Chipping Green Renovation Finally Complete

We have been working this summer to renovate and improve our short game practice area and today we were able to put the finishing touches on it.

This afternoon we removed the area at the bottom of the green and sodded it with new 419 bermudagrass.  We had hoped to carry the putting surface farther down the hill but the slope created issues with drainage and traction of the equipment used to maintain the green.

Since we have not had the greatest grow in weather this summer for the turfgrass we have a few thin areas on the green.  Willie and Jonathen took viable plugs from the area we were removing and placed them in the greens surface.  This will help the putting surface heal in quicker and be better for practice.

Once all the plugs were moved and the sod laid the area was cleaned up and watered.

It will take a couple of weeks to get the new sod and plugs to knit together and then we will have a vastly improved short game practice area from what we did just a few short months ago.

Special thanks to all the Bear Trace staff for all their hard work and for our friends at Champion Turf Farms for providing us with the sprigs.

The TOUR Championship 2013

 I once again this week had the privilege of volunteering for The TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.  The hospitality shown by Ralph Kepple, CGCS and his staff, including assistants Kyle Johnson and Shaune Achurch was great.  They genuinely enjoy having the volunteers around and are more than willing to answer any question thrown their way.

This year was my fourth year volunteering and it was made even better by my good friend Gary Weller of Council Fire Golf Club, who I worked for for several years, join me in the fun.  Everyone works hard but we still have a great time. 

 

I have always loved being on a golf course early in the morning when the sun is rising and being at East Lake early is no different.  Everything is so well maintained and manicured, it is just amazing to see in person.

 

 

 Here is an early morning shot of the bunker raking crew getting a tutorial on how to properly rake bunkers the way the Tour officials want them done.

Great pains are taken to get the bunkers just right with some of them raked several times so that you don't hear the dreaded, "RERAKE ON HOLE #12" come over the radio.

In the afternoons the bunkers are watered down and packed with a squeegee roller to make sure they are firm and consistent.  The caddies at East Lake take care of the bunkers during the tournament and they did a fantastic job of making sure the bunkers could pass the test of the world's best golfers.

One of the best parts of volunteering at East Lake, besides getting to eat Allen Weed's gourmet hamburgers, is the new people you get to meet.  I had the pleasure of working with Billy Bagwell of Callawassie Island Club in Okatie, SC for both days.  Billy (in hat) is talking with a gentlemen from the Turfgrass Department of The University of Georgia as he is taking firmness readings of the green. 

Of course Tour players like the greens to be firm and fast so they can sink those 30+ foot putts.  One of the determining factors in how well the greens perform for the players is the amount of moisture in the greens surface.  Too much moisture and the greens become soft and slow, too little moisture and they turn into bricks and even the best golfer can't stop a shot on them.  To the right Assistant in Training Ben Thompson is checking the moisture of the greens with the TDR 300 moisture meter.

The desired amount of moisture in the greens varied from day to day depending on the weather forecasted and what the tournament officials wanted.  Based on the desired reading Ben used different numbers of marking flags to pin point areas on the greens which needed additional water.  With this marking technique, which we are going to incorporate into our process, only the areas that need water get it.

After Ben had checked all of the green and flagged it so he wouldn't have to remember exactly which area of the green needed how much water he went through and watered only those areas for only a specific amount of time.

End result...firm, fast, beautiful greens.  Not all thanks to Ben's handy work but he did his part.

The afternoon cleanup of the golf course consisted of mowing the fairways and walkways as well as rolling the greens.  The fairway mowers are set with a slow forward speed to increase the clip rate giving the zoysia fairways a super tight cut.  Line them up and let them eat.

 

 

This is a close up picture of some of the turfgrass mowed at East Lake.  If you think it is a picture of a putting surface you would be incorrect.  This is the fine cut of the fairway grass following the afternoon cut.   So sweet!!!



I loved this shot of the head equipment technician setting the heights and contact on all the greens, tees, and approach mowers during the mid morning break.  Looked like a row of soldiers all lined up getting their marching orders for the next day.

At a golf club like East Lake it is all about the fine details of the property.  Although the turfgrass gets most of the glory on the course I was very impressed with the landscaping and the attention to detail in the out of the way areas.  No stone is left unturned and no bed is left unmulched to produce the championship product.  Details. Details. Details.

I got a good laugh out of the distance the marketing people went to brand everything on the course with the Coke logo. After all the tournament is presented by Coca-Cola.

 

 

My last job for this year at East Lake was to put, what I think are some of the coolest tee markers in golf today, out.  What better way to brand the tournament than with these great tee markers.

