Redstone Golf Club

What Drought Restrictions Mean for Golfers

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 07:00:00 GMT

I had an interesting meeting with a USGA official this week regarding the drought situation that is hurting a good portion of the country this year.

Bud White, who is the Mid-Continent Director for the USGA in their agronomy division, and sees hundreds of golf courses a year, came out for his yearly site visit this past week. What he saw at Redstone was very similar to what he is seeing all over - very droughty conditions and water rationing.

I have included some pictures of the Member Course here to show you some examples.

He had a lot of interesting thoughts in our meeting and he just published this article that I have included below that he just wrote for the USGA newsletter.

(http://www.usga.org/course_care/regional_updates/regional_reports/midcontinent/What-Drought-Restrictions-Mean-For-Golfers---June-2011/)

Bud White (start of article):

The drought has a grip on golf courses that many have never seen. It is affecting turf and tree health on practically all courses in the lower Mid-Continent Region. These conditions require a significant change in course management:

Responsible water conservation
Water rationing
Protecting turf and trees that are in survival mode
Maintaining playability as well as possible

First of all, aesthetics are out the window. Any golfer who is upset about brown areas on the course has not been outside. Superintendents have courses in survival mode, plain and simple, and their programs must be supported by management and golfers alike.

This drought level requires special maintenance practices to protect turf and trees, including raising cutting heights, adding potash to fertility programs, watering as deeply as water limitations allow, using water bags on key trees, and, the biggest one, restricting carts. Golf carts can impose severe damage in drought conditions, even on bermudagrass, and as a result, a certain amount of cart restriction is essential in such severe conditions.

Another important planning requirement is to maintain water availability through July and August if quantities are limited. Many superintendents are accustomed to balancing water availability in August, but this drought has forced some courses to implement water rationing ever since April or May.

As discussed in the June 6th Mid-Continent regional update, water applications can be reduced in fairways and roughs with no significant impact to playability, only aesthetics. These restrictions are based on regulatory constraints imposed on the course.

Water bags are used on important trees, since rough irrigation will be the most restricted water level.

The remaining order of priority for irrigation scheduling is greens, surrounds, tees, landing areas and then fairways.

Raising the cutting height helps maintain better root and rhizome health, and increases the ability for the bermudagrass to go semi-dormant or dormant as a survival mode. Remember, irrigation systems supplement rainfall – not replace it. During significant drought, no system can keep up with soil moisture in all areas.

Restricting cart traffic protects the turf by reducing stress and compaction on the turf, both above and below ground. Maintenance traffic also is more restricted for the same reasons.

Superintendents and golfers alike must plan for next fall and winter if this drought persists throughout the summer. As bermudagrass hardens off in the fall for dormancy, drought conditions can significantly impede the buildup of roots and rhizomes to withstand winter.

Therefore, traffic restrictions and raising cutting heights will have to be implemented sooner than early fall for bermudagrass protection.

Golf course superintendents need golfer understanding and support now, as much as they may have ever needed it. This is a difficult time, with no immediate end in sight. Superintendents are looking desperately to prevent turf loss, and the focus on grooming, bunker care, etc. must take a back seat. Do your part to protect your investment and let your superintendents know that they have your full support.

Soil Testing

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 08:00:00 GMT

I think most people know that golf courses fertilize their golf course at various times of the year. Some people also question or wonder how we get it so green. Fertility on any surface, whether a home lawn, an agricultural field planted with crops, sports turf, or golf courses, requires careful planning and testing to see just what is needed in the soil to grow any crop. Unless you are a skilled agronomist, seasoned farmer, or an expert in the field of soil chemistry, it is very hard to know how many nutrients are in the soil and in what ratio by just looking at it. This is why soil testing is so crucial to success.
	Every January we have our soil agronomist come in and help me pull samples from both courses. We try to keep the sampling date the same each year so we can equally compare year to year results. Nutrient availability is very temperature dependent and readings could be different if comparing January to August. It doesn't really matter when you pull them, just be consistent if trying to compare and analyze your program. Instead of doing the whole course, we normally pick 6 of 18 greens, tees, and fairways and rotate those 6s each year so we are checking them every 3 years.
To get a representative sample of the entire area we normally pull 30-40 plugs from each area and try to spread it out as much as we can. If you only pull one or 2 plugs from the start of a fairway you aren't getting a fair representation of the entire fairway. After the samples are collected, they are sent to our soil lab for nutrient analysis. For the large number of samples we pull it typically takes a couple of weeks to get the results back. Some things that we are looking for when viewing the results are: soil pH, % organic matter, ratios of nutrients (Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, Sodium), Sulfur and Phosphorus levels, salt levels, and minor nutrient levels. When one looks at these results for the first time it can be overwhelming and look very foreign. When you know what you are looking at and can compare the data from year to year you can make adjustments to your fertility to get your soil to perform how you want it. We also get a recommendation plan from the agronomist that gives us a direction on how much of what nutrients need to be applied during the year.

Smoothing of the Lake Slopes

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 08:00:00 GMT

The beauty and the difficulty in the Tournament Course setup is the activity around the greens. After a few years of experimenting and trying to find out just how we wanted the course to play and react to certain shots, we settled on the current setup of the course. For a course with 1.25" rough to be so difficult you have to get clever in the areas around the green. It is not much different than Augusta in that respect.

Mr. Rees Jones is a master at this and you can see it on almost every hole out here. With the short cut grass surrounding the greens and the many slopes that can send your ball in many directions, it makes placement of your second shot key.

The main area of focus with regard to these short cut areas is the 8 holes where the lake borders the green and the short cut goes all the way down. A lake next to a green will always put a little fear in any player regardless of skill level, and these holes on the Tournament Course seem to accentuate that fear.

Just because they are hard to play doesn't mean they are easy on the maintenance team to maintain! There are many challenges that go into keeping these areas looking as good as the fairways. As you can see from some of these photos there is more than just mowing. First, we had to find a machine that would actually stay on a slope like this without going into the lake. Second, we had to find a mower that gave us the cut quality we were looking for.

Due to the severity of the slope we needed an all wheel drive unit with the power to go up and down the slope.

Even that was not enough - we had to change the tire tread on the base model to give us a little more grab. At many facilities across the country, this particular mower is used to mow greens, so we knew the quality of cut would be good for our application. We also spend a lot of time trying to smooth the surface, much like our greens and previously mentioned fairways. A smooth surface will produce a slick clean cut and make the ball roll more predictably when playing shots around the green. The last thing we want is for a ball to get hung up on the lake bank! You can see from the picture, we are taking this vibratory plate compactor across the surface to help flatten any high areas.

We will also topdress the entire lake slope 4-5 times a year for smoothness and quality of turf. These areas will get the same fertility and chemical treatments that the rest of the short cut areas do, which can also be a challenge with equipment.

I know golfers don't necessarily enjoy these slopes when their ball goes rolling down one, but I'm sure everyone can appreciate the architecture and the concept for championship golf, and hopefully now appreciate just what it takes to maintain them.

Living in Harmony on the Tournament Course

Sat, 05 Mar 2011 08:00:00 GMT

For those of you that have been out to the Tournament Course over the years, you know that once you get across Greens Bayou it truly is an escape from the busy city life of Houston. No homes, no cars, no loud businesses, nothing to deter you, other than the preparation for the SHO at times!

It really is a fun escape. The course blends itself very well into the natural terrain and wetlands that co-exist on the property. I've had the pleasure of seeing the course change from rough wooded ground to the course it is today. You would think over 7 years and many, many hours of driving around it that I would have had every opportunity to see everything that lives on the property, but this natural setting brings new things every day.

