Those white marks!

Over the last month or so you may have noticed white marks appearing on the greens. The small white dashes or 'T's are the areas where the greens are stimped. Up until this fall we were very limited on where we could stimp the greens. 

Stimping 1 green (normal distance)

This is because flat areas are needed to get an accurate reading but once the greens are up to speed, the amount of suitable flat areas are greatly reduced. The USGA launched a new stimpmeter to address this. It only requires half the distance of the regular stimpmeter so it is easier to find an area to get an accurate reading. Even with the shorter required distance, finding suitable spots can be difficult; therefore the small 'T's were painted so the suitable spots could be found quickly and to ensure consistency. The other benefit of being able to stimp more of the greens on a regular basis is that it ensures the green speed is consistent from green to green - which incidentally is the real reason the stimpmeter was created. 

The last week of October saw a number of bigger white marks appearing. These are marking the drain lines in the greens. The as-built drawings were damaged during construction and over the years, the greens drainage clean outs etc were lost. ISTRIC's expertise came to the rescue with their camera snake and tracer. 

Camera Snake viewer

Marking the drainage laterals

With a bit of practice they showed us how to locate a drain line (and in most cases the clean outs). Once they were found the snake was sent down the drain and the laterals were easily visible. The white marks show where the mains and laterals intersect and now new as-builts can be created. The second benefit is that the drainage could be checked for damage making sure it is working properly with no blockages; the great news is they all looked great. 

Marking 2 green - the drainage didn't end in the rough so will need to be extended

The third benefit is, now that the clean-outs have been located, a backpack blower can be used to blow air through the drainage system (similar to a Subair system) which will help keep the greens drier and healthier going forward. The Subair systems are expensive and when given the choice of fans or a sub-air style system, the fans were more beneficial as explained in this old post. Through their research ISTRIC discovered over the last few years that hooking a backpack blower to the drainage system can replicate the Subair process. While not as efficient as the more expensive unit, it is a very cost effective way to move air through the profile. What all this means that now we not only have a method to dry the turf surface during hot humid spells, we can also accelerate the root zone dry down also; which provides more options for watering the problematic shaded greens. The ability to blow air also helps release 'sewer' gases that can build up at the end of the drain lines which can be toxic to turf. 

This is the final piece in the puzzle for maintaining the pocketed greens. It'll take a year or so for the management of these greens to be fully dialed in as we learn how they can be ultimately pushed. A few years ago these greens needed to be nursed though the entire summer from the onset of the heat, requiring more fertilizer, a higher height of cut and reduced rolling (all resulting in slower, less consistent surfaces) to surfaces that now remain consistent with the others all summer and this past year only started showing signs of stress in early August. Now they should be able to get over that last hurdle and remain healthy all year along with being consistent.

Blowing air through the drainage with a backpack blower

Earlier in the year I promised more pictures from construction 10 years ago. It's hard to believe how far the course has come.

1 green from the right rough

3 pro tee

5 fairway

6 tee - note the cart paths were not installed

7 tee

8 approach

9

11

15

15 (note the path in the left fescue that was the entrance to the Learning Center)

Aerial view of 14, 8, 7 & 6

Entrance bridge construction

The entrance bridge finished

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

As always if you have any questions or comments send me an email: alan@ledgrockgolf.com

Fall Update

Fall is here and the course has seen the first frosts of the season. On October 9th, the first 10,000th round in a year was played! Thanks to the  nice weather, the Club is well on the way to hit 11,000 rounds in 2015 - making it by far the busiest year since opening!

The maintenance staff has been busy since the last post at the end of July. August of course was aeration month; the course being cored the week of the 17th but unfortunately it didn't go smoothly...... The biggest issue was the irrigation pumps that shut off in the nights prior to starting, meaning the course was not watered properly before being 'opened up'. The greens were okay but the fairways were really dry and did not look their best once everything was done. Of course all this coincided with the hottest and driest period of the year, so the only answer was to water the course to keep it where it was until the heat broke and the turf had a chance to recover.

Fairway aeration starting on 1

Fairway core clean-up - the brushes on the sweepers beat up the turf causing it to bruise. Normally it can withstand the torture! However due to it being dry this year the turf bruised more than normal.

The bruising on the fairways from the sweepers and dry turf

3 fairway right after it was swept

3 fairway the following day. The irrigation prevented any more damage. The leaves turned brown but the crowns were healthy so all they needed to do was grow out.

