Course Weather
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Superintendent's Corner
Introduction:
This is a golf course, Westchester Golf Course, annually over 20,000 golfers play here. That’s where I come in, I’m the superintendent. The following you are about to read is by some accounts, gibberish, to others a highly refined skill in communication. The goal is to enlighten you as to what is happening around the golf course. The information, presented in a humorous manner is intended to factually educate you about golf course maintenance. Remember, golf is a game, it’s played on grass.
2-8-12 I Am Moving On...
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PGA Tour this weekend
Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial
May 16 - 20, 2011
Colonial Country Club
Fort Worth, Texas
Tees Bermudagrass; bentgrass 0.375"
Fairways Bermudagrass 0.400"
Greens Bentgrass 0.120"
Rough Bermudagrass 3"
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Course statistics
Average tee size: 1,500 sq. ft.
Tournament Stimpmeter: 11.5 ft.
Average green size: 4,400 sq. ft.
Soil conditions: Clay
Rounds per year: 29,000
Green construction soil mix:
USGA (95% sand; 5% peat)
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Acres of fairway: 24
Source of water: City water, river
Acres of rough: 60
Drainage conditions: Fair
Sand bunkers: 84
Water hazards: 3
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The Memorial Tournament is a couple of weeks away. I know they must be struggling to keep things looking great. I was working the year (1990) that was rain shortened and cancelled on Sunday.
Do our remember who won it that year?
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5/18/11 "Fuzzy Pink Stuff"
Is everyone keeping up with mowing? The grass is growing so fast that keeping the grass cut is very difficult. You would think fast growth is good but I am cautious. The clippings are the killer. They matt down the grass and smother it to death. Check out the property line on #4 tees, I guess the neighbor thinks we would not notice. We will probably have to reseed.
The question of the day was about the fuzzy pink stuff. When I responded that, it was pink snow mold they did not believe me. Go figure.
Yes, the pink patch in your yard is actually pink snow mold. It thrives in cool wet weather where grass is under stress (too much water in this case). Even thought it is known as snow mold, it does not need snow cover. The bad variety of snow mold needs the snow.
For your yards, the weather forecast for next week should knock it down where it won’t be a problem. We treat the greens and tees for the disease but have to let the fairways and rough go untreated. It is just expensive to do a wide area treatment. You should expect the grass to turn brown and dry down if we don’t continue to get rain. If you do not have a severe problem, the grass will recover when we get some warm dry weather.
The course grass will be all knocked down by tomorrow. All rough areas around greens, tees and fairways have been cut to a varying height depending on how long ago we were there. We will be back at the bunkers on Friday. We had 14 detailed on Monday abut the rain washed away the work so we will start again on Friday.
We postponed the property line mowing (again). The additional rain that drains to the back of the yards is making it just too sloppy to attempt mowing without damage. When we get a couple days of dry we will be back at it.
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5/12/11 "It’s not raining now."
If you didn’t already know, almost every day Josh or I are on site. We don’t go out of our way to plan it that way, it's just the way it is. Even in the middle of winter when we take our vacations, it seems like we have picked days where one of us is on the course. With that said, we keep abreast of what is happening around the course. The weather conditions, the course conditions, upcoming events, busy days and if you are around me long enough you will realize I spot almost every flaw on the course. Now, whether it is time to fix it now or later is another story.
In case you have missed this data: “The National Weather Service says Columbus had received 7.13 inches of rain for the month as of early Friday April 29. That breaks the old April record of 7.08 inches set all the way back in 1893.” We have continued to get rain in May so much so that Precipitation To date: 2.46" Normal to date 1.41" Normal month total 3.88", which means we are over and inch above our normal for May.
The course is WET!
Check out the Dispatch Article:
If you are out regularly, at least weekly, you will be seeing what we are able to accomplish in a day of dry weather. As of today, all areas (that are not saturated to standing water) have been cut. We are working on the property lines that can be mowed. (Noah managed to drive out of the left side of #8 property line this morning without having to get the tractor to pull him out.) If we have not cut it, it was too wet at the time we were there. And we'll Be Back!
This brings me to the driving range and a complaint by a golfer. He was complaining to Josh that the range was not open. Please understand, I drive the range every day to see if we can cut it or even drive a cart out to pick up debris. Yesterday, my crew walked the range to remove two cartloads of flood debris because they could not drive the vehicles out for fear of damage and getting stuck.
