Cinnabar Hills Golf Club

Bones

2012-01-25T05:19:00.000-08:00

Driving around the course yesterday, I came across the bones pictured. They were displayed prominently on the 4th tee of the Canyon course. Probably a raccoon, but I am not an animal expert by any means. What's really neat is that you can bend the spine and see how the vertebrae move. Maybe a bobcat or coyote got it, but it's really hard to say. I can say that it is NOT a mountain lion. We have a mountain lion if we have half of a deer which I am glad to say hasn't happened in a few years now.

Tee Rocks

2012-01-19T05:29:00.000-08:00

Every year we go about the process of repainting our tee rocks and this year is no different. How it got decided I don't remember, but our spray technicians (Poli, Joel & Vitaliano) are the guys that paint them and they have again come up with a way to enhance the procedure. What they found was that if they heat the rocks with a heat lamp before the paint and apply the stickers, the outcome is much better. Below are pictures of the process.

Paint stripper applied and paint scratched off

Rocks getting taped and warmed up

Poli applying the primer

Sun bathing for painted rocks

Sticker being applied

Final product

Gutter Cleaning

2012-01-17T20:10:00.000-08:00

We may be a couple of months into the rain season, but we are now finally expecting our first decent rain. With the frost that we have had the last couple of days, we got the opportunity to clear out all the gutters. Gutter cleaning isn't that titillating, but it surprises me every year how dirty the gutters get. Not just with leaves, but actual mud. Alvaro (pictured) and Odilio braved the elements and cleaned them out for us today.

A Native Trim

2012-01-16T13:13:00.000-08:00

With the lack of rain, we have been busy hacking away all of our native areas. The reason we like to do this is so we can give the grasses a competitive advantage over the weeds. While this doesn't eliminate all the weeds, the grasses have certainly been gaining over the last few years. We use line trimmers to do most of this which seems cruel and unusual, but we have to considering the terrain and the amount of rocks/ boulders in our native areas. If you look at a recently trimmed area, you'll see green plants ready to spring as soon as we get some rain.

The B.M.I.

2012-01-07T09:22:00.000-08:00

While all the politicians have been announcing initiatives and agendas in Iowa this past week, I am announcing our own initiative of sorts. I am calling it the Ball Mark Intitiative or BMI which sounds a bit more catchy. This plan unifies all parties while working across the lines to do what is best for the course. The BMI takes a 4 pronged approach to solving ball marks. We have introduced friendly reminders on the flag sticks, posted signs in the golf shop, we are providing free repair tools and we are also informing customers in the shop and through the GPS system. The next step begins with you. If you can get one person to follow you in fixing your ball mark and doing it correctly, than you can go to sleep knowing you helped make Cinnabar a better place.

All kidding aside, un-repaired ball marks this time of year may take up to 4 or 6 weeks to heal assuming they haven't been filled with Poa annua.

The Black Stripes

2012-01-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

I wish The Black Stripes were a band that my sister and I had started, but the White Stripes stole that idea. Unfortunately the black stripes that can be seen on the second fairway of the Canyon course are due to sprayer malfunction (person and machine). I had a crew member put together a small mix last week to see if that was what I wanted on fairways this week and a hose broke while spraying the fairway. The black lines will eventually grow out, but with these cold temperatures, it may be a while.

2011 Carne Asada

2011-12-29T09:59:00.000-08:00

Today we are celebrating a year of great work by the maintenance staff with a carne asada. Gregorio, Delfino and myself prepped and cooked the fiest for today. We will all be complaining about how full we are in about an hour and we will then cut out early.

Temp Greens

2011-12-23T10:35:00.000-08:00

3 Canyon green

I never thought that I would have to announce that we would have to use temporary greens in Northern California, but be that as it may, we have four temporary greens today. #6 of the Lake course and #1,3, & 6 of the Canyon course have temporary greens. Like some of my Midwest brothers, we have placed pins in the approaches and painted a 3ft radius around the pin. Get it in the circle and you're good. Being an optimist at heart, there are definitely some eagle opportunities to be had!

Being that we have kept people off of the 4 greens mentioned, damage should be minimal if any at all. We will keep our eyes on the situation and definitely treat those greens with a little extra TLC.

1 Canyon Temp green

6 Canyon Temp green

New Sand and Seed Stands

2011-12-17T06:47:00.000-08:00

40 bottle stand being assembled

In an effort to get more people to fill their divots, we have provided two more areas to replenish your sand and seed bottles. We have put new stands by the snack bar and the first tee of the Canyon course.

Our sand and seed bottles are a mix of sand and an 80/20 blend of rye grass and chewing fescue seed. You can read about the chewing fescue here. Some places mix in a mulch, some places dye the sand green and some don't even put in seed. Every different way can be effective, but one thing is common; if not used regularly, grass will grow inside the bottles and clog them up.

Main Line Break

2011-12-09T12:36:00.001-08:00

This past Monday we had the pleasure of a main line break near the cart staging area. Just happened to be under the concrete as well; oh joy. The timing was actually good because we had a concrete cutter on-site doing some work on the canyon cart paths. They were able to chunk out the concrete before we left Monday and we had the same guys (Los Gatos Concrete) pour the new concrete Friday afternoon. Below are some pics of the work as it progressed towards completion.

The culprit

The repair

Prep'd for concrete

Mud from Milpitas Materials

Ready for the weekend!!!

Canyon Cart Paths

2011-12-07T10:34:00.001-08:00

I am pleased to report that the cart path projects on 3 and 6 Canyon have been completed ahead of schedule. A lot of times at Cinnabar we will say that there is a multiplier of 1.5 when it comes to a time and cost estimate because things never seem to go as planned. With this job, everything went perfect. It was a nice change for once. Enjoy the pictures.

Road Closure

2011-12-05T14:14:00.001-08:00

The fence is now up on 7 Mountain. The great thing about having our Bobcat A300 was that we were able to just rent the auger attachment shown to get the job done rather easily. That was one of my selling points when I pitched the machine. There are over 70 different attachments I can use and I don't have to own every piece. In just over a year and a half we put 280 hours on the Bobcat. Easily our most used non-turf piece of equipment.

We will be putting a native seed mix on the hillside and then we'll pray for some rain to allow it to germinate. Don't mind me if you see me doing some crazy dance.

Pinball Alley

2011-11-23T09:22:00.001-08:00

That is my unofficial name for #7 Mountain now that it has been planted with 24 Coast live oak trees. The trees were finalized this past Friday and it really makes you think a little differently on this hole. What was once an easy par 5 to cut the corner on now involves a little risk/ reward. More thought is also involved for the shorter hitters like myself because you don't want to end up behind the trees as well.

Next week we will scarify the 'highway' and begin to place the fence around the area. By next weekend we hope to have everything wrapped up on 7/8 Mountain.

Spider Mites

2011-11-15T04:58:00.001-08:00

You may not believe it, but I am actually glad to have spider mites. That is what the official diagnosis was on our Pacific Coast Live Oaks. The alternative for the browned out oak seen to the left was sudden oak death.

With diagnosis in hand, we had ArborWell out to spray the trees (3 dozen) in the parking lot and on the entrance road. After a month, some trees still look browned out, but if you look close you'll notice green leaves reappearing at the ends of the branches. Something you also notice is the lack of brown lesions on the top side of the leave which is indicative of the spider mite damage.

When reading the disease report, the report mentions that while spider mites are a problem, damage like we have is not typical. I kindly responded, "Only at Cinnabar".

7 Mountain Course Improvement

2011-11-04T13:10:00.000-07:00

The picture to the left shows the style of fence we will be installing around the hillside between 7 & 8 Mountain. We will be doing 6 or 7 sections of fence with an 18" gap between each section. We will also be planting more trees along the hillside. This area has become a popular highway of sorts and the cart traffic has really made it an eyesore. The fence will keep the carts out and we will hopefully be able to regain the beauty it once had. It should also help make it into a legitimate par 5 by not being able to cut the corner anymore. We hope to have this work complete within the next three weeks.

What the hillside should look like

The 'highway'

Deep Tine

2011-11-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

Last week we were able to get all of the greens punched with our deep tine aerator from Toro. It took 12 hours at 0.8 mph, but it is well worth it. Since we started doing this last year our roots have been much longer than normal which is by no coincidence. If you recall, I wrote an article in May about our roots, but I failed to mention that the deep tine is a big part of that. From the pictures below, root depth and hole depth are almost equal.

