Jacket Weather

Wow! It has been unseasonably cold, I’m still busting out my carhart coat in the mornings. What this translates to is I keep pushing back the opening of the turf on the range tee. Luckily we have a really nice mat system that you are all enjoying! We will need temperatures steady in the 70s before I feel comfortable opening the tee. This is a good time to remind you all that I am allowing carts to drive in the roughs because the fairways really aren’t growing yet. Here’s a picture of our golf course indicator board. The cart ruling of 90° with no restrictions means you CAN drive in the rough!!!  I actually would prefer to see members driving in the rough as opposed to fairways currently.

We finally are gaining staff members after a shorthanded spring. There is a lot going on on the golf course and I’m really excited about this weeks work already! On Monday we planted almost 20 trees in Strategic locations. The two main areas were next to #2 tee complex and more trees added behind the back left of #8 green.

Monday we also vented greens for the first time this season. This process is a light aerification with a small solid tine. The holes are so small they really don’t disrupt play, but each one of these holes are nearly 4 inches deep into the soil profile which will allow for roots to dive in and grow rapidly. This stimulation of roots will help us later down the road when summer starts stressing out the turf.

Jeny and other staff members have been working really hard at getting our annual flowers in the ground! We also hit the reset button on one of the flowerbeds near #4 Green. We are waiting on a piece of equipment to arrive so we can attack our clock bed near the practice green.

Finally, we are two weeks into our weekly practice of light sand top dressing greens. Top dress Tuesdays is what we call it!! This process helps keep greens firm and rolling true and smooth!

Shutting Down

Cold temperatures continue as we encounter our first frost of the year already!  Sustained below normal temperatures has all of our zoysia surfaces shutting down.  Tees, fairways and collars are going into dormancy and are not growing anymore.  They have all been cut for the last time this season. The turf has been left a little taller and will be a little fuzzy to start the offseason. 

Unfortunately  due to the cooler temperatures and the added cart traffic from Covid single passenger cart use we are restricting cart traffic this week.  Starting Tuesday the 6th all cart traffic will be restricted to the cart path until next season.  This is a very difficult decision to make but is in the best of interest of BHCC and will help preserve premium playing conditions.  Thanks for your understanding!

Cart traffic marks are becoming visible in the fairways which is a sign of plants entering dormancy.

In other news, we are prepped and ready for concrete on Monday, and we also have seedlings germinating in over seeded rough areas!

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.

Going Vertical

Today we vertical moved some fairways. This is a cultural practice that helps reduce the thatch layer and promotes new growth.  We do the same practice to our greens during the cooler seasons.  Both varieties of turf on greens and fairways spread Laterally by stolons and rhizomes which is the turfs way of “branching” out.  This can cause an undesirable thatch later during seasons of vigorous growth. Vertical mowing trims these branches and causes the plant to produce newer and tighter growth to the originating plant.

In the pictures you can see the vertical mowing unit with multiple blades for slicing. The process was simple, first vertical mowing, followed by blowing of debris. We completed about 2/3 of the fairways today and hope to complete tomorrow before the rain. 

Spring Fever

This winter continues to drag along with the same weekly precipitation weather pattern.  We are getting anxious for spring and have started preparing for it.  The last of the ornamental grass plants were cut down this week.  Volunteer growth around #9 pond checked off the list.  Landscape beds have begun to be cleaned out.  Today the crew split after lunch working on more cleanup.  A few team members worked on sweet gum ball cleanup.  Just another reminder how much time and effort is spent around tree maintenance.  They drop sticks, branches, “fruit”, leaves and constantly steal important nutrients, water and sunlight from our turf grass. Today is one day of many we will gather and remove thousands of these gum balls littering our golf course.

The remainder of the crew was cleaning up our zoysia grass surfaces.  Every late-winter we apply herbicides to kill poa annua plants that try to invade our surfaces. We can accomplish this because the zoysia is dormant and doesn’t absorb the herbicides.  Fairways were completed and we used a flexible board to accurately and safely apply product to the boarder of our greens.  This will result in a pure stand of zoysia that doesn’t compete with poa.  It also removes poa populations that can contaminate our bentgrass greens.

