Time flies when you're having fun...

How do you survive the monotany of painting the lettering on all 144 tee markers?

Movies!

Audio/ Visual Master (also pronounced as-sist-ant sup-er-in-ten-dent) Mick Tempel has once again set up his TV with a surround sound home theater system for the annual tee marker painting project (also known as the "CCC Film Festival").  Staffers have submitted their recommendations for movies to watch, tee markers are prepped, and the party is on!  We expect to be finished with the tee markers in about a week.  Last year the entire season of "24" was viewed along with a few choice movies.  This year Jack Baur is being pushed aside for some newly released movies! 

Sometimes creature comforts make even the most tedious of projects go by quickly!  Now please excuse me, I've got some popcorn to make...

Tee marker, tee markers, and more tee markers...

As I mentioned in my last post, the recent snowfall has sort of forced us indoors and caused us to change modes from tree work to indoor jobs.  One of the many required winter tasks is the refinishing of all of our wooden course accessories, most notably our custom tee markers.  We have been making significant progress on the tee markers with nearly all of the prep work complete.  Pictured below are some of the grounds staff hard at work.  Each marker must have all of the lettering cleaned out and must be completely sanded down before new paint and sealer are applied.  We usually plan for the better part of two weeks just to get through tee markers.  The end result is a custom tee marker that is easy to read, and well protected from the weather extremes of the golfing season.  Kudos to the maintenance staff for their hard and very tedious work on the tee markers and all of the course accessories. 

Winter Bliss!

As memories of the 2009 golf season slowly fade to the deeper reaches of my mind, I am reminded of yet another reason I love living and working in the Midwest....SNOW!  Last night we were treated to a 6" snowfall which puts our snow cover total to around 8" (depending on where you measure, of course.)  This is good news for the winter activists as cross country skis and sleds will be the common mode of transportation around the course for the next few weeks.  The 8" of snow is bad news, however, for our outdoor winter work as turf equipment does not fair well in the deep snow.  Until the snow melts down a little (or blows away) we will be concentrating our efforts indoors.  Our many "refinishing projects" will see some progress and, with a little help from Mother Nature, we'll be back outside in a few weeks.

A Likely Challenge

I recently had the opportunity to attend a symposium with Carley and Alan, our two tree experts.  The symposium was hosted by the University of Illinois in conjunction with the Illinois Department of Agriculture and spent six hours covering the topic of the Emerald Ash Borer.

The Emerald Ash Borer (or EAB) is an exotic pest that was brought in from China.  It, like many borers, attacks a specific type of tree. Unlike native borers however, the EAB tends to attack healthy trees and causes a 100% mortality rate on trees it infects.  To date, the EAB has destroyed tens of millions of Ash trees in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois and is on the move.  Currently, EAB has claimed trees as close to us as Bloomington, IL.  Some experts predicts that the EAB will eventually eliminate Ash trees alltogether.

Here at CCC, we have reason to be concerned.  With around 50 Ash trees, many of which are quite mature, the EAB will certainly make its mark.  We will be making regular inspections of our Ash trees, looking for the tell-tail "D-shaped" exit holes, and will be peeling bark on any Ash tree taken down due to poor health.  As part of our ever-evolving tree plan, we will look to diversify our tree population with species that are native to our area and are not yet well represented at CCC.

Welcome to Lucy!

Introducing "Lucy" to the CCC Maintenance Staff!

My family and I recently decided there was a need to fill the void left by the passing of Maggie, our 12 year old Brittany.  Maggie had been with our family for her entire life and was a veteran of three golf courses.  She has been missed by both the Rinks and the CCC Maintenance Staff. 

This past weekend, my wife came across a listing for Brittany pups located near Brazil, IN and, quite honestly, there was very little discussion involving the decision to get a new puppy.  We all new it was time!

"Lucy" was chosen out of the litter and named by my 4-year-old daughter, Sarah.  Lucy comes from a long line of champion hunting dogs and will surely find a warm and exciting home both at the Rinks house and at CCC!  Over the next weeks, months, and years you will surely get to know Lucy as she joins me on my morning rounds and accompanies me throughout the day on the course.

2009 Fall Aerification/ Demo Equipment

First of all, my apologies for not posting for awhile. My intent is to post frequently to keep you abreast of all that is happening on the course at CCC, and I haven't exactly fulfilled my end of the bargain. Again, my apologies.