From these photos here you can see just how wild it is. These are few photos of a young bobcat that I ran into a few days ago in the late afternoon hours.

We have seen evidence of these guys over the years and even spotted one of the parents a few times a year, but never anything as close as this. I was able to get about 20 feet away for these pics. This little fella was on one of the bridges that cross one of our natural creek beds. I'm not sure if he/she was scouting out the ducks that were swimming below or just relaxing. I say little, but this bobcat is probably twice the size of a house cat. Bobcats are very common in Texas and learn to co-exist very well in this environment. If you look closely at the second photo you can see it trying to hide from me in the cordgrass. It didn't work, but you can see how easily they blend in to the natural setting.

Fairway Rolling

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 08:00:00 GMT

I'm sure a lot of golfers out there have seen over the course of your playing years the maintenance crews rolling the greens in preparation for the day's play. I'm sure everyone knows that this process speeds up the greens, but how many know why? It's fairly easy to explain and not hard to figure out - the process of rolling helps smooth the small imperfections (spike marks, divots, ball marks, etc.) from the days play and compresses the turf which helps eliminate the friction that leaf tissue can cause, which slows down ball roll.

In championship golf, including majors and PGA Tour/USGA events, the process of rolling takes on a whole new meaning and purpose. For these types of events you are trying to create very firm and fast conditions regardless of weather that may occur. One thing that repeated rolling will do is seal off the surface of the green, as it slightly compacts the surface each time this process is done. For championship golf this is a great thing, but for agronomic purposes this is detrimental and why not every facility should put into place for long periods of time.

If you are to receive rainy weather during the event or leading up to it, you want any water that falls to be able to run off and into the drain as quickly as possible. The last thing you want for great fast conditions is for the soil to soak up all that water and stay mushy for longer periods. The sealing off of the green's surface as I called it before actually helps maintain your fast conditions and acts more like a concrete path and less like a sponge, allowing you to rebound faster after weather. You can also appreciate that you can't grow grass for long in concrete, which should help you understand why courses can't keep championship type conditions 52 weeks out of the year.

I mention all this to cover the topic of fairway rolling. As you can see from the pictures here, we use a large heavy pull behind roller when we roll our fairways. We like to do this to smooth the surface to create a better even cut when we start lowering the heights on the mower leading up to the event.

As I mentioned before, we are also doing this to compact and seal the surface in case of weather that normally happens in the spring, and any heavy moisture that falls will likely finds its way to the drain before it soaks in the soil.

Slicing of Roughs

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Spring is a great time for many things! On golf courses, we look forward to our turf turning from a dead brown look to a vibrant green look that we all love to see. Part of the process of getting there is trying to help stimulate your turf and give it every advantage during a time that is condusive for it to happen. As the soil temperatures start to warm up, into the mid 60 range and above, you will start to notice that all warm season grasses like bermudagrass and St. Augustine will start to green up and produce new leaves that will peak up above the brown material. Depending on how hard the winter was for you, and it was a very cold one here, the plant will have to do a certain amount of growing to get back to fully green. We typically do a couple of things in the early spring to help this process.

We typically go about it in 3 steps to set the plant in motion. First, we will go out with our rough mowers and lower the height of cut roughly 25-50% from our typical summer time mowing heights. Doing this will allow us to remove the unwanted dead leaf tissue to allow sunlight and air movement to the new plants that will start near the surface of the ground. It doesn't seem like much, but this will actually generate a little more heat to the surface of the ground giving you a few degree advantage. After that, we go in with the machine pictured here (called an Aerway, but there are many forms of slicers) and slice a small slit in the surface of the soil.

These blades will go down roughly 4 inches in the soil, almost like if you just took a knife yourself and stuck it in the ground. This opens the canopy and allows air flow to the growing points of the plant and allows for deeper water penetration to drive your roots. After a hard winter with cold temps and compacting traffic, the rough essentially seals off much like a green will do.

This inhibits root growth and needed growth and maturation of the plant during the early spring when such growth is much needed for the duration of the hard summer ahead.

After this process is complete, we will put out our spring pre-emerge for weeds along with a nicely blended fertilizer custom to our soil's needs. A good heavy dose of water to complete the process will get the pre-emergent set in the soil to prevent weeds, will get the nutrients set in motion for uptake by the plant, and give the plant the moisture it needs to start producing deep healthy roots.

Golf Course Watering Tools - Not Just About Turning on the Sprinklers

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 07:00:00 GMT

If you have been around the turf industry much or played golf for a while you might have heard the term wetting agent used for irrigation. Golf courses use these products to improve their regular night watering, especially during drought times like we are currently in. Wetting agents are surfactants. They act by modifying the surface tension between water and soil or leaf tissue. We use these products to increase the ability of water to penetrate the soil. Wetting agents decrease the surface tension of the soil particles, allowing the water to infiltrate and spread through the soil profile - it basically makes your water more efficient.

Without the use of these products, dry and compacted areas that don't allow water to infiltrate will continue to stay that way until a super heavy rain or some sort of cultural practice is put in place, like aerifying or slicing. Without getting down to the root zone, the water is again rendered almost useless as it can't get where the plant needs it.

The use of wetting agents is not the catch all, end all though. You still have to apply the water in a timely manner and not over do or under do it. Watering deeply every 2-4 nights (depending on temperature severity), with the use of one of these products, will allow the roots to get deeper and the plant get healthier so it can withstand high temps and long periods of drought.

The trifecta in all of this, coupling the wetting agents and timely water, is getting the amount of moisture in the soil that it needs. We do this here at Redstone with the use of moisture meters. These moisture meters measure the volumetric water content, or a water percentage that is in the soil. Even the trained eye that has been in the golf field for a long time has a hard time gauging exactly how much water is in the soil just by looking at the grass.

For all soils there is a wilting point and a field capacity, or maximum amount of plant available water.

On sandy soils like greens this percentage is very small on both ends, 10-12% for wilting and 25% or so for the upper end. 10% difference in the two makes for all sorts of error unless you have the tools to give you the exact amount. For those that don't have the tools at their disposal, you either over water everything to keep yourself safe, or you underwater and suffer the consequences of turf loss. For the best, healthiest surfaces for golf, knowing exactly where you stand will help with consistency and quality.

Proper golf course watering, or watering any area on any site, is a lot more involved than just turning on the sprinkler. Knowing what to target and how to get there is the real goal.

Leveling Green Collars

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 08:00:00 GMT

As you can see from the photos we have some areas around our collars that just aren't completely smooth.

A lot of this has to do with the amount of sod that we have to lay in the collars each summer due to the transition from ryegrass back to bermudagrass. The collars on a golf course can be the most travelled or compacted area on a course due to the daily mowing/rolling plus foot traffic. The compaction added to the transition of grasses can cause death in a hurry. So, every year we tend to lay quite a bit of sod in the 3-4 feet just off the green's edge.

What I'm going to discuss here is how we get it smoothed out and perfect for our event every spring. There are a lot of supers out there that use this method, and they use it because it works. Simply rolling the area will help some but it won't completely get the surface level in most cases. If you have very severe issues it might be better to get the old sod cutter out as this method will typically only help you with inconsistencies of around 1/4-1/2" in variance. We normally take our 648 aerifier with 1/4" tines (we use the small ones in winter due to the healing but go bigger if we do in summer) on a tight quad tine spacing and aerify the effected area. We then remove all the cores from the area by brooming and shoveling. Now you have a surface that is workable due to the removal of surface area - it has free space to move.

