Service Vehicle

The spray rig with the tank and booms removed. Ready for the next step.

A month ago, during some winter weather, the staff spent a few days repurposing our old spray rig into a service vehicle for Dan Welborn, our equipment manager.

I've wanted our equipment manager to have a service vehicle for several years but never felt we had a viable option until recently.  A few years ago, we bought a new John Deere spray rig but decided to keep the older Cushman spray rig so we could use it as needed.  Over the past few years, we haven't used it nearly as much as we anticipated and it has sat for over a year collecting dust in our chemical storage room due to costly repairs to the spray module that would be needed.  I decided that it wouldn't make any sense to spend over $3,000 to get it back into condition as a spray rig.  Although the spray module was a mess, the vehicle was still in good mechanical shape.  The staff disassembled the module and we took stock of the condition of the vehicle and decided to proceed with the project.  The picture above shows the vehicle with the spray tank and booms removed.

The most involved part of the project was fabricating the flatbed and attaching it to the frame of the utility vehicle.  As you can see from the pictures to the right, stock steel was purchased and each piece had to be custom made to fit.  The whole process took two days.  Once the flatbed was welded together, it was primed and painted.

The last step was to bolt all the accessories to the flatbed.  The purpose of the vehicle is to allow the equipment manager to quickly react to an issue on the golf course quickly so that equipment downtime is minimal.  Service vehicles will be outfitted differently at each golf course due to different demands.  Each accessory chosen reflects the common problems that Dan will face throughout the season.  A generator to supply power for various hand tools, a compressor for tire work, a tool box full of various hand tools, storage for tire patch kits and other misc. supplies, a vise for various tasks, and a winch mounted under the back for helping machinery when they get stuck.  As you can see from the final picture at the bottom of the post, there is still some space available along the passenger side for additional storage box and some undermount boxes behind the rear wheels.  These will be purchased next year when funding is available.

The staff did a great job taking an old machine that wasn't in use any more and making it useful again.  We are excited to have the vehicle in our fleet and expect it to be very useful throughout the year.

All painted! Ready for tools

Finished product!

Golf Industry Show

I'm a little late in writing this post, but a few weeks ago, Michael, my assistant, and I were fortunate to be able to attend the Golf Industry Show in San Diego, California.  The GIS is the annual Golf Course Superintendent's Association of America trade show and educational conference.

Lots to see w/ over 250,000 sq.ft. of exhibitor space

The Golf Industry Show is the place to network with industry peers across the country and the world.  The numerous educational seminars offer a wide variety of topics for superintendents to sharpen their skills and the trade show offers all the latest and greatest the manufacturers and suppliers have to offer to the industry.  It never fails in the few short days that I get to attend, I come away with something new to offer our club.  Whether it's new techniques to improve course conditions, or a new way to complete an in-house project more effectively, meeting new friends or catching up with old friends, the GIS offers many ways to come home invigorated and mentally ready to give the upcoming season my best effort.

Goodbye San Diego!

Bluebird Nestbox Program

One of the biggest reasons I got into the golf business is to work outside and enjoy nature.  I firmly believe golf courses are an integral part of the environment and are often the only place where wildlife can live as communities continue to grow.  As the golf course superintendent at Bailey Ranch Golf Club, I have a direct impact on our facilities environmental footprint, and I take that responsibility very seriously.  There are numerous ways we, as a facility, work towards environmental stewardship such as: water conservation, soil testing, scouting for disease and pests, reducing maintained acreage, grass buffers along pond banks to improve water quality and encouraging wildlife habitat.

Wildlife habitat is one of the best ways a golf course can benefit the environment.  With this in mind, one of my big initiatives last year was to begin a bluebird nest box program.  With the help of the Oklahoma Bluebird Society and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, we constructed and placed 12 nest boxes throughout the golf course.  We then monitored the boxes throughout the year so we could track any progress.  At the end of year, we submitted our results to Oklahoma Department of Wildlife for their Bluebird Nest Box Survey.  We just got their final report and it seems that Bailey Ranch Golf Club was the only entity, public or private, that reported any results in Tulsa County.  Although we only had three nests and 24 fledglings, I'm pleased with the progress we made in our first season. As the program continues to grow, our goal is to have nests in every box each season, and eventually expand the program into other areas throughout the property.

Irrigation Work on #4 Tee

Today, the grounds staff reconfigured an irrigation station between the forward tee and the fairway on #4. This area has always had poor irrigation coverage and therefore the quality and density of the turf in this area, has been largely dependent on the weather.  It was decided that adding a head, and moving an existing head, would improve the coverage and make it easier to grow better turf in this area.