Here is my thank you to John Kallies and Scott Garrett who last week walked and hand picked the range balls so as soon as it was dry enough we would be able to cut. I have great appreciation and a THANK YOU for your hard work!
As Josh tried to explain to the golfer how wet it was, the golfer’s response was “It’s not raining now.” (I guess he did not see the 5/7/11 post.) As for myself my first thought was " now, that is 'living in the moment’, a snapshot of today only". He failed to realize the impact of Mother Nature and, how long it takes to recover from a moment, an hour, a day, or a week of weather.
Right now, the soggy course, is just a short-lived inconvenience. Tall grass, piles of clippings, mud tracks, tire ruts, and cart path only on the back nine. I am grateful for what we have.. an OPEN yet sloppy golf course with some inconveniences. I really would not want to have the devastation from April 25–28, 2011 tornado outbreak like the Town Of Vilonia, Arkansas which was all but wiped out. I would not want the clean up from the flooding in Memphis where the Mississippi river peaked at 47.87. Reaching 14 feet above flood stage. On August 28, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit landfall and New Orleans. They are still in recovery.
Tomorrow morning I will go in and check the range. We will cut it as soon as we can, it will open as soon as balls don’t plug and we can pick them.
Until then…The course is OPEN! Go play, score the best you can, have fun.
In addition, “It’s not raining now.”
Mark A. Novotny CGCS
A Look Ahead...Soggy course means... "Draught Stress?"
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5/7/11 Photo's from 5/3-4/11 flood.
Last week...Monday rain-flooded; Tuesday, rain-flooded, Wednesday, rain-flooded. This is a pretty bad pattern. My crew hasn't been able to work all week and wondered how much more we could take. I told them we would be OK we needed 38 more days to set the record. (Some of them didn't get it.)
By Wednesday noon the rain had stopped and receeded enough to get the tractor out to take a look. Actually, it is to take pictures for you to take a look. After 14 years I have already viewed this, but this may be your first chance to see some of these pictures.
I will start with a modified google map of the back side. The blue highlights are where the water would have been in the morning. Even though the water has been higher in the past each flooding event changes things on the back side. This one is no different. Light silt, less debris, but still over the banks and a lot of water on already saturated ground.
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As you can see there is very little area above the water line. Still again-cart path only on the back side.
The range has been closed for what seems like forever. Here is why.
From there I went down to 18 tees. The pictures are backwards from normal cart traffic so they may be hard to recognize but the first is the storm water retention evaporation basin on the right side of #18 tees. SWREB's are located mainly on the back side. They are to collect rain/flood water, let the silt deposit and then slowly return to the stream at a predetermined height. In the summer, they evaporate and when they get too filled up we clean them out again like we did on #14 in 2007.
The last on is of the Pro Tees behind the SWREB. See the debris line left behind. These tees would have been completely under water since it would have been about 3-4 feet higher.
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I tried to go under Gender Road to #11. Couldn't get there yet. The first picture is the Quick Coupler Irrigation Valve that we use to wash off the cart path, The water was about a foot below the cart path at that time. The water was too high to get to #11 the 2 foot rope stakes go completly under water.
I had to cheat and take the tractor across Gender Road to get to holes #13-17. The silt line shows the water completely covered #13 fairway and approach. The photos show the water level on the fairway, going to the middle school, across the cartpath at the stream crossing.
Another look at the water from the stream crossing each way. A final view up the fairway from behind the green and continue to #14. From there I took a picture from #13 bridge looking to #12. I knew I could not get to #12 with the water, no need to create ruts and more damage for a recurring Photo Op.
Heading to #14 tees and the low area before the porta-potty. Then looking down the fairway.
From #14 tees looking to #16 Tees, and #14 just past the pond on the right that is now across the entire hole.
From the middle of the fairway past the pond looking toward #15 tees.
#14 Second faitway bunker (Left side loooking toward the SWREB and Little Walnut.)
This is behind #14 green looking to #15 Tees. The second one is a close up. Notice the rope stakes that were floating in the nweest water hazard.
These show the height of Little Walnut and the retention pond to the left of #15 Tees. Imagine 3 Feet Higher!
From #15 tee looking up the fairway, the debris hanging off the 2' cut-in post for #15 Fairway, the left side cart path, and the left greenside bunker.
