Open? No. Why Not? Some Insight...

The first nice days of spring always rev the excitement of the coming golf season, and the first question members ask is "How do things look out there?", which is quickly followed with "When are we opening?".

With golf courses in the area starting to open their doors it only makes sense you want to know when we will be opening ours.  Every golf course is different, even those in the same area can have very different environmental conditions that will effect the decision process. I love the fact that the Island View GC membership has never been overly pressing and demanding, many have the opinion the course will open when it is ready to open and the management staff will make that call. At IVGC the management staff is the Golf Professional, Club Coordinator, & Golf Course Superintendent. The members trust us to make the right decision for the club and as a team we have revenue, membership, and course conditioning all on the table and part of the discussion.

From a Golf Course Superintendents point of view, the course is first and foremost on our minds no matter what time of year. Turf condition and the long term ramifications of early traffic and use weigh heavily on our decision to open the golf course for the season. Obviously weather plays the most important role in effecting that decision process. A few nice days scattered amongst cold days can make it much more difficult to decide that opening date. During this time of year, even though things are greening up, the turf is not growing let alone recovering from any type of damage. Cart traffic, foot traffic, divots, and ball marks won't start recovering for weeks if not months. Though the daytime temps might reach very comfortable levels, the soil temps where plants are actively growing are still too cool for any growing to take place. Traffic during the freeze/thaw cycles of spring only increase the likelihood of compaction problems later on in the season. All these items can result in poorer turf conditions, not only now but later on through the season. These areas will require more spring/summer aerification, increased fertilizer & chemical use, and higher maintenance levels then is typical. At this point we are not only considering the potential damage now but how that will affect the season to come. The decision to open the course is not as simple as asking yourself "Is it warm enough to play golf?" Our goal is to provide excellent playing conditions and an enjoyable experience throughout the year, and opening date effects that.

Just a little insight into the decision making process. And with that, we are still closed but the doors will open pretty soon.

Course Open... Not Yet.

Well we are getting close. Courses are starting to open and the weather has given a nice few days with a outlook like more of the same. If you you don't follow me on Twitter @golfsoup then you missed my walk-about yesterday to survey the course and conditions. I took pictures and commented on some areas as I went, all in all it is looking pretty good. There are plenty of drifted areas with snow still melting, the frost is down maybe a inch or so, and things are still a bit wet in spots since the melt water is not soaking in.

I am guessing by the weekend most of the snow will be gone and we should gain some ground on the frost coming out. Yesterday the covers on #7 & #16 greens were still frozen down and I was unable to pull them up and look underneath. Today the covers were not not and I was able to see that the turf looks great underneath the, though it is still frozen. Covers will most likely be removed before the weekend. So things are steadily progressing to opening for the 2015 season. If you were to ask me today when we will open, I'd say ask me again in a couple of days. It is amazing how quickly things change, just from yesterday to today, but we still have a couple feet of snow in some drifts/bunkers on the course and that will take the next couple of days to disappear. It looks like things are going to stay dry and warmer then average so it won't be long for everything to come together and we can get the course open for the 2015 golf season.

I can tell you it looks like the range will be open by the weekend... The frost in the tee has been declining quickly and it is pretty dry. It needs some cleaning, ropes and stakes need to come down (though many stakes are still frozen in), and then just supplies set up.

Please be patient while the last of the snow melts, the frost comes out, and we get the golf course cleaned up and ready for play. It won't be long now and the golf season will be underway. The maintenance staff and I are really excited, and want to make 2105 a great year at IVGC.

March 6th, 2015 - Looks like things are going to be warming up and with above average temps the snow will be gone in no time. I've talked to a few construction guys in the last week and it sounds like there is a fair amount of frost in the ground that is going to have to come out. With little snow cover for insulation and the frigid temps we have had this winter it would not surprise me if that is indeed the case. I know we are all ready to get outside, get the course in shape, and get the season started.


Equipment is ready to roll out, course supplies are prepped for the most part, and the air is filled with a bit of excitement for the 2015 season to get underway!

GIS 2015 - Where Big Things Happen

It's that time of year again, when Golf Course Superintendents from all over the world come together to learn, network, and take a short break from the daily routines. The Golf Industry Show is next week in San Antonio, TX and as usual promises to enrich attendees with new ideas, new ways of doing old things, and making new friends/contacts. And I can say the show never disappoints.

There are full-day/half-day/2 or 6 hour educational seminars throughout the week, but I would say the trade show floor is as educational an experience if not more. New Products are being showcased for the upcoming season, and Superintendents can get hands on with them as well as talk about them with manufacturers and salesmen. Each day there are numerous educational sessions scattered around the trade show which are free to sit in on. Many sessions are given by leading academics and peers in the industry and topics range from golf course architecture to plant health dynamics. There is definitely an abundance of knowledge being handed out and networking taking place.

