The Fire Pit!!

The big news for this week is that the fire Pit at the clubhouse is finally finished!!! As you may know it was originally built as a wood burning pit but as it sat in the prevailing wind the smoke left everyone around it smelling like a log fire. It has been converted to propane and the finished item looks great. The biggest part of the conversion from wood burning to propane was to add vents in the sides so the propane (heavier than air) can escape and to let air into the bottom of the fire ring for combustion. Once they were in place, Scott our equipment/shop manager built trays that fit in underneath the cap stones. The trays provided the gap for the air and propane to enter/escape below to the vents while reducing the amount of fill needed to finish the pit off. It also required a little re-plumbing of the valve so that it fit on top of the glass and it is now closer to the corner. 

Scott welding the frames

The stone masons installing the vents

The frames being installed (the new vent can be seen in the wall)

Scott screwing the trays together

 The finished tray

Adding a base of sand

Adding the glass

The finished item

This week we also got around to draining the wet area by the Learning Center. We had regraded the lawn area a couple of times so the water would flow to the pond but it never proved effective so this week we added a drain to the area to fix it once and for all.

Since the low spot was actually in the asphalt we extended the drain line into the path so it would capture all the water

The night after we completed it, we had over 1.5" of rain and the area was dry the next morning. That same rainfall washed out all the bunkers and the crew worked diligently on Friday to ensure they were all prepared for the weekend.

 18 washed out

  

 The washouts on 15 

Other than the bunker washouts, the course held up well during the storm and actually dried out quickly - most likely because the rain was so heavy that the majority ran off rather than soak into the soil. As such, we were able to let carts out late in the morning on Friday and we were even able to mow fairways in the afternoon. I decided to mow them as the forecast is for an extended wet period so squeezing another cut in means they can go longer if it gets too wet.  It also helped remove some of the brown/tan areas you may have noticed on fairways. These areas were caused by the fertilizer/fungicide application on Thursday. The liquid potash in the tank was a little 'hot' so it caused tip burn on the plants, especially on drier areas. A 'hot' fertilizer is one with a high salt index which can burn the plant if not watered in immediately - sometimes you have to live with the discoloration for a day or two to get the right product out. While it's never ideal to burn a plant, a little tip burn is not a problem. Grass plants grow from the crown out so the the tip of the leaf is actually the oldest part of the plant, so if it gets a little burn, it is ok as it gets mowed right off. As such, after mowing on Friday they looked a lot better, although a few approaches are still brown but once they are mowed next week, they will look fine again.

Tip burn on 16 fway - Tip burn frequently occurs in the tire tracks as the tire fold the leaf over exposing more of the leaf to the product being applied - again it usually mows right out. 

A close up of the tip burn - you can see the brown tips but that there is plenty of healthy green tissue beneath

Lastly for this post - the tent was removed from the Driving Range tee and the inevitable damage was evident. We sprayed a growth regulator on the tee beforehand so it wouldn't grow too much while covered. This helps in keeping it looking nice for the patrons but also under control so it does not have to be scalped back to regular height. The wear areas on the tee are clearly evident in the picture below and we have already started the healing process. The area was aerated and fertilized and will be nursed back to full health over the next week or so.

The green areas are the areas that were protected from the foot traffic as they had furniture placed on them. The pictures are nice indicators to show how much damage excessive traffic can cause to even healthy turf  and to why it is necessary to minimize stress during periods where the turf is weakened, so it performs well, long term and recover from damage.

It's been a while!!

It's hard to believe that two weeks have passed since I was at the practice round for the US Open at Merion. I spent the following Sunday there with my Dad watching Justin Rose take the win, what a great way to celebrate Fathers Day!!!

Having being out sick for most of last week, and finally getting caught up, I wanted to get back up to date with what's been happening at LedgeRock. In the last post I mentioned that both our large rough mowers had broken down. While Scott is still having issues with getting the older machine repaired, our Toro dealer returned the newer machine to us last Tuesday, which was a great turnaround. We made it through the weekend by ringing the fairways with the smaller mowers to ensure that, at least, the areas where balls most commonly fall were cut, even though we couldn't get to the bulk of the rough. This tied us through and now that the large area machine is back, we are back to our normal mowing schedule.