We are almost done with the flood tour...#16 tees looking to the pond (SWREB) on #14. Left of fairway bunkers #16
Number 17 from the tees and the water level left of the green.
Where I draw the line...when I see the water approaching the axle it is deep enough. A golf cart would be above the floor boards at this level.
The water between #17 to #18 still is too high so I had to cheat again to get back to the shop.
Clean-up is continuing...
See you on the course.
Mark A. Novotny CGCS
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5/1/11 Last week's storm damage photo's
Some pictures from the last week...
Wind Damage
At the range, bag racks blown over.
Total tent destruction.
At this point the water had reseeded to a point where we could get out to take pictures.
Flood waters:
#14 looking to #15
#14 left of cart path.
#14 in front of the tee.
#12 Stream Crossing.
#13 looking to the middle school.
Debris left behind...
Debris left in bunker #14 Fairway.
8-10 foot debris pile left at bridge piling under Gender Road
Clean-up starting to open the back side...
Clean-up efforts underway. Under Gender Road Bridge.
Digging out the drain behind #11 tees to clear the cartpath.
Cart Damage:
Cart off the path to avoid water.
Depth of the water.
Cart ruts.
The amount of damage.
Mowing in extremely wet conditions...
Excess water bubble #5 Fairway.
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Fairway mower sliding off the fairway and stopping just short of the pond.
Hard facts of a record setting month of April for rain.
Hope for dry weather so we can get caught up on mowing and fix the damage.
Mark A. Novotny CGCS
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4/24/11 More Rain; Taking Photos
Today is Easter. I have heard that there is more rain, and more on the way the next few days. I have been out of town for Saturday/Sunday. I will see what I can do about getting some photos posted about the flood waters. The longer the water is high the more silt gets deposited on everything. One winter flood dropped 16" of silt under the bridge going to #11.
We will keep working on it to keep the back side open as often as possible even if it has to be cart path only.
I will see if I can get some pictures if the rain stops long enough.
Mark A. Novotny CGCS
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4/17/11 Aerification Photos; Dandelions
The dandelion scare has started! You know, when all of the little yellow flowers pop their heads out and say hello. Well it looks like it is time for everyone to plan on spraying for weeds in their yards. The most effective time to spray is the third week of May. By that time (CAUTION TURF TALK COMING!) the winter annuals will still be out, the summer annuals will be starting and of course the biennials and perennials will still be present. This way one spray and you can catch more than just the yellow heads. Until that time, keep the grass cut so they don't get to the puff ball seed stage.
Crabgrass will be coming soon! You can put down pre emergent now but remember most products last only three months, so the later you can wait the the longer it is effective into the summer.
Greens aerification is complete!
Now, to the task of getting the holes filled in and to smooth them out again.
Here are some pictures of this aerification process!
Here is Denny Vertical Mowing the second direction.
The close-up of the cutting heads shows how much thatch we are getting out of the greens!
Bob is blowing the debris off the green so we can cut them.
Daniel is mowing the green after blowing.
A rather unique shot. It is very rare to be able to mow the green and aerify at the same time. The putting green is large enough for us to do that.
Myself and Jeff aerifying. We work together as a team.
He is doing the perimeter (clean-up pass) while I start the striping down the center.
The aerification holes completed.
We use our fairway roller to smooth the green.
Dennis changing the cup.
Flag put back. One green completed, ready for topdressing!
Photos taken by our
Equipment Service Manager Grant!
THANK YOU!
Mark A. Novotny CGCS
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4/10/11 Aerification Procedure; Water Holding Polymer
Master’s week has ended and a new record of finishing with four birdies in a row! How about the 16th? Keep in mind, a few weeks from today to watch for the 16th at Muirfield Village. Will they play the same?
Monday is the start of green’s aerification (sorry). But it has to be done to keep the greens playable throughout the season. I was telling a member the other day about upcoming aerification and he thought so the roots could grow in the lose soil. I’m not sure everyone realizes (he didn’t), grass roots do not grow in the soil. I know that I must be nuts, but the truth is the roots actually grow in the airspace between the soil particles. The aggravating little holes actually create airspace through the soil for the roots to grow. So without enough airspace… no room for roots… no living grass. That is why you don’t see weeds growing in the pavement only in the cracks between the pavement.
