Golf Course Maintenance Activities

June 21st, 2016

 

Now that Men's Invitational is over and things have quieted down, to some degree, we are going to shift our attention back to repairing the neglect that took place over the past decade. If you can remember way back in May when Phil talked about thatch and the benefits that are gained when it has been contained - that is what we are going to achieve in the coming months. We have started this process by means of aerification and a heavy amount of top dress sand. There is an inconvenience factor here but bringing back the tees to a healthy state far outweighs any inconveniences. When Phil and I discussed our goals during the winter months, we always said that we need to bring the golf course back to championship level conditions. Now, these goals cannot be achieved overnight but they can be worked on during the peak golf season as long as there isn't too much disruption to the pace of play and to the aesthetic pleasure of the golf course.

 

Negatives to excessive thatch:

• Dry spots on the surface
• Water is trapped in the thatch layer or evaporates before it can reach the soil
• It requires more water to be applied to reach the soil - higher water usage costs
• Higher amount of disease pressure
• Pathogens are able to colonize in excessive thatch
• Treating for a turf disease, weather preventively or curatively, is more difficult because the pesticide is trapped in the thatch layer
• Roots are bound up in the thatch layer and not deep enough for a sustained healthy plant 

 

 

Arturo aerifying #18 tee

 We used 1/2" sized tines at a 2" depth

 

Our spacing between tines was set a 2.5" 

 

 The top plug is ALL thatch and the bottom 2 about half thatch

 

Ellis and Justin picking up plugs on #3

 

 Tyler, Will and Chris are blowing off #3 tee

 

Rosa is blowing of #18 tee 

 

Jose Juan (JJ) applied a liberal amount of sand after aerifying 

 

John (JC) is dragging in after the top dress 

 

Once the dragging was complete we sprayed a fertilizer to initiate growth for a speedier recovery 

 

 

 

                                                                               

 

 

 

 

May 18th, 2016

 

 

If you have been out on the golf course the past couple day's, you've probably noticed lines on the tee tops. The reason for this is because we are in the process of a heavy verti-cut and topdress. Over the years there has been an excessive thatch buildup on all of the tees, which causes a numerous amount of problems for the turf plant. Walking on some of them takes you back to the time when shaggy carpet was cool - shaggy turf is NOT cool. Reducing the thatch will balance the stress/health of the plant and in most cases, tip the scale in our favor. This will be an ongoing process and over time will improve the health drastically. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused, this is a maintenance practice that we have to do after so many years of neglect.

 

 

 

It's never crowded along the extra mile

 

Pulling thatch from #10 tee

Thatch pulled from the tee complex

 

We went down about 1"

Aggressive tilling plus a topdress to reduce thatch

 

 

                                                                            

May 17th, 2016

 

Over the past few weeks we have been out lining many of the ponds with stone.  It creates a fresh look and adds the detail we expect at The Wyndgate.  We here at the Maintenance Dept. are on a mission to continue to hit home runs like this.

 

 

 

 

Superintendent Ron Betz thinks this project was a SLAM DUNK!

 

 

 

May 9th, 2016

On Monday, May 9th, we hosted a high school golf event that filled up the entire golf course. After our normal morning activities were completed, we shifted our focus towards the driving range tee. As you can see from the pictures, an aggressive verti-cut was performed followed by  a heavy top dress. Once the top dress was applied, a drop spreader was used to put down bentgrass seed, which was in turn followed by a liberal amount of fertilizer so that we could initiate growth and germination at a faster pace.

Between the maintenance staff and Jared's staff, managing divot scars on the driving range tee will be a high priority.

May 4th, 2016

This week has been a great one.  Not only have we been planting crabapples around the course and club house.  We have been renovating the left green side bunker on #9 Eastwynd.  Please take a look as you play to see how this bunker work is going.  We are making the bunker bigger increasing the area a ball would come to rest.  This will hopefully keep more balls that fly left of the green in play.  In conjunction with this project is a renovation of the top chain of lakes pond that is left of #9 green Eastwynd which will blend the bunker project into the pond.

April 25th, 2016

2nd spring verti-cut

On Monday, we verti-cut the Eastwynd greens for the 2nd time this season. We went in the opposite direction as the week before, to ensure that we cut the lateral shoots from a different angle. As you may or may not know, the promotion of plant growth in a vertical manner, reduces friction on the ball and thus increases green speed.

JJ verti-cutting the Eastwynd putting green

 

 

Martin mowing #6 green after the verti-cut

 

 

#6 green close up after the verti-cut

 

A close up view of a tiller from #6.

 

 

April 18th, 2016

Eastwynd Greens Verticutting

 

Our first verti-cut on the Eastwynd greens took place today and as you can see in the pictures, we were able to harvest quite a bit of lateral grass blades.

