Soft Tees, Smooth Paths, and Short Skirts

It has been a great year at The Bay so far this year.  We had a sluggish start due to the harsh, prolonged winter weather that stretched into the spring but the course has rebounded in championship fashion.  The agronomy staff has been hard at work giving the course some extra TLC by aerifying weak areas, sodding areas that needed a quick recovery, and applying extra fertilizer and growth stimulants to the course.  We have also had some special projects going on that are making a huge impact on the playability and look of the course.



Deep Tine Aerification of Tees:  Our tee boxes are notorious for firming up during the hot summer months, so firm that it is difficult to get a tee in the ground.  This is due to the native clay soil they are constructed from with little to no sand base or incorporation of sand to help them stay soft and user friendly.  We have tried over the years to use our greens aerifier to cultivate the tee surfaces, removing cores and trying to work sand into the holes to help this issue.  The success has been very limited because our greens aerifier is designed for the soft features of the greens and not the hard clay base of the tee complexes.  So in order to remedy this issue we purchased a used Wiedenmann Terra Spike XP deep tine aerifier.  With this powerful machine we are able to use tines that penetrate deep into the soil surface to aerate the soil.  This time around we are using 3/4" solid tines that are 11 inches long on a 4" x 4" spacing allowing 8 inches of this tine will penetrate the surface.

Smoother Cart Paths Courtesy of Flatpaths:  You may have noticed that the ride around the course is much smoother in areas and some of the bumps in the cart paths no longer exist.  That is courtesy of Jim from Flatpaths, a company we contracted to grind back down areas of the cart paths where tree roots have buckled them up.  Jim did a great job and we hope to have him back out to finish the course the next time he is in the area.  This process was very quick, with limited debris, and was much, much more economical and less disruptive to the course compared to removing or resurfacing the cart paths throughout the course.

Native Grass Area Renovation:  We are very proud of our native grass areas on our course as they provide movement corridors and nesting/brooding habitats for the residents, help eliminate runoff contamination from the short turfgrass before reaching the waterways, and gives defined definition to the golf holes.  As with most things in life there comes a time when some renovation has to occur and for our native grass areas that time is now.  We usually only have to do this process every 3-4 years and it is a good thing because with close to 100 acres of low maintenance areas it takes quite some time.

The course looks quite different with her skirt down and there are many golf balls which have gone astray from their intended target that are getting a second chance at life, but the best part of the renovation project is this is the best time to disperse the seed from the native grasses that are present in these areas.  We want a variety of plant species in our native grass areas, not a monostand, as this improves the diversity of wildlife that can call the golf course home, gives different food sources at different times of the year, and looks more natural.  Bill is working hard to stay out of everyones way and get this project done.  The areas will be back to their glory in no time and we ask that you continue to obey the standing cart rule and not enter these areas with your cart.

We hope you have had a great year so far and we look forward to seeing you on the course.  

Limbing Up Trees and Dressing Up the Walkpaths

We are fortunate at Harrison Bay to have an active group of golfers who love to walk our golf course.  These golfers make up a significant part of our yearly membership and our yearly rounds.  Through the years as we have increased our native grass acreage to eliminate daily maintenance expenses and increase the nesting and movement areas on the course for the wildlife we have unintentionally constricted the travel path for some of our walkers.  This winter we decided to dress up the walkways through the native grass areas to make it easier to travel and more attractive.

This winter has been about some of the smaller projects we can do to the course to improve it and one of those easy but very beneficial projects is to limb up the trees in the playing areas of the course.  Limbing up trees will provide better shot options for golfers, will allow more sunlight to reach the turfgrass so it can be healthier, and will give the golf course a better appearance overall.

To make the limbing up process easier we created a secure platform which we placed on the front end loader tractor which allowed us to reach farther up the tree to do a better job.  Trying to hold up an extended pole saw will tire the operator out quickly so this technique makes it safer and more productive.  With safety in mind the saw operator is secured to the tractor with a safety harness so he can not fall out.  This process has really sped up the limbing project and we are through the front nine in only a couple of weeks.

