Greens – Spring Maintenance

This week we have been concentrating on Hollow-coring the greens and back-filling with sand. Recent Organic Matter tests on the top 80mm of the greens have highlighted that we have too much Organic matter (Thatch) in the top 20mm and on some greens in the top 40mm. The high levels will reduce infiltration rates at the surface and promote soft, wet greens. Too much thatch will also encourage disease and favour the Annual Meadow Grass species that we are trying to reduce on some of the greens. I have certainly seen a reduction in surface drainage performance this winter and in order to promote year round golf on full greens here at Yelverton, this thatch removal is vitally important to ensure consistently dry, firm, true and fast greens throughout the year.

We have used a very tight pattern with small tines (8mm diameter inner) to remove as much volume as possible with minimal disruption to the surface. So far, we have applied 15 tonne of pure sand dressing. The sand will help to dilute the thatch layer and keep it open to encourage air and water movement into the soil profile.

Over the next week, we will be concentrating on working the sand into the holes via brushing, blowing and irrigating and improving smoothness through rolling.

Thank you for your cooperation during this period.

Golf Industry Show – Las Vegas 2012

26th February – 3rd March.

During this week I was lucky enough to visit the Golf Industry Show in Las Vegas. I was chosen to be part of a delegation representing UK Greenkeepers sponsored by “Bernhards and Co” Grinding equipment. The trip was no holiday, but it was great to experience Las Vegas as well as attend the Trade Show, visit Golf Courses and attend lectures.

18th Green TPC Summerlin

Monday 27^th February – Course Visits, TPC Summerlin and Paiute.

TPC Summerlin, home of the PGA Tour’s “Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open” and where Tiger Woods won his first ever Professional Tournament. We were met by James Seisun (Assistant Golf Course Superintendent) who happens to be English. At this stage of the year the Bermuda grass roughs, fairways and tees were dormant. The tees are over-sown with Perennial Ryegrass, but the rest of the course remains yellow with dormant Bermuda grass. This gives an unusual and stark contrast between the different species of grasses. The decision to not over-sow the fairways and rough was made by the club in order to utilise the money saved towards preparing for the PGA tour event. The greens were a more familiar cool season Creeping Bentgrass (Penn A4). Half way along the back nine, we visited the very impressive maintenance facilities, which was absolutely spotless and probably the best organised facility I have ever seen. James explained how the staffing is structured and how tasks were communicated, including using a Plasma screen in the crew room linked to his computer to communicate tasks for the day.

16th TPC Summerlin - Dormant Bermuda Grass

Our second course visit of the day took us a 30 min drive, leaving Las Vegas and entering the desert on the outskirts. Paiute Golf Club Resort is owned by the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, a Native American tribe who have made their money through Smoke Houses. The resort consists of three 18 hole courses constructed between 1995 and 2001, with each course measuring over 7,000 yards, the “Wolf Course” measuring over 7600 yards, the longest course in Nevada. All three courses sit sympathetically into its environment with the impressive Clubhouse also blending into the surroundings. After a stunning lunch in the clubhouse, Jeff Reid (Director of Golf Course Maintenance) led us down to the Maintenance facilities, which again were first class. The three courses are maintained by 55 staff. As with both of the courses that we visited, a tremendous amount of emphasis is put on the irrigation of the turf with temperatures regularly reaching 43-44’C and an average of just over 4 inches of rainfall per year! At Paiute, there are 4 wells which are owned by the tribe from which the club extract water to fill reservoirs to feed their pump houses. In the summer they can use up to 4 million gallons of water per night for all three courses. Annual usage of 880 million gallons!

The Stunning Paiute Golf Resort

Tuesday 28^th February – Education Conference – Advanced Stress Management Strategies for Cool-Season Turfgrasses.

First of our two, day-long, educational classes. Held in the impressive Riviera Hotel Ballroom and delivered by Jack D. Fry, Ph.D. and Bingru Huang, Ph.D. The objectives of the day was to understand cool-season turfgrass physiology, understand physiological responses to environmental stresses and to collectively present information on how cultural practices and maintenance philosophies can influence turf quality in unfavourable environments. The first part of the class took us back to the fundamentals of plant physiology, concentrating on photosynthesis and respiration looking at all the factors that affect the two processes.

Lecture Halls

 

Wednesday 29^th February / Thursday 1^st March – Golf Industry Show.

Over the next two days, we had the opportunity to attend the Trade Show and the General Sessions at the Golf Industry Show, Las Vegas Convention Center. The North Halls, were a sea of trade stands as far as the eye could see.

The delegates with Stephen Bernhard (Bernhard and Co)

Friday 2^nd March – Education Conference – Plant Growth Regulators for Fine Turf.

Our second Class of the week took a look at Plant Growth Regulators and how they affect plant physiology in order to manipulate growth characteristics and how this can be used to produce high quality surfaces. This Session was delivered by Shawn D. Askew, Ph.D. and Erik Ervin, Ph.D. from Virginia Tech University.

The whole week was a fantastic opportunity to increase knowledge and to make new contacts both through the others delegates attending and US colleagues too! I have come back feeling inspired and better equipped to help keep taking the Golf Course forward.

Recent Bunker Work

The Bunkers at Yelverton have always been an issue in terms of ongoing maintenance to ensure that they meet the Club’s standards. The soil profile here is very loose and full of stone, which is great for drainage but is a real headache when it comes to Bunker contamination. The majority of the contamination results from the bunker edges rather than the base, with steady erosion, animal damage and reshaping. 

