Course in Transition

Several frosty mornings over the last three weeks have forced the zoysia into dormancy creating a nice contrast with the bluegrass roughs on the golf course. Windy days with mild temperatures have encouraged golf activity to continue at a steady pace as the golf course prepares for winter.

The course endured the heat wave of the summer very well. A six inch rain on August 29th raised Shadow Lake to within two feet of full capacity.  Since the August rain, three small storms provided nice slow soaking rains that caused minimal bunker erosion.  Currently, we are still about fourteen inches below our average annual rainfall throughout Kansas City.

The crew has been busy prepping the course for each day's play and making small improvements at every opportunity.  Several bermuda contaminated areas in the roughs on holes #2, 6, 10 and 11 were killed in July and August and seeded in early September.   The new grass establishment has gone well and the areas have been returned to play.  Bermuda grass growing into several bentgrass collars required some plugging of bentgrass from the range nursery to remove the undesired grass. 

Bermuda grass dying  after second herbicide application on #10 left rough.

Newly seeded grass on a bermuda kill area along left rough of #10.

Digging bermuda out of collar #2 green

New clean bentgrass planted back in bermuda contaminated collar on #2 green.

Greenside bunkers on #18 and #17 have renovated with a new liner material and new sand. A fairway bunker on #14 and two on the left side of #17 fairway have been renovated with new liner material and quality sand salvaged from the greenside bunkers on #17 and 18. The main bunker at #16 green is being renovated right now with plans to restore #14 greenside and #12 greenside bunkers before year's end.

Left bunker at #18green refurbished with new liner and sand.

#17 greenside bunker with new liner installed



#17 green probing depth of new sand addition

This week is the last week for our seasonal staff. The crew size will drop from 15 to 7 by the weekend. So, the remaining full-time staff will have our workload increased significantly as the mild weather continues through November. Our numbers may have dropped but our expectations to improve the course have not dwindled.  We will keep marching on....

How much water is left?

Twenty plus days with high temperatures above 100 degrees and less than one inch of rain over the last six weeks has created some concern over the available water supply from Shadow Lake used to irrigate the golf course. So far, over 60 million gallons of water has traveled through the pump station this year. Over the last ten years, the annual amount of lake water used for irrigation purposes has ranged from 29 to 67 millions gallons. The most striking difference for 2012 is that the area is behind 12 plus inches of rainfall for the year compounded by an extremely dry  fall and winter of 2011.  Thus, the lake level is steadily dropping and exposing more shoreline than ever experienced by the members and or homeowners over the twenty-two year life of the property.  According to Dr. Lee Miller of University of Missouri, from July 6th to July 22nd, the combination of high heat and low humidity resulted in a 100 acre property losing over 9 million gallons of water just due to evaporation. Needless to say, water is a concern for homeowners, golf courses and municipalities throughout the Mid-west.

Hole #9 looking pretty good despite the three foot drop in the water table and the high heat conditions.

As a result of the low water table, I was beginning to get concerned about the "what ifs." Mainly, what if this drought continues into next year? Fortunately, Shadow Lake is 76 acres  in size with depths ranging from three feet to sixty feet. What I didn't know was where and how deep the end of the intake structure was located in the lake; what was the physical condition of the intake box; how much lake water was above the structure; and did the depth correspond to the depth of the water table within the well containing the irrigation pumps. 

In the last week, all of the irrigation supply unknowns related to the lake were answered.  Clint Gillis, formerly of Mid-West Pump and the person that installed the pump station in 2003, came by and inspected the pumps and well structure. Pumps are operating fine with minimal vibration and a seven foot depth of useable water exists before a low level safety alarm shuts down the pumps.Starting to feel a little more at ease, I acquired the local diving services of Andy Jones.  He found the intake structure fairly quickly and easily off the west bank of #1 tee. Andy confirmed the intake structure is sitting in  eight to ten feet of water below the lake surface. This information was very similar to the depth of the pumps sitting in the wet well. Knowing the depth of the remaining useable water table in the lake and using conservative calculations, the pumps have atleast 100 million gallons of water available to irrigated the golf course. This volume is a  sufficient amount of water to carry the course into next year.  As we move through August toward the fall season, I will continue to monitor lake levels and reduce watering where and when appropriate.

The assistants watching and waiting on the diver. The white buoy marks the intake structure location.



