PINE TREE GOLF CLUB DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY

Bed Work

2012-01-24T11:37:00.003-05:00

As we are settling into our season, we are able to turn our attention to areas of the golf course that need more attention, while staying clear of play.
Over the years, our “out of play” areas and pine straw beds have lost some of their clean, defined edges. We are constantly spray herbicides to keep the edges free of bermudagrass runners and all the beds are refreshed with pine straw once a year. (2 semi truckloads.) But the contouring of the beds lose their definition and we also find that several of the large oaks and olive trees adjacent to the beds have too dense of a canopy to allow for enough sunlight to have good turfgrass. That being said, we are knee deep in redefining these areas while incorporating several of our large, bordering trees. We have even regrassed some areas that once were bermudagrass, with St Augustine grass, as it is a much more shade tolerant turfgrass. These areas have always been on the list to clean up and define, and it’s nice to finally be working on this improvement.

Celebration Bermudagrass

2012-01-19T09:39:00.004-05:00

Finally, I can speak about the Elephant in the room! If you have not heard by now, the Green Committee recommended, the Board of Governors approved unanimously, to regrass our fairways, the chipping and putting green surrounds and north range tee this coming summer. Celebration is starting to be widely used in south Florida because of its year round growth habits, resistance to cooler temperatures, dark green color and its ability to recover from traffic and divots. The Green Committee, along with several Board members made visits to local clubs to observe the turf, speak with members and mangers involved and we are all excited to utilize this turfgrass here at Pine Tree. The ball sits up so well and the turf excels on all types of soils.
We will begin the regrassing project on April 30th, by spraying a combination of several herbicides on the existing fairway turf. The will begin the killing of the numerous grasses that we have on the current fairways-Common, Tifsport, 419 and Paspalum. This will be followed by 2 more applications, 3 weeks apart. During this time, we will be fertilizing, verticutting, scapling and aerifying the dying turfgrass. The golf course will close to play on May 29th, where we will begin to prepare the areas for new turf. We intended to begin the sprigging process on June 25th. Quality Grassing will be providing the turf and installation work. They are currently putting the final touches on the new Miami Marlins field, getting ready to be installed next month. They supply the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with turf, along with the Boston Red Sox spring training fields and the turf at Disney. Weather depending, we would be finished grassing in 5-6 days. During this closure, we will also install a barrier to stop the encroachment of the fairway grass into our tifeagle approaches, fix existing encroachment, complete all aerifications, repair damaged bunkers, scalp the rough, fix several of the collapsed pond edges. (#10, #16) The practice green and driving range will remain open Thursday-Sunday, each week.
For those interested, we will be conducting bi-weekly, late afternoon “ride arounds” for those interested. Members can grab their favorite beverage, a cart and we will ride the course and look at the different stages of growth and projects.
For those that are interested in photos, videos or courses that have Celebration turf, please send me an email and I will send you all the information that I have. As excited as we are to do this project, I am confident, you will enjoy the final results even more! A special "Thank you" to the Superintendents that opened their doors to us, especially Steve Ehrbar and Nick Sabatino at Jupiter Hills. Your place looked incredible!

Topdressing Greens

2012-01-02T07:49:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since we made a posting on the blog. This is certainly not due to a lack of effort or desire. The maintenance staff and Greens Committee have been hard at work looking into improvement projects for this upcoming (2012) summer. Hopefully in the next several weeks, I will be able to report what those may be and what to expect after the work is completed.
Now that the Holiday season is past us and the golf course is back on its normal schedule, we topdressed greens today. Usually in season, we topdress using kiln dried sand and fertilizer spreaders. The kiln dried sand helps the sand particles get into the canopy immediately and virtually disappears. With the upcoming cold front fast approaching, we decided to topdress a little heavier than normal today, using our normal sand application that we use during the summer months. The extra sand will help to protect the canopy of the turf more through the next few nights, as the local weather stations are predicting lows in the 30’s. And of course, the addition of sand will help with firmness and ball roll.
Once the sand is dry, we will brush the sand into the canopy while rolling it at the same time. We will monitor greens speeds VERY closely over the next several days as the combination of cool temperatures and the addition of sand could make our greens nearly unputtable and a blink of an eye.

