Winter has arrived!

Well for those of you who have not ventured outside in the past two days, Winter is Here! We started off Sunday with a low temperature of 26.8 degrees for our first frost delay of the season. That has been follow with some wet weather that rolled in Sunday Night and still continues to give us a scattered shower or two. No snow as of yet, but and I am sure when the clouds clear out that we will see some snow dusting the tops of the hills surrounding our valley.
So far our rain total is 1.3" A nice slow and steady rain that lasted over 10 hours. Combine this slow and steady rain with a golf course that was fairly dry, and most of the water soaked in versus running off.
Showers are forecasted through Wednesday and then I would expect a fairly slow drying out due to cold temperatures. If I had to put money down I would guess that we might have to stay on the cart paths till Saturday.
With this first major cold spell of the winter season we will lose some of the lush green color that we have been experiencing for the past month. We will be make foliar fertilizer applications to fairways and tees to help offset this lose of color.

Rain Update for 11/26

Last night we received 1.2" of rain in a 6 hour window. Currently this morning the rain has stopped and the radar map shows that we will be receiving scattered showers throughout the day. The golf course will open at 7am. We will be cart path only and not allowing medical flags. The driving range will not be open today, however the short game practice facility will be.
This morning we will be spending ample amount of time on repairing improperly fixed ball marks and working on the redistribution of sand in the bunkers.

Straight Down Fall Classic

Like Craig mentioned in his weekend release, we had the pleasure to play in the Straight Down Fall Classic this past weekend at San Luis Obispo Country Club. What a blast! Just a little background info: The Straight Down Fall Classic is a two man better ball pro-am event where the amatuers handicap are thrown out the window. That is right, even up, no strokes, play the back tees and every shot counts. The best part about the event is that the touring pros that represent straight down are also playing in the event. Including our local talent:

Jason Gore with his partner Kevin Marsh went on to tie for first place in a four hole playoff that was decided by darkness. Craig and I only finished a 2 shots behind them... Oh wait I missed a zero. I meant 20 shots. Yep those guys are good.

All the results and photos can be found at http://straightdown2.com/fall-classic/

As a result of last weekend I have now putted on some of the most difficult greens on the planet. San Luis Obispo CC is built on the side of a hill with greens that have some very severe slopes on them. In addition to the slope, the record breaking heat in the mid 90's caused the greens to become firm and VERY FAST. While I did not carry my trusty stimpmeter with me, I can assure you that if you were to find a spot on a green flat enough to take an accurate stimpmeter reading they would have been rolling in excess of 13'. Craig and I both had several times that we had putts inside of 20' and were very concerned about not three or four putting.

Be sure to check out the website for some pics of Craig, Freddy, Jason and the rest of the gang.

Ball Marks

Ball Mark Improperly repaired.

Ball Mark Properly Repaired.

Both of the ball marks started as relatively the same size and depth. As you can see the ball mark that was not repaired properly is an ugly scar and will take around 3 weeks to fully repair.

The ball mark that was properly repaired will take about 2 days to not be noticeable.

The end result of a properly fixed ball mark shows no soil. The grass has been knitted or pushed back in so as the grass once again covers that area. If you are struggling to repair ball marks so that they look like the bottom picture please ask one of our golf pros for a tip. They will be more then happy to give you a free lesson on repairing a ball mark.

More Weather News..

October start with a 100 degree day and now November has started with a rainy day full of lightening and hail. What a difference a month makes.
A few facts: In September we saw the high temperature climb over 92 degrees 20 days. In October the high temperature exceeded 92 degrees 16 days. This made October one of the warmest in history. Now November has started off with a .25" of rain. So what happened to fall?
As has been the story in the media over the past few days, California is in a serious water crisis. So all rain is welcome and we will continue our committment to use water in the most efficient manner.
**UPDATE: We ended up with a very welcomed 1/2" of rain for the weekend.**

Making History!

This morning the LA Times reported the high temperature yesterday, according to the National Weather Service weather stations, for the 48 continental states was in Santa Clarita. It was reported as 95 degrees!! We have a weather station at the golf course which is located adjacent to the Maintenance facility. Yesterday our weather station reported a high temperature of 94.6 degrees and a low temperature of 39.4. Yep that is right 39.4! Pretty darn close to temperatures where we will start having frost delays. We tend to have cooler temperatures due to the fact that we are located at one of the lowest points in the valley. It goes back to the concept wher warm air rises and cool air settles. Degree changes that exceed 55 degrees in one day are pretty extreme. Typically weather like this is good for growing grapes, but in the mean time we will continue to try and grow quality turfgrass.
So we are left with the question: is this global warming or global cooling?
One more weather related topic. Long range forecast, meaning the next 7 to 10 days shows a chance of rain. This would be great for the golf course as over the past week we have fertilized everything and reseeded areas that were thin. Let's keep are fingers crossed that mother nature will give our area of the country some much needed rain.