Aside from great rooting, we get better air/ water exchange through the soil profile and we also break up the small pan layer we have. A pan layer is formed typically around 3.5" deep where normal greens aerators typically go down to. When inserting a soil probe, you'll feel it get much firmer to press in at this layer and water will also have a hard time getting through that layer.

Geyser

2011-10-27T05:37:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-24T09:20:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-19T10:26:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-12T12:25:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-11T04:57:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-10-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

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.

Zodiac

2011-09-29T05:37:00.000-07:00

I haven't discovered who the killer is, but we are now using a seed called Zodiac. Zodiac is a chewings fescue that I have had blended with ryegrass (60% rye grass and 40% Zodiac chewings fescue) to use as an overseed material. I learned about this during a webinar that Sierra Pacific Turf Supply put on for its golf course customers. The one fact that really caught my ear was that chewings fescue requires 30% less water than rye grass. Continuing that thought, if we can get some of this Zodiac fescue established in our dry spots, over the years our dry spots won't look as dry. The ultimate goal is firmer and faster with much less turf desiccation than we currently experience.

Final Tee Update

2011-09-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

We kind of finished the last of the golf course tee leveling project this week. I say kind of because we ran short on sod, but more will be here next week Wednesday when we re-sod the teaching tee. The picture to the left is of 2 Lake Cinnabar tee which turned out really nice. The hardest of all of the tees we re-leveled was 7 canyon. We had to raise the back of the tee close to 8 inches. It is still a little soft, but with water and rolling, it shall be fine.

During the process, I found two guys on our crew that have an amazing eye for making a tee level. Both Odilio Landa and Addel Montero did a great job with 9 lake, 2 lake, and 2 canyon Cinnabar tees. When I went to check 9 lake with the transit, it was sloping front to back and left to right by less than 1.25 inches. You couldn't do better with the best equipment you could buy. I joked around with Odilio that he is so good because he is so close to the ground (maybe 5'4").

Projects will now be on a hiatus until we complete the fairway aeration which starts next Tuesday the 27th and concludes on Tuesday the 11th of October. Unless of course I decide to bite off more than I can chew as usual.

Tee Update

2011-09-18T05:32:00.000-07:00

Starting Monday, we will begin removing the sod from 2 & 9 lake tees and also 2, 3, & 7 canyon tees. The correct sod will be here on Thursday the 22nd. We delayed the project because I forgot that we did not have a close nine this past week. This week will still be tough being that we have three 200+ player tournaments.

The new tees that we did two weeks ago are doing great. They have been mowed a dozen times or so by now and a lot of the imperfections are working themselves out. You may have also noticed that we topdressed them very heavily to help with the imperfections. Things seem to be on schedule to open them in the next 3 weeks.

The Release

2011-09-18T05:24:00.000-07:00

Last night we released the one owl that did not go in the boxes and we opened the doors to the other boxes to allow the owls to leave. The video of the one release can be seen here. The one owl did not go in the boxes with the other four because she was not familiar with the other four. There is the possibility that they would attack and kill one another if put in the same box. Fortunately, it made for an eventful release because when we opened the doors to the other boxes nothing happened. The group of Mr. & Mrs. Pauser, Ms. Baldwin, my daughter Samantha and myself had a great time nonetheless. We even got to see a tarantula which was a special treat for my daughter.

Hacking

2011-09-17T05:41:00.000-07:00

I don't think I will be getting any grief from our newest members at Cinnabar Hills. I am talking about the 5 new barn owls that we will be introducing to the
wild this coming weekend. With help from our bird expert Lee Pauser, our site was selected to release 5 rescued barn owls. The barn owls come to us from Ms. Valerie Baldwin who is a part of the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley. The young barn owls were discovered in bails of hay and were trained to capture live prey in a flight cage at Ms. Baldwin's home. Now that they are ready for the wild, 4 of the owls were placed in the barn owl boxes that we have. This process of introduction is called hacking. The owls will stay inside the boxes for a couple of days being fed mice and gophers. When deemed ready, we will open the doors and they will be free to come and go. The owls have been banded by Mr. Steve Simmons (you can see the video here) so it is possible to track their whereabouts.

Got Laid

2011-09-07T13:55:00.000-07:00

I am talking about the sod of course. What did you think I was talking about? We received the correct sod early Friday morning and had it laid by 11 am. The tees look great and more importantly, they are level. I hope to have the tees open in 4 - 6 weeks depending on how well the sod takes hold. While they are growing in, we will be preparing the tees on 2 lake, 9 lake, 2 canyon and 3 canyon for sod on the 15th of September.

Making Mistakes

2011-09-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

I was hoping to write today about how we received 9,000 square feet of sod and how we completed the tees, but unfortunately that is not going to happen. The truck that showed up had 9,000 square feet of bermuda grass on it, but I had ordered blue/ rye. To top that off, I had an irrigation pipe break last night that was supposedly fixed yesterday. It is only 0730 so I believe this qualifies as a bad start to the day. Thinking positively, it can only get better from here; I hope!

As far as the sod goes, I am not going to lament over the mistake. All I want to do is figure out how we are going to solve the problem. I have been working with this company for ten years and I know they will make it right. I wouldn't hesitate from buying from them again. They are a great company with a good team.

While the irrigation problem wasn't good, I can bet that it will never happen again. The picture shows the broken slip fix that was freshly glued yesterday. As great as slip fixes are, they can be troublesome in high pressure situations. What we have talked about to prevent this in the future is to put the sliding part of the slip fix on the low pressure side of things and more importantly, put a thrust block behind the T where all the pressure is. A thrust block can be a bag of concrete or a piece of wood jammed in to hold it in place. The guys should be done getting it fixed by now and they have now learned a valuable lesson.

While mistakes can be costly upfront, there are a lot of positives that can come from them. After all, success isn't possible without making a few mistakes along the way.

The Masked Menaces are Back

2011-08-29T09:42:00.000-07:00

It is that time of year again when we begin to see the racoons and even pigs going after the grubs. We will typically see the damage in the rough because we spray a preventative insecticide in the fairways. Five years ago we only had to spray maybe 6 fairways for grubs. Due to adaptation, we will most likely be spraying all of the fairways next year. The 9th fairway of the Mountain is a perfect example of a fairway that will need to be treated. The quality of the 9th fairway on the Mountain course has been less than stellar this year due to the grubs chewing up the roots. Those roots will come back this winter, but to get them back in the middle of the summer is a tough task. The damage shown here in the picture is about 50 yards before the 6th green of the Lake course.

Bird of a Different Tune

2011-08-27T05:28:00.001-07:00

After listening to a seminar by Dr. John Kaminski (plant pathologist) of Penn State University and being totally inspired, I have decided to join Twitter. I vowed that I would never do it, but it can get my blog out there and I am going to tackle my fear of social media. You can follow me @bboyer925.

Staff Lunch

2011-08-25T10:39:00.001-07:00

We recently had our staff lunch the other day and I was able to grab a few pictures of the lunch. This year we had El Guerro on-site to do tacos and beans for the crew. They made for us asada, pastor (pineapple pork), tripa (intestine?) and chorizo tacos. The salsas they had brought were also amazing. As a special treat, the wife and mother of Arturo and Addel respectively, made chiles rellenos. Mrs. Monteros cooking is some of the best I have ever tasted and it was a great day had by all.

Ron and Debbie joining the staff

Rodolfo (mechanic) and Erica (clubhouse landscape)

The Next Generation Irrigation System

2011-08-17T06:27:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity last week to visit Las Positas Golf Course in Livermore and view the installation of what I think will be the future of irrigation systems. They are installing Rainbird's new IC system which is a system that only has two wires in the trench. A typical irrigation system has 1 wire that goes to every head in order to achieve individual head control. That 1 wire gives the sprinkler its identity to the computer. With this system, the solenoid is what gives the sprinkler its identity.

The picture shown left has the new system in the foreground with the old system in the background. The older systems can be a pain to install, but talking with the construction superintendent of Wadsworth Construction, the Rainbird system has been a breeze. He now just hopes it works.

One wire trench

The installation of this system is one of the three things that excites me about this system. The other two things that excite me are the cost savings on wire and the ability to add a new sprinkler.

In a typical irrigation system (according to Rainbird), 29,000 pounds of copper wire is used. With the new IC system, only around 3,000 pounds of copper wire will be used. Current copper prices are around $4/ pound so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the savings there. I don't know for sure, but the installation time has to be around twice as fast so there is a labor savings too. It should be noted that while the wire cost is significantly reduced, the sprinkler is priced higher than a normal sprinkler. The overall savings though is still roughly 10-15%.