Ficus Trimming

2011-12-12T13:24:00.003-05:00

Today, we had the team from Real Landscape come and work on the massive ficus trees located between #1 and #9. The growth of the limbs were getting such that the tops of the carts and our rough units were scraping. We were also starting to experience areas that had little to no sunlight during the day. Lastly, this thinning also minimizes the winds ability to “grab” branches and leaves during a wind storm and risk damage to the tree

Blue Squares....

2011-12-08T09:00:00.003-05:00

You may have noticed the blue squares located to the east of the putting green, in the fairway height cut turf. We have been experimenting with a new herbicide to greatly reduce the Tropical Signalgrass population. Tropical Signalgrass is a blanket-like grass which has become a big problem in sod, golf courses, and home lawns. On the golf course, tropical signalgrass stands out in the fairways because the patches are taller and often darker than 419 bermudagrass. Sod farmers have struggled with tropical signalgrass since the late 1980s.
The EPA has outlawed manufacturing of the herbicide MSMA, a pesticide that was ideal for the removal and control of signalgrass. Whatever distributors had remaining was snatched up and can be used until gone. The newest control available is by FMC and it is called “BLINDSIDE.” It is the combination of 2 herbicides’ active ingredients-Sulfentrazone (found in Dismiss) and Metsulfuron-methyl. (Found in Manor) The combination of these 2 products has shown to work quite well on the eradication and removal of signalgrass.
There are 2 areas around the putting green that have been sprayed with “Blindside;” one was just the product alone, mixed at the appropriate rate and sprayed 7 days ago. The other plot, sprayed 1 day ago, was sprayed using an additive to enhance the uptake within the plant. Ideally, the application made yesterday will catch up the plot sprayed a week ago and have a stronger effect on the unwanted plants. You can see in the photo the white color of the signalgrass as the herbicide slowly kills off the plant.
Secondly, we have begun to refurbish our tee medallions. Over the years of spraying foliar fertilizers, these medallions have become stained and difficult to see. We have been removing the plates, and letting them soak in a bucket with a cleaner in it. The cleaner that we have been using is called CLR and can be found at Home Depot. So far, we are seeing wonderful results!

The Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne

2011-11-21T08:35:00.003-05:00

For those of you who stayed up late to watch the Presidents Cup like I did, you were treated to one of the world’s GREATEST golf courses, Royal Melbourne. Royal Melbourne was designed by famed architect, Dr. Alister MacKenzie, who also designed Cypress Point, Augusta National and Crystal Downs, to name a few. The courses at RM were built by Alex Russell and the first Superintendent, Mick Morcom. Dr. MacKenzie’s bunkers are unmatched anywhere in the world and are very unique to the Australian sandbelt region.
A few years ago, the greens at RM were regrassed with a native bentgrass called “Sutton’s Mix,” a mix of colonial and creeping bentgrasses. This grass was originally on the putting surfaces of RM before a conversion to Penncross took place in the early 1990’s.
Some of you may have noticed that the putting surfaces appeared VERY dark, almost a shade of black. These color changes did show up more than normal because of the glow of the fescue approaches, but also because of several chemical applications that were made Monday and Tuesday to the putting surfaces. Applications of ferrous sulfate (Iron), Magnesium and Potassium Silicate. These products were applied for several reasons. They allow the plant to harden, maintain a more uniform color and allow for a finer leaf blade. If you notice, they greens were much darker for Thursdays play then when they finished on Sunday.
Overall, the conditioning at RM is one of the finest that I have seen. The golf course was firm, fast and not overly green and the players loved the surfaces, even with green speeds of 14+!

FINALLY, some normal, fall weather!