The next 2 steps we try to do fairly close together to get the max benefit. We heavily soak the collar by hand with a water hose trying to really soak the entire profile. Luckily, this time we got about 2" of rain 3-4 hours before we rolled so no hose was needed. The opening of the holes also allows better water penetration for this exercise. Once the standing water has soaked in we take one of our speed rollers (Tru Turf) and roll over the effected area numerous times back and forth trying to work it from different angles. In most cases we start rolling at the highest point of the effected area and work our way down.

If you start on a lower area all you will do is make that lower area lower. Going from high to low will help you push some of that soil down into the low to help level it out. The water plus the rolling will allow the surface to move and flatten out. This process has worked great for us over the last 3-4 years. We can typically get around to all 18 holes in one day's time if we are closed. If you can get it done on a Monday (closed day) most of the time the golfer won't even know it has been done, especially with the 1/4" tines. We typically do this monthly from December - February once the ryegrass is fairly established and then lay off of it 40-50 days before the event.

Bermuda Greens - In the Major Spotlight Again

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 07:00:00 GMT

As I’m sure many of you are aware that have kept up with the happenings around Atlanta Athletic Club this week for the PGA Championship, this is the first time that a major championship venue has played on bermudagrass greens since maybe the 1969 US Open at Champions! I haven’t heard the official word on that as there are some clubs that converted to bentgrass between the 70s and 80s, but I know it has been way too long. There is a buzz going around in the superintendent community about what this week will do for worthy golf courses all over the South that have courses just as good as our neighbors to the North.

The evolution of the bermudagrass plant over the last 15 years has caused the world of golf to take a closer look. The old days of Tifdwarf and 328 Tifgreen bermudagrasses on greens had many people concerned about quality, and rightfully so. The grasses had wide leaf blades that were very prone to grain. You were fairly limited in what you could accomplish with them because technology wasn’t up to speed and the grass just wasn’t made for fine quality. There were many supers across the country that put out a fine product and did the best they could, but you are still limited by the plant and its genetics. The new class of ultradwarfs were developed as genetic mutations from some of the older Bermudas like Tifdwarf and Tifgreen. They have a much tighter growth habit giving a denser canopy and can tolerate lower mowing heights. The three most popular ones are Miniverde, Tifeagle, and Champion. Champion was the first developed and produced commercially, but they were all within about a 5 year period of each other. I would say the most popular in our area, and probably due to when most of the courses around town were renovated, is Tifeagle. Tifeagle is the grass on the Member Course and all other Redstone properties, while Miniverde is on the Tournament Course.

The host of the PGA this week is Atlanta Athletic Club, and they planted Champion on their greens when they renovated the course after the 2001 PGA Championship. They will be in tip top shape this week and will most definitely change the minds of many. There has been a major push over the last 5-6 years of converting bent to bermuda, with some of those being AAC, East Lake, Lochinvar, to name a few. Bentgrass just does not want to live in the summer time in the South, as many supers have found out, and to keep it going requires much more water throughout the day, more pesticides to fight the stress, electric fans in some cases where air is stagnant, and anything you can do to minimize stress like raising cutting heights and rolling less. The idea of firm and fast that goes along with hosting major championships is complete opposite of managing bentgrass during June or August (US Open / PGA Champ.). With the extra watering and loss of root zone, the surface gets very soft (the most recent example of this was at Congressional this year).

The bermuda plants thrive on heat (to an extent of course) and getting greens firm is not a problem. In my experience it takes more work culturally to get the surface truer and faster than it does bentgrass, but for those that have the resources it is just as good of a surface. Over the last few years I’ve had the opportunity to putt on some greens of both kinds at some very nice facilities around the country, and my opinion is the ultradwarfs are every bit the equal. It could be that I know how much work is involved in bentgrass management and I’ve had many friends burnt out on trying!

With proper management of bermudagrass you can get your surfaces to be as true and quick as any other surface in the world as evidence by what is going on this week. When bentgrass is good, it is very good and hard to beat, but I think we can plainly see that the bermuda is a great and equal alternative, and probably better for Southern courses more months of the year than bent, both environmentally and playability wise. Maybe we will see a major come back to the great state of Texas? What we are seeing this week surely can’t hurt those chances.

Greens Aerification - Member Course

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Along with the aerifying of tees I mentioned yesterday, we have also been busy this week taking care of the greens one last time for the year.

The process is almost identical to what was mentioned for the tees. The only big difference is that we completely remove the cores from the green. You can see from the aerifier picture here that we have a catch box on the back of the machine that we did not have on for tees. Managing turf at 1/10" that we cut our greens at compared to 4/10-1/2" that we cut tees at is much more intense and can bring on many more problems relating to stress if you keep the organic material there.

This extra step adds a lot more labor to the picture because you have to pick up all of the cores

There have been numerous innovations over the last 5 years that have helped speed up the process. The catch box and the Core Hog (plow attached to the front of the greens mower pictured below) have replaced the days of shovels and hand plows that once added so many hours to the process. Overall, the process has improved dramatically with these latest innovations and the fact that all of the equipment is so much more precise and engineered. The old machines would pull a core but did it so aggressively that it caused more damage to the turf than just the circle the tine was effecting.

Now the machines get in the turf with very little other surface disruption than what they are designed for. You can have all of these steps done in a fairly short amount of time, get the water back on them, and have them on their way to recovery before they ever knew what hit them or had time to suffer. I can remember 4-5 years ago panicking when doing greens because there would be so much surface disruption and stress after the fact. Not any more!

Tee Aerification

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:00:00 GMT

This week we are aerifying the Member Course one last time before the busy season and the grass goes to bed for the year. There are a number of benefits to the process besides the obvious one of compaction relief and allowing oxygen to the plant. The biggest benefit for bermudagrass is the removal of organic matter (thatch) that can accumulate at a rapid pace. Bermudas are one of the most aggressive producers and need coring to keep up before the soil becomes so sealed off that it can't function properly. A sealed off plant can bring on much disease, decreased infiltration of water through the rootzone, grainy vertical growth, spongy conditions golfers hate, and just an overall decreased performance of the plant. On bermuda greens the industry rule of thumb is to try and remove around 20% surface area to keep up with the organic production. Going years with less than 20% will cause your surfaces to decline at a more rapid pace than a course that keeps up with the production and may require much more to get back in line.

Tee surfaces are less intense at organic production but they still are in need of maintenance a few times each year. All of our tees at Redstone are capped with a 5-6" layer of sand under the turf surface, and similar to greens which are 12+". The sand helps with surface drainage and consistency.

The process allows the divots to heal faster and improve footing stability with less spongy conditions from increased water infiltration and removal of thatch. As you can see from these photos the process is just as intense as a greens aerification.

We like to put our amendments (fertility) down ahead of time to correct any soil deficiencies and give the plant all the nutrients it needs for proper growth. Second, we topdress the surface with a heavy even coat of sand intended to replace the surface area removed from coring. Putting the sand in place of the thatch gives the plant room to grow and improves the water infiltration.

Third, we aerify the surface with these walking machines. These machines and these tines that we use are designed to remove 10% surface area

There are numerous settings and tines that can be used to get many different percentages giving the superintendent some flexibility. We do the 10% twice a year to get to the desired 20%. Next, we drag the surface, after the sand and cores have had plenty of dry time, to incorporate the new sand into the holes and to bring the thatch to the top. After dragging a quick blow over the top and the organic material moves into the rough. The last processes for completion over the next few days are to roll the surface back smooth and keep some additional water on them to aid in recovery.

