Perpetual Waves

I find the work load of the golfing season comes in multiple waves. In the spring after snow melt there is always a pretty decent “set” of waves that roll through because of what Mother Nature has dealt us. We in the north can say that more often than not we have to repair turf damaged from the winter conditions. Five out of my six seasons with the club 10 green has suffered damaged, three of those seasons the damage has been significant (temporary green required). I would bet on those stats, 83% of the time that green is going to have some form of damage. Moving forward that stat is going to change if it’s the last thing I do!! So anyways back to these “workload waves”. It seems as though there is almost always a little break in the action mid-June but this season the set just kept on rolling. Because of all the damaged areas on the course that required attention we weren’t able to get to the projects that we had left unfinished from the fall. Where the number of projects ongoing and complete normally would be were not so there was no break in the “set” and we just had to keep rolling full steam ahead.

All of a sudden here comes the next set of waves, The Ladies open and the Men’s Invitational. This season to me just seemed like it was tough to get our heads above the water. Thankfully Mother Nature has made things so much more manageable because of the temperate climate and timely rains. Now we are into those maintenance waves for the remainder of July up to the greens aeration. Two more sets and that’s a season which means pretty smooth waters. Don’t get me wrong I’ve enjoyed the challenge and pace of work that has been set so far this season it just seemed to me like it was a little more difficult to get our heads above water and breath. From getting all the greens back into shape, repairing major damaged areas in the fairways and roughs, adding almost 1000’ feet of drainage, the Audubon initiative, grinding 160 stumps, the endless tree work that we have, rebuilding a chipping green, filling a ditch, improving your chances of finding an errant shot on 11/12 and ultimately the need to improve upon what we have and not just repair damage. Without a doubt my turf team has been incredible and everything that we have achieved to date would never have been possible without them. My turf management mottoes sure have rang true so far this season, “No pain, no gain” and “you can’t make hay when it’s raining”.

Have you noticed that the collar around green #1 is much smaller than the rest of the greens? As a test trial I converted this collar to a smaller one to see if it would be possible to do this to all of our greens thus increasing the amount of putting surface. On #1 we gained 650ft² of putting surface and on average we stand to gain a total 17 500ft² of putting surface if we do it to all 18. Do you like it? You can express your thoughts on the Idy Turf Department Facebook page, on Twitter @IdyTurf or you can email me at jsisko@idylwylde.com .

Existing Collars

Proposed and #1 Collar

 

What about how we are cutting our fairways. We call it the “classic cut”. That was the most practical way to cut the grass when a horse pulled the mower. Since we have started this we have also been collecting the grass clippings instead of going back out and breaking the clippings up with a rope being dragged. It does add one more employee to the task but this position has proven to be invaluable. While the fairway units are mowing the “clippings trailer” person is filling literally thousands of divots and on some days manually pulling hundreds of plantain weeds from the fairways. Efficiency is a beautiful thing! I cannot help but to improve the condition of our landing areas.
 

Look no clippings!

One final thing that I wanted to mention because I hear it every year, “Oh you’re really doing a lot of work to get ready for the Men’s Invitational.” Please believe me when I say even if we didn’t have that tournament the exact same amount of work and improvements would be done to the golf course. The conditions are always going to peak right around the third week of July because of timing, weather, the improvement in the staffs quality of workmanship as well our earlier improvements are back in play. The few things that we do alter however are the mowing heights of the greens and really just cranking up our mowing regime. We plan work projects and make improvements with the best interest of the entire Idylwylde Golf & Country membership in mind that I promise you.

 

Sorry for taking so long to get my next post up but thanks for your interest. See you on the course, play well and if you’re not enjoy the walk and scenery.

It has begun.

Boy it sure was a slow start to the season but with how long that winter had been it wasn't too shocking. Even with the cool spring, precipitation and lack of sunlight we were able to achieve some pretty good success with seeding 10 green. Whenever you have winter damage to that extent you have to know it's going to be a long road to recovery. We slit seeded and dimple seeded again on May 17 & 18 to get some more grass into the "gaps". When the green is finally ready for play it may still be a little bumpy and slower than the others but won't be far behind. The main message though is that the green will be what we remember it to be in time. Look how far we have come with little help from mother nature.


With regards to the other greens, the speed will come and so will a smoother surface. The late season deep tine aerification is one of the main culprits with regards to how bumpy they are. Thar is only one of the many reasons why we really should be doing this earlier in the season. A solid top dressing will take care of that and improve things exponentially.