2011-11-14T09:42:00.005-05:00

A lot has happened since our last update. We seemingly have finally gotten into a stretch of normal, fall, south Florida weather and lets hope that it is here to stay. The weekend of October 21st-24th, we received 12”+ of rain, resulting in the course being closed for several days. With pond levels already at their highest point in over 2 years, the water on the course had no place to go. The drains remained full and in some cases, water remained on fairways and rough areas. Since mid-August, we have received over 40” of rain. I suppose the ONLY good thing about this is that the Lake Ookeechobee water level is much higher than this past spring. Sake to say, the rain and excess clouds have made growing turf a struggle in some cases. In October alone, for every 2 days of sun, we averaged 5 days of clouds/or rain.
At this point, we have also begun resurfacing our coquina cart paths. We began with edging out the re-growth from this past summer and removing the excess. We then box blade the entire surface to smooth out and fill in any pot holes before resurfacing with fresh coquina. We then use our older, belt topdresser that leaves a perfect, uniform layer of coquina for the winter months.
Our new water coolers have been installed on #3, #6 and #11. They were manufactured by Landmark and after the resanding and staining of our benches and trash recepticles, everything is now matching and uniform.
We have also scalped and overseed the front circle drive.

FALL is here!

2011-10-21T08:46:00.002-04:00

FINALLY, it appears that the summer rains are over and that we are settling into or fall weather. We received 3.5” of rain this week, (Monday-Wednesday) but we continue to push forward and fine tune the course for the upcoming season.
Because of the rain, water sat around some of our drains for a few days, which the turf does not enjoy. We vertidrained a few spots yesterday to allow these areas to dry down quicker. The vertidrain was outfitted with solid tines, going 5-6” into the soil. We will continue this process on Monday to help this turf recover and dry down quicker in the future.
AJ and the staff at Preferred Pinestraw began installing fresh pinestraw in our beds this morning. They do a large number of courses in Florida, Georgia and Alabama and have been installing the pinestraw at Pine Tree for many years. Because of the recent weather, they will be working tomorrow, but are very aware of golf and proper etiquette. They should be completed by the end of the day tomorrow.
Real Landscape completed the transplanting of the areca palms on #9. Over the years, several arecas were damaged or died and needed replace to ensure the consistent perimeter barrier that we have to ensure the privacy of our members and guests. The arecas were transplanted from another area of the golf course that were originally planted at the same time. Their size and height are equal and the work turned out great.
Next week we will overseed the front lawn, install mulch around the clubhouse and finish edging the bunkers. Weather permitting, greens will be topdressed and needle tine to help with water peculation and the little bit of algae that has formed over the last 10 weeks.

Bunker faces, perimeter plantings and weed control

2011-10-13T11:30:00.005-04:00

Ajusting bunker sand with the front blade

Up close shot of Kyllinga

Just a photo of the approach to #9

Wow-It has been too long since we have updated the blog, but rest assured, we have been busy at work preparing for our busy season.
We are in the midst of wrapping up a couple of projects that were started several weeks ago. The plantings, located on the property line of the golf course, are almost finished being trimmed back and the canopy lifted. The lifting of the canopy will help in find golf balls and hopefully even getting a better swing.
We will finish adjusting our sand depths todays. All the bunker sand has be re-distributed, depths check and faces re worked. The sand on the faces will be softer than we like for the next 10-14 days as the sand begins to settle and compact for the season.
Now that the summer rains have nearly stopped and we are received much needed sunlight throughout the day, we can get to spot spray weeds in beds and throughout the golf course. Our fairways have a good amount of sedge and kalinga throughout them. Tomorrow, we will be spraying a herbicide to remove this cosmetic weed. These weeds are mostly found in the south, where we have periods of rain and sun, like we have in August and September. A majority of these grassy weeds will be gone after the weekend.

A BLOG update...