That is also why all of the ropes are around the course... to prevent compaction, loss of airspace, loss of grass. All of the bare areas around the cart paths are caused by the carts compacting the soil: eliminating airspace, killing the roots. Hence, all of the cart rules and why we do not want carts between the tees and around the greens. It is all to save the grass roots. Next time you play, notice all of the dead areas and watch where all of the cart traffic is going. If every cart driver took a slightly different path we would never need ropes! Maintenance hates the ropes too!
This spring aerification is a new method for us. We are double verticutting (2 directions) then aerification with solid tines. This method will accomplish a few things.
1) The verticutting will remove some thatch in the greens. (From URI Fact Sheet) Thatch is a tightly intermingled layer of living and dead stems, leaves and roots, which accumulates between the layer of actively-growing grass and the soil underneath. Thatch is a normal component of an actively growing turfgrass. As long as the thatch is not too thick, it can increase the resilience of the turf to heavy traffic. Thatch develops more readily on high-maintenance lawns than on low-maintenance lawns.
2) It will also stimulate the grass to develop more shoots to increase the density after last year’s high temperature thinning.
3) The holes will give more airspace for the new roots to grow. The holes, mainly the diameter of the holes also leaves channels to get water to the underlying soil that the thatch blocks. If we use smaller diameter holes in just a few weeks when the weather is just starting to get hot, the water we apply will run off the mounds to the low areas. Then we are out there in play every day all day just trying to keep them from dying. Let’s face it, the mounds get hot and dry enough, we need to give them every opportunity possible to get every drop of water they can absorb.
4) Then…Topdress, Topdress, Topdress to fill in all of those little holes. You may see us out there with hand spreaders and buckets of dry material on the mounds. We will be applying a water-holding polymer to help fill the holes.
Dry Polymer in the Cap After the cap is filled with Water!
The polymer absorbs 200 times its weight in water. The goal is to try to hold more water on the mounds (utilizing the aerification holes) and then less hand watering. Less hand watering means less interference from us trying to keep the greens alive in the heat of the summer.
Just remember, in a couple of weeks when you have knocked the rust off your swing the greens will be back to normal.
A look ahead…Dandelion Scare.
Mark A. Novotny CGCS
April 4th, 2011 1st Post for Superintendent's Corner
Since this is Master’s week let’s talk golf. The Masters, one of the only five tournaments I try to watch at least one day on the weekend (usually Sunday). The others are the remaining three Majors and the Memorial.
Why I bring up the Master’s and Augusta National is because it has unique golf course maintenance. NO Rough! At least not by Major standards or even by Westchester standards. The rough is equivalent to our close rough at about 1-3/8”. It is just high enough to slow the ball down from going into the hazards from a less than perfect shot.
They have no stripes on their fairways the past few years. All fairways are cut from green to tee giving a one-color look for the golfers. Years past they were cut up one side and down the other giving a two color look. Unfortunately, by doing this it gave the golfer a distinct length advantage when they hit the “light side”.
Something to make a note of is number 16, par three over water. Remember this hole for the future. In a few weeks we will be right here at Muirfield Village Golf Club (Where I did my internship and worked the '89 & '90 Memorials). All the golf course maintenance talk will be about the renovation of number 16 with the new executive suites behind the green. The renovation started July 2010 and is ready for play. What I think is interesting is that it is now very similar to number 16 at Augusta. We will see how well the players can score on it this year.
Let's look ahead at "Your Home Course", Westchester. Of course you know we are open. It's pouring rain right now and flash flood warnings are being thrown about the radio waves. It looks like the three days the crew worked on bunkers last week is a washout.
On the brighter side, the weather looks pretty good for the rest of the week a chance to get out play some golf and see the new guys working in the bunkers. Don't be too offended by the pumps running. It takes two guys 2-3 days to get the water out, just to start the silt removal and raking to begin. Yup, another 2-3 days. Hopefully, by the end of the week they will be completed!
Since this is my first post for the newly created Superintendent's Corner (Thanks to Josh) Let me know what you think. Click on the FAQ at the bottom of the page and fire away! I will try to get to you quickly and update the page every week. Since this is my first post of this kind, we will work on this page together...do you like the name "Superintendent's Corner". How about 'Ask The MAN'? We would like to create a Frequently Asked Questions section, but you will have to ask some questions.
