Olympic Drought

Dog Days (no offense to dogs)

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Home/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?NY

As of the week of August 6th, Onondaga county was categorized as being in a moderate to severe drought (depending on where in the county you reside).  What started as a promising spring allowing early golf and projects to be finished up, has continued into a bit of a nightmare with regard to the complete lack of meaningful rainfall and sustained hot temperatures from June through August. This isn't a new experience. Tuscarora sits at the top of a rocky dome of ground that has little water nearby and almost none underground. The natural water we do have is by way of creeks and springs until they dry up. 

June 

August

Water sources into our pond stopped weeks ago dropping the depth to 1.5 feet -- too low to run the pond fountain.  The recent storms over last weekend haven't been enough to get the farm creek running into the pond. Any rise in the pond was from the run-off from our parking lot and driving range.   

Saving fuel with the rough mowers

Luckily, we're hooked into a municipal water source for irrigation. We've recently upgraded our irrigation controller with the latest in software and controls work flawlessly. We've worked around other short-comings through many hours of hand watering and keeping the grass as healthy as we can by adjusting mowing heights and fertility. Aside from the actual lack of sprinkler heads where we need them (on the rockiest parts of the property), on the whole, we survived the drought and I'm satisfied with how we came through it. 

A Review

We had a project (or four) extend themselves this spring that made  normal rollout more challenging.  We're lucky to have had no  mower maintenance to complete as the new equipment package required no service. We were happy to be of assistance where we could be.

Laying base for kitchen compound

All stones sourced from our own property

Excavating patio paver base

Working out final grades

Slate Hill Constructors killing it

Maintenance road bridge

Final stages of pole barn

Flag pole service

Sod arrives for clubhouse

Upgrading undersized tees was the project taken on last fall.  We endeavor to get the course up and playing as soon as possible for the majority of golfers. No major construction between Memorial Day and Labor Day is our mission..We minimize disruption and affect as few people as possible. With this in mind, our priority for tees was to get main shared tees finished first, and target the forward and back tees second.  By choosing to do work in this order, we affected less players. Unfortunately, the weather was abnormally dry and seed took longer than usual to germinate. Seedlings took the brunt of the damage all over the property.  
We had abysmal germination rates and huge mortality within new seedlings due to the extreme dryness and heat.  The only places we had luck growing grass from seed was in shade or under thick straw, and even that was no guarantee.  Cooler and moist weather will bring better growing conditions and we'll be re-seeding the spots that didn't respond.  

Weak germination even under irrigation

This includes the driving range tee that suffered the same plight of other seeded areas.  We've applied over 200 pounds of seed to the range tee with little to show for it. This was a common phenomena at local courses around Syracuse. Some clubs resorted to resodding their tee every 2 weeks.  The conventional wisdom among local superintendents was soil temperature average was too high to support new seedlings.  The plants were cooking if they did come up without shade or straw to protect them.  


I'm a big fan

As long as anyone's been playing at Tuscarora, the 2nd green has rarely had a great summer.  The reasons are known and have been confirmed by more than one USGA agronomist over many years, as well as by boards, and green chairmans. 

Of the challenges the green has, the one we've yet to address is air movement.  To give you a better understanding of what's at work here, follow the link below to read about the importance of air flow.  Fans are a common tool employed on courses in hotter climates that try to grow bentgrass and poa on greens, but are more widely used across N. America in areas that are closed in by trees that reduce air movement.  

http://grounds-mag.com/golf_courses/grounds_maintenance_giving_turf_breath/


And a video showing the effect on a green wrt cooling/drying:
https://twitter.com/esd327/status/762021835219369985  

To naturally improve the site would mean clearing out acres of trees to the greens west and south so prevailing winds could enter that area. Other feasible alternatives are raising green heights to a site-appropriate height, or, artificially create wind with a fan which is what I recommend.

The mechanism of grass loss is a result of the surface never drying out. It's similar comparing a wet towel that's hung on a line to dry to one that's left in a heap in the corner.  You soon have a moldy mess with the towel left in a heap.  Same thing is going on with #2.  Air flow is key.  



There is no other green on the course that has had more attempts made at fixing underlying problems than our #2. Multiple Superintendents and green committees have done battle with it. It's been rebuilt, drained multiple times, and has had many trees cleared from around it. And although all of the improvements have improved the green in some way, there's not been a good effort to improve the problem of air flow.  There's nothing that will change the fact that the green shouldn't be there - it's a poor site for a green and will be forever a victim of its surroundings. But there is hope. There's relief.

We're looking at the fan with the best track record made by Turfbreeze.   
http://subairsystems.com/turfbreeze-subair-systems/turfbreeze-golf/


The price of a fixed unit running off a quiet electric motor is just under $8000.  Getting the electric service to the site will be another matter and one we'll confer with the resident electrical pros and get a consensus on the best course of action.  There are gas engine models available at a higher cost, but the noise they generate might be an issue. more on this as it develops.



Notables
March 15th. New fleet arrives

May 20th. Not a good day, depending on point of view..

Golf ball-1  Superintendent-0

 Could've been all kinds of worse. Lucky to still have the eye.

June 2nd 18th hole planted with 11 Eastern Redbud trees

Look forward to white and pink flowers greeting you as you drive into the club in the spring and maybe, and hopefully (probably not) a backstop for your horrible tee shots. 

July 15th.  So, this was a first..

Still don't know the cause of the accident. The 11th green was undamaged and nobody was injured, thankfully. 

August 10th. Finally curbs!

Always better than rope

Curbs are a project the crew likes to do because it lets everyone work together and they come out looking great (if we can keep carts from running them over before they dry - twice this has happened).  But mostly they allow for the removal of rope and stakes which we hate more than the golfer does. 

Fall Ahead
It felt very busy this season and I probably could've done a couple more blog updates to keep everyone abreast of the many happenings.  I'll look to complete two entries before Christmas. If you have any questions at all about why something is a certain way on the property, don't hesitate a text or call for a quick answer. I'm more than happy to answer your questions about your course if I have one.
Until next time then.