Pea Soup Lake

If you have played the front nine recently, you have noticed that the lake that borders #6 and #7 looks a lot like pea soup. The cause of this green color is Planktonic Algae. Planktonic algae are single-celled plants or small colonies of cells that attach to each other and float freely in or on the surface of the water. Most planktonic algae are beneficial, because they convert nutrients into food for fish and other organisms, forming the base of the food chain. And, like all plants, they produce oxygen through photosynthesis.

However, excessive growth, like we are seeing now can be undesirable. This excessive growth is called a bloom. Blooms are caused by excessive nutrients being introduced to the aquatic system. During overseeding we had a wind storm that blew an excessive amount of grass clippings. Now that the grass clippings have had time to break down and release nutrients the algae is now consuming the nutrients. Fortunately, Planktonic Algae completes its life cyle in 24 hours. So, soon the Planktonic Algae will consume the excess nutrients in the lake and ecosystem will so return to a normal balanced state.

Wet Winter??

Every year we head into winter wonder how much it is going to rain. And every year the National Weather service tries to predict this. Bottomline is: we need to conserve water and get a couple years in a row of high quantity rainfall. Our rainfall season is short compare to other parts of the country. Our most desired scenerio would start with a rain storm in the early fall, then a final rainstorm in May with wet and dry periods through out the entire winter. Well so far that is not the prediction, but the weather forecasters have been wrong before. The following text was from a newsletter that I subscribe to :
The US National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center recently posted their ENSO forecast (El Nino/Southern Oscillation) for the next quarter. Based upon the water temperature of the equatorial Pacific Ocean, in combination with weather patterns in that region, meteorologists have declared an "ENSO neutral" condition. With some exceptions, this is good news for almost everyone.
During an ENSO neutral condition, Pacific Ocean water temperatures and weather patterns are roughly normal, which means that weather patterns in most of the world will also be normal for the next 3 to 6 months (at this point in time, ENSO neutral conditions are predicted through the first half of 2009). In contrast, an El Nino condition, which occurs when Pacific Ocean temperatures are warmer than normal, results in more storms than normal in the southern U.S., and overall milder and drier weather than usual in the northern U.S. The inverse of an El Nino is the La Nina condition, which is characterized by colder than normal temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. During a La Nina, the northern U.S. is colder and stormier than usual, and the southern U.S. is warmer, and drier than normal. For more detailed information on El Nino and La Nina, see this very good website, Frequently asked questions about El Nino and La Nina. http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/ensostuff/ensofaq.shtml#PREDICTION
The only bad news comes for the southern U.S., which has suffered from drought conditions over the past few years. In these dry regions, an El Nino, even with its more extreme weather patterns, would have been welcome.

Go away wind!

Just a quick update as we head into this very critical week in the world of growing grass at VCC. A couple things happen this week that are key to the success of our new crop of ryegrass.

1. We are still germinating seed that was stubborn and slow to germinate. Typically areas that are a drier or more exposed take longer to germinate. In order to make sure we get good germination in those areas we will be scouting for them during the day and applying supplemental irrigation.
2. Our first mowing of the tees and fairways will be taking place this week. Mowing the turf causes a physiologically change within the plant. It promotes the ryegrass seedling to start tillering. Tillering is when the plant produces more shoots from the crown area of the plant and creates a denser turf canopy.
3. We will make our first fertilizer application to the tees and fairways. The nutrients that will be applied are designed to encourage tillering and production of a dense root system.

The problem that this week brings is the wind. The wind creates havoc for us in a couple ways. First, it just makes a mess and detracts from the beauty of the course. On a more practical level it creates a mess that must be cleaned up prior to us mowing and fertilizing. The dilemma that we face due to the tenderness of the juvenile rygrass seedlings is we cannot utilize some of our heavy equipment to pick up the debris. Therefore, we have to pick up the all of those branches, leaves and twigs by hand. Secondly, the wind dries out the surface of the ground. The tender ryegrass seedlings have a very small and inefficient root system at this stage. In order for the seedlings to survive in the dessiciating winds we must judicously apply water on a frequent basis.

At this stage in the game I am optimistic about the results of our overseeding. The cool night time temps and high winds over the past 4 days have slowed the progress, but the weather forecast for the rest of week is perfect for establishment of our winter time turf.

10,827,900,000 !!!!

No that is not a number from the financial bail out plan. 10,827,900,000 is the approximate number of seeds that we have put down on the golf course over the past four days. This number is derived from the fact that there is typically 240,620 seeds per pound of perennial ryegrass and we put down 45,000 lbs of seed. As of noon on Friday all the grass seed is on the ground. What remains in to work the seed into the turf canopy and some clean up of seed that was thrown into bunkers and on cart paths.
The good news is that the possibility of rain is in the forecast for tomorrow. A 1/2" of rain would do wonders for helping the seed start its process towards germination.
The overseeding process went similar to years past and on an efficient schedule. The only modification that was made was fairways #8 and #9 were seeded at a slightly lower rate. All our fairways are typically seeded at 600 lbs of seed per acre. Fairways #8 and #9 were seeded this year at 400 lbs per acre. Over the course of the winter we will be looking at the difference in playability and turfgrass density. Then next summer we will compare rate of transition to bermuda grass versus the fairways that are seeded at a higher rate.

