Aerification & Tree Trimming

We have finished the aerification process for the year and the next week or two will be the sand removal process off the greens. This last aerification we used 75+ tons of 30-grade kiln dried sand to ensure all the holes are filled and to smooth the greens in prep for the upcoming overseed. Excess sand has to be removed by a combination of mowing and dragging which is the process that takes the longest to complete.

Tree trimming is coming up soon ... starting Sept 13th. This process allows the light to reach the turf thus allowing for a more successful overseeding. So when you see the the ribbons around the trees this only means that they are slated for trimming and not removal. Speaking of removal, over the aerification we had to remove the pepper tree near 11's green due to killer bees. We have tried several times to remove this hive without any long term success and since it posed a harm to our staff and members the tree had to be removed to keep the bees from returning. I should note that this time the hive weighed over 90 lbs and contained well over 50,000 bees.

It has also been brought to my attention that some homeowners believe we are not cleaning Country Club drive enough and more should be done. During the summer months we clean CC Drive twice per month and trim once. Due to our limited crew size and the amount of work needed on the golf course during the summer this is all we can do for now. The good news is that we are still cleaner than some in the Valley.

JC Resort's Sand Hauler

Greens aerification is complete and with using JC Resort's sand hauler we were able to get the sand to the outlying greens quicker than ever with less sand loss. In year's past we have only been able to do three passes on a green before having to return to the shop to reload the topdresser ... but with using this piece of equipment we were able to finish a green entirely before returning to the shop.

Aerification is almost complete and we will be done with the tees & fairways tomorrow. Sand clean up on the greens will start tomorrow as well.

August Aerification

Starting this Monday we will be preforming our last aerification of the season. During this time the golf course will be closed for three days and will not open until 9:00 am on Thursday, however, JC Resorts has offered their other properties for the members of Avondale to play at while we are closed. I hope that many of you take the opportunity to see how JC Resorts runs their facilities.

Lots of work has started around the course already getting ready for Sept which is when we start prepping the course for overseed. In addition, my team has been doing some landscape work around the clubhouse to clean up the presentation for our members upon their return (and for the ones still here).

August Aerification

It is hard to believe that we are looking at the next aerification (the last of the year) already. Yesterday, we aerified the nurseries, small putting green and both the chipping greens, and next Monday we will be starting the rough aerification. Starting on the 16th of Aug. we will be closing the golf course for three days to aerify the greens, tees and fairways. This is always a big process and we encourage the members that are still here during the summer to come out and watch.

After Board approval the "animals" topiaries were removed from the clubhouse area. After Chuck repairs and paints the wall we will be planting the new wall cover which should greatly improve the overall look as you enter the staging area. In addition, the Board outsourced the bed replacement as you enter the parking lot at the clubhouse recently to tie in with the improvements that the HOA has been doing along the Avondale Drive.

The fairways have recovered nicely from the transition and now we are starting efforts to get them ready for overseed ... yes, I said overseed. Believe it or not we start in August the preparations to get ready for overseed which is just around the corner. The seed has already been ordered and will arrive in Sept.

Hydraulic Leaks & Triplex Woes

Many of you may have noticed that last week we have a triplex leak on the clean up pass of 6's green surround. Well today another triplex sprung a leak this time on a green ... hole number 2. Fortunately, Ernie was the one mowing the green and he caught it quickly even though it was a small leak. We will be treating the leak today with charcoal and expect it to recover soon.

Speaking of triplexes we have been having several issues again this with our aging fleet. One triplex is down for repair for the hydraulic hose leak, another is down for the failure of the main hydraulic motor, one more is down now for leaking on the green and another is awaiting a hydraulic overhaul. If you are counting that is four triplexes with hydraulic problems.

Hopefully soon we will have these units back up and operational.

Drill & Fill and Aerification

We have finished the drill & fill process of the greens on Tuesday. This process is a very labor intensive process requiring most of the crew to haul sand buckets just to keep the drilling machines full. This means that most of the other duties around the golf course had to be put on the sideline due to our labor shortage, but we will have caught back up soon.

The purpose of drilling the greens is to allow the water in the soil profile to move downwards thus reducing algae and disease potential of the putting surface. In addition these 1" by 12" holes also promote deeper root growth which in turn improves the stress tolerance of the plant during the summer months.

Although we finished most of the aerification of the remainder of the golf course should be finished in the next couple of days. All we have left is several of the front nine's fairways. Both the greens and the fairways will recover quickly since the humidity and temperature is back to normal.

I have been told that my voice was not picked up in the you tube video during the last town hall meeting (that is unusual). Just to let you know that what I said is mainly that I support JC Resorts and I think that they will help us gain much needed membership to allow us to move from a great golf course to a fantastic one. Plus you just gotta love their initals "JC" which just so happen to be mine too.

