Trimming on It's Last Days

The trimming of the suckers is almost complete and should be finished by the week's end.  This is always a big project and takes a week or two to complete not to mention the two loads of debris that are hauled off property, but the final holes are complete and the clubhouse is what remains.

Speaking of the clubhouse, we have finally killed the wasps living in the bougainvillea and should be trimming and tying up them by week's end.

Approach sodding continues today with addressing 6 and 16, and tomorrow with 5, 12, 13 and 15.  After the weekend we will start back up again on the repairs which are being done with using sod from the driving range.  This is another big project that needs to be completed hopefully within two weeks.  Additionally today we are edging the bunkers (another multiday project) and testing our brand new green's roller.

Also tomorrow we will be lightly fertilizing the fairways with 21-0-0.

Transition of the Approaches

12's Approach

Every year the overseeding process takes it's toll on the underlying bermudagrass no matter our greatest efforts to prevent or minimize the effects.  And this year is no different in the approaches than other years, in matter of fact it is better than most.

16's Approach

Today, we are starting the repair process on select approaches such as 11 - 13, 6 and 16.  Our goal is to address them all in advance of the August aerification and course closure.

As the Days Progress

Spot Repairs on 13

 Yesterday we finished the spot sodding on 11 and 13's greens.  The removed sod was quite alive so we put that sod back into our nursery where we can get some time to recover it correctly without interfering with our members.

Still Deciding the Direction to Go on 12

The last green the we have to address will be 12, but so far I am still determining which areas I exactly want to address.  The sad news is that these spot sodded areas only have 60 days on grow time before overseeding so there is a chance we will have to address again next year.  But we should have enough sod in-house to prevent expenditures and will be healthier than the thatchy than the West Coast sod.

This higher than normal humidity is keeping us on our toes.  We are logging over 100 hours per week combined just to try to stay ahead of the growth of just the roughs.  This week we finally finished catching up on the weed eating including the valve boxes.  These valve boxes are important to be able to find the shut off valve, and also to prevent the aerifier from damaging them.  Next we will address the sprinkler heads. 

This week too we have been addressing the suckers and the low hanging branches.  This allow better maintenance, improved playability and allows more light to reach the turf making it healthier.

Tired of Waiting

5's Green -Scalping & Shade Leading to Algae

Watching the scalped areas I was getting tired of waiting for the complete recovery since the algae was starting in these stressed areas.  Algae which has been a major issue for Avondale can kill turf just as quickly as the best herbicide, so we decided to fix those areas.

Re-Sodding Back Section of 5's Green

We started yesterday with 5 (see above pictures) and finish the minor spots on the large PG that we did not address during our repair.

The Original Sodded Area on 13 (6-3-13)

Scalped Spots on 13's Green

Today, we addressed 13 and 11 greens.  The removed sod was so alive we put that sod back into the nursery where we can deal with it better without interfering with our members.  Additionally, putting this "thatchy" sod in the nursery will aid in a quicker recovery.

 

New Lock on 5's Bathroom

Finally, the locks are on the bathroom at 5's tee.  Maybe now we can keep the unwanted gardeners out of our private property.

The Bathroom at 5's Tee

New Locks for Bathroom

Are you tried of seeing the homeowners gardeners, contractors, and other non-members using the clearly posted no trespassing bathroom on 5's tee ... then leaving it a mess for our members (social and golf)?  Me too!  I have tried everything to keep them out with any success, and even had a few become  confrontational when asking them to leave our posted private property.  See pro shop for the combo once installed.

12's Fairway in the Morning

With the high humidity this year the fairways are recovering quicker than expected and some looking the best I have seen since stopping the chemical transition.

12's Scalped Area

But the humidity is a double edge sword.  On greens 5, 11, 12 and 13 when required the most sod those areas sodding became so thatchy that they have been scalping on every mow.  We are working these areas and have been improving them but still they are less than I would desire aesthetically.

We are Getting There

11's Green 7-22-13



16's Approach 7-19-13

The healing of the greens is well underway and mostly their recovery is complete.  We are still working on the newly sodded areas to deal the thatch and the slight unevenness.  But other the middle of 12 & 13, and the right lower side of 11 our recovery is complete.

However, the approaches have recently been experiencing the death of the ryegrass leaving vast voids where the bermudagrass must fill back in.  This week our focus is to get the green speed back but our eyes are on the horizon to deal with the approaches very soon.  Sadly, the bunker reconstruction project takes the back seat again to improve the experience of our summer members given our limited resources.