Overseeding Begins!

Today marked the first day the course is closed for our annual fall overseeding. Over the course of the next five days we will be renovating fairways through verticutting and scalping. Once that is complete, we will seed perennial Ryegrass at a rate of 500 lbs per acre. After the seed is put down and worked into the bermudagrass canopy, we will irrigate in short cycles on a very frequent basis in order to keep the seed moist and promote germination. In addtion to overseeding, we also aerified greens utilizing two different machines. Once the holes were punched, we topdressed, applied soil admendments based on recent soil chemical tests and rolled the putting surfaces.
Check back over the next few days to get a detailed account of the process that we will be going through, including pictures, and updates as to how we are progressing.

# 9 greenside

The area between #9 green and the cart path has always been troubled. Three basic problems exist in this area. 1. It is a natural low spot. Water puddles here during rain storms in the winter and during periods of heavy irrigation. 2. It is a high traffic area. Most golf carts traverse through this area after the player hits their approach shot to the green and are parking their cart on the path while putting. 3. The area suffers from insufficient irrigation coverage.

In an effort to remedy the situation today we installed new drainage and supplemental irrigation along the cart path. Once we are done with the work we will then intensely aerify the area and prepare it for overseeding. The new drainage will carry water away during rain storms and the new irrigation will provide water to areas that were previously lacking.

For play this week and until we close for over seeding this area will be marked as Ground Under Repair (GUR). Two Ball Drops have also been provided. If you are in the area marked as GUR and choose to excise your relief options, you may drop in a area not marked as GUR and no nearer to the hole or you may drop in the defined ball drop that is nearest to your ball.

Overseeding Preparation.

The aerification of tees this week marked the beginning of our annual preparation for overseeding. Here are some of the activities that will be taking place in the next few weeks as we prepare for overseeding:

• The height of the rough will be reduced to 1" from our normal cutting height of 2"
• All kikuyu grass in the tees, approaches and collars will be sprayed with a selective herbicide.
• High traffic areas in the roughs will be aerified.
• The fairways and tees will be sprayed with a selective herbicide to remove any remaining Ryegrass and Poa annua. This is an application that we experiemented with last year and had great success in helping to eliminate the Poa annua from our fairways.
• All the roughs and fairways will be sprayed with a growth regulator that will hold back the bermuda and help to allow the newly overseeded ryegrass to establish.
• In the final ten days prior to overseeding will reduce the night time watering of the course to about half of its normal reqiurements.

Through this process we will be making every effort possible to maintain superior playing conditions.

Seeded Bermudagrass Trial

One of the projects that we have been working on this summer is a seeded bermudagrass trial. This trial is taking place between the 18th hole and the maintenance facility. It includes 8 different varieties and is designed for us to help see which do best in our specific micro-climate.

The photo above shows the plots at seeding. Each plot measures a 1000 sqft. and was seeded very carefully to avoid cross contamination among the varieties.

A quick lesson on bermudagrasses. Two different species of bermudagrasses exist for use on golf courses. One species, commonly referred to as Hybrid Bermuda can only be reproduced vegetatively. The seed that Hybrid Bermuda produces is sterile, and therefore, can only be reproduced by the spread of living plant parts such as stolons and rhizomes. On the other hand, common bermudagrass produces a viable seed and can be spread via traditional seeding methods. Plant breeders select plants that possess desirable characteristics. Some of the varieties in the trial are designed to be more cold tolerant, while other are designed to have a smaller leaf blade and others yet are designed to have a darker green color.

Currently the bermuda grasses are up and growing and being mowed at rough height. Through this winter we will keep the height at rough height and then next spring we will lower to fairway height. Out of this trial we will hope to identify which varieties will be best to mix in our divot mix in the summer months. In addition to finding out this technical turf data, our maintenance staff now has a place to play a pick up soccer game during their lunch break.

Where do I start?