 

 

Thanks again to the East Lake Agronomy Staff!!!

 

See you next year!!!

 

 

2013 University of Tennessee Field Day

The University of Tennessee Turfgrass Research Team put on a fantastic Field Day on Thursday at the East Tennessee Experiment and Research Center just up the road for The University of Tennessee at Knoxville campus.  The research center is used to experiment with different chemicals and fertilizers as well as new plant species while using various techniques and practices to find out what works best.

They had a great turnout with around 500 attendees from Tennessee and surrounding states coming to see what the UT Turf Team has discovered.  This was my first year being able to attend the Field Day or go to the research center and I have to say I was incredibly impressed.  Dr. Jim Brosnan and all the people involved in the Field Day did an amazing job.

Here is Dr. John Sorochan, UT Turf professor, giving a detailed description of an experiment he is working on to determine the best possible distance behind the center of the reel that the bedknife should be located to get the proper cut on turfgrass.  As always it is the details that set us apart from others and Dr. Sorochan is trying to find that one extra thing.  Very interesting concept.

Here is my very dear friend Dr. Tom Samples, another great UT turf professor, getting ready to discuss the native grass trial they have been working on to find new ways of reducing the amount of turfgrass maintained on golf courses and to eliminate the cost of doing so in both fuel and manpower.  Dr. Tom gave us many great examples of native grass species which work great on golf courses.  Expect to see some of the popping up at Harrison Bay in the near future.

 

Dr. Jim Brosnan, detailed the new herbicide treatment trials they have been working on and discussed the various rates and timing of the products as well as how the height of the cut of the turfgrass worked to influence the effectiveness of the application.  It is great to be able to see how certain weeds are controlled based on the amount of product used and the different products which are out there.  Without research centers such as the ETERC the new chemical technology and the new practices or application timings would not be available for us as superintendents to make the golf courses better.

It wasn't all play at the Field Day for us though.  The Tennessee Turfgrass Association was in full force at the Field Day where we were trying to raise money through our on-site raffle to support the UT Turf Foundation.  We are very grateful to all our vendors and sponsors who donated products or services which were given away during lunch. 

Here is Mr. Bob McCurdy, TTA president, presenting Dr. Brosnan with a check for over $1,300.00 from TTA from this years raffle proceeds.  Thanks to all of our friends who came by and purchased a raffle ticket.  You have really helped out the UT Foundation with your generoucity. 

I would be remise if I didn't tell you about the TTA social at Barley's pizzeria the night before the Field Day.  We had a great turnout with around 50 people showing up.  Great pizza and great conversation was had among friends and new acquaintances and we hope to continue to grow the TTA Social each year just as the Field Day grows.

If you missed the 2013 Field Day for some reason then you really missed a fun and informative day.  I was pleased to see Bill Brown, CGCS at the Field Day since we had not had any time to get together since our days on the GCSAA Certification Committee several years ago.  Bill has recently left the dreary, dull world of being a golf course superintendent and has launched his own company Turf Republic which specializes in social media and technology to help get the word out about what people in the turfgrass industry are up to.  For those who missed the Field Day or need a way to justify why you are wanting to go next year, Bill has a great website developed 2103 Tennessee Turf Field Day where you can see some of what all went on. As I said the UT Turf Team did a great job of putting on the Field Day and I will most definitely return each year from here on out.

 

Venting Aerification Planned for Next Week

We will be performing our monthly venting aerification of the putting greens on Tuesday and Wednesday of this upcoming week.  It will be the same process that we did in August but we will apply a light coating of topdressing sand directly following the work so they will be even better.  The results of the solid tine venting were great last month with extremely minimal disruption to the putting surface.  We will be using the same tines as last month which are 1/4" solid tines, about the size of a regulation tee. 

The USGA has created a great video webcast detailing the importance and procedure of venting aerification and I encourage you to take a look at it.

Venting Aeration--USGA Webcast

Growing and Patching Greens

The change in the weather over the past week has done amazing things for our golf course.  We have been able to get the entire golf course mowed and we are off the paths on all holes for one of the first times this year.  The greens have responded great to the sunshine and are in the best condition they have been in some time.  Being able to get the course back in shape has allowed us to work on a few of the fine detail work this week, all in an effort to make the golf course even better.

We have a few weak areas on a couple of greens, mostly near the cleanup laps, which have failed to recover this summer due to the poor growing weather.  This week Willie and Jonathen spent a couple of days working on fixing these areas with some sod we received from Champion Turf Farms.  This area on #15 green is on the hump near the back bunker.