2011-09-13T09:36:00.004-04:00

It has been a few weeks since we have been able to update the blog. Aside from dodging afternoon rain showers of nearly 20” of rain in August, a hurricane and fighting nematodes, we have been very busy, slowly working on the details as we prepare for the upcoming winter golf season.
The Curfew nematicide application that was made 4 weeks ago has healed over very well and the we have begun to see healthy, dense turfgrass in areas that we have always struggled with. The Curfew can be a bit of shock, as the gas is injected in the soil, with a disc, similar to how a corn field is disked prior to seeding. The lines are fading away with the extra fertility and higher heights of cut on the fairways.
We are again placing a hard edge on our tees, to minimize the encroachment of the 419 onto the tifeagle. This provides a fresh, clean look and it’s also easier to maintain a tight, straight line on the cleanup pass, when mowing.
We continue to topdress all our playing surfaces. Greens were topdressed yesterday with 25 tons of sand and approaches are being topdressed today. We intend to use about 40 tons of sand on 3 acres of approaches, today. We will topdress and vertidrain tees next week. The topdressing helps to dilute the organic matter while firming and smoothing the surface.
Today, we will finish applying our granular Ronstar pre-emergent. This application will minimize our winter weeds, while providing the least amount of “root pruning” to the existing bermudagrass. Many Pre-emergents can play a small roll on shorten the roots of healthy turfgrass by the pre-emergents mode of action. They prevent the germination of weed seeds by inhibiting a key enzyme. Ronstar is the safest of the Pre-ems on the market. This will also provide .75# of Nitrogen to the plant, helping to strengthen the turf and fill in any last voids.
We continue to trim the inside of the perimeter plantings, located on the boundary of the golf course. We are also lifting the plants up as we go, thus allow for a better chance to find and play your ball.
Lastly, we resodded the right side of #9 fairway. The area was very thin and referred to as “nematode ally.” This area was difficult to grow grass, not just because of the nematodes, but because of the amount of shade in this area, even in the summer. Last summer, we removed about 15 pines to try to open up some areas of light, but that was not enough. This addition of rough provides a better, more consistent turf, one that can withstand the low sunlight levels.

Curfew Nematicide and fairway rolling

2011-08-15T08:47:00.002-04:00

Nematodes. Nematodes (pronounced /ˈnɛmətoʊdz/) are the most diverse phylum of pseudocoelomates, and one of the most diverse of all animals. Nematode species are very difficult to distinguish; over 28,000 have been described, of which over 16,000 are parasitic. It has been estimated that the total number of nematode species might be approximately 1,000,000. Nematodes are a slender type of worm, typically less than 0.10 in long. The smallest nematodes are microscopic, while free-living species can reach as much as 2.0 in and some parasitic species are larger still.
Depending on the species, a nematode may be beneficial or detrimental to plant health. From agricultural and horticulture perspectives, there are two categories of nematode: predatory ones, which will kill garden pests like cutworms, and pest nematodes, like the root-knot nematode, which attack plants and those that act as vectors spreading plant viruses between crop plants. Today, we are trying to eliminate the nematode counts that are detrimental to growing quality turfgrass
Several years ago, a nematicide called “NEMACUR” was remove from the market and no longer in production. For several reasons that effect wildlife and “Danger; Poison,” label, Nemacur is no longer available. There a now several different options available, many of which we have tried. We have tested some of the new, biological, nematicides, but unfortunately, they are very slow acting and actually cost 3x more per acre to treat.
Thus, we have turned to an injected gas called “CURFEW.” Curfew® soil fumigant is a superior liquid soil fumigant for the management of nematodes available for use in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina on golf course putting greens, fairways and tees, and also on athletic fields. Curfew soil fumigant dissipates rapidly and must be custom applied by authorized operators.
We water the product indirectly after the tractors leave the fairway to minimize any burning of the turf. The fumigant is slit into the soil, thus making a small disruption to the surface. Tomorrow, we will roll the fairways with a large scale roller, mow and fertilize the fairways to encourage the turf to recover.

Palm Beach County Amateur

2011-08-01T10:51:00.003-04:00

This past weekend wrapped up the conclusion of the Palm Beach County Amateur. We had perfect weather for the event-no rain, sun and 90+ degrees. We were able to dry out the golf course and get the surfaces as firm as possible. The players, to a man, loved our Dick Wilson design and were very appreciative of the extra time and efforts that the maintenance staff put into make the event and enjoyable and detailed as possible.
The winning score was +1 over 3 days, with 2 rounds at Pine Tree and 1 round at The Falls Golf and Country Club. The low score for the entire even was a 68, will less than 5 competitors breaking par in a round. The following are a few links and photos from the event. On to aerification week…..