We are currently back in he grips of heat wave number two for the summer and the course is holding up well - John and the guys did a great job while I was out for the few days with my illness, and shows how valuable a great staff is that knows the course well and can keep up the standards of the club when I'm not around. The issues a few weeks ago that were causing the greens to wilt quickly have been resolved and I have a plan in place to stay on top of it. Yesterday's outing brings to an end of one of the busiest months we have had to date. The hot weather is supposed to break later this week, it is hard to believe that we are almost in July and within eight or so weeks the worst of the stressful-to-turf weather will be done for another year!!

This link is to a panoramic picture for the top of 15 on Monday prior to the Audi Quattro Cup and Tuesdays Outing. The tent should be coming down later today off the Driving Range tee and we will fertilize and irrigate the area so it recovers quickly. We sprayed the area under the tent with a growth regulator and some other products to minimize the damage that can occur from being covered for five days and from the large amount of concentrated foot traffic - for some reason the heaviest trafficked areas are near the bars!!!

Over the last few weeks we have been picking poa annua out of the greens as we spot it. The greens are still really clean (as is the entire course) but inevitably poa is popping up. It is a very invasive plant as it an annual which means it can reproduce very quickly and therefore can adapt to environmental changes with each generation. My maintenance program favors bentgrass and creates an environment that poa does not like - hence why our populations are tiny. Fortunately the amount of poa is still small enough to where picking it is a viable option to keeping the greens clean. There are chemicals available that can kill poa but they work in limited temperature ranges so the current populations do not require us having to run the risk of a broad application. There is a new product that hopefully will be available in the next year or so that, so far in testing is very effective and safe - Once it passes registration it will be a great tool, but until then we will continue picking it. Below is a small patch of poa by the upper tip of the ball mark repair tool.

The pictures below are from the second landing zone on 18. A cart drove past the signs during one of the recent wet periods and damaged the fairway turf. While not major damage, it shows how much damage one cart can do when the turf is soft. Luckily we didn't have to sod this area once we smoothed it out but there is still a few little bare spots and (as can be seen in the pictures) the area has to be skipped when we mow until it heals. It is a nice reminder that cart signs are placed for both the safety of the players and for the safety of the turf. 

As always if you have any questions email me alan@ledgerockgolf.com

US Open week 2013

After years of anticipation the US Open is back at Merion Golf Club. What a great event for the area and it is awesome that it has returned to such a historic venue. It is unfortunate that Mother Nature forced her hand and dumped rain on them before the tournament, as it would have been even more fantastic to see how the pros handled the course under hard and fast conditions. We did not escape that rainfall either, but we were fortunate that we did not get the quantities that Philadelphia and NJ received. The course here has held up well, although at the time of writing I am waiting for the next wave of storms to blow through - it will be interesting to see what it brings. A little under a year ago we had a derecho that came through and 'removed' over a hundred trees of various sizes for us - hopefully tonight's storm keeps the winds to a minimum as I prefer rain over wind damage. 

Some of the damage from last years Derecho

I was at Merion on Tuesday, one of the benefits of going on a practice day is that you can take pictures and not have to deal with the bigger crowds that attend over the weekend. The course was spectacular as always and it is always fun to watch the course staff do their thing at the end of play. The amount of volunteer help that is needed to make sure all the details are taken care of at a tournament of this caliber is something to behold. Walking back to the shuttle I got this great picture of the crew tacking the second hole and the speed at which they can move through the course. The orange machine is a fairway roller which the Director of Grounds at Merion had built to get the fairways to where he wanted for the Open. I really hope the weather cooperates and it dries out over the weekend and there is another big finish at Merion -which hopefully will bring it back there in the future.

A couple of my countrymen during practice

The greens have been relatively slow since we topdressed last week. This is due to the wet weather pattern we are in. I was happy to see the first shot of rain as it washed the remaining sand in, however I have kept the rollers off the greens since as I don't want to push them too far in the wet as it may lead to issues down the road. It is always wise to sacrifice a little speed at times like this to make sure everything is healthy for when the heat and high stress of the summer comes. The long range forecast looks like the rain will stay away for a period after tonight so the greens will be back to their normal speed over the weekend and for the busy outing/tournament schedule over the next few weeks. Overall I can't complain about the weather too much as the spring has been pretty nice but I'm a superintendent so the weather will never make me happy!!

