Valencia Country Club Golf Course Maintenance

Letter to Members and Staff

2009-08-29T14:59:00.000-07:00

August 29, 2009

To the Membership and Staff of Valencia Country Club,

Sometimes opportunities can come our way that force us to make difficult decisions. I have made the difficult decision to leave Valencia Country Club to pursue an opportunity at Lakeside Golf Club. Admittedly this decision is bittersweet.
For the past eight years, Valencia Country Club has provided many avenues for my personal as well as my professional growth. I was able to host eight Champions Tour events, renovate the practice facility and other areas of the course, and most importantly, make improvements to the daily conditioning and manicuring of this Robert Trent Jones, Sr. layout. The current issues facing Lakeside will allow me to continue to grow as a professional and to broaden my experience. After eight rewarding years at Valencia, I am ready and excited to address the challenges that Lakeside Golf Club will offer.
I feel very fortunate for the many relationships I have made at Valencia. Jim Fitzsimmons had the confidence in me to give me the autonomy to make crucial decisions involving the golf course, our membership, and my staff. Our Head Pro, Craig Cliver, has not only been a pleasure to work with, but we were also able to form a Head Pro / Superintendent team that rivals the best in the business. Much needs to be said about my maintenance staff and our assistant superintendent, Jesus Reyes. He leads a dedicated crew on a daily basis to continually improve the golf course and meet our goal to provide one of the best maintained courses in Southern California. Finally, the relationships that I have formed with the Membership will not be forgotten. All of you have supported me through every frost delay in the winter and every 100- degree day in the summer. Thank you!
As I leave Valencia, I feel the course is in a good place. The course has survived the summer months well. The greens have full turf coverage and provide very good putting surfaces on a daily basis. Our fairway Bermudagrass populations are as high as I have seen during my eight years. With our new fleet of equipment, the maintenance operation has all the tools it needs for a successful overseeding this fall.
Jim has asked for my assistance in locating quality candidates for my replacement, and also to be involved in the interview process. I will assist him in every way possible to ensure that Valencia’s next superintendent be qualified to continue the high level of golf course maintenance that is a tradition at Valencia Country Club.
Respectfully,
Robert Hertzing

California Air Resource Board

2009-08-28T08:23:00.000-07:00

On July 26, 2007, the California Air Resource Board (ARB) adopted the in-use off-road diesel vehicle regulation, which will reduce harmful emissions from off-road diesel vehicles that operate in California. The regulation applies to all fleets that own and operate self propelled off-road diesel vehicles with engines 25 horsepower or greater within California. Golf Courses may own a variety of affected vehicles such as mowers, sprayers, material haulers, and other diesel equipment used for golf course maintenance. Off-road vehicles are ones that cannot be fully registered to drive on roadways, and were not originally designed for use on roads.

This regulation requires all applicable fleet owners to report their off-road diesel vehicles to ARB and label them with equipment identification numbers (EIN).

Beginning this morning we are in fully compliance with labeling. We waited till that last minute to put on labels with the EIN's that were assigned. Unfortunately, there are regulations which dictate size and location of the EIN on each piece of equipment. As you can see in the photo the EIN is large and, in my opinion, unsightly.

More information regarding this regulation can be found at http://www.arb.ca.gov/

Driving Range Yardages

2009-08-27T11:39:00.001-07:00

New on the Driving Range this morning are signs that tell you distances to the target flags. We have located six locations on the range tee for the signs. The location closest to the tee line on will be the sign that will be out that day. The Yardages are measured from where the sign is located. Hopefully this will help everyone dial in their game for the up coming Grupp Cup!

Drainage

2009-08-26T08:55:00.001-07:00

This was the seen this past winter during a heavy rain. Behind #18 green the cart path and the slope have surface drainage that runs on to the putting surface. This created a difficult situation during one of the Men's Team Play matches because the pin location was where it is shown in the picture.

