Open Again

The old adage "Never say Never" has proven itself true once again as we re-opened the golf course for the 2015 season on December 8th. The only other year we had golf in December at Rolling Meadows was in 2009 when we closed Dec 1st.
There a couple reasons why we haven't had winter play in the past.

1. After closing the course we apply a layer of sand to the greens to reduce turf loss if we have a open winter. Although smooth this sand can be aesthetically difficult to putt on. Also, when the sand is wet it sticks to shoes and balls.After winter snow and rain the the sand incorporates into the turf to improve the greens for next year by diluting thatch and providing a smooth firm surface.
2. With our clay soils our property holds water as the frost comes out of the ground. Even with the mild weather we still have some paths that are mushy due to frost just under the surface. Last weekend the course was too wet for play while other courses in our area were open. Fortunately things firmed up so we could re-open.
3. We have pockets that hold snow on each 9 hole layout. Due to drifting and shade we have holes that the snow drifts in and is slow to melt even during mild weather. 
4. The days are short and the sun is low. Usually any daily warm-up in temperatures is short-lived each day and play is limited due to darkness. Despite how warm it has been the marsh on hole 14 still has ice on it as the reeds keep the sun from reaching the water.

Overall we hope golfers are as happy to be playing  as we are to see them during this unique weather pattern.

The first green shows the topdressing sand covering the green. Although it looks odd, it putts pretty good and in December we are just happy to be playing.

Cleaning the equipment is a cold messy job but a important part of winter maintenance.

Thank you for coming out and enjoying winter golf. We are happy to be getting some outside work done to get us a step ahead for next spring.

Thank You For a Great Season!

Thank you to all our customers for another great year and for your support. The season brought a early and warm spring a good summer and ended with a great November.

We appreciate those who attended our fall members meeting. We had some good discussion about all areas of the operation. I will recap a few things from the meeting and the year.

Trees- Our main project was to continue to remove Ash trees in the fall. I am surprised how many customers have never heard of the Emerald Ash Borer despite our communication efforts and the articles in the paper as the city works to remove 5,000 trees in public property with more than that on private property. The state of Wisconsin has over 25,000,000 ash trees. So we are not alone in our tree removal work.
At Rolling Meadows we started with 386 ash trees in play and removed 40 in previous years, 40 this past summer and over 100 this fall. Holes 4, 16, 19 and 25 are the most affected. Most of our green and white ash are at the end of their useful life with our without the ash borer and were becoming brittle and dangerous.
We choose to remove these older trees rather than treat them but if you have a better ash tree in your yard I would not wait to treat it. 
They say the least expensive day in a trees life is the day it is planted. The same goes for labor. The most labor intensive part of the process is stump grinding, cleanup, regrading and seeding or sodding. After getting prices from contractors we are doing most of the work in-house to remove them economically.
We did hear a lot of comments about how bare the course looks and we do agree it does look different. However different is not bad and on most holes removing the trees has brought out the land forms and contours of the property. You had a beautiful and challenging golf course before we starting removing ash trees and you will have a beautiful and challenging golf course when we are done removing ash trees. We are planning to start a tree planting program in late 2016 with a opportunity for golfers to donate if they want.

Closing - The last die-hards played on Nov 20th and the weather quickly went downhill from there. We were the last in the city to close but realize their are area courses that stay open later if not all winter when the weather allows. We are often asked why we do not stay open all winter as some courses do. The two main are:

1. Our clay soils to are not conducive to allowing winter play as we can hold a layer of water at the surface that is not fun to play and and could traffic on the saturated soil may cause damage.
2. We apply a heavy load of sand to the greens after we close to protect them desiccation due to winter winds. The layer of sand produces better putting next year but does reduce putting quality now. We think it is better for us to close and sand the greens for better putting next year. 

Then of course the economics of staying open for a couple customers a day just do not make sense. Hopefully with the predicted El Nino winter spring will come early to the Midwest and we will be on the links before you know it.

Winter work - We have started our winter maintenance on equipment and the buildings to prepare for 2016. Now is the time to find and fix all the little things to reduce downtime during the season.

Thank you again for your business in 2015 and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hopefully we will see green grass again in March.

September Again

Each spring I have hopes to update this blog every couple weeks or at least monthly. Well it is September first and I have not said a word since spring. My apologies and I will try to do better.

Although September is here there should be plenty of good golf days left to come out and enjoy the course. Some of the many things we did this summer included:

DRAINAGE - Drainage improvements were made to holes 9, 10, 18 and 26 to help move surface water away from the playing areas. With a rented trencher we cut a trench 4” wide and 2 to 3 feet deep. After cleaning out the loose material at the bottom of the trench 2” of pea stone is laid at the bottom followed by 3” drainage tile with perforations (holes) in it to allow the water to enter. We also install catch basins at the surface to move water from low spots quickly. Then the trench is filled with pea stone to the top and allowed to heal. Then the fun starts as we shovel up the spoils from the trench. Each season we improve the drainage on a couple holes to improve playability during wet periods.

