In the upcoming week we will be closing the dog park for scalping and seeding. The gate will be roped shut and will remain that way until the overseeding press is finished. In addition, if we get time we will be also scalping and overseeding the hills at the clubhouse. Since this area is a stand alone irrigation but still connected to main line we start its overseeding sooner to prevent pressure loss on the system.
Over the upcoming week we will continue the scalping process of the fairways, tees and roughs. We expect to be finished the rough scalping by Tuesday, and what we can scalp on the tees and fairways by Friday in time for the brownout tournament. The water is going to be cut back quite a bit on the greens this weekend so they will not be a pretty as they are now but will play just fine ... quick however.
The tree trimming is completely for overseed and the sump on 2 has finally been finished. There is some work occurring on # 8 but that to shall be finished this upcoming week. I heard a few people were saddened by the lost of a few trees ... as I was too. These trees were removed due to the fact that they died or posed safety concerns to our members. The good news is that we planted over twice as many as we lost.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Trimming, Tree Removal, Sumps & Drying
The tree trimming has started and should be completed in a couple of weeks. This trimming addresses only the shade issues and not the eucalyptus trees or pines. The trimming of pines and the eucalyptus trees will be done in December. In addition to the trimming we sadly had a couple of trees that required removal. These trees were located front and left of 1 & 3's tee; behind and right of 17's green; and left of 13's green near the wall. These trees all died or will be dead in couple of months. Speaking of trees, the ones we planted this summer (17 in all) are for the most part doing well; however, there are three of them not doing as well ... we suspect heat issues in the planting process.
The new wet well and drainage sumps along the fence of 2 will be finished by Friday. This will make that area more playable and drier this season. Until this area settles there will be 2 clean out ports above ground, and next summer we will fix this area correctly. The ruts caused by the equipment will be leveled before overseed and completely repaired next summer.
You may have noticed that we have started drying out the golf course -- but not completely. Most of the dry areas are in the roughs but over the upcoming week you will see more and more in the fairways & tees. Part of the reason we dry the golf course out slowly is to promote deeper roots on the bermudagrass so when it comes out of dormancy it is a stronger turf. Other reasons include better to scalp, easier to clean, etc. Overall, it will help us get ready for the upcoming overseed.
The new wet well and drainage sumps along the fence of 2 will be finished by Friday. This will make that area more playable and drier this season. Until this area settles there will be 2 clean out ports above ground, and next summer we will fix this area correctly. The ruts caused by the equipment will be leveled before overseed and completely repaired next summer.
You may have noticed that we have started drying out the golf course -- but not completely. Most of the dry areas are in the roughs but over the upcoming week you will see more and more in the fairways & tees. Part of the reason we dry the golf course out slowly is to promote deeper roots on the bermudagrass so when it comes out of dormancy it is a stronger turf. Other reasons include better to scalp, easier to clean, etc. Overall, it will help us get ready for the upcoming overseed.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Greens, Ants & Summer Plan
The greens recovered beautifully. On Wednesday we cut the greens after a couple of days of dragging and got a smooth cut. All of the members I ran into were completely happy about the greens and were amazed on just how quickly they recovered. As I explained to them, turf is a biotic system just like humans that if it gets scalped it takes a couple of days to heal from its injury. We still will be working on the greens over the next couple of weeks to have them perfect for overseeding.
Ants around the golf course have been treated by CV Vector Control yesterday. Vector control sent out their team and treated the entire golf course and a select few homes that called in problems. They told me that they did not find very many active mounds but treated all of the ones they did find. The best part is that they provide this service completely free to Avondale GC.
Summer Plan: I have been hearing from the Pro Shop that their are members who believe that this plan really is Jeff (me) running the golf course. Nothing could be further from the truth. The summer plan was developed in response to the Board's request to provide our summer members excellent golf course with a limited budget. This idea was given to the Green Committee to develop along with the Golf Committee, the GM (at the time), the head pro and the superintendent. After six months a plan was produced and given to the Board (which was the newly elected Board) for approval which they did approve.
