Edging the Bunkers

Over the last 3 weeks we have started one of our winter projects, and that is to detail all the bunkers on the golf course and cut a clean new edge around them.  Over the past 2 growing seasons since sand traps were renovated we have seen a tremendous amount of growth around the edges of the bunkers.  The grass has grown towards the center of the bunkers, causing them to become slightly smaller and lose the original edges.  The grass is some areas has become very puffy and hard to maintain or cut.  It also has developed a "shelf" or little ledge where the bunker face does not transition into the bunker consistently.  Here are a few pictures of hole #12 to try and demonstrate the situation:

I placed the rake to try and show the "shelf" that has been created by the grass creeping into the bunker.  Under the rake head is grass, but under the grass is straight sand.  The sand is supposed to the bunker, but the grass had other ideas.  The rake head is 25 inches wide, so this overgrowth is almost 2 feet wide!  The left edge of the bunker rake is where the actual original edge of the bunker was when we finished the renovation 2 years ago.  We know that because we can take a shovel or probe and push down to fine the concrete bunker liner.

Here is a close up of the ledges and overgrowth we are trying to correct.  The grass should fall straight into the bunker.  In this case, the grass levels out after the downfall, then transitions into the sand.

So what are we planning to do to fix this issue.  Well it starts with a shovel!  The shovel above is in the ground at the start of the concrete bunker liner.  When we finished the bunker renovation 2 years ago this is where the grass line started.  The grass has slowly grow into the sand, very hard to see how much it has encroached.  

We have been working to go around all the bunkers and cut a new clean edge with a shovel.  As you can see in the picture above, some of the edges have grown over very badly!  The gentleman above is simply cutting to the bunker liner, and look at all the grass we have to remove!  The golf ball has been getting stuck in these areas making for some difficult golf shots, so it is a very important thing to fix.

Here is a look at #17 green side bunker.  The yellow paint is the original bunker edge we are trying to get back.  It is easy to see how much grass needs to be removed, and how inconsistent the edge has become.

This is the bottom edge of 17 bunker as it transitions into the bunker.

Here is the same bunker edge after it has been edged with a shovel.  Notice how much smoother and consistent this edge is than before we started.  Big difference!

Over the next few weeks we will really make a push to get all the bunker edges fixed.  Golf rounds are slowing down and we will have much more time to get into the bunkers and get them back to where they need to be.  The green side bunkers are especially hard to work on when we are busy on the golf course, as there is too much interruption to get anything done in a timely manner.  To date we have completed the green side bunkers on hole #4, #9, #11, #17, and #18.  We intend to do the green side bunkers first, followed by the fairway bunkers.  Some of the bunkers are worse than others, and will be completed accordingly.  Thank you very much for your patience as we work to improve this aspect of the golf course!!!

Vandalism

Wednesday morning when setting up the golf course we noticed something was not right.  The flag on #17 green was completely missing, and the flags on #13 green and #16 green were cut clean off the flag stick.  The picture below shows what remained on the flag stick:

The flags were apparently cut off with a knife or some sharp object.  Since these greens complexes are located near the neighborhood streets they are a little more exposed to people driving by who feel like being malicious.  It was hard to tell what happened, but this was the end result.  Please give us a heads up if you ever see anyone doing anything suspicious!

First Frost of Fall 2019!

 This weekend we saw our first heavy frost of the Fall season!  The temperature was 34 degrees, but that was enough for the frost to set.  When this happens to our Bermuda grass it does not kill the grass, but causes it to go dormant for the winter.  Whenever the first good frost happens, this signals the grass that winter is coming.  The grass plant then begins to store carbohydrates and nutrients to use to overwinter in the cold.  We will probably see most of the green grass color turn to brown in the next 7-10 days.  It is never fun to see the green grass leave each year, and we can only hope it comes back early next Spring!

What are all those dead spots on 14 green?