Transition, Aerfication & Upcoming Drilling of the Greens

Transition around the golf course is progressing quite nicely. As of date we have over 90% recovery of the fairways and if you discount the tree root areas along with the heavily shaded areas the recover exceeds 95%. The areas where we did not chemically treat the ryegrass such as the approaches and roughs have just started transition and will take longer to recover since the bermudagrass has to compete with the ryegrass for growing real estate.

The second round of aerifications has started in the roughs this week and starting tomorrow we will be aerifying some select tees and the DR floor & tee. Since we do the second aerification while the golf course is open it will take us longer than normal but we should finish on time. These aerifications aid in the percolation of the water and relieves compaction while promoting deeper roots thus healthier turf.

Speaking of aerification, we will be deep drilling the greens next week on Monday & Tuesday (maybe Wednesday too). We are not going to be progressing in order and will be closing the holes that we will be working on or cleaning up. We ask that you please jump around us while the process is occurring and play those holes that you may have missed later. This will aid in the speeding up of the process and have us out of your way sooner.

You may see some pink dots on the edges of the greens. These are to mark the areas that we are plugging out and repairing. You will notice that these areas are all on the edges of the greens and may ask why ... the reason is because during the season we have collars that are maintained at a higher height of cut and once we recover them for the summer the ryegrass and Poa Triv have out competed the bermudagrass thus making them weaker during transition.

Wells, Transition & Recovery

Last week we finally got our well on 6 after almost a month of being under repair. What does this mean? This means that finally we can water the golf course back up to its full requirements of water needs. Over the past month we have been short on daily irrigation from 500,000 to 700,000 gallon per day on average thus now with the additional irrigation inputs the recovery process during transition will increase.

Transition is always a tough time for both the member and the staff. Many forget from year to year just how bad at first this process can be especially after experiencing such great conditions as we did during the overseeding season. The bad news is that the better the overseeding season the worse the transition is historically. The good news is that is our main focus to improve for a couple of reasons. First, of course for the members and their guest that remain during the summer months and second, the better recovery we get during the summer months the better overseeding season we will have coming up in October.

In the sunny areas around the golf course the turf is almost 100% recovered, however, in the shaded areas such as 16 & 17 (only getting less than 2 hours of direct sunlight per day) and the edges of the fairways where the tree roots complete with the turf recovery has a long way to go.

The good news is that we are recovering and believe it or not we are better recovered this year than we have been in past year's. I have been taking pictures of the course over the five years I have been here and the golf course has improved every year. From my first year where only 40% of the fairways where alive even in August to this year where most of the fairways have already recovered (exceptions to be noted) we are leaps and bounds above where we started together.

Trust me when I say the golf course will recover ... fully ... no. Areas affected by tree roots may not every recover in the summer months but the good news is that we are addressing them everyday. When I grew turf back east in Florida we use to address these areas under the trees with Round Up (for the weeds) and pine straw to make these areas look great ... sadly, that is not part of our design here at Avondale thus we continue every year to try our very best to establish turf in these areas.

First Day of Aerification

Today we started the aerification of the greens, fairways & tees. The greens are progressing quickly thanks to a trailer that we bought last year to haul the aerifiers from green to green. Thanks to this one piece of equipment we were able to complete three more greens than we have ever done in the years before ... and with less staff. One day we will purchase a sand hauler and we will shorten the time even further.

We started the aerification of the fairways and tees as well, however, we noticed too late the the range had over 200 balls on it (most were yellow) even though it was cleaned picked. Most likely this means that someone had golf balls stockpiled at home and used them after the range had closed. The sad part is that all those golf balls are destroyed now and the Club suffers a loss in money.

If everything goes right tomorrow we will be done with the greens and Wednesday will be used for clean up, finishing fairways & tees, and several applications including grub and fairy ring control as well as fertilization. Whatever, is left will be finished Thursday morning before the first tee time at 9:00 am.

We are still on hold for the use of the well on 6 and hopefully will have it back operational soon.

Lake Levels

You may have noticed the lake levels have been down for the past couple of days ... this is because we have one well out and the other is having electrical panel problems. By this weekend we should be back up to normal.

Oleander Trimming & Stuff

The oleander trimming started today and for the most will be completed today as well. This is a big process that requires most of my team to get completed in one day thus there will be very few crew members on the golf course.

On greens 1, 2, 12 & 15 you may notice a slight bit of scalping from the greens mower. The machine was having problems that included dropping the reels on its own after being lifted from the mowing of the green. Good news is that areas will heal quickly and the machine is in repair.