All in all it is a great time, and a bonus that it is usually much warmer weather then home for those of us in the northern parts.

Back On Track For 2015

Bad, bad me. The IVGC maintenance blog was non-existent in 2014, well it is time to rectify that for 2015. Here is where you will find updates, photos, and general musings regarding the golf course, staff, and whatever else makes it to the page. My goal is to have regular (weekly perhaps) updates and summaries of what is happening on the grounds at Island View Golf Club.

For those that would like more constant info, you should follow me on Twitter where I will be tweeting about conditions and tidbits we find interesting throughout the day. While mostly work related, I do mention personal stuff from time to time. @golfsoup is my twitter handle. Click on the link above, sign-up if not registered, and follow along as we maintain the golf course property throughout the season and off-season.

Most of the course is covered with snow at the moment, though the warm temps have definitely melted a lot of it off. The fine turf areas are covered for the most part, which is good insulation as we go through this latest cold snap. Exposed turf at this point can be prone to desiccation, it is common for the tops of the mounds to go through this and then take a bit longer then typical to recover in the spring.The snow melt and subsequent refreeze could also cause problems for the turf, mainly the annual bluegrass on the course. All in all though, the mild winter we are having has been a nice change from the past few we have experienced...

Range Tee Divots the RIGHT Way.

At Island View GC we have a great all grass, no mats, driving range tee which we use from start to close of the golf season. Though it is a large area of teeing surface, we are challenged with conditioning due to the heavy use it receives. Proper divot patterning during practice would greatly benefit the experience of the range users and the ability of the maintenance staff to fill and recover divoted areas. The following pictures represent the wrong, kinda wrong, and correct method to utilize the practice tee...

The scatter method uses a lot of surface area, making the entire area 

practically unusable for the next person.

This sort of grouping uses less tee surface which is good, but the center

 areas of damage rely solely on seed to recover which can greatly delay re-use.

The line method is the proper and BEST method for taking practice tee divots.

 It allows for vegetative growth from both sides, and uses the least amount of tee surface.

Here is a short video of Joel Kachmarek from Tacoma Country and Golf Club demonstrating the proper method of taking practice divots on the range, thanks to him for the previous pictures also...

Are We Behind? Compared To Years Past, Yes.

I've mentioned growing degree days once before for timing certain chemical applications. I thought I would revisit this quickly because I have been asked a lot lately about generally how far behind we are on growing, summer conditions, etc... The answer depends on what you are comparing things to I suppose. Usually, for good or bad, we compare things to the previous year or prior few years. So I updated the GDD chart to include the last 5 years plus 2013 to give you an idea of how many growing degree units we have accumulated thus far in relation to the past five years.

A quick note on how we calculate growing degree days: GDD are calculated by taking the average of the daily maximum and minimum temperatures compared to a base temperature, T_base, (I use 32° F). 

From the chart it is pretty obvious we are behind the last 5 years, and when looked at the atypical weather of 2012 we are behind about 1,000 GDD. I think you have to go back to 1975 to find a colder month of April then what we just had. In the end it's hard to put a definitive answer on the 'behind' question, but there is no question that everything is happening later in the year so far in 2013 than what we are accustomed to.

Putting Green Seeded & Regrassing Continues

Work continues all over the golf course. We seeded the new putting green today so come on weather and cooperate! Planting beds around the clubhouse have been planted and mulched for the most part. We still have a couple beds to plant in the front entry, and we also need to make a new one on the north side of the entry drive. The new retaining walls and planting beds when you exit the clubhouse at the 1st tee also need to be completed. With those projects and a few more details to tidy up, the front entry project will be wrapping up soon. The bids for chipsealing and road repair are coming in so that work will be completed soon also.

The crew continues to patch poor turf areas through the green complexes. Collar regrassing has been going smooth and most of the dead spots have been removed. Green patching continues, and will continue until we are satisfied with the conditions. The coin size spots that litter the playing surfaces are starting to fill in and grow over. Continued TLC with topdressing, verticutting, and some extra fertilizer will allow them to keep progressing along on their way to recovery. The two greens out of play will hopefully be ready for golfers in the week or so. They will still have thin spots I'm sure but should be playable. Early next week we will evaluate some of the larger areas we are trying to get back from seed and make a determination if sodding should be done to hasten recovery.

IVGC goes pink for Wednesdays.

The new flags look sharp!

A Little Wet but Work Continues

The new tee boxes on hole 1 are now open for play. One of the things with bluegrass sod when used for tees, the thatch layer is pretty thick and until we get a good amount of sand topdressing worked in they tend to be a bit spongy.

