When It Rains, It Pours

After going on a 24 day drought we have received nearly 4 inches of rain in 4 days! Naturally the change took place during “The Heritage” as it has done in previous years. The maintenance squad is really bummed we weren’t able to put on the type of event we hoped.  We were dialed-in during Thursday’s practice rounds with every playing surface cut perfectly and greens rolling an 11 on the stimp!

The calm before the storm 

We fought through the weather over the weekend and are thankful the tournament was still played all the way out to the end! Congrats to the winners! 

Mowers were replaced by squeegees, bunker rakes, and a pump.

Monday, we vented greens to try and influence gas exchange and dry down, but more storms keep the greens completely saturated with cups full of water. Greens are extremely wet, so we are taking precautions to not sand topdress with heavy equipment or roll greens until we get some dry down.  Thanks for your cooperation and understanding while greens speed is on the slower side. Hoping to dodge a bullet to get fairways mowed on Wednesday. 

Creating airflow with venting and using a powerful blower to try and dry down #15 green.

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!

Winter Projects/Spring Cleaning

From 0-70 in a flash, temperature that is!  Last week the ground was frozen solid and covered with 6+ inches of snow, this week mild and pretty dry all considered. That’s the MO we know and love, kinda...

We successfully completed the installation of the new practice facility netting.  This will retain mishit golf balls, saving the club resources.

Creek stabilization got a good start, but a few areas were too dangerous to do under snow cover.  This will be continued when the ground is firm.

Moving on to this week, we mowed greens for the first time in months and raked half the bunkers(once they thawed) on Thursday.  The other half will be completed today(Friday).  Hole locations and markers were moved this week too.  

We are also wrapping up our annual warm season turf clean up.  We apply pesticides to eradicate non desirable cool season grasses while also applying pre-emergent herbicide to keep warm season weeds from encroaching during the golf season.  We use blue tracker dye to help with visualizing coverage.

Tree-mendous Challenges

It appears the drought is finally over and we’re getting an early dose of November rain.  We received a total of 1.4 inches last week with more expected early next week. Ironically, we had only received 1.4 inches within the previous 66 days during the drought.

In the past month we have encountered multiple challenges due to trees. The constant leaf litter, sticks and limbs are one topic, but it has actually been the roots wreaking havoc.  Trees are important to the identity of BHCC and they are constant work.  There is a lot of various tree maintenance on tap this winter.

Distinct border line of yellowed turf in the root zone of trees during the drought.  Trees are more efficient at pulling  nutrients and moisture out of the soil than turf.

An irrigation leak caused by tree roots pushing and moving an irrigation pipe.

The best for last...

Cypress tree root knots surfacing in #14 green! They were cut out and turf replaced. We will be root pruning behind this green this winter.

Fresh Turf

The new Turfhoumd mat system was installed at the practice facility today!  The concrete was poured a week ago and we spent the rest of last week back filling with soil and sodding.  Starting Tuesday the 13th we will be mats only for the season.

The new mats are a huge improvement with both short and tall synthetic turf.  It also has a slot for placing tees that allow adjustments for many options! Go try them out!!!

More dead limbs were removed Monday.

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.

Quick Update

Last week we completed the renovation around number one green. It turned out really well including a new collection area similar to number seven Green. There will be a row of Burning bushes planted along the top of the berm to further protect players on number two tee. 

A lot of annual flowers were planted last week both in the club parking lot as well as on the golf course. We will continue planting flowers and ornamentals for the next week or so. As temperatures warm up these flowers will really start to come to life.

Our first venting event on putting greens was completed in preparation for what had appeared to be a lot of rain this week. The small holes allow for oxygen exchange and a cavity for stimulated root growth.

We also top dressed greens for the first time since aerification  earlier in spring. We will continue to make frequent light applications of sand which helps protect the crowns of the plant as well as making a true putting surface.

