Fall work updates

What a November we have been given! After a rain filled September and early October the weather has more than made up for it with warm and dry conditions for playing golf. We hope you had a chance to enjoy the course before the recent cold spell. We hope to have a week or two of golf yet but it depends on mother nature.
Fall is a more relaxed time for the maintenance staff as the stress of summer temperatures are gone and the day length is shorter causing turf growth to slow down. But we still have plenty to do to keep our crew busy. The rains brought a challenge as it kept the grass growing fast but it also made it difficult to work on the course without causing damage.

The swales on the left side of hole 6 have catch basins and subsurface pipes to take the water away. Oddly the system worked through the September rains but suddenly did not drain water at all in October. We tried flushing the lines with high pressure water and sewer rods without success but we were able to determine the location of the blockage and dug up that section.
The tile was put in during the expansion in 1994 and the portion we dug up must have been damaged during back-filling because we found old pieces of pipe in our hole. The original pipe was laid on the native clay but the repair was laid on a bed of sand. This sand seemed to attract tree roots from the Cottonwood trees 70 feet away. One root found it's way into a joint between the original pipe and the repair and from the picture you can see formed a root mass and blocked water from draining. We replaced that section of pipe and the water was flowing again. This time we taped our pipe seams with multiple layers of duct tape to prevent future root intrusion.

The root mass in this 4" tile on hole 6 kept any water from flowing. 

 During the rainy season we noticed the overflow drain for the pond on holes 4 and 5 was not draining properly causing water to run above ground down hole 4 and 8 to the next drain basin causing traffic problems for golfers and our staff traveling to and from the maintenance facility. After investigating the problem we found a section of pipe just past a catch basin was clogged. Upon digging it up we found a collection of reeds, pond weeds and a dead turtle blocking the waters path. We could have done without the turtle but we did find and release 4 large frogs and one bluegill.

A muddy job but a easy fix to remove a clog and allow the water to
flow from the pond on hole 4 and 5. 

Other fall activities include:

• 300 to 500 labor hours blowing and mulching leaves to make the course better for you our customers. By mulching a few leaves daily we eliminate having to pick up and dispose of the leaves. 
• Mow down the natural grass or gorse areas on the golf course to clean them up and keep trees from growing where we do not want them.
• Blow out the irrigation system with air to remove the water and keep the miles of pipe from freezing. 
• Clean all surface drains and mark the ones that tend to clog up with slush and snow so we can find them in the winter.
• Aerify greens, tees, fairways and rough areas that are compacted.
• After we close for the year we apply a medium layer of sand to the putting greens to protect the greens from winter winds. This application also serves to smooth the greens for spring play.    

Blowing out the irrigation system by blowing in air with a 750 CFM compressor.

9 green after topdressing with sand for the coming winter.

As we move from fall to winter we have a few more things to finish up outside as we close holes 10 - 27. We have started our winter equipment maintenance but by December 26th will be ready for spring to start and get back outside. Feel free to call at 920-960-1678 or email davidb@rollingmeadowsgolfcourse.com if you have any comments, questions or concerns. Think Spring!

What Is In That tank?

Golf courses are perceived by some to use a lot of fertilizer, water and chemicals and in the past that may have been true as products and labor to use them were inexpensive by today's standards.
Today's golf course superintendent has a better understanding of agronomics and the needs of the turfgrass plant in thanks to thousands of research projects conducted at universities and golf courses around the world.
Here in the badger state we are fortunate to have the top notch O.J. Noer Research Station and a great staff of UW Wisconsin professors who do product and method research right here. The research station is near University Ridge Golf Course and the work done by the current staff of Dr. Doug Soldat, (soils) Dr. Paul Koch (pathology) and Dr. Chris Williamson (entomology) along with Bruce Schweiger manager of the diagnositc lab and Tom Schwab facility manager have brought Wisconsin Golf Course Superintendents to the forefront in education.
Today's products are specialized for certain diseases or insects rather than the treat-all mercuries, leads and other heavy metals used up until the 1980's. It takes over 10 years from the time a new compound (fungicide, insecticide) is found for it to make it through the registration and testing process at a cost of over 256 million dollars on average.
Today's products are safer for the applicator, the golfer and the environment. They are also on target and many are very low use with ounces per acre rather than gallons. With any product, along with the  research and technology comes a higher price tag so the goal is to use as little as possible.
Occasionally golfers will make comments such as "the fish in the ponds have three eyes", "you must glow at night after spraying" or "I wouldn't eat fish out of those ponds".
Although our ponds are not made for swimming I do not hesitate to go in them when needed for maintenance or to rescue that push cart with clubs that got away. The water is as clean as any other clay based pond and the fish will be as healthy. The lower ponds on 1, 9, 10, 18, 19 and 27 do take a lot of runoff from neighboring roads and parking lots but so do a lot of ponds.
Research has clearly shown that very little chemical or nutrients run off from healthy turfgrass. That coupled with the fact we use as little fertilizer and chemical as possible makes me confident that our water and soils are safe for animals and humans... but we still do not allow swimming for golf balls!
As far as the glowing at night comment the dose makes the poison. The products we use are safe when handled and used according to the label. I wouldn't drink them, but I would't drink houshold cleaners and products either.

