It Looks Nice But Don't Touch

Poison Ivy [Toxicodendron radicans]  is found throughout most of the United States and southern Canada. Poison Ivy can grow as a self-supporting woody shrub or as a thin trailing vine running along the ground and even an  aerial-rooted vine growing on shrubs, trees, power poles, and fences. Older (ten years or older) vines can grow to several inches in diameter as high as 30-feet.

Poison Ivy is a perennial plant that is reproduced by seeds and woody rhizomes. Over the years the populations have steadily grown throughout the Village and is now on the verge of becoming a major problem.

As a result of this we have stepped up our efforts to help control this dangerous weed. Currently the Poison Ivy is very easy to spot due to the beautiful fall color that it is currently displaying, Don't be fooled though stay away. We have been using mixtures of broad leaf herbicides to control it with varying degrees of success. The Ivy is very hard to kill due to its waxy leaf surface that makes herbicides unable to be effectively absorbed by the plant. As a result of this several herbicide applications may be necessary to completely control this plant species. 

A Little Help

We are scheduled for our fall aerification October 3rd thru October 5th on all of the play areas. That being said, yesterday we went out and aerified the greens on holes 4 and 10 in efforts to help these two greens which have struggled since they were sodded last year. These two greens have never really rooted properly and I decided it would be in the best interest of the overall greens health to punch these an additional time before October. It will take a couple of days for the excess sand to become less visible as the green grows out through it. This extra aerification will go a long way to help with rooting and a disruption of the sod inter phase layer that has had a negative impact on sod establishment. Couple this with cooler temperatures and additional nutrients applied, the greens will have a fighting chance to become a real green one day.

Watch The Video

The wear and tear on the golf course continues to mount as another summer month has come to an end. The Golf Shop has put together a GREAT!!! video that shows the correct way to care for the golf course while your out playing. I would personally like to thank The Director of Golf George Kahrhoff and Assistant Golf Professional Brian Nishi for taking the time to put together this great teaching tool. This goes to show that the Golf Shop and Golf Course Superintendent can work well together.

The View From a Intern

For the last fifteen years we have had a highly successful Internship program here at CCCP. Many of them have moved on to become Assistant and Golf Course Superintendent's at other clubs both in and out of the state of Colorado.

Not too long ago one of my Interns from this year  William Sechrist asked me if he could write a blog post for me.  I was thrilled to hear that he wanted to write one and I am happy to say this will be the first non Sean McCue post in this blog. Enjoy the  perspective from a young man working his way up the ranks that has a bright future in the industry.   

Every day at the County Club at Castle Pines begins the same. The convoy of carts from the maintenance shop makes its way up the cliff to the club house. As I drive up the dark cliff I gaze over to see the rising sun hitting the mountains. I have always imagined how awesome it would be to not only wake up to the sunrise, but also the Rocky Mountains, and this summer has been unforgettable.

A good internship is one where you are communicated with and feel involved. It is important to feel that you can give your opinion and that your ideas, good or bad will be considered. The Country Club at Castle Pines has two interns and the one-on-one time with Sean and his two Assistants has been very valuable.  Other high profile Country Clubs commonly have four or more summer interns and may look good on a resume, but the experience that is gained is far less than it should be.   What has made my internship at CCCP so enjoyable is the variety, each day brings new challenges in which I can learn and grow from. However big or small the golf course is, the work is going to be hard and you have to give your all each and every day. You must expect to work long days with very little time off, but the hard work pays off in the end with the experience gained which will solidify my future in the industry.  

There are two summer interns this year. I am currently enrolled in the Turf Management program at Rutgers University in New Jersey. It is a great program with a lot of intelligent experienced professors whom are all connected to the golf course industry. I am enjoying bringing what I’ve learned in the classroom out to the golf course and applying into real world situations. 

Students come from all over the country to attend Rutgers University and the majority of the internships that are taken remain back east. I came to Colorado looking to experience how differently golf courses are maintained out west in an arid climate.  Combining this with my previous work experience in Kentucky, Ohio and Georgia will help to solidify my agronomic foundation. Believe me when I say there is a BIG difference and there is plenty to learn out here! My experience at CCCP this summer has been everything I hoped it would be and more. I will miss it when I leave in October and if lucky, I’ll be back some day!

