Survey Results

Well it took some time, but I finally got through the entire survey. I greatly appreciate all your comments and the time you put in to complete the survey. Reviewing the survey and comments there were 3 somewhat recurring comments/concerns. In no specific order or by emphasis in survey, below are the 3:

- Additional ballwashers
- Expanding some of the front tee boxes
- Green speeds

Additional ballwashers
We recognize the need for additional ballwashers and are looking into possibly purchasing some additional. Along with the concern for additional washers was their placement. Upon my arrival there were many issues I had to tackle. Being my second full season is getting underway, I have been able to chip away at the more important issues and am getting into some of the details that are in need of attention; ballwashers is definitely one of those. Being that we do not have enough washers to place at the every tee box, I feel it is important to one, not be bias in our placement and two, be consistent in the placement so we all know where we can find the ballwasher. Like I said above, we are working on purchasing additional, but to fix the placement issue we have decided to move the placement of each ballwasher to a central location; this will be next to every hole sign. This past week we have cemented a ball washer post and cleat cleaners next to the hole signs on 1,3,5,6,9,10.12.14 and 16. We have not yet put the washers out, we are waiting for the cement to set. This now puts every ballwasher at a central location on each hole.

Expanding some of the front tees
We recognize the need to expand these tees. We are again working on the 1st hole to expand the front tee. It is going to take sometime, but in a few weeks it should be ready. In my opinion, we will be able to slightly expand the tee on #3 as well. The other holes of concern, will need to be placed on our Capital Improvement list. It is important that when we expand these tees we do them correctly and resources are needed to ensure this. Placing these on our CapEx list will ensure the proper resources are provided to accomplish this.

Green Speeds
I would like to reference a past blog post to discuss our green speed situation. Below is the post:

"The recurring theme at every single golf course in 2009 was green speeds. To put some perspective behind the concern, in June and August, it rained for over half the month. In June we had 15 days of all rain and August was 16 days. These weren't days that had afternoon storms or showers, it rained and it rained all day. In 2009, not counting January through March and December we had nearly 57.5" of rain. See chart below.



On the flip side, there were several comments regarding the quality of green speeds this past fall. We received a break from the rain. Once the rain had at least slowed for us, we were able to become more aggressive in our management, cutting and rolling more consistently, topdressing more frequently and brush and cutting more frequently. Each of these practices are in our yearly program, but can't be initiated when we receive this type of precipitation. To help communicate our green speeds, on a daily basis I began posting the stimp reading of a stimped green. We would stimp a different green each day to show the consistency. This also began in the fall and feel this was a success in getting out in front of concerns."

We are currently taking a very aggressive approach to our greens management. We have been able to initiate our program early in the season this year, because we have had the resources to do so. Since aerification we have rolled the greens 9 times and mowed three times. We have also applied a growth regulator and some additional fertilizers to help aid in the recovery. Overall, I am very happy with the performance of the greens this spring.

The rain challenges every course to maintain consistent green speeds. We are hoping the rain begins to cooperate with us so we can continue to remain aggressive on our management of the greens. When the greens have had some additional time to heal, I will begin posting daily stimp readings of the green. I will also provide some management programs we are initiating to achieve our speeds this growing season.

Correction to last post

We are going to mow the greens today. Evaluating further this morning,
our plan is to spray them tomorrow with a growth regulator to help
slow poa germination and aid in green speed goals.

William Brown, CGCS

Sent from my iPhone

Please not another wet year!!

Well, with another inch of rain yesterday adding to the already 2" 10 days ago and the 40 plus inches of snow melt, it is like deja vu. I am hoping this rainny wet trend we have been in for the last year breaks soon.

We will be cart path only today allowing the use of blue flags. Our plan was to mow the entire course today including greens, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. The greens are healing nicely and again we will push has hard as we can to achieve targeted green speeds during these wet times.


