Geyser

Our mechanic Rodolfo sent me the video below last night of the geyser my guys made over the summer.  What  made this even more funny was that I was hosting a pesticide meeting with a dozen or so other superintendents.  I am still getting grief over it.  If you want to compare to Old Faithful geyser, watch the you tube video here.

Reduce, Re-use, Recycle

 You may recall that last year I was touting the benefits that I thought Crumb Rubber would provide for our golf course.  Looking at the picture on the left you will notice that I was wrong.  The grass has passed on leaving behind the crumb rubber.  Maybe we have too much traffic or maybe we didn't do it the right way, but either way, we will not be continuing that program.

Keeping with the theme of reduce, re-use and recycle, we will be disposing of the grass clippings from greens onto our traffic areas.  Tim Powers, Superintendent at Crystal Springs Golf Course for almost 10 years now, has touted the benefits of this program every time we discuss how to deal with traffic.  He tells me that his traffic areas now have some organic matter that will hold water and tolerate traffic better.  He has also explained to me that he gets a little nitrogen return from the nitrogen that is left behind in the leaf blade.   

While the results will take a while like that of a good gypsum program, it's free and it isn't going to hurt anything in the meantime.  If there are any ruling questions on how to play it, please consult the USGA rule book or any one of our fine golf shop staff.  

White Powder

I am not talking about the fresh powder in Tahoe and I am not recalling the eighties, but rather our fairway's that have had gypsum applied to them.  This year I purchased agriculture quality (cheaper) gypsum and it is a little more messy than prilled gypsum.  The white powder are the fines that don't spread as far as the granular.  That is why we have white stripes.  After irrigation, the white lines will dissipate.

When we apply gypsum, I am looking at three benefits;  removing sodium  (salts),  improve soil structure and increase nutrient retention.  There are many more benefits, but these are what I am most interested in.  

We get sodium in the soil thanks to our water supply.  While our supply isn't loaded with salts like some other courses, we still have to deal with them.  When salts accumulate in the soil, the soil becomes hydrophobic.  This  makes it extremely difficult to keep the soil profile moist and hence, keep the grass alive.  The calcium that makes up gypsum will replace the sodium within the soil and with sufficient water, the sodium will be flushed through.  This in turn also improves soil structure.

Gypsum is also good for nutrient retention which means fertilizers that are applied will last longer.  This can be seen when you look at the difference between our roughs and fairways.  The fairways will hold color longer than the rough because they have been on a regular gypsum program.  This year for the first time we are putting gypsum in the rough to help improve the quality.   

This is one of the first programs I  re-started at Cinnabar and and it has made a huge difference in fairway quality.  It took almost 4 years to build calcium levels up and the results have been outstanding.  

  

Fairway Aeration Equipment Demo

On the final day of fairway aeration, we got to demo a new fairway aerator that 'punched' our pull behind aerator away.  We demo'd Toro's ProCore 864 (pictured left) and I was really impressed with how quiet it was considering its violent nature.

The reason I am not looking at replacing our pull behind with another pull behind is because I can get more thatch and soil out with the Toro Aerator.  Getting more thatch and soil out means better water penetration for both drainage purposes and irrigation efficiency which lead to the ultimate goal of firmer playing conditions.  Because it creates 3 times as many holes as the pull behind, the seed we use to over-seed with and the sand we topdress with can find a nice home in an aeration hole (see photos below).  We also will have more holes for the gypsum we put out next week to get in the soil which is the ultimate goal with gypsum.

Pull behind that was done two times.

Toro Procore 864 one time.

Fry's.com

From what I can gather, the 2011 Fry's.com was a success.  I know for a fact that superintendent Tom Gray and the staff at CordeValle accomplished a lot of their goals they set for themselves following the 2010 Fry's.com.  The course was in great shape and despite the rain, the course played very firm.

My job this year was changing the cups again, but this time I got to do the tournament back nine with Assistant Superintendent Ken Converse.  I must say that I got a little jittery when I was first told that I would be doing the back nine, but as soon as I plunged my first cup, it was back to normal.  I joked around with Tom asking him if I would have more roots to deal with than last year.  His reply was probably the best advice I can remember receiving in the business.  He said, "Brian, they don't putt on roots".  When it comes to tournaments, it isn't necessarily about how healthy your course is, but rather how it looks and plays.  Certianly health comes into that, but managing the surface is what you have to do.

While I learned more than I will write about now, one of the greatest things I have learned each year from this event is crew management and planning.  Tom has 40 men on staff and had another 15-20 volunteers.  He has countless numbers of PGA officials talking with him, special tournament commitments, and a girlfriend to escort around the course, but he finds time to communicate with everyone.  While I am sure the stress level is high, you wouldn't know it being on the grounds. It really is marvel to witness and I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of it.

Fork It!

Fork it, poke it, stab it, slam it with a putter; I don't care.  I honestly like using a fork to fix ballmarks as I feel it does the best job, but it doesn't matter to me what you use anymore.  When I was younger and more niave, I actually cared about how the ballmark was fixed, but I am so beyond that now.  I am just asking for the attempt to fix it using anything at your disposal.  While my frustration is obvious, it is also obvious to me that the audience of this blog aren't the perpetrators.  I just want everyone to know that all of us in the maintenance department take a great amount of pride in providing a high quality product and everyday we wonder why people would denigrate our golf course like this.

If you have any suggestions to help with our problem, we are all ears.