Whats In My Cart

Earlier in the year Epic Creative came out to shoot pictures and video on the golf course as a follow up to see how the Bentgrass fairway conversion is doing.  Epic originally came out in 2007 to first document the success we were having with our Bentgrass fairway conversion.

What started out as a photo shoot and interview went horribly wrong when they asked me to show them whats in my cart. As you can see it has a lot of things that are needed on a moments notice on the golf course.  My cart is kind of a mobile office, tool box and trash can all rolled into one.

The video can be found Here enjoy.

The Birth Of A Green

In an earlier post I mentioned a grow in taking place on our North Chipping Green, well the grow in is complete in just 42 days!  We have shifted the maintenance of this green from a grow in to being included in the normal daily maintenance of the other established greens on the golf course. This includes daily mowing, grooming, fertility, irrigation and topdressing. 

You all have heard the old saying it's like watching paint dry or grass grow.  Well now you can actually watch this take place. I documented the grow in process by taking a daily picture of the green to show how things change from day to day.

Enjoy the video.

Does Anybody Care?

Everybody is quick to point out the flaws in the maintenance of the golf course, but it seems as if rules and etiquette don't apply to anyone. With more than 5200 rounds in the month of July, the golf course is getting worn out. You need to do your part while playing to help maintain your golf course and help with the overall member experience

Do your part, fix your ballmarks, replace your divots, rake bunkers and follow all  cart signage and traffic ropes. These seem like things that should go with out saying, but that is not always the case.

I have a staff of hard working men and women that give their all each and every day to make CCCP a better place and it becomes frustrating to them when people seem to take for granted the effort that is put in every day.

Here is what my staff gets to see most mornings on the golf course at first light.  There is a lot of activity taking place on the course after hours of which is not helping anyone out. Practicing on the golf course is prohibited! If you see someone out practicing on the course at night tell them to stop, or if you are not comfortable doing that call the golf shop or even Emergency Services and let them handle it. These people who are out routinely practicing at night are ruining your golf course.

Do your part, it is your golf course after all.

Practicing on the course at night.

Lack Of Respect


Divots taken off greens

Playing catch with dogs on the fairways

Carts

Taking sharp turns

 Running over traffic stakes

Growing In

The re-grassing of the North Chipping Green is coming along nicely.  It has been three weeks to the day since the initial seeding and it almost looks like a green again.

The north chipping green was stripped of sod earlier in the year to use for repairs made to the other greens on the course after some winter damage occurred. We were forced to use the chipping green as a nursery because our old nursery green was abandoned due to a previous construction project.  Later this summer we will be reestablishing a new nursery green so that we will have grass available in the future.

The north chipping green was seeded with two improved Bentgrass varieties, The green was split in half as a side by side test of the two different varieties. One side of the green was seeded with A-4 and the other T-1. These grasses will be evaluated for future overseeding into the existing greens based on the their performance on the chipping green.  Initially the T-1 is out establishing the A-4, but time will be the true determining factor as to which grass performs best under our difficult growing conditions.

Germination 6 Days From Initial Seeding

T-1 21 Days After Initial Seeding

A-4 21 Days After Initial Seeding

Big Rain = Lots Of Work

We have settled into the monsoonal moisture flows and the afternoon thunderstorms have been impressive. In the last two days we have received more than an inch of precipitation which is always a good thing. 

Unfortunately the rate at which the rain fell washed out several of the bunkers on the golf course and took several of our staff members most of the day putting things back together.  Our goal today was to get the sand back in place and we will re-compact these washout next week.  Until that time some of the washed out faces might be softer than normal.

No Wonder You Can't Make Any Putts!!

We are now in mid season and golf rounds are quickly mounting and so is the wear and tear on the golf course.  In the month of June alone we had 4800 rounds and not all of them took the best of care of the golf course while playing.

The picture below shows the twelfth green and in the photo and each golf ball represents an unrepaired or improperly repaired ball mark. There are 165 balls on the green and there should have been more if not for the fact that I ran out of golf balls.