Saturday's Palm Beach Post

Sunday's Palm Beach Post

Tournament Preparations

2011-07-25T09:30:00.002-04:00

This week, Pine Tree will be hosting the Tri-County Women's Golf Association and the Palm Beach County Amateur Championship this coming weekend. With that in mind, we are doing some of our detailed work to ensure that the competitors enjoy their golfing experience and our membership is proud of the condition of the golf course.
Fingers crossed, the weather will help us out so were able to provide a firm, fast golf course. We are flymowing/edging bunkers, edging tee surfaces, mowing the rough slightly higher than normal and applying a foliar fertilizer/growth regulator and fungicide to the greens today. Our green speeds are almost to the speed that we want them to provide a challenge for the players.
Beginning next week Monday, we begin our second greens aerification of the summer. The aerification will include deep tine aerifiying the greens, core aerifying the greens and graden, deep verticutting of the greens. This process usually takes 3 weeks to heal the green surfaces, so try to get out to the golf course this week to get a round. Keep in mind, the golf course will close Thursday at 3pm and will be only be open to the competitors on Friday and Saturday. The course will be available for open play after 2pm on Sunday.

Verticutting and Topdressing

2011-07-09T09:02:00.003-04:00

This past week, we verticut our tifeagle putting greens in 4 directions. Verticutting is the process of mechanically removing thatch build up. Thatch is the layer of dead biomass (e.g. stems and organic material) between the soil and putting surface.
We perform this nessessary evil on an as needed basis, but usually 5-6 times a summer at the current depth. The ability to grow strong, healthy tifeagle in the summer months allows us to set the verticutters to a depth of 1/16" into the surface of the green. The verticutters make a small channel that we later fill with sand, thus resulting in a firm, less grain filled surface. We typically apply 35-40 tons of sand on the putting surface, then the greens and rolled/brushed and mowed to cleanup any tufts of turf. The brushes ensures that the sand is evenly spread out, but also packs sand into the crowns of the plant, thus encouraging the plant to grow more upright.
In the photos, you can see how much material was actually removed from 20 putting greens and also what the end product looks like.

Water Usage and Conservation

2011-07-05T07:41:00.008-04:00

The following is an article that I was asked to write about how we manage water and what our water practices are here at Pine Tree. Please click on the link to view the article.
Over the course of the last 12 days, we have received over 5" of rain, with 3.25: coming Sunday morning in about 1 1/4 hours. The ponds are as full as they have been since I have been here. The rain is certainly a welcome change!

CLICK HERE

Signature Tree and Drought update

2011-06-23T15:43:00.002-04:00

By now, some of you probably know that we have removed the signature tree located on #12 fairway. Unfortunately, the size of the tree, coupled with the drought that we are caused this tree to fail. For the time being, we have removed the tree and sodded the area with fairway, bermudagrass sod. As we get closer to the fall, we will replace the sodded area with a 10-12” pine. The impact of the planting will not be as instant as the one planted this past March, as it will be 15” shorter. Within a few years, the tree will be much more mature and filled out, this restoring the look that we want from the tee.
The current weather pattern is just not conducive for growing in a juvenile tree. In fact, the lack of rain has been hard on grass and plants alike. We are currently are sitting in the middle of a Top 10 drought in Florida history, with the water levels at Lake Okeechobee about 9.5’ about sea level. The lowest levels in lake history are 8.82’, so we are quickly approaching that. According to the US Drought Monitor, our region has been labeled a D4, meaning we are in an exceptional drought.
Thankfully, Pine Tree utilizes a reclaim water source from the city of Boynton Beach, thus we are omitted from the current water restrictions of homeowners throughout Palm Beach County. Granted, the water quality is not always the best, BUT it’s better than not having access to water, at this point in time. There are ways to combat the sodium issues and bicarbonates in the water. We are still handwatering and using wetting areas, but it would certainly be nice to have some help from Mother Nature soon. The long range forecast is not promising, though.