So what is the plan's basics and what does it provide to the members:
1) The pro shop will be present seven days per week thus providing excellent service to our summer member and their guest ... since they are salary and their work week is still less than 40 hours this was at no additional costs to the Club.
2) There was no change to the start time of 6:30 am, however, between 6:30 to 7:00 am all groups playing had to be threesomes or more. This allowed the pro shop to have better control of the start times and the playing times.
3) Any mini-shotguns and play itself started off of the first tee. Once again this allowed the pro shop to have better control of where the play was and ensured our summer members to have a prepared golf course to play.
The summer plan has been a great success and has done exactly what it was intended to do ... that is provide a prepared golf course for the ALL of the summer members to play while allowing the maintenance to finish their preparation in a timely manner thus getting more done with less and saving the Club money.
Saying the course is ran by me because of the summer plan would be like saying the Garden Dining room is being ran by Andrew deciding the hours of being open ... the decision for the summer plan was a well thought out plan in concert with the Green & Golf Committees and the Board.
Ants around the golf course have been treated by CV Vector Control yesterday. Vector control sent out their team and treated the entire golf course and a select few homes that called in problems. They told me that they did not find very many active mounds but treated all of the ones they did find. The best part is that they provide this service completely free to Avondale GC.
Summer Plan: I have been hearing from the Pro Shop that their are members who believe that this plan really is Jeff (me) running the golf course. Nothing could be further from the truth. The summer plan was developed in response to the Board's request to provide our summer members excellent golf course with a limited budget. This idea was given to the Green Committee to develop along with the Golf Committee, the GM (at the time), the head pro and the superintendent. After six months a plan was produced and given to the Board (which was the newly elected Board) for approval which they did approve.
So what is the plan's basics and what does it provide to the members:
1) The pro shop will be present seven days per week thus providing excellent service to our summer member and their guest ... since they are salary and their work week is still less than 40 hours this was at no additional costs to the Club.
2) There was no change to the start time of 6:30 am, however, between 6:30 to 7:00 am all groups playing had to be threesomes or more. This allowed the pro shop to have better control of the start times and the playing times.
3) Any mini-shotguns and play itself started off of the first tee. Once again this allowed the pro shop to have better control of where the play was and ensured our summer members to have a prepared golf course to play.
The summer plan has been a great success and has done exactly what it was intended to do ... that is provide a prepared golf course for the ALL of the summer members to play while allowing the maintenance to finish their preparation in a timely manner thus getting more done with less and saving the Club money.
Saying the course is ran by me because of the summer plan would be like saying the Garden Dining room is being ran by Andrew deciding the hours of being open ... the decision for the summer plan was a well thought out plan in concert with the Green & Golf Committees and the Board.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
What Happened to the Greens?
You may have noticed last week that we were experiencing scalping on our greens and may wonder why.
Last week we started to lower the HOC (height of cut) from 1/8 inch to 1/10 inch and started to experience some scalping. Part of this was due to thatch found in the green thus we started verticutting (a way to remove thatch) three times last week and even double verticut on last Friday prior to mowing. In addition, to allow the green to heal from the scalping while we were aggressively verticutting we raised the HOC back to 1/8 of an inch.
Over the weekend I myself mowed the greens and discovered that not only did we have a thatch problem but we also had slight imperfections in the greens from not getting the greens completely smooth after aerification. These areas were scalping into the sand and causing issues that we needed to address immediately so we could lower the HOC as well as getting ready for the upcoming overseed.
On Saturday I lowered the amount of irrigation so on Monday we could drag the greens in a effort to smooth them out. On Monday, first we drug the greens with the coca mat, then mowed them followed by dragging them once again with our green drag brushes. Since Monday was a short day due to the Holiday that was all we did that day. On Tuesday, we first aggressively verticut the greens followed by dragging them once again with the green brush -- this time, however, we did not mow the greens. Later in the day Ernie and I went out and irrigated the greens heavily, and last night I upped the irrigation.