Jose Juan verti-cutting #18 green

Tillers on #18 green after the verti-cut

Multiple tillers up close

 

Lateral shoot (tiller) that was cut from verti-cutting

 

 

April 14th, 2016

The Wyndgate Opener 2016

 

 

 

The Wyndgate Country Club is celebrating it's 20th opening day today, an event that is dating back to 1997. If this is your first time that you will be golfing here, we hope we make your golf round a memorable one. We are not in peak bloom with many of the plants, however the golf course is still a beautiful piece of property which certainly adds to the round. The maintenance staff has worked extremely hard getting the golf course in shape. If you have been browsing the blog and seen some of the pictures of the crew in action, just know that those are just a small sample of their hard work and dedication. We know that there's a lot of work still to do and we know that we have the right crew to meets those needs. For the seasoned veterans of the club, welcome back! We hope that you notice the hard work put forth by the staff. As the temps start to climb, we will see more and more of you, if you have any comments, concerns or questions please do not hesitate to give us a call.

 

 

Enjoy your round and your season!

 

 

April 12th, 2016

Bunker Repair

 

We are in the process of getting the bunkers ready for the Eastwynd opener. It's not a big secret that the bunkers on both courses have a tendency to wash out after heavy rains, so the guy's are hard at work making sure they are playable for Thursday.

 



 

2nd cut on the Eastwynd greens

 

Giulle Rojas mowing Eastwynd greens for the 2nd cut of the year.

 

 

 

 

April 10th, 2016

Golf Course Opening

 

With the temps forecasted to be on the rise, it looks like we will be able to open up The Wyndgate later in the week. We (maintenance department) will have a pretty busy week getting everything out on the golf course and making sure that the conditions are favorable for early spring conditions. We are hopeful that we can start getting some grass seed down in areas that need it, in addition to possibly reconstructing our nursery for both bentgrass and bluegrass. We have already done a lot of cleanup on the golf course so our focus should be on cart path repair and getting the greens acceptable. The greens came out of winter in really good shape and we were able to do a SMALL aerification along with a topdress to further extend the overall health of the plant.

 

We hope to see everyone out on the golf course in the coming weeks - we look forward to talking to each and every one of you!

 

 

April 8th, 2016

Cart Path Edging

 

Not to be outdone by the other employees on cart paths, Justin Tignanelli, Chris Condeff, Tyler Pattullo, and John Chambers have all done a phenomenal job of putting a fresh edge on the cart paths. In just a few short days, they have been able to get 1-7 completed and as you can see in the pictures, they haven't had the best weather to work in. We can't say enough about how hard everyone has worked over the past few weeks, both on the EastWynd and on the WestWynd golf courses.

 

April 7th, 2016

Cart path Repair

As many of you know, the weather in Michigan has not been all that great for the past week or so. Nonetheless, the crew has been very motivated and extremely productive during these early spring months. Cart path repair and upkeep is an ongoing job but it must never be put aside, no matter what season we are in. Here we have JJ Leon, Arturo Hernandez, and Martin Medrano. Emilio Martinez was part of the project but not in the picture.

 

 



April 6th, 2016

Maintenance Shop Cleanup



 

As we stated last week, shop cleanliness is going to be a high priority this year - the golf courses are obviously our main focus but the shop needs to improve as well. We started picking away at the driveway by reclaiming the irrigated turf that has become overgrown with weeds and brush. The guys have also been pruning some of the trees to allow for mowing to be done without the operators getting hit in the head by branches. The project has been headed by Don Tencza, Guille Rojas, Uriel Leon, Emilio Martinez, Ellis Klinken, Arturo Hernandez and Josh Brumley. The plan is to put down some grass seed and keep it maintained as it used to be. The Wyndgate is a phenomenal piece of property, as we all know, this is one small step in ensuring that we preserve it's beauty.

Monday, April 4th

We are aerifying the Driving Range tees and finishing it off with a HEAVY top dress. We went down 4" with 1/4" hollow tines. The objective of the aerification is to help establish root depth and create  cavities for suitable oxygen availability. All of these, plus an adequate amount of nutrients, are necessary for a healthy, lush driving range tee. 



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Wilson's Weekly Words

 Wilson's Weekly Words

Grubs: The Root of all Evil?

White grubs, (sometimes called grubworms or simply grubs) are the most widespread and destructive insect pests of turfgrass in the cool season and transition zones. White grubs damage turfgrasses by chewing the roots near the soil surface. When this is accompanied by hot weather and drought, the loss of turf can be swift and severe. Quiet often, predators including birds, skunks, raccoons, foxes, wild pigs, and moles dig up the infested area to feed on these grubs and often cause more damage than the grubs themselves.