If you play golf on Tuesday or Thursday morning you may think we spray something every day, but if you play the other mornings you rarely see this sprayer. And if you play after noon you may have never seen the sprayer.
For us Tuesdays and Thursdays work out the best to apply plant products because Mon, Wed, Fri are our large staff and mow days while Tuesdays and Thursdays we have smaller staff mowing only greens and rough. Spraying is a bit time consuming but it is important to do the job right with precise coverage.

So what is in that tank? It depends on the area and the weather.

ROUGH - The 200 acres of rough are sprayed once per year either in October or May with a 3-way herbicide mainly for clover and dandelions. Some years we will go back in July with a spot spray and just catch the patches of clover. We will spot spray the no-mow areas in June for thistle and other noxious weeds.

GREENS FAIRWAYS and TEES - These areas are usually sprayed every 14 days through the main season. That seems like a lot of spraying but there is a good reason for it.

• Fertilizer - Based on color and growth rate we apply a very light rate of fertilizer .1 to .15# of nitrogen per acre every 14 days to keep the turf healthy and somewhat green without encouraging heavy growth. Heavy growth means we have to mow more often and greens are slower or fairways look shaggy with less roll. Light frequent fertilization is better than one or two heavy applications because it is less likely to produce growth spurts, wash away from the surface or leach through into the ground and away from the roots. A iron source is usually added to each spray tank to provide color without growth. Potash and phosphorus are rarely needed per our soil tests and recent research in Madison has shown how little these nutrients are needed in turfgrass at least in Wisconsin. 
• Wetting agents - Wetting agents "make water wetter" so to speak and allows the irrigation or rain water to enter the soil in a even pattern without dry and wet spots. The use of wetting agents has greatly improved our fairways and greens and allowed us to keep them dryer without the risk of dry spots and trouble re-wetting the soil if it becomes hydroscopic and resistant to taking in water.
• Herbicides - We generally do not use herbicides on greens but tees are usually sprayed for crab grass once per year and fairways for clover and knot-weed once per summer with a three way herbicide. This year crab grass has been heavy throughout the state so we may need to spot treat some of the rough areas next year. 
• Insecticides - We have been lucky in our area and have had little grub problems in the rough so we have not applied any products there. Fairways greens and tees are preventativly treated for grubs early in the season. Grubs of all kinds eat at the roots of grass plants causing drought like symptoms. They can also lead to damage from crows, skunks and turkeys digging up the turf looking for a tasty meal. New products provide season long control of grubs without any damage to beneficial worms and other insects. Greens receive treatments for cutworms once or twice per year while ant mounds are treated by hand as needed. 
• Fungicides - Our main fungus problems are dollar spot in the summer and snow mold in the winter with occasional brown patch or pythium during very hot and humid periods. Fungicides are added to the spray tank when needed based on the weather pattern and forecast. Research started in Madison and continued at other universities has been invaluable to reduce fungicide use and  reduced fungicide use is the goal of researchers, the superintendents who apply it and the golfers who have to pay for it. The "Smith-Kerns" Dollar Spot Predictor Model came out of UW Wisconsin and can substantially reduce fungicide use by just tracking the weather. It also puts science behind the 6th sense turf managers have had all along. 
• Growth Regulators - Our final category of product is the growth regulator designed to enhance plant health and lateral growth while curtailing vertical growth. This year our regular use of growth regulators has allowed us to mow fairways three times a week rather than 4 (a savings of 12 man hours per week) and allowed us to skip two mowings a week on greens (a savings of 8 man hours per week) during normal weather patterns. The other benefit of growth regulation is smoother greens and closer mowed fairways with less clippings laying around after mowing. With growth regulators more is not better, and in some cases more can harm the turf or stunt growth to a point recovery from traffic and play is reduced.