Over the years I have charted the number of unrepaired ballmarks per green and it has been at constantly at 10% of daily round played. In other words if we have 180 players in a day the next morning I can expect to find 18 unrepaired ballmarks.  This damage quickly adds up to some impressive numbers, on Twelve green alone the more than 165 ballmarks adds up to fourteen square feet of dead or damaged turf.  Do the math that's a rectangle with an area of 2' by 7' on this one green alone.

Take responsibility for your actions and fix your ballmarks and replace your divots.  Make the golf course more enjoyable for your fellow members. 

Just Like That!

In the Last ten days we finally have had some long over due significant soaking rains. Our precipitation totals are just under 4" of a combination of rain and snow. In one of those days alone we received  7" inches of heavy wet snow that slowly melted down and moved through the soil profile.

Looking at our soils after the precipitation we have observed the moisture traveling down as far 6"-7" inches deep which is amazing.  Talk about a natural sodium flush!!  This deep penetration of water has moved the sodium out of the rootzone and allowed the other essential elements to become available to the plant.  This has produced great color and welcomed growth throughout the golf course.

Below are some images that I took yesterday morning that show how the course has responded from the precipitation.

A Matter Of Time

With the mild snow less winter we just experienced you knew it would be a matter of time before it would begin snowing.  Well it did and yes it's May 11th, I guess its better late than never.

This precipitation is extremely welcomed in any form, it will do wonders to the golf course by kick starting active growth which is just beginning to take place. 

Aerification

Anther aerification is in the books and the golf course is on the road to recovery.  We were fortunate with the weather coopering until the very last minute on Wednesday.  The rain started to fall at 5:00pm right as we were completing work on #18 fairway.

Similar to last fall you will find the golf course very playable after aerification, the greens are perhaps the most playable of all the surfaces. The tees and fairways will take a little longer to return to normal conditions but it will be worth the wait. 

The fairways were heavily topdressed with sand to help with drainage and surface firmness to increase ball roll off the tee shots. This will have been the second complete topdressing of the fairways with sand and this process will require several more years to fully realize the improvements.  More than 500 tons of sand was applied to the fairways after aerifiction, the majority of the sand worked its way into the aerification holes while a significant amount still sits on the surface. The sand will take a couple of weeks to fully work its way into the turf canopy as new growth takes place in the fairways. Currently the fairways look more like bunkers, but the amount of sand needed to modify the surface requires that we apply these heavy rates to achieve our long term goals.

Applying The Sand

Fairway Covered In Sand

After Sand Has Been Drug In

Polka Dots

I am not sure which is more difficult, the winter weather or the wildlife damage to the course each year. It seems as if every year we cannot escape winter without some sort of damage.  This year with the winter weather being more mild than usual the course is beginning to come out of dormancy  in good condition.  The exception being the areas that were damaged by the Elk and Deer.

With a lack of snow cover for most of the winter the turf was exposed to the resident wildlife and they had a ball out on the course.  Our biggest issues out on the course are the numerous areas of urine burn from the Deer and Elk. The areas in the fairways have already been seeded with Bentgrass and the areas on greens will have to be plugged out. The plugging on greens will not take place until after aerification due to the fact that the repaired areas might pull up from being aerified.  This process will take several days to complete and then a couple of weeks for the repaired areas to blend in on the greens.

The hoove marks on the greens appear worse than they are, the damage that was caused is on the surface above the crown of the plant. The plant will regenerate new tissue and repair itself from this damage as soon as active turf growth begins to take place. During aerification additional seed will be applied to these areas to help with recovery.

Urine Burn on #10 Fairway

Urine Burn and Hoove marks on #7 Green

Rough Aerification

Last week we began the long process of aerifiyng the rough.  Historically this has been a difficult task for us based on the older equipment utilized to previously do the work. The aerifier was an old pull behind unit that had poor spacing and produced plugs that were too large and were incredibly difficult to clean up. Crazy as it may sound we received more complaints from aerifing the rough than from aerifing greens.

