Maintenance Mayhem

Wow! After a 3 day holiday weekend the club was closed on Tuesday. The golf course maintenance gang went to town with a wide open golf course. Numerous important tasks were completed while taking advantage of no golfers.

The ongoing  task of Bermuda suppression was done around our greens in the zoysia collars.  This is an extremely important task to have ample time for the product to dry on the leaf before having foot traffic walk through it and walk on the green as it would harm our  bentgrass greens. For this reason, this practice is a challenge for us to do during play days so Tuesday was perfect!

Tree work was also on the hit list. We removed a pine tree next to the cart barn that was causing debris issues in the cart barn drain. A dead elm tree at the maintenance facility was removed as well. Last but not least the famous Oak tree on hole number 18 was limbed up significantly and shaped a little bit. 

Bunkers made the cut too! We are experimenting with some rubber based paint to color our black liners white so when exposed they are much easier on the eyes. The bunker behind 6 and a few bunkers at 12 green were done this time. We plan on continuing this process when time allows, but this is another hard task to get done during play days. I have been waiting on transportation of white bunker Sand to maintain proper Sand depths in bunkers. After four weeks we are supposed to receive a load this Friday, so we will be addressing bunkers very soon.

Putting greens were also vented. Once again this process helps exchange gases within the soil and promote root growth at this time before summer sets in. We followed up with a smooth roller and a light top dressing on Wednesday. Our sanding rate was a little heavier than I would’ve liked but greens will be great for the weekend.

Finally, on Tuesday we started sod prep to repair poor areas in fairways. Prep was finished on Wednesday and sod was completed today on Thursday! Please avoid driving through these areas or walking through them. They will be pretty soggy for the next week or so to get the turf rooted in.

Our landscape bed rehab at the bogey hills clock near the practice green is complete! Great work by our horticulturist, Jeny, planting a variety of plants for a new upgraded look!

Moving Forward

Hello!  Time to dust of my blogger app!  It’s turned into a really busy year and the past month has been jamming with both golf and maintenance events!

I’m going to start with a really cool video that has been going around about the golf course maintenance crews preparation for this past weeks US Open. This video really demonstrates the same thinking, planning and work we do at BHCC, just on a slightly smaller scale. Take a look! 👀 

Behind The Greens Winged Foot

Now back to Bogey!  We successfully completed the aerification of greens for this fall season! Technically we actually did them twice.(shhhhhh)🤔🤫 

A week ago we pulled a 1/2”core, cleaned the surface, sanded, brushed, blow excess sand, roll, water and everything else under the moon during a couple long days.  This week we snuck in a 1/2” solid deep tine at a 6” depth! The trick is that the solid tine leaves a smaller affected hole in the surface than a 1/2” hollow tine used the week previous.  The result is NO added recovery time!  Tomorrow we are fertilizing greens which will help finish closing in the holes by the end of next week hopefully.  Please note we dislike the aerification process as much as the members dislike the putting surface during the healing time.  I enjoy looking at a perfect and tight putting surface and it kills me to look at bumpy holes but we know this is the necessary process to allow us to provide premium putting greens throughout the golf season! Thanks for your patience and understanding!

Picture after pulling 1/2” core a week ago

Picture after 1/2” solid this week

We have also made a mess out of the roughs while over-seeding a fescue/bluegrass mix.  Most seeding was concentrated around greens and fairway entrances and exits.

Finally, last week we also treated fairways for Bermuda contamination for the last time this year.  With this application and the unseasonably cooler weather, fairways have really yellowed off quick.  Unfortunately that means the change over to carts on paths is looming in the near future.

Caught Up To Speed

A quick update to get everyone up to speed.  We have been busy punching holes in our warm season surfaces.  In the past two weeks we have solid tined all of our collars, pulled a core on selective tee boxes and attempted to pull a core in fairways.  We received a surprise storm the night before the scheduled fairway aerification and decided it was too wet after starting #17 fairway.  We are looking to possibly reschedule fairway aerification for July 27th.  During this span of time we have also vented greens with needle tines and continue to do so on a biweekly basis.

We have also made applications to fairways, collars and tees for Bermuda suppression.  Current bronzing in collars are an indication of hurt Bermuda grass.

Last but not least, damaged areas in fairways and a few small spots in collars were repaired with zoysia sod.  We have a few more small areas left to complete.

Certain Shade Of Green

Hope everyone had a fun and safe fourth!  It was groundhogs day again for us on the maintenance squad.  Another day well into the 90’s with the heat index over 100.