TREES- 40 ash trees were removed on holes 2, 5, 8, 16 and 25. You can see my previous post from April regarding the Emerald Ash Borer. Over the next few years we have another 120 trees to remove before they become dangerous. We did find signs of the ash borer larvae in some of the trees so I would suggest you treat the trees at your house soon if you have not. With preventative insecticide treatments most ash trees can be saved. Most of the ash at Rolling Meadows are near the end of their useful life and will die in the next 10 years without the borer so we choose not to treat them.

Although we will not replace every tree removed we do have a replacement program in place. Thanks go to our Tuesday and Friday night Sandbaggers league as they have adopted the area between 22 and 25 to purchase trees.

MOWING AND ROLLING - Mother nature has been kind to us this year with decent temperatures and regular rains. The rough mowers have gotten a workout this summer. We did struggle to keep green speeds consistent as our  mowing and growth regulator program did not keep up to the surging growth. As we enter the shorter days of fall it is easier to keep growth under control so speeds should stay consistent.

You may have noticed we have been trying a couple different brands of lightweight greens rollers to see which one will work the best for our course. Our current brand works but we need to see what else is out there. University research has shown rolling greens on a daily basis provides the best putting conditions. Believe it or not multiple research studies have shown rolling daily and mowing every other day provides smoother conditions than mowing daily without rolling or mowing daily and rolling every other day.

One of four lightweight rollers we tried.

 

 

Cody Dohrman rolling hole 1

BUNKERS – With our heavy soils and bunkers prone to washing out we try to improve a couple bunkers each year. On hole 26 we choose to remove three small fairway bunkers and make the areas grass depressions. Removing a bunker properly is more work than putting one in and after 110 labor hours and one more seeding the areas should be playable in late fall. On the docket for late fall is to rebuild the greenside bunker on hole 24. This is one of 4 original course bunkers and in need of a re-boot.

Thank you for your business this season and we look forward to seeing you many more times before the snow flies.

What Happened To The Trees?

"What happened to the trees?" was a common question during league meetings this spring. In reality over the 27 holes we cut down 9 trees so we still have 400 left without counting the sections of unmaintained woods. One ash on 2, three ash on 16 and the most noticeable ones were the five silver maples behind the 8th green.

The silver maples on 8 were too close to the green and causing quality programs due to the root system going under 8 green but we cut them down only because they were nearing the end of their lives and becoming brittle. Each time we had a decent wind a good sized live branches were falling down with the potential to injure a golfer.

The removal on 8 left quite a opening behind the green and that opening looks barer than it is because the rest of the trees on 2 and 8 do not have leaves yet. Once the other trees leave out the look will really change and there will be a background to the green again.

I did find it odd that when we removed the maples around 27 green 3 years ago the very undulating green looked flatter but when we removed the trees on 8 the green the previously flat green looks more sloped from back to front and left to right.

Hole 8 with the Silver Maples.

Hole 8 with the trees removed early this spring. The
look will change as the background trees leave out.

The second common question this spring is what trees are you going to plant to replace those trees on 8? Although we appreciate the many suggestions it is not our goal to have trees right on the green bank. We have planted 3 trees away from the green that will grow up to give background to the green without the agronomic problems.

The trees on 2 and 16 were ash trees that were also brittle and near the end of their lives but did not show any sign of the emerald ash borer that has been  found near the golf course.

Regardless of the lack of any current signs of the borer on our property it is probable we will lose all our ash trees in the next 10 years. Most of the ash on the course are nearing the end of their useful live anyway so we have decided not to treat those with insecticides. 

On the other hand the few ash we have planted in the past 10 years are small and easy to remove and replace with a better species before we invest in treatment for the life of the tree.

Rolling Meadows has almost 200 ash trees along fairways and behind greens. We will be replacing trees but not on a one to one basis. A few less trees will open up the course without eliminating the challenge the trees bring.

For mature ash trees that add value to your home or property there are new insecticide treatments you may want to consider now before you trees start showing signs of decline. The sooner they are treated the more successful the treatment will be.

It is thought the Emerald Ash Borer came to North America from Europe or Asia as part of crating or pallets.  Without treatment it will kill every ash in Wisconsin just as it has in Michigan and Illinois.

The adult Emerald Ash Borer
 

The damage from the larvae
under the bark kills the tree.

