Wet day

Yesterday we got 1.29" of rain. We didn't get as much as places north of us, but we got enough to make us cart path only today. Hopefully the high winds didn't trash the course. We will be out cleaning the course today.

Making steps in the right direction...

We are adding steps to the white/green tee box on #18. These steps will give golfers a way to make it up the hill so people won't have to drive on the right side of the tee box. We are making these out of rail road ties and driving rebar spikes through them to keep them stable. If these are well received, we may add some to a few other areas on the course. We hope these help out and will be used.

Continuing education

Our Canongate superintendents have been busy this week taking advantage of the winter to take in some very educational seminars. The UGA Griffin campus hosted a free learning session on Wed, 1/23,
for all turf managers in Georgia. There were some very good speakers that spoke on a lot of the testing they have been performing on their test grasses. On Monday, 1/21, all Canongate superintendents were treated to a very good day. We had the opportunity to spend the entire day learning from three of the most knowledgable minds in southeastern turf grass management. Dr. Bruce Martin and Dr. Bert McCarty came down from Clemson University and Dr. Jeff Higgins came over from Harrell's Fertilizer. These gentlemen answered all questions we had and informed us of new chemicals that are being released soon. They also told us about some of the testing they have been doing with fungicides, herbicides, and also pigments and paints.
We all learned a great deal from these two days of classes and seminars that we will be able to apply at our courses this year. Hopefully this will help us have the best greens all summer.

Applying lime on the course

Today we applied lime course wide. Lime contains calcium and is most commonly used to raise the pH of soil. pH is a scale to measure the acidity and alkalinity of soil. The scale goes from 1-14. A pH of 7 is neutral. Soil with a pH below 7 is acidic, and pH above 7 is alkaline. The pH level we are attempting to achieve here is between 6 and 7. The pH of the soil needs to be adequate in order for plant nutrient availability, effectiveness of pesticides and herbicides, microbiological activity, and over all plant health. Changing the pH of soil does not happen over night, it takes time and repeated applications to reach the level. This is why we apply lime once a year.

Rollin, Rollin, Rollin....

Today we rolled greens instead of mowing them. This roller is a great tool for us in many aspects. On a day like today where we had a frost delay it allows us to get out quick without having to wait on the mowers to mow. In the winter time, when we are watching labor hours, it is very helpful as well. We can use one man on the roller instead of three men mowing. Since the roller is wider and faster than the walk mowers, the man on the roller can finish in the same amount of time it takes the three men to mow. During tournament times we can use the roller along with the mowers to give the greens that little bit of extra speed to make those knees knock a little bit more standing over that big putt.
The employee on the roller is Jose Ramirez. He has been with the golf course for over 11 years. He is a truly valuable asset. He is our utility guy. Whenever we need any type of project done, he is the guy for the job. He has a great attitude every day and loves this golf course as if it is his own back yard. Thank you Jose.

Course condition update 1/18

Over the last 2 days we received a little over 1.75" of rain. It is extremely wet on the course and we will be cart path only for today. We will reevaluate tomorrow morning for the weekend. We also have a frost delay this morning.

Rainy Day Repairs

During this extremely wet time we have a lot of time to catch up on equipment repair and maintenance. Our head Equipment Technician, David Morris, even helps out with the golf cart fleet r&m. He is using these rain days to replace some bad motors in the cart fleet to get some of the carts back in the rotation. A good Equipment Technician is the lifeblood of a golf course and we are lucky to have David. He can work on anything from weedeaters, mowers, carts, tractors, and everything between.

Finished with spraying

Over the last 4 days we have been spraying our pre and post emergent herbicides. Thanks for putting up with us and all of our foam blobs that were making it hard to spot your ball in the fairway. All we have left to do is to spray around the greens. Hopefully we will get this done on Tuesday if the weather works out. We have to do this on a closed day so the roundup does not get tracked on the greens by golfers.