See you out there.
Mark A. Novotny CGCS
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Superintendent's Bio
GCSAA Certified Golf Course Superintendent
October 1996-Present
June 1990-December 1996
Ohio State University Intern
(2 Memorial Tournaments)
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#18 Fairway Drainage
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#15 Bunker Renovation 2011
Mark A. Novotny CGCS
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#16 Fairway Bunker Renovation 2011
7-6-11
Mark A. Novotny CGCS
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Mark A. Novotny CGCS
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Greens Question:
Q: What are the round circles on some of the greens?
A: The round circles you are referring to are repair plugs.
You will see them on several greens. Mainly 7, 8, 14, 17, 18. There may be others later in the year but these are the first we are working on. The draught and excessive heat last season took a toll on the greens (mainly on the mounds). The grass will fill in a cup cutter size 4-1/4' bare spot in a season. Anything larger needs human help with repair mender cutter size of 8" and 6". There are other sizes available and several shapes, but this is what we use. We can use a sod cutter but the depth of the repair is shallow enough that the repair is difficult to keep alive in the heat of the summer.
Even with the large size repair plugs we will loose several throughout the season when the heat gets to the mid to upper 90°s. But thankfully, most of the repairs are around the perimeters where we do not place the pins.
Notice how green the grass is??? It is photographic enhancement. Just like you see on TV Tournaments every weekend. This is not the real turf color (just like on TV).
I just wanted to make a point.
Mark A. Novotny CGCS
bjwilson 4/28/11
Comment: Last year when we played we noticed many of the traps were not filled with much sand. Is there any plans for filling the traps with more sand? This is no criticism, just a question. Thanx, we enjoy playing your course.
Answer:
Good question.
Depending on the time of year and weather conditions the bunker sand changes greatly.
For example: after a rain the sand gets compacted by the water moving the sand and taking the air space out of the sand and makes it play as if there is very little sand. For the most part it will take three days of dry weather and machine raking to get the fluff back into them. If you played within those days it will seem as if there is no sand because they get very firm from the washouts and soil/silt contamination.
We are in transition. Most of the original 73 bunkers have original sand which we try to keep the best we can (fluffy). You will see several rebuilt bunkers that have a different (brown color when new) sand. This sand stays fluffier longer but can give you a fried egg lie until they are at least 6-12 months old. We are scheduling 10 bunkers per year for rebuild in either new sand including: complete renovation of drainage, gravel, reshaping, new sand, or sod. Others are being grassed-in to give us a more realistic chance of keeping the remaining sand bunkers fluffy. Our goal is to reduce our original sand acreage by 50%.
Not to detail you to death but this is a very good question since most of the comments are about the bunkers and few golfers get a chance to understand golf course bunkers. Golf Course Architects design consider a bunker as a hazard to be a (Half Stroke) penalty. Westchester bunker Trivia: 73 Original bunkers. 1526 tons of sand in 2.02 acres of traps. Average life span of a bunker is 7 years using 217 tons of sand per year for renovation work. Average complete bunker renovation cost is between $350,000 and $500,000 So, 10 bunkers a year will keep bunker renovation project indefinitely.
With that said, if you find a particular bunker that you believe does not have enough sand let me know. I will check the depth (scraping the sand to the base with a square point shovel) to determine if it a depth problem (where we add more sand), a distribution problem (we physically push the sand where it can be washed down as deep as 14" back to the thin areas), or a compaction problem (we spend more time double or triple raking).
With the total amount of bunkers and an inexperienced staff it is good to have the extra help identifying the ones we need to work on first. For one bunker I can usually give it band aide help in a few days. To properly renovate them all at the same time the math says it will take quite a bit longer.
If you have any more bunker questions let me know. I have multiple pictures of what is underneath the sand and what a renovation entails. Also, if you are going to be around with some significant time, I can pull out the renovation notebook with the approximate year your nemesis bunker would go under complete renovation. I think the schedule goes out about 14 years.
Here is a link to what the USGA has to say about bunkers:
http://www.usga.org/turf/articles/video/bunkers_not_consistent.html
Mark A. Novotny CGCS
Geese Question
Larry 4/6/11
Comment: Why not be aggressive and do something positive about the goose s--- all over the place starting with green 5 and fairways of no. 5 and 6
Answer:
Difficult problem, very smart critters.