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Bunker update

This morning the contractor and I met for a bit and discussed the completion of the final few bunkers. These bunkers are the 3 on number 1 and the 2 on number 12. He will spend most of next week sifting the sand for these bunkers. This is a very slow process so it will take most of next week to complete. Once the sand is sifted he will begin moving the sand back out to the bunkers. I anticipate with some weather cooperation that by the first week of April, our bunker project will be complete.

We are on track to have 90% of the course cleaned by the end of today, Friday. This weekend we will begin the task of cleaning our 60 plus bunkers out and putting an initial rake on them. Several of them have washouts which will be plowed and rolled, this takes time. We plan to have all the bunkers completed with an initial rake by the end of our day on Monday.

Enjoy the nice weekend weather.

Course update 3/18

The course is still extremely wet. We have had difficulty completing our tasks as well because of this. Yesterday, we mowed about 2/3 of the fairways in preparation for fertilizing. My initial plan, at the beginning of the week, was to fertilize on Tuesday, let the forecasted rain on Saturday and Sunday wash the fert in, then mow monday. The forecast changed and so did the plan. We are mowing the fairways for the first time a head of the fertilizing.

We have fertilized all the roughs and misc areas of the course. Today the tees and perimeters are being mowed also a head of the fertilizing. The tees will be fertilized tomorrow or Friday. We are also planning the first sprays of playable areas either Friday or early next week. The decision to do this is going to be based on daily temps and plant response.

Greens are healing nicely. I don't plan to make the first mow until Monday or Tuesday of next week because of the amount of sand still on the surface. Today, we will try to roll them in the afternoon, but it will depend on the amount of play on the course. We have to roll the greens dry or the sand will stick to the roller and create a maintenance nightmare. We will look to roll the greens tomorrow as well and possibly one day over the weekend.

Frost Delay 3/18

We are under frost delay today until at least 9:30am. Please contact the Proshop for any further details.

Busy week of course maintenance

Well, the forecasters are calling for May type weather for the rest of the week which means the course will be packed. Arriving today, after over 2" of rain over the weekend, it is the first day since December with no snow on the course. For those of you coming out to play golf this week, I wanted to give you an idea of what to expect. First, before the schedule of work, a couple things to keep in mind. The snow has only been gone for 4 days now and with 2 plus inches of rain, the course is SOAKED! We are going to utilize cart paths tomorrow without the use of Blue Flags. We may release the use of Blue Flags on Tuesday. Please abide by the cart rules, it is very wet. Also, with the snow only being gone for 4 days now, we have a lot of catching up to do. We are busy cleaning up and fertilizing. To ensure we catchup and make sure we are in shape for the opening of the season, we are going to be pushing hard the next 2 weeks. We apologize now for our aggressive move towards course preparation.

Now for this weeks schedule. Today we are fertilizing all the greens with a granular fertilizer. I am hoping we get a bit more rain tonight to wash the fertilizer in a bit. Our irrigation system is not charged for the season yet, so we have no way to irrigate the fertilizer in. Tomorrow early morning we will aerate the putting and 18th greens. These were unable to be aerified last week due to snow cover. On Wednesday through the end of the week, a few of us will be fertilizing the remainder of the course. On Wednesday the fairways will be fertilized. We are utilizing the Purdue Chicken bio waste material again, so there will be a faint smell on Wednesday and into Thursday. The remainder of the fertilization should not hinder play much at all.

The remainder of the crew, Tuesday through Friday, will be concentrating on course cleanup as we have had a lot of debris fall over the winter.

Course closed today

We received over 2 inches of rain yesterday and there is more on the way. We will remain closed today.


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GCSAA's New Golf Course Videos

For a few years now GCSAA has developed some short commercials to promote the golf industry and the Superintendents position within the industry. These have aired over the past 2 years on the Golf Channel. This year GCSAA has released several new videos that will again air on the Golf Channel on Saturdays during televised Tour events. With the environment being in the forefront, it is important to understand all the benefits a golf course brings to the environment and a community. Being that we just finished aerifying the greens, I felt this first video would be appropriate. I will continue to post the new videos, but you can catch them on the Golf Channel on Saturdays.