Much like greens they will be less than perfect for a week or so, but the benefits gained outweigh the negatives.

The Challenge of Keeping Roughs Playable All Year

Fri, 20 May 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Here is a little exert from another golf course's blog regarding their roughs. This is from a facility that has hosted a number of majors and a Ryder Cup in its history. The superintendent is also very well respected and does an outstanding job. It just goes to show you that even though it is up north and has different grass varieties the rough can always be a challenge to keep playable for 12 months a year. Here it is:

"A challenge in the spring is keeping up with mowing the rough. We have 5 rough mowers operating 10 hours a day and 6 hours Saturday and Sunday ... if the ground conditions permit. Losing 1 day to weather makes it virtually impossible to reschedule those lost 50 man-hours and so we find ourselves playing "catch up" most of the time.

Combine that lost mowing time with the annual seed head production of bluegrass and ryegrass and you have very thick, long rough and difficult playing conditions.

The bottom line is that rough grows aggressively in the spring, even in the absence of fertilizer applications. The result is difficult playing conditions, and this occurs every year. The only solution is to hit the ball in the fairway, play hard when it is in the rough, and know that the growth rate of the grass will slow down as spring progresses into summer. " - end of article

As you can see all areas of the country are faced with too much growth in roughs depending on their location and what type of grass they are growing. The heavy growth time for northern grasses is in the spring, and our heavy time is coming in July/August. It is all temperature dependent and when these grasses reach that ideal temp they just grow, grow, and grow some more. Although our grass is still nice and playable now(a lot to do with lack of rain, but still not ideal temp range), our time is coming when we will be doing all we can to keep up. If you have heard me speak or read some of our articles you know I say a lot of the same things. The one thing I haven't said is "Hit the ball in the fairway"! I may think it, but I'm not going there!

Shell Houston Open - Practice Round Day Tuesday

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Practice Round day came today at Redstone. We were well prepared for the players today. Practice Round Day is typically a crazy day, with guys teeing off from sunup to sundown. This day gives the players a chance to see the course and practice a wide variety of shots that they might face during the event. Although the weather didn't rain down on us like it could have today, it did stay cloudy all day long.

The humidity was up fairly high and didn't allow us to achieve our potential. We are still on an upward track ready to peak for the opening round. The day started around 4:45AM with trying to get all of our guys ready to go get the course setup. Greens are double cut, all bunkers hand raked, cups cut, dew removed from all short grass areas, tees mowed, and all the fine details like tee markers and flags put out. As soon as the course was set up we went into detail mode trying to finish up a couple small projects that came about during the last few days. Everything that we have heard from Tour officials and players/caddies is that this place is in great shape.

After a quick meeting with the Tour staff and their weather department we went back to get organized and ready to go for the afternoon shift. The chance of rain tonight has us tweaking our plans in case the rain does drop on us overnight. Planning for a wet weather situation is not something that you do overnight. Careful planning and organization has to be done to get 80+ workers ready to go tackle what the storms leave. With that in mind, we got an hour earlier start on the afternoon work in case rain did occur. Every afternoon we mow all grasses inside of the ropes - greens, tees, fairways, approaches, roughs, bunker faces. We also get out and check moisture on our greens, trying to target a certain % of volumetric moisture content to achieve firm consistent conditions. We are currently rolling our greens every afternoon 3 times to try and smooth them up and increase our speeds. Our speeds are currently around a 13, and looking to stay within a foot of that. The one thing that we don't want is for them to get out of control. We still want to reward good shots. Rain is possibly on the way tonight, but if it weren't we would be very conservative with our nightly watering. Moisture is doing fine with this high humidity, so skipping sprinkler cycles over night is not a big deal, but we are trying to keep it very firm and fast. Lots of hand watering is needed trying to keep drying areas from getting too dry.

Hopefully the rain will stay away from us, but we will be ready for anything. The weather looks great if we can just get to Thursday!

Shell Houston Open - Pro-Am Wednesday

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Well, the day started at about 3:30AM with a bang of lightning and thunder followed by a quick shower. The forecast of overnight showers was correct. Our fears were that heavy rains would produce many challenges including washed bunkers and wet fairways and greens. After driving around the course at about 4AM to give a quick check of things we were relieved. A quarter of an inch of rain was all we received. We were beginning to show some signs of wilt stress in certain areas and the rain was just enough to calm that. So, off we went to set up the course for the Wednesday Grand Pro-Am.

Double cutting of greens after the rain still produced conditions just under a 13 on the stimpmeter. Our firmness held its own as well. Sort of a new thing in the last year or so, but we measure the firmness of our greens with a small device that we can use and get consistent results. It's an old oil field bearing that's the size of a golf ball.

You drop it from 6 feet in the air and then measure the depression with a big washer and a gauge. The firmness number is found by placing the meter into the washer that is level with the turf.

This process was first used and mastered by Tom Brown, PGA Tour Agronomist. Now that the consistency works, the process is used by most of the PGA Tour Agronomists. It may not be all that fancy but it is consistent, The consistency helps us plan our aerification, rolling, and topdressing schedules. Bunker prep was made a little easier today by the packing of the sand with the rain received. Hand raking was very easy with a firm surface to work with. After morning setup we did some work on our other course and gave the guys a little time after lunch to rest up for the afternoon work.

When you start work at 5AM and don't finish some nights until after 10PM a little downtime is just what you need to recharge the batteries. Our guys get very tired as they work their tails off, so we try and take care of them with a little down time and plenty of food and drinks. You actually gain weight when you work the SHO because of all the breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, and snacks during the day. An afternoon meeting around 3PM got the troops rallied and ready for the afternoon. We like to say some encouraging words to get them pumped up. I just try and tell them how great they are doing and a quick recap of the thoughts I hear from the players and officials.

Everyone is raving about the conditions and that makes our guys feel special. We had a special visitor to our operation today that wanted to come out and see for himself what the SHO is all about. So many good things have been said about Redstone, the Houston Golf Association, and Shell that he just couldn't stay away.Cal Roth, Vice President - Agronomy, stopped by for the day to spend some time with us and see just how we do things. Our organization, planning, attention to detail, and overall turf quality were things that impressed him. It was definitely motivating for the staff and myself to have someone in his position take his time to come all this way. We welcome him back anytime!

The afternoon work behind the Pro-Am went very smooth and ended around 9-9:30PM. The rain took a lot of the pressure off of our nightly hand watering, but we still went hard on the mowing and grooming. The slight slowdown in morning speed quickly vanished in the afternoon after a single cut and triple roll. An indicator of positive steps in speed was noticed when after the roll we went from a 12 to a 14. Although this is artificially inflated with the addition of the roll it helps give us an indication of what our speeds might be after a morning double cut. All grasses inside the ropes were again trimmed up and made ready for day one play on Thursday.

You always run into some unexpected things and this day was no different. Small things like trimming a few trees around a scoreboard, replacing a board on a walk bridge, hanging banners around one of our corporate tents, etc. is all in a day's work. You have to be ready for anything during a big event like this. My staff is well prepared and excited for the challenge.

The comments continue to pour in and all is shaping up for an incredible 2011 SHO! Weather is looking good from here on out, the sun is ready to shine, and the course is in pristine shape. We couldn't ask for anything more.