If you have played golf over the last 6 months you may have notices some brown, dead spots across #14 green.  These spots are irregular shaped brown areas, where the grass has been completely killed, and the outside edge of the dead spot is green healthy grass.  These dead spots are actually caused by a Blue Heron.  The large birds like to fish around the pond on #14, and as he walks and flys across the green, he poops all over the place!  These droppings are very large and look like white paint splattered everywhere when they are fresh and new.  Over time the waste kills all the grass it comes in contact with, killing large areas of the putting green at times.  The pictures below show examples of the damage the Heron causes!

Here are two spots killed from Heron droppings, I put a can of wasp spray to help show how large these areas can be.

Another spot killed by a Heron.  On the day I took these pictures there were 13 different dead spots across 14 green!  

How do we fix these dead spots?  We use plugs from our nursery green which has healthy grass, and simply remove the damaged turf.  The new, healthy plug is then inserted and leveled to the same height of the green.  The picture above shows the plugs we used to fix the dead spots from the picture above with the wasp spray bottle. The plugs are noticeable the day after they are inserted in the green, but quickly grow together and blend into the green.

So what can we do to prevent the Heron from damaging the green?  Not a whole lot really, but we are going to try anything possible!  That means Heron decoys positioned by the green on 14 to try and prevent the birds from getting comfortable.  Blue Herons are said to be very territorial, and when there is another Heron on the pond they will not land or come to that same body of water.  We have purchased a few Heron decoys to see if we can have any luck!  Our staff repaired the green completely, and then we installed the decoys.  We plan to watch the green over the next week or two and see if the decoys will help reduce the Heron damage! 

Another picture of the Heron decoys, we have them positioned on both sides of #14 green!

Here is a picture of a live Blue Heron fishing around 3 green!  This picture was taken the same day we put the decoys out  on hole #14.  We see damage from feces on #3 green as well occasionally, but not near as bad as #14!

Please remember to fix your ball marks!

Big Dead Tree on #11

A few weeks ago we took the chance to remove a large dead tree on hole #11.  When I say large, I mean very large!  The diameter of the tree measured 5 feet across!  This Oak tree had been on this property for at least 100 years, but almost all the leaves were gone and it was starting to shed some large branches which have become a danger.

You can see from this picture the old tree has seen better days.  Due to concerns about safety we decided to remove the tree and clean up the area.

This golf cart is 4 feet wide.  The tree trunk measured 5 feet wide!

A crane was needed to help the tree crew remove the large branches and trunk.

All the branches are gone now!  Just the massive trunk is left, and it was quite a job to get it all cut up!  Took some pretty large chainsaws and large equipment to complete the task.

Here is a video of all the equipment working at one time to cut down the tree.  Pretty cool to see all the equipment work, and to see what can be accomplished with nice equipment!  It took the company about 5 hours complete this job start to finish!  We counted around 100 rings on the tree stump, so this tree had definitely seen some interesting stuff, both good and bad tee shots on hole #11!

Greens recovering quickly!

Aerification has come and gone, and now the greens have been trying to battle the extended summer heat.  The hot weather has actually been a huge help on the greens as it provides great growing weather for the grass to fill in the holes.  During this recovery process we have to water more than we would typically like because the holes can cause the greens to dry out more rapidly.  The water does however help the grass to grow more vigorously by not allowing stressful periods to occur.  It has only been 3 weeks since we punched the greens, but the holes are almost fully recovered! 

Here is a picture looking straight down on the green the day after we aerified on September 5th.  You can see there is quite a bit of sand on the surface, and almost all the holes are full of fresh new sand we added before we punched the holes.  

Here is a picture from September 12th, one week after the photo above and one week after punching!  See how much recovery can happen in just 1 week!  The holes are still visible but have started to grow over.  The sand has worked itself into the greens profile and the grass has grown through.  It just takes a little bit of patience during these times but the grass will come back stronger than before!

One week later on the 19th, just a little over 2 weeks after aerification, and the greens are almost fully healed!  Holes are now much harder to see, and the grass has grown back to create a much better putting surface.  The greens are still not all the way recovered, but putting on the greens is much improved!  Once we start to have some continuous night time temperatures in the low 60's or 50's we will start to see even more improvement.  For only 3 weeks after aerification we are in a great spot and the greens are very healthy!  We will have a great Fall golf season, we just need some rain!!!