Other than dealing with the rain we have not had too many issues. The biggest that popped up over the last few days is our rough mowers. The newer machine broke down earlier in the week - luckily it is still under warranty but it had to go to the dealer for repairs (Thankfully the dealer picked it up almost immediately and are promising it back early next week). Normally that would not be too much of an issue, but our old back up machine also broke down shortly after the other one.... Scott and Jeff are working hard diagnosing the issue with it and are hoping it will be operational soon. These break downs couldn't happen at a worse time as the roughs are growing vigorously from the rain and we also have not been able to mow them as regular because of the moisture (to minimize the damage to the turf from compaction and machines sliding which are also a safety issue for the operators). 

Scott making an initial evaluation on the older rough mower

Up on the lift getting repaired

Luckily we managed to mow all the roughs with the trim mowers before todays rains and the plan is to at least spot hit the worst areas before the weekend to minimize the  inconvenience. We are working on it and it will take a few days to catch up but if everything goes to plan, it will not be long before it is back to normal. At least it is not as long as the rough the players at the Open have to deal with as can be seen here.

Lastly with all the rain I wanted to remind people about the cart rules post. While we try our best to let carts out as much as possible, there are times when it is not practical for various reason such as protecting the turf and for the safety of the golfers. 

I'm looking forward to the action here over the weekend as the 2013 US Open champ is crowned.

Post Tropical Storm Andrea

The remnants of Tropical Storm Andrea have finally left the area, save for a few showers and the good news is that the we received a perfect amount of rain from the storm. We recorded 1.46" on site and since it was a nice steady rain the bunkers and course held up great. 

No washouts on 15!! 

The fairways are still pretty wet - although drying out nicely - so I am keeping carts on paths only for the day. I was asked about letting them in the roughs, but this beats the roughs up badly as the carts are prone to slipping on the hills and they also tend to be driven close to the fairways which thins out the rough right next to the fairways leading to bad lies. Since it is starting to dry out, and providing we get no more rain later today, carts should be let back out fully tomorrow - although there may still be a few wet areas roped off to prevent damage.

8&9 all raked and ready for play

The crew finishing up 13

The crew have all the bunkers fixed and raked and the greens were mowed, but not rolled today to protect them as they are a little soft of all the precipitation. Tomorrow, they will be rolled and back to normal. The results from the work earlier in the week on the greens has been great and they are looking a lot better with the dry areas starting to re-wet. The picture below is from our turf sensors in the greens. It is really neat to see the 'flush' happen on the graph. The irrigation was turned on around 8:45pm and you can see that they reached their peak moisture a little after midnight when the hydraulic head caused the flush to happen. The irrigation was shut off around 12:30 am. Once the flush occurred the moisture level tailed off from drainage until the greens were irrigated a little after noon to wash in the wetting agent application. The fluctuations from there is the rainfall over the last few days. It also shows how much the temperatures went down through the profile when the green flushed the cool irrigation water through.

I am looking forward to getting down to Merion this week to see the Open - hopefully one of my countrymen give me something to get really excited about!!!

Greens Maintenance

 In my last post I mentioned that the greens had made it through the first heat wave in good condition bar a few localized dry spots (LDS) and that a wetting agent would take care of it. They were sprayed with the wetting agent but the results were not as expected. The dry spots remained, even after plenty of water was added. The greens were wilting quickly after being watered. This unusual behavior intrigued me and I started investigating it. The portable soil moisture meter was saying there was moisture but pulling a core showed that the top few inches were dust dry and the areas were not taking water. After further investigation and a soil test to confirm it, the problem was solved. The greens were suffering from sodium induced wilt which exacerbated the LDS areas. Sodium induced wilt occurs within plants when sodium moves into cells at a higher concentration level than potassium, causing desiccation of cell walls and ultimately wilt. So how did it happen. 

Alex needletining the first green

A number of things transpired to cause it and they were related to the nice spring weather!! The first piece of the puzzle was that I used more Ammonium Sulfate than I normally would use this spring to helps speed up the green up in the lower temperatures. Ammonium Sulfate has a high salt concentration but normally it wouldn't be to much of an issue. Additionally the greens 'flush' from spring storms but this spring has been relative dry and most of the rain we have received was not heavy or prolonged enough to flush the greens. Lastly due to the mild weather they didn't need a lot of irrigation and were performing fine so I didn't even think about an irrigation flush as it is normally taken care of by Mother Nature. This perfect combination showed up once the weather got warmer and the turf couldn't get by on the minimal water available to it - once the wetting agent didn't perform, it showed that there was another issue. 

Step #2 is to mow after the needletine - this ensues any tufts left by the aerator are cleaned up

We use drop spreaders to topdress - this keeps heavy riding machines off the greens while still putting out the required amount of sand.