Having the ability to easily add a sprinkler is huge in my book because no irrigation system goes in perfect. I currently have two options. 1) Run new wires back to the irrigation clock which is a lot of work or 2) add a special device to the solenoid which 'creates' an individual identity for that sprinkler. Option 2 isn't always possible though if I don't have enough room on the irrigation controller for another sprinkler. With the IC system, I just have to connect new wire to the old wire and then program the computer with the new sprinkler information. I can do this with up to 24,000 sprinklers (Cinnabar has maybe 2,500). Piece of cake.

While it may sound like I work for Rainbird, I don't. I appreciate people and companies who make me look good at my job and also make my job easier. Thank you to Tom Jackson of Sierra Pacific Turf Supply for the site visit. He can be reached at (408) 374-4700 with further questions.

Size 11

2011-08-17T05:02:00.000-07:00

Anybody know who's size 11's these are? If you do, I need you to pass on some advice from the Superintendent. When you want to perform hours of putting practice, throw a towel under your feet. This will prevent your footmarks from burning into the turf. Or you could be like me and just make them all not requiring any practice!

2011 Aeration is In The Books

2011-08-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

After three days of hard work, we can finally say the worst of aeration is over and we are on the path to recovery. All in all, I would say this year's aeration was a success. I was able to remove a lot of thatch and we also got a lot of sand down to manage what is remaining.

Going forward, we will continue to water the greens just a bit every night and before we mow or roll in the morning to keep working the sand in. We will mow the greens every three days until the following weekend when we will go back to a full time mowing schedule. Mowing every day right now only picks sand up which I want to leave there.

I already have an idea for what I would like to do different for next year. Instead of 3/8" tines on 1.5"x1.5" spacing, I am thinking I could get away with 1/4" tines on 1"x1" spacing. It is just slightly less material coming out and I won't be able to fill the holes with sand, but that is not what I am hoping to accomplish. This method should provide an even better product than this year. I will try this out in October on the practice greens and make sure that this is what's best for our greens. Until then, enjoy your time at Cinnabar!

Isn't it Obvious?

2011-08-10T05:43:00.000-07:00

I get what seem like ridiculous questions every year when we aerate like; why are the greens slow and why are the greens bumpy. The other day our local Hall of Famer, Larry Dorsey (he really is; check it out) asked me why the greens are shaggy and slow. To me Larry isn't just any Joe Smoe. I happen to highly regard his opinion and if he is asking these questions, then I guess the answer isn't as obvious as I thought. Here are the answers to some common questions.

Q: Why are the greens slow?

A: Prior to aeration, we fertilize the greens to get them growing fast to aid in recovery. After aeration, we fertilize them again to continue the healing process. Every night the greens also get water to try and germinate the new seed we put down. All of these items plus one more in which I will get to make the greens slow. I will put down a growth regulator in two weeks to try and slow the growth down.

Q: Why are the greens shaggy?

A: A few reasons. One, we don't cut them every day. Two, we cut them a little higher with all the sand down. 3) All the sand makes the mowers dull and combined with fast growing grass the results are less than stellar. All of these items contribute to green speed too.

Q: Why are the greens bumpy?

A: After aerating, the greens are extremely soft. We have to drive on them after to pick up the cores and put down sand which leaves ruts. We roll very often to quickly smooth them out, but it still takes a week or so.

Q: Why don't you do one course a week?

A: We use the band-aid approach with greens aeration. Let's just get it done. Also, we can't afford to cut off 30% of our revenue maker for that amount of time. Instead we offer you discounted rates to ease the pain.

I did play the Mountain course yesterday and must say that the greens were rolling nicely considering.

Aeration: Day 1 in Review

2011-08-09T06:51:00.000-07:00

Day 1 is in the books and overall it was successful. We got done in good time and the end product was almost exactly what I wanted. I say almost because we only got about 75 - 80 % of the holes filled. When we punch close to 500,000 holes per green, I don't think 75 - 80 % is too bad. While filling all the holes is nice, it is not the main objective of this aeration.

What I did different this time was leave more sand on the surface. In years past we would fill the holes and have a really clean surface. While I filled the void of thatch with sand in the hole, I didn't do anything to manage the remaining thatch. With the extra sand on the surface and a lot of water, that sand will work in to our existing thatch layer and dilute it. The extra sand on the surface also makes for a smoother roll. Like I have said many times; you have to determine what you want to accomplish when aerating.

I am off to start blowing the sand around on the Mountain course today.

Greens Aeration

2011-08-08T06:04:00.000-07:00

It has officially started as of 05:30 today. There is a misconception out there that this is a Superintendent's favorite time of year. We finally get to relieve any compaction, get water moving again and also remove some thatch. While that is all true, I think the preparation that goes in to making aeration successful is what makes this my favorite time of year.

I aerate once a year and I want to get all the benefit I can with as little to no disruption as possible. I start thinking in November as to what my problems were and what I hope to accomplish the following year. After that, I base all fertility applications based on the date of aeration. It really is quite a bit of prep that is involved for just three days of work.

All the prep in the world though can't stop a machine from breaking down or an employee calling sick. Coincidentally, before 3 years ago, we would always have issues on the lake course which had always been day two. I finally said, "F it. Adam we are doing the lake from now on first". Since then we haven't had any issues, but my fingers are still crossed!

Words of Wisdom

2011-08-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

Annual member, Ned Brogdon, had some great words of wisdom this morning as we talked in the pro shop. "Never go in where you can't see your feet". Stay safe and avoid those rattlers with Ned's words of wisdom!

Not Any Old Tire

2011-07-26T13:18:00.000-07:00

We just got our new tires for our tractor and I thought it would provide a good photo opportunity. That is our Assistant Mechanic in the donut hole. I don't know if he did it because I told him to, but our Head Mechanic turned down the photo shoot.

These tires are called Galaxy tires and are considered 'flotation' tires. Very little turf damage happens with these kind of tires and for the price of $1,300 a piece, they better not cause any damage. Each tire will inflate to almost 4 ft in diameter and two feet wide.

At that price, we should turn our old ones in to make crumb rubber!

2fer

2011-07-13T07:43:00.000-07:00

This week we are working on the bunkers of 7 mountain and while I have talked many times about redoing bunkers, I have never mentioned the great 2 for 1 we get. Along with the new bunker, we also get sand for our sand and seed mix. The picture shows the sand we recovered from 7 mountain. To put a dollar on it, I'd say we saved almost $400! It does take a little extra time to save the sand, but well worth it.

Pancakes and Syrup

2011-07-05T13:39:00.000-07:00

We may not serve breakfast Monday through Thursday, but you may still smell pancakes and syrup. I am now spraying another organic product called I-Mol in which the base is made of molasses. It actually has a sweet smell and when I mix it with another organic fertilizer (seaweed) it smells like syrup. Their claim and most research on molasses is that it will help breakdown thatch. It also helps provide a healthier plant which is what all grass farmers strive for. You can get more of the techinical information from their website.

The Sweet Smell of Summer

2011-06-22T07:15:00.000-07:00

It is only fitting that the first day of summer finally brings our highest temperatures of the year so far. Along with the high temps comes the smell that I remember from the first day I walked onto this property almost six years ago. It is a minty, woodsy smell in the morning coming from the weeds and native grasses in the surrounding hills. You also get a bit of the wet asphalt smell from the water hitting the cart paths and road. Am I reminding you of your favorite wine or cigar with these descriptions? Hold that thought because in the afternoon you start to smell the cows or chicken farms to the east of us. I was flush from the memories these smells brought and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do the next time you are here.

Bay Tree Bites the Dust

2011-06-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

As with a lot of things at Cinnabar, we were extremely lucky with the latest tree that fell to the ground on Tuesday. We lost a large bay tree on the right side of the cart path. It did not break the cart path and only did minimal damage to the nice oak trees along side it. You'll notice half of the tree still remains and Arborwell will be out soon to remove it.

Window Dressing

2011-06-12T08:11:00.000-07:00

Last week we did what I like to call a little window dressing on 7 mountain. We had some extra gorilla hair and decided to clean up the Squirrel Condos by the rock and tree grouping on the right side of the fairway.

First Bunker Project of the Year!