To help minimize the water shed that comes from behind 18 green we are installing sub surface drainage. The drainage will be typical with drainage that we have installed in other areas of the course. It will consist of a trench 12 inches deep. At the bottom of the trench there will be 2" layer of gravel put down before we a lay down a 3" perforated pipe. Then the trench will be topped with gravel and new sod installed on the top of the trench. This drainage will help minimize the amount of surface water that feeds on to the green. In addition to this drainage project, we will also be address a wet area on the right side of the #12 fairway. All of the work will take place over the next two days.

Procore 648

2009-08-14T08:06:00.000-07:00

The first piece of our new equipment fleet I am going to profile is the Toro Procore 648. This machine is an aerifier for greens and tees and when it came on the market 5 years ago it revolutionized the way we look at aerifiers. It is faster and punches a cleaner hole the than any of the its competitors or predecessors. More information about the machine and a video can be found on Toro's website:

http://www.toro.com/golf/cultivation/aerator/green/648.html

It just happens we are going to use our new aerifiers at the beginning of next week. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we will be lightly topdressing greens and then using our aerifiers to spike the greens. The spiking allows for better water movement into the soil profile and faciliates gas exchange from the soil to the atmosphere. Once the greens are topdressed and spiked, the sand will be brushed into the canopy with push brooms and then rolled. Once the greens have been rolled the spike holes, which are a 1/4" in diameter, will not be noticeable. The greens will be rolled through the week as the sand settles into the turf canopy.

In order to accomplish this task in a timely manner and with as little disruption as possible there will be now early morning back nine play on Tuesday, August 18th and Wednesday, August 19th.

This morning we performed this process to the chipping green and the back portion of #17. Victor Reyes, Jr. is operating one of our new aerifiers in the photo:

Out with the old and in with the new.

2009-08-10T10:36:00.000-07:00

If you were around the club last week you saw bits and pieces of some new equipment. Well, this week you are going to see the whole fleet. The lease on our high use equipment expired on August 1st, so out with the old and in with the new. We began the process of back in February with getting competative bids and then looking at leasing companies. Six months later all the pieces have fallen in place and now the golf course and members will benefit from a state of the art highly efficient fleet of equipment. We replaced 41 pieces of equipment, most of which are used on a daily basis. The new equipment allows the maintenance staff to be more productive and reduce the down time that we saw with aged equipment. In addition, the new equipment will provide a finer quality of cut, use less fuel and have lower emissions.

In future weeks I am going to profile the different pieces of equipment, their features and how we use them.

This a photo is of Federico Cervantes using one of our new Fairway mowers this morning.

July weather recap

2009-08-03T12:14:00.000-07:00

Well the month of August has so far been kind in the weather department. The high temperatures have mellowed out and we are going to take adavantage of a few forecasted cool days. Monday and Tuesday this week we will be spiking and verticutting greens. Tuesday afternoon we will apply a light topdressing and then leach the greens with a heavy irrigation cycle Tuesday night to help push the sand into the turf canopy.
A quick recap of July's weather:

all 31 days had a high temperature in excess of 90 degrees
23 out of the 31 days the temperature exceeded 95 degrees
at one point in the middle of the month we have 7 days in a row where the temperature exceeded 100 degrees
the hottest day of the month was the 19th where the mercury hit 108.

Good news is from all the hot weather is the bermuda in the fairways has transitioned nicely and good fairway surface conditions will exist till overseeding.

Stairs

2009-07-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

For the past week Dennis Keene's Crew has been at the course replacing the stairs leading to the 13th tee and the gold tees on #4 and #8. Here is a photo of the completed job on #13.

Driving Range Use

2009-07-23T17:58:00.000-07:00

Here is a topic I have been wanting to discuss for a while. Even though we rebuilt our range five years and expanded the tee surface by 50%, we can still struggle to re-grow turf before the tees are rotated back to a particular spot. Our greatest struggle is in the winter when cold weather prevents rapid turf growth. The single biggest impact each member can have to help the situation is having a small footprint when it comes to range use. What do I mean? Create your divots in as tight as pattern as possible. I saw these two very different stalls this morning. The one golfer consumed about 6 square feet while the other consumed about 2 square feet. Bottom-line is if everyone hit balls on the range so that their divot pattern took up as little turf as possible, we would have better and more mature turf on the range year round. The first photo is the proper divot pattern, the second photo is not.