Moisture Management during Cooler Months

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Great article here by Brian Whitlark, a USGA Agronomist in the Southwest Region of the country. We find this scenario every year to be true. Most people don't think that dormant grass needs water at all and tend to turn off their sprinklers until it's too late.
	We have just grown accustomed here at Redstone to doing daily checks on both of our courses with one guy, a water hose, and a moisture meter (the same TDR 300 they are using in this article). Regardless of weather, unless in a downpour, we want to be on the safe side and always try to keep our 100% sand based greens in the ideal range. Even in the winter time letting a green go below the wilting point or critical value can cause turf damage and kill in the spring.
We do this same practice on our overseeded Tournament Course greens as well as our un-overseeded Tifeagle Member Course greens. We have just grown accustomed here at Redstone to doing daily checks on both of our courses with one guy, a water hose, and a moisture meter (the same TDR 300 they are using in this article). Regardless of weather, unless in a downpour, we want to be on the safe side and always try to keep our 100% sand based greens in the ideal range. Even in the winter time letting a green go below the wilting point or critical value can cause turf damage and kill in the spring. We do this same practice on our overseeded Tournament Course greens as well as our un-overseeded Tifeagle Member Course greens. http://www.usga.org/course_care/regional_updates/regional_reports/southwest/Cool-Season-Turf-Outcompetes-Underlying-Bermudagrass-For-Water---November-2011/

Syngenta Business Institute

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 08:00:00 GMT

I had the pleasure this week of being 1 of 27 superintendents selected from across the country to attend the Syngenta Business Institute on the campus of Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, NC. At Graylyn Conference Center (http://www.graylyn.com/index.htm), right next to the campus, we came together for 4 days to learn how to be better superintendents in areas unrelated to turfgrass like financial mgmt, negotiations, delegation, motivation, leadership and people mgmt, and understanding generations. It was an awesome experience getting to learn from some of the best professors and leaders in these areas. It was also great to see some of the leading superintendents in the country, and see how they handle these same situations at their clubs.

There are a lot of times in our field where there simply is not enough time in the day to get it all done and the work is never perfected just as we want it. We get rushed and sometimes forget that being an effective leader is more than just making sure all blades of grass are the same height and the bunkers are raked perfectly. You get caught up in the "just get it done" mentality with your employees and forget what being a golf club is all about and not getting your people to understand the big picture.

All of these subjects discussed were designed to help us take a step back and do just that - understand the big picture in managing and leading people, which in turn makes our golf club all that it can be

A sincere thanks goes out to Syngenta for their continuous dedication to the industry and making sure their customers aren't just consumers of their products but leaders in the industry. For those that don't know, Syngenta (http://www.syngenta.com/ ) is a world wide chemical company that produces products for the ag market and helps provide solutions to problems that we face daily. They have a very strong presence in the Turf/Ornamental market and do many things for superintendents to help educate them in their profession. In my opinion, this is what sets them apart from others - it is not just about selling products, but educating your customers so they can make better decisions and be better leaders. A big thank you also goes out to all of the professors and deans from the Wake Forest School of Business and Gardner & Gardner Communications on behalf of Syngenta.

It was a great experience and I know Redstone Golf Club will be a better club going forward based on it.

Growing in Ryegrass Rough - Winter Time in Houston

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Growing in Ryegrass Rough - Winter Time in Houston
	By the looks of these pictures you would think we were destroying the roughs or a crazy employee got loose with the wrong mower. Your eyes are not deceiving you and there is a purpose behind this madness! This is a process that we have done the last couple of years (and will do in the coming weeks) to help minimize the damage to the parent bermudagrass underneath the ryegrass that we plant to grow from November - May. The lower mowing is done to remove the now dead bermuda leaf tissue giving room to the ryegrass to grow and spread up and above the dormant bermuda.
Just because the leaf tissue is dead (the underground structure is still going strong) doesn't mean it will just disappear and the rye will cover it up. Whatever you mow that bermuda at is where that tissue is going to stay unless you get in and remove it. Overseeding in Houston, Texas or anywhere in most of Texas is a very difficult thing and has many more challenges to overcome than the courses that overseed out in the western part of the country (Arizona, Vegas, California, etc.). I will save this discussion for another blog entry down the line because it is lengthy, but because of the less than perfect weather for growing 2 grasses at different times of year we have to be extra cautious with how much we damage the bermudagrass. Most of the courses in overseed country go in and rip the bermuda in the early fall until there is nothing left giving a beautiful seedbed for the planted rye. This is extremely detrimental to the bermuda, but because of the ideal year round climate for growing 2 grasses, it doesn't totally kill the bermuda. If we were to try that here we would have nothing left come June, and there were a few years in the past where we tried a revised version (not as aggressive) and had a lot of sod work to do in the summer. So, to prep our overseed in the fall we go out and cut the bermuda about a quarter of an inch lower that we normally do - down to around 1.25".
So, after cutting the grass at 1.25" in the fall (which is where we currently cut the ryegrass), we have a nice mix of straw colored turf and green ryegrass turf. In the coming weeks we will go in and lower the height to .75" or 3/4" and tried to remove as much of the dead leaf tissue as possible. This will give room to the ryegrass over the next few weeks to jump up and start spreading out, where we will continue cutting it back at 1.25". By doing it this time of year we don't harm the bermuda to the extent that you would by doing it in October when it is still growing.
By now, the plant has directed all of its energy to the underground portion trying to survive the winter, so there is less damage in removing the dead material. The hardest part for anyone, including some in the turf industry to understand and grasp is that in Houston, where we strive for some of the best tournament conditions around, there is no perfect way to make the 2 grow together and have perfect conditions year round - impossible. No matter what you do, and no matter how delicate you are with the bermuda, you are still covering it up during a weak time for it and not allowing it to really grow uninhibited for 7 months until June/July. There are many steps that you can take however to minimize the damage, and this process here is one of them

Managing Speed on Bermuda Greens in the Winter

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Managing Speed on Bermuda Greens in the Winter

The question normally gets posed to me this time of year by staff members, members, and anyone curious about our operation why we don't mow greens that often during the winter months. Every day our maintenance department sends out a daily condition report to all staff members letting them know what maintenance practices are going to be done each day and special projects to come that week. Our observant staff takes notice that over the period of 5-7 days from time to time the report says nothing about mowing greens, only rolling and blowing them.

This great observation led me to this topic, one that I think would help everyone understand the year round challenges of managing speed on bermudagrass greens.

As many know, the cold temperatures bring dormant grass. Although the putting greens aren't completely dormant, and very seldom go into a complete state in this part of the country, they have ceased 99% of their leaf production (weather and temp dependent). What is the main purpose of mowing greens? There are plenty of secondary reasons, but mainly it is done to remove tissue that has grown over and above the set height of cut that you are maintaining your greens at during the year. If you allow the growth to get much higher than the set height you pose problems and can cause serious stress to the turf. During the summer, there are periods when mowing greens twice a day does not even control the amount of growth that can take place. During the winter, it may take 2 weeks for there to be enough growth for you to pick up even small amounts of clippings. It is all relative to the growth stage of the plant

There are some that send out mowers everyday regardless just to prepare the greens for play and be safe. The problem with excessive and unnecessary mowing is that it can cause many problems that can actually cause you to lose grass during a time when you can't recover.

Even though these machines are small they still can create compaction. They also cause damage to turf in the fairway height collars when turning, leaving edges less than perfect.