2011-06-03T08:56:00.001-07:00

Last week we got to do our first bunker project of the year and after almost 6 months of no projects, it was really fun. Monday of last week we removed the sod and sand of the chipping green bunker while I was away at a conference at La Rinconada Golf Club. When I saw the bunker Tuesday morning at 5:30 and I decided to make it a much bigger project by doubling the size of the bunker. It was spur of the moment and as soon as I dug in with the backhoe I was wondering what the hell I had started. 2 hours into digging though, things started to take shape and I was feeling confident that the results were going to be great. As the picture shows, the results are amazing. The guys did a great job with the bunker and we can now have two people practicing bunker shots at once. Maybe now with more people practicing I won't have to field complaints about the bunkers because you will all be experts!

The Sand Fairy

2011-05-16T08:15:00.000-07:00

The sand fairy has been visiting Cinnabar every other week for the last 6 weeks on Sunday nights. With our seemingly never ending spray schedule, I have found that Sunday nights work out best for now. I come in around 7 pm and finish up by 10:30 at night. As soon as I am done, I put down a heavy amount of water to work it in. Doing this at night provides a pretty good product to you the customer and allows us to continue on with our spray schedule. It also allows me to get sand out every two weeks which is essential since we are not aerating in the spring.

I have changed the sand to a smaller particle sand, but not smaller than what our green's root zone is made of. The rule on topdressing is that you always apply coarse or equal over fine and never the opposite. If you do fine over coarse, you will plug up your rootzone and have a lot of other problems. A lot of people got in trouble with this when some of the newer bentgrasses came out in the 90's. The newer bentgrasses are so tight that it is very hard to get the topdressing sand worked in. Their solution was to use a fine sand and a lot of these courses have to aerate more now because they plugged up their rootzone.

Since we are seemingly putting out more sand than in previous years, please spot me on the course and ask any questions you may have. Thanks

Roots

2011-05-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

Last week I was out taking our annual soil tests and was amazed by what I had found. A soil sample is taken to a depth of 6 inches and I saw roots coming out below that mark. I was so amazed that I went and got a ruler and measured 7 inches of roots!!

I have always read stories about guys with big root systems and I have even seen pictures of nice roots, but have never actually had them (if you're wondering; yes, this is turf porn to me!). What product is causing these great roots isn't for sure, but I believe I have it down to two products that I have started using this past year. What is funny is that I was thinking of eliminating both products because the application of them are very difficult. I think I will deal with the tough applications if I get results like this.

Replenshing the Bunker Sand

2011-04-27T11:51:00.001-07:00

We have just begun to replenish the Lake course green side bunkers this week. We should wrap them up this week and continue on with the Mountain course the following week. During this time, you will notice that these bunkers will play a bit softer and a fried egg may occur. We have compacted them, but time and irrigation are the eventual answer.

As a side note, that is Alberto Hernandez driving the tractor and his brother Ernesto driving the Bobcat. Combined, they have over 12 years experience at Cinnabar. Thanks guys!

Mount Pelo de Chango

2011-04-13T12:38:00.000-07:00

Pelo de Chango translates to gorilla hair which is further translated to shredded redwood bark. As you can see, we certainly have a lot of it. It is that time of year again when we begin to replenish our flower beds. I learned young from my mother that no matter if the customer is there to golf or eat, they see the front of the house and it better look good. We hope to have all of the bark out by early next week just in time for Easter. A lot of people have asked where we got it so if you're interested in this bark, you can purchase it from South Bay Materials. Great folks over there.

Sand and Seed Bottles

2011-04-11T12:03:00.001-07:00

Does the picture on your left look familiar? Contrary to some people's opinion, this does not have to do with the staff not doing their jobs correctly. It has to do with people not filling their divots while in the fairways or on the tees. I am hoping this is just because we are coming out of winter and having been on the paths for so long. As a friendly reminder now that we are off the paths for what is hopefully the rest of a beatiful summer; please fix your divots. Thanks for your help.

The Owl Craze

2011-04-06T06:12:00.000-07:00

The owl craze isn't sweeping the nation by any means, but it sure has gained a lot of attention here at Cinnabar. Even our daughter Samantha has joined the following.

What Stinks?

2011-03-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

The odor you smell on the golf course is the odor of going green. We are spreading an organic fertilizer made from chicken manure and it does have a strong smell to it. Every spring and fall we apply an organic fertilizer and we are seeing gains from it now. We see gains from organic fertilizers because they feed the soil which feeds the plant over a long period of time. Synthetic fertilizers typically feed the plant only and you will continually have to apply them to get the desired results.

The smell should dissipate throughout the day and be all gone by Thursday afternoon. It is a small price to pay for being green.

The Lake(s) Course

2011-03-24T16:17:00.000-07:00

These pictures of the lake course are certainly an example of areal flood occurring as AccuWeather stated. It has been a while since I have seen this kind of rain and it was pretty impressive.

The only good thing about this kind of rain is that most of it runs off so the course will dry out more quickly

New Tool for 2011

2011-03-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

One of the latest trends in greens management is the use of digital soil moisture meters. They are a probe that measures the electrical conductivity of the soil and converts that to percent water. The technology has always been fascinating to me being that I like quantitative data, but prices for these units were in the thousands of dollars.

Thanks to a tip I got from a Turfnet member, I was able to buy a soil moisture meter for $195.00. This unit has very few frills, but what I hope to do with it is to establish trends. Trends I hope to establish are what amount of irrigation run time I need to achieve a certain percentage at a certian depth, determine how long a certain amount of applied water will suffice until the next watering, what percentage should we start to hand water before wilting occurs, and what percentage is acceptable after hand watering. If I can establish some positive trends with the device, the unit is priced accordingly so I could by it for all of my greens hand water guys.

The ultimate results will be even higher quality green surfaces and additionally save a bit of water.

Give a Hoooot

2011-03-11T14:13:00.000-08:00

All of us at Cinnabar Hills are extremely proud to announce that the first pair of Barn Owls have arrived. Lee Pauser was out on the golf course this past Tuesday making the discovery. You can also watch a 10 second video clip that Lee took here.

Now that the eagle, I mean owls, have landed, Lee will be out weekly monitoring the other nest boxes and also checking for eggs. I hope to have more good news to report in the upcoming weeks.

Fore

2011-02-27T05:46:00.000-08:00

When your career is in golf course maintenance, you take on some inherent risks that the job entails. The biggest risk of them all is being hit by a golf ball. I have been working on golf courses for 16 years and have been extremely lucky not having been hit. The two reasons for that are luck and help from golfers yelling, "Fore!". Unfortunately the later is becoming much less frequent. When you see maintenance workers in the middle of the fairway, please don't assume they can see the ball. Take extra precaution by yelling fore even if your ball lands 20 yards short. All the assistance you can provide for our safety is appreciated.

Are You Watering Your Lawn?

2011-02-05T08:37:00.000-08:00

I joke around with people by asking them 3 questions about watering their lawn this time of year. 1) Did you just fertilize? 2) Did you just apply a pesticide that needs to be watered in? 3) Do you not believe in the water crisis that the nation is in? If you answered yes to any of these questions, than by all means, you should be watering.

I know golf courses get a bad rap for the use of so much water, but you wouldn't believe how many homeowners ask me if we are watering the golf course this time of year. Are there occasions that you should be watering your lawn this time of year? Probably, but unless you have conditions to meet with your HOA, a little brown in your life this time of year wouldn't hurt. What I suggest is to buy a soil probe from your local Ewing Irrigation store and actually check to see if your lawn needs water instead of saying, "we've had two days of sunshine. I better water the lawn". You could also buy a weather station from Ewing Irrigation that ties into your automated system.

If your soil is dry and you feel the need to water than I suggest to water your lawn heavily. I mean that you should turn on your sprinklers for a 1/2 hour or so and saturate the soil. After that, turn your sprinklers off for another week and continue to probe your lawn to check for moisture.

Has the Superintendent Gone KooKoo?

2011-01-26T06:09:00.000-08:00

If you have seen the all of the bird houses on the course, you may certainly think I have gone Koo Koo. I have mentioned the bluebird houses already and now we have two larger boxes on the course. The largest box is for the American Barn Owl and the other is for North America's smallest hawk, the Kestrel. We have placed 8 American Barn Owl boxes on the course and another 6 kestrel boxes on the course.

Foreground: Kestrel box

Background: Barn Owl box

Close up of Barn Owl box

Both the Barn Owls and Kestrels are to help with our small rodent population. Particularly the moles, voles, gophers, and field mice. Last year was a year like no other for those particular rodents and I am doing everything I can to help control them this year. This 'organic' method of control has gained popularity in the wine country to help protect the vineyards from these harmful critters. For them it makes money on both sides of the budget; it is a cheap effective way of controlling pests and helps make them organic which attracts a lot of revenue.