The D shaped hole on the trunk is a sign of the adult borer.

Early opening

Many courses in the middle of Wisconsin were able to take advantage of a early warm spell and a week of sunshine and open for play early. In Fond du Lac with our clay soils it is rare we are one of the first to open. However with little snow and no rain the course went from white to firm enough to play in just a few days. The Fond du Lac area had a less snow than courses to the south that typically open early.

The main factor to determine when to open is when the greens are firm enough for traffic. The greens go from mush to firm when the frost leaves the upper surfaces and the greens drainage system can take away any extra moisture.

The first rounds of spring are exciting for golfers and staff alike. It is fun to be open and see customers return to the links. Due to the sand we "topdress" the greens with in fall we do not mow in early spring but we brush the greens to smooth any water or windblown sand and then roll them. We also change cups and this year raked the sand bunkers that did not have snow in them.

You will notice most of the holes are still dormant and brown as are many lawns in the area. Soil temperatures at 3" are still in the mid 30's and there is still frost in the ground below 12". A warm rain will help to warm the soils and green up the turf.  It looks like we are in for a cooler spell but we look forward to seeing you on the warmer days during this bonus early spring golf season.

When the wind, humidity and play allows we do a prescribed burn to some of our long grass or no mow "gorse" areas to reduce the organic matter from last years growth. Burning allows for a cleaner look and reduces the chance of smothering any new growth while reducing unwanted trees and weeds in the native areas.

Burning needs to be taken seriously as it can be dangerous to people and other properties. First we need the relative humidity to allow burning or we are just wasting our time. Second we need to have winds under 15 mph to keep the fire under our control. Most importantly we need to have enough staff to control the fire and ensure players are out of the way from the fire or smoke.

Burning the long grass mounds behind the approach bunker on hole 12.

The black burnt mounds are a stark contrast to the still dormant playing surface on the 25th green.

What The Heck Do You Do All Winter???

What do you do in the winter is a common question for golf course employees and the simple answer is "work" the joking answer is "play cards" and the proper answer is "a variety of things."

First of all we are often working outside to Thanksgiving putting the course to sleep, applying sand topdressing to greens and tees, cutting down dead or dangerous trees, winterizing the buildings and irrigation system along with putting everything away and getting ready for winter maintenance.

We use up some vacation around Christmas and starting the first of January really get into equipment breakdown. The first part of my winter is spent in the office making sure parts and supplies are in order along with finishing record keeping from the previous year.

Records for weather, maintenance practices, purchases and time sheets of work done to the golf course are kept to provide a historical comparison. Some recordkeeping is mandated by state and federal rules. Some of those include our fertilization plans and records, chemical applications and storm water run off inspections and training to reduce suspended solids in the water ways.

Other work includes placing orders for this year and a big part of that is comparing specifications and obtaining quotes to ensure we get a good product at the best price.

Office work is a necessary evil both in ant out of season.

Winter is also a great time for education to learn new technologies or methods along with new products and laws or rules that may be coming our way. Some educational sessions we attend in person but more and more great sessions are offered via webcast either live or by recording. It is a another great benefit of membership in trade groups such as the Wisconsin Golf Course Superintendents Association, Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, Wisconsin Turfgrass Association and Turfnet.

Continuing education sessions provide new and renewed ideas while the
breaks provide for networking with others in the industry.

Our main winter activities include equipment and building maintenance. In the clubhouse Jeremiah touched up the paint and layout of the golf shop while Tiffany spruced up the Bar and Grill with a fresh coat of paint. In maintenance we painted the concrete floor in the heated shop. We also made a cover for our air compressor. In the past we couldn't talk to each other while it was running due to the noise.

Equipment maintenance is a big part of winter. We use reel type mowers on greens, tees and fairways. Reel mowers give a better cut at lower heights but they also have a increased level of maintenance. Each year every reel is ground to the proper angle and the bedknive is replaced or ground to the proper angle. This grind allows the blades to cut the grass cleanly providing for a healthier plant and better playing surface.

The equipment hoist is key to proper inspection and maintenance.

After maintenance a wash and wax has this 14 year
old mower looking new and ready for the season. 

This year it is time to take the 20 fairway mower reels (4 mowers - 5 reels each) fully apart and paint them, replace the bearings and seals. This is a time consuming process and makes mess in the shop with parts in piles all over the place. But in the end it is the best way to get a long life from the units. We do one type of reels each year and after three years we will be back to the fairway reels again.

One of our first jobs each winter is to put up our temporary paint booth so we can paint without fumes or overspray all over the building.

Our off season preparation allow us provide a quality product during the season.  Feel free to contact us by person, phone or email if you have any questions about what we do in or out of the golf season.