Aerification Closure

2011-06-08T08:11:00.004-04:00

There are a few weeks out of the year that are the most important to the longevity and turf health for the golf course. This week is one of those weeks where a mountain of sand is being distributed, aerification cores are being pulled and soil amendments applied.
We began our closure by verticutting the greens at 1/16” deep in 4 directions. The greens were then mowed with the brush down, leaving an open canopy for sand. The greens were then aerified with a ¾” coring tine and cleanup followed. We then distributed sand throughout the green by shovels, ensuring that heavy equipment does not drive on the open cores, which would leave ruts on the greens and close the holes. Lastly, once the sand was dry, we brushed in several directions and filled all the holes. We will continue to brush once a day for the next few days to continue working the sand into the profile. We will apply an organic fertilizer, a 0-0-50 fertilizer and gypsum. Greens will also be sprayed with a foliar package over the next few days.
Fairways were circle verticut, thus verticutting the turf in 2 directions and really getting into the “off types” located in some of our fairways. The fairways were mowed at a slightly lower height, opening the canopy prior to aerifying with a ¾” tine. Cleanup followed.
Approaches have also been verticut in several directions, aerified with a ¾” tine and deep verticut with our new Gradens. It is amazing just how much material the Graden removes.
Lastly, Big “D” paving is here this week, restoring out cart paths. Approximately 20,000sq feet of cart path are being removed-the left cart path on #6, the cart path near the green on #9 and the right cart path on #13. Another 20,000 sq. feet is being milled and resurfaced and the remaining will be seal coated, thus allow for a MUCH better surface that what we currently have.
It’s been a busy week thus far, but one that is only going to make the golf course appear and play even better!

Preparations for Aerification

2011-05-31T10:16:00.003-04:00

Today is the official start to our summer, with the sound of an aerifier running. We began aerifiying tees today with a ¾” hollow tine. Tees will then be topdressed, followed brushing in of the sand and a roll. During our closure next week, the tees will be deep verticut using our new gradens.
In preparation for next week greens/approach aerification, we are granular fertilizing the greens and approaches today. A 18-3-18 greens grade fertilizer is being applied at ½# of Nitrogen per 1000 square feet. This is one of 3, .5#N/1000 applications that we make through the course of the year. We make an application right after Men’s Invitational in March to get the greens ready for verti-cutting and encourage more growth. We also make a .5#N/1000 application before each aerification to help with recovery. (June & August)
Our greens receive 3.5-4# of nitrogen per year. This is lean by many standards, but has been successful for us at Pine Tree. This GREATLY minimizes the production of thatch and organic material, because we keep the turf very lean. This also allows us to maintain our green speeds and keep our surfaces firm.

Summer Rough Maintenance

2011-05-17T09:01:00.006-04:00

With nearly 70 acres of rough height grass, we've always struggled to get it all cut over the course of a week, especially when the summer rains come and our mowing time is cut short because of the mess that is left behind. On Friday, we received a brand new, Toro 4500-D rough unit that will allow us to keep up with the growth, but also get all though rough mowed twice a week, thus provided much more consistent conditions from hole to hole.
With the addition of this 3rd machine, we decided to start of summer scalping of the turf. We currently maintain the rough at 1.75" in the summer, 2" in the winter months. We are currently scalping the rough down to 1.25". This acts as a dethatching of the turf and allows for more sunlight to get to the canopy.
Over the years, renovations and other sod work have been performed throughout the golf course. Sod that was brought in from different farms and grows at different rates. The greener grasses in the rough is bermudagrass that had not grown as aggressively as other grasses. Maintaining at a lower height will provide a much more consistent playing surface and a better uniformed look. The clippings left behind will be blown and removed.

A the list grows longer...

2011-05-15T08:00:00.002-04:00

As we begin our summer months, our "to do: list continues to have pages added to it as we continue to find things and areas to improve upon.
Recently, we aerified #10 fairway. #10 has been the weakest of our fairways since my arrival. There is multiple "pockets" of different soils that the fairways grass is growing into-some areas are loamy, some are every sandy and some are a mixture of both. This can make it very difficult to maintain the plant and provide a consistent playing surface. Because of this, we aerified the fairway on Monday. Our intent for doing this was that a majority of the surface was sealed off and water was unable to penetrate to the sandy area and release the stressed plants. Aerification is also vital in allow gases to exchange and salts that have built up in the soil to release. Upon the completion of this fairway, overhead irrigation was run for nearly an hour, to create this "flush of salts." That is 4200 gallons of water/irrigation head over the course of an hour! To date, this fairway is recovering nicely and will again be core aerified in 3 weeks during our closure period.

Finally, CORE aerification!