We should start to see the Barn Owls to move into their boxes in the next month. The question has been asked by many, "how will they know to come?". One member suggested a mass email and after a good laugh I explained to them what Lee Pauser had told me. The birds are always looking for a cavity. That cavity could be in an old tree or it could be something artificial like our boxes. The cavity provides protection from other predators. Will there be 100% occupancy; I doubt it, but over time maybe we will gain a reputation of being a bird retreat.

Topdressing and Getting the Sand In

2011-01-19T07:59:00.000-08:00

While I have written about topdressing the greens in the past, I thought I would re-iterate why we topdress greens, but also talk about how we work the sand in to the green.

For me, I have two goals in mind when I topdress. The first is to make the greens smoother. We have an incredible amount of foot traffic on our greens and by no coincidence, a lot of ball marks. Both foot traffic and ball marks leave indentations in the surface and the sand helps smooth them out. The second reason is to dilute our thatch layer to keep the greens firm and draining. Thatch is the layer of dead and decaying organic matter below the surface. Too much thatch and the greens get soft. If you get the thatch level right, the greens will be much firmer. A great example of this is any portion of a green that has bunker sand splashed on it all the time. I was walking across 5 canyon green the other day in the front and I thought I was walking on the cart path.

So knowing the benefits of topdressing you are probably asking yourself how the sand gets in the thatch. I have tried probably 10 different methods of working the sand in and this year I may have come across the best way. We allow the sand to dry as much as possible before play gets there and we then pass a brush over the green (picture right). The brush has an electric motor that allows the operator to raise and lower the brushes on demand. Immediately following the brush we

pass our vibrating rollers over the green. This further pushes the sand down to the base of the plant. Come nightime, we will turn the green sprinklers on for approximately 40 minutes to further push the sand down.

The end result is hardly noticeable to most golfers and provides a great putting surface to play on.

Coyote Brush

2011-01-14T06:37:00.001-08:00

Does this picture look familiar? If you have been to the golf course lately, it should. This is another cart of coyote brush we are removing from the golf course.

Coyote brush is a woody plant that spreads like wildfire throughout the course. We are starting to clean it up now because I feel it provides a much cleaner look. Overtime, coyote brush tends to blow up from the inside and just looks messy.

One of our teaching pros, Justin Lippold, asked me why we are doing it and mentioned to me that some areas don't look good because it makes the course look younger. He is absolutely right. There are a couple of areas that we cleared out that didn't end up looking good at all. Particularly the left side of 1 lake and the left side of 3 lake tee complex. Everything we try to do on the golf course is with vision towards the future. Sometimes you see something that you think will look great removed, but once removed it doesn't work. Those are chances you take and luckily I have a management group that believes in me and allows me to take chances. The particular areas I mentioned will have coyote bushes back in a matter of no time.

I posted it a while ago, but when we cleared out 1 lake green and 2 lake green, I saw for the first time what the architects and owners envisioned. That is the real answer to Justin's question as to why we do it. Since then I continually try to bring back the allure that brought our owners here in the first place.

Bluebirds

2011-01-14T06:23:00.000-08:00

Driving through the Mountain course, you may have noticed that we have some new bird boxes hanging in some of our trees. Those bird boxes are a new addition this year and they are to house bluebirds. Everything you want to know about bluebirds can be found at this website. The specific benefit for our golf course is that they eat the beetles that eventually molt into grubs that we have on the golf course.

Grubs make our life in maintenance very difficult. In the summertime, they chew the roots off of the grass plant making it very difficult to keep alive. More often than not, the grass succumbs to grubs. If the grass survives the summer, it will only be destroyed in the fall when the raccoons, skunks, and wild pigs come out to eat.

Our bluebird boxes are an environmental approach to ailing our grub problems. Is it the be all, end all; absolutely not. Is it another tool that could help us; absolutely!

Thank you to PJ Kaner, Superintendent at Santa Teresa Golf Club for introducing me to Lee Pauser. Mr. Pauser is a bird enthusiast who is helping with the bluebirds and another interesting project that will be blogged about at another time. Thanks Lee!

Looking Back on 2010 and Ahead to 2011

2010-12-31T07:42:00.000-08:00

In retrospective, 2010 has been one of the best years professionally for myself and thusly, Cinnabar Hills. The amount of projects were able to complete was outstanding considering everything was done in-house. We were able to complete 27 bunkers, re-level 6 tees and re-sod 2 approaches.

While all those projects were going on, we were still able to provide relatively consistent playing conditions throughout the year. In years past admittedly, I would tend to over-focus on a project and lose sight of the course for 3 or 4 days. Now, with the right systems in place and having great people who know what I want, we can provide an even better product.

Educationally speaking, 2010 was one of largest gains for myself. I had the opportunity to go to Farmlinks Golf Course in Alabama where we learned an incredible amount of information on fertilizers. While you would think being a superintendent, you'd already have a grasp on fertilizer, but with technologies and conventional thinking changing so fast there is always something new to learn.

I also nailed fairy ring in our greens this year. While it may only be one year, I was able to apply something I learned in the winter of 2009 to the golf course with 100% control. Even the most veteran Superintendents rarely can say that.

Putting 2010 in the books and looking ahead to 2011; I have a great feeling of excitement. We have planned to re-construct 24 bunkers, 8 tees, and one approach. I also have some great educational opportunities scheduled in which I look forward to bringing back any knowledge that can improve Cinnabar.

I and the rest of the staff at Cinnabar Hills Golf Club hope your year has been well and that we can help make 2011 a little bit more fun for you and your families. Until next year...

New Bunker Drainage

2010-12-29T09:00:00.001-08:00

I am glad to see and say that of all the bunkers we rebuilt this year; none of them have held any water! Over the past 4 years I have tried different methods of draining bunkers and I finally found the best method.

When we get all of the old sand out, we lift out the drains and remove the pea gravel surrounding them(pea gravel is the what the drains were originally surrounded with). When the drain is out, we flush the line to make sure there are no blockages.

When everything checks out OK, we put the drain back, but with a filter sock around the drain. The filter sock prevents debris from entering the slits in the perforated drain pipe. With the drain in the trench, we then backfill the trench with bunker sand instead of pea gravel. I saw this technique a couple years back when Shane Ferrill (Superintendent) was giving me a tour of Boulder Ridge. Thanks to Shane for another wonderful idea to add to my repertoire.

One Casualty Due to Wind

2010-12-21T08:11:00.000-08:00

While the title may be a little dramatic, we take our trees here at Cinnabar Hills very serious. When we lose one, or in this case, half of one; it stings a bit.The tree pictured is on 5 mountain tee between the cinnabar tee and quicksilver tee. The tree has luckily maintained some its character so all is not lost.

December Rain 12/20/2010

2010-12-20T08:37:00.001-08:00

This past weekend brought us a deluge of rain; 3.75 inches specifically. While the course is very wet, the greens are still rolling rather nice. Come give it a try and you'll have the luxury of having the course to yourself as there are very few patrons out. Must be the holiday shopping season!

Rain Update 11/22/10

2010-11-22T13:33:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend we collected 1.9 inches of rain. Even though we are on the path, the course is playing very well considering the amount of rain.

Cinnabar on Turfnet.com

2010-11-19T10:24:00.000-08:00

If you follow the link to Turfnet, you will see that Cinnabar Hills is in the news. Turfnet is a website for Golf Course Superintendent's that has really helped me become a better superintendent and help save Cinnabar a lot of money. It is a subscription website and its best tool is an internet forum with superintendents across the world. Every type of golf course is represented from the small Mom and Pop to the likes of Bandon Dunes and other top clubs. Information flows freely from all which is part of what makes this profession so special. Did you really think Bill Gates talks regularly with Steve Jobs about a problem or new way of doing something?

November Projects

2010-11-15T12:23:00.001-08:00

Have you been out to Cinnabar lately? Assuming you have, you have seen the maintenance crew busting hump on projects before winter gets here. Fortunately we have had some amazing weather to do so.

The month started off with re-sodding the approach on 7 lake. The approach was full of bentgrass (same grass as the greens) and bentgrass as an approach does not fit our mantra of firm and fast. While we had the sod off, we went through with our Bobcat and cut a couple of drains to help keep the approach dry. We laid 7,000 square feet of sod when all was said and done and had just enough leftovers to do the cinnabar tee on 3 canyon!

