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.