Another practice I have mentioned in the past that we put into place each fall/winter is the raising of the height of cut. When you mention this to a golfer they think you are crazy at first because it is going to effect green speed - not the case always. We raise the height roughly 40-50% above what we cut it at during peak growth season! The reason for this is to give the plant a little extra cushion and not put as much stress on the plant during a tough time. Mowing at lower heights all year long will cause algae issues and eventually lead to loss of turf. The winter can be rough even in Houston, and sometimes no matter what you do the extreme temps and moisture can get you. We just try to protect the plant the best we can within our means.

f you aren't mowing greens, what are you doing to prepare them for play each day? We typically will evaluate that on a daily basis and only do what is necessary to prepare each day. We will always try to remove any moisture/dew that is on them and blow off any debris. There may be days where rain or high winds allow us not to do anything (except blow). The least amount of traffic/compaction placed on greens during a time when there is not any growth is going to give you the best results in the spring when it does start growing. We rely heavily on our speed rollers during the winter months when we need to prepare greens for the day. Not only does it remove dew, it also smooths the surface, which is the most important thing.

Even though it seems like not much is done on our part at all, we are still able to maintain speeds of 12+ during winter. If you can get to that level, why would you cause additional stress? This is the beauty of the winter regarding speed. Greens are an extremely delicate lifeform and the less you stress them out the better they will perform for you year round. I think if any of you have played on them in the last month or so you would agree with my observations. Sometimes more is not always better!

PGA Tour Site Visit - Pre Tournament

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:00:00 GMT

This past week we had our annual Pre-Tournament PGA Tour Agronomy site visit. This is something they do at every event roughly 2 months before hand to check on the progress. They normally come out and tour the entire course looking at all greens, tees, fairways, etc. and make assessments, suggest projects and timetables, and report back to the Tour with the results. Most years there are many areas of discussion and projects that need to get completed before the event takes place. In normal years the work really gets going around this time. This year's visit was a little less stressful because of how far the course has already progressed this winter. You know the meeting is a good one when we are going over the fine details, trying to nit-pick and make sure things are perfect, rather than worry about a large bunker project, or major sod work, or reseeding of areas.

Tom Brown is our PGA Tour Agronomist for the SHO. Tom has been with the Tour for over 17 years and has worked the SHO since 1994. He has a very strong passion for helping with this event and is one of 3 events he has worked every year of his tenure with the Tour. He takes great pride in helping us do what we do. Aside from this pre tournament visit Tom comes down for 2 weeks of the SHO - the week before and the week of. He's there to be the liason between my department, the Tour Rules Officials, and the Houston Golf Association. He is also a great help for me and my staff because he has seen countless event setups across the country and has many ideas about how to get things done. He has been a great help for me and my career. Aside from the site visits we also speak every couple of weeks by phone/email to make sure we are on the same page. It's a great working relationship.

So, the results of the site visit were very good. Tom agreed that all putting surfaces were light years ahead of any other year previous and in great shape going in to the event. Great coverage and a healthy plant will allow us to get aggressive with our preparation for lightning fast and super firm greens. He also agreed that the overall coverage and density of all fairway, tee, and rough areas were in excellent position. We will now spend most of our time working on the fine details including routine mowing, topdressing, edging, etc. There is still lots of work to do to get the course in SHO form but we feel very good about where we currently stand.

Rainy Winter

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:00:00 GMT

It looks like somebody turned on the water faucet in the sky and hasn't shut it off yet. Hard to believe you would be hearing that after the 2011 drought. We go from the biggest drought event in Texas in 100+ years to an extremely wet winter just like that. You hear about changing weather in Texas all the time, but this is crazy!! I'm not here to complain about the situation, only to shed some light on the challenges it presents to a crew trying to get ready for the SHO.

From February - October 2011, our golf courses received 12.77" of rain for that 9 month period. Since we overseeded (first of November) the Tournament Course, we have received 21.73" of rain in 3.5 months! You almost wish La Nina and El Nino would make up their minds and play nice with each other. I personally think both of those kids need a spanking wherever they are.

There are positives and negatives to all of this rain after a drought. The negatives are that the frequencies of cut (mowings) are much longer between mowings. To finely groom turf in fairways and roughs it takes routine mowings to get it to perform best for you. We would normally mow our short grass 3 times a week during the winter and increase that to daily around the SHO. We have been averaging about once a week right now. Luckily the growth regulator (a chemical used to slow the vertical growth of turfgrass and redirect the plant's energy to more horizontal growth) is working well for us and not allowing the plant to get too tall before we scalp it down once a week. Cloudy, wet, warmer than normal conditions also present challenges to the growth of the turf. Grass obviously needs sunlight to grow and when it is limited the grass tends to grow more vertically looking for sunlight. The warm, wet conditions are also perfect for spreading disease. We have been fighting brown patch in fairways and all short grass areas. We've had to increase our preventative fungicide applications on greens to keep them from losing turf. Bunkers are also a huge issue as you are constantly needing to repair sand on the faces and recondition it for play.

Some would say the positives of this will outweigh the negatives. Our lakes receded to an all time low this year after the drought. The heavy rains have all but replenished them in time for the SHO. It has also given much needed moisture to all of the trees during a time when they can recover. Fall/winter is a great time for trees to recover due to the mild temperatures. This is also the time of year when the most root growth takes place. If they survived the drought, the much needed water will help them recover.

In 99.99% of the world's golf courses there are many weather challenges that can cause issues for superintendents growing grass. We all have issues to deal with. The issues of a dry 2011 to a wet 2012 are ones that we will have to face and overcome. Instead of running water hoses all over the course to hand water hot spots we are now running water pumps all over the place to pump water out. Instead of handwatering bunker faces to keep the sand to a consistent playable level we are pumping water out. The superintendents that know that change is imminent are the ones that will be prepared for such change and face it head on. With all that being said, I still feel that we will have the best conditioned golf course we have ever seen here at Redstone for the SHO. It should be an exciting spring.

The Dreaded Lake Slopes at Redstone

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 08:00:00 GMT

The legend is building - Redstone is starting to get a reputation for some of its tightly mowed areas around the greens, mainly those that run down to water. They can cause headache for golfers that just barely miss the green, but they can cause serious long term headaches, backaches, etc. for those that have to maintain them! It is no easy chore, but over the course of 5 years we have learned how to master it.

You see them every now and then at other courses on Tour. I vaguely remember Tiger at the Ryder Cup in 97' at Valderamma at the mercy to the one there on #17, which changed the outcome of that match and the Ryder Cup. We have 8 holes where tightly mowed slopes lead your wayward ball into the water. When we first started maintaining them we had no real clue how to mow a slope that is at least 33 degrees and sometimes steeper. Believe me, we have put quite a few different pieces of machinery in the lake trying! It is not only the mowing but the aerifying, the topdressing, the fertilizing, the spraying, the blowing, the rolling, etc. that has to happen on these areas to get them to perform to their max. All of those pieces of equipment that you would normally use to do these practices on your course don't easily work at slopes that severe.

We found over the course of 3-4 years of using different mowing machines that it takes an all wheel drive unit with a tire of certain tread to stay on the slopes without sliding. Most triplex mowing units (a riding mower with 3 cutting units) that people use in this part of the country come with 2 wheel drive because there is not much slope and all wheel is not needed. We found through trial that it was and we needed a tire with just the right grip to get up the steepest of slopes.

Another practice that we put into place around SHO time is packing of the slopes to help smooth them out and get them nice and firm. This is a final step in the process - we spend the entire summer months topdressing and rolling these areas to take care of the big surface irregularities. The plate packing is simply to smooth very small depressions and get them nice and firm to withstand all of the mowing that will take place in the coming weeks.

