearance of the hole and allow for a tucked hole location. The fill is being added to construct the new tee on 16. A hole is being dug along the fence to provide clean fill. We will be filling in the hole with some of the spoils that are behind the fence.

Moving right along..

Even though I haven't updated lately does not mean things haven't been happening. We started off the week with rain days Monday and half of Tuesday. The crew hit the road running with continuing work on 17 and starting on #9. They will wrap up most of the construction on 17 this weekend. As I type they are installing the drainage and finishing the floors to the green side bunkers. This afternoon they will move to the approach bunker and install drainage and finish the floor. When #17 is wrapped up they will move to finish #9 and begin on #18.

17 green complex with 2 new green side and 1 new approach bunker

On #9 the 5 new bunkers have been rough shaped. There are 3 green side and 2 in the fairway. The left hand fairway bunker has the unique reverse back to front feature that will give all the shots a down hill lie. The right side fairway bunker is small but the back side was built with a down hill slope to give the ball and extra kick towards the green to reward the player who challenges it and succeeds.

Overview from 9 fairway

One cool thing we did during this project was set up a time lapse camera that takes pictures every 5 minuets on some of the holes. The first couple of hole we were still trying to figure out exactly how to get it to work. We did manage to catch a majority of the work on the left side of #12. 

Yesterday the last hole, #18, was laid out and the new tee on #16 was staked. This will wrap up the construction for the spring. As of right now, the guys are on schedule and will be wrapping up all the work for the spring in the next 2 weeks or so, weather permitting.