We also took the time to clear out all the garbage around the lake edge and lay some fescue seed down. What makes this seed so special is that it has been genetically engineered to be resistant to round up. Say what you want about genetically modified materials, but that is some pretty cool stuff in my world. So if and when weeds come up, we will just go spray with round up while not hurting the grass.

Last week we took the time to update the bunkers on 3 Mountain green. The edges had been eroded and there were a lot of rocks in the sand. The bunkers were a quick fix with great results.

On the agenda this week is the approach on 9 canyon. We will be stripping the sod on Wednesday and laying it down Thursday. If you have any questions or you want to see the project in action, just stop up and talk with us while you are close to the clubhouse. We take a lot of pride in our work and love to show off.

4 Lake Update

2010-10-29T05:36:00.001-07:00

I had to pull the trigger and re-sod #4 lake green on Thursday morning. While there were still some green plants mixed in, some of the green plants were starting to turn yellow at the crown. The sod came from our nursery green and matches well with what is currently on the green. The upcoming rain showers over the weekend should help it root very fast. Don't worry about walking on it or putting over it as we took a deep cut of sod (2").

My Week at CordeValle

2010-10-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

A little over a year ago, my colleague and friend, Tom Gray , announced to me that CordeValle would be hosting next years Fry's.com tournament and that I would be changing cups for the event. I congratulated him on the event and really didn't think much of changing cups as it was so far out. A year later, I get a reminder from Tom that I will really be changing cups on the tournament front nine for the entire week. I was really excited for a few moments and then thought to myself; when was the last time I changed cups? Fortunately for me, changing cups is like riding a bike.

My schedule for the week of the event was Monday, Wednesday through Sunday from 4am to 8 which really turned out to be around 9:30am. Once I reported for work on Monday, I was paired with a gentleman from South Africa named Graham Collete. He and I would be cup changing partners for the entire week. Come to find out, Graham is the Director of resort properties at the famous Fancourt resort in South Africa (Fancourt and CordeValle share the same owner).

Monday's cups were very easy as we had no instruction to how the PGA wanted to change cups. In the afternoon of the same day, we got instruction from Tom Brown who was the on-site agronomist for the PGA tour. Never in my life did I think changing cups would involve so much work. He picked me out of the group to teach by example and show everybody the right and wrong ways to change cups. I did surprisingly well but I hadn't been that nervous before standing in front of my professional peers in a long time.

The special things we had to do for changing cups were to:

- Trim the inside of the cup with finger nail scissors to remove any wayward grass blades

- Put a cover over the cup cutter during transport to avoid damaging or dulling the cup cutter

- Place the tool bag on a towel vs. setting on the green

- Any loose sand deposited on the green was to be blown off; not wiped off by hand

- All cup cutters were to be sharpened at the end of each day

All items mentioned are because of previous experience or player complaints and most intricacies of a PGA event come from the latter.

Everything with cups, at least on my side, went exceptionally well. The back nine boys put the cup on 18 in the wrong spot Thursday and I am sure they are still getting grief from Tom about that.

While I learned a lot about cups and how the PGA sets up their courses, I learned much more from Tom Gray and his staff on how to host an event. These guys worked from 3:30 am until 11 at night for seven straight days and were running on fumes, but all involved stepped up to the task. I have spent a handful of days with Tom on his course in the past and aside from the hours, nothing was different the week of the event. It was a well oiled machine that I can only hope to imitate in my career.

Now that the tournament is over, Tom and his staff get to get ready for the PAC-10 tournament in two weeks. No rest, but that is what you sign up for at a club like CordeValle. Congratulations to all involved!

What the #!

2010-10-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

If you have seen 4 lake in the last 5 days, you will know exactly what the title means. If you haven't seen it, I unfortunately have pictures.

I don't know what material caused this, but I do know that it was not gas or diesel. If it were gas or diesel, the area would be completely dead. I know it happened Tuesday during the day because we watered the greens heavy that night explaining the runoff look. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter how it happened, but rather what we are doing about it. Currently and fortunately there is a lot of green grass in the brown area so I think we should be fine in a matter of a week or so. If the area digresses, we will then have to sod which I am not hoping for.

3 Lake Bunker Renovation

2010-10-07T05:40:00.000-07:00

I know, I know; another post about bunkers. The problem is is that the bunker work the guys are doing is amazing. Just look at the pictures below. The first two pictures are of 3 lake fairway bunkers 12 years ago and today.

Below is the way the bunkers look from the tee.

Even more amazing than the fairway bunkers was how the green bunker on 3 lake turned out. If you have had the fortune of being in it lately, you'll know the green edge of the bunker had completely deteriorated. The reason for its deterioration was because the edge was essentially vertical which makes it difficult to keep the grass hydrated.To soften the edge and make it more manageable we had to make the bunker smaller and bring the green edge in a couple of feet. The material we used for this is bender board which is what a lot of homeowners use for the edges of their gardens. It is flexible and with enough stakes, it is very strong.

With the bender board in place, we then filled it with soil to form the new bunker edge. Yes that is Scott Hoyt out on the golf course if you need proof!

With the new, softer edge we will have better odds of keeping the grass alive than trying to grow grass vertically. Enjoy the finished product.

How Greens are Mowed at Cinnabar

2010-09-23T06:52:00.000-07:00

This past Monday we took the height of the greens cut from .105" to .090". While that is only 15 thousandths of an inch, speeds have picked up slightly and the greens look really tight. While I have talked about greens height before, I've never explained the machines that make it all possible.

Monday through Thursday we cut greens with a walking greens mower called the Toro Flex 21 which is pictured to the right. On the weekends when we are 1/2 crew, we use a riding triplex machine called the GreensMaster 3250 (above). Both units have a floating cutting unit which enables us to go over the many mounds Cinnabar is notorious for without scalping them.

Aside from the floating heads, each cutting unit utilizes 14 blades to cut the grass (pictured left). Traditionally, or at least in the last couple of decades, technology only allowed us 11 blades per cutting unit. The quality of cut is analogical to more blades on your home razor blade; A cleaner, smoother cut with less irritation.

It wouldn't be fair if I didn't mention that it takes a great mechanic to maintain these high precision machines and Cinnabar Hills has one of the best in Rodolfo Hernandez.

Crumb Rubber

2010-09-17T12:04:00.000-07:00

If you have walked around the backside of the clubhouse and practiced your putting on the bar putter than you have seen the crumb rubber that we have put out. Crumb rubber is one of the answers to solve the world's problem of what to do with old tires and possibly our answer to solving some traffic issues we have.

Annually the country generates close to 300 million tires per year and approximately 30 million come from California. Stockpiling of these tires has become a major issue particularly when they catch fire and send out toxic fumes. Shredding the tires into crumb rubber has become a great way to recycle the tires. 10-15% of the tires generated in the United States are currently being shredded for crumb rubber.

Crumb rubber has multiple uses and can be commonly seen on running tracks, playgrounds, horse tracks, and golf courses. For our use, it provides a cushion against heavy traffic areas. When you walk over an area of grass repeatedly, the crown of the plant (area of plant directly above soil) takes a beating and the grass eventually dies. When the crumb rubber is put down, all the force applied from your foot goes to the rubber, thus protecting the plant.

Another way we can use it is by mixing it in to our soil before planting sod or seed. This serves the purpose of helping with heavy traffic, but also increases porosity in the soil which allows for better air and water movement.

House Cleaning

2010-09-15T11:41:00.001-07:00

When summer gets started, we don't get the chance as often as I would like to get our house in order. Today we are hosting the San Jose Sharks and 200 of their guests so now is a great time to do some cleaning. The guys shown in the picture are washing and waxing all of the equipment. With all the sun that beats down on the equipment, waxing really adds to the longevity of the paint job.

We have other guys cleaning out all the dirt from inside the shop and more guys working on our trees and weeds in the Maintenance parking lot.

For me, I get to blog and get started on the 2011 budget. I just received my 2011 planners and I have already got most of the year planned out in theory. Looks like it is shaping up to be another busy year. If you need an appointment to see me next year, call now as time is limited already!

Missing Sand and Seed Boxes

2010-09-14T08:43:00.000-07:00

Just kidding; we have actually taken all of them off of the course. While most people who take the time to read this blog may actually fill their divots on the tee, most others don't. You may say that even if only 30% of the divots are filled than that is 30% less work needed. Unfortunately that isn't true because it is the transport time from hole to hole that takes a lot of the time up. Once our guys are on the tee it is pretty easy from there. There is also the benefit of our guys filling the divots properly and increasing the amount of time before a tee becomes crowned. If after some time with out the boxes you have some feeback to provide, we would be glad to hear it. If you still want to fill your tee divot take your sand and seed bottle from the cart and thank you for your continued help.