Willie cut out the bad area taking care to use the boards to turn on as to not damage any more of the green than necessary.

All the bad sod in the area is removed from the patch area.  Any usable sod for the corners was used in plug work on smaller areas.

After the area was packed and smoothed out the new sod pieces are carefully put in place and tamped down to insure good sod to soil contact.

After being trimmed and cleaned up the area was rolled and heavily watered. 

These patch areas are an unfortunate necessity but turned out extremely nice due to the care and concern of Willie and Jonathen.  It will take a couple of weeks for these areas to root in so we can begin mowing them down so in the meantime just consider them Ground Under Repair areas and take care to walk around these areas. 

Hopefully we will continue to have great weather for the rest of the season and we can play some golf.

Low Mowing Heights Require Precision Setup

As Adam Garr said in his video in my last post, "Fast greens don't just happen".  It takes a lot of work and dedication on a lot of fronts to keep the greens performing properly.  In addition to the verticutting and topdressing that we do to the greens on a regular basis, Steve Bloom, our trusty equipment mechanic, has to keep the reels cutting at an extremely high level in order for us to maintain the greens at the proper height.  Our new Jacobsen Eclipse 322 with their 15 blade cutting reels provide a superior cut and with daily backlapping and adjusting, our mowers are always ready to go.

In order to insure our greens are maintained at their highest potential Steve daily backlaps the mowers and checks their contact and height of cut before they are sent out the next day to mow.  

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   From time to time the reels can no longer be backlapped to get that high quality of cut and they have to be ground to sharpen the blades and true up the cutting edge of the reel.  Since it was pouring rain all day on Monday Steve and Willie took the lead and ground the reels on all three greensmower triplexes. 

Here Steve is grinding one of the greensmower reels on our bench grinder.  The process takes off just a little bit of the reel with each pass of the grinding stone leaving the reel sharp and true across the entire surface of all 15 blades.

Also during the process of grinding the reels Willie replaced the bedknife with a brand new one.  The reel and the bedknife work just like household scissors and cut the grass as they come into contact with one another.  As with dull scissors or a dull razor, dull blades or bedknives don't cut grass very well and can lead to weakened plants making them vulnerable to insect and disease invasion.

Video of How a Reel Cuts Grass

Freshly ground reel and shiny new bedknife ready to go.  Makes me happy!!!

Once the reel is done in the grinding room it is remounted on the mower and a light contact is set getting it ready for backlapping.

Although the reel has been freshly ground and the bedknife is fresh out of the box the two need to be matched or "married" together through a process known as backlapping.  In the backlapping process the reel is spun in the opposite direction of its normal mowing operation.  Backlapping compound is applied to the reel to fine tune the contact and the sharpness of the reel.  Backlapping compound is really like "liquid sandpaper" and puts that finishing touch on the sharpening process.

After the reels have been backlapped, they are washed off to remove all the excess backlapping compound and then the mower is set up on the Golf Lift so the reels can be adjusted.  Here Steve is using an AccuGuage to set the height of cut, which is currently set at 0.130".  He will also adjust/check the height of the groomers, which are currently set at 0.115" and check to make sure we have 0.002" of clearance between the reel and the bedknife as recommended by Jacobsen.

 Once the reels are set the mower is ready to go mow some grass.  It takes a lot of effort and dedication to keep the mowers cutting at the high level that we demand and I am grateful to have a dedicated and committed staff.

Great Work Steve and Willie!!!

"Throwing Sand"--Explaining Why We Topdress Greens

Once the wet weather subsides we will return to our normal maintenance schedule on the greens which will include our 7 to 10 day vertical mowing and topdressing routine.  Of all the maintenance activities we perform on the golf course on a routine basis, topdressing of the greens has to be the one that I get the most questions and comments about.  I have been thinking about a way of describing or explaining what our process is and luckily found someone who has already done it, and has done an excellent  job.

Adam Garr, Golf Course Superintendent at Plum Hollow Country Club in Southfield, Michigan has put together, in my opinion, one of the best detailed, descriptive videos on the process of topdressing greens that I have seen.  If you take the few minutes to view his video below you will know why we topdress the greens on such a routine basis and will hopefully appreciate all the hard work and effort our staff puts in to having firm, fast greens.



It is great when you can find valuable information and techniques on other golf course superintendents blogs.  Thanks to Adam and his staff for allowing us to post this to our blog.  I hope you find the information useful.