Tee Marker Painting

Every year we paint all the tee markers. This fall after I sent the email blast about winter projects, at least 5-10 members remarked how hard it was to tell the difference between the blue and green tee markers. We had the same issue at Bear's Best Atlanta as well. Instead of repainting the green a forest green, we went with more of a kelly green. It turned out good.

Contrast much better between the blue and green markers freshly painted

One course ready to go out in the spring

Next job is the ball washers and trash cans

Boring under the road

The irrigation line between #12 Devlin green and #13 Devlin tee was broken under the road. This happened many years ago, but became an big issue when another line broke under another road this summer. Once the irrigation system was winterized Precision Golf bored under the road to reconnect the two pipes and added two valves just in case we had another issue. We also put a sleeve in the ground for future irrigation expansion for wires. Below are some pictures.

Exposing the connection area

The old line that was capped

The boring equipment and the HDPE pipe

Weekend Golf

Quick Course Update.

We have received 4.7" of rain in the past 15 days causing the course to be very wet and stay wet.  We are doing everything we can cleaning up leaves(mostly backpack blowing to avoid damage to the course).  We have been able to get out today(Friday) and blow the fairways off.  There are rows of leaves around greens, tees and fairways that we need to mulch up, but it is too wet to get our mowers out to do that. We will try to see if its possible to do some mulching late this afternoon or tomorrow morning without damaging the course.  This weekend we will roll and blow greens, blow tees and get the fairways cleared ahead of play on both courses.  There will be leaves that continue to build up throughout the day and we are doing everything we can to keep the course as clean as mother nature allows.  The leaves are at least 3 weeks behind this year and with the amount of rain we have received, it has made cleanup challenging, but manageable.  Both courses are in great shape and the turf is extremely healthy and starting to prepare for winter. Both Courses will be open this weekend and starting Monday, only one course will be open unless the volume of play is there for two.  Each day we will let the pro shop staff know which course is open. Have a great weekend of golf!!!

Deep Tine on Devlin Greens

Monday, we deep-tined the greens on the Devlin course.  With the Devlin greens being push-up(native soil being used to form the greens), we need to create deep channels for water and roots to go.  We do this every year at this time and the course is usually then closed, but with the great fall golfing weather, the course is still open.  

Very Minimal disruption to surface

The tines we use 1/2"

Finished product after sand

Weiskopf aeration starts tomorrow

We will be aerating the Weiskopf course starting tomorrow real early at 4am. We will try to get the greens and tees done tomorrow with the rain forecasted the rest of the week. The Devlin greens healed in 12-14 days completely. They were slow for a few days after that as the fertilizer we used ran its course through the plant and they continued to smooth out. The Devlin greens were smooth and semi-quick this past weekend and are completely back to normal now.

Day 9 after Devlin greens aeration

Day 14

Day 14 Up Close

Day 17 - Notice the dark green holes.  Air, nutrients and water makes that area of the greens "extra" healthy

Driving Range Tee Aeration

We aerated the cart barn grass range tee yesterday. We will be on the mats for the next few weeks at that end. Grass will be available at the hotel side of the range. We will be aerating that tee this coming Monday.

Range tee with plugs on it

Recent Green Speeds

Green speeds this spring/summer were really good(faster than last year on average) until around the 2nd week of July.  We were able to get them running very fast with rave reviews for member/guest the first week of August, but had to back off with the temperatures and humidity the past two weeks since.  There are many factors that go into green speed and each property/course is different.  I can only speak for what we do, not other golf courses. We even see huge differences in the Weiskopf and the Devlin greens and the way they react speed wise even when the conditions are perfect.

Factors on slower greens speeds in the past few weeks:

With the drought:  We had only received 2" of rain from May 15th thru July 29th.  It is nice to be able to control the water and be on the drier side for playability, but the salt content in our irrigation water over time really raised the salinity in the soil. Because the ponds hadn't been flushed since the winter, we were basically watering with salt water.  Not a problem for a week or two, but for 2.5 months, the salt in the soil will not allow the plants to take in the water at the rate it needs causing us to have to water more than we would like, slowing down the greens, and making the surface a little bumpy because it is not as firm.  There are different calcium and soil conditioner products we apply and spray help flush the soil.  Nothing is as good as rain water.  Once we started getting rain, the soil was flushed of the salts and allowed the nutrients to become available to the plant.  This then caused a surge of growth.  On July 30th, when we got 1.9" in 3 hours, the greens had an off yellowish color to them.  Two days later they had the darkest green color and were as hairy as you can imagine.  This was the release of nutrients that had been bound up in the soil for two plus months.

The heat:  Last summer we had 3 days above 90 degrees.  This summer so far we have had 23.  Poa greens do not like the heat. We have been able to keep them in great shape(slower speeds than normal recently) by limiting the number of times we double cut and roll.  The more stress on the plant during these times of high heat, you can lose areas of grass in a matter of hours.  We still cut at the same height(.105") as we always do and still cut everyday.

