August Update

9th Hole

It is hard to believe we are already a week into August, but so is the case. Since my last post we have been focusing the majority of our time on improving our putting surfaces and getting all the kinks out of our irrigation system. It is not too uncommon for us to have a handful of leaks a week, with most of them being attributed to failing glue joints or poor repairs in the past. Andrew and Colin have done a great job of keeping the system operating, especially with the mid 30 degree temps we have seen the past few days.

In the last two weeks we have aerated greens along with laying 1600 sq ft of sod on greens 2,3,4,7, and 9 to repair areas that were too large to repair with plugs. All the problem areas were located on the clean up pass of the greens, so the new sod will have very little impact on playability. We are cutting the new sod at a higher height than our normal greens height, so hopefully by the end of the month we will have the new sod at the same height as normal greens height.

Boys stripping the sod off of 3 green

What the new sod on 9 looks like

The other night while out handwatering the new sod I had a good conversation with one of our members getting in a quick nine before dark. He quizzed me with afew questions I have heard before, even at my own family gatherings. The first one being "What I plan to do for the winter?" and the second " It took you two years of college to learn how to grow grass?". In the past I was annoyed by these questions, but I have learned to realize that our job as turfgrass managers is to educate others about our profession. I truly believe that these questions are not ignorant, but uneducated. I try my best to stop and talk to as many people as I can and explain things like why the Poa makes the putting surfaces bumpy later in the day. Or how having our sprayer down and missing our scheduled Primo application leads to slower greens in the afternoon.

Along with all the other hats we where on a daily basis, I believe educating our staff and golfers could be the most important aspects of our profession to help ease the pressure we are under to provide a great working environment , and consistant playing conditions. I know the pressure we put on ourselves is more than anyone can put on us, but by using education we can make those times when things are going as well as we would like, alot less stressful.

So if you have a question feel free to stop me on the course and ask, that is what I am there for, along with afew other things.

On a final note I would like to say congrats to Bruce Lemessurier on his first hole in one. Bruce is daily morning golfer and helps with our junior program from time to time. I also happened to be in the clubhouse eating lunch when he bought everyone a round of drinks. It was pretty neat to hear him and Ian Jones, his witness, explain how it all went down.



Bruce and his hole in one on 12



Time Flies

It has been awhile since I have even looked at my blog until today. It is hard to believe a month has gone by so fast, but the last 3 and half months have been a blur since opening day so I guess it is par for the course. I just took a glance at the goals I set for our team in February for this upcoming season, it is fair to say I underestimated the task we were presented with. We continue to slowly chip away at the tasks and projects we have planned to complete, but our irrigation system continues to take valuable man hours away from course improvement work. Without the long hours and dedication of Andrew and Colin our system probably would not be anymore than 70% functional. At present time we are around 96% functional and may even be able to start looking system efficiency in the near future.

Working 70 to 80 hour weeks since May has definitely started to effect Andrew and myself so both of us needed to get away and recharge our batteries. I have never taken 6 days off in a row during the golf season, in my ten years in the industry, but it was just what I needed. I came back motivated and recharged this week, ready to continue to make strides in the last half of the season. Our goals for the rest of the season are to improve plant health and playability.

We continue to use herbicides to control clover and dandelions, but with thin turf on the back nine fairways, foxtail has become an issue. I plan to overseed all fairways on the back nine in the fall to create a better stand of turf for the future to help fight weed infestations.  and use a pre emergent herbicide.

Some upcoming practices and projects we will be completing in the next week or two are: solid tine aeration of greens, sodding of weak areas on front nine greens, completion of our bentgrass nursery, prep and seed septic field area, and finish 14 cart path with enviro-paving.

Thanks to everyone from Dinosaur Trail for their positive comments on the golf course this year. In my mind we are not anywhere near the conditions I would like us to be in, but we continue to make strides and it is nice for the crew and myself to hear kind words about the course. I really enjoy going to work everyday, taking the time to stop and talk to as many people as I can, and getting all the feedback that I can.

I leave you with a little slideshow I have created of pictures I have taken over the past few weeks around the golf course, hope you enjoy!

Feast or Famine

Tunnel 5 feet full of water

The last two weeks have been interesting for the Dinosaur Trail turf care team. In my last post I was talking about drought conditions, now I find myself dealing with an abundance of moisture. In the past week we received over 10 inches of precipitation. The majority of it falling on the 13^th of June triggering a flash flood. One 24 inch culvert is expected to handle run off draining to the river for an area larger than a section of land. Normally it can accommodate  daily run off, but during this event it was undersized. Our 8 x 10 foot transportation tunnel that runs under the highway doubled as a culvert, allowing the water to flow freely across the front nine to the river. I believe without the tunnel we would have been dealing with some major flood clean up and highway erosion. The course handled the water relatively well with it only needing it to be closed for two days. As of this morning, most of the standing water in bunkers and on fairways has dissipated, so playing conditions continue to improve.

River running across the course up to 20 ft deep in some spots

Hard to see, but water on the front of 16 green

Dan working on drainage

With the recent moisture and warm temperatures the turf has started to grow like crazy, hopefully this week we can get caught up on rough and fairways since we have been unable to mow for the last 3 days. The greens are starting to fill in nicely and this week we are going to start applying Primo Maxx to our greens. Growth regulators have never been used on Dinosaur Trail so I am excited to see the results in the next few weeks.

This week we plan to finish and clean up areas that Dan Funk has been working on the past few weeks. This includes the septic field on the first hole and putting the final touches on the 14^th cart path before the recycled tire product is laid. We also have some cleanup to do from the flooding as a large amount of bentonite has washed onto the 18^th fairway and we must remove it before it kills the turf. The rain gave me the chance to see how the water moves through the back nine and determine where drainage is needed to prevent erosion. Before we continue to improve the cart paths on the back nine we will need to address the drainage.

Working on 14 cartpath

fresh water shrimp plugging heads

This past week we also installed wye strainers on our irrigation system to prevent sprinkler heads from being plugged or damaged by foreign bodies entering the irrigation system. We have had some major issues with fresh water shrimp plugging our heads , these wye strainers will eliminate this and save valuable man hours spent flushing heads. As well we will receive our new PLC this week for our pump station which is long overdue. This will speed up the process of troubleshooting the irrigation system, as we still have around 50 heads to replace and many more to adjust. I am hoping by mid July the irrigation system will be close to 100% operational. We have made great strides on the irrigation system as we maybe had 30% of the irrigation system operating properly at the start of the season.

In the upcoming weeks our team plans to really focus on our greens and repairing all winter damage with plugging or sodding. The tees were aerated, over seeded, and topdressed last week so hopefully we will see some improvement on the front nine tees from this.

Overall I believe we continue to make progress and this is all due to the dedicated crew we have. I wish we were further along in meeting the goals I have set, but I need to be realistic as we spend a lot of time dealing with inefficiencies and putting out fires. I look forward to the time when all areas of turf care are running efficiently and we can really start improve the golf course.

As I look back at the last 4 months as my time as a Superintendent, I would have never thought the learning  curve would have been so extreme. In applying for this position I figured I was prepared to make the jump from an assistant. I never figured I would be pushed to my limits the way I have been. If I would have known what challenges I would have needed to overcome at Dinosaur Trail, I honestly don’t know if I would have accepted the position. Now that I am into the thick of it and things are turning around I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. I have never learned so much or used the word “unbelievable” in my vocabulary in such a short period of time over the past ten years in the turfgrass industry. I look forward to having my personal life move off the back burner and be able to enjoy more of the summer.