Grubs are difficult to control because soil insecticide must penetrate the turf canopy and thatch layer in order to reach the upper soil layer. Us as turf managers must rely on gravity and irrigation to leach the insecticide into the target zone. As I stated earlier white grubs damage turf by chewing the roots near the soil, early turf symptoms include gradual thinning, yellowing, wilting in spite of adequate soil moisture, and scattered, irregular dead patches.

Once you know you have grubs how do you find out what kind they are!? Well there’s a thing called a raster pattern on the grubs lower abdomen, like it’s raster, which is like it’s “finger print” every species is different. Japanese beetles, masked chafers, European chafers, oriental beetles, and green June beetles have annual life cycles, where they mate and lay their eggs midsummer, mainly from late June to mid August.

Most soil insecticides have fairly short residual toxicity and proper timing of application in therefore very important. So we must time our applications on the course just right or we could miss our window of opportunity. I know that was a bit dry but it is important to know what we’re dealing with on our end.

 

Etiquette

We all know the common rules for the golf course etiquette, but did you know that there’s golf etiquette from a turf grass standpoint? Well there most certainly is! I stumbled upon these while reading what we turf professional call our “Bible” the real name of the book is Turf Management For Golf Courses by Dr. James B. Beard. The rules are as follows:

Holes in Bunkers:

                Before leaving a bunker, a player should carefully fill up and smooth over all holes and footprints made by the player.

Replace Divots;Repair Ball Marks and Damage by Spikes:

                Through the green, any turf cut or displaced by him/her is replaced at once and pressed down and that any damage to the putting green made by a ball is carefully repaired. On completion of the hole by all players in the group, damage to putting green caused by shoe spikes should also be repaired.

Damage to Greens—Flagsticks, Bags, etc.

                Players should ensure that, when putting down bags or the flagstick, no damage is done to the putting green and that neither they nor their caddies damage the hole by standing close to it, in handling the flagstick or in removing the ball from the hole. The flagstick should be properly replaced in the hole before the players leave the putting green. Players should not damage the putting green by leaning on their putters, particularly when removing the ball from the hole.

Golf Carts:

                Local notices regulating the movement of golf carts should be strictly observed. All golfers should exercise good judgment while walking or riding by avoiding (a) worn, thin turf areas in order to allow recovery, (b) wet areas where traffic will increase rutting and soil compaction, (c) wilted turf areas under drought stress, and (d) roped off areas and similar sites where ground is under repair.

Damage through Practice Swings:

                In taking practice swings, players should avoid causing damage to the course, particularly the tees, by removing divots.

 

"Clue"                                                                                       

This week on Wilson’s Words I’m going to share a story of a gentlemen I worked with all summer and can now call a friend. His name is Llewellyn Matthews (Middle), and he has golf with some of the greats in this game, for example; Rory McIlroy, Danny Willet, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, and Webb Simpson. He now works at a ground breaking golf course construction company call EcoBunker, who install artificial sod stacked bunkers all over the world (Link below). That is where our paths crossed. This past summer I interned at Secession Golf Club, in Beaufort South Carolina. I met and worked with Llewellyn or “Clue” all summer and he shared stories of all the pros he had golfed either with or against in his amateur days and who was easy going and others who were not so much, (Luke Donald…Shhhh!). I would have never expected a guy with such a background to be actually doing such a hard and dirty job, when he could go be a club pro at any of the well-known clubs over in England. He was one of the nicest and hardest working people I’ve ever met who loves the game so much he wants a hand in constructing courses not just playing them. I will forever hold the subtle lesson he taught me last summer, never judge a book by its cover.

Wilson's Weekly Words

With the Masters this weekend I figured I'd start my weekly column with 5 facts about Augusta National that you may not know.

1. Ice, Ice, Baby:

         One of the iconic pieces of The Masters beauty as we all know, are the azaleas, well to get them to bloom at just the right time, they put ice around them and under them to trick the plant from blossoming. To put that in perspective, there are an estimated 1,600 azaleas on the 13th hole alone. That's a lot of ice!

2. Part Time Beauty:

         Shockingly enough, Augusta National closes for all members from mid-April to early fall so the golf course can recover and so they can do other projects to the course.

3. Course of Bad Luck:

         As you may know, one of the main designers of Augusta National was Alister MacKenzie, the architect who designed such courses like Crystal Downs in MI and Cypress Point in CA. Augusta National was the last course Alister would ever design and he sadly died before he ever saw the course finished.

4. Mistreating a Legend:

         Jack Nicklaus, 6 time Masters winner didn't have a tailored green jacket of his own until 1998.

5. Average Joes:

         Only three professional players are actually members at Augusta National; Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and John Harris. The rest are all just regular players that love the game like all of us. Also,  it's been said that the average handicap at Augusta is a 13, but the caddies say its closer to 15.