Ok, Ok, Ok! I know it has been awhile since I updated my Blog. Heck I almost forgot my password to sign in. But here is my promise: One post every three days for the next two weeks. I figure we have a lot of catching up to do.
Let's start with a quick assessment of the course and then over the next few weeks I will give a review of the items that we have accomplished this summer and then we can start talking about overseeding.
Greens: All things considered the greens have made it through the summer in relatively good condition. I would say the only thing not good about the greens is the ball marks. In the links column on the right hand side of this page is a link to the USGA website that contains informational videos on the proper way to repair ballmarks. The most important idea to remember when repairing a ballmark is that after all is said and done you should see very minimal amounts of soil. All that you are trying to accomplishing is pushing the grass back to it's original place. We did spike, verticut and topdress today. Like I have talked about in previous posts, topdressing is vital to providing quality putting surfaces.
As we start to see night temperatures drop in early to mid-September we should start to see green speeds increase.
Tees: Overall the tees have also held up fairly well the this summer. The only tee that has suffered turf loss was number 15. This is due to the trees that were removed last fall. #15 tee is, or maybe I should say was, highly populated with shade loving Poa annua. This summer's heat and humidity rose and the turf on that tee had no shade to hide under. At overseeding we will be spraying the remaining Poa annua in the tee and it's surround with a herbicide, then the newly seeded, sun loving Ryegrass, will establish and be much more tolerate to the sun and heat next summer.
Fairways: The Bermuda grass in fairways has come back exceptionally well. The increase in humidity this summer has help the bermudagrass to flourish. Unfortunately, the humidity has hindered the ryegrass. Ryegrass being classified as a cool season grass is under a lot of climatic stress during the summer in Valencia. Having higher than normal humidity makes the stress ryegrass more susceptible to opportunistic pathogens. Needless to say our areas in the fairways that are predominately Ryegrass are struggling and thin. If you happen to be on the course in the morning hours take a look at shade patterns. In areas where we have prolonged morning shade the bermudagrass struggles to establish. This is becuase bermudagrass loves the sun, and the more of it the better. Anything less then a full day of sun makes the bermuda struggle to establish and overtake the Ryegrass.
Roughs: This is where we struggle year in and year out and there is no easy fix. The root of the problem in the rough is trees. Here is the vicious cycle. The trees create shade. So in the winter and spring the cool season grasses, in particular Poa annua, get well established. Then as the sun heads into the northern Hemisphere, the shade patterns shift, and now the shade loving grasses that established themselves are in full sun. These grasses that don't like sun decide to pack their bags and head south. In technical terms, they produce a seed or two and then die, only to have those seeds germinate next fall and start the cycle again. In the rough, like the fairways, you can tell where you get more hours of sunlight in a day by looking at where you have the most amount of Bermuda grass.
The other problem with trees is they block irrigation. Sprinklers are designed for head to head coverage. Meaning each head is suppose to throw its stream of water to the next head. Problem is trees block this stream which actually creates two problems. First, the water does not get to where it is supposed to go there by creating a dry spots in the areas deficient in water. Second, the water that hits the branches and trunks of the trees drops straight down, thereby creating a wet spot. Every summer we try to address this issue by adding drainage and supplemental irrigation. In the blog updates to come I will be talking more in length about this problem and what we have been doing to help remedy the problem areas.

Ok, time to start preparing my next post. Remember, if you have specific questions about the course and it's maintenance please e-mail me. I can post the answer on the blog for everyone to read.

Increasing costs!

As everyone has received their July dues statement which reflects a modest 5% increase, I thought it would be appropriate to shed a little light on how our cost have skyrocketed in just one area.
The golf course industry is feeling the pain with the rising cost of energy affecting the bottom line of fertilizer budgets. Average prices that are being paid for major fertilizer nutrients have reached the highest level on record in April 2008, 228% higher than the same time eight years ago. Natural gas is a feedstock in the production of ammonia, which is the building block for all nitrogen fertilizers. The cost natural gas accounts for 70 to 90 percent of the production cost of ammonia.

Key Factors Contributing To Dramatic Price Increases:

• U.S. Ethanol Production is Increasing Domestic Fertilizer Demand.
  
• Global demand for fertilizer has placed upward pressure on fertilizer prices.
  
• The U.S. ethanol boom is driving fertilizer demand higher.
  
• Increased transportation costs to move fertilizer products is factoring into increased delivered fertilizer prices.
  
• The value of the U.S. dollar has fallen significantly in the past few years,increasing the cost of Goods imported - including fertilizer.
• High natural Gas prices in the United States continue to lead to higher fertilizer production costs.

More information regarding fertilizer and it's trade can be found at www.tfi.org

Venting!

A Mid-Summer Venting

Small Tine Aerification and light topdressing will occur:
June 23th

This mid-summer small-tine aerification is critical to the success of our greens through the summer months. The ‘venting’ using small ¼” solid tines allows for improved gas exchange and release of toxic Carbon Dioxide that has built up in the soil.

Where does all of the built up carbon dioxide gas in putting green soils come from? The majority is produced by soil-dwelling bacteria and fungi that consume oxygen and produce carbon dioxide as a by product of their metabolism. As the temperatures increase in the summer so does the production of CO2.This would not be a problem if the CO2 by-product had a way of escaping from the soil into the atmosphere. However, the thatch layer tends to act as a barrier for gas diffusion. Compaction further seals the turf surface, making gas escape even more difficult. This early summer venting aids in creating a healthy environment for the greens to survive and prosper through the summer.

Thank you for your patience and understanding during this necessary maintenance task. I expect that the greens will be completely healed within 7 days.

Member-guest week!

