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.

Spring Needs a Kickstart

Busy Winter
This months update will catch up with what's new on the course  and down at the shop. It will also serve as an introduction for any new members reading this for the first time - Welcome to Greener Notes, the  grounds department's blog on course conditions and happenings.

Tee for two
Two years ago the Greens Committee decided to make improvements to teeing surfaces by leveling or enlarging ones that needed it.  We're at the halfway point in this process.  
Tees addressed fall/winter of 2015-16 are as follows: 
Forward tees on 4, 9, 14, 18 and Mid/Back tees on 6, 9, 11, 18. Tees were shaped and left to settle over the winter.  As soil dries enough to work, sod will be brought in. Both sodding and seeding will be used and will depend on the needs of the site.    
The  goal of creating more useable teeing area without making tees unnecessarily large was the goal. Renovated tees will be back in play as soon as the new sod can handle the foot traffic - about 2 weeks from date of sodding.

6 tee before

6 tee final grade

18 tee before

Bridging the Gap
The bridges around the pond and creek on 10, 11, and 12 are complete and impressive.  Slate Hill Constructors was hired as the builder and worked all winter through some awful weather to engineer and build these beautiful additions to the course.  We'll be adding some shrubs at the ends of the bridges to help blend them into the landscape and be working on mending ruts left from construction.  Those areas will be played as "under repair", generally, until we've completed the repairs and grass has recovered.  Your patience, as always, is appreciated as we heal up from this project.

10 bridge before

11 bridge before

10 bridge

11 bridge

11 bridge after

11 bridge after

Maintenance road bridge

New Additions
Tuscarora invested in a new fleet of mowers and course-trucks in 2016.  Age and downtime had finally caught up with our old fleet and increasing repair costs made the decision an easy one. The new package includes new tee mowers, greens mowers w/groomers, fairway mowers, bank mowers for greens and tee surrounds, and two 'Truckster' work vehicles. Their purchase was one we take seriously and think ourselves fortunate to be in the position to use the latest in course maintenance tools.  It's not often when a course can truly say they're using the state of the art in cutting equipment.  We look forward to many years of service from these machines.  

New Storage
As the Grounds Department updates itself with the cutting edge in cutting equipment, we saw a need for a better storage solution for that investment. Our goal was to have a storage building that was large enough to give shelter to all equipment, old and new. It will create a place to better store tools, irrigation pipe, and bulk fertilizer.  We completed the build over the winter and kept it under budget.

The "Butler Cabin" -  Our old tool barn that doubled as a raccoon nursery

Site prep

First poles going in in January

Hustle while there's no snow

Starting to look like something

Almost there

Ball marks & divots

They're the bane of heavily played golf courses.  We ask for cooperation in reducing this damage every year, but without a course marshal or camera watching every green, there's no way to tell who does or doesn't take care of the course. What we can tell is there's more than a normal amount of unfixed ball marks on all greens and they seem to be generated in the late afternoons to early evening.  All we can ask is to police yourselves and please fix your ball marks.  If your family plays, mention it to them. The Pro Shop will have more on how they'd like ballmarks repaired in a future update.

Weeds Never Sleep

It's time to gear up for seasonal weed applications on your home lawns (if you go in for that kind of thing).  Soil temperatures will be nearing the magical 50 degree mark where Crabgrass can germinate and dandelions will soon be in full bloom.  We've completed a wall-to-wall application of a crabgrass preventative herbicide at Tuscarora. We'll be making applications on dandelions and clover throughout the next couple weeks as weather and play allow. 
If you see something in your lawns or on the course right now that you think is annual crabgrass, it's not. At this time of year, that grass is a perennial weedy grass called Orchard Grass that becomes less noticeable as the season progresses due to it's finer texture. We don't treat for Orchard Grass as it requires round-up which comes with it's own set of problems.

Orchard Grass

Crabgrass

We will be making an application to reduce the seed production of certain grass species in the fairways and greens. This is something we do every year that helps the plants conserve energy for the summer months. This control will regulate(slow) growth and produce a pale orange tinge to the turf.  The tinge wears off in a few weeks. 

Coming Up

For the months of April and May look for the following maintenance happenings out on the course as the weather improves: 
- Greens aerifying (complete 4/21)
- Weed control
- Cart path repairs
- Clubhouse & Tee sodding
- Bridge area clean-up and seeding
- Irrigation installation near new tees
- Weekly topdressing


Course bathrooms will be useable when night time temperatures get warmer.  As in years past, we won't charge the irrigation system to outside bathrooms until we leave freezing night time temperatures behind, we've broken pipes in past years by opening the course bathrooms too early -  Porta-johns until then.

   

  

Catching Up

Into the New Year
Happy new year from the grounds department!  For our new members, this is a periodic blog that the Superintendent tries to get out monthly through the season. It's primary purpose is to inform and update everyone on course-related happenings.

Winter makes an appearance
The uncommon weather we've been having has allowed all of the construction crews to stay active on the course and has let the clubhouse renovation project make some significant headway.  I'll just touch on the golf related projects as there's so much happening at the course.
Greens are in good health. We've been monitoring them for surface ice formation and removing any excess water when it accumulates.  The lack of snow cover, at this point, seems to have had little effect on their condition.  I expect them to come into spring with no problems.

Bridges
If you've driven up Munro Rd recently you'll notice a set of new bridges spanning the creek on holes 12, 11, and 10.  Slate Hill Construction was hired last fall to engineer and head this project.  The 15 year old bridges that were in place were narrow and deteriorating from settling and cart wheel impacts.

11 bridge damage

Old 10 bridge 

SHC have done a masterful job at holding back the pond through rain, snow, and ice to complete their work. The bridges are built wide enough with safety and good looks in mind.  They'll be in good shape for many years to come.  There will be a fourth bridge going in on the maintenance road.  The foot bridge on 10 will also be upgraded to allow more water to pass underneath.   All bridges will share the same stone work treatment as the clubhouse when complete.

Equipment Storage
We've slowly been outgrowing our storage capabilities at the maintenance shop.  Over the years we've added different operations and processes on the course.  This requires a need for more storage of equipment and materials.  Keeping our machines and tools dry and out of the weather is our goal. To remedy this we'll be building our own 100'x40' pole barn which will give us room to grow without taking up too much space in the maintenance area.  It will be big enough to double as a handtool and irrigation parts storage area.  Framing will start as weather allows. We hope to have the siding and roof on by Mid march.

Tools and Irrigation -- aka "The Butler Cabin"

Clearing and grading

 

 Ready to start 

Upgrades
I'll be doing another entry when we take delivery, but for now, it's enough to say that Tuscarora Golf Club will be finely outfitted, from an equipment standpoint, for the best care of their fairways, tees, greens, and surrounds. We were in a perfect position with the age and condition of our mower fleet to benefit from an across the board replacement of cutting and traction units.  When weighing our options, we saw a greater benefit to the golfer and golf course by choosing replacement rather than trying to patch together equipment that was increasingly costing us time and money.    
Here's a couple teaser videos of some things you'll be seeing this summer.
Jacobsen GP400 - Ventrac - Truckster XD