Fore The Golfer: Bunker Etiquette (+playlist)

Everything is Now in Full Swing

The warmer the weather gets, the closer we get to the summer solstice, the longer the days get - the longer the work list gets.  Both courses have ramped up their seasonal staffing levels to account for the additional workload we face each and every year during the busy summer months.  Basic jobs like mowing, trimming, edging, watering and raking dominate the schedule on a daily basis but in between those jobs we seem to mange to get a few repair and improvement projects completed.

A List of various and recent projects completed includes:

Mike Ross Garden

The Irving Park staff recently completed the landscaping around the new Donald Ross Terrace adjacent to the pool area.  This work included several new plantings, the installation of new brick and bluestone pavers throughout the area as well as a small area dedicated to Mike Ross.  Mike was a long time employee of the club who passed away in recent years and numerous had donated to his remembrance for when the right project came along.





Two new memorial plantings were added to the Irving Park course.  Mike Staton now has a tree planted in his remembrance on hole #4 and Betty Brantley has a tree planted on hole #3 in her remembrance.

Michael A. Staton Memorial

Betty C. Brantley Memorial

Winter Damage
The Farm staff removed 150 Hawthorns around the Farm clubhouse that were damaged from the cold temperatures this past winter and replaced them with 'Carissa' Hollies.  While the damage to our turf this winter was less than expected there are still plenty of small areas that will need to be repaired.  The Bermuda this year has been extra slow to grow-in due to the cool nighttime temperatures we continue to experience. This not only affects the grasses on our course but the regional sod farms are also having a tough time getting their grasses up to a high enough quality to where they can harvest it and have it hold together.  We expect that by the latter part of June we will be able to order high quality sod and move forward with all the much needed repairs.

'Carissa' Hollies

Winter Damaged Turf

Annuals
Nearly 3,000 annual flowers were planted around the courses in late May.

Chemical Damage
The majority of our collars on both courses experienced significant damage from a product applied in December that was designed to kill winter weeds.  The product was labeled as one that would not move once applied but it failed to live up to it's advertisement.  The product is very toxic to cool season grasses and the winter rains caused it to move into our Bentgrass collars creating a lot of damage.  The staff worked hard this spring to mitigate the damage spending nearly 600 man hours removing damaged turf and replacing it with a combination of sod and plugs.  As a small consolation to the damage the chemical manufacturer has agreed to reimburse the club for expenses related to these repairs.

Tree Work

Our expectations were once we got past the cleanup efforts related to the ice storm we would be done with the worst of the tree work for the spring.  But since then we have had numerous large trees fall at each property and have been forced to remove several additional large trees that posed a risk to the safety of the golfers.

Fallen Oak #11 IP

Greening Up Slowly

It's April 16th and the trees have seemingly leafed out overnight and the cherry trees are in full bloom.  It seems ages from the recent ice storms and massive cleanup efforts we endured for nearly a month on the Irving Park course.  None the less, with leaves and blooms on the trees we know the courses will soon be once again green and growing.  The spring green up for our warm season grasses is different each and every year.  Green-up is mostly affected by soil temperatures.  Once temperatures are consistently in the 50's the growing mechanisms in the plant will be activated.  This time of the year soil temperatures tend to fluctuate back and forth and don't really reach a consistent number in the mid fifties or greater until May, although no two years tend to be the same.  Early morning lows today were at or below freezing and much the same is predicted for tonight.  This will lead to cooler soil temperatures and create a brief pause in whatever little bit of green-up we were witnessing.  I would expect the two courses to be completely green by no later than the second week in May.  The great news is we are seeing much less damage to our warm season grasses than was expected due to the cold winter, which will free the staff to focus on general course conditioning tasks and other planned improvement projects.

April 16 #13 Irving Park

Damage to the Edge of #13 Collar

One of the unexpected things we are seeing with this spring green-up is damage to the perimeter of our greens complexes where we sprayed a chemical to try and green up the lines between the expanding Bentgrass collars and the encroaching Bermuda/Zoysia surrounds.  This was intended to just clean up the lines between the two playing surfaces but the product appears to have moved into the Bentgrass collar itself and caused damage.  The area is also showing signs delayed green-up to the Bermuda/Zoysia areas as well, which was not unexpected but is more significant than was thought probable. We expect the warm season areas to eventually green-up but will repair damage to both the cool season collars and the warm season surrounds as soon as possible and/or appropriate.

Spring Rain

The staff at Irving Park will spend most of today pushing up bunkers and cleaning up debris left behind from over swollen streams.  Tuesday's (4/15) rain totals came in right around 2 inches with the heaviest rains coming in the early morning hours.

Rain Washed Bunker at Irving Park

New Creek Bank Erosion

Debris Left Behind From Swollen Creek on #7

Family Tees
In coordination with the Pro Shop staff we will begin placing new tee markers throughout the two courses for a shortened and more enjoyable family friendly course.  The Irving Park course will have a full 18 holes set up with two different sets of tees.  The Farm course will begin with a nine hole course.  One 18 hole set will measure around 4,000 yards and the other will come in around 3,000 yards.  The course is intended for younger children and all beginners and should make for a more playable and enjoyable course for family outings. We expect the new markers to be in place by early May so contact the Pro Shop to find out updates and more information.