GCSAA Aeration Video

Aerification Update

Well, we worked hard over the last 2 days to get the greens completed. We were able to finish all the greens except 18 and the putting green. Despite trying to shovel and hoping the higher temps would remove the snow, we still have significant snow cover on these two greens. Depending on when the rain stops, we will most likely aerate these greens first thing Monday morning. Seeing the long range forecast, after aerating the greens we returned the greens to single cups. No need to rotate the pin position anymore. If you do venture out tomorrow prior to the rain, we are still not allowing carts, some of the paths are still covered and carts are unable to navigate.

Dedication!

Trying to beat the rain and get the course aerified and opened.




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Finally aerating

Although there is still snow on the ground and we can't navigate the entire course yet, we are punching holes. We tried yesterday, but greens were still to frozen. Our plan is to work into the night to get the greens aerated, topdressed and fertilized before the rain on Thursday evening. If we are able to accomplish this we will be way ahead of getting the course moving for spring.

I have decided to take the advice of Stan Zontek with this aeration. We will be utilizing 1/4" hollow tines, small holes, BUT we will do it twice. One now and again in June. The disruption is no more than that of a solid tine. You may ask, why not just do one big one and be done? Two smaller aerations will provide a much greater benefit with far less disruption. This will also allow the greens to be playable much sooner this spring IF the weather cooperates.
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USGA Regional Update sent today

This is a Regional update from Darin Bevard from the USGA.

By Darin S. Bevard, Senior Agronomist
March 3, 2010


Although the snow is melting and the grass is beginning to show, golf courses are a long way from being playable. Once courses do open, expectations should be tempered with the winter that was experienced in mind.
While much of our region remains covered with the white stuff, and will be for some time, areas in Virginia and on the Delmarva Peninsula are now snow free, and the golfers can’t wait to play. In the coming days, as more snow melts, the pressure will increase to open the golf course. With the pent-up demand, golfers will be ready to go, and the golf courses will be glad to have them to begin generating revenue.

When your favorite golf course opens, be reasonable with early season expectations. The grass has been under snow for a significant amount of time, and even though the snow may be gone, warmer temperatures are needed to spur growth and allow golf course superintendents to begin grooming greens to improve playing conditions.

We are already hearing rumblings about skipping aeration or reducing the scope of spring aeration programs. Basically, the feeling is that many golf courses have not been playable since the late December snow storm, so disrupting things now with aeration is not acceptable. The focus is on revenue and member contentment, and not agronomics.

We have heard claims of reducing aeration because there has been little play, so compaction should not be an issue. Aeration on putting greens is about so much more than compaction. Thatch management and water infiltration also are big benefits of the process. Resist the urge to compromise early season agronomic programs, especially aeration. Although skipping aeration may provide some short-term gains, these programs are important for allowing the grass to survive the summer stress season in good condition. We cannot bank on another mild summer in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

Another major issue is course cleanup. The heavy snow and high winds caused massive tree damage at many courses. Many facilities operate with a skeleton crew during the off season, to save money, and there may be only three or four employees available to complete golf course cleanup and begin early season turfgrass maintenance. In many instances, access onto the golf course is limited, so cleanup is very slow. Patience will be needed with this process. When seasonal helpers return, cleanup and maintenance can accelerate.

Spring is just around the corner; officially, less than three weeks away. The slow snow melt is maddening to some, but it limits flooding potential. Again, patience will be needed -- first for the snow to melt, and secondly for your maintenance staff to prepare and cleanup the golf course. Be sure that expectations in the early part of the golf season are consistent with the severe winter that we have encountered.

Golf Course Survey

I want to thank all of you who took the time to complete the evaluation of the golf course. Beginning last evening and today, I have been reviewing all the responses thoroughly, and will continue to do so until completed. I am excited to have finally dealt with our bunker issue. Although, not every bunker was completed on the course, we have completed nearly 85% and the remaining are some fairway and range bunkers.