Cody checking the topdressing rate

A look in the prism guage shows the depth of the topdressing

The good news is that the easy fix has been completed before any damage occurred and there is still plenty of time to continue building roots before any potential heat hits. I know I have mentioned flushing greens in previous posts, but a brief reminder of what it means wouldn't go amiss. The greens at LedgeRock are USGA spec which means they have a perched water table - ie they can hold some moisture to a point, but once enough hydraulic head builds up, they drain (ie the 'flush'). If the water is added slowly they are less prone to flush so they need a prolonged consistent volume of water to get the hydraulic head to the point to 'flush' properly. The flush is beneficial as it essentially gives you a consistent moisture content to build from, it removes build up of excess nutrients etc in the soil (like the sodium) and can also help pull air through the system as the water exits. 

Next step dragging the sand in

Spraying the flushing products to help move the excess sodium

The fix to the problem was easy, although the outing yesterday meant that we had to complete all the tasks during play on Wednesday (and a big thanks to the ladies who accommodated us by starting on the back 9 so we could get it all done efficiently). Due to the tournament and outing schedule for June, today was the only day we could get the greens needletined and topdressed for the month without disturbing either. The needletine helped open the surface and help get air and water to the roots. Next we sprayed the greens with calcium and potassium products that help release sodium build up and move it through the profile. They were then sprayed with Dewcure to ensure they greens can be mowed the following morning without making a mess. The greens were then flushed overnight to move everything through and essentially set them up as a clean sheet. The topdressing didn't help with the sodium problem but it was a perfect time to do it also as the large amount of water for the flush will help knock it into the profile, minimizing the time the greens are not perfect. 

Starting the greens flush at night. It is more efficient to turn them on manually and let them run until they flush.

Result!! 1 Green draining

4 green draining

 

Now that the greens have been flushed clean, they will be fertilized again today and the wetting agent applied again to take care of the LDS fully. Any slow green speeds from the topdressing will be short lived and they will be fully back to normal by the weekend. The remnants of Tropical Storm Andrea will be arriving later this evening and will set the greens up beautiful for the upcoming week. 

I have added the aeration and topdressing schedule to the bottom of the page. The dates may vary depending if the weather is not conducive to the procedures on the scheduled date, but generally it will be very close.

The next update, will be on how the course handles Andrea!!

The First Heat Wave of 2013

As I write a cold front is moving across the country and will shortly break the first heat wave of the summer. While the highs for the few days managed to stay a degree or so below 90F, the humidity certainly did not make it feel any cooler. Humidity is both a blessing and a curse for turfgrasses. It helps in that the high humidity can slow the onset of wilt as the plant has a hard time 'sweating' out moisture when there is an abundance of moisture in the atmosphere, however humidity increases the potential for disease as mentioned in the last post. It is imperative to make sure water is managed perfectly so that the plant retains enough to stay alive, is cooled off while not getting watered excessively, it is kept to a minimum to help prevent disease and that it doesn't puddle which could cause the plant to boil - all still while ensuring it plays as it should. 

The course has come though this spell as expected - ie really well. The only noticeable spots being some localized dry spot (LDS) on greens. These are caused by a waxy build up on the soil/sand particles which repel water, so it becomes very difficult to hydrate them. Wetting Agents help remove the build up and help hold/remove the water as needed. We spot sprayed the known LDS areas on the greens but are still having a few issues with it. While it does not really effect turf health (provided it doesn't dry out too much) or playability it does mean that the crew have to spend more time monitoring the greens to make sure they do not dry out to the point where damage might occur. Over the next week, I will be trying a number of different agents to make sure we are fully prepared for the next hot spell.

Over the last week or so, the crew have edged the bunkers and moved sand around to make sure the depths  and the lips are consistent and looking good. Other than that, we are in regular maintenance mode and the course is looking great!!

On Saturday morning while doing my rounds a nice opportunity presented itself. There was a nice breeze blowing across the course. While I was on 4 green there was no air movement. As mentioned in the fan post, the flag stayed limp until the fan passed it. It was a perfect example of how well the fan works providing a breeze across a surface that otherwise would be stagnant, so I caught a quick video of it. 

Passing 7 green provided a good opportunity to show how much of a breeze was blowing and how much 4 green would have been missing without a fan. 

Finally Berks County Living published its 9 great holes to put on your scorecard this season. Check it out!