Today, we are fertilizing light the approaches and fairways for the first time since February to aid in their recovery.  Additionally, we have sprayed the greens with a wetting agent and BTa control chemical, and fertilized them with potassium too.  We will be this afternoon finishing the spot aerification of the greens by completing 4 and 12 greens.

Finished Aerification in Time for the Horse Race

Aerification in the best of times is a difficult proposition but completing the process while maintain and keeping the golf course open ... with a shortened staff ... well lets just say that is quite a lot.  And my team as always stepped to the plate and finished the project on time and had every thing ready for the Friday evening horse race.

Not only did my team excel in finishing with extremely little interference to the summer members, they also completed all but two greens spot aerification.  Additionally, they handle most of the front nine sucker trimming, weed eating and got the rough back under control ... I do not know about you but I could not be more proud.

Next week promises to be another busy week but our first priority will to be working on the green speed.  With the high humidity the turf growth has been out of hand but we are getting there.

FIRE ANTS!!!

 CV Vector control is out in force today addressing our fire ant issue.  So if you are wondering who's extra carts are out there in the field ... here is your answer.

The problem with fire ants this year Valley wide is the worse it has ever been according to the techs for Vector Control

Looking Into the Scalped Areas on the Greens

To Untrained Eye Looks Dead

Even When Looking a Little Closer - Looks Dead

But Up Close - The Turf is Green and Thriving -- Just Scalped



So We Aerified to Level and Remove Thatch

Some may ask, but not as yet so far, why are we spot aerifying some greens this past week?  This is a excellent question and can be explained by pictures (see above).  Basically, we are spot aerifying the greens to remove thatch and level to stop the scalping that makes them look ugly.

Plugs Filled with Heavy Organic Thatch

Excuse Our Mess

Fires on the mountains tops, ash and smoke in the air, and little branches all around the golf course.  Why are those braches there?  Well for the first time this summer we are finally addressing the trimming of the suckers.  Instead of having one person standing around waiting for the branches, we have them stock-piled and then pick them up.

 

This sucker trimming will take the better part of two weeks to complete since we haven't done it in months.  But is will improve the overall look, ease the playability and maintenance, and allow more light to reach the turf.

 

Aerification will continue again today of the fairways and a couple new spots on the greens.  The greens include 12 and 13.  The remaining fairways are 1 - 12 and hopefully will be done by Friday.

Aerfication Continues

Spot Aerifying Back of 5's Newly Sodded Area

Yesterday we spot aerified several greens including 5, 8, PG, 11, 12 and 15.  Today we are going to continue the leveling of these areas to improve the overall playability and later continue the spot aerification process in limited areas.

Between Thatch and Slight Unevenness Scalping is Occurring on 11

By clicking on the picture above you will noticed the "green dots" in the middle of the scalped area.  This is due to the aerification done in June and those dots being slightly recessed thus not scalping when mowed at our lower HOC's.

High Heat and Humidity Leading to Increased Grass Growth

Today we are sending a team of rough units out into the field to try to get these roughs back under control.  We may not have fertilized but the growth is unbelievable in this high humidity.

Aerification Continues Today

Aerifying 1's Tee

Aerifying DR Tee

Yesterday we made significant headway in the aerification process where we were able to finish all of the tees and even the par 3's.  Today we held up on the aerification of the fairways to spot aerify a few new sod areas on greens.  These greens included 5, 8, PG, 11 and 12.  We will address 12 and 11's in depth soon.

8's Plug Repair

Barraza finished up the main plug repair on the greens with only minor repairs still remaining.  This was the smallest amount of plugs used in repair by over 50%.  That is great!

6's Green is Good to Go

6's Approach is Transitioning

Transition ... this should be a four letter.  As the greens become fantastic the approaches are beginning to fade.  Soon the fairways will soon follow as the ryegrass dies and the bermudagrass fills back in.

Aerification Continues

Today we are continuing the aerification process by attacking the tees, and maybe the fairways later.  Last week we finished up the second round of aerification of the roughs most of the plug repair of the greens.  I hope that both of these two processes will be complete by week's end, but with performing these tasks while the golf course is open for play delays the process.

Tomorrow we will be addressing the driving range at 8:30 am and finish any remaining tees that do not finished today.  Additionally, we will be doing plug repair still on 5, 8 & 11.

Addressing the Growth

Topdressing 4's Green

Between the heavy fertilizations and the high temperatures and humidity the greens are growing so fast that if you don't putt quickly you could lose your golf ball ... just kidding but it does seem like that.