Moving on to the golf course... another round of aerification has come and gone and with the cooperation of Mother Nature, we were able to complete the entire course in the two days. Every year it is our goal to finish in two days, but occasionally Mother Nature throws a curve ball and we have to finish the course on day three. This fall we had the opportunity to look at some new pieces of aerification equipment perform on our course (demos) and so far the results are just so-so. Our current aerification is either not ours or is getting very old and temperamental and will need to be replaced soon, but with what? I lined up several demonstrations with my John Deere and Toro salesmen to see what was out there. Both companies brought with them three pieces of equipment: a greens aerator, a fairway aerator, and a core pulverizer. The Toro fairway aerator actually pulls the core pulverizer (see embedded "One Pass Operation" video)and makes for a "one pass operation." While conceptually this is a great thing, logistically it becomes difficult. We had some "set up issues" with the Toro aerator causing some heaving of the turf while being aerified. While the heaving itself isn't a major problem, the fact that the pulverizer was being pulled six feet behind the aerator was. The heaved turf wasn't able to be pressed back down and frequently would get caught up in the pulverizer causing damage to the fairway. Certainly not what we want. Unfortunately the "set up issue" was not resolved and the demo fell short of expectations.

The John Deere fairway aerator (see embedded "JD 1500 Aerator" video) performed much better, but still caused some excessive heaving and subsequent damage to the fairways.

When all was said and done, the end result was better performance from our two old-and-tempermental machines than the two new demo units. Toro has already asked for a "re-do" next spring now that they have figured out the correct set up for the machine. I've got a bit of time to decide on that one.

The greens aeration went very well. We pulled 3/8" cores, harvested the cores off the greens and topdressed heavily to fill the holes. We sped throught the actual aerification process due to the two demo units we had in addition to the two older Toro aerators we borrow from HG Golf Properties. As expected the new demo units performed circles around the two older units. Toro's ProCore 648 (see embedded "ProCore 648" video) performed well as expected, finishing 5 greens to John Deere's three.

Both units pulled excellent cores and the holes were untufted and vertical. I'd give the edge to John Deere on hole quality (and subsequent recovery) but to Toro for overall productivity and versatility.

The demonstrations, as chaotic as they were, were truly beneficial for the "due diligence" that will be needed as we start thinking about equipment replacement. None of the equipment is cheap (individual units ranging from $15k to $30k) but is an essential part of a fleet of maintenance equipment.

A Needed Break...and more.

Every year around the 4th of July, I deal with burnout. My crew, tired from the seemingly endless "double weekends" and 5am starts of June, starts to slow down. My turf, weary of Mother Nature's abuse, cries for a few days of rest. My kids, engrossed in their summer activities, ask their Mom when Dad is going to eat breakfast at home again. Simply stated, round about this time of the year, we all need a long weekend. Thankfully in mid-July we have a brief break from weekend events and we are able to rotate long weekends through the entire crew, recharging everyone's batteries for another intense August.

This year the turf even got a long weekend. After a fairly intense 10 day heat wave that took its toll on both staff and course, the 4th of July brought with it moderate, even cool weather. This "break in the cycle" allowed for the beginnings of turf recovery and stifled some of the annual burnout issues I see throughout my department. Finally, Mother Nature shows a little compassion!

I have been watching our "large scale" Velocity experiment throughout the heat wave and subsequent cool down period and I am encouraged by the early results. Last week we reached the peak of the "ugliness" with the predicted "yellow flash" followed by the decline of the Poa annua. During the heat wave, the recovery of the bent was slow, painfully slow to be accurate. With the moderating of the temperatures, we have seen the bentgrass kick into high gear and is now looking very healthy. The Poa annua, however, is still down although even it is starting to perk up. We are currently in week three of the spray interval and by all accounts we are getting predictable results. It is during week three and four of the interval that we gain the most on the Poa due to it's continued slow recovery. Bentgrass has the advantage. Once the Poa starts looking happy again (in two weeks) we will make another application of Velocity, starting the process over again. Each application will see an overall increase in the bentgrass population, which will in turn speed the recovery of the fairway. Exciting times for closet agronomists here at CCC!

As soon as I have a working camera again (it's being shipped) I will post some pictures of #11 fairway. As you play, notice the damage to the fairway and let me know what you think. After all, our experiment on #11 is being done to gauge our "threshold" or tolerance to the injury that Velocity produces. Your feedback will help us plan our future use of this product.