Blaze Your Own Trail

2010-09-08T05:55:00.001-07:00

The picture on the left depicts a common occurrence on the golf course and that is everybody exiting or entering the same spot. Every golf course superintendent deals with it and you wouldn't believe how much time and energy is involved to keep traffic spots maintained.

Around the greens and tees we will continually aerate to help alleviate compaction. We'll also put out sand and seed after we aerate. The sand serves the purpose of providing a better draining soil, but more importantly a soil that can withstand more traffic. The seeds purpose is to replace the grass that has passed due to traffic. We will also apply fertilizer to keep the grass we do have growing.

In the fairways and rough, the cup cutters will change entries and exits daily to help move the compaction around. There are a couple schools of thoughts on this subject. 1) Just leave the entry/ exit in the same spot and only worry about one dead spot or 2) Try and scatter the traffic around to avoid any dead spots. I am quickly coming to the conclusion that one dead spot is better because every year around this time we have multiple dead spots due to traffic.

If I had to put a dollar amount to it, I'd say we spend 5,000-10,000 per year maintaining these areas. A lot of money for an area that is typically a non golfing surface.

So I ask you kindly, the next time you are out playing, blaze your own trail. This country didn't prosper from a group of followers.

Why I Am In This Business

2010-08-26T12:44:00.000-07:00

I rarely enjoy talking about myself, but when I saw this picture I took on Tuesday, it reminded me of the day I fell in love with this profession.

I was at Cattails Golf Club in South Lyon, MI and I was spraying fertilizer in the fairways for the first of many times in my career. My boss had me put out 46-0-0 and iron. I had just recently turned 18 and I got my spray license on my birthday and hadn't a clue to these two products other than they were fertilizer's. I had started spraying at 3am and had finished by 8am. My boss, Doug Palm, calls me on the radio to come take a look at the first few fairways I sprayed. Low and behold, they had already changed colors in a matter of hours. How cool was that I thought! Unfortunately I hadn't sprayed too accurately and I had stripes everywhere, but nonetheless, the power I had.

Fast foward to Tuesday of this week and you can see we sprayed number 1 mountain on the right with iron and had yet to spray number 1 lake. This was only 3 hours after we sprayed!

You have to realize that all Superintendent's are control freaks in one way or another. The funny thing is though is that we are trying to control Mother Nature most of the time and she can be a real son of a &^%&^!

That was a bit over 12 years ago and to still have the same feeling about this profession tells me I got lucky and found the right career.

5 Canyon & 8 Lake Tee Are Open

2010-08-24T07:06:00.000-07:00

If you haven't been here for a week or so, we have now opened the tees on 5 Canyon (pictured) and 8 Lake. They were severely crowned from 12 years of divots being filled with sand and seed. I have talked to other superintendents about avoiding crowned tees, but everyone tells me that it is inevitable and you must rebuild them every so often.

Along with the two tees we just opened, we are currently doing 5 Canyon hawk tee.

Golden Eagle

2010-08-20T05:12:00.001-07:00

This year we have seen an abundance of wildlife on the golf course including squirrels, meadow mice, owls, rabbits and most recently Golden Eagles. The pictures were taken last week behind 4 Mountain green. I just happened to be riding around the golf course with two fellow superintendents (PJ Kaner, Santa Teresa and George Young, SJ Muni) who were able to ID the bird. I don't know much about birds, but the golden eagle is very impressive in person.

CHGC Maintenance Gets Internet!!!

2010-08-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

After almost five years, the maintenance building now has internet. Thanks to the help of Hawking technologies antennas and routers, we are really cruising on the net.

I must say that I feel a bit naughty being on the net down here after so much time being spent in the clubhouse, but I am sure I'll get over that feeling. I have already found a great program, logmein.com, for the irrigation computer that allows me to call in and make changes or check the status from home at very fast speeds. Maybe this program will convince my wife how valuable an iPad would be!

Hope to have some more posts for everyone a bit more often.

Fill 'em Up

2010-08-11T12:03:00.000-07:00

We just completed another very succesful aeration and I have some great pictures and a video to share with you.

Last year I mentioned that we now blow the holes into the sand vs. dragging them in. The first pic shows how we blow the sand into the middle of the green. The second pic shows us blowing the sand back to the outside like splitting the red sea.

With all of this work, the greens go from looking covered in sand to beautifully filled aeration holes.

Below is a video of me making one pass with the blower to give you an idea of how we are doing it. You may have to turn your sound down as the blower is pretty loud.

The Preparation Starts

2010-08-03T05:17:00.000-07:00

For what you may ask? Every superintendent's favorite time of the year of course; aeration. We start aerating the ninth of this month (you won't be affected until the 10th), but we start our pre-fertilization program now. The idea is to get the grass growing right now so as soon as we get the holes in the green, they will already be in recovery mode. The extra growth makes them slower obviously, but who wants to look at holes filled with sand!?

We have also aerated the collars around the greens. With our new strategy of blowing the sand into the holes vs. dragging the sand we end up with a lot of sand on the edges of the greens. With the holes in the collar, the extra sand now has a home to go to.

If you want to see what they will be like two weeks later, come check out the practice greens. They have responded wonderfully and they are rolling well.

Interesting Morning

2010-07-27T10:11:00.000-07:00

I came into work today to discover that the irrigation failed to run the prior night. Come to find out that an owl had flown into PG&E's power lines and knocked out power to half of the course. Haven't heard that one before and hopefully won't hear it again!

Irritation Season

2010-07-06T06:56:00.000-07:00

Oops. I meant to say irrigation season. Must have been a Freudian slip. Now that we have finally reached the full time irrigation season, things are busier than ever. We have had a lot of issues with our irrigation controllers this year which have occupied most of my blogging time. We have 64 irrigation controllers on the golf course. Any one of the components can go bad and there is no real logic as to determining which component is bad.

Aside from the controllers going bad, we have had many issues with the ground wires. Every sprinkler has a ground wire and with our sprinklers covering 200+ acres, that is a lot of ground wire. Tracking down where the wire is bad has been challenging to say the least. Luckily it has been a relatively mild summer to date!

4 Canyon Pond

2010-05-14T07:23:00.000-07:00

As many have noticed, the pond on 4 canyon has turned red! What that is is a floating pond plant called Azolla Caroliniana (pictured right) or commonly referred to as red fern, water fern, or fairy moss. I refer to it as the red sea. Some may remember that we had this same problem on number 2 canyon a few years back.

Azolla typically comes in via a duck or other water fowl when the plant gets stuck on their body. From there, the weed multiplies faster than rabbits! It took two weeks for that pond to get covered which is lightning quick.

The best way of managing it initially is chemically. The best product to use would be Sonar followed by Reward. From there, nutrient management is key. That can be accomplished by adding aerators under the surface to get pond circulation. The problem for us is that we don't have power out that way to do that. We are looking in to having Clean Lakes do a Sonar application, but it is very pricy. For now, we'll have to enjoy the nice contrast between green and Cinnabar Red.

8 Lake Drop Zone

2010-04-27T07:32:00.001-07:00

After constructing a new drop zone on 8 lake over the winter with cores from tees and fairways, we have now opened it. It should be a little more level than the previous drop zone, but, as the picture illustrates, will still be daunting when the pin is middle or left.

Forgotten Photos of 2 Lake

2010-03-31T05:17:00.001-07:00

Above are the photos from 2 Lake that I had forgotten about. The top photo is with the coyote bushes and below it is without. Makes a huge difference from the tee visually. Removing these coyote bushes that have grown up over time like a weed makes you start to see what everybody else saw when they were designing the course. This was one of the most surprising and exciting jobs of the winter for me.

To Aerate or Not; What is the Answer?

2010-03-28T03:04:00.000-07:00

The answer is... It depends. Every Superintendent has to ask themselves what the purpose of aerating is for them and their club. It use to be because aerating was just what you did. Now, with the demand for high quality golf consistently and the need to make up revenue wherever you can in these economic times, you have to focus on what you are trying to accomplish by aerating.

At the Villages Golf Club, they aerate to help improve their drainage on their native soil push up greens by getting as much sand in the green as possible. San Juan Oaks Golf Club isn't doing a traditional aeration, but they are incorporating a soil amendment that will help with their water management with minimal disruption. Crystal Springs will put out bentgrass seed every time they aerate which has been a HUGE success for them.