Temperature Update

2009-07-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

For those of you keeping score. Sunday we hit a temp of 107 F, Yesterday and we hit 102. We are on a high level program of syringing greens in the afternoon to help cool the turf canopy. We also did go forward with raising the cutting height on the greens. For those of you technical people, we typically mow at .125" or 1/8 of an inch. Today we raised the cutting height to .140" or 9/64" of an inch. We continue to roll greens a couple times per week to help preserve green speed. Hopefully this heat wave will break soon. One of the few benefits to slower greens is greater number of pin placements. We can place cups in spots that would not be playable with quicker green speeds. Hopefully for the next few weeks you can enjoy a little variation in the course set-up.

Cart Path Repair

2009-07-21T13:35:00.000-07:00

The last two days as been devoted to cart path repair. While a lot of our paths need some work, we had to select the worst areas first. This morning we poored 20 yds of concrete on the paths the run between #12 and #15. These spots had the most damage from tree roots and ground settlement. You can see our resident mason, Randy Bragdon, supervising the pouring today.

High Temp.

2009-07-18T17:37:00.001-07:00

Just in case you were wondering...The high temperature on our weather station today was 105F and it occured at 2 pm.
I get asked a lot of which weather forecast I use. Well I look at about four different ones, especially when it comes to different models for rain in the winter. As far as getting an accurate temperature forecast in the summer I like the National Weather Service. The following link is for the Valencia Area:
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=34.4239033407167&lon=-118.575439453125&site=lox&smap=1&marine=1&unit=0&lg=en
The triple digits are expected to continue through next week. If you come out to play be sure to drink plenty of water before and during your round. Once you start to feel dehydrated its to late! Key is to drink water and be well hydrated before heading out into the heat.

Heat and mowing heights

2009-07-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

Well the summer heat has arrived. We are in the middle of a long extended heat wave. The last seven days have brought us temperatures near 100 everyday and the forecast is for this heat wave to continue well into next week. While we have kicked our greens maintenance program into overdrive with syringing, leaching cycles every seven days and preventative fungicide applications, our last step in preserving the health of our greens through the heat of the summer is raising the mowing height. I raise the mowing height as a last resort because in addition to slower green speeds and I feel that smoothness is negatively affected on our Poa annua putting surfaces. In order to minimize the affect of the higher high of cut we will be rolling greens two to three times a week.
To help explain the benefit and necessity to a raising cutting height I want to share something the Dr. Larry Stowell from Pace Turf has published.
" What do golf course putting greens and thoroughbred race horses have in common? More than you might think. Both are high performance products of scientific innovations in breeding and management that have resulted in faster horses — and faster greens — than ever before in history. As a result, both require specialized and intensive care to achieve their high performance levels. Like horses, turf must be supplied with sufficient nutrition, water and care. If they are lacking in any of these, they become weak, more susceptible to disease, and incapable of high performance. Without attention, they die of starvation. The importance of being green: Unlike animals, plants don’t have to obtain their food from outside sources. Instead, through the remarkable process of photosynthesis, they can make their own food inside the green tissues of their leaves and stems. All they need is sunlight, air, water, and enough green tissue, and Presto! They can manufacture enough starch and energy to fuel their growth and reproduction. But many factors can interfere with photosynthesis. On golf course greens, mowing heights that are too low are one of the most important, and one of the most common reasons that greens fail during the summer. There comes a point when the turf plants simply don’t have enough food to support the growth of roots or the production of new leaves. If the plants are mowed too low for too long, their food becomes limited, they become weak, and they eventually succumb either to
disease or starvation.
Higher mowing = recoup time for turf: While greens (like race horses) can survive extreme conditions such as low mowing for short periods of time, their long-term survival depends on time for recuperation, when higher mowing heights allow for production of new leaves, roots and other tissues.
Bottom line: Fast greens can become dead greens quickly, especially during the summer when turf is already stressed by heat. The low mowing heights that produce faster greens can remove so much leaf tissue that the plant is unable to produce the energy it needs to survive. Research has shown that even a slight increase (1/32”) in mowing height can result in dramatic improvements in turf quality, disease resistance, recovery from stress and root growth. It is therefore frequently necessary to raise mowing heights during the summer or other periods of stress. Green speeds may decrease as a result, but when you consider the alternative — that is, dead turf — it is a small price to pay."