But hey, the zoysia fairways, tees and collars are great!  Unfortunately around here we can’t ever get the best of both worlds. While warm season turf is thriving our cool season turf is dying.  Not instantly, but a slow and painful decline.  Checking our weather stations data I found we have experienced 35 days above 90 degrees since May 7th.  You kidding me?  This is after it was snowing the first week of April!

Below is a link with some additional data and information in regards to our current conditions and challenges.

The latest post from Dr. Lee Miller at MU Division of Plant Sciences

Greens are still hanging in, but every move for the next 40 days must be calculated carefully.  After multiple golf events in the past two weeks the greens showed signs of bruising from intensive rolling and stress from intense heat and humidity.  For this reason we are going into defense mode and the roller will start collecting some dust in the barn.  Think of mowing as cutting finger tips and rolling as smashing with a hammer.  Painful huh?  Daily tasks have lethal repercussions if not managed properly.  Recovery is difficult and slow this time of year.  A small cool down seems to be in play for Friday thru Sunday and will be instrumental in some summer relief.  Thanks for your understanding.

Please be understanding and patient while we shower greens throughout the day throughout the summer. This practice is imperative to the plants health during stressful weather conditions.

On a completely different note we applied our first application for Bermuda grass suppression around greens early last week.  Signs of injury to Bermuda are evident now while Zoysia is still looking really good.

Another picture that shows light bronzing of Bermuda within the Zoysia in the background.  In the foreground is the edge of the green where some of the product was over sprayed a hair.  Just to show an example of how difficult this process is. There is little room for error. Fairways and tees will be completed soon.

Snowing in September

Bermuda grass suppression continues at BHCC.  This time it's the roughs that we are taking aim at.  Bermuda in the roughs blend in with other cool season turf during the summer.  In spring and late fall this grass lays dormant leaving poor golf lies and easy access for weed encroachment.  

We are making a trial we hope will allow us to transform areas of Bermuda into fescue and bluegrass. Green surrounds on hole numbers 2,3 and 8 have been treated for Bermuda.  This product bleaches the leaf blades turning them white.  The white will slowly fade to brown, thinning the Bermudas dense coverage.  We have seeded these areas at the same time.  So as the Bermuda thins it will allow new seedlings to emerge and be established.

Bermuda grass is shown bleached while desirable cool season grasses are unaffected.

A close up view of new fescue and bluegrass seedlings emerging amongst the thinning Bermuda.

Trying To Catch Up

After an extended amount of time since the last blog it's time to catch up.  This is the same theme on the golf course.  The start of the school year claimed almost half of our staff and it has been difficult finding help to finish out the season.  We're getting a little behind on the details but the golf course is still in great shape!  

So anyways... we have done a few things behind the scenes worth mentioning.  The mild August allowed for a vertical mowing of putting greens last week.  This helps thin out the canopy and encourage vertical growth.  

A couple weeks ago we made another Bermuda suppression application to our zoysia collars.  Areas with too much contamination will have to be sodded out this fall or next spring.  This will be an ungoing battle every year.

Finally, this week we started our fall management practices to our roughs.  High traffic and weak areas were aerated, similar to fairway Aeration.  This practice has been completed already.  The next process has been started and will be finished next Tuesday.  This practice is the over-seeding of our roughs.  Newer, stronger varieties of fescue and bluegrass are being used.  Continuing this process each year will result in a thicker, more uniform rough with minimal bare areas.

Battle Of Bermuda

One of the most challenging tasks at BHCC is keeping Bermuda grass from taking over all of our playing surfaces.  At one time the fairways were Bermuda grass, not Zoysia grass.  Zoysia was sodded in the fairways about a decade ago I believe.  With the age of the course and the previous existence of Bermuda fairways the battle of Bermuda contamination throughout the golf course is a struggle.  Bermuda grass is really difficult to completely eradicate.

We annually suppress Bermuda contamination in our zoysia tees, fairways and greens collars.  A combination of two chemical products are applied to these surfaces. It results in mildly injuring the zoysia but severely injuring the Bermuda.  In the past two seasons we have made significant improvements in areas like #17 fairway for example. There is no "win/win" as some zoysia areas are slow to bounce back too, but we are doing our best to try and provide a consistent playing surface with less Bermuda grass.

This application was made a couple weeks ago and currently we are seeing the significance of the injury to Bermuda.

Untreated test strip on greens collars.


A close-up of the still healthy test strip next to severely injured Bermuda.


Area of Bermuda around #7 green.

Injured Bermuda around #16 green.

Please continue to share this BHCC maintenance blog with other members and golfing buddies and encourage them to follow.  Thanks for all your support and understanding!