Knocking Off The Rust

So I will be the first to admit that it has been too long since my last blog entry. To be honest with everything going on I have lost interest and motivation in some things. We have been working strange hours and in my time off I have been trying to be a homeschool teacher and it’s just been tough to get in a routine. Soapbox aside we have continued to work and have a good product out on the golf course. We are going to pull the crew back together for a regular schedule starting next week and we have summer help already starting to show up!

While state guidelines are starting to loosen up some allowing the club to reopen, We will continue to have no bunker rakes, ball washers and trash cans on the golf course.  We changed our hole set up to the pool noodle method and will keep flag sticks in the hole. 

Project work has started back up again! The right side of number one green surround is taking a new shape. Dirt moving was done on Monday before the rain and finish grade, sod prep will be done Wednesday with sod showing up on Thursday!  A large amount of our annual flowers will be planted this week! So look out for a lot more color around the property.

Before

After

The Big One!

Have a lot of information included in this one, but the first topic I want to discuss is the one that’s most exciting! The cart ruling has changed for the season and we are now allowing carts off the path! At this time we are going with a “no restrictions” ruling which allows members to drive in both the fairways and the roughs. Please still enter at 90° to your ball and exit the fairway and rough at the blue exit stake.  We have also initiated our hole location rotation on putting greens for the season.

Last week we completed greens aerifiaction during a two day event. The event was extremely successful and the greens were left in very good shape upon completion.  Greens were left with a moderate sand top dressing layer to help with the smoothing process. We then also vertical mowed the greens on Thursday, thinning out the canopy and continuing the smoothing process. The greens are already rolling great and should be filled in within another week or so.

In other news, we have been keeping bunkers raked and started mowing areas of rough but will start mowing in its entirety this week. Fairways and tees are starting to green up but probably won’t see their first mow for another week or two. Compost has been flying into beds and flowers will be on order soon to start providing color around the property.  The area behind number eight green has received grass seed and straw. More plants will be installed this spring in the area. A lot is going on but we are rocking and rolling on the golf course.

Doom and BLOOM

Tough times right now with covid-19 affecting everyone in one way or another.  As of now, the grounds crew is still working and trying to go about business as usual.  We have took extreme measures in assuring each other’s safety and health.  From now moving forward we have split our crew into two teams, staggering shifts.  This will ensure that in a worse case scenario of a positive testing staff member and forced quarantine, we will still have one team isolated from the other able to perform at a minimum capacity on the golf course.

Going to try to do more blogs during this time to distract from what’s going on currently.  The main topic of this post is although we are pausing some routines in our lifes, Mother Nature is going to keep on going!  The plant, forsythia, bloomed on our golf course late last week.  It is easy to spot as a flowering yellow bush at this moment.  In the turf industry we use this bush as a phenology indicator for crabgrass prevention applications.  Simply meaning once the forsythia blooms it is time to get your preemergent down!  We finished our application in roughs today! So if you haven’t done so yet, it’s time. It’s recommended to time applications before a rain and is essential to be watered in with a half inch of water before it’s activated in the soil. 😉

Here is some more information for the turf nerd or just someone bored.  Missouri University has a very involved turf department that works closely with our golf industries needs in our area.  Dr. Lee Miller puts out a routine e-blast with good info for us.  Some home owners could benefit from some of the info too!  Here is the link!

Missouri Turf Disease Report 3/4/20

Take care everyone!!!

Effective Immediately

While it pains me to join the nation in sending out my version of a Covid-19 update, unfortunately the situation has escalated to a serious matter.  The good news, at least for now, is the club is open and the golf course is open.  To support national and local efforts we have made some changes worth noting at BHCC.

Effective Immediately 

• All golfing members are encouraged to limit their trash on the golf course and keep it with you, disposing at the end of your round.

• Also encouraged to not touch or remove the flagstick during play.

• Golf course maintenance has temporarily removed all the bunker rakes and ball washers from the property.

We hope this situation doesn’t last long so we can all get back to our normal lifes and routines.  In the meantime, take care and we hope to see you all soon. One thing is for sure, spring is on our doorstep and the grass is starting to grow.