The big question was what do we do with all the limbs that we will generate and how do we use them to benefit the course.  We decided that we wanted to chip up the limbs and use them as mulch on the walk paths as I have seen done at some other golf courses.  Willie did some research and found this great little chipper WoodMaxx DC-1260 chipper.  It will easily chip up a limb up to 4" and is very economically priced compared to some of the chippers we were looking at to rent.  Now we have a chipper to help clean up the course when needed.

A simple plywood box was built on the back of one of our Toro Workman MDEs and we chip the limbs directly into the box.  Being small in size like the DC-1260 is makes it very easy to maneuver around and easy to use.  Once the box is full we take the chips to a nearby walkway and spread them across the path.

Using the wood chips on the walk ways will hopefully make the native grass areas more attractive and will give our walking golfers a nicer path to walk.  In the past following rainstorms some of the areas along the walking paths have had standing water or have been extremely muddy which is less than desirable to walk through or pull your pull cart through.  We hope this will eliminate these issues.

The wood chips through the native areas are a nice addition to our golf course and will help our walking guests have a better round.  That being said these areas are for WALKERS ONLY. NO golf carts should ever be taken into native grass areas or driven down the wood chip walk paths.  Please allow me to repeat this.  THE WOOD CHIP PATHS ARE FOR WALKERS ONLY.  GOLF CARTS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE THEM!!!!  Please help the course by doing your part and obeying the cart rules that are in place at Harrison Bay or at your own course if you can't come join us.

Playing Catch Up at the Bay

With all the work being done on the golf course this summer, mostly on the greens, there have been some areas of the course which have unfortunately had to take a backseat on the priority list.  One of those has been the native grass areas around the course and with over 50 acres of native grass areas that has begun to become an eyesore and an added obstacle to many golfers' enjoyment of the game.

This past week Mitch used a Bobcat brushcat equipped with rubber tracks to go through and clean up all the native grass areas and lake banks around the course.  Many of these areas had become overgrown with weeds and tree saplings becoming unsightly and in some cases blocking golfers view or even ability to play properly off of certain tee boxes.  We do apologize for that and believe we have remedied that issue.

View from the tee box on #2 before maintenance.

View from #2 after maintenance.

#5 tee box before maintenance

#5 tee box after maintenance

Another area on the course that we have neglected has been the faces, or turf surrounding, the bunkers.  These have become overgrown and were extremely difficult to play out of but several members of the agronomy team led by Bill Greene have put forth tremendous effort mowing the grass back down, reestablishing a nice clean edge on the bunkers and getting them back in shape for play.

Our agronomy staff is working very hard to catch up on several of the important areas on our course and we ask that you do your part in improving the course by repairing your ball marks, filling divots, raking bunkers, and obeying golf cart directional signs.

Harrison Bay will have the honor of hosting the Tennessee Golf Association Match Play and Senior Match Play Championships July 28-31 and we are working to have the course in championship condition by then.  In preparation for that we will be adding sand to the bunkers, aerifying selected tees and other areas on the course, landscape work around the course, and a lot of prep on the greens to get them smoother and faster.

It has been an interesting summer so far and we are excited about where the course is headed.  I have to thank our agronomy staff, some of which have only been with the course for a month or two, for jumping in with both feet and putting in long, hard hours to rebuild the course to the level that you, and I, expect.  We are not done, not by a long shot, and will continue working hard.

Maintaining the Native Areas on the Course

Whether you love, like, or hate the naturalized areas on our golf course, they play an instrumental role in the our appearance and environmental success.  Many golf courses choose not to have naturalized areas on their property and those reasons could be limited space, desired look, desires of membership, or simply a lack of environmental interest.  For us though the naturalized areas provide movement corridors and nesting habitat for the wildlife that call Harrison Bay home, they filter fertilizer and pesticide residue before it can enter the surrounding waterways, and it reduces the amount of labor and water used to maintain these areas.