We are at the beginning of our Men's Member-Guest week and things are shaping up nicely for the touranment. In preparation for the tournament, the greens were verticut and topdressed last week to promote smoothness and true ball roll. The desired green speed for the tournament will be 11.5'. This is the speed that I think best shows the design characteristics of our greens and test the players ablity in a fair and equitable manner. Also in the latter part of last week and the beginning of this week we are making all efforts to ensure that any dry spot recieves water. This effort allows us to uniformly dry down the golf course in the days prior to the tournament. During the tournament our goal is to put out as little water as possible. The course is irrigated with the desire to produce and maintain firm playing conditions without making a hugh sacifice the the health of the plant. With temperatures forecasted in the mid 90's for the tournament we will be spending a lot of time handwatering and selectively turning on sprinklers heads in an effort to avoid any wet spots.

A few other house keeping items to note:

• We have cleaned up for the last wind storm. The broken tree behind #6 has been removed and sodded. In the weeks following the member-guest we will be assessing the current conditions without the tree there and be looking at our options going forward.
• Transition to the summer time Bermuda grass is coming along nicely. In the next two weeks we will be making a fertilizer application to promote more bermuda grass as the cool season ryegrass starts to succumb to the stress of summer time temperatures.

Best of luck to all who are playing the tournament. One saying that I have for tournaments of this size for everyone's enjoyment: PLAY WELL, PLAY FAIR, and PLAY FAST!

Cleaning Up

Our early summer wind storm has left quite a mess on the golf course. Cleaning up from a wind storm this strong requires a lot of man hours and detracts from our normal maintenance and manicuring. The majority of the mess should be cleaned up by the weekend. The large trees that are down will have to wait until next week. We also had to suspend our fairway aerification in order to free up labor for the clean up effort. We have fairways #1 and #18 left to aerify and we hope to complete this task as soon as we clean up all of the debris. Below are pictures of the damage and clean up effort. The only tree lost that was note worthy was the small pine located directly behind #6 green. Remember that you can click on the picture for a closer view.

Golf Course Update

As we continue to battle through another early summer heat wave here is an update as to a few of the things we are doing to provide excellent playing conditions:

• We continue to irrigate Tees and Fairways every other or every third night. We are going through wet and dry cycles to promote deeper rooting of the Ryegrass and encourage the transition to our summertime bermudagrass. So far I am very encourage by the amount of bermudagrass that is re-populating our fairways.
• We are two thirds of the way done with our early summer fairway aerification. We should be completed by next friday.
• Next week we will be changing some of our annual flowers around the clubhouse. We will be installing some flowers that have been proven winners for the hot Santa Clarita Summers. Some of the flowers that we will be installing include: Salvia, Vinca, Impatients (Shade only), and Dianthus.
• Greens are doing well. We have establish a dense stand of turf and a deep root system heading into the summer. We will continue to water the greens deeply and infrequently to encouarge deeper rooting. During the middle of the day on days where the temperature exceeds 95 degrees we will be syringing the turf to provide temporary cooling of the turf canopy. Syringing is accomplish by provide a very small amount of water either via a hose or sprinkler head to wet the leaf of the grass plant. The air movement across the wet leaf blade then creates a cooling effect for the plant.

The Perfect Lawn

As we head into summer many are looking for ways to improve the look of their lawn. Every where you look there is a lot of press regarding water conservation and reduced fertilizer and chemical input. I came across this article that relates some of the practices that you can do for your home lawn to improve that look and health of your yard with a pro-environment approach.
Follow this link:
http://realestate.msn.com/lawns/Article2.aspx?cp-documentid=5073676

To add my thoughts to this article. We are fortunate in Southern California to have very little weed pressure. In the case of a home lawn that is properly established, and is cared for in the correct ways in regards to proper irrigation, mowing height and fertility you should not have the need for herbicides. Irrigation is by far the most important aspect to lawn care in the Southwest. For nine months out of the year we do not expect to get rain and therefore rely solely on water supplied by irrigation. It is imperative that you have a irrigation system installed by a knowledgable professional and maintained to assure proper operation. Also, particular attention must be paid to avoiding run off. You must schedule run times and precipation rate to match the infiltration rate of the soil. It may be necessary to schedule in soak times to allow water to percolate through the soil before applying more water.

Here is a photo of the 18th green on Sunday of the Men's Club Championship. Note the Sunday Pin Position. Congratulations to all who played well. I hope you enjoyed the set up of the course. A lot of thought was put into a few new pin and tee positions. Most of the feedback has been positive, but feel free to tell me your opinions or thoughts.

This is the time of the year when the course plays its best. The ryegrass in the fairways is still holding on strong and the bermuda is coming through the ryegrass to fill any voids. We still are experiencing cool nights and day time temps have not been excessive which has allowed us to limit the amount of irrigation. As Craig mentioned in his last weekend release please do your part by following proper etiquette with your golf cart (See the video under related links), filling divots with the sand and seed mixture provided and properly fixing your ball marks on the greens. Please remember that a properly fixed ball mark should not show any soil on the surface.