I can remember during my interview for the Superintendents position here, one of the questions that was asked to me is "do you have any goals during your time here?" One of them was to have our golf course recognized by becoming certified as an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. Idylwylde Golf and Country Club is a proud member of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program, created and administered by Audubon international. Under the program we are striving to implement best management practices in environmental planning, wildlife and habitat management, chemical use reduction and safety, water conservation, water quality management, and outreach and education. With the support from the Board of Directors, membership and my love of the environment I believe we can achieve this prestigious designation. As we move along through this you will see some changes on how we maintain the golf course as well as many initiatives that will only enhance our properties relationship with the natural environment. In time I will have a page on our website that documents all of our efforts and inform you in detail of the requirements. I'm very excited about the challenge and you can already see the benefits from just a few things that we have done like the added bird houses and turtle log in the pond on 15.

We have a lot of work to do to repair winter damage throughout the golf course as well finish off a couple of projects which will be our primary focus. Here is a list of what we will be working on in the immediate future.

1. Top soil and seed filled ditch on 4
2. Top soil and seed expanded area on 12
3. Finish shaping, fill with bunker sand and sod 11 fairway bunker
4. Top soil and sod drainage on 8 tee
5. Regrade and grass 13 fairway through a seeding renovation technique
6. Drainage and re grass rough close to green on 10
7. Drainage and re grass rough close to 12 green
8. Drainage between 10 & 12 greens

I'm excited about the season especially now that the weather is improving and in couple more weeks things should really be in good shape. Looking forward to seeing you all out on the course, play well!

Jay Sisko

Golf Course Superintendent

Out of the winter and into the green!

With one of the worst winters on record I would have been naive to think we could have possibly escaped unscathed, but there was a time where I thought that may be reality. It was with great disappointment when we pulled back the tarp on 10 green and saw damage that could be described as apocalyptic but really that would be if it were all 18 greens so lets say devastating damage. Considering the widespread damage and severity that the golf industry has suffered from the winter as sad as it is we could consider ourselves lucky.

10 Green - Cause of death anoxia

Yup that's how bad it is. Other greens that suffered lets say minor damage as we will not need the use of a temporary green to regenerate the areas. In order of severity they are as follows 12 (same locations as last season), 9 (middle right), 4 (back left), and 6 (middle right). So what the heck happened to 10 and why is it so bad? I'm fairly confident that the cause of death was from anoxia. Anoxia is low oxygen levels resulting from extended ice encasement or heavy layers of ice and snow lying above an impermeable cover. The telltale “smell of death” is another indicator that anoxia was responsible for turf loss. Under the right
circumstances, a dense layer of ice directly encasing the turf or heavy snow load above an impermeable cover can begin to create anoxic
conditions within a 40-day period. Jim Skorulski, senior agronomist, Northeast Region 2013. Under that definition it describes 10 green condition(s) exactly. One other factor that may have exacerbated the problem is shade. Shade can decrease or limit the amount of carbohydrates that a grass plant is able to produce. Carbohydrate reserves (roots) is a key factor in overwintering success of turf as it is used for keeping the plant cold temperature hardy as well as energy for it's continuing metabolic processes. A picture says a thousand words so...

Coincidence? I think not.

The plan of attack is to bring it back through series of cultural practices and seeding. I feel in the long term it is the best option. I know you may wonder why not sod since we sodded 1 green last year. A few reasons are we do not have green height sod on sight as well if we did using small roles on an area that size would almost be impossible. Purchasing sod off sight means using a grass plant that is not acclimatized to our hardiness zone and could prove detrimental in the future. Sodding also creates layering in the root zone which will create a zone that would inhibited rooting depth. Furthermore the type of sod that we would be getting is estimated at 6-8 weeks before it could be played upon and I believe I can achieve a comparable putting surface in the same time frame as well a healthier one moving forward. One last thing among others is that the sod we laid on 10 green last season also suffered significant damage. Moving forward I believe I can minimize winter damage through a couple practices that I will discuss at the end of the season. Here are a couple pictures to show you that we can bring the green back through seeding we just need time (sod or not).

 

12 green April 16/13(left), May 21/13 (right)

14 green April 15/13(left), May 13/13 (right)



 

I'm setting a goal for the last weekend in May to have the green open for play. I think its lofty but I think its better to have lofty goals than not! Remember the condition we were in last season? We had 4 temporary greens and more damage just spread out. If there ever was a turf team to bring 10 back to life it's this as every employee we have on staff this season has golf course experience and all but 2 are returnees. I'm looking forward to the challenge and seeing everyone out here sooner than later. Remember to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to keep an eye on what we are up to. I will leave you on a positive thought.

 

14 green April 21/14

 

 

Jay Sisko

Golf Course Superintendent

 

 

 



When is it going to be over?

