2 green

Last weekend the weather was fantastic and the tee sheet was busy. I received multiple compliments about the condition of the greens, which was great considering we had aerated them earlier the same week. So far this week, the weather has been very spring like. While there has been sunshine, there have also been a few showers. Thankfully, the weather for the weekend is looking good.

Steven is changing the cup and Jim is mowing the collar on hole 12

This week the fairways received a fertilization, which was long over due. The greens were top dressed. The greens, tees, collars, approaches, rough, and surrounds were all mowed. The grass growth has really picked up, and consequently so has our mowing frequency.

Crane fly larva

There have been a few crane fly larvae on the greens lately. The numbers of larvae have not been great enough to cause damage, so we just remove them with the greens mower. On occasion, I hand pick the larvae off the greens and feed them to my son's lizard. I am not sure if that technically qualifies as biological control or not, but the lizard and I enjoy the results just the same.

Curlew hanging out next to 16 tees

The curlew are here for their annual trip to Sandpines. They can typically be seen somewhere on holes 16, 17, or 18. The curlew usually only stay for a few weeks before they are off to their next destination.

14 green soaking up some sun

The week began with less than perfect weather for greens aeration. It began raining Sunday evening, and did not stop until around 10 am on Monday. The rain gauge had registered just over an inch of rain between Sunday evening and 6 am when we were scheduled to start aerating greens on the back nine. It was clearly too wet to complete greens aeration the way we would typically go about it. We modified the process a bit in order to get the aeration accomplished. Rather than use core harvesters, which makes the process much more efficient, we used a core hog. Think of a core hog as a snow plow that is attached to the front of a walk behind greens mower. Luckily, we purchased a core hog a few year ago in order to clear aeration cores off the clubhouse practice green, which is located in an area that is too tight to use core harvesters.

Core Hog mounted to a Toro 1000 Mower

Using a core hog to push cores off the green eliminates the need to drive core harvesters across the greens. It was important to keep the heavy equipment off the saturated greens in order to prevent rutting from occurring. Unfortunately, using the core hog requires about 3 extra people, and significantly more manual labor in order to keep up with the aerator. This worked out alright, because it was too wet to top dress and brush the greens anyway. I was really happy with the way we were able to deal with the huge weather curve ball on Monday. The agronomy staff did a nice job making lemonade with the lemons the weather had provided.

On Tuesday, the weather was just fine, and we were able to use the core harvesters on the front nine greens without any problems. We also rolled, top dressed, brushed in the sand, and cut new cups on all holes ahead of play (barely). As I was walking off the last green after cutting the cup, the first group of golfers was just arriving to hit shots into the green.

I made a short video of our aeration process. I failed to get a video while I was brushing the greens, so I included a picture of the brush from earlier this year. A huge THANK YOU goes out to the agronomy staff for getting the aeration done despite the awful weather we experienced on Monday.

I was happy to see some of you using our preferred divot pattern on the driving range tee. I appreciate those who are making an effort to help us keep the driving range tee in the best condition possible. If you have not tried practicing using our preferred divot pattern, please try it out on your next trip to the driving range.

Thank you to those that are practicing with the divot pattern in the picture.  I really appreciate  your effort.

Holes 16 & 17

Spring has arrived! There has been quite a few sun breaks throughout the week, as well as a couple of showers. So far this week, Sandpines has received less than a half inch of rain, which has come mostly at night. The grass growth started picking up a bit this week. The weather forecast is looking good, so come out and play some golf.

John aerating the clubhouse practice green

We were able to get quite a bit of mowing done this week thanks to the drier weather. The greens, collars, tees, approaches, fairways, and rough were all mowed. The greens were groomed a couple of times, and are rolling nicely. The practice greens were aerated with 1/4" tines on Thursday. The greens on the golf course will be aerated next week. The back nine greens will  be aerated on Monday, and front nine greens will be aerated on Tuesday. We will also be using 1/4" tines, and the holes will heal pretty quickly. All 18 holes will be open for play during both aeration days. Our starting times will be delayed both days so we can complete the process ahead of play. Using smaller tines is much less disruptive with regards to putting, but not nearly as beneficial as using large tines. Our greens have been handling all the water we have received over the past few months better than expected. Given the slow start to the golf season this year due to the lousy weather, we have made the choice to use the 1/4" tines in order to minimize the impact on play. We will perform this process again at the end of July in order to keep the greens in good condition throughout the growing season. In the fall, it will be imperative to use the larger tines again in order to keep our greens draining throughout the winter.

Look at the size of the aeration cores compared to the golf ball

Hole 17

Sandpines ended up with 18.46 inches of precipitation in March. The last 7 days of March yielded 6.54 inches. I was reading Josh Clevenger's blog for Claremont Country Club located in Oakland, CA. He was mentioning they had a wet March with 5.38 inches for the month of March. Josh if you are reading this, that would be a record low rainfall for March at Sandpines (At least in the six that I have been here).

The front nine was closed last Saturday and Sunday due to high water. All 18 holes have been open this week, but their is still a fair amount of water in the low lying areas. That being said, the greens are rolling great. I have received several compliments about the greens as well as the overall condition of the golf course given the weather we have been experiencing. Our drier weather (only about 2 inches so far this week) has helped to greatly reduce the amount of standing water on the course. This week definitely has a spring feel to it. The sun has been out each day this week at some point or another. Once the rain stops, it does not take the course long to start drying up.

Hole 4 on 3/31/12 during peak high water

This week we have been able to get some mowing done. The greens, tees, collars, approaches, and driving range tee were all mowed. The greens were also groomed during mowing on Thursday. Greens were spiked and rolled on Wednesday. The greens also received a fertilizer and fungicide application earlier this week. More traffic control ropes were put out on holes 3 and 6 in order to prevent turf damage. Water was pumped in a few areas in an effort to reduce the amount of standing water.

Pumping water off the approach on hole 4

The driving range tee was opened for use this morning. Last year, I attempted implement a hitting strategy on the driving range that David Phipps has been pushing at Stone Creek (I believe the credit for the idea goes to Dan Meersman of Phily Cricket Club). I saw this hitting technique used some of the time last year on our range tee, which helped. If we can get the majority of our players to hit balls as in the picture below with the green check mark, our range tee will stay in much better shape this year. Credit for the picture goes to David Phipps.

Please use this strategy when using the driving range

The following video was copied from last years post when we opened the range. In the video, Dan Meersman does a great job comparing the impact of three different hitting techniques on the driving range tee at Phily Cricket Club.