The rains came at a great time, all the fairway slit seeding was accomplished last week and collars were aerified and seeded also. All playing areas including rough we're fertilized and watered in prior to the rains, it was pretty obvious today that it is working due to the excessive growth in our fairways and rough. Unfortunately the amount of rain has not been ideal, we have received around 4" since Friday and there is a pretty good chance there is more coming in the next couple days. Mowing schedules and routine work will all be handled as best we can over the next couple days due to the saturation. 

We continue to patch/re-grass poor areas on collars and greens. I expect this will continue for the next couple weeks as we work are way around the course. We will be utilizing small plugs, hex plugs, narrow sod strips, and typical sod cutter work to fix these issues. Whichever method best removes the damage and allows us to provide turf consistency will be implemented. It won't be uncommon to see greens with plugs and sod strips as we move forward with the repair. Regular sand topdressing should help with smoothness and seams created from the repair work. 

The front entry work continues also. Many of the perennials have been planted, with only a few more beds to be worked over and finished. We have to wait until this rainy stretch passes before we can mulch the beds, the dye gets washed off the mulch if it does not have a good chance to dry. Our first delivery is scheduled for the end of the week so hopefully all beds are mulched by this coming holiday weekend.

Warming up!

Hopefully the frost and 30 degree nights are behind us after tonight. We really need the soil temps to warm up so we can get some good seed germination and aggressive growing turf for a quick recovery. One thing I wanted to mention to members is that you will find we will be keeping the course on the wet side to encourage seed germination and turf recovery. Greens will be a little softer and fairways also. Please remember to fix ball marks and replace divots (or use seed/soil), as it will be much easier to make both while playing. 

Turf Recovery Update and Plans

The winter was harsh on much of the annual bluegrass and perennial ryegrass throughout the golf course. Now that things are greening up, the dead/mostly dead spots are obvious. The main culprits for the turf damage was extensive ice cover and crown hydration. Poa annua can withstand about 60 days under ice cover typically, while bentgrass can survive through 90+ days of cover. Crown hydration is when the snow melt occurs and the plant takes in some water but then is subjected to refreezing which ruptures the plant cells and kills the grass plant. Here is a brief outline of what we are doing to recover the golf course as quickly as we can:

- #7 & #16 greens were taken out of play, deeply verticut in two directions, seeded with A-4 Creeping Bentgrass, topdressed, dragged, and covered. There has been good germination and recovery of the weak turf. It is likely they will remain out of play for another few weeks.

- Fairway areas are undergoing a slit seeding with a low-mow premium bluegrass/ryegrass mix. Typical bluegrass germination is 2 weeks, while ryegrass is sooner. Please avoid all cart traffic on these areas while we are encouraging seedlings and re-growth.

- Green collars will be aerified next Wednesday. We will be seeding with bentgrass and topdressing them as part of the process.

- Tees will be aerified following collars, and again we will be incorporating seed and topdressing to address the thinner areas.

- The worst collar damage on greens #4, 9, & 12 will be re-grassed with sod from our turf nursery, the plan is to start that early next week.

- We will be and have been using seed/plugging/sodding/topdressing practices on greens to bring them back from the winter damage they sustained.

- All fertilizer/chemical programs are being adjusted for accelerated turf recovery and seedling growth.

Our goal is to have most, if not all, of these processes finished and in place by the end of next week. Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we move forward in getting the golf course back into prime condition for the season.

Shaping Up

While there was significant winter kill throughout the course, some areas are in great spring form. 

Like Wow Busy!

A look at #16 green after we verticut it and seeded it. Brandon is topdressing it and then it was dragged. All this took place on April 30th, one week ago.

After the seeding process was completed we covered the green with a "Evergreen" cover. The timing was right on as the weather turned cold and miserable for the rest of the week.

Here is the verticutting process being done on #7 green. We cut in two different directions to create good channels for the bentgrass seed to be broadcast into.

When the turf comes out of winter in tough shape it is overwhelming how much there is to do while the sun is shining. As soon as we realized #7 & 16 green were not going to "come around" we went into action and got them seeded and covered. The covers allowed us to get a head start on germination during the miserable days that followed seeding. The good turf rebounded quickly and is aggressively growing, and after one week it appears we have some germination starting to take place. Our normal practice for the next couple of weeks will be to cover the greens for the night and uncover them during the day. On days with little sun and 50 degree temps it is likely the covers will stay on throughout the day.

There are quite a few fairway areas that lost turf, our plan is to slit seed, topdress, drag, and fertilize all those areas. To help with recovery we will be directing traffic away from those areas, so please follow all signage and ropes. With good weather the course should be back in shape soon.

There are a couple of collars that have significant damage and over the next week we will be regrassing the worst ones with sod from the turf nursery. We will also be aerifying, seeding, topdressing, and dragging all collars to help with recovery.