Bunker work

2009-07-15T08:25:00.001-07:00

Over the past two weeks we have be doing work to a few selected bunkers on the course. We started with the main bunker on the chipping green. Since it was constructed 5 years ago sand from bunker shots has accumulated on the top lip of the bunker. A lot of sand. My best estimate is that the top lip become about 12 inches higher than 5 years ago. After original construction you could see the chipping green surface when standing in the bunker. The top lip had grow some that you could not longer see the surface when standing in bunker. In order to re-establish the proper height of the top lip we removed the sod, then graded and removed all of the excess sand. It was easy to find where the original grade line was because the original grade was in soil and all of the excess material was sand. Once the original grade was re-established we laid new sod and replaced the sand in the bunker.

On the course, bunkers on holes #9, #10 and #18 received some attention. With these bunkers we re-established there original shape and contour. Years of maintenance and edging can drastically change the shape of a bunker. While the staff does a great job in trying to minimize this change, we selected these bunkers were playability may have been affected to work on first. Here is a before and after of the back right green side bunker on #9:

Weather Update.

2009-07-06T10:47:00.000-07:00

After the month of June treated us so well with cool weather, July is taking us for a beating.
95 degrees is the temperature that we begin to kick our greens maintenance into overdrive. When the temperature reaches this point we begin to scout for dry spots on the greens through out the day and then syringe greens in the afternoon to cool the canopy.
For a recap of the Year to date; in month of May we had 5 days where the high temperature exceeded 95 degrees. In the month of June we only had 3 days. So far in five days in July, 4 of the days have exceeded 95 degrees.
So summer is definitely here. We appreciate your patience when we have to handwater and syringe greens.
For your friends that follow from Palos Verdes, we have had 4 Days this year in excess of 100 degrees. Was that a jacket I saw you wearing this weekend?

July 4th!

2009-07-03T07:09:00.001-07:00

July 4th marks an important day for golf course maintenance here at VCC. One of our goals and objectives for the golf course is superior playing conditions from January 1st to July 4th. Now this is not to say that we slack off for the rest of the year, it is just in the first half of the year when our grasses and conditions allow us to achieve excellence. Around this time of year is when the heat starts to take its toll on the ryegrass in the roughs. The greens also become stressed from the consistently warm temperatures. In addition, we start to see the short comings of a 22 year old irrigation system. However, we still work hard to produce very good playing conditions through the rest of the summer till overseeding.
I would consider this year to be a success. Starting with Men's Team play and working our way through all of the major golf events that we host for the year and finally wrapping up with Women's Team Play and the President's cup, I feel that our maintenance staff has been able to produce to outstanding conditions for every event. And today leading into the July 4th weekend the greens are reading 11 on the stimpmeter and the fairways have a 100% turf coverage with the bermuda transition progressing nicely. My hat is off to my staff, they are the ones that get it done on a daily basis.
One interesting bit of information and reasoning for why we focus so much on the first six months of the year: 70% of the total rounds of golf for the year are played in the first half of the year.
With fewer people on the course in the next two months it allows us to accomplish some projects that can only be done in the summer months.
Starting this week we re-leveled a sunken area in #2 approach and re-sodded with bermuda grass a weak area around the drain in #10 fairway and the left side of #17 fairway.

Here are two photos from these projects

Beginning next week more projects will be under way. A few of the projects scheduled for this summer include:
1. Renovation of the large bunker at the chipping green. Sand as accumulated in excess amounts on top of the bunkers thereby not allowing the player to see the putting surface from the bunker.
2. Re shaping of greenside bunkers on # 9, #10, and #18
3. Re leveling and sodding of Lake edge on #8
4. New stairs to #4 and #8 gold tee
5. Repair of Cart path where it is shared for #12 and #15.
6. Addition of bunker sand to the greenside bunkers.

As we work our way through these projects I will be posting updates as to our accomplishments and the process that we will be going through.

Happy 4th of July!