Double Cutting Greens

Today we are once again double cutting the greens and also topdressing them as well.  Corey and I out of wondering went to 6's green and stimped the green ... we were at a wonderful 8.5 ... yuck.  Hopefully soon with the double cuttings, topdressings and weekly application of growth regulator we will improve soon ... but for now, you will have to settle for the greens looking great sadly.

The rough aerification continues and next week already we will aerifying the entire course except the greens.

Best Laid Plans

Looking at the Double Cut on 5

Today, we had some grandiose plans the apply growth regulator, lightly topdress and spot aerify a couple of greens.

Spraying Primo on 7

Well that was just that ... a nice plan.  The topdresser required more time to install the hydraulic lines than we thought ... so that got put on hold until tomorrow; the greens were sprayed with Primo but with the threat of rain may render the application useless.  And after further analysis we decided not to aerify 15 after all.

Spot Leveling 15

Instead of aerifying 15 I decided to only sand level the area.  Tomorrow I will spot aerify 4 and 8, and also sand level 10, 11 and 12 (in part).  Additionally, we have so much growth thanks to high humidity that we are going to double cut the greens today and tomorrow.

Some Sod Touch Up

By the very nature of sod, it is historically thatchy to hold up when it is harvested.  And our sod that we bought from West Coast Turf is no exception.  With the high humidity this sod is "over-growing" and has become prone to scalping which is occurring on the month old sod.  This has become noticeable as we have lowered the HOC.  To combat this issue tomorrow we will do some minor spot aerification of select areas and hand fill with sand.  This should handle the issue at hand.  We will address 15 tomorrow.

Additionally tomorrow we will continue our light topdressing program, and spray the greens with growth regulator and fertilizer micro nutrient package.  We just got the hydraulic hoses back this afternoon and the topdresser is now ready for action.

State of the Club

Nine days after the completion of a very aggressive aerification of the greens which included 5/8" aerification holes on 2" centers, along with 1" by 12" deep drill and fill process, we are in better shape than expected. 

What do I mean by that statement?  I mean that historically we are removing excess sand for up to two weeks after aerification, however, this time with more expense we aggressively rotated the mowers to hasten the process, performed extremely heavy fertilizations, and the even more so we have had fantastic weather we are having to expedite the recovery process with higher than normal heat and humidity.  Other than some spot plugging on holes 1, 4, 5, 8, 11 & 15 most of the greens are about a week ahead of plan thanks to these processes and weather.

12's Green - Slightly Scalping Due to Thatch

So what is the plan and what to expect?  Today we will be double cutting the greens using two triplexes and then topdressing all of the greens.  Since the sod laid in the beginning of June and late May is becoming thatchy (leading to the slight scalping you may have noticed) we will be also verticutting those areas.  The sod that that was put in last week we will be sand leveling today and tomorrow.  We may have to spot aerify some of the new sod if the verticutting doesn't handle the thatch issue ... but it is premature to guess on that presently. 

All of today's processes, along with the starting of the growth regulator application are for one goal ... increase green speed.

So what else to expect?  Since we have stopped chemical transition in 2010 in an effort to save funds for the Club, the roughs and the fairways are still poised for transition.  Presently there is an average of 50% ryegrass remaining in the fairways.  Here at Avondale we purchased a hardier ryegrass since we do not have wall-to-wall cart paths, which will handle the excess cart traffic during season.  This also slows its removal in the summer thus reducing the spread of the common bermudagrass that we have here.  Over the next couple of months this transition will continue in the approaches, fairways, select (non-328 bermudagrass) tees and roughs.  We will address these areas as they occur.

14's Fairway Going Through Transition

Transition is not preventable if you overseed a golf course.  By its very nature, ryegrass is devolved to die in the summer time thanks to excess heat and increased disease to allow the bermudagrass to fill in and make a wonderful base to overseed into the next season.  If this ryegrass could survive year after year we would not overseed at all and only grow ryegrass.  There is no amount of money that can stop transition and this is the reason that most golf courses in Florida, Texas and southern Georgia have stopped overseeding completely.

So the last question you may ask is “why did we sod the same areas on the greens again this year?”  This is a great question but not a simple answer but here is the quick and dirty version.   New bermudagrass sod requires 100+ days of growth to improve its chances of survival, and ideally is not overseeded for one year after.  The one year not overseeded is not realistic for us here at Avondale but the 100 days is possible.  Last year I debated with JC Resorts to sod early like we did this year, but they decided not to go that route … I did, however, in July of last year go ahead and sodded these extremely bad areas to improve the conditions for our summer members.  I used funds and savings in other areas of my budget to pay for this sod work thus I still kept my budget within line.  Sadly, 70% of these areas did not survive the overseeding process since they were not fully established.  This summer, we increased the survivability by given the sod 100+ days of growth.