 The picture below describes the work that was completed.  The red lines and circles show the current layout of the system, with the lines showing the pipe locations and the filled red circles showing the location of the full circle (360 degree) heads.  The yellow lines and circles show the new head and pipe layout with the half circles describing part circle (180 degree) heads.  A part circle head allows us to irrigation along the path while not spraying the houses left of the path, and also watering the in-play Bermuda and not the native along the right side.

January Course Update

Most of January was perfect for golf

Despite my intentions to create more content on this blog last year, I had trouble either finding inspiration or time to write.  This year, I plan on not only writing project updates and articles on miscellaneous items on the golf course, but I am planning on doing an update at the end of each month to recap what went on during the month.  Having said all that, I'm already behind as it's mid-February and I'm just now sitting down to write the January update.

January, weather wise, started off really well with mild days and relatively warm nights, then during the middle of the month, we had 2-4 inches of snow.  After about a week, the snow melted and the rest of the month was very nice.  During the week or so we had some snow and rain, the staff spent their time indoors working with Dan, our equipment manager, building a service vehicle.  The picture to the right is our old sprayrig that we've taken the tank and booms off.  Then we made a custom flatbed that attached to the frame.  Once the flatbed was built, we outfitted it with some tools that Dan typically needs when making repairs in the field: compressed air, hand tools, jack, tow chains, etc.  This will allow Dan to be more responsive when repairs are needed, reducing down time.

Staff removed a lot of growth behind #6, blocking view from street

The rest of the month, the crew spent working on trees as part of our annual tree management program.
Although we do not have as many trees as some other courses in the area, we still end up needing to spend almost 2-4 weeks each winter pruning and removing trees throughout the property.  Most of the tree work ends up along the creek/pond banks and property edges.  These areas are where most of the removals take place.  Also, in-play trees must be pruned up for mower and cart clearance concerns.

Removed trees to improve view from 96th St. and Mingo

There are also a few trees each year that are carefully chosen for removal if they interfere with our ability to manage quality turf.  Most often this occurs near tee and green complexes.  This year, several large trees were chosen in the back nine on holes #12, #14 and #15 because of shade or air flow issues.  The following pictures show some of the work that was completed during January.

Shade from tree in middle of picture neg.affected R side of green

Once the tree is down, the real work begins!

Large cottonwood removed behind #14 black tee. Roots
growing into teeing ground

Thin turf under tree right of #15 green

#3 Cart Path Extension

Sod and dirt being removed

One of the big project the grounds staff worked on before Christmas was installing a cart path extension at the main exit point from #3 fairway to the cart path leading to the greens complex.  This area has little to no irrigation coverage and almost all the cart traffic for this hole is concentrated at this point.  As you can image, a severely compacted and drought stressed turf is difficult to keep, and so often this area would get thin.  Once an area gets thin, it's not difficult for mud holes to start developing and then the area becomes very rough.  This spot has been a notoriously bumpy ride.  Besides re-sodding this area and adding irrigation, we decided to try something a little different.  Crushed limestone would be brought in and compacted to create a more stable cart path material so turf would not be needed.  First, the old grass and soil were removed and stored at the shop for use elsewhere.  Then, the limestone base was added and compacted with the mini excavator.  Once the material was all added to a depth of 4", it was raked smooth.  We've had several big rains, and lots of cart traffic, since this project was completed and the area has held up very well.  The beauty of the limestone is that when it gets wet, and you drive on it, it gets firmer.  Although this material doesn't look "pretty", it seems like a viable solution for certain situations and if we like how it holds up over the new year, we will likely utilize it in other areas of the golf course.

Limestone being smoothed out with mini excavator

Finished product

Another angle

Tree Work

This picture was taken in 2013 and the trees have only gotten worse

Over the past few weeks, the grounds staff has been focusing on pruning and removing trees throughout the golf course as part of our annual maintenance plan.  Although we don't have as many trees as many courses around the area, we still end up with almost 2-4 weeks worth of work each winter.  The majority of the work is found along property boundaries, pond and creek banks, and where shade or air flow restrictions are found near greens.  One area that we hadn't been in for many years, was the area immediately west of the #1 practice green.  This creek was full of willow and cottonwood trees that was blocking air flow and creating too much shade for the green to survive.  Once again I failed to get a good before picture before we started (I love to just jump right in and get started), however, the picture above was taken back in 2013, and as you can see, the trees west of the green have been an issue for quite some time.  In the summer, when the tree leaves are out, it's like a dense wall of green.  The lack of sunlight and air flow has caused this practice green a lot of trouble over the years and I expect it to perform much better now that it has a better growing environment.