The humidity: The past two weeks have, like I said in my email blast been a "superintendents nightmare." Night time temperatures above 74 degrees for 9 days really effects the plant more than daytime heat.  If the plant gets breaks at night they can recover from extra stress, but we haven't had any breaks so we have to baby them through.  The humidity being above 70% all day does not allow the plant or the soil to dry out no matter the temperatures. The plant becomes puffy and grows rapidly.  We spray growth regulator on greens every 7 days to keep the growth minimal.  Right now, the greens are growing out of regulation after 3-4 days and even when they are regulated we are getting way more clippings than usual.  On Weiskopf, when the greens are growing normal, we empty our grass buckets 1 time every 4-5 greens.  Yesterday we double cut and emptied 1 and half times PER green.  We were able to spray our growth regulator(Primo) yesterday and that should really help with the temperatures in the forecast starting Monday at keeping growth at bay.  Extra growth causes the greens to become uneven and bumpy as well. Continuing our topdressing program that has been a huge success the past three years will continue to firm up the greens.  With 3" of rain and humidity about 70%, the greens will have a soft feel to them.

Going forward, you will notice the greens speeds pick up.  Today with getting down to 66 last night, we double cut and rolled Weiskopf and mowed and rolled Devlin.  We are always planning many days in advance what we are doing to the greens based of what they can handle.  With the growth regulator in place and temperatures and humidity going down speeds will be back to where they need to be.  I hate it more than anything to have slower greens(and I take a lot of heat for it), but I also know a period of slower greens in high times of stress are necessary to keep the plant healthy so we can speed them back up and have great faster greens later in the summer and the fall without having burnt out dead spots on them.  When I started at Quail in August of 2013, there were plenty of burnt out turf and dead spots on the greens.  It took until fall to have 100% coverage again and we have been that way ever since. Please feel free to call or email with any questions.

#2 Devlin mainline break

Last Friday we had Precision Golf come in and fix a mainline irrigation break in the middle of 2 Devlin Fairway. They did a great job, repaired 5 drain lines as well and installed a new drain basin along with fixing the irrigation.

Very deep hole. Thank you for patience playing 2 as a par 3 Friday until 2pm

Member-Guest Pictures

Member-Guest was last weekend the 4th-6th. The crew worked split shifts and til dark many nights to get the course prepped. Greens were cut many 13-15 times from Sunday to Saturday and rolled many extra times as well. This kind of extra stress cannot be done on a regular basis and maintain high quality bent/poa putting greens. The greens handled it well as they looked just as good as they did before last week. Below are some pictures.

Mow and Roll on Devlin #18

Charles cutting #9 approach Devlin Thursday Night

Evening Fairway Mow on Weiskopf #14 just before dark

#15 Green Devlin right after the tournament was over.  Still looks perfect and slick

Shootout on #17 Devlin

Please rake your bunkers

Just a reminder to please be courteous to other golfers and take your bunkers. We only rake bunkers 3-4 times per week. This was taken from 11 Devlin this morning. A lot of evening groups have not been raking since they think maintenance will do it in the morning.

This is not how a bunker should look after one day 

finally rain!!

Over the past 36 hours we have received about 1.2" of rain. There are some wet spots on the course. It will be CPO for today.

13 Fairway Weiskopf

Reminder of bug spray and sunscreen

Please do not spray bug spray or sunscreen on yourself while on the turf. It will kill it. See picture from one of our fairways below. You can see exactly where they were standing. 

 

New bunkers

The bunker project completely wrapped up last Friday. Golf Creations did excellent work again and finished two weeks ahead of schedule. They compacted the sand much better this year. It will still be fluffy as it dries out, but I am happy with the firmness for new bunkers. I ask that all members please rake the bunkers when you are in them. We are having a terrible time with members and guests not raking the bunkers this year after they are in them. Evening golfers tend to not rake them as they think maintenance will take care of them the next morning. We do not rake bunkers everyday. This helps keep them firmer and allows us to focus on other things around the course. We have done a rake inventory and added rakes in some of the bunkers.

Multiple footprints in the bunker on #1 right after it was raked for the first time earlier in the day

#13 Devlin new bunkers

Irrigation problems

Saturday morning we had a leak under a road in the neighborhood. For the Devlin course we have no as builts. We had no idea this pipe was there. It runs from 10 Devlin tee through people's yards across the street through 2 more yards and connects somehow at 12 green. We have been working round the clock to get it fixed. We have water everywhere except 11 and 12 Devlin. Jeff and James have done a great job and worked a 15+ hour day on Sunday just to get water on all but those two holes. Hopefully by Wednesday we will have it all fixed. In the meantime pray for rain because we missed all the rain on the Devlin course Sunday night. Weiskopf had about a tenth.