Summer time irrigation

2009-06-30T08:46:00.001-07:00

In an effort to help promote the warm season Bermuda grass, we practice deep and infrequent irrigation. Deep and infrequent irrigation means that when we do irrigation it is with sufficient quantity to wet the soil profile. Then we do not irrigate again until the water in the profile has been used by the plant or has evaporated. This deep and infrequent technique favors the deep rooted and more heat tolerant Bermuda grass. Typically for the month of July the fairways will be irrigated every third night. As you would expect the morning after an irrigation event the fairways are wet. You might get some mud on your ball and in places you may hear the water squish under the cart tires. On the second day after an irrigation things are drying out and playable is good. On the third day the fairways have dried and the course will play firm. By the afternoon of the third day you will see some drought stress on the areas of the fairways that are populated with cool season ryegrass. In the areas that are highly populated with ryegrass we will add supplemental water on the second and third day to help these areas survive until the next irrigation cycle.
Transition to Bermudagrass is going well this year. In addition to the other cultural practices that we do the method of deep and infrequent irrigation will ensure that transition is as quick and as painless as possible.

Aerification Update

2009-06-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

We are now two days post small tine aerification. The aerification process went very well. The process this time started with vertical mowing in two directions, then the sand was applied to the greens. After the sand was in place then we aerified with small tines on a 1.25" by 1.25" pattern. Then greens were then seeded with bentgrass and the sand was dragged in a figure eight pattern to fill the holes. The greens were rolled and then fertilizers were applied. Potassium and Calcium were applied to help offset the ill effects of the sodium in our water. Over the last two nights the greens were heavily irrgiated to help settle the sand into the canopy and move the applied fertilizers in to the soil. During the recovery the greens are rolled every afternoon. We will return to mowing on daily basis starting Saturday. I would expect the green to be fully recovered by next Wednesday. The two pictures are of our afternoon greens rolling that help smooth the surface and push the holes back together. The other photo is an up close of a typical putting surface this afternoon. You can see the small holes made by the aerifier are now filed with sand and the rest of the putting surface looks like it recieved a good topdressing.

Venting!

2009-06-19T14:43:00.000-07:00

A Mid-Summer Venting

Small Tine Aerification and topdressing will occur:
June 22nd and 23th
Holes 11 -17 will be completed on Tuesday the 23rd. We hope to have these holes available for play by 9 am.

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.

Lake Maintenance

2009-06-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

Over the years, one of the most problematic areas of the course is our lakes. The lakes heat up in the summer time causing algae to bloom, fish to be starved of oxygen and give a off a smell that is not so pleasant. Some of the causes of our lake problems are excessive organic matter on the bottoms, excessively shallow, and a lack of water movement and aeration. The first two problems would require complete reconstruction. The last problem is something that can be addressed. Yesterday we completed installation of an aeration system on our irrigation lake. 9 air diffusers are set up through out the lake to help maintain oxygen levels and circulate the lake vertically through the summer.

Currently the Pondweed in lake is actively growing. Today and tonight we will be lowering the lake level through irrigation. Then on Wednesday morning we will chemically treat the pondweed. The lake level will need to remain low for 48 hours and no water can be removed from the lake in order for the herbicide to work properly. The herbicide does not harm the fish or other wildlife. Once 48 hours pass we will refill the lake a resume normal irrigation on the course.

The photo shows one of the lake aerator pods. Also in the lower portion of the photo you see the pondweed that growing near the banks of the lake.

Fairway Aerification

2009-05-19T15:34:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow we finish our early summer fairway aerification. We began May 4th and completed one to two fairways per day. Tomorrow we will complete the 6th fairway and that will be our last. There are many reasons and benefits to aerification. For us we aerify fairways this time of year for two predominate reasons:

1) Add create channels to allow oxygen to penetrate into the soil. By increasing the amount of oxygen we see an increase in soil temperature and an increase in the microbe activity. The increased microbe activity adds in the breakdown of organic matter in the soil. Organic matter in soil is the type of soil that gets sticky when wet and allows mud to stick to your ball. The increase in soil temperature encourages bermudagrass growth.

