Lucas & Hunt shoulder of road

The main entrance to our club is kept very simple.  We have about 50 yards of shoulder on the north side of the entrance and about 200 yards south of the entrance that we manage.  The county places mulch every season along the shoulder in front of the cemetery.  We are responsible for our section and have not done anything to the area except trim trees and pick up leaves and trash.  We accumulated a large pile of tree chip material from our Tree Management Program and have used this material on the woodland garden on #9 and the back entrance to the club along Wallingford.  We decided it was time to improve the Lucas and Hunt entrance or at least cover up shoulder area between the road and fence line.

It should look good for our membership and we do receive a great deal of visitors to the course or clubhouse who might only attend on one occasion and we prefer to leave them with a very good impression.

The staff placed about 35 loads on the north side of the road with our small utility vehicles and raked the chipped mulch in place.  We placed a small section along the south entrance at this time as well.  We need to complete the remaining part of the woodland garden area and will then utilize what is left.  We will probably run out of material and will  contact our tree trimming company to get a couple loads of chips hauled in to finish the job on the south end. 

Just south of the entrance showing the difference between the chipped mulch and the gravely material that is now in place.

The completed north side of the entrance looking toward Natural Bridge Road.

Additional aerating of #11 Green

The 11th green has always been a green that is very slow to drain.  It is probably one of the flattest greens on the golf course.  Most greens during heavier rains will drain water off of the surface of the green to the sides or the direction that the green slopes which is usually back to front.  Greens that are flat have a tendency to drain more water through the profile.  Also, our greens with no sub-surface drainage must rely upon the water to penetrate either through the soil profile under the green or move between the sand/soil  layer to the lower area of the green where water accumulates until it can slowly drain from the green.  The back left section of the green also has a low spot which puddles during relatively moderate rainfall.  As you remember from last year, we placed a swale and catch basin to re-direct the water underground that was coming over the back left corner of the green from the area of the 4th tee and the cemetery.     

We've noticed over the last couple of weeks that the green seems to be holding more moisture than normal.  It might not be any worse than normal but the mowers have been scalping slightly and we've also seen some algae forming on the green surface.  In an effort to speed up the water penetration into the green profile, we used our deep tined aerifier with a 3/8" solid tine to poke some holes in this section of the green.  The actual hole size is smaller than a pencil eraser.  We usually do not place hole locations back in this section of green but if you should end up in this area, there should be no disruption to your game.  This is also the walk on and walk off area for the green which creates some additional compaction issues.  We intend to leave the holes open to allow for better water penetration and preferring not to deal with excessive sand issue on a green.  The situation might not be any worse than years past but we felt we should do something to help this area dry out a little more quickly over the next couple of weeks to improve the overall health of this section of the green. 

You can see how relatively small the holes are that were placed in the green.

The green was aerated from the left of the 04 on the date stamp of the picture at a 45 degree angle through the flag stick.  I also laid a golf club out in the middle of the green which marks the line as well.

Staff starting time

Our golf season is in full swing and we've made adjustments gradually from our winter hours of 7 a.m. to the starting time of 6 a.m. during the week for the rest of the season.  This gives our staff enough time to go out and begin setting up the course for our members and guests.  This includes changing holes and mowing greens.  Our weekend schedule begins at 5:30 a.m. because the tee sheet is open at 7:00 a.m. for our membership.  We limit our work on the weekend to mowing greens, resetting tees and holes, raking bunkers, general debris clean up and watering our greens as needed.  There is an occassion where we might mow some rough or fairways if weather prevented this from taking place on Friday.  We attempt to do this quickly and get out of the way so you can enjoy your weekend in peace. 

I forgot to change my time stamp to daylight savings time but this is the view from a walking mower at 5:52 a.m. last Saturday morning.  We need lights for the first green or two and are then able to work in natural light as the sun starts its day.

Bluebird eggs in native area house

The 3rd bird house from the bottom of the hill between 12/13 in the native area has 4 Eastern Bluebird eggs waiting to hatch.  I've not checked any of the other house up the ditch line but there might be another pair toward 11 tee.  I have seen some Tree Swallows hanging out on a house or two as well.  They like to nest in the bb houses as well.

Bluebird eggs in 3rd house from bottom of 13.

Native area cleanup

Each season, the native prairie area between holes #12/13 is mowed.  Normally, most of the lower area and some of the ditch line is too wet to mow.  This season as the rain has stopped and warmer temperatures have arrived, we were able to use the brush hog throughout most of the area.  We did have to pull the tractor out of a couple of spots but overall it went well.

Russ on the upper end with the tractor and brush hog.

 

We are going to go in this year and  use some broadleaf weed killer on most of the upper end to eliminate the giant ragweed from the area because of the problems it creates in the fall for those with allergies and the horrible stalky remnants that are left at the end of the season.

Just a little section to finish and it is all done for the season.

First use of walking greens mowers for the season

The staff(Asst Skip, Russ, Tom and Jason)  performed the first walking greens mowing of the season.  We are still in transition with our golf season staff which does not allow us to walk mow everyday.  We plan to be walk mowing full time by May 1st.  We will usually walk mow greens 5-6 times each week depending upon our topdressing program and weather conditions.  It takes 4 guys approximately 2 hour to perform this work each day. 

Tom working on #9 green.

Assistant Skip completing #16 green.

The Rough is tough

As some have mentioned, the rough is brutal.  We've hit the perfect storm a couple of weeks early.  The warmer than normal temperatures over the last couple of weeks has created an explosive situation in our rough.  The grasses seed head production and growth of the turf has kicked into over drive from the 15-20 degree above normal days and at least 10 degree above average evenings.  Usually this type of rough does not take place until late April to early May.  The lack of frost has allowed the turf to continue to grow as we sleep.  Seed heads have make it even more difficult to get the club head through the golf ball.  We have been lucky that rainfall has been reduced which has allowed us to keep the mowers going each day.  I know some wonder why we keep the rough as long as we do. 
Our height of rough is kept at 3" during the season for a number of reasons. 

• Maintenance standards recommended by the club 
• Typical rough height of country club facilities in St. Louis
• A healthy height for our cool season grasses to reduce the potential damage from pests,(insects, disease, weeds) water loss from trees during the summer, and cart traffic.
• Longer leaf blade can generate more chlorophyll which is the building block of the plant leading to the development of more energy for bigger and deeper root systems and thickens the leaf blade which can help protect it further from pests. 
• Reduces the competitiveness of bermuda grass until the heat of July and August. 
• Protects the scoring of the golf course which has no fairway bunkering. 

PGA Professional Nash Haxel made the following comment regarding playing out of spring rough.  

"Learning how the ball will react from different types of lies is a real key to success in the spring time.

When the ball is lying down in that tall green rough that we are experiencing now, try the 7,8,9 irons and play the ball back in your stance to create a steeper attack angle."

The University of Missouri has a guide sheet for proper mowing practices which includes a discussion on proper height of healthy well maintained turfgrass.

A view of a ball in the rough.

The same view but a close up.  Yes that is 3-4" rough.

A section of rough you do not want your ball to fall into.  A ball swallowed by poa annua in its full seed head stage.