Looking WSW with practice green to left

Winter Storm Goliath

The winter storm Goliath, that is currently working it's way through the state, is leaving an incredible amount of rain across the eastern half of the state.  The graph on the right shows the damage thus far.  The golf course has had almost 7 inches of rain, and it's snowing right now.  Look at Talequah with almost a foot of rain!!  The upcoming week is forecasted to be dry with freezing temperatures at night and forties during the day.  This freeze/thaw cycle will drag out the drying process and cause it to take twice as long for the turf to dry enough to remove cart restrictions.



Our friends at the Oklahoma Mesonet have a great run down on this recent storm and it's implications on the state records that have been broken.  I've included a link to the article below:



http://ticker.mesonet.org/select.php?mo=12&da=28&yr=2015



The most interesting part of the information listed above, was the impact this week's storm will have on our total statewide precipitation average relative to history.  It's clear this year has made history regarding the amount of rain that has fallen across the state.



WE HAVE NOW SMASHED THE PREVIOUS WETTEST YEAR ON RECORD FOR OKLAHOMA BY 5.83
INCHES!

Absolutely incredible. I don't know if you're quite getting it there. We just
topped the statewide average rainfall total by nearly 6 inches. Wow. There were
only 7 previous years above 47 inches, so let's rank them so you can see
the enormity of this new record.

2015: 53.71 inches (preliminary)
1957: 47.88 inches
1908: 47.24 inches
1915: 46.01 inches
1941: 45.83 inches
1923: 44.61 inches
1945: 41.82 inches
1905: 40.89 inches

Now we won't get the "official" total until later into January when NCEI releases
their statewide average, but safe to say it will be somewhere in the neighborhood
of 53-54 inches.

Irrigation/Bunker Repair on #9

110 psi leaking out from mainline caused massive geyser

This area was flooded for several days after water was shut off

Last week, right of #9 fairway, a fitting on the irrigation system broke causing a very large leak.  As you can see from the picture above, it caused a geyser about 100' tall.  Once this section of the system was isolated, water continued to bubble and roll out of hole for most of the day.  The entire middle portion of the fairway flooded as the water made it's way to the drain on the left side of the fairway.  The force of the leak blasted enough soil, out of the ground, to fill a pickup truck bed.  This soil came out of the ground and went right into the bunker.  Once the water receded, it was clear that in order to clean the silt out of the bunker, all the sand would need to be removed.  On Thursday of last week, all the sand was hauled away and on Friday 15 tons of new sand was added.

Silt contamination from leak

New sand added and raked smooth

#18 Cart Path Work

Last week, a local contractor, J&P Ventures, came out to replace a broken section of cart path behind #18 tee complex.  A few years ago, the ground settled under this section of path which caused the concrete to buckle and sag, asphalt was placed as a temporary fix to smooth and level this area until it could be replaced.  The contractor spent Wednesday afternoon breaking up and removing the old path and had the new concrete poured by Thursday afternoon.  The forms were pulled Friday afternoon and the path was reopened for use.  The only thing that remains to be done is a little dirt work and sod along the edges and this project will be complete.

Short Turf Pigment Application

Based on the positive feedback we've received about the pigment application to the driving range tee and target greens, this week, the grounds staff is applying a similar product to the tees, fairways, approaches, collars and surrounds.  This pigment will give the turf a natural, green look, to make it seem like it  is still actively growing.  As the rough continues to go dormant, the pigment will also provide a nice contrast to the tan Bermuda.

Since our goal is to achieve a natural, green appearance, it was determined early on that a second application would likely be needed.  We will plan on reapplying the pigment sometime in the next 3-4 weeks.  This final application will provide a deeper, richer green that should last for most of the winter.

Driving Range Pigment Application

Last week, a green pigment was applied to the driving range tee and target greens.   It was decided that having green turf on the targets would allow better depth perception of the targets while practicing, and overseeding these areas with Ryegrass would be cost prohibitive, so a green turf pigment was used to stain the semi-dormant turf green to make it look like seeded Ryegrass.  This kind of process is a first for us, and so far we are happy with the positive feedback we’ve received. 

Clubhouse Patio Landscaping

Paint is used to mark the new bed shape,
and the grass is killed w/ herbicide

Although the grounds staff spends time each week, throughout the growing season, maintaining the lawns and landscape beds around the clubhouse, a few times a year extra attention is required to make necessary improvements.  This past spring, the bed on the north side of the food & beverage facility was redesigned and has turned out to be a big improvement.

As our mowing schedules and other tasks have begun to wind down, I felt a need to address another issue at the clubhouse while we still had our seasonal help.  The area directly north of the back patio has been an eye sore for quite some time.  This area is in continuous shade and the Bermuda cannot fully grow up to the edge of the patio.  This has created a muddy thin area that hasn't been much to look at.