13 Fairway right after it was cleaned up

13 again a few days later showing the speed of recovery

Unfortunately the wet fairways meant that the course conditions were not ideal for a few weeks. It was frustrating for the maintenance staff as we wanted the course to play better but had to ensure the long term health. As I discussed in this past post, watering isn't all that it seems and even though the turf is wet it can still need to be watered if the weather is hot and dry; with the turf under stress from aeration coupled with the heat, it will die if not given sufficient water. When the weather broke with 3.5" of rain right before the Berks County Senior Amateur, the turf was healthy for a great tournament set up even if it was still very wet from the precipitation. With the the turf fully recovered and healthy, coupled with dry weather, we were able to dry the course down; it was playing fantastically for the Rock and in the weeks since. 

Normally carts are restricted or path only after a 1" storm but an exception was made after the 3.5" before the Berks County Senior Amateur. This is the damage carts do to wet turf - it was concentrated but shows why cart restrictions after a large rain event are necessary. 

The usual troublesome greens had some issues again after aeration this year. There was minimal aeration performed on them and they looked great in the days after they were topdressed. Number 2 green was by far the worst and I believe a number things came into play. These pocketed greens suffer from lack of air movement and take an age to dry down. Last winter all the trees that prevented early morning sun were removed from around 2 green. Coupled with the fans providing air movement (and helping dry them) and better water management I believe the issues started before aeration when they had been possibly dried down a little too far. 

They got a rest over aeration as they had not been mowed for a week and when when the mowing restarted, it coincided with the hottest period of the year. The turf there had adapted to it's growing environment (i.e. lack of sun, humid, wet); although it liked the better growing environment and thrived earlier in the year once the added stress of the heat and aeration came, they gave up, thinning out and taking a longer period to recover - a fact that was highlighted by how quickly the other greens recovered this year. By the Berks County Senior Amateur they were all putting consistently and were fully back up to speed the following week once they dried out from the storms. 

2 green a week after it was aerated 

Recovery was slow but within a few days it showed improvement

Within 10 more days it was nearly fully recovered and was ready to be brought back up to speed. It seemed like it had taken a lot longer at this time, mainly due to the fact the other greens healed exceptionally quickly and were fully back up to speed a week or so earlier.

So what does this mean for aeration next year? Now that we have corrected the issues around these greens they will do better each year - which was proved this year when they didn't show stress until early August when normally they would show signs of weakness in early June. There are a lot of factors that need to be considered when maintaining greens in less than ideal environments; changing even one of those factors results in it taking time to see what it effects and then adapting to what new issues crops up. Eventually a point is reached where everything  is addressed and they perform as expected. While the pocketed greens still require slightly different management techniques to the 'open' greens, now that the major issues are corrected, the maintenance practices can be dialed in until they perform as they should. I am confident that they are close to being where they need to be and the plans for 2016 will be successful.   

Since the Rock the crew have been busy around the course with some fairway extensions, building a bar and horse damage repair!

The fairway mowers had a difficult time making the turn at the beginning of 7 fairway leaving this tire mark that always needing fixing.

The edge of the fairway was modified to make it easier for the mowers to turn and eliminate the tire marks permanently.

6 fairway was widened by the approach. Balls would roll to the right rough and get caught at the interface between the rough and fairway. There were discussions about making that area bent grass but the architect said it would result in an even tougher shot. The solution was to make more room to the left which also gives more options to hit to the green.

Building a bar in the cart barn for Rocktoberfest!

The neighbors horses broke in and did damage to 17 and 2 greens. Luckily it looked a lot worse than it was.

It took a few hours pinching it back together and all was well again

As the growth slows down, maintenance slows too and last weekend was the point where the crew were laid off for the winter. Maintenance therefore will not be at the same levels as during the summer. Overall the course will play well but the detail stuff will be on hold until spring so bear with us! The height of cut on the greens will be raised to start pushing roots so the plant can build reserves before it shuts down for the winter, but green speeds should still remain 'sporty' for the rest of the year. 

I also have to thank all the maintenance staff for their hard work and dedication this past season. For a multitude for reasons we ended up short- staffed most of the year and the crew really pulled together working overtime to fill in the gaps so the effect was minimized. 

Sorry again for the length between updates but I promise the next update won't take as long!

As always let me know if you have any questions or comments; alan@ledgerockgolf.com