My plan, once my full evaluation of your responses are complete, is to put together a response describing my teams action plan for each of the concerns. Many of the issues that have been expressed are already being dealt with and will be dealt with if we get a little better cooperation from Mother Nature. In this business, if you are not consistantly evaluating yourself and your programs, you will never succeed. In my 16 year tenure in this business, that is exactly what I have done and I believe it is what has led my teams to be successful.

Although the forecasters are predicting this above normal precipitation pattern to continue into the spring, there are some programs I am evaluating to possibly help with green speeds when we see this type of weather pattern. The recurring theme at every single golf course in 2009 was green speeds. To put some perspective behind the concern, in June and August, it rained for over half the month. In June we had 15 days of all rain and August was 16 days. These weren't days that had afternoon storms or showers, it rained and it rained all day. In 2009, not counting January through March and December we had nearly 57.5" of rain. See chart below.



On the flip side, there were several comments regarding the quality of green speeds this past fall. We received a break from the rain. Once the rain had at least slowed for us, we were able to become more aggressive in our management, cutting and rolling more consistently, topdressing more frequently and brush and cutting more frequently. Each of these practices are in our yearly program, but can't be initiated when we receive this type of precipitation. To help communicate our green speeds on a daily basis, I began posting the stimp reading for the day on different greens. This also began in the fall and feel this was a success in getting out in front of concerns.

We are all looking forward to the 2010 golf season. Once again, when I am able to fully digest the entire survey, I will create an action plan for your concerns and communicate them to you. If you have any further concerns please do not ever hesitate to contact me directly by email at bbrown@hartefeld.com. I would be glad to chat and answer any and all questions.

Storm Cleanup

Today definitely felt like a new page was turned. The sun was out when I went to work, it wasn't brutally cold and yes, I could see some grass. A few short hours into my day, hearing the sound of a chainsaw ripping through a storm damaged tree got me going a bit; sad what gets us Superintendents excited. I am sure many of you have been suffering from cabin fever and are excited to get back on the course. The five day forecast looks promising and we are very anxious to get moving.

I have called my early spring crew back beginning tomorrow and we have a looooooooonnnnnngggg list of things to get to. We to have been suffering from cabin fever and very much look forward to dirtying the equipment we have been working on all winter.

Today our tree company is in cleaning up several of the trees that suffered damage from the storms. I should be able to navigate the entire course either this afternoon or tomorrow. Hopefully the rest of the course faired okay from a tree standpoint. I will post an update shortly.

Is that green I see?!?!

We are beginning to see a bit of green on the course, finally!! Thankfully the last storm was not what was forecasted. The two storms back to back in early February, hit us hard from a pine tree standpoint, especially around the clubhouse. I am hoping this storm on Wednesday is just minimal so we can get busy cleaning things up. The pines around the clubhouse will be taken care of shortly, via our tree company. This year I have been able to budget for a good amount of labor in March. All my guys are on call waiting for a bit more snow to melt. I am anticipating bringing the early Spring crew in this Thursday or Friday to begin winter cleanup.

Greens aerification is scheduled for mid to late March, however, if the snow melts over the weekend with the forecasted temperatures, we will aerify the greens on Monday. If we are able to aerify them on Monday, once the temperatures begin to cooperate on a steady basis, we will begin to push the healing process and green up. Spring course fertilization will also begin to be completed as soon as the snow melts. This will include, greens, tees, fairways and roughs.

We are putting the final touches on the new tee markers this week and also finishing painting the ballwashers. We have ordered all new flags for this year as well as additional bunker rakes for some of the larger bunkers. We will not be putting out the new tee markers until April, when the season begins. Please continue to utilize the double cupping system. When we return to single cups, I will make a post and notify the proshop and Joe Mackley.

Thank you and we are looking forward to getting going for the 2010 golf season.