Shutting Down

A quick change in the weather will have many plants shutting down.  Soil temperatures are decreasing and causing zoysia grass growth to come to a hault.  The zoysia grass practice facility tee will be restricted to mats only after this weekend.  Fairways will soon fade from green to yellow and we will have to restrict carts to the paths around the start of November.

Cart tracks are beginning to show up which is an indicator of the plants going into dormancy.  A frost is likely tonight which will also start knocking out most of our flowers throughout the property.

Lastly, we completed the elimination of the practice green bunker on Thursday before the rain set in.  A long time blog subscriber and supporter took advantage of the photo opportunity 😉

Holy Moly!!!

We took full advantage of a Monday with no golf today!!!  We vented greens and used solid tines to aerate collars and fairways.  Since we did not pull any cores there is zero mess!  Disruption to golf is minimul and recovery will be very quick!

To my calculations, we punched around 12 million total holes today spread over 18.5 acres!!! Holy Moly!!!

We used our machines to vent greens and aerate collars.  The fairways were completed by a contractor who brought in 3 tractors to complete the task in about 11 hours.

We also did some tree pruning today.  We rented a scissor lift tot get to limbs as high up as 60ft!

Before and after from #17 blue and black tees.

Before and after from the left edge of #3 fairway

(limb in upper foreground was removed after photo was taken 😉)

Green Side Up

As promised, zoysia sod was delivered and installed throughout the golf course.  Nearly 3000 square-foot was installed on various fairways and tees.

The practice facility tee added 2,000 sqft today too! That makes it 20% larger!  First, the topsoil was graded out and checked with out transit.  Then 8 large rolls of sod was installed.  The surround will be sodded in the upcoming days pending rain tomorrow.

Purple Haze

The recent rains have turned our “fair”-ways into a new surface most aren’t familiar with.  Each spring(and some falls) zoysia grass produces seedheads as its natural growth cycle.  Now, most of the time it’s drier out and we are able to continually mow fairways and the seedheads are not as noticeable. The perfect storm of a rough winter and a sloppy spring has our zoysia surfaces appearing to have a purple haze from the abundance of seedheads.

Once the weather cooperates we will get back to mowing and the seedheads will soon fade within the next few weeks.  In the meantime we are always looking at ways to improve our programs and improve course conditions.  As most have probably witnessed by now, we experimented with trying to reduce seedheads formation.  Our chemical application we use to control Bermuda can help aid in preventing seedheads when timed properly!  #6 fairway is a great example of some great results we discovered, take a look for yourself! 

Very distinct lines and patterns show treated and untreated areas.  Seedheads now a thing of the past?!? To be continued!

Slow Start

Cool temperatures and wet conditions have our Zoysia grass surfaces confused.  Tees and fairways are having a rough wake up call coming out of winter hibernation.  We had a warm stretch in April and the turf started growing, but multiple weeks of chilly weather has growth at a stand still.

Mowing fairways the 26th of April is pictured above.    The turf has since gone to a yellow-green shade.  Tee boxes have been seeing a lot of golf play but haven’t been growing enough to recover from divots and foot traffic.  This will start our season off with some thinning.

Wet conditions has sparked disease throughout the property too.  This is called Large Patch and only infects zoysia grass.  It has been treated, but will take time to recover.

And there’s more... multiple areas in fairways and tees are showing signs of winter kill.  The constant moisture over the last 5 months has drowned plants in low areas that don’t drain well.  We are continuing to access damage and will begin repair once the weather is more favorable for zoysia growth.  With that being said it does appear warmer weather is around the corner and hopefully we can turn over a new leaf very soon!

Week In Review

We saw all fours seasons last week with a frost and some light snow flakes on Monday!  That gave way to a 50 degree temperature change in 36 hours with temps in the mid 80s on Tuesday.  Spring rain and mist by Thursday with a chilly autumn feel on Friday.  Gotta love Missouri!  All this just means we were forced to get creative throughout the week to get tasks completed and present good playing conditions on the nice days.

A side note and moving back further than a week, I had the privilege to attend The Masters for the first time and it didn’t disappoint!  What a wonderful experience and motivator to start off the season!