2) Aerification also allows sunlight to penetrate the turf canopy to where the bermudagrass shoots are beginning to grow after winter dormancy. Bermudagrass is a sun-loving grass and grows best with maximum sun light. Many agronomists, including me, argue that the biggest killer of bermudagrass is a lack of sunlight.

May is a busy month for the golf course. The days are longer and the weather is perfect, despite what Craig thinks, and therefore we do more rounds of golf this month than any other. Please do your part in keeping the course in great shape by filling divots and fixing ballmarks.

One last thing, if you wonder why I have not posted an entry in the past month please visit- www.laurenhertzing.blogspot.com

Congrats!

2009-05-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to those who won their respective flights in the Men's and Senior's Club Championship. Once again it seems as though the golf course stood its' ground. I was pleased with the way the course was presented for the tournament. I felt for three weeks post aerification the greens rolled well and the course firmed up through the weekend to produce championship worthy conditions. I am very fortunate to have such an excellent staff that time and time again steps it up a notch for tournaments.
Moving on to this week. Today we began fairway aerification. Like in years past we will attack one or two fairways a day. By doing this we will have the fairways cleaned up and ready for play by 10 am. This week will be working on the back nine. Next week we will focus our attention to the front. Next week we will be starting play off #10 to allow us more time to work on the fairways prior to play. We conduct our semi annual aerification during the month of May to help encourage our transition to bermudagrass for the summer months. The aerification allows sunlight to penetrate the turf canopy and reach the emerging bermuda grass. In conjunction with aerification we will be applying a granular fertilizer for the bermudagrass and applying a growth regulator that will slow the growth of the ryegrass while not inhibiting the bermudagrass.
In addition to fairway aerification, we will also be verticutting and topdressing greens on Tuesday and Wednesday.

An Update on a busy week.

2009-04-27T13:22:00.000-07:00

The picture of the yellow dot represents the hole locations for the Men's and Senior Club Championship this weekend. As you are out practicing and fine tuning your game this week you can check out the hole locations for the weekend. There are three dots on each green and you won't know which dot correlates to which day until the tournament gets here.

This is a busy week for the golf course.

On Maintenance day Monday we are aerifying the Driving Range and re-distributing sand in the bunkers. Both of these are time consuming projects and require most of our labor for these two tasks.

Tuesday is Ladies Team. We will be double cutting and rolling the greens for the ladies and their opponents. Beginning Tuesday afternoon and continuing on for a few days we will be having a golf course photographer out taking a few photos of the course. His name is Aidan Bradley and his work can be seen at www.golfcoursephotography.com

The rest of week we will be preparing the course for the first major of the year.

The greens are 95% healed from aerification. As the week progresses and we continue to roll the greens, our speeds will be back to normal and we will be ready for the busy months of May and June.

Dan Forsman Note

2009-04-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

I recently recieved a note from Dan Forsman, 2009 AT&T Champions Classic Winner, that I would like to share with everyone:

Dear Robert,
Please accept this check as a "Thank you" to you and your amazing staff who worked so hard to prepare the awesome Valencia Country Club for the AT&T Championship. The golf course was in tremendous condition and I particularly liked the 18th green. My wife Trudy and I were hoping perhaps you could host a BBQ or special gathering for for you and your staff who worked so hard during the tournament week and all year long.
We know you will do what makes sense and please thank everyone for their hard work and kindness. They say it was the last, but we are sure hopeful it won't have been. We dearly want to come back.
Robert, please invite Craig and his staff as well as others you would like, as they all worked so hard and made the week extra special for all of us.
Warm Regards,
Dan

Aerification Begins!