In the month ahead our only major maintenance practice will be fairway aerfication. Like in years past we will aerify one to two fairways per day and they will be cleaned up before 11 am. On occasion this will require us to close nine holes for the early morning hours. If you plan on coming out to play only nines holes please give the proshop a call the morning of to make sure we will not be in your way.

Ladies Team play and The Classic are also our focus for the next five weeks. We will be trying to attend to all the details to make those events special for all of our members and guests.

Aerification Update

Well it has been ten days are we are recovering from greens aerification right on schedule. For the most part all of the holes are filled in and the greens have digested the sand topdress. Over the next two weeks we will increase are rolling frequency in order to firm and smooth the putting surface. In the addition to the rolling, we will also be lowering our cutting height to increase our smoothness and speed. The Club Championship is just two weeks and we are on the right track to provide smooth, firm and fast putting surfaces. Just as a side note speaking of putting, I picked up one of the new Taylor Made Spider putters that we now have in the pro shop. Now I know why all the Champion Tour Pro's are using them. They line up so well from 10 feet and in, it makes you feel like you can make everything. See Craig or one of the guys in the shop for a demo, this might just be what your game needs to win the Club Championship.
Our irrigation pump was finally reinstalled before last weekend's prelude to a summer heat wave. Many ask about how we irrgiate the golf course. Well this time of year we try to irrigate deep and infrequent. This means heavier water cycles every other to every fourth night. Research has shown that this is the best irrigation method to promote a deeper root system. In our case this style of irrigation is also promoting our transition back to the more heat tolerant Bermuda grass for the summer. Currently our transition back to bermuda is going well. Through the use of growth regulators, proper fertility, deep and infrequent watering, and lowering the height of cut we have seen a good population of bermuda already. During the month of May we will be aerifying fairways and fertilizing them to really get the bermuda growing strong. After our strong effort over the past three years to increase our bermuda population I hope to have a good transition and maintain a dense stand of turf on the fairways for the entire summer.
Coming up next week is tee aerification. We plan on aerifiy the Front Nine tees on Wednesday and the Back Nine on Thursday. This will require a one tee start both mornings. In conjunction with aerification some of the tees will be topdressed to improve the soil structure on the tees.

Aerification is Complete!

We have successfully completed our spring greens aerification. All went well till we woke up today to hurricane force winds. Through a little extra hard work, the staff weathered the elements to get things completed. I would expect that the recovery from Aerification should be good this year. A heat wave is expected this weekend which will help warm soil temperatures and encourage growth. Typically we see complete coverage of the aerification holes within ten days and the greens return to normal putting speed within 14 days. By the time the Club Championship gets here the beginning of May the putting surfaces should be excellent.

Here are a few photos from the last three days:








This is the Vertidrain Machine attached to a tractor. It uses a 3/4" in Diameter solid tine that is 10" long to shatter the soil at a depth of 6-9". This machine is crucial in making sure water will flow through the soil profile.








On the right is the machine that pulls a core out of the surface of the green. This time we went with a 1/2" diameter core to a depth of 2" and set on a 1.25" by 1.25" spacing. The removal of the core is crucial in allowing water to penetrate the dense turf canopy.




This is the labor intensive portion of the job. All of the cores are wind-rowed and then picked up with shovels and removed from the greens. After that back pack blowers are used to remove any leftover plugs and debris.

The greens are then mowed to help clean off the surface and then the sand is applied. We use 75 tons of Dried #30 Silica Sand. Remember that 75 tons equals 150,000 pounds. It is a big job to get all that material moved around the course and applied to the greens. Once the sand is applied the drag mat is used to work the sand into the holes.

After the dragging of the sand, a granular fertilizer and large amounts of water are applied to help settle the sand into the holes and start the recovery process. Over the next week the greens will continually be rolled to help promote surface smoothness and brushed with push brooms to aid in the absorption of the sand by the turf canopy.

Aerification is coming!

I guess some would say it is about that time. Time to screw up the greens just when they were looking so good by punching holes in them and putting sand all over the place. Well, I guess there is some truth in this, but the more important way to look at aerification is preventative medicine. Think of it like going to the dentist for your twice-yearly check-up. The same holds true for aeration. You can skip a visit to the dentist, but you will contribute to problems over the long term. You can skip one of the aerations, but this can result in a faster turf loss. And once you lose turf the recovery process is a long road. Aerification generally is done in our region of year round golf two to three times per year, and sometimes more often if certain problems exist.
An important purpose of core aeration is the physical removal of unwanted organic matter in the upper portion of the root zone. The removal of this organic matter is important for allowing the movement of the water, oxygen, and nutrients into the rootzone.
Like so many things, the quality of a good putting green is more than skin deep. In fact, the condition of a green has a lot to do with what goes on below the surface. In order to keep grass healthy and smooth in a stressful environment such as a putting green, you need to have deep and healthy roots. Good roots demand oxygen, water, and nutrients.
The old phrase “pay me now or pay me later” rings true with core aeration. Core aeration is the most vital preventative maintenance practice we can do to ensure that we have healthy greens throughout the summer. With all that being said, we are scheduled to aerify greens, collars and approaches on April 7th, 8th, and 9th. If all goes well, the greens will be completely recovered in 10 to 14 days.
Our schedule is the following: On Monday we will use the deep tine machine set to a depth of 8" with solid 3/4" tines. We will use most of the day to do all the greens. We will then start core aerification on the putting green. On Tuesday the front nine will be closed for us to core aerify and topdress all of the front nine greens, collars, and approaches. On Wednesday the front nine will re-open and the back nine will be closed for the same core aerification proeess.
Check back to the clog for pictures and updates for how our aerification went this year.