Year long Preparations for the Shell Houston Open

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 08:00:00 GMT

Here is a link to an article I wrote for the Houston Golf Association and their Shell Houston Open page on the web. http://www.shellhoustonopen.com/SHO_Course_Changes.cfm It bullet points some of the major things that we do on a year round basis. It is not all about just mowing down the greens and rolling the mess out of them to get ready a few weeks before. It truly is a 12 month process that takes a lot of planning and work to get it just right.

Pre-Advance Week

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 08:00:00 GMT

If we call the week before the SHO Advance Week, then we might call this week coming up Advance, Advance Week. We are now 2 weeks out from SHO Week and we are all excited for what it is going to bring. This coming week is the week for us to get ready for the PGA Tour officials that come the week before the event to set everything up. We make sure all of our projects are complete so when the officials get into town we are ready to concentrate solely on grooming the course for championship conditions.

One key piece of making a course look good is the landscaping. It really doesn't mean a thing to playability, so we want to make sure the majority of this work is done this coming week. This would include freshening all mulch and pine straw throughout the course. We have a number of wood chip paths that are used by spectators throughout the course and we want to make sure these are fresh. We are in the process of putting out new pine straw in all tree beds as well. Fresh flowers around the clubhouse and touching up all landscape plants will take place this week. We also make sure all landscape areas including mulch, pine straw, and landscape rock areas are all edged and manicured. We will also be finishing up removing dead trees that have died over the past year. This has been a huge process this year in recovery from the drought and we have been cutting trees since October.

As far as the grass is concerned, we will continue lowering heights of all short grass areas to get us closer to our final heights for the event. Lowering these heights too soon can cause serious damage long term to the turf as these heights are very stressful to the grass and require extra fertility, water, mowing, etc. These extra inputs are not recommended year round. We will continue rolling fairways and approaches to continue the firming process. This will help with ball roll and playability as well as help firm the surface for water runoff in the event of rainfall during the SHO. We will also be making one last spray fertility application on the short grass. This fertility along with a growth regulating product will help the grass fill out and create that carpet like surface we are all accustomed to.

We will increase our frequency of cut in all areas. We will start mowing roughs a couple times a week instead of weekly like we do throughout the season. This will increase even more during advance week to the point of mowing roughs daily for about 12-13 days. All short grass areas will also increase from 2-3 times per week to around 4-5 this coming week, with eventually going to daily Advance Week. This is all geared to grooming the turf for consistency and prime conditions. It always seems like the week before the first part of spring the grass starts to take off and really explode. We normally fertilize the course the first week of March (we did this year on March 5th) and this coupled with the soil temps warming into the mid 60s creates an explosion of turf and color unlike anything you see during the winter. People are blown away during the winter at how green it is, but it goes nuclear during March! This increased growth is the main reason for the extra mowing.

This coming week we will be doing the same things to greens to get them in prime shape. We are still open for play so we can't do the morning and afternoon mowings and rollings just yet but we will increase our frequencies of cut and rolling. The heights will come down a couple levels this week as well. Our topdressing of greens also picks up during March before the event. We have been doing a light dusting every other week to keep up with the growth, but now with grass growing a little more we will apply sand this week and next week. We do this with push spreaders that we use for fertilizer with kiln dried bag sand. It is the same sand we use throughout the year but we got them to bag it for us during the months leading up to the SHO. We try not to drive any equipment (topdressers, sprayers, dragging sand, etc) across greens for 3-4 months leading up to the event to keep the surface smooth and firm. We put on just enough sand to work down into the profile without creating sandy playing conditions on the surface or too much sand that we would pick up with mowers the next day. We are also spraying fertility, growth regulator, wetting agent, and any needed fungicides to meet the needs of the turf for the week. During March we try to monitor our fertility levels through tissue samples to see what nutrients the plant is taking up. We only target products that will help us overcome deficiencies - we aren't putting nitrogen or phosphorus on just because. Typically our soils are deficient in potassium, calcium, and magnesium and we try to apply products with these elements. A healthy, well balanced plant will perform better for you in highly stressful times.

Other than work on the course, we also have to complete the planning process and make sure we have all supplies needed for the coming weeks. The little stuff like making sure you have cups, flags, poles, stakes, bunker rakes, etc. is easy but takes planning to make sure you have it all on hand when you need it. The other part of it is making sure you have the needs of your 80 man crew for those weeks taken care of when they are working 16-18 hour days. Uniforms, meals, payroll, parking passes, schedules, equipment, living quarters, are just some of things that have to be well thought out when dealing with that many people. Also, making sure you keep all relevant parties up to date on your practices and course conditions to make sure it is just right for the players.

There are so many things that have to take place before the event even gets here and we will be working before daylight and well after dusk to get these final details squared away.

Tournament Course Transition

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Well, the SHO has come and gone for 2012. All the bleachers are being taken down, the ropes are gone, the Tour Show is out on the East Coast. For those that only get to see us on TV every year you miss out on the single biggest part of our maintenance operation for the year. Yes, I said it correctly - the biggest part of our operation every year - the work after the event! Setting up for the SHO is many hours of hard, intense work but it is a process and one that you can master over the years. When it comes to transition of one grass to another you are dealing with what Mother Nature gives you. The thing you've got to understand when dealing with transition is you can't have 2 fully happy grasses at the same time!...

The week after the SHO, we start promoting bermudagrass growth culturally through a number of practices. On all short grass areas (greens, tees, fairways, approaches) we start grooming the grass at fairly low groomer depths to aid in rye removal. This process is very hard to see for the golfer, but as the grooming blades cut vertically into the ryegrass they are slowly taking more and more of it out each mowing. Over the course of 2 months the process allows sunlight to the soil to aid in bermuda promotion. We also do some verticutting (more aggressive than grooming) on all of these areas once we feel the temps are right in May. We maintain the same heights that we had during the SHO as they were already very low. In May, we also start slicing all short grass and deep solid tine venting in high traffic spots. All of these processes can take place during play with minimal disruption.

Most of our transition problems happen in the roughs, where the ryegrass is allowed to grow up to 1.25". I would say 90-95% of our sod work each year comes in these areas, and especially in the high trafficked rough areas. What we do after the SHO in these areas is verticut/vacuum (shown with Toro unit below), deep slicing (with Aerway unit above), and 1" solid tine aerifying to remove surface compaction and also create sun light avenues for the bermuda to start growing. I've posted a few of these videos here on the blog through YouTube that you can take a look at for further info. We try to do these practices and have the area cleaned up and mowed out before the day is out. Due to the acreage of the roughs we are only able to get about 2-3 holes per day amongst the heavy play that we have April and May. We try to get through the whole course 2-3 times in the 2 months we have from April through Memorial Day. We also gradually lower the height of cut in the roughs from 1.25" to 1" to .75" towards the end of April. This is a very positive thing for our golfers because who wouldn't love to hit out of 3/4" roughs! We do it gradually so there is no scalped appearance.

A huge part of the transition is also in fertility. Our soil/tissue testing that we do each year educates us on the fertility needs of the plant going into the transition so we can get the right nutrients there for the bermuda once it starts to grow back in. It is not just about Nitrogen mgmt and throwing as much as the spreaders can handle, which can actually be counterproductive and cause death of bermuda. It is about having nutrient balance so the plant is able to grow as it was intended to create a healthy plant. We make sure the bermudagrass has the nutrients available during the April/May months so it has that balance going into the real transition, before it is too late. A new process that we are looking at with Brookside Laboratories is the plant carbohydrate levels of the bermudagrass as we go into the fall months before overseeding. When a bermuda plant is trying to bounce back from being covered up by rye all winter long it uses up what carbohydrates it has stored up through the fall to bounce back and grow again. Once those carbs have been depleted the plant breaks down and dies, so it is important to be mindful of them.