It just wouldn't make sense to not start off by asking "is it over yet?" It all started on November 27 when we received our first blanket of snow and since then it has only accumulated. As I write this, it's the first day of spring which puts our golf course at 114 days of consecutive snow cover. What we as turf managers use number of days of snow cover for is to estimate the severity of snow mould pressure and in turn the possibility of damage. Generally snow moulds become active after 40-60 days of snow cover with mild severity where as severe pressure occurs when snow cover is prolonged for 90 days and over which is where we are at. Because historically 90 days of snow cover is the norm, we do use the highest plant protection methods available of preventative control to our greens, approaches, tees, and fairways. So with all that being said the possibility of damage from snow moulds are a secondary concern of mine compared to the ice damage like we saw last season.

So just a little background on ice and the types of damage I'm concerned with this season. Once again keeping track of the number of days of cover is used to help estimate the severity of damage and aid in deciding whether or not to take action to alleviate detrimental conditions (if even possible). Our greens are predominantly Annual bluegrass which can tolerate 45-60 days of ice cover. In comparison our other grass species, Creeping bentgrass can withstand 90 - 120 days of ice cover. Under ice turf death occurs through the depletion of oxygen which is referred to anoxia. Even through the winter months the turf and soil microbes are active there bye utilizing the available oxygen through their metabolic processes. With not sufficient levels of oxygen available turf and microbe death occurs
So here's the hard data. On December 5, 2013 we received just over a .5" of rain which created a layer of ice on areas of our greens. Then through the period of January 11-13, 2014 we received 1.25" of rain which increased the ice thickness as well as the surface area covered with ice. Susceptible areas have had detrimental ice cover for a period of 106 days and others where ice formed from the January rain event have been covered for 67 days. Compared to last winter we have had snow cover to this point 14 days more and ice cover 12 days more. Either way not ideal but it leaves me thinking, if there is damage we can repair it. We really won't know for sure until the tarps are removed and all you can do at this point is speculate.

Once the low temperatures show signs of rising we will begin to remove the bulk of snow off the greens to aid with the melt and hopefully reduce the potential of turf damage through "crown hydration". In general, annual bluegrass greens and fairways are the most susceptible to crown hydration injury. During the warm days of late winter, annual bluegrass plants start to take up water (hydrate). Potential for injury exists when a day or two of warm daytime temperatures in late winter is followed by a rapid freeze. The most common time for winter kill associated with crown hydration and refreezing to occur is during the late winter and early spring when there is snow melt or rainfall and then refreezing of the water that has not drained away. Crown hydration is a problem during these events because ice crystal can form in the crown of the plant, rupture the plant cells and ultimately cause the plant to die.

Annual bluegrass is more susceptible to crown hydration injury than creeping bentgrass because it emerges from dormancy and begins taking up water. Creeping bentgrass remains dormant longer and, therefore, does not take up water and is not as susceptible to crown hydration injury during the late winter.



7 Green 3' of snow over .5" of ice cover
(Typical of conditions throughout the golf course)

9 Green 3' of snow over 1.5" of ice
(Typical conditions of susceptible spots throughout the Golf Course)

                                           

With the sun throughout the winter being lower in the sky, green sights with neighbouring trees produce shade on the green which can exacerbate the conditions that cause winter kill, mainly crown hydration. One of the greens that continually struggles from the winter months is 10. Always the same location, and it's right side always is one of the last areas to loose snow cover. I have this app on my phone which is called "Sunseeker" and it shows you the suns path in real time and it helped in the decision to remove some trees from the right of 10 green to decrease shade and increase the amount of time that sunlight is on the green. I'm not saying this is the silver bullet but should aid greatly to minimize the severity of crown hydration conditions.

Sunseeker App for iPhone
I took this screen shot while standing in the middle of 10 green

 You can see on the above screen shot of the App how the green only receives sun from the back but mostly the right side where all the trees are blocking it. Essentially from 12pm - 5pm the trees were limiting the available sunlight.

 

Pictures taken at the same time of day 

10 green before tree removal
 

10 Green after tree removal

If you happened to see this weeks newsletter you be asking yourself why would they put trees on top of the ice in a pond? This is just one of many projects that we will be working on as we attempt to achieve certification through Audubon International. The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses has been developed to allow golf courses to demonstrate their commitment to environmental stewardship. The large Silver maple on the corner of hole 11 was removed this winter in accordance with the recommendation made through the long range plan created by Doug Carrick, golf course architect. We essentially kept two large portions of the tree and placed one on top of the ice in the pond between 3 and 9, and  15 as well. Once the snow and ice melt a portion of the logs will sink into the water leaving some exposed on the bank of the pond. These will provide habitat in the water for things like frogs, snakes, turtles, and muskrats to name a few, and the portion above the water line will give the turtles somewhere to sunbath and provide a perch for birds.




Loading the tree for transport

 

Placing the tree on top of the ice in the pond on 3 

3 pond habitat tree



15 habitat tree

 

I will update our progress with regards to the condition of the golf course and will let you know through the weekly news letter when I have done so. Enjoy the beginning of Spring ;-)!

Jay Sisko
Golf Course Superintendent