Naturalized areas are not intended to penalize the golfer and they do not indicate that the Agronomy Staff are lazy and don't want to maintain these areas, they are there for a reason and have been selected to enhance the golf course appearance and function.  While these areas are "low maintenance" they are not "no maintenance".  This week Mitch will be working to cut these areas down and get them prepared for fall.  It is a long process and with over 50 acres of naturalized areas it will take all week to get accomplished.

So how do naturalized areas help the environment? Well, as you may know our golf course is on a peninsula which is surrounded on three sides by the Tennessee River.  In order to ensure we do not contaminate the public waterway with any chemical, pesticide, or soil runoff or residue we maintain a vegetative buffer strip around the entire property.  This buffer strip extends 10-25 feet from the waterway into the golf course property.  This buffer strips acts as a filter to collect and trap pesticide residue as well as soil and grass clippings.  It also helps to protect the structure of the lake bank so that it does not degrade and fall off into the lake.

This photo is a prime example of what can happen if the vegetation at the waters edge is highly maintained and not allowed to grow to a proper height.  As you can see the soil on the lake bank is readily washed off into the lake, the structural integrity of the bank has been weakened and has begun to recede, and the water temperature along the shoreline is increased significantly reducing the survival rate of small water creatures such as frogs and salamanders.  The increased temperature of this shore transition area makes travel and egg laying in these areas nearly impossible.

Removing these areas from our weekly maintenance program where they would be mowed and irrigated on a routine basis is saving us a lot of money and resources.  Not maintaining these 50+ acres on a weekly basis means we save close to 700 gallons of diesel fuel per year and save close to 260 manhours per mowing season which can be spent elsewhere. As for irrigation savings we have calculated that we are eliminating close to 7.4 million gallons of water which would have to be applied to these areas during the normal 26 week mowing season that we have at Harrison Bay.  Big savings no matter how you look at it, for us and the environment.

Which ever look you like, the grown up look or this after it has been maintained, we hope you look at these areas as beneficial to the golf course and the environment and understand why we have these areas.  It is not because we are lazy and don't want to mow more grass and it is not because we want to make your round more difficult.  Every practice and program done on our course has a reason and I hope you better understand the reason behind the naturalized areas.

Happy Ball Hawking to everyone who will be searching through these areas trying to retrieve "their" wayward shots.

Burning Off Native Areas on the Golf Course

I know that we will have several questions come up about "what happened to the native areas on #1 and #9?"  These areas were burnt off today in a controlled burn process which will rejuvenate these areas with new native grasses, especially the broomsedge which is the plant species we want the most.

This is the area on #1 tee before we began the burn process.

We began the process by spraying a pass around the entire area to be burnt with water using our greens sprayer.

Once the surrounding turfgrass was soaked with water we began the burn at the back end of the area to be burnt.  We used backpack blowers to control the fire and let it burn slowly back into the wind.  This was a slow process but is vitally necessary for a safe and controlled burn process.

Here is a good shot of how the fire is controlled by burning it "back" into itself and controlling how far it can proceed outside of the burn area.

Once the back fire break was established we set the fire on the far side of the area and allowed the wind to do its job.  Once the fire met up with the fire break we had created on the back side there was no more fuel and it simply went out.

This is the area on #1 following the burn process.  It took about an hour to complete and we will continue to renovate this area over the next week or two as we prepare this area for a wild flower bed as part of Syngenta Turf's Operation Pollinator (but that is for another post).

This is a before photo of the area on #9 tee complex which we also burnt off today.  This area will not be planted in wild flowers but I wanted to see how long it took to come back and how well the broomsedge repopulated this area.

This is the area on #9 after burning.  In only a few weeks this area will be green again and full of new native grasses.  At least that is the plan.

The last thing we did before we left the area for the day was to make absolutely sure all of the fire was out, so we ran the irrigation system for about 10 minutes to soak any lingering embers in the area that might have wanted to catch the area on fire again.