The new process uses astro-turf revetted edges that give a rigid and strong interface between the bunker edge and the neighboring soil. This will help prevent contamination from these areas.It will also defend the edges from continuous animal damage. In time, it will reduce the amount of maintenance required and encourage a consistently well presented bunker and sand surface throughout the course. 

Whilst reconstructing the bunkers we will be looking at each individual bunker in terms of it’s play-ability and ensuring that it remains a suitable hazard, but is fair to all levels of player. Each bunker will also have drainage installed. Once we are happy with the process, the bunkers around the course will be given an order of priority and scheduled for reconstruction. Obviously this will be influenced by budget and available resources.

Original 12th bunker, sitting very deep with severe over-hang!

Raising base and installing Drainage

Laying the astro-turf.

Revetted face completed

Completed Bunker back in play!

Since Completing the 12th bunker, we have also constructed a new practice bunker in the same way. Many top Golf clubs, including St Andrews and Turnberry, have constructed their practice bunkers using the same technique in order to eliminate issues with erosion through continuous sand splash and poor stability.

New Chipping Green Area

Apologies for no recent Post’s!!

You may have noticed that we have redeveloped  and extended the size of the chipping green area.The existing chipping green was very small with limited areas around it to chip from.

Old Chipping Green

The new green will give the user more options and variety of shot from which to practice. It will also give the opportunity for more individuals to practice at the same time including multi-player teaching sessions for the Professionals.

The Green has been constructed to emulate the greens out on the course. The green is soil based with 150mm of sandy rootzone material on top. This will mirror the depth of sandy material we have through the surface of our greens profile on the course through many decades of top-dressing. The sand was tested for it’s suitability to be used in this way and at this depth.

Soil base being spread and shaped.

Sandy rootzone spread to depth of 150mm and compacted.

On the surface of the green, cores taken from our 18 greens on the course were spread over the surface and then seeded into with a fescue/bent seed mix and rolled. This again will ensure that we mirror the surfaces of the greens on the course. Establishment from this process has been very encouraging, helped by the sustained good temperatures we have been experiencing.

Grass establishment so far from cores and seed.

To the right of the new green as you view it, a new practice bunker will be constructed and the bank reinstated.

We anticipate the green to be ready for use early summer next year, providing the spring is kind to us.

Greens – Autumn Maintenance

This week we have been carrying out Autumn Maintenance on the greens. The tasks include:

Hollow Coring;

This process is carried out to physically remove cores of turf from the surface layer of the greens. These cores will be made up of mostly “Thatch”, which is the layer just below the surface. “Thatch” is made up of living and dead fibrous, vegetative organic material. If left to accumulate, this layer will become dense and restrict water and air movement into the soil profile and will not favour the indigenous desirable grass species. It will also hold water at the surface making the surfaces soft and spongy. Accumulated Thatch will also create the perfect environment to harbour fungal disease pathogens and also create the right conditions for these to develop and attack the grass plant. Micro hollow-tines (6.5mm inner core and 50mm depth) will be used to ensure less overall disruption to the surface.

Hollow Coring 4th Green

6.5mm Core holes at approx 35mm spacings

 

Over-seeding;

All greens have been over-seeded with Fescue and Bent grass species. Once seed is applied the greens are brushed in two directions to work seed into holes from coring and over-seeder. This is to ensure that the seed is covered and makes contact with sand to encourage germination.

Over-seeding 8th Green

Seed brushed into holes

 

Top-dressing;

A Heavy dressing of sand has been applied to the greens and brushed in two directions again to pull the seed and sand into the hollow-core and over-seeder holes. This will provide soil exchange to promote an open surface for water infiltration and air movement of oxygen into the soil profile. It will also create seedbed pockets to promote germination of the desired grasses.

Brushing in Top-dressing

 

The long-term objectives for the greens is to improve the surface drainage qualities,  reduce the percentage of thatch and organic material in the top 20-30mm of the profile and to integrate a pure sand dressing into the existing soil profile. By achieving this, the indigenous desirable grass species will flourish and the surfaces will become firm, smooth and consistent. The above tasks are part of the regular planned yearly maintenance schedule in order to achieve these objectives.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation during this week.

 

13th/18th Path work.

Original path running alongside the 18th Green

These paths leading from the 13th and 18th greens have always been in poor order and in need of redirecting and reconstruction. This area is the last impression of the course as players finish their round of golf and up until now it has been an eyesore, leaving a poor impression. The 13th path leading to the 14th tees, has been in the wrong place as most take a straight line from the edge of the green to the tee, by-passing the old path. This as caused unacceptable wear in this area.  Once completed, the rope and post will be taken out to the new path to avoid traffic wear damage to the right of the green.

Excavating New Path

The paths have been constructed by excavating to a depth of 100mm – 125mmm, with a sub-base of 803 hardcore in the base topped with 6mm to dust path material, leveled and rolled together to produce a uniform and compact surface.

Path Depth to 125mm

Completed Path

Welcome!

Hello!

My Name is George Pitts and I am Course Manager at Yelverton Golf Club. I have set up this blog to help communicate to the members current tasks and projects being carried out on the course and why they need to be done. I will endeavour to update as frequently as possible along with photographs to aid explanation. I hope you enjoy the blog and find it useful and informative.