A heavy topdressing of sand on greens before the 1.1” rain Thursday will aid in the final push for holes to close up the rest of the way!  We are really close to dropping the hammer on putting greens and dialing them in for the season!

Finally, the team really out did themselves on Friday. That 1.1” rain total from Wednesday night  tallied up in only 3 hours which resulted in some minor washouts.  They worked hard and got all the bunkers back into playable condition in one day!  This also pays tribute to the result of our bunker renovation!  Our old bunkers would have demanded at least two days of work, pumping standing water and pushing up sand from major washouts!  Kudos to the club for their commitment to improve the golf course!

And... can I get a LGB?!?!

Turn Over A New Leaf

After a couple rough months of summer weather and a weeks worth of demanding tournament conditions our putting greens really need a break.  And a break we received, some great weather and a day without golf on Monday. We timed our growth regulation application on putting greens perfectly for the tournament. Only a few days after the final round our plant growth regulator diminished on our putting greens.  They are glowing and growing, pushing out new leafs to help recover some thin areas on multiple greens.  This growth response will result in slower green speeds for a handful of days. Once recovery is complete we will apply growth regulator again and green speeds will rise back up to normal.  Greens were vented Monday allowing cooler air into the soil.  Wetting agent was also applied Monday to help cure localized dry spots from the Bogey Hills Invitational.

Aside from our putting greens we are also making the final push to repairing poor areas and fairways and around the greens.  Zoysia sod is nearly complete and will leave the fairways and collars on the golf course flawless!

Assistant superintendent Steve Luebbers raising and leveling a sprinkler head

Growing Pains

It seems that after a truly crazy start to the season, the weather looks to be bouncing back towards normal temperatures finally.  We are nearly 7° below normal temperatures for the month of April.  The cooler air temperatures has not allowed for the soil temperatures to rise and initiate plant growth.  Finally this week, we observed warmer day temperatures and more importantly mild low temperatures at night. This has boosted soil temperatures up above 50°And instantly we’re seeing responses from both cool season and warm season turf varieties. Our cool season Roughs have started growing and thickening . With more warmer temps forecasted next week we are expecting the roughs to start growing out of control.  Our cool season Bent grass putting greens have responded as well. After aeration was completed nearly 3 weeks ago,  greens have healed more in the past three days than they have in the prior two weeks.  Greens should be nearly 100% healed by this time next week. Look for greens to start rolling really smooth and getting back up to Bogey speed!

Aeration holes are growing in rapidly!

Warm season Zoysia grass tees, fairways and collars are finally showing some green this week.  Unfortunately as most areas are turning green, some areas are not responding and showing signs of possible winterkill.  In our Region warm season grass only thrives for 3 to 4 months out of the year. The other months consist of them going in and coming out of dormancy and hibernating through the winter. 

Going all the way back to last summer, we had a very enjoyable and mild August. While all of  this was pleasant for golf and cool season turf, Zoysia grass missed out on a typical summer month that usually produces high temperatures and humidity.  This turf variety lost a much needed opportunity to gain and store energy going into the fall. Then, the mild summer transitioned to a fall season dominated by drought.  The lack of rain stressed some plants while going into dormancy for the winter. Old man winter came a knocking and had many stretches of extreme cold weather and wind. During this time we had little or no snow cover. When extreme temperatures and conditions are present, a layer of snow is your friend. That layer of snow acts as a blanket and insulates the turf against harmful conditions.  Finally, The extended cold in April has kept Zoysia fairways, tees and collars dormant for an additional 3 to 4 weeks then normal. All of these factors and seasons combined is a perfect recipe for some turf grass desiccation. We will continue to assess damaged areas and will be laying sod as needed shortly. Thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation.

warm season vs. cool season turfgrass explination 

Areas of concern

Projects Galore

We have completed multiple projects this week and are in the process of wrapping up another one on Friday.  While we concentrate on projects some normal practices of raking bunkers and blowing leafs are put on the back burner to free up labor hours.

#2 pot bunker renovation 

#7 fairway root removal project

More rough over seeding 

Enlarging #9 white tee box (in progress)

More to come!