This was a dirty, smoky job and I have to give special thanks to Mitch and Willie for doing the majority of the work. Also I want to thank Harrison Bay State Ranger Grant Sherrod for facilitating the burn.

Just a word of precaution if you are going to do a controlled burn.  Make sure you have permission from the Air Control Board in your area.  Make sure the weather conditions are right for a burn and make sure you have adequate help and an adequate water supply to keep the fire under control.  After all it is a "Controlled Burn"

Winter Wonderland 2014

Like most of the south we got hit by a bitter arctic blast and got close to two inches of snow on Tuesday afternoon.  To say the roads were treacherous would be an understatement and it was very difficult for many people to get home.  Our friends in the more southern states who are not properly equipped for this weather are really feeling the brunt of this storm.  But all in all it was nice to see some snow since we have had all these cold temps anyway.

Here are some shots that I took from around the course this morning.

#10 green with the Harrison Bay Eagle Cam nest tree in the background

Looking across #14 green out into the Bay which was frozen for about 100 yds out

Glamour shot of our tee markers with the native area on #15 in the background

I love the way the broomsedge contrasts against the white snow.

I hope none of our Mallard Duck friends decide to land on the pond anytime soon because it is frozen although it looks like it is thawed in some areas.

The snow has been beautiful but I am ready to mow some green grass. 

Utilizing Native Plants

In the winter of 2007 we renovated the area between our first tee complex and the driving range removing the unsightly landscaping and crumbling cartpath which did not give our guests a good first impression of our golf course.  Through the aid of the Iris Fund, a program designed to provide funding to Tennessee State Parks for the protection and planting of native plants, as well as the removal of invasive exotic plants through the purchase of Tennessee State Park specialty license plates, we were able to build a raised planting bed which would be planted solely with plants native to Tennessee.  Many years have past and the plants have grown to a mature state now providing our guests with a wonderful showing of color and texture. 

Photo of the #1 teeing complex prior to the renovation.

The #1 teeing complex after the renovation.
Drainage was placed in the cartpath to remove rainfall and irrigation and the golf car path was regraded and paved by TDOT.

Some of the native plants we chose for the planting

Flame Azalea

Rhododendron austrimum

Columbine
Aquilegia canandensis

Threadleaf Blue Star
Amsonia hubrictii

Fothergilla  /  Witch-Alder
Fothergilla gardenia



Our native areas around the golf course, which we began renovation of last summer, are also beginning to show promise with the growth and bloom of some native wildflowers in the areas.  The native areas will not only provide color and beauty to the golf course but will also provide food and shelter for birds, butterflies, and small animals.  Foot traffic is allowed but we do ask that you please keep the golf cars out of these areas.

2011 Is In the Rearview Mirror

As 2011 comes to an end and I look back at a very successful year at Harrison Bay I have to say I am very pleased with all that we have accomplished this year.  It has been a little over a year since I started this blog and it has been fun to show you what is going on at the golf course.  Our golf course maintenance staff has made several improvements to the golf course this year including the renovation of the front nine greenside bunkers, providing better putting surfaces with the addition of John Deere Walking Greens Mowers to our fleet, irrigation renovation to some of the greens, beginning the renovation process of the native grass areas on the course, and improving and expanding our environmental stewardship activites.  My crew is very dedicated to the golf course and I have to express my pride in thier work.

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2012 looks to be another exciting year at Harrison Bay.  Our Eagle Cam Project should be up and running soon, the renovation project of the back nine greenside bunkers is in full swing, we will continue renovating the irrigation around some of the greens, renovation of the native grass areas will take place during the summer, and we are going to add some mallard duck nesting tubes to our environmental conservation program in the next few months.  All in all 2012 should be an exciting and busy time at The Bear Trace at Harrison Bay.  We hope everyone enjoys the improvements that we are making to the golf course and if you have any questions or comments about what we are trying to accomplish here just let us know.  Hope to see everyone at the Trace in 2012.  Happy New Year!!!