Looking for pipe

11 Green irrigation

We had a irrigation leak in the bottom of 11 green right side bunker. This is the 2nd one in this bunker in the last two years in different spots. With the Better Billy Bunker project going on, we needed to make a permanent fix as all three other bunkers had irrigation under them. We decided it was best to run a whole new irrigation loop around the green and not in the bunkers. This will avoid a future headache if there ever was a leak under the bunkers again.

Irrigation water coming up through the bunker

Contraption of pipes 2 plus feet under the bunker

trenching new line around bunker

Sod cut for easy repair

Replacing the sod after line was installed

Guys did a great job

Devlin Bunker Project

The Devlin bunker project started a week ago. So far they have shelled out all the old sand on holes 1 thru 6, 9, 17 and 18. They are putting the new drainage tile in and getting ready for all the gravel. They are making very good time so far. Below are some pictures.

#1 bunker being shelled out

#2 Bunker reshaped from the backside

#2 back side had no lip and balls rolled out of the bunker.  Around 500 square foot was removed and a new higher lip was added.

Final shape of the bunker after the small left sand finger was removed.

Practice putting

While practicing putting on any of the putting greens, please do not stand in one spot. This kills the grass. Please move around. You can see how staying in one spot can cause damage like below on the back putting green at the range.

Foot prints on the back putting green on the range

Another set of footprints on the green

Seeding and sod prep

Most of the stump holes and tree damage areas have been filled and leveled with soil. (160 tons of topsoil so far). Some of the seed we put out has germinated and is starting to fill in nice even with the cooler weather. As it warms up it will look even better. We are fertilizing and spraying wetting agent on these areas to aid in the process. You'll notice some areas on Devlin 1,4,5 that have been prepped for sod and will instantly give us cover either late next week or the following when a truckload of sod is delivered. A future post will go more into detail of the renovation area we will do between 4/5 Devlin.

Sod prepped area on #1 Devlin

Area right of #8 Devlin green prepped, leveled and seeded

Tilling up area right of #5 Devlin Fairway that will be sodded

Stump holes leveled and seeded on #7 Weiskopf

Driving range grass tees

We will be opening the grass range tees next Saturday morning, April 30th. Once open, we will be on the same schedule as last year. Grass at the cart barn end on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and grass at the hotel end on Monday through Thursday. This way, weather dependent, there is always an option of grass to hit on rather than mats. In the meantime please use the mats for the next week as the grass continues to grow and fill in the divots from last year. When we do start hitting on the grass, please hit in a line to minimize damage to the tee. DO NOT HIT IN A SQUARE like shown below. This takes all season to recover and sometimes needs sodded.

Please use a line divot pattern or scatter so the divot can grow in from different sides

Do not take divots like this!!! It will not heal.  Also, notice the MATS Only sign right in front of the divots.  This was taken this week on the range tee. The grass tee has not been opened yet.

Weiskopf 3 and 7 bunkers

We added sand to the bunkers on number 3 and 7 Weiskopf today. Some of the faces were shallow with the Better Billy Bunker stone just beneath the sand. We now have 3-4" compacted on the faces. We don't want anymore sand than that or there will get fried egg lies up on the face. We used about 8-10 tons of sand to those bunkers.

Danny and Charles spreading out new sand in #7 Weiskopf green side bunker

Charles spreading it out after it was dumped

#7 Bunker finished

Weather and course update

"How is this weather affecting the golf course?" Many members have asked me this question over the past few weeks. First thing, Mother Nature always seems to have a way of evening things out. We mowed greens 24 days earlier this year than in 2015. Since then, they have been cut four more times. Fairways and tees have been cut twice this year, but not at all in the past ten days and we cut them for the first time in 2015 on April 12th. By the time we get to the weekend, I feel the turf will be in about the same state as last year at the same time. With that being said, the cold wet weather has made the course a swamp. Most of the tree work has been cleaned up, soiled and seeded, but with bare ground until the seed germinates it is very muddy. We need warm weather and sunshine to get these areas to germinate and produce grass. The next 8 days will be huge if the forecast holds true and we get some sunlight along with dry conditions. Our goals over the next week once we dry out are to mow the entire course, spray both greens, tees, and fairways with fertilizer, fungicide, and growth regulator and continue to do spring cleanup around the course. Next Monday through Thursday the Weiskopf course will be closed so we can aerate the greens and tees and slice the fairways. The greens will get a 1/4" core pulled, which is half the size time we used in the fall. They should heal very quick. We usually do not pull a core on tees in the spring, but with the extra play this past fall, winter and this spring, we need to to help get the tees growing and smooth out all the extra divots. As always if you have any questions please feel free to call, email or stop me around the course. Here's to good weather!

Good look from the putting green before the snow on Wednesday

Same view on Friday