A post about posts

Cart traffic is very detrimental to turf grass. One of our daily jobs is to try to manage cart traffic. One of the tools we use are our enter and exit posts. These are set up on every hole where we would like all golfers to leave the cart path and then return to the path. If carts continue to drive in the same patterns on a daily basis, we will have to sod these areas. Please work with us on helping to resolve this issue.

Dusting greens

This morning we lightly topdressed, or dusted, the greens. The goal behind using these light and frequent dustings is to firm up the putting surface which will in turn reduce the severity of ball marks and aid in ball roll by providing a truer surface. We will be doing this a lot more frequently as the weather warms up. The process has minimal disruption and in most cases by the next day you can't even tell we topdressed. The first picture is the machine we use applying the sand and the second is a picture of the green after being dusted.

Spraying pre and post emergent herbicide

We have started spraying the entire golf course (except the greens) with our second application of our winter pre emergent herbicide. We spray two half rates instead of the entire rate because we feel it gives us better long term control. The difference this time is we have added a post emergent herbicide in the tank. We are spraying glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) at a rate of just 16 oz / acre. At this rate, it should knock out any weeds that have germinated. With the Bermuda being dormant, the glyphosate will not harm it. Even if it isn't completely dormant, the heavy frosts form the last week have shut down the Bermudagrass where it isn't taking up any nutrients or chemicals. This is a good trick to use in your yards as well if you have Bermuda or zoysia grass. I wouldn't recommend if you have Centipede or St. Augustine.

Spraying Greens to control Poa.

As some of you noticed, we are spraying greens today. We are doing this for two reasons. The first is to give the greens some nutrients with a liquid fertilizer. The other reason is to help combat a small problem with Annual Bluegrass (poa annua) in the greens before it becomes a big problem. I have included a picture of one spot of poa on the greens. The poa is the lime green colored grass and the white spots are the seed ready to help it spread more. This is such a troublesome weed in the greens because the products that will kill it will also kill the bentgrass. We are spraying a product that just regulates the growth to a point where the bentgrass can out grow it. Once this happens, we won't see any poa and the bentgrass will fill in the voids.

Possible Frost Damage

Many golfers have asked how much damage can one group do if there is frost on the greens.  This picture is the average steps of an average foursome on the green.  Just imagine if every one of those footprints turned black and died.  That is how much damage just one group can do. 

Frost Delay 1/7

We are under frost delay again. We will allow golf as soon as the greens are ready.

Frost Delay 1/5

We are under a heavy frost delay.  We will get golfers going out as soon as possible.  Until the all clear is given, please stay off of all greens and tees.  Walking on frozen grass can be very harmful to the grass.  When it is frozen, the blades of grass break instead of bend.  This causes the plant to bruise very badly or in some instances, it can cause the grass to die.  Thanks for your help on this. 

New Assistant Superintendent

We are proud to announce that Joseph (Joey) Hickok has joined our team at Golf Maintenance as our Assistant Superintendent. He is fresh out of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College where he earned his Bachelors in Golf Turf Management. He was part of our team in the summer of 2011 and it worked out for him to return as part of our management staff. Welcome him aboard when you see him around the course.

Frost Delay 1/4

We do have a frost delay this morning. Once the frost starts to lift, we will evaluate the cart rule for the day and see if it is dry enough to be 90* today.

New Year, New Blog

Starting this year, we are going to start blogging.  These may be just a picture from the course or it may be an informative video or article about a cultural practice we will be performing on the course.  We have started the year with a very wet golf course.  This has prevented us from starting our second course wide application of our pre-emergent weed control.  We will be starting this as soon as the course dries up enough for us to drive our sprayer around.  These chemicals are not hazardous.  It just means you may see all of our foam marker all over the course.  I know how much everyone loves trying to find their ball in all the white foam blobs, so we will try to keep it dyed blue.
We hope everyone has a blessed and safe year.  See you on the course...