Water, Water, How did you get here?

For those who were on the Advisory committee last year, you had the opportunity to see first hand how we get out water, the pump station that feeds the golf course and the computerized sprinkler system that controls the 1800 sprinkler heads that are on our property. For those who did not get the behind the scenes tour of our irrigation system here is the cliff note version:

Valencia Water Company's Well #160 sits just outside of our maintenance facility adjacent to the #18 tee. This well sits 2000 feet deep and is powered by a 200 hp motor. In a deal that was struck 20 years ago, Valencia Country Club, the original owner of the well, retained water rights that were necessary to supply the course with irrigation water, while releasing all other water rights and ownership of the well to the Valencia Water Company. In a nutshell, we get all the water we want and in return for their ability to take water, they have to provide all maintenance and repairs to the well. Controlled by an automatic sensor, the well is operated to keep our irrigation lake full. Our irrigation lake is the one that comes into play on holes #11, #15, and #16.

With a separate pumpstation, pumping out of the irrigation lake, we supply the irrigation system with water and maintain 120 psi of pressure at all times. Our pumpstation that supplies our irrigation system was replaced seven years ago and is a Variable Frequency Drive that controls 2 -75 hp vertical turbine pumps and one 25 hp submersible pump. It's rated pumping capacity is 1800 gallons per minute. This set up allows for the flexibility to supply the golf course with water when it needs it and does so in a very electrically efficient manner.

So why the dissertation of our pumpstation? If you were playing golf last Tuesday you noticed that a large crane was at the Pump Station adjacent to #11 and #17. This crane was removing one of Vertical Turbine Pumps and taking it in for repair. The removal of this motor cut our pumping capacity by 40%. Now that we have hit 90 degrees on Easter Sunday we are struggling to pump all the necessay irrigation water in the hours of darkness. While the pump is out for repair over the next two weeks it may be necessary to water some parts of the course during the day. We will be doing our best to minimize the impact to golfers and I thank you for your patience during this time. We hope to have the pump and motor repaired and reinstalled within two weeks. Here are two photos of the inside of the pumpstation. Note in the one photo the big hole is where the other vertical turbine motor normally sits.

Kudos to the Staff!

After another successful AT&T Classic, I need to tip my hat to my staff. I am very fortunate to have our Assistant Superintendent, Jesus Reyes, who has been here for 26 years. He is a great leader of the staff and strives on a daily basis to make sure the golf course is presented well for the members. I am also fortunate to have Victor Reyes as our equipment manager. It is a big job to ensure that all the equipment is functioning properly everyday and he takes great pride in his work. Aaron Morris is our second assistant superintendent, who recently completed his education at Rutgers Unversity and has been a huge addition to our staff. Here is a staff photo taken on Saturday Afternoon of the tournament. In addition to our full time staff we had a few volunteers from neighboring golf courses and high schools in the community.

Green Speed and the Stimpmeter

As we are in AT&T Classic week a big question is: What are the greens stimping?
I guess my question back is: Do you know what stimping means?
A Stimpmeter is basically a ramp that allows for the consistent and fair measurement of green speed on a particular course. It was never intended to compare speed on different courses, thus it is incorrectly misused by many. A notch at the top of the Stimpmeter holds a golf ball in place until the instrument is lifted to a standard height. When released, the ball rolls down a groove on the Stimpmeter and onto the green. The distance the ball rolls, in feet, is the speed or "stimp" reading for the green. For accuracy, several readings are taken from different directions and averaged. The instrument was named after Edward Stimpson, who loved golf and wanted to create a measure of fairness.
So now that we are all on the same page as to what stimpmeter is and what the number means that is obtained, the greens this week are stimping 11.25'. This is the goal that the champions tour had and we are doing our best to maintain this speed for the remainder of the week.
To put this number in context for our members, during team play this year the greens were stimping 12'. For the member-guest last week they were at 11.75' and for the member-guest last June they were 11.5'.

Verticutting and Topdressing

If you played golf today you noticed that we verticut and topdressed the greens. The topdressing was not the typical form that is done in conjunction with aerification, but rather it was a dusting of sand. Our Poa Annua greens are verticut and dusted with sand on a frequent basis during periods of active growth to promote surface trueness and firmness.