More Wind Results in More Debris and Fallen Trees

Last night's fast moving storm left a lot more small debris and a few large fallen trees in its wake.  The Piedmont International Airport reported a maximum wind gust of 61 mph and I certainly believe it as I was just a few miles away from the airport when the storm came threw.  The tables were a bit turned this time as far as which golf course was affected the most.  The Farm course had four large trees come down and plenty of small debris. The Irving Park course missed the worst of this storm and damage was limited to just small debris scattered across the property.

Ice Storm Recovery
The Irving Park staff is still working extra hours to try and  clean up all the fallen debris from last week's ice storm.  Some of the debris is being temporarily stored along the city streets for future collection.  Debris that is located on the interior parts of the course are being run through a chipper into mulched and strawed areas. The staff will come back later and spread those piles and neaten those areas. Our goal is still to have the Irving Park course fully restored by around the middle part of April.

Aerification
The aerification on the Farm greens is now complete.  The greens will be in better shape this weekend than next weekend because they have not started growing yet and we are rolling them daily.  When we finally start having to mow next week their quality will dip for about 7-10 days and then on the third week they will be very close to being fully recovered.  Don't forget the Irving Park greens are scheduled for aerification on March 31 and April 1.

Ice Storms and Aerification

While the two together are not necessarily what we ordered, sometimes you just take what your given and do the best can to find a desirable outcome. Last Thursday (3/6) brought 3-5 inches of snow and sleet and more importantly somewhere between a 1/4 and 1/2 an inch of ice to many parts of Guilford County.  The ice proved to be too heavy for a great many of our evergreen trees, which resulted in a significant number of trees and huge numbers of limbs breaking due to the weight of the ice.  The vast majority of tree damage was isolated to the Irving Park course.  We see this temperature differential often between the courses.  The in-town Irving Park course can be 2-3 degrees warmer than the out of town Farm course.  That slight differential in temperatures must have been just enough to keep the snow and sleet from converting to freezing rain for long enough to accumulate to a significantly damaging level.

While the cleanup work at Irving Park has begun it will likely take the next 4-8 weeks before we will have the course back to its pre-storm condition.  The crew will be working hard this week on the exterior portions of the holes along the streets where access is easiest. Debris will be piled along the streets for future removal, which we hope will be aided by city debris collection services.  If not, we will eventually remove these piles through a combination of chipping and hauling.  Once the course has dried out enough to access the interior portions of the course we will begin collecting those areas for chipping and/or removal.  Last but not least we will repair damage to the turf left by fallen trees and grind the numerous stumps left from fallen and snapped trees.  The good news from all this, as I alluded to above, is the Farm course experienced only minor tree damage and that staff will not have to face the daunting cleanup effort faced by their peers at Irving Park.

AERIFICATION BEGINS ON THE FARM COURSE
As such, the Farm staff was able to begin aerifying greens yesterday (3/10), which was already one week late due a winter event last week that forced us to postpone this work.  While we got a late start Monday morning due to snow cover still being on a few of the greens and a few greens still being frozen they did make a lot of progress yesterday and expect to finish sometime later this afternoon.  As is typical for this time of the year the recovery window is expected to take a minimum of three weeks before green speeds are back to our defined roll standards.







SPRING WEED CONTROL
One of the items we have been focused on for the past several weeks has been applying our spring and summer weed control products to both courses.  While treating some 250 acres of turf with a sprayer is always difficult this time of the year, this year has been especially difficult.  Wind, rain, below freezing temperatures and snow cover has us way behind where we would like to be for this time of the year.  And despite the cold temperatures it only takes a small period of warm temperatures to heat the soil up enough for weeds to begin germinating. With that in mind, we may find ourselves in a position where we are forced to spray certain areas of the course with our sprayers that would normally be considered too wet for treatment.  As is often the case when working around Mother Nature sometimes the short term negatives related to things like tire tracks on any given hole are necessary to benefit from the gains of long term weed control and suppression.
 

Looking Forward to March

Everyone who has lived in this part of the world for very long knows wintertime snowfall can be a hit or miss. This year just happens to be one of those years where it has been a hit.  The kids certainly seem to enjoy the snow sledding opportunities the recent snows presented and one can't help but to take some satisfaction out of kids having a grand ole time in the snow.  But with the most recent snowfall event now past us my staff stands ready for the spring season right around the corner.  The courses were opened this week on Wednesday (2/19) after the 7-8 inches of snow that blanketed the two courses had mostly melted away.

Despite the warm temperatures this week the snow did need a little help getting off our greens.  The staff spent several hours watering the greens complexes with both sprinklers and hoses to get the course opened a day or two sooner than would of occurred had we waited on natural thawing.  While there is no guarantee we won't have another significant snowfall event the chances going into March are greatly diminished.