One of our recent equipment purchases included a Toro 1298 Pro Core aerifier that is primarily used in  fairways , but we decided to take it out into the rough.  This machine produces a nice small core based on the tines that are selected. Additionally the spacing between tines is extremely tight, we are punching the rough with a 2" by 2" spacing which is normally something done in the fairways.  This spacing will do wonders to our heavily trafficed rough allowing for some oxygen exchange into the rootzone as well as compaction relief.

The tight spacing will result in 36 holes per square foot or when you do the math for the rough on the entire golf course that will be more than  101,930,400 cores  physically removed. The cleanup of these cores will be relatively easy by taking a steel drag mat over them which will break them up, or even just mowing the rough for the first time will  take care of most of them.



Close Up Of Rough On The Eight Hole

 

Side Benefit

Last week we went out and heavily topdressed some of the lower lying bowled fairway areas on the fourth fairway. The sand was applied to help us with improving the fairway firmness in these low areas that tend to get wet and stay wet.

Sand Topdressed In The low Fairway Areas

Close Up Of Sand Thickness

We applied the sand after aerifing in an attempt to get some of the material in the aerification holes to help allow moisture to move more quickly through the surface and down into the soil profile.  This process will be repeated two to three time a year in localized "problem" areas throughout the golf course. Over time the sand will also help with surface firmness which will in turn help with more ball roll off the tee shots.  

Perhaps the nicest immediate side effect of applying the topdressing sand this time of year was the acceleration of spring green up.  In five days  time after applying the sand to the fairway the Bentgrass color went from brown to green. This rapid green up can be attributed to the sand increasing the surface temperature and therefore aiding in the green up process.


Green Up Of Turf From Sand Cover

Cart Paths Only??

So far this March the weather has been unusually warm and free of snow or any moisture for that matter which has been great to get players out on the course. We have already had more than 650 rounds played in the month of march which is not something that happens very often.

All of the play is great form a revenue standpoint, but the amount of traffic coming from golf carts is taking it's toll in areas. We are technically still restricting carts to the paths only, but with the high number of handicap flags being issued a lot of wear is beginning to show up in the rough areas on the golf course. The grass is not yet growing and therefore not able to handle the traffic it is being subjected too. Many of the cart path exit and entry points are showing a great deal of stress already, this is not a good thing because these areas receive the brunt of the traffic all season long.  If these areas are worn now, it will be a long and difficult road ahead.

Until the turf is actually growing and can recuperate from the traffic it is extremely important that all carts follow the signs and traffic ropes so that these sensitive areas can be protected.  Your cooperation with this will enhance the golfing experience had by all of the membership.

Hand Rails

We have begun the process of installing handrails on some of our steeper stone stairs that are found throughout the golf course.  The stairs that have been selected are ones that we receive the most comments of concern on, these would be found on holes #3,#8,#10 and #18.

The hand rails will be constructed out of steel and  will have a hammered appearance which will add to the aesthetic appeal. Currently the post have been set and the rails will be installed shortly by another crew.  These new handrails will greatly improve the safety at these locations which has been long overdue.

Why Is The Golf Course Brown?

The real answer to that question is because it's early March, but there is much more to it than just that.  Don't be alarmed the Turf  is not dead it is just dormant.

It all began last fall when we did not get a lasting snow cover until the end of December, by then the Turfgrass had gone dormant and lost most of its green color.  Normally the grass is still holding some of its green color when we get our lasting snow cover and this color holds until the melt in the spring.

This year in addition to the late snow cover there were also times that the snow cleared and exposed the turf to the weather which further added to the brown color of dormancy.  All in all our spring green up will occur around the same time regardless of what color the turf is now. It takes longer days and soil temperatures to get out of the 30's to get things rolling.

Ice Removal

As the snow has melted back from the fairways several areas of ice formation have been created.  These areas generally occur in the lower lying areas in which poor surface drainage exists. Most of these areas have drainage systems in place which are frozen and no longer allow movement of free water.

Traditionally we have used compost to help melt theses ice areas in addition to mechanically breaking the ice with aerification equipment. This year we found another way to help with ice removal that appears to be less damaging to the turf (physically). While blowing off debris from the fairways it was discovered that the ice lifts from the forced air coming out of the blowers.  This method works best when a person is working with the blower to help lift the ice and make the wind force more effective.