Geese beware!

My new secret weapon for goose control! Caleb, my two year old grandson is herding the geese towards the lake late Friday evening. Maybe I can wear him out and solve the goose problem at the sametime?

Finally a great weekend in June! Over the previous two years, almost every weekend in May and June had rain of some sort. The appearance and condition of the course continues to improve daily.

 June Maintenance activity:

·         Random zoysia sod repairs along some green edges and drain basins in some fairways.

·         We are still repairing the bunker faces of #14 fairway and green.

·         Currently replacing rotten railroad ties at steps on #4 with  14 to 15 and 15 to 16 to follow.  Most of this work is being done during the corporate outings on Mondays.

·         The right greenside bunker on #18 green is ready for new sand. Two right greenside bunkers on #15 were recently renovated. We are compacting the sand weekly to firm up the sand quickly. After #18 greenside bunker, I would like to get the large fairway bunker on #1.

·         Almost finished spraying roughs with a fungicide application.

·         Edging cart paths.

·         Edging bunkers.

#14 center fairway bunker with weak zoysia turf on bunker surrounds

The seasonal staff continues to learn the maintenance routines and the expectation levels for the golf course.  This year, twelve of the twenty-two seasonal workers are new employees for Shadow Glen. In the last ten years, these twelve new employees represent the most new hires in one season. They are learning fast and doing a nice job on the course. But, they are still working through the courtesy issues regarding member play. Hopefully, our interruptions to your play will be minimal and a one time occurrence.

The temperature forecast looks great for the next couple of weeks!

I hope to see you on the course,

Scott Johnson, CGCS

Amazing

Tournament conditions are just around the corner. The warmest March on record for Kansas and Missouri has pushed all the grass types out of dormancy and into full growth mode a month early this year.  Our zoysia fairways have been mowed for the last three weeks! In the prior ten years, fairway mowers did not come out until April 20th or later. The following photos show the rapid green up over a couple of weeks in March.

Golfers are taking advantage of the warm weather and they are playing alot of golf so far this year. By the end of March, 2200 rounds have been played through the winter to spring transition. Unfortunately, the rough is providing a  severe penalty for missing the fairway due to the rapid growth rate of the bluegrass/ fescue grass. Currently, the staff is mowing the rough two times a week at a three inch height which is leaving alot of unsightly clippings.  At this point in time, we have yet to finish one complete mowing around the bunkers. The grass is 6 to 12 inches tall in some of these areas!

The spring greens aerification was completed on Tuesday, April 3rd. Greens were punched with a deep tine machine with a 1/2" inside diameter side eject tine to a depth of 8 inches followed by a ProCore  machine with 5/8" diameter tines on 2 x 2.5" spacing to a 4 inch depth. Following core removal and clean-up, the greens were treated with gypsum, 0-0-21, 0-0-50 and a silica/ calcium product  prior to a heavy sand topdressing. The cultural practice went smoothly and was completed over the allotted two day period.  The first mowing is set for Thursday following the Wednesday rolling.

 #17 green deep tine aerified by Mike Mallory of Sports Turf

#12 green covered in soil cores from the deep tine machine and the shallow tine machine. The crew will push the plugs to the side of the green and pick them up followed by a quick back pack blower across the green to clean-up any remaining debris.

#7 green being topdressed after the green was cleaned of soil cores and fertility products applied.

#10 Green aerified, topdressed, rolled and mowed by day three.

 

The ten day forecasts looks like morning temperatures will drop down into the 30's a couple of times. Hopefully the cooler temperatures will slow the grass down a bit and we can get ahead with the mowing routine.

 

Greens will be little bumpy over the next 7-10 days with the putting surfaces getting better with each passing day. Come out and have some fun on the course but don't take the putting too seriously for the moment.

 

Best regards,

Scott

Green Up

The golf course is starting to wake up. The warm temperatures are encouraging the greens and roughs to begin greening up with new growth on hole #1. We had a very productive week. Greens were mowed on Tuesday, Friday and rolled on Wednesday.Two additional crew men were hired this week, a month early due to the warm temperatures and the high play volume. The irrigation sytem was charged up on Monday with only a small leak on #5 left rough. KC Arborist cut the tree line back along the right side of #12 on Tuesday. Poa annua  was cut out out of the first six greens with the goal of removing as much poa as possible by the April 2nd aerification. Greenside bunkers were hand raked on Wednesday and Friday. Greens were sprayed with their first fertilizer feeding of the year. Bluegrass targets and the winter tee were fertilized also.

