Rough Growing like Crazy!!!

One of the most common suggestions I get is to "Cut the Rough!"  This summer with all the rain and warm temperatures the Bermuda Rough has grown very thick and lush.  I promise, we do cut the rough every week!  To mow all the rough on all 27 holes and the driving range it takes us 2 full days.  We generally try to get the mowing done on Mondays and Tuesdays.  This helps us to avoid the most play and stay out of the way of the golfers.  The only problem with this system is that by the weekend, the grass has been growing for 5 or 6 days and is getting pretty long and tough to play a shot.  Take a look below at some pictures that show what it looks like when we mow the rough:

\

These pictures show the difference between the rough when it is just mowed, versus what it looks like after a week since the last mowing.  The ball is resting in the MOWED part of the rough, and the dark green left side is the rough that has yet to be mowed.  It is hard to show in pictures how much we cut off each time, but it is at least a half inch to an inch of grass each week.  We currently are mowing our rough at 1.75 inches, so during the weekend it is probably upwards of 3 inches in some places!  So yes, the rough is very tough right now as it grows so rapidly with the ideal weather conditions.  We try our best to cut as often as possible.  With the amount of golf rounds we see between Thursday and Sunday, it would be very difficult for us to change our mowing schedule while not interfering with daily play.  Once the temperatures cool off in a few weeks we should see a little less growth!

If you look closely at the picture you will see all the large piles of grass clippings left behind after we mow the rough.  This is also a time consuming task to blow all the unsightly piles of clippings.  Mowing and blowing 120 acres of rough each week can be a lot of work!   Believe me, we are as ready to be done mowing it for the year as you are playing out of the thick stuff!

Why are these tees yellow?!

If you have hit on the driving range or played golf over the last week you have probably wondered why the grass looks so yellow and brown.  Is it too dry?  Is it going to die?  Those are some of the questions I have been asked this week regarding the Driving Range and the tee boxes on #9 and #10.

The answer is the grass is just fine, and the yellowing of the turf was caused by our Grounds staff spraying an herbicide to help control weeds.  The main focus of the herbicide was to help control the goosegrass and crabgrass weeds that had become established on both driving range tees, as well as taken over the teaching tee on the opposite end of the range.  These weeds have gradually become a larger problem throughout the summer, and after we got past the Member/Guest and Club Championship tournaments, it was time to kill the weeds.  The yellowing of the Bermuda is caused by the herbicide burning the tips of the leaf blades, but will not kill the Bermuda grass.  The tees that were sprayed have already started to green back  up, and should be all the way back to full green by next weekend.

The Crabgrass and Goosegrass however are not doing so good after the spray, and are on their way out.  Take a look at the pictures below to see the weeds dying a slow death.

In these pictures you can see the brown weeds dying, while the bermuda grass is all greening back up!

If you look closely at this picture you can see the green bermuda on the left, and the yellowed bermuda on the right.  This shows the area where the booms on the sprayer were turned on and off.  The green grass was untreated, but yellow grass was sprayed with the herbicide.  This yellow grass is not going to die, but is just slightly burned and will grow out of the damage in a week or two.  The weeds are not so lucky, and appear to be dying more every day!

(For Turf Dorks!)

If you look at the very first picture with Buddy standing on the tee, you will notice some patches of the grass are green and unharmed by the herbicide.  These green patches are bermuda grass that has done what they call "segregated" over time.  When the grass segregates, it reverts back the parent strain of grass that it was developed from.  This is basically like adapting to the environment that it is being grown in to best succeed.  Those green patches are barely harmed by the herbicide, much different than their cousin grass they started like that are yellow.  These green patches are what a turf breeder, yes that is an actual occupation, would love to see and use to develop a much stronger and more sustainable grass in the future!

New sod behind the Clubhouse!

Last week we took the opportunity to re-sod all the grass behind the Clubhouse that we call the "Event Lawn".  The old grass was Berumuda, and it was always thin and never very good looking.  We removed all the old bermuda grass and installed some new Zeon Zoysia to replace this grass.  After installing a new irrigation system, we should be able to really make this grass beautiful over time.  The front circle of grass in front of the Clubhouse is Zeon Zoysia, so our goal is to have all the grass surrounding the Clubhouse a short cut Zoysia grass like the front circle.  This way we will always have a great lawn for all the members and guests to enjoy when they come to visit the Club!

Member/Guest 2017 Sunrise

Removing Trees to Enhance the View

This week our staff removed the trees planted in the island between #9 Green and #10 Tee box.  The Grounds Committee as well as the Board of Directors agreed to have these trees removed to help enhance the view from behind the Clubhouse, and the currently under construction Mountain View Lounge.  These trees consisted of weeping cherry and maple trees, and were planted by the Club in 1997.  As the trees have grown larger over the years they have completely blocked a large part of the view of hole #9, and were only a few years of growth away from blocking the beautiful view of Kennesaw Mountain.  These pictures above were taken from the new Mountain View Lounge, and as you can see removing the trees helped to enhance the view of the golf course as well as the mountain landscape.  For the time being we plan to sod the area to bermuda grass and it will play as "rough".  In the future if the Committee decides to add something in the island such as low growing plants or a water feature it will be very easy to remove the grass.   We are also working on up-lighting a few of the large oak trees in the distance so at night the view from the back of the Club house is greatly enhanced!  More to come on that in the future!

Fairway Verticutting

This week was a big week for our Grounds staff!  The large Verti-Cutter came to help remove thatch and old growth in the fairways.  This process is very beneficial to help the grass grow much tighter together as well as reduce the "grain" or directional growth it develops over time.  The equipment gets its name Verti-Cutter because it is doing what is called "Vertical Mowing", a system of small blades that are straight up and down and slice about 1 inch deep into the grass profile.  Take a look at the picture below for a better idea:

This is a good look at the Thatch and Organic Material removed by the Verti-cutter

This machine does a great job of removing the old thatch and material.  Another great benefit from the slicing and verticutting is all of the stolons and rhizomes, (which are above ground and in-ground roots of the turf) that are cut will grow a new leaf blade and make for a denser turf canopy.  Mowing afterwards is always a little easier because the grass thinner and easier to cut.  We do this process during the summer time of year because the grass is growing very rapidly and it will only take about 2 weeks to fully recover.  Here are a few more pictures of what it looks like during the process.  Trouble with the machine, combined with wet weather only allowed us to finish Overlook and Lake View fairways.

Sign Update

The new sign on Stilesboro road has been built, but it has taken forever for the sign to be installed!  This is because the saleswomen with DeNyse signs was terrible and fired from her job months ago!  I learned this news from the owner of the company, who assured me that he would help us get the sign finished up as fast as possible.  We are waiting on the County to approve our final sign design, and then we will have it completed!!!!