Aerification
The kickoff to our spring season is usually marked by our first greens aerification, which will take place on the Farm course on March 3-4, weather permitting.  This is always an important aerification because not only does it relieve wintertime compaction and remove unwanted thatch but it serves to provide an ideal growing environment for the root system over the next three months of ideal growing conditions.

The first spring aerification recovery time is always the slowest for the greens to get back to 100%, so golfers need to expect a full three week recovery time of the year before conditions return to our normal standards.  The Irving Park will be aerified a full four weeks later on March 31 - April 1 to allow for complete recovery for the Farm Greens.

Weed Control
In addition to aerification of greens this is also the time of the year spent working on weed control.  Weeds that escaped our fall pre-emergent weed control treatments are sprayed out and the whole course is once again treated for a whole new set of spring and summer weeds.  A seemingly never ending cycle that with nearly 250 acres of turf requires constant vigilance. For those homeowners who dare managed their own lawns we generally shoot for our pre-emergent applications to begin in late February and be completed by the middle part of March.

Cold Weather Damage Update

We have experienced two cold snaps this winter that when compared to previous winters where we have lost grass in some of our more difficult growing areas the overall temperatures are not that different.  The spreadsheet above illustrates the most recent cold snap had an average temperature of 17 degrees for a 7 day period, which is not far off from the 2000 average of 17.8 degrees for a 14 day period.  There are a lot of variables that go into whether or not Bermuda sustains cold temperature related damage but simply based on past experience here at Greensboro Country Club, I would definitely expect to witness some level of damage this spring when the grass begins to come out of dormancy.  A really critical period going forward will be the next 4 weeks and whether or not we can avoid one last really cold snap.  If so, I think our repair levels will be more than manageable.

Polar Vortex..... Douglas Lowe, CGCS

Polar Vortex - Despite my many years spent watching the Weather Channel I had to look this one up on Wikipedia!

A polar vortex (also known as a polar cyclone, polar low, or a circumpolar whirl^[1] ) is a persistent, large-scale cyclone located near either of a planet's geographical poles. On Earth, the polar vortices are located in the middle and upper troposphere and the stratosphere. They surround the polar highs and lie in the wake of the polar front. These cold-core low-pressure areas strengthen in the winter and weaken in the summer due to their reliance upon the temperature differential between the equator and the poles.^[2] They usually span less than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) in which the air is circulating in a counter-clockwise fashion (in the Northern Hemisphere). As with other cyclones, their rotation is caused by the Coriolis effect.


As interesting as that all is, the only thing I know is we had some really cold temperatures descend on our small part of the world this week that evidently originated from the North Pole.  Despite the short nature of the cold spell temperatures were low enough to freeze over our ponds and cause water breaks everywhere.  Despite a strong awareness of the risk for bursting water pipes I think the club still had four pipes freeze in various facilities throughout the club. Our low Tuesday night was a record 5 degrees, which beat the old record  of 14 degrees.  The question most golfers who have lived in this part of the world for very long are quick to ask is do you think we will lose any of our warm season grasses?


Bermudagrass
The primary Bermudagrass variety on our two courses is Tifway 419.  Depending on the research you look at cold tolerance ratings range from 15 degrees F to 20 degrees F.  Most of this research is done in a controlled lab setting so there can be a wide range of variations that are actually witnessed in the field but based on past experience we typically see some level of damage when temperatures drop below 15 degrees F for an extended period of time.  The longer the duration then the more damage.  The colder the temperature then the more likelihood for measurable damage.  Our duration was just two days so we've got that working for us.  The fact the temperature dropped to 5 degrees F is what we have working against us.

Zoysiagrass
There are several species of Zoysia in use on our courses but the primary type is Zeon Zoysia, which is on the Farm course.  This strain belongs to matrella species and is classified as having moderate tolerance to low temperatures.  The cold tolerance of matrella species such as Zeon is slightly better than our Tifway 419 with ratings ranging from 16 degrees F to 12 degrees F.  Again, there are a lot of other variables to consider such as duration, drainage, and shade that will all affect how much cold weather a particular grass or an area of grass can withstand.


What does it all Mean?
What this means is with the record low of 5 degrees we recently experienced there is a real potential for some areas of grass throughout both the two courses to demonstrate some level of damage in the spring.  On the flip side, just because temperatures dropped below cold tolerance ratings does not mean that healthy turf will show any signs of damage.  It means we will need to be proactive with our first quarter expenses until we have a better idea of what we may be facing.  It means we need to wait and see if we have any additional cold weather anomalies that affect our region over the next two and half months.  In the end it means as of today we don't know or expect anything for sure.  Even if the plant was damaged it will take at least 6-10 weeks to deteriorate and develop symptoms that are visible.  All we can do know is hope for the best and plan for what could be.  If the remaining part of the winter season is closer to average or typical I think we will be O.K. except for some of the worst shady or wet areas,which is fairly typical.  If we get another round of cold weather later in the season when the grass has depleted all it's stored energy and it's defense mechanisms are weaker then we will definitely be looking to replace some turf.