Here at Cinnabar we are not aerating this spring (still aerating in August) and I'll take you through my thought process. First off, remember the core reasons for aerating; thatch removal, increase drainage, relieve compaction, and allowing more oxygen in the soil profile. Let's take one at a time.

Thatch removal- Our thatch levels aren't that bad and I believe that we can maintain them by lightly verti-cutting and topdressing. Both much less disruptive than the alternative.

Increase drainage- We regularly apply wetting agents that help move water through the soil and we will also be doing small solid tine holes throughout the summer to help out. Both much less disruptive than the alternative.

Compaction relief- Again, we will be doing several solid tine hole applications this year which will help alleviate all the compaction we have from people coming to Cinnabar because we didn't aerate! Much less disruptive than the alternative.

There is one last factor and that is Poa annua. When we typically aerate, the soil temps are in the mid 40's which in my case has resulted in a slower recovery time for the bentgrass(60 degree temps or above are ideal). Every summer when we are picking Poa, it always seems to have fresh sand around the roots meaning the Poa liked the aeration hole better than the bentgrass.

Wrapping it all up, if I can do other procedures to mimic the benefits of aeration and keep Poa annua under control, than that is what I will choose. My ideas may all come crashing down on me, but it is my professional opinion for now and it is subject to change (had to have some sort of disclaimer).

6 Mountain Bunker Project

2010-02-19T11:16:00.000-08:00

After catching some great weather this week, we got to get started with one of the many projects we have planned this year on 6 Mountain. We took out 30 inches of sand build up along the edge of the bunker and we have it back to the way it was in 1998. Enjoy the pictures and enjoy your bunker experience!

Waterfall at Cinnabar

2010-02-13T09:28:00.002-08:00

I finally figured out how to upload a video to the blog. Enjoy the video of the waterfall on 4 Canyon! This was taken during the 4 & 5 inch stage of the storm.

Watering with All of the Rain?

2010-02-04T07:37:00.000-08:00

If you were out golfing the last few days you may have seen us watering greens and wondering if the Maintenance Department of Cinnabar Hills had any clue of what they are doing. To explain, on Monday we topdressed greens (skipped an application due to previous weather) which had to be watered in and on Tuesday/ Wednesday we had to water in a wetting agent and pre-emergent herbicide for Poa annua. In order for the pre-emergent to be successful, it needs to get to its target zone which is below the thatch. The wetting agent helps it get there and will also help move any rain we get through the soil profile.

While I don't like having to water when we are already moist, timing and opportunity sometimes override what I'd like to do.

Weather or Not It Is Raining

2010-01-17T05:46:00.000-08:00

Please excuse the homonym, but I couldn't help myself. With the upcoming forecast for rain almost everyday, we are sure that the experts will be wrong at least once. With that said, I want to arm you all with information so that you can make your own weather predictions. The only difference between you and the weather person is that they will be getting paid to have a 50/50 chance of being right.

First off, avoid your local news and the weather channel (includes internet site). I think if you pay attention to any of these two avenues of weather information, you'll find that it is raining in the Sahara desert. You also need to remember that they will get better ratings with a 20% chance of rain vs. a 80% chance of a beautiful day.

What I like to use are a combination of the National Weather Service and AccuWeather. I like the National Weather Service for their great radar images. When you get to the radar page, select the base reflectivity loop. From this map, you can see the direction of the storm and see if Cinnabar is in its target.

With AccuWeather, I like them for their hourly rain forecasting and also their long range forecasting. Be sure to put in the zip code for Morgan Hill before you start which is 95038

Both sites can be wrong their fair share of times, but used together, you can get a good idea of what is going to happen. Also, you should call someone at Cinnabar to find out what exactly is happening and what they think is going to happen. We are in our own microclimate like much of the Bay Area and it may not even be raining.

Little Mounds of Dirt

2010-01-02T08:45:00.001-08:00

With the recent rains, many have noticed the little mounds of dirt in the fairways. What that is is actually earthworm castings. The reason they come up in the rainy season is because the ground becomes saturated with water eliminating any oxygen that was in the soil. You tend to notice a pattern with the mounds because the worms come out where there is the least amount of resistance. In this case, they come out of old aeration holes.

There are many chemicals on the market that will kill earthworms, but there are no chemicals on the market that are labeled for earthworms. The key word being labeled. Anytime you use a pesticide, the target pest or disease must be on the label or you will be in violation which can carry a hefty fine. The other reason for not spraying them is because I would have to use an insecticide which will also kill off any beneficial insects present.

4 Lake Rock

2009-12-21T10:11:00.000-08:00

This winter we have been spending a lot of time clearing out some areas that showcase the natural features we are fortunate to have at Cinnabar Hills Golf Club. One of the neatest areas we have exposed is on 4 Lake looking off the tee box. Everyone knows about the Witch's Nose, but we exposed a rock just below it that is really incredible and intimidating off of the tee. I have asked a lot of people who have played the lake if they noticed it, but no one has. Hence, the blog update so everyone can look out for it the next time they play the Lake course.

Frosty the snowman

2009-12-09T07:07:00.000-08:00

The cold front has been everything the news channels had said it would be. The past two mornings, we have registered temperatures of 24 degrees. I woke up Tuesday and thought I was back in Michigan. I guess now matter how far you go, you can never escape where you come from.

Fortunately, our frost delays haven't been that bad. We delayed the golfers an hour and twenty minutes on Tuesday and 20-30 minutes on Wednesday. A lot of people ask why we don't get frost damage from sending the players out early and I have only thoughts as to the answer.

My first thought is the type of bent grass we have on our greens. We have A-4, which through genetic modifications, is much hardier than others at low temperatures. My other thought is our fertilizer program. Two of the staples of our program are Iron and Potassium. Both fertilizers help to strengthen the cells inside the leaf which make the plant more tolerant to the traffic stress during frost periods.

The other item you may hear Scott Hoyt, GM, or myself say is that we have never seen a foursomes dollar value worth of damage. Yes, the greens may get a bit thinner in the winter and we may see some frost damage from driving on the grass, but not enough to keep golfers off.

50/50 Fairway Cut

2009-11-06T11:50:00.000-08:00

As many have noticed, we are cutting the fairways different now as the rainy season is here (at least that is what they say!). The reason we have switched is because when you cut stripes, multiple turns are made in the rough. When it is wet out, I like to reduce the amount of turns to avoid turf damage. Another benefit of the 50/50 cut is that it is much quicker to get all the fairways cut. Enjoy it for now before we change back in late March or April.

5 Lake Hawk Tee

2009-10-09T06:21:00.001-07:00

As most have seen by now, the contruction of 5 Lake tee is done, the sod is in, and the seed is down. It has been a really fun project that started on a whim. I was looking at the Cinnabar tee and trying to determine how we would make it bigger to accommodate the heavy traffic it experiences. Perplexed, I took a break to use the restroom and while walking back, I saw an area that I thought could be a new tee. With both the GM and golf pro in meetings I went over all the reasons why we couldn't put the tee in and couldn't come up with any. When I did get a chance to meet with the GM and Pro, they couldn't come up with any reasons why not as well. It really was a great area and adds 25 yards to short par 4. An hour later we were digging and the pictures that follow show some of the steps taken to make it happen.

The image above shows the rocks we found being placed for a feature item in the back left corner.

When building a tee, a hole is dugout to place the proper root zone material. In this case, the tee was dug out to 10".

Root zone material being spread out.

The finished project! It really was an exciting project as stated previously. Our foremen, Delfino Franco, and irrigation technician, Rolando Hernandez, performed all of the prep work with help from Ernesto Hernandez. The guys did an amazing job with what we have to work with. The new tee could be open anywhere from 6-8 weeks with a lot of factors that could make that timeline faster or slower. When the new tee is open, we will move the Cinnabar tees back to the old hawk tee and re-build the mounded Cinnabar tee so we will have two Cinnabar tees.

Wrap Your Head Around This

2009-09-18T10:23:00.000-07:00

This week we lowered the greens mowing height which is typical for us 5-7 weeks after aeration. Greens mowing height is now at .090 inches (1/11 of an inch)! Depending on your computer screen settings, the line spacing is larger than what we cut our greens at. I have been in the turfgrass industry for 14 years and it still blows my mind that we have the capability to go that low. Just thought some would be interested with this fact. Maybe you can make some money betting your buddies on how low the mowing height is.