Why No Intermediate Cut of Rough

Every spring a concern about rough height and density becomes an issue and the question "why don't we have an intermediate cut of rough" comes up. Playability is very important to us and our goal is to provide a challenging and fair golf course that a golfer of any caliber can enjoy. Catering to the high and low handicappers at the same time is a very difficult challenge. In addition to that challenge, our course, as with any business or household has to operate within certain budget constraints and what we try to do is provide the best (and fairest) playing conditions within those constraints.

That being said, why not have an intermediate cut? Essentially, it comes down to two things: cost and time. Years ago, there was a first cut of rough mowed three times a week with a five-deck contour mower, and green and tee complexes were mowed at a different height, with our other contour mower. The problem we continuously encountered was being unable to keep up on green and tee complexes using only one mower. The grass in these areas was always too long and once mowed, it was messy and produced poor playing conditions around the greens. We had to prioritize what was more important: a first cut around the rough, or a shorter, more manageable rough around the green? We chose the green complexes.

To solve this problem, we converted the intermediate rough mower into a tee complex mower and dedicated the other contour mower to green complexes. This allowed us to get all green and tee complexes mowed twice a week, providing a cleaner and more playable scenario around greens. The obvious downside to this plan is it leaves us unable to mow an intermediate cut between the fairway and the rough. This issue is exacerbated this year due to the moisture and decent growing weather we have had recently. In a normal year, heat and/or moisture stress would have already started thinning out the rough. Be patient I still expect this to happen as we get deeper into the summer season.

Why not get a new mower and start cutting this intermediate rough again? We actually tried to do this with our 60" zero turn mower last year, but  the results were ugly. For those of you who play the course regularly and find yourself in the rough often, you are aware that the grading in our rough is, well, rough. This uneven grading makes it very difficult to get a good cut with a mower that doesn't have independent floating decks. When we tried our zero turn, we dropped the height a mere 1/2" and mowed around a couple of holes, scalping more turf than we felt was acceptable. To do this correctly, we need the right mower. The contour or rough mowers we have found the most success with retail anywhere from $35,000 up to $74,000 a piece. On top of the cost of equipment, we would have the cost of an additional employee, fuel, equipment maintenance costs and time.

This is definitely a hot topic of discussion and one that we are genuinely including in our conversation about the future. No process we have in place is necessarily permanent and there is always room for change and improvement. Unfortunately, the cost of changing this process prevents it from being one we can address immediately. We will continue to look for ways to mitigate the problem in the meantime.

We could always change our layout to mimic the #2 course at Pinehurst. They have two mowing heights:  1) greens height, and 2.) everything else. :)

Lastly, I had a cool opportunity to contribute to the NGA's Nebraska Golfer publication that was sent out last week. Here is the link to that article.

http://www.nebgolf.org/nebraska_golfer/ngaedition4/index.html

The link below will take you to an article written to help the golfer understand the goal and vision of Pinehurst's #2 Course renovation. In regard to aesthetics, agronomics, and playability the site of last weeks U.S. Open was a far cry from venues of the past. Some liked it some didn't and I myself am on the fence. Regardless of preference the big picture thinking that went into this course renovation and set up is intriguing.

http://www.turfnet.com/page/news.html/_/commentary-us-open-brings-topic-of-sustainable-golf-to-the-masses-finally-r330

Course Recovery and Going Ons

With the warm temperatures and ample moisture we have received the last couple of weeks, the course has continued to recover well. My guess is that we are at 85% compared to where we were last fall. Increasing fairway and approach/roll-off density is what we will continue to work on.

 

#1 Gray Hawk - April 7th

 #1 Gray Hawk - May 11th

#1 Gray Hawk - June 9th

#1 Black Bird- April 7th

 #1 Black Bird -May 11th

 #1 Black Bird -June 9th

The week of May 26th was somewhat nerve-racking. The heat and humidity that week provided conditions perfect for an outbreak of the disease called “damping off.” In a normal year, with mature turf, I wouldn't be concerned about this particular disease, but juvenile turf plants under high fertility programs are the perfect host. Not wanting our recovery process to lose ground, we applied a preventative control product and made it through unaffected. This is by far the earliest in the season that I have ever pulled this particular product off the shelf. Hopefully we won’t need it again until pythium season gets underway.

The fallen cottonwood tree on #6 Gray Hawk has been cleaned up, for the most part. There are still a few branches in the lake and a giant stump that needs to be ground out, and that work will continue this week. Fortunately, we dodged a bullet last week when the hail storms in the area missed the golf course. I know of a couple of courses in the area were hit hard by these storms and repairing hail damaged greens is an incredible challenge. If you play a course that happens to have any storm damage, please try to be understanding and patient. I assure you they are working hard to get things back in shape.



#6 Gray Hawk (after tree cleanup)

Because last week’s storm missed us, we have been afforded some time to catch up on things that the spring recovery and tornado clean up had prevented us from addressing earlier. We are using every resource we have to keep up with the rough mowing. This is a full-time job and the guys are doing what they can to keep up. Once again, I have to ask everyone to please be patient (I realize I sound like a broken record). A spring flush of growth is natural and lately it has been exacerbated by high moisture and good growing temperatures. The turf will naturally slow its growth with the onset of summer heat. I can assure you we are not mowing it any higher height than we have in the last eight years nor are we fertilizing it any more than normal.

We have started edging bunkers again and this will be a season long process. We never found the time to do this last year, so it is a definite point of emphasis for this season.