I will note that there will always be some problematic areas on the greens during transition such as on 1, back of 5 & 10, 11 and 12.  You may ask why? And what can we do to fix this problem permanently.  On the 1’s green – remove the large eucalyptus next to the green who’s roots are damaged that side;  same holds true for 5 (the palms and shade issues on side and back, 10’s back where the large eucalyptus encroaches the green.  On 11’s green there are two major issues one of which holds true on 12 & 15 as well …  extremely poor percolation issues thanks to years of tilling in the bentgrass root mass long before the conversion.  Additionally, 11’s green faces major shading issues on the back and left side, and some root encroachment.

To address these issues we also trim the trees surrounding the greens every year just before overseeding; and lastly aggressive aerifications and deep drilling to address the percolation issues.  Other discussions to how to best address these issues have been in the Green Committee for potential rectification.

Transition in Fairways & Greens

Areas to Have Plug Repair



Tifdrawf Runners Filling in the Void

The two above pictures show the 5th green and the plug repairs that we are performing during this week and why.  The blue dots are areas that will fill in but not as quickly as I would desire.  The second shot shows the runners filling in the hole ... this is ideal.

As the temperatures rise and the humidity increases, the ryegrass dies out leaving "voids" that will be filled in by bermudagrass.

In the two pictures above you can noticeably see the effects of the area with ryegrass not allowing the bermudagrass runners to fill in the upcoming voids.  In the second picture where the ryegrass has died the runners quickly fill in these areas thus leading to complete transition.

Working the Greens

Today the recovery of the greens is in full force so much so that now it is time to slow the growth back down.  Mark and myself went to evaluate the quality of cut on the greens this morning and as suspected with the increased temperatures and humidity, plus the extra fertilizer inputs the growth is through the roof.  We even went as far as to double cut 13's green only to discover the baskets were almost just as full on the second pass as they were on the first ... almost.

Tomorrow, we are addressing the green speed by in the morning double cutting the greens, then following that up with a light topdressing.  Additionally, we are addressing the thatch of the new sod laid in June by double verticutting just those areas.  These processes will start the process of smoothing out and speeding up the greens.  But remember this will not happen overnight ... but the day after I will be spraying a growth regulator to future speed them up.

Aerification Continues Monday

Monday is the start of round two of the aerification with my team start the rough aerification again.  This is a very lengthily process which requires over a week to complete and is listed in the calendar.  You may ask "why so soon" and you would be right.  It has been only two plus weeks since the rough aerification was completed but an error was made in the calendar by JC Resorts which we are trying honor. 

Even though this was a mistake in the timeline it isn't a bad thing since these aerification aid in the reduction of hot spots by allowing deeper water penetration.  Plus we will try our very best to stay out of the members way during this process.

I know many of you like me have been noticing the increased amount of fire ants on the property.  This is true and is affecting the Valley in general since the State's eradication program did not stem the tide of these imported ants.  The good news is that since we were some of the first golf course who worked proactively with the Vector control they are still sending teams to aid in the control at Avondale.  They will be coming on the 19th of this month to treat the entire property ... at no cost to Avondale.

Sod Repairs on Greens Continues As Heat Pushes Transition

At Avondale one of the major contributors to issues on the greens besides of course the overseeding process itself is our wonderful trademark trees.  Between the root encroachment into the greens and the shade issues every year we have the same problematic areas that plaque us such as on 10, 11, 1, 5 and the PG.

This year is no exception as we continue the repairs on the large putting green and 5.  You also today will see us working on 4 (thanks to wind storm dust damage) and 8 in the back (another hole with tree root issues).

Yesterday we finished the large putting green and will be rolling and watering for the next few days to facilitate recovery.

7's Approach is Fading Fast

Bermudagrass Runners

Transition -- a word hated by all.  With the near 120 degree heat this past week transition is coming on fast.  The good news is that as you can see by the above picture so is the spread of bermudagrass to fill in these areas.

Little Chipping Green

Every year we have to repair the small chipping green next to the tennis court due to root invasion and its location to the tennis court, trees and homes themselves.  The good news is that it was fixed quite quickly.

Today, we are starting work on the large putting green and 5's green.  They will be finished today and then all that remains is the plug repair.