2009-04-07T07:51:00.000-07:00

We started aerification yesterday. We completed deep tining all of the greens and aerification on the putting and chipping green. This morning we begin finishing the aerification process on #1 and will be working in order. Typically we finish nine holes today and nine holes tomorrow. However, due to the rain in the forecast for tonight and continuing into tomorrow we will be aerifying as many greens as possible today.
Our Spring time aerification is a 12 step process:
1. Deep tine using a 3/4" diameter tine that goes 9" into the ground.
2. Roll green to smooth any tuffing from the deep tine machine.
3. Aerify greens and approaches. We are using 1/2" diameter tines on a 1.5" x 1.5 inch spacing.
4. Pick up plugs. This is done the old fashion way with scoop shovels and muscle.
5. Blow clean green surface.
6. Verticut green.
7. Mow green with groomers in the on position.
8. Top dress with #30 silica sand. It takes about 100 tons to cover 190,000 sq.ft.
9. Drag green to work sand into holes
10. Use power brushes attached to a triplex greens mower help smooth sand over entire surface.
11. Apply fertilizer. Nutrients quanites are applied based on soil and tissue tests.
12. Irrigate one heavy cycle to help settle sand into the holes and start the recovery process.

April Fools week

2009-04-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to give a quick update as to what is happening on the course this week.

We are aerifying roughs in traffic areas. We will finish aerification this week and then apply wetting agents and soluble calcium. This process should help keep our high traffic area looking good well into the summer. The photo shows the aerified rough between the cart path and fairway near #18 green.
Thursday morning we grounded the stump on #2. We will be cleaning this up and sodding the area. We will then be adding 2 pines in that area.
We added an irrigation head in # 5 fairway. We have a historically dry zone in #5 fairway that we continually have add supplemental water. To help eliminate the constant hand watering of this area we have added an irrigation head that we be controlled from our irrigation system.
We prepping all of our machines for greens and approach aerification next week. Aerification will be just like last year's Spring aerification. We will utilize deep tines along with shallow hollow tines and then filling the holes with sand. Estimated full recovery is 11 to 12 days. I will post more on aerification in the next few days.
One final thing, we have added 3 stalls at the range. Due to the season and the quick recovery time in the spring we can accommodate more stalls. When the heat of the summer kicks in and turf recovery slows we will have to re-evaluate our range stall situation.

Wild Week of Weather!

2009-03-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

Last Thrusday we hit 87.5 degrees, then we cooled off by Sunday to 53 degrees and 4/10" of rain. Following rain Monday brought us winds that hit 45 mph. Now that the wind has subsided we have hit 30 degrees that last two mornings. These are big swings that keep us on our toes when it comes to managing the golf course.

The winds brought one casuality:

This is the pine that was on #2 hole about 100 yds from the green right of the fairway.

The winds also left us with a lot of debris to clean up. In addition to cleaning up debris this week, we have aerified tees, verticut and topdressed greens and repaired a main line irrigation break behind #14 green.

Getting back to Normal

2009-03-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

After a very successful AT&T our maintenance operation as been full steam ahead in getting the golf course back into shape for the membership. The first priority is getting the rough mowed. On Tuesday we mowed all the rough on holes 1, 10, 18 and 2 thur 9. Today we will finish the rough on holes 11 thur 17 and then head back to the other holes. The current rough cutting height is 2 1/4" Within a few weeks we hope to be back to our normal height of 2"

Here is a photo of rough mowing taking place this morning.

Practice Round

2009-03-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

Practice Rounds started today. Very few pros are out today as it is probably a recovery day for those that played in Newport Beach. Richie is out on the course playing his practice round with our Head Pro Mr. Cliver. Between the two of them I am sure that they can figure out the course.

Rich's tee time for the pro-am on Wednesday is 7:40 of the 1st tee.

Final grooming is taking place on the course. The roughs are being topped at 2.25" and the greens are rolling 11 feet on the stimpmeter. This picture was taken of the 8th hole a few minutes ago.

Rainy President's Day

2009-02-16T08:09:00.000-08:00

As of 8am this morning we have had 3/4" of Rain. The rain currently has tampered off to a light drizzle. As you can see from the photo above many of the greens have a lot of standing water.

Currently the course is closed until noon. At that time we will reassess that saturated conditions and determine whether or not we will open. Our decision will be based on whether or the not the course can accommodate play with out causing long lasting damage. When the greens are saturated a foot print or indentation can be seen for a long time.

Weather up date.