We are in the city so we are not allowed to shoot them even with the allowed special permit for migratory goose and nuisance pest permit.
There are available "bangers" to scare them off but once again...inside the city limits.
A few years ago, we tried paint balls to scare them off but the neighbors called the sheriff to complain about our harassing them with the paint balls and we were warned not to do that.
There are products that are available to deter them most are very expensive and temporary, so much, so that if it gets wet from a rain or irrigation it will wash off and throw away money. Some of the products we have tried...Concentrated wolf urine (so they claim) upon testing at our course no luck. The products that make the grass taste bad and the product that makes the grass look a different color so they will go somewhere else, both spray on products and first rain or irrigation it stopped working.
We do have a couple of neighbors that have permission to run the geese off with their dogs but even they can't keep them away.
Once we get into the full swing of things and the grass is effectively, growing the greens will be cut every day and the fairways every other day so the droppings (as we like to call them) will be less of a nuisance.
If you run across anything different from what we have tried let me know. We will try it.
Mark A. Novotny CGCS
Follow-up
Larry 4/7/11
Have been to Scioto Reserve last year, they have coyotes around the lake, no geese! Coyotes were not real of course, why haven't you tried that?
Answer 4/7/11
Vandalism,
You would be amazed how much golf course supplies are stolen each year off the golf course.
Additional note... 4/7/11
I have sent an email to Scioto reserve superintendent to get the rest of the story...Hopefully; I will get a response in a week or so.
4/8/11
I received this reply from the Super at Scioto Reserve.
Mark:
Trust me when I say they were a waste of $300. GM saw them at a club in the North and said they worked great and that we had to get some. We have moved them around try to simulate them moving, but after a while, the geese catch on. As you well know, tormenting is the best solution or a shotgun. We continue to use bird bangers to try to keep them scared off as much as possible. Sorry I don’t have the magic answer. Keep me posted if you come up with anything.
Scioto Reserve Superintendent
4/30/11 Follow-up on New Technology
Just to let you know we haven't forgotten you...
I have one on order and will be evaluating the effectiveness soon.
My concern is...That the item was delayed and the geese may have laid their eggs for the season and it would not be effective until the young ones can fly and be chased off.
http://www.birdcontrolsupplies.com/Arieslaser.htm
5/15/11 Follow-up
Our testing & use.
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The GREEN light does not seem to effect: Rabbits, Squirrels, red winged blackbirds.
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The Laser will not work on established geese with young ones that can’t fly.
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The laser works on young family(<3-years old) & friends that will fly. However, they stay in the area close to the dominant couple.
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Care must be taken not to reflect the beam off water and flashing into the neighborhood homes.
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I will continue to use after all the geese can fly. If I continue, to use it now they will learn that, the laser does not hurt them and it will become ineffective for future use.
If the neighbors use the low powered laser pointers at night this seems to be just as effective since it will disturb the sleep pattern and they will leave.
Warning: Lasers are against the law when used to point at aircraft.
GCSAA Certification
The Golf Course Superintendents Association of America’s (GCSAA) certification program has been recognized by the National Certification Commission (NCC) as “one of the most extensive and comprehensive certification programs for any profession.” The NCC is an independent source of information on the development and improvement of certification programs, and serves more than 150 associations and 300 certification categories.
The CGCS designation is the most widely recognized in the golf industry and the highest level of recognition that can be achieved. Approximately 25% of GCSAA Class A members are certified golf course superintendents.
To qualify for GCSAA’s competency-based certification program, a candidate must have at least three years experience as a golf course superintendent, be employed in that capacity and meet specific post-secondary educational requirements and/or continuing education points. The candidate’s knowledge, skills and abilities are validated through the development of a portfolio consisting of their responses to skill statements, case-study scenarios and submission of work samples; an on-site inspection of their golf facility; and a rigorous six-hour examination covering: equipment, irrigation systems, materials and technology; golf course and grounds; human resources, rules of golf, financial and administrative systems, regulatory and programmatic systems, crisis management, project management and ethics and values.
Maintaining certified status requires renewal every five years after the initial date of certification. To fulfill certification renewal requirements, a candidate must participate in 150 hours of continuing education and professional development.
From: WorldGolf News for Thursday, December 1, 2005