The golfer controversy over greens trueness and firmness has been ongoing for many years. The following quote from the May 1947 United States Golf Association’s “Timely Turf Topics” illustrates the persistent focus on firm and true greens:
Putting surfaces should be firm to avoid foot printing and should be resilient so that a properly played shot will hold, but should be sufficiently solid so that a poorly-played shot will roll over. The surface should be smooth and true as a billiard table. Density of the turf should be so great that individual grass blades are crowded to a true vertical position. “Graininess,” “sponge” or “mat” destroy the accuracy and Fun in golf. Governing factors include: choice of grass, soil texture, drainage and aeration, fertility level, and watering practices.

Not much has changed in the desire of golfers for a firm and true greens surfaces since 1947. Today quality greens are based up on how true the ball rolls and if the green is the proper firmness to accept a well executed shot. Greens are also graded upon speed. But talking about green speed deserves a whole separate posting, so we will save that till summer.

The process of verticutting and topdress is labor intensive and merits some explaination:

First the green is veritcut in two directions. Then it is mowed with a walking greens mower. The sand is then spread on the green with walk behind type fertilizer spreaders. Finally the sand is brushed into the canopy of the turf using push brooms. The greens are irrigated that evening to help settle more sand as to avoid picking it up with the greens mowers the next mowing.

Rough, Rough and More Rough!

Over the past two months we have had ten inches of much needed rain, two weeks ago we made a fertilizer application to the roughs and now we have had a few days where the high temperature has hit 80 degrees. The end result of the these three things is that our ryegrass roughs are ACTIVELY growing.

In preparation for the AT&T classic we have raised the cutting height by a 1/4". We will be mowing the rought at this height till next Wednesday and then we will raise the cutting height another 1/4". We will then be at the desired cutting height of 2 1/2" for the tournament. We plan on maintaining this height through the tournament and then lowering the height back to our normal height of 2" as soon as possible after the tournament. The cutting height of 2 1/2" is slightly lower than has been requested in years past. This change will hopefully benefit speed of play in the Pro-am tournaments on Wednesday and Thursday of tournament week. This lower cutting height will also allow us to return to our normal standard in a quicker time frame.

This photo shows the three different cutting heights that are currently in place. The active growth of the ryegrass allows for better visual definition of the three different cuts.

In the picture from left to right you are looking at the fairway which is mowed at a height of 1/2", then the intermediate rought which is mowed at 1" and finally on the right is the primary rough which is currently being mowed at 2 1/4"

The tip of the day and for the next month is: Keep it in the short cut.

Here comes another AT&T Classic

In two and half weeks we will once again be hosting the best of the Champions Tour. For us the event marks the beginning of Spring. The trees start sending out their leaves, the flowers seem more vibrant and the ryegrass starts to grow faster than we can mow it. It is about that this time that our grass growing philosophy changes for the next few months. It is now that we begin to feed the turf nutrients to maintain a dark, sexy green color, but not encourage excess growth. We also focus on culturing the turf to develop an extensive root system that will help it survive the summer heat. One of the keys to our success in nutrient management is spoon feeding the turf with the use of soluble and foliar fertilizers.

We utilize a 300 gallon sprayer to precisely apply specific nutrients in the needed amounts. Using this form of fertilizer application requires frequent re-application but is the most envirnomentally responsible way to fertilize. While we are applying the needed nutrients we are also allowed the ability to apply growth regulators when appropriate. We use growth regulators on the turf during this time of year to encouarge the plant to devote its energy and resources towards root growth and not towards excessive shoot growth.

The picture shows our sprayer in action. The markers on the end of the booms drop a little ball of foam to allow our applicator, Gregorio Morales, to see exactly where he has sprayed.

A Fresh start to communicating

Here we go! Time to try something new or as others have said, "get into the 21st century." I am creating this blog in an effort to better communicate with the members of Valencia Country Club. Over the past year I have done a poor job in keeping the membership current with the happenings on the course. This is partly due to the fact that things have been going so well and partly due to the fact that Craig has done a great job in his weekly e-mail comunication. If there was something I needed communicated (or rant about) I had Craig slide it in his "Weekend Release."

My hope and intentions with this blog is to provide a forum for our members to be able to see weekly updates regarding course conditions and maintenance practices, be kept up-to-date regarding projects, be educated as to why and when we perform certain practices with there desired outcomes and most importantly provide a forum for open communication. I have come to realize that every member at some level is interested in the golf course and this line of communication will allow us to satisify this that interest.

Here is how I envision this process working. Hopefully once a week, or possibly more frequent, I will put a posting on the blog. The posting will cover any special maintenance practices taking place on the course, update any unique course conditions, provide updates on projects, show photos, or just be a forum to answer questions or voice opinions. It is my hope that members would read the posts, look at the pictures and post feed back or ask questions. It is my intent that questions will be asked to spark interesting dialogue and education. What is blog will not be is a forum to complain or compare. I am reserving the right to edit all posts and will do so in order to provide a postive environment.

So here we go the first posting and pictures are on the way!