These two photos show bentgrass and soil plugs from #2 green. The plug on the left came from a sodded area of the green compared to an adjacent non-sodded area. The lighter colored sand that came with the sod is still evident under the new sod. Each year, the layer  gets thinner as we continue to aerify and topdress with our local sand. This foreign sand layer creates a health related issue for the grass as the green heats up each summer and the soil temperatures rise. When the green is stressed, the root system will die back to this foreign sand layer resulting in the grass displaying stress scenarios quicker than the bentgrass growing in the uniform sand mix on the right. Numerous aerifications with sand incorportation are the keys to breaking the layer and minimizing the dieback affect. Roots will grow in the vertical aerification channels that extend through the layer. The aerification scheduled for April 2nd will further disrupt this layer and increase the number of channels thus enhancing the rooting potential and root density. With only one 1/2" or larger core aerification planned per year, minimizing the "sod layer effect" on root dieback usually takes several golf seasons to overcome.  With a successful spring aerificaition, I'm expecting a better growing scenario with all the greens this season.

Spring break is next week and the forecast is for 70's all week! I hope you get a chance to play the course as the signs of new growth bring color back to the course. Experience the magic right before your eyes.

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Getting Ready

The mild temperatures continue as we move into March. Two additional staff members were hired this week a month early as we try to keep the course ready for play. Greens are being mowed two to three times a week and the  dual-cup system is being changed once a week.  Bunkers are touched up during the week with the goal of all the greenside bunkers ready for weekend play.

On April 2nd the greens will be aerified with a 5/8" hollow tine with the soil cores removed and the holes filled with sand. For the last ten years, the three weeks prior the spring aerification, staff members will inspect the greens for poa annua. Depending on the size of poa area, the grass will be removed by knife or a plugger. Bentgrass plugs from the range nursery will be planted where the poa was removed from the greens' surface. Fortunately, the amount of poa is minimal and most of the grass is located in the bent collar where golfers or mowers routinely approach the green.

The blue dots are outlining  small clumps of poa along the outer edge of the bent collar on hole #6. The poa is ready to be removed with a "plugger" and new bentgrass planted in its place.

The irrigation system was recharged on Monday, March 5th. One pump at half throttle took the entire day to slowly fill the irrigation pipes throughout the golf course. On Tuesday morning, only one small leak was found on the perimeter of #5. So far, so good..........  For the next two weeks, the course will be inspected daily for weeping sprinkler heads or any other leaks that may have needed some time to reach the soil surface. Each spring when the irrigation system is recharged, the pipes move a little and expand as the pressure reaches our 140 psi threshold. The system is twenty plus years old so a leak or two is not that uncommon considering all the miles of piping we maintain.

Mild Winter Continues

This winter has been great for working outdoors on the golf course. Temperatures have been above normal and rain or snow has been missing all winter until the first week in February. Members have taken advantage of the mild conditions with a record number of rounds in January. We had 434 rounds last month as compared to 0 last year. Needless to say, we're off to a good start in many ways.

Our first snow of the season was a little three inch snow that covered the ground for a day except the shaded green locations. Greens on #5, 8, 10,13, 14 and 16 took an extra day or two to melt off, thaw out and allow the pooled water to drain throught the profile. All these greens were open for play on Thursday.

Winter work has focused on renovating bunkers, trimming tree lines, spraying dormant zoysia for poa control and starting pre-emerge herbicide applications. With the recent snow and rain, the crew has moved back into the treelines. Fortunately, most of our trees are in the natural buffers along hole perimeters. So, annual leaf clean up is not that large of a chore.  Most our tree work consist of thinning canopies to open views and or enhance air circulation.

 Underbrush removal along the right side of #14

 Improving a view down to #1/9 from the mixed grill in the clubhouse

Enlarging the view of the right side of #4 green by pushing the right tree line back by trimming limbs and some tree removal.

The weekend forecast looks great for some February golf with the temperatures in the 50's! Today, the crew is going to prep all the bunkers, roll greens and blow off all the goose droppings on the course. The frost has just melted, gotta go......... Have a great weekend!