The hardest part of all of this is that we have some of our most important play (heavy corporate event season) of the year in the 2 months that we have to do the most work! People expect to see SHO conditions when they come out even though it is not always possible, so you have to put your best foot forward and make it very presentable. I can't say that it has always been easy and we have failed a number of times throughout the years, but we have now come up with a pretty solid plan to keep everybody happy, including the turf.

The day after Memorial Day we typically close down the course for a 3-4 weeks to get all of the heavy practices out of the way. I'll spend more time on this as we get closer to the date. By June in Houston, the ryegrass has seen better days and is pretty much checked out. We try to finish it off with verticutting/aerification of all surfaces, topdressing of all short grass areas, and whatever sod work that needs to take place. This gives us a chance to get the course to a presentable level around July 4th.

The beauty of being proactive in your transition practices is you have a lot less sod and heavy work to do in the summer months when it is already too late to promote bermudagrass. If you hinder the growth of the bermuda when it wants to start growing actively, and you keep it shaded out by the heavy ryegrass, it ends up dying out on you and won't recover once the ryegrass dies. We have tried everything over the years from spraying herbicide wall to wall in early April at heavy rates, to spraying minimal rates in May, to no spray at all and all sorts of cultural practices. We have sodded 90+ truck loads of sod during years with minimal work done. With the addition of these practices over the last couple of years we have gotten it down to a comfortable 2-10 trucks of sod. Last year was around 10, but most of it was due to the worst drought Texas has faced in 100+ years. There were probably courses in town that didn't overseed that sodded just as much!

There is no one cure all to overseed transition. The goal is to try and understand the growth patterns and requirements of both grasses and try to carefully promote growth of bermuda while slowly taking out the rye. You don't want to have a ryegrass period, then death period, then bermuda period that ends up taking the entire summer to recover. You want to slowly take the percentage of one up while dropping the percentage of the other, while still having 90-100% grass. Sounds easy!!

Member Course Aerification

Tue, 08 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

I’m a man that likes to have a purpose (mostly scientific) behind my practices, and aerification is no different. Superintendents across the country break out the old aerifiers every year during the spring on a given date and go through the motions just because it seems like the wise thing to do. Due to the controversy that this work can cause I like to be prepared for the questions and have specific targets. We do a lot of scientific testing through various labs and use a lot of new technology that can help us make decisions. One of the biggest checks we make each year is a physical analysis of the sand profile in our greens. We do this test through the ISTRC (International Sports Turf Research Center). We take samples from 3-4 greens to be analyzed and they give me a report based on the findings. It gives results on infiltration rates, air capacity (pore space), water capacity, bulk density, and organic matter content. Once you become accustomed to reading and understanding the data it can help you make decisions based on what you’ve done in previous years to get to where you are, and what you need to do to make changes to reach your goals.

We have made some nice strides on greens over the last few years to come closer to our goals, but when you are dealing with a living entity you always have work to do each year to maintain. The top 1-1.5” of soil is where we need to concentrate most of our efforts. These ultradwarf bermudagrasses can produce a lot of organic matter as they are vigorous in their growth below the surface. We had greens ranging from 2.95 – 3.55% organic matter (better than 2011) in this range and ideally you would like to see closer to 2.5%. Based on these numbers we are going to try to keep the majority of our corings this year closer to the surface as our numbers below this level are in ideal range. Why do more than you need to?

So, on greens last week we did a number of things to work on that problem. First, we verticut the greens heavily, in a number of directions, to help control grain on the surface and thin out the canopy. We follow that up with a mowing to clean all the debris left behind. Next, we use a deep tine aerifier with a long 10” solid tine (doesn’t pull a core) to reduce compaction on the whole profile that will allow air to the lower portions and open the soil up for better water percolation. We follow this with our fertilizer amendments (based on testing) and a heavy coat of sand that will fill in the holes. Once this is complete, we come behind with our aerifiers that remove a ½” sized hole on a 1.25”x1.5” spacing. Once the cores are cleaned off the greens we start the rolling and dragging operations for a few days to work the sand/fertilizer in the holes and smooth it out. Timely, heavy waterings after each day will help the sand settle and get the plant back to recovery. It sounds like a lot of activity, but all of these processes have been refined over the years to get max recovery in a short amount of time.

We shoot for similar results on our tees as they also have a sandy profile that needs almost as much attention. We go through the same topdress and fertilizer measures that we do on greens. We follow this with the same aerifiers on the same spacings. We finish up with a series of draggings, blowings, and rollings to get the surface back to recovery. The tee boxes are in great shape this year already, and these processes will only enhance that. Again, the process is designed to work on the organic production of the grass with some benefit to surface compaction.

On fairways, we use the same deep tine machine that we have been using for 5-6 years now. It is designed to pull a 1” plug on a 4x4” spacing. We follow this process with a core processor that demolishes the plugs into smaller pieces. We follow this with a verticut to further chop the plugs and work on the grain of the grass at the same time. We mow and blow behind this to finish it off. Considering the amount of debris and soil that is brought up to the soil, the final product is very clean. The fairway process is designed to eliminate surface compaction, work on organic matter (not a huge issue on clay/silt type soils at this point), and open channels for rains and heavy waterings to flush undesired salts through the root zone.

We have also done some slicing of the soils in the roughs and the high traffic areas to alleviate some surface compaction. There are a lot of high traffic areas on the course where heavy cart use can cause damage to turf. This process helps alleviate some of that and gives the turf a chance to recover. There will be some minor scars that should heal about the same time as the other areas aerified. We mow and blow behind this process to help clean it up.

As you can see it was a very busy week on the Member Course, and extremely productive towards great conditions for months to come.

Member Practice Tee

Sat, 12 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Just like the Tournament Course during late May/early June, the Member Practice Tee will go through some transition from an overseeded turfgrass back to a bermuda one. There are always growing pains associated. On one hand, do you not overseed and stare at divots that might be 4 months old before they heal? Or, do you overseed and give your members good turf to hit on during winter and then have a month or so transition that looks like the pictures here? All clubs are forced to make this decision each year.

Once the ryegrass starts to die out in April/May, we are left with voids for bermudagrass to fill in. We try to transition the Member Tee area a little ahead of the Tournament Course side so we can get it back to normal by the time the Tournament Course closes every June. We don't want both tee boxes with less than acceptable conditions. The aerification process on the Member side the first week of May every year helps the process by accelerating the rye death. Between the core removal, heavy verticut, topdress, and dragging of the tee the ryegrass is not strong enough during this time of year to make it through this.

This is the ideal time to transition because the bermudagrass really wants to start growing in May. Due to our busy tournament season on the Tournament Course we are always forced to prolong this process for that course, and in turn suffer a little more bermuda death and areas that require more growth to overcome. You can also see from the picture on the right that highly trafficked areas like walkups and cart trails suffer a little more damage and have less bermudagrass. The task of competing with a ryegrass plant for all resources plus the added stress/compaction placed on turf in these areas is more than the bermuda can handle, so it requires a little more attention.

After the aerification process is done on the tee we study our soil reports and try to get the right amount of fertilizers and amendments in the tee to help it overcome and grow back in. On a weekly basis until fully grown in we follow up with some added nitrogen fertility (21-0-0) in small amounts to help the grass fill in.

For our membership we chose to have nice turf for the majority of the year including the winter time. We figure the month that it takes to heal from transition in spring is much better than having 3-4 months of no coverage and no divot healing.