All in all we have a lot of work to do over the next two weeks to get the golf course back in prime shape for the summer. And that's just the recovery efforts, the laundry list of items that need to be done during the spring is long to say the least.

Greens Mower Check

We double checked the greens mower today by mowing #18, everything looks great so the plan is to mow the greens Saturday morning before the course opens for the season. The chipping green is very saturated so we will skip that green, we will also not be cutting the putting green due to its rather poor condition in spots. There shouldn't be much if any snow left after the beautiful weather today. There were some bunkers that had a lot of snow when the crew made there way around today so they skipped them. Those bunkers will be addressed soon but should still be playable if you happen to find yourself in one.

It was kind of rushed to get the course ready for the opener on Saturday. Since we only had 2 days to prep I know we ran out of time and missed a few things here and there. The water coolers will be out early next week if we do not get them out over the weekend. The hazard stakes still have ice in the ground sleeves so they should be able to go out after some warm temps this weekend when that melts. Seed/soil boxes and mix will be out starting Monday if it does not get done on the weekend. And there is quite a bit of debris cleanup that will occupy a lot of our time over the next week or two, especially around greens and tees.

Course is Opening April 27, 2013

This is what the course looked like yesterday morning, full of a lot of snow, but today it is 90% all gone. Course opens Saturday morning but it will be a little wet and there are some rough spots here and there. The annual bluegrass did not enjoy the long winter and much of it is definitely not green. For the most part the only turf loss appears to be in the bowls and pockets in some of the fairways. The front of #16 green is also in pretty tough shape, there are some fairly large areas that do not look like they survived the winter. We will be evaluating it over the next few days as things warm up and take quick action to get it back in shape as soon as possible. With only a couple days of being able to prep the golf course for the opener I just want all the members to know that certain things might not get done. We will do our best to get through as many bunkers as we can, I predict there will be snow still in some of them along with some leaf/stick debris. Our plan is to mow greens Saturday morning if they are firm enough for equipment traffic, some of them at this point are not. They will be clean and playable regardless. Do to remaining snow and wet conditions throughout the course, including our cart crossings in fairways, there will be no golf carts until conditions permit. I'm predicting carts will be allowed on paths only Monday or Tuesday of next week.

So here we go...

Growing Degree Days and Weather

Horticulturists, farmers, and gardeners use growing degree days(GDD) to quantify heat accumulation over a given period to predict plant blooms and pest emergence. I put together this chart for a couple of reasons today. One, it is a great way to visualize where we are today as compared to the last two years when it comes to weather. And two, at IVGC we use it to plan our first chemical application to inhibit poa annua seeding on our greens during the growing season. Using a base temp of 32 degrees F we are waiting to hit the 250 GDD number to apply the first of two pesticide applications. The chart shows how the weather can be extremely different from year to year. I hope we start warming up and accumulating some GDD fast (I say that with snow coming down and starting to accumulate on the turf). It is December right?

Welcome to Island View Golf Club

The new front entry sign, in progress...

Busy Fall

The front entry project has officially started in full force. Southwest Paving is now removing asphalt and will start the grading in the next day or two. Hartman has started the renovation of the first tee also, so there is a lot going on at the club right now. Projected entry project completion time is Mid October. Oh yeah, on top of all that it is aerifying time again. We completed the front nine greens today, plug-collect-sand-drag-brush-mow-water. We did not get the fertilizer down at this time because the winds were blowing 20+ mph all day, it was great for drying sand but not for spreading fert. We will get it down as soon as the winds calm and allow us to.

What A July, What A Wind!

How many days with 90+ degree weather so far this year? I think we are at 25 and counting. The month of July was something that is for sure. We had multiple days with soil temps at or over 100 degrees, it was a challenge keeping the turf cool. Collar areas took the brunt of the stress and there are quite a few poor spots to show it. We will be sodding a couple of the worst areas with bentgrass sod from the nursery area, and aerifying, seeding, and topdressing all the collars to help with a quick recovery. The recent cool down has been greatly appreciated that's for sure.

And now for the topic everyone has been talking about the last couple of days, the storm that blew through on the 3rd of August. Here are pictures to give you an idea of the damage and cleanup challenges we are facing right now. We hope to have 75% of the work done this week and the rest finished up by midweek next week. In all we will lose 17 trees due to the damage caused, some completely came down but many are so badly damaged that they need to come down. There are hundreds of hangers and fallen branches. Once the course is cleaned up and the hangers have been cut down we will start with the removal of the trees. A huge thanks to the members that showed up Sunday morning to help rake and pick up sticks, the effort is really appreciated by the staff. And a special thank you to Dean Geiger for the continued help he is giving us to load and remove brush from the golf course.