On a less positive note, a couple of weeks ago (on a Tuesday) we had golfers vandalize some greens. Here is a picture of the damage that was found on the greens of #8 and #9 Red Feather. If anyone has any information that leads to these people being caught, there is a reward. Going forward, anyone that provides information leading to any individual who has vandalized the course is eligible for a reward. Details of this new "crime stoppers" system can be found at the pro shop. Thanks for your help.







Continued Recovery / Storm Photos

For the first time this year, we are finally seeing significant seed germination and growth. The course has made a great deal of improvement over the last week and a half.

We have quite a few fairway and tee complexes that have recovered well and we will try to get them back on a normal maintenance program immediately. We will be bringing the mowing heights down, pulling back the water, initiating growth regulator programs, and trying to increase density. As for the fairways still in recovery mode, we will continue to mow them at 0.80" and keep them on a heavy watering cycle to protect the young turf from desiccation. Spot seeding will most likely continue for the time being. We are literally seeing improvement on a daily basis so we hope to see the course continue to improve at a fairly rapid pace.

#1 Black Bird (early April)

#1 Black Bird (May 19)

 

#1 Gray Hawk (early April)

#1 Gray Hawk (May 19)

I would like to take a minute to tell you how much we appreciate the patience you have all shown. We allowed carts off the paths a couple weeks ago, on the condition that everyone remain off the fairways. I would be lying if I said I was completely comfortable with that decision, but everyone has been incredibly respectful of the restrictions. We cannot thank you enough.

We have decided to allow carts to enter the fairways beginning Friday, May 23rd. There are still some thin areas to watch out for so a heightened awareness and careful driving on your part would help us out a lot. There are also a few fairways that will remain off limits to cart traffic so your cooperation will be greatly appreciated.

On a more serious note, I am sure you are aware that the golf course took a direct hit from a tornado last week. The aftermath of this unexpected event has really kept us busy, so I hope to have a blog update with a description of the damage soon. In the meantime, here are a few photos.



A Letter To My Colleagues

For those of you that follow this blog and are invested in the turf industry I wanted to share these thoughts.

This has been, without a doubt, a stressful spring for most of you in the industry. A harsh winter, a cold spring, and an impatient customer base are realities we are all facing. Seasons like these make a lot of us ask ourselves “why do we do what we do?” It seems that no matter how talented and capable we are, how many resources we have access to, or how confident we are in our processes, there are factors we cannot and will never be able to control. Regardless of how good our product is, the only guarantee we have is that a percentage of it, at some point, will succumb to elements out of our control.

In regards to the question “why do what we do?” Are we wasting our time, knowledge, and leadership? The answer is NO.  In fact, this thought process is backwards. Managing the effects of seasons like these is exactly what we were hired to do. Our skills, time, energy, and knowledge are of the utmost importance at this time. Ultimately, our leadership is what will determine the success of this recovery process.

Most of us are likely facing crew members, owners, customers, or board members whose spirits are down right now.  It is our leadership that will that will help lift these spirits, keep people motivated and educated, and help them understand that we will get our products back to our exacting standards. We control the culture and attitudes of our workplace so always remember to lead by example in times like these.

In this time of high stress and pressure, it is important to remember a few things. We are all in this together and we need to lean on each other for help. The knowledge of our colleagues is our best and most underutilized tool. Also, we will be spending a lot of extra time at our facilities or with our customers this spring, so remember to take time for yourself, your family, and your friends. These people are your support system so embrace them. Let your leadership and positive attitude follow you home.

As we continue the fight this spring, I ask you all to remain patient, optimistic, honest, and positive because I’m confident things will only get better. We have too much talent in this industry to think otherwise.

Fairway Recovery Status

It has been 16 days since we finished round one of our over seeding process and we are now seeing some germination. The temperature fluctuations have definitely slowed the process down however. The most promising news is that the areas we thought would only recover from seed have shown signs of regeneration from the crown of the plant. If we could get some consistent warmth, I think we will see the recovery process really accelerate.

 



As much as I would love to hold off on additional seeding until we get consistent weather and a real assessment of the success of the initial seeding, we just don't have the time to chance it. Our window to get seed in the ground, germinated, and mature by this summer continues to narrow. Because of this, we have started an additional round of fairway seeding this week, and will continue this until we have hit every fairway again. Fortunately many fairways only need spot seeding, but a few of the most exposed fairways will be completely seeded again. There are even a handful of severely sloped areas around the greens that we will hydro seed. These areas are too steep to run a seeder over them so the hydro mulch will act as artificial soil, providing the needed seed/soil contact and erosion stabilization.

I haven't spent a lot of time discussing greens in any of the posts because they survived pretty well. They are not without a few stressed areas but of the 261,360 square feet of greens we maintain, I  would estimate we only have around 1,000 square feet of visibly stressed bent grass. We need to be careful though, relying solely on a visual assessment of the canopy to judge the health of the turf can get you in trouble. Even the areas that appear healthy are most likely recovering from the stress of the winter. A lot of energy went into surviving this last winter and regenerating this spring. We will take it a little easy on them over the next few weeks as we prepare them for spring aerification.

Overall, I have seen much improvement over the last five days and I expect that to continue. The slow 1/2" of rain yesterday was priceless. We are being pretty aggressive in regards to getting the place back to where we want it. We appreciate your understanding and patience.

On a side note we are putting together plans to allow carts off paths but only into the rough. We hope to have the logistics of policing this figured out by the weekend. Please, please police yourself and those around you so we can continue to keep traffic off the fairways.

Fore The Golfer: Etiquette Towards Course Maintenance Personnel (+playlist)