2011-04-26T10:11:00.003-04:00

Today, we began the first of many core aerifications on the golf course. The approaches need the most attention and will get the most this summer, with the purchase of 2, new gradens. To start things off, we began a 3/8" core aerification of the approaches today. Sand was applied to fill the holes than we finished by brushing and rolling the approaches. Over the course of the winter, the approaches were needle tined and topdresses, but nothing is better than actually REMOVING a core, thus allow the hole to remain open longer, gas to be released and water to infiltrate. The holes should be healed in 5-7 days.

Deep tine Aerification of Tee tops

2011-04-07T10:19:00.002-04:00

Over the last 2 days, we completed a deep tine, solid tine aerification of our tifeagle tee tops. This time of year, most of the grass roots are at their shortest, coming out of the winter months. Warmer air and soil temperatures encourage both new top growth AND new rooting. This practice with certainly aid in new roots, but also allow the soil to "breath" and help with water penetration and flushing of salts.

Summer Course Closures and Cultural Practices

2011-03-31T11:39:00.002-04:00

As we start to experience warmer weather and flushes of growth in all the turfgrass, we begin to think about what cultivation practices that we are going to perform this coming summer. Our summer cultural practices will be very similar to last summer with a few small tweaks.
In an effort to get our tifeagle approaches to play firmer, similar to our greens, we will be utilizing a Graden verticutter to remove vast amounts of thatch in the upper 1” of the playing surface. The removal lines will then be replaced with sand creating a firm, smoother surface.
We will only be core aerifying the fairways once this summer, but will continue to vertidrain, working on the soils. The course closures and practices are located below.

Monday, May 2nd -Verticut and aerify greens with 1/4" SOLID tine; topdress
-Vertidrain fairways throughout the month of May
Monday, May 9th -Verticut & core aerify tees with 3/8” tine; topdress & fill all holes
-Apply insecticide Alectus for grubs and other summer pests

Monday, June 6th-16th -Vertidrain, verticut & core aerify greens using 3/4” tine; topdress & fill all holes,
- Vertidrain, verticut & core aerify approaches using 3/4” tine; topdress & fill all holes; Graden 2x
- Vertidrain, verticut & core aerify tees using 3/4” tine; topdress & fill all holes; Graden 1x
-Verticut, & core aerify fairways with 3/4" tine
-Chipco Choice application for mole cricket control (12 month guarantee)
- Ronstar Pre-Emergent for summer weeds
-LIME application to fairways

Monday, August 1st-11th -Vertidrain, verticut & core aerify greens using 3/4” tine; topdress & fill all holes, Graden 1x
- Vertidrain, verticut & core aerify approaches using 3/4” tine; topdress & fill all holes; Graden 1x
- Vertidrain, verticut & core aerify tees using 3/4” tine; topdress & fill all holes; Graden 1x
-Vertidrain all fairways with solid tine

Monday, September 12th -Verticut & core aerify tees with 1/2” tine; topdress & fill all holes

Monday, September 19th -Verticut & core aerify approaches with 1/2” tine; topdress & fill all holes

You will also notice that we have begun to cut back the knockout roses around Lake Linsin. This is a great time of year to remove the last 6 months of growth off of any of your plants and allow for the plant to strengthen and grow new, healthy roots as we start moving into the summer months.

Men's Invitational

2011-03-21T06:52:00.003-04:00

Last weekend was highlighted with our biggest event of the season, our Men’s Invitational. We are blessed to have a wide range of members with many coming from the north and Midwest. Because of this, many of our guests took the time to get away from the colder temps one last time and come to sunny, south Florida for some warmth and sun. The weather did not disappoint and many indications show the golfers had a great time capped off by the tournament finale, The Shootout.
The maintenance staff worked a much different schedule than we do for daily play. Our schedule consisted of both morning and afternoon shifts. Staff was out the door by 5:30am and back to the shop by 9am. We returned at 4:30pm and mowed fairways, blew debris, filled divots, rolled greens and checked greens every evening until 8pm.
We will now begin to turn our focus to strengthen the bermudagrass even more to prepare if for the summer cultivation practices. Green speeds will begin to be reduced into the 10.5-11” range as heights will come up and we will begin rolling less. We will begin verticutting all short cut playing surfaces and as we did last year, we will begin to veridrain fairways to allow for the plant to get a jump start on the summer growing months. Our summer closures and cultural practices have been approved and will be discussed and posted in the upcoming postings.

