Finally!

 

Spring has finally sprung.  It's been a long, cold, wet winter for us at the beach.  I will say others along the east coast haven't had it much better.  I'll take cold and damp over snow and ice any day.  The golf course is slowly waking up from its' winter nap.  Trees are beginning to push out new growth, bulbs are popping out of the ground, and our warm season turf grasses that have lain dormant over the past few months are yawning and stretching, and getting ready to join the others at the breakfast table.  The golf course is in great shape for our spring golf season.  There are a few low lying areas that still need some time to dry out, but overall things are looking and playing great.  The putting surfaces are extremely healthy coming out of the winter, thanks in large part to the use of covers during the coldest of periods.  Heights of cut have been lowered to in-season form and cultural practices such as grooming, verticutting, and light topdressing will again be a normal occurrence.  Our team is looking forward to sunny, warmer weather, as I am sure everyone is.         

Hoping 3's a charm

Nursery Green

As I sit down to write today's blog, I can honestly say I don't recall another morning in my history at The Dunes Club that the temperature outside was 13 degrees.  If you were to include the windchill, we are hovering just above 0.  That's cold, I don't care who or where you are!  We covered the greens this past Wednesday afternoon, and will remove them sometime Saturday morning for play Saturday afternoon.  The covers definitely help retain heat on these cold nights.  There can be as much as an 8-10 degree difference between greens that are covered and those that are not.  This can be the difference between life and death with ultradwarf bermudagrass.  The covers also help retain our color, and will allow the greens a shorter green-up period once warmer temperatures return.  Just look at the picture above where a cover blew off a section of the nursery green back in January.  Left side remained covered, the right side did not.  That's a huge difference. 

It takes our entire team about 3 1/2 hours to cover all 22 greens, and about the same time to uncover.  The tarps are not an exact fit, they are more or less a rectangle of the longest width and length for that particular green.  Because of the bunkering on many holes, excess material often times overhangs into the sand.  This can be quite problematic when trying to secure the edges.  Factor into the mix the wind, which is usually howling because of an incoming cold front, and those afternoons can get interesting to say the least.  I have seen many a team member drug across a green, or even lifted off the ground while battling the wind.  The covers are secured to the ground by sod staples on handles that have been sewn into each cover.  We also use sandbags on the prevailing wind side and in areas that overhang into bunkers, since the sod staples would easily pull out of the sand.  There are over 3,000 sod staples and 400 sand bags that are used each time covers are applied.  It's a great deal of work, and my team does a fantastic job under extremely tough conditions.  We covered greens 3 times in 2014, and this is the third time for us in 2015.  Let's hope 3 is a charm, and warmer weather is on its way.        

Drainage Improvements

 Winter is a great time to make improvements to existing drainage.  There are many locations around the course where tweaks to drainage are occurring.  This happens to be # 15, and an area next to one of our ponds that receives a great deal of runoff from the fairway following large rain events.  Over time, this basin was failing, and allowing water to pass beyond it and erode the pond bank.  

Now that all repairs have been made to this location, it's ready for our next raining day, which unfortunately looks to be this coming Monday.  Other areas that are receiving some drainage attention are along the path at #7 and #10.  Mother Nature will soon begin to help us out when plants,trees, and turf begin to wake-up from their winter rest and start up-taking some of this excess water.    

It's that time of year again!

Annual pruning right of #7 Fairway

Over the next few weeks you will notice our team working throughout the wooded areas surrounding the golf course.  Yup, it's that time of year again, when we take to the lift and partake in our annual preventative tree maintenance program.  It typically takes about a month to get around the entire property.  We are looking to remove any deadwood that will eventually fall out of the canopies, thin out any over growth and better balance the tree, and improve upon turf health and/or playability.  It's almost impossible for my team to see everything, but I believe they do an excellent job on maintaining these valuable assets.  This is an ongoing process that must be done on a continual basis.  Our trees mean so much to this great playground, and ensuring their health and coexistence requires constant monitoring and maintenance.  Once material is removed it is either chipped and distributed on the property, used for tee marker replacement, or in some instances split and used for firewood. 

Small limbs being fed into the chipper

     

Winter has arrived!

#3 Green

With the threat of cold nighttime temperatures we decided to cover our beloved putting surfaces last night.  Luckily we did, the low dipped down to 15 degrees this morning, which actually felt like 0 degrees when the wind chill is factored in.  The greens however stayed a toasty 34 degrees under the covers.  Our remote sensors, located in numerous greens, allow us to monitor not only temperature, but moisture and salinity at any given time.  Technology has really come a long ways in all industries, and this is just one example of how it helps us better manage one of this clubs largest assets.   

Course Update

With the onset of another cold arctic blast this week, I have decided to close the golf course starting Thursday afternoon through mid-day on Saturday.  We will cover the greens Thursday following the last round and leave them on for a couple of days.  Temperatures both Thursday and Friday night are expected to reach 20 degrees or just below.  My rule of thumb for covering greens is to have 2 consecutive nights of below 25 degrees with the daytime high in between not getting out of the low to mid 30's.  This will be our second covering in January, and I am anticipating it will go a bit quicker than the first.  We will remove them once the sun comes up and temperatures begin to warm on Saturday morning.  I am anticipating the course will be open for play by mid-day on Saturday.  Please check back for more updates.   

What's Happening Here?

# 3 Green

I thought this was an interesting find the other day.  Can anyone explain the difference between the two color variations in the photo above?  Do you notice the lighter green on the right and the darker green of the left?  I'll give you a hint, the condition showed up a few days following the cold spell we received just after the first of the year.  Ok, here's what's going on.  The area on the right was exposed to the cold air temperatures while the rest of the green of the left was not.  When we came into work that morning we had to pull the cover back over that portion of the green on the right.  Sometime during the night the wind lifted the stakes out of the ground and the cover folded back, exposing the right corner of the green.  That exposed area was frozen solid.  A few days later the color difference showed up.  The area hit by the cold air temperatures and frozen ground is just showing more signs of dormancy than the other portion of the green that did not freeze.  No damage has occurred, but it does make for interesting conversation.