With greater technology comes more applications of less overall product overall savings in dollars. This was a short description of a very in-depth topic. If you ever want more information on the products applied to the turf you play on feel free to ask.

Mowing Down The Jungle!

Forgive me golfers for I have been busy, it has been 5 months since my last confession... I mean blog post. I do have good intentions to keep you updated but then work gets in the way and time for blogging, tweeting and other social media forums.

Rolling Meadows has 5 acres of marsh that golfers cross on holes 6, 7, 13 and 14. These areas are played as water hazards and hold water during normal weather patterns.  The areas are mainly reeds and marsh grasses with some scruff trees that pop up every year. We try to mow or burn the marshes each fall or winter to keep trees from growing too tall and cleaning up the debris.

The marsh areas look good most of the time but especially the second half of summer when the foliage turns brown and is a nice contrast to the green turfgrass. However this year the weather has been perfect and the areas really grew tall with reeds over 12 feet tall. On Holes 6, 7 and 13 golfers struggled to see the hole and on holes 6 and 13 the plants actually knocked normal tee shots down.

The marsh looks great but really toughens the hole by
knocking down low shots and hiding the fairway.

After mowing the hole looks and plays easier as the second fairway comes into view.

In dry years like 2016 we can mow down the plants with our tractor and flail mower.
In case your wondering there are a lot of bugs in the marsh.

In the pictures below you can see the tools used when the marsh is too wet for the tractor.
A day of slinging the blades and swatting mosquitoes awaits lucky employees.

For our customers who love the view of the marsh we left hole 14 alone mainly because the tees are elevated enough players can see the fairway despite the tall grass and reeds. 

Winter updates

With temperatures the past two weekends giving golfers the itch it reminded me to write a update.
We are busy preparing for the season with equipment maintenance to ensure a smooth mowing season. Reels and blades are ground, bearings and seals inspected and changed when needed, lubricants and fluids are changed and filled. Luckily we have a equipment hoist to allow us to closely inspect frames, hoses, suspension and hidden areas of the mowers carts and tractors.
For turf managers the perfect winter is a warm November followed by a slow steady cool down to put the plants to sleep and the allow the ground to freeze 12-18 inches. On top of this a foot of snow in a couple small storms before Christmas with steady below freezing temperatures are just what the turf needs. To come out of winter it would be best if February 10th we started a slow steady warm up with no temperature swings and a light breeze.
We have never had a perfect winter nor do I think we will so each winter brings surprises and challenges. Although this winter was not severe it did offer unwanted warm spells, snow and rain bringing us a crusty 6 to 18" of snow with a little ice at the surface. Turf mangers wait with anticipation for the snow to melt so we can inspect the turf again and make sure we have had no winter problems.
One concern a lot of course managers had this winter is the fungicides we applied for snow molds were subject to early winter warm spells with sunlight to degrade the contact fungicides and rain to wash away the products. I have been out the past two weekends and the only snow mold I have seen is on the untreated roughs and so far it looks superficial or just on the leaf tips.
The other concern each year is long term ice suffocating the turf or turf sitting in water either in puddles or under ice for long periods of time. With the mild winter long term ice was not a concern but for the past two weeks many parts of the course have been sitting in water under a layer of ice/slush or just in a light layer of water due to the slow snow melt and temps near 30.
Home lawns are rarely a issue nor is the golf course rough but greens, tees and fairways can be damaged from repetitive freezing and thawing. The best thing is to just get the snow and ice off the greens reduce how much water is held.
Many years we are able to take our snow blower and blow the greens off before a warm spell but this year it was difficult due to the crusty nature of the snow and the ground not being frozen. The last thing we need is to damage the turf with tire tracks or gouging from shovels or equipment.
This season to shorten the melting process on greens to remove a layer of snow, slush and ice we applied a green dye to the problem areas. The dark color of the dye absorbs the sunlight and helps speed up the melting process. Other courses have used black sunflower seeds, Gypsum or sand. Milorganite fertilizer can be used because it is black and will not harm the turf and will then be available as a slow release nutrient source in the spring.
The dye worked and yesterday afternoon most of the greens were clear and dry. A little snow this week should not hurt anything and will melt off fast with the sun higher each day as we approach spring.

February  24, quite a bit of snow on 4 and 5.

10 Green Feb 21st, sitting in water and slush.

10 Green Feb 22, Dyed green to speed up melting.

Feb 28, 15 green was blown off leaving a island of turf surrounded by snow.

We are hoping for a warm spring and hope to see you on the links soon!