A few weeks ago, the new landscape bed was outlined and herbicide was applied to kill the existing Bermudagrass.  Earlier this week, Joe, our irrigation technician, redesigned the irrigation in this area to ensure the proper spray distribution.  Yesterday, the staff installed new landscape edging, plants, rock paths, and mulch.  The plants chosen for this bed are all tolerant of full shade and should acclimate very well to their new home.  Each of them will also flower at various times to provide some seasonal interest throughout the year.  This new bed certainly improves the look in front of the back patio, but it also removes the gap that existed in the landscape design which creates some continuity around the back of the clubhouse.

Plants and paths being installed

All finished!

#5 Greens Surround Drainage

First, the trench is dug out

This week, the grounds staff completed a small drainage project right of #5 green.  This area has been holding excessive amounts of water for most of the season and has become an issue.  The wet turf is very soft and prone to damage from mowers and foot traffic.  Joe, our irrigation technician, installed a small section of drainage pipe, and gravel, to give the excess water in the soil someplace to go.  Over the next few days, this area should start to dry up and should be much drier going forward.

Second, pipe is added 

Third, trench is backfilled with gravel

Lastly, sod is replaced and topdressed smooth

Fall Transition

The signs of fall are everywhere!  The leaves are beginning to change color and some are even beginning to fall from the trees.  The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting cooler.  These changes in the weather also usher in a change in the growth of the Bermuda grass in our tees, fairways, and rough.  We've noticed, over the past few weeks, a sharp decrease in the amount of grass we are cutting each time we mow.  This means that we are able to mow less often, which affords us more time to work on other tasks.  The staff has been able to catch up on all sorts of details, such as edging sprinkler heads and basins, topdressing divots, etc.  In another month or so, we'll likely have our first frost and the Bermuda will then go dormant until spring.

Fall Greens Aeration

This past week, the staff completed our fall greens aeration.  A project like this is always a lot of work and the staff did an amazing job completing the project and still preparing the golf course for a busy weekend.  Some rainy weather provided a few delays, but the staff was flexible, and we still accomplished our goals.  I've written about the many benefits of the aeration process in the past, that information can be found here.

Now that aeration is behind us, we can begin the heal-in process.  Over the next week, or so, the holes will gradually fill in, and the greens will get firm and smooth.  We realize that everyone is anxious to get the greens back to normal, but appreciate everyone's patience during the next two weeks.  Although aeration is seen as a huge inconvenience, the aeration process is critical to a sustainable, high quality surface year after year.

Course Update

#7 greens surround taken August 14th

#4 fairway taken August 30th

Over the past month or so, the golf course has seen a lot of seasonal changes.  During the last week of July, the typical hot, dry summer weather pattern started to settle in and the golf course began to dry out.  This dry pattern continued until rains came in mid-August.

Although our irrigation system is more efficient than I've ever seen it, it cannot give the grass all the water it needs to replace what is being evaporated in the absence of periodic rains.  As a result, the Bermuda on the course began to turn brown and semi-dormant in certain places.  Although this is normal for this time of year, I still had a lot golfers in disbelief that we could be so dry after having so much rain this spring.  The picture on the right was taken on August 14th and it's clear to see we missed some key rains in July.  I recently wrote in greater detail on the dry weather pattern and it can be found here.  Relief from the hot, dry weather came in the form of several big storms that, not only dumped almost 7 inches of rain, but dropped the temperatures down into the 80's.  As you can see from the picture on the right, the golf course greened back up quickly.

Removing thatch on #17

Aside from the weather, the staff has done a fantastic job of not only keeping up with our daily tasks, but completing timely improvement projects leading up to Labor day weekend.  Slicing of fairways and greens mid month alleviated compaction stress, and provided a much needed dose of oxygen into the rootzone during this most stressful time of year.  Our chemical applicator, Doug, applied fertilizer to the entire golf course a week before the rains started which allowed us to recover from the dry weather very quickly.  Last week, the staff performed a quick core aeration on collars.  Once this was drug in and watered, there was very little, if any, disruption to the surface.  This will heal before the holiday weekend and provide long lasting benefits well into fall.

Removed a lot of organic during this process

In the two weeks leading up to Labor Day weekend, the staff has verticut greens several times, to smooth and firm the surface.  All fine turf areas (tees, fairways, etc.) have been sprayed with fertilizer to improve color and density.  Bunkers have become a main focus.  The staff edged them last week and this week, a full depth audit will be performed, with fresh sand added where needed to improve consistency.

Applying nitrogen and growth regulator for color and density

Overall, I couldn't be more proud of the staff and the hard work they've put in over the past month to ensure the best possible conditions leading into this important holiday weekend.  I hope to see many of you out there enjoying the golf course!

A fresh edge always improves the look of the bunkers