This morning we mowed the greens and we are no longer scalping. But that being said we will be topdressing, dragging and verticutting them to completely smooth them before overseeding to give us the perfect surface that we have come to expect.
First, I want to say the greens perfectly healthy and are growing in fine. Second, lowering the HOC in the second week after aerification is normal and if it wasn't for the pockets of sand and thatch we would have no issues. The problem was we did not smooth them as well as we have in the past and rush ourselves to give our summer members a better product quicker. This is the first year we have used solely 30-grade kiln dried sand and shortened our window of aerification. This did not work so well and will be addressed in the next Green Committee meeting.
The greens are fine and will quickly heal from the scalping that occurred last week. If you have any questions please contact me directly.
Last week we started to lower the HOC (height of cut) from 1/8 inch to 1/10 inch and started to experience some scalping. Part of this was due to thatch found in the green thus we started verticutting (a way to remove thatch) three times last week and even double verticut on last Friday prior to mowing. In addition, to allow the green to heal from the scalping while we were aggressively verticutting we raised the HOC back to 1/8 of an inch.
Over the weekend I myself mowed the greens and discovered that not only did we have a thatch problem but we also had slight imperfections in the greens from not getting the greens completely smooth after aerification. These areas were scalping into the sand and causing issues that we needed to address immediately so we could lower the HOC as well as getting ready for the upcoming overseed.
On Saturday I lowered the amount of irrigation so on Monday we could drag the greens in a effort to smooth them out. On Monday, first we drug the greens with the coca mat, then mowed them followed by dragging them once again with our green drag brushes. Since Monday was a short day due to the Holiday that was all we did that day. On Tuesday, we first aggressively verticut the greens followed by dragging them once again with the green brush -- this time, however, we did not mow the greens. Later in the day Ernie and I went out and irrigated the greens heavily, and last night I upped the irrigation.
This morning we mowed the greens and we are no longer scalping. But that being said we will be topdressing, dragging and verticutting them to completely smooth them before overseeding to give us the perfect surface that we have come to expect.
First, I want to say the greens perfectly healthy and are growing in fine. Second, lowering the HOC in the second week after aerification is normal and if it wasn't for the pockets of sand and thatch we would have no issues. The problem was we did not smooth them as well as we have in the past and rush ourselves to give our summer members a better product quicker. This is the first year we have used solely 30-grade kiln dried sand and shortened our window of aerification. This did not work so well and will be addressed in the next Green Committee meeting.
The greens are fine and will quickly heal from the scalping that occurred last week. If you have any questions please contact me directly.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Upcoming Events on the Course
Starting the 7th of Sept we will be creating grass piles for future removal on holes 5, 9 and 14. The reason we create these piles is due to the fact it is much cheaper to remove grass clippings alone that mixed debris. That being said, every year we have gardeners try to place their debris on our piles which not allowed.
In addition, starting the 7th the HOA's crew is going to be addressing the sump issue along the fence line of hole 2. For the saftey of their crew this hole will be closed during this process.
Sept 9th CV Vector Control will be coming out to treat the golf course for fire ants. If you are a homeowner in Avondale this is a great time to have them treat your yard as well for the most effective removal of these pests.
Starting Sept 13th we will be starting the annual tree trimming of certain trees to allow sunlight to reach the turf canopy. There will be a couple trees removed due to their failing health and most likely a couple more due to safety concerns.
In addition, starting the 7th the HOA's crew is going to be addressing the sump issue along the fence line of hole 2. For the saftey of their crew this hole will be closed during this process.
Sept 9th CV Vector Control will be coming out to treat the golf course for fire ants. If you are a homeowner in Avondale this is a great time to have them treat your yard as well for the most effective removal of these pests.
Starting Sept 13th we will be starting the annual tree trimming of certain trees to allow sunlight to reach the turf canopy. There will be a couple trees removed due to their failing health and most likely a couple more due to safety concerns.
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