Spraying of the nutsedge starts today and it herbicide application will take out the ryegrass along with the sedge; however, this application will NOT harm the bermudagrass which will fill in the areas over time.

Fairy Ring, Sedge & Palms

As the summer comes in so does the fairy ring on the greens. This does not kill the bermudagrass but for sure wipes out the Poa Triv. Other than looking bad and producing mushrooms, fairy ring poses no long term harm to the green; however, with that being said we will be treating it during the aerification which allows the chemical to penetrate deeply into the profile.

The purple nutsedge is coming back especially around a few greens. As many of you know purple nutsedge is considered to be the world's worse weed and due to the high number of underground nutlets each plant produces quite difficult to control. Over the past 5 years we have gotten our nutsedge population down from in excess of 40 acres to less than 3 total acres. We have had a very aggressive program and starting next week we will be starting it up again. I should note that the same herbicide that kills the sedge also kills the ryegrass; however, the bermuda is not affected at all. This will lead to some weak areas at first but they should recovery nicely soon after.

The palms around the golf course are NOT going to be trimming again this year in a effort to save thousands of dollars. That being said we will trim the date palms and select few solely around the clubhouse. That trimming will be done during the aerification.

Warmer Weather & Transition

Finally, the weather has started to warm up and over the last two days we are seeing the fairways starting to grow back in with bermudagrass. Another couple weeks and we will be filled mostly back in on the fairways,; however, this same warmer weather is going to take out the ryegrass that we did not chemically treat. These areas to will be going through transition and will be uglier at first until the bermudagrass without competition fills those areas. These areas include the greens and approaches as well as areas under the trees.

This upcoming week we are limited of staff due to the holiday and we will also be trimming the oleanders along El Dorado which will take the staff off the course. The week after that we will be starting the aerification of the rough to relieve the compaction from all of the cart traffic. There will be plugs left behind but remember according to the rules of golf you get free relief.

Be patient through these times of aerifications and transition, and just enjoy your round of golf. These are necessary evils that we too do not enjoy but will make the golf course so much better in the long run. As you can tell by the seasons getting better and better these processes make the golf course more enjoyable especially during the season.

Three "W's" - Weather, Wind & Water

Transition -- this is the time of year that is hated by both members and superintendents equally. It is the time of year for the few in the nation that overseed that we on purpose kill one type of grass (our cool season) to give rise to another (our warm season) just so we can prepare the golf course to be ready for another season of cool season turf (ryegrass) and start the process all over again. In our world we joke that there is two times a year that if we could go on vacation for a month it would be in December when the bermudagrass that we have so hard during the summer months to bring back into healthy condition we have effectively knocked down and the ryegrass hasn't quite filled back in it place; and the other is during transition (May & June) where we go out of our way to kill the ryegrass that we have worked so hard to make perfect leaves the course weak until the bermudagrass can fill back in once again.

As superintendents we are depended not only on our skills alone but also Mother Nature's three "W's" for an easier transition -- you will have notice I did not say perfect transition ... that is not possible unless you are God. The three "W's" -- weather, wind and water control how the transition will occur. Many super high end golf courses just sod out the areas that were affected by transition which give immediate gratification for tens of thousands of dollars; however, leaves the areas sodded to have to be done from that year on. Just like every other course the three "W's" determine just how much they are going to spend.

This year we have had all three "W's" fighting against us ... the weather has been ten to twenty degrees cooler, the winds have been at a all time high for the month of May thus drying the turf, and both of wells went down during the time we needed them the most thus limiting our water to less than half of what we needed.

The good news is that everything will recover ... quickly -- no. With the cooler weather the ryegrass has become strong again in the areas we have not chemically treated such the greens and approaches, which means that when these areas finally do transition they will be rough at first. Turf is not like carpet where one day it is less than desirable and then the next it is perfect ... we are depended on time and the three "W's" to ease this time of year ... but we will get there soon.

Draining Pools & Wear Patterns

As summer is upon us many of the members and homeowners have left for the season leaving their pool people in charge of maintaining their swimming pools in their absence. Sadly, every year we receive damage to the golf course turf due to the laziness of the pool cleaners who instead of draining the pools they are in charge of correctly they take the quickest way of completed the tasks. I would asked that if you could, please speak to your pool people and let them know that you will not tolerate these kind of actions.

There is also a picture to the right of golf cart wear patterns and the damage it causes to the turf from not scattering. During the summer months we remove the ropes to make it easier for the maintenance staff to complete their tasks in a timely manner; however, I need help from you to even out the wear pattern by SCATTERING please. This will not only help now but in the future as well.