2009-02-11T11:34:00.000-08:00

A quick weather up date. Since my La Nina posting we have had some rain. Over the past 6 days we have received 2.25" of rain with a little amount of hail mixed in for good measure. Yesterday and Today have been good drying out days for the course. Today, once the frost cleared, we were able to get the mowing fleet on the course. We are trying to get everything mowed prior to the next forecasted rain event on Friday.
Now that things have settled back down after the "transition" events of the past few weeks I promise to be more diligent writing entries to keep you up to date about the golf course.

Dry!

2009-01-19T08:14:00.000-08:00

While I don't want to make this Blog all about the weather, I feel that the weather it one of the single biggest limiting factors to the condition of the golf course. Last post I talked about frost and how we have been affected by it. Well it never fails, two days after that last post we have had a high pressure system set in over the southwest of the US and it has been non stop wind and heat. Last January we had 9 inches of rain for the month of January, so far this year we have had 0. And no significant chance of rain is in the forecast. While this dry month has been great for playing golf, the drought situation that we face in the Southwest portion of this country continues to worsen.
The US National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center recently (January 8, 2009) posted an important Climate Prediction Update. Based on lower water temperatures in the central and east-central Pacific Ocean, climatologists are now calling for a La Nina condition in the Northern Hemisphere for Spring, 2009.
For the U.S., this signals above-average precipitation in the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys, and below-average precipitation in the South, especially the southwest and southeastern states. Warmer weather in the southern U.S. and cooler weather in the Pacific Northwest are also likely outcomes. This is bad news for southern states that have been suffering with a drought for the past several years.
Outside the U.S., a La Nina conditions usually results in high rainfall over Indonesia, and below-average precipitation over the central and eastern equatorial Pacific.
For more detailed information on El Nino and La Nina, see this very good website, Frequently asked questions about El Nino and La Nina.
At this point water rationing could be mandated as early as this summer. Valencia CC does have a plan in place to reduce water consumption if mandated and will be done so in a way that protects that playability and turf health of greens, tees and fairways. If we get to this point I will have a more detailed posting on how this will be implemented and what to expect. Until then, conservation will be key and a rain dance can only help.

Winter is here!

2009-01-06T07:46:00.000-08:00

Our first frost of the season was on December 14th, about 3 weeks later then normal. Since this day we have made up for the lack of frost by having frost on 21 of the last 24 days. Two of the days with out frost it was raining.

Frost occurs when the soil surface is 32 degrees or below, causing dew to freeze on the turf. The ice crystals that form are lovely to look at, but are also the most serious hazard to the health and appearance of turf during the winter months. Frost produces a silvery sheen on turf as is illustrated in the photo above.

Frost by itself does not necessarily cause damage to turf. However, when weight is applied to frosted turf in the form of foot or vehicular traffic, damage will result. This is because frost transforms turf from a s soft, springy surface to a fragile, brittle surface that cracks when pressure is placed on it.

All types and heights of turf can be damaged by frost, not just putting greens.

Golf cart traffic on frosty turf results in damage that appears 2-3 days later. Walking on frosty greens also produces foot shaped patterns of brown, dead turf. In both cases, turf is slow to recover, leaving unsightly brown areas for weeks or even months.

Frost is frequently an early morning problem that is relieved once the sun comes up and air temperatures rise. Once frost crystals melt, turf is safe for foot and vehicular traffic.

There is really only one way to avoid frost damage, and that is to avoid all traffic until it has melted.

Winter has arrived!

2008-12-15T15:57:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-26T06:13:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-18T20:48:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-03T20:34:00.001-08:00

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..

2008-11-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-25T10:43:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-24T10:28:00.001-07:00

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??

2008-10-22T07:12:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

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.

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.
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.
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 !!!!

2008-10-03T13:32:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-29T20:26:00.001-07:00

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

2008-09-09T15:26:00.001-07:00

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.

2008-09-05T12:22:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-26T20:56:00.001-07:00

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?

2008-08-20T17:31:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-07-13T11:52:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-06-18T10:16:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-06-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-22T20:02:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-18T11:39:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-18T11:23:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-05-06T13:12:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-20T07:53:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-04-09T22:19:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-04-06T16:08:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-03-23T19:02:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-03-17T20:09:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

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

2008-02-28T16:45:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-02-27T17:16:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-19T21:27:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-06T20:01:00.000-08:00

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!