A Message from the USGA, Florida Region

2011-03-13T08:28:00.000-04:00

"The opening of Major League Baseball preseason training camps and the PGA Tour coming to Florida are two more signs that spring has arrived. The return of warm temperatures and sunny, dry days has been favorable for the resumption of turf growth and recovery from typical winter-season course wear and damage. Yet, course management concerns, such as nematodes, mole crickets, bermudagrass stunt mites and a lack of rainfall are being encountered on recent Turf Advisory Service (TAS) visits.

The winter and spring months are typically the Florida dry season. However, below-average rainfall in 2010 resulted in state-wide deficits ranging from five to 20 inches for the past 12 months. This raises concerns about progressive salt level build-ups in putting green rootzones, even when good quality irrigation water sources are utilized. Periodically, conduct a flushing irrigation cycle to move salt accumulations out of the rootzone area so that this is not a growth-limiting factor. Venting with small-diameter, solid tines or a water-injection cultivation a day or two prior to a scheduled flushing irrigation cycle is recommended. While these operations cause minimal or no surface disruption, being able to work them into the schedule is a challenge at many courses during peak seasonal play.

In response to new root initiation, there is also a surge in plant parasitic nematode populations and activity in the late winter to spring. Plant parasitic nematodes have become much more of a concern throughout the state, and this is especially the case with shallow-rooted ultradwarf bermudagrass putting greens. Based on product evaluation trials over the past year, the new product, Nortica, which is a strain of bacteria that protects roots from nematode damage, helps in the management of this soil- borne pest. Proper application timing is critical and should coincide with new root initiation. If you are considering using Nortica in your management program, treatments should be made as soon as possible in South Florida.

Another concern showing up in South Florida over the past couple of weeks that will progressively move north through the state, is our old friend the mole cricket. The tunneling activity of over-wintering mole crickets can be disruptive and damaging, and course damage is further increased by the foraging activity of armadillos, raccoons, and other animals. Adult mole crickets are difficult to control, but making labeled insecticide treatments in the late afternoon to early evening when they are close to the soil surface improves results. With each female that is controlled now, there will be 25 to 60 fewer eggs laid later in the spring.

While far less common compared to nematodes and mole crickets, bermudagrass stunt mite damage recently has been found on a few golf courses and polo fields. Due to their extremely small size, it is difficult to find stunt mites in turf, but this is the only pest known to cause a distinctive damage pattern called witches brooming. Often, but not always, areas infested with stunt mites also exhibit a chlorotic bright yellow color followed by the development of the witches broom damage. Stunt mites live well protected within the leaf sheaths of the bermudagrass plant, and there are only a few insecticides labeled for control of the pest. Fortunately, a healthy and actively growing turf can tolerate and outgrow an infestation. Adhering to an ongoing, sound basic turf management program is key to successful pest management programs."

New Tree #12

2011-02-28T14:52:00.005-05:00

Removal of the old tree

Installation of new tree

View from the fairway

Today, Tree Services, Inc of Boynton Beach, FL installed a new, signature pine tree on #12 fairway. The previous tree was in serious decline and much of the top of the tree has decayed over the last few years.
The new tree mimics our original Pine Tree logo and will require a much better placed tee shot, as this tree is nearly 20 feet taller than the tree that was removed. The supports located around the base of the tree will be played as ground under repair for the foreseeable future.

Common Bermudagrass

2011-02-21T13:54:00.003-05:00

In 2005, the fairways here at Pine Tree were resurfaced using 419 bermudagrass. 419 is a much finer, tighter, less aggressive bermudagrass. The fairways were gassed using methyl bromide to ensure a pure stand of grass, one free of any contamination.
Unfortunately, our roughs are a mixture of 419 and common bermudagrass. Over the last 6 years of verticutting, aerification and wear areas, this unsightly “common” bermudagrass has shown its ugly face in the edges of some of our fairways, but also random spots, like in the middle of #7 fairway.
Common bermudagrass is a much more aggressive growing grass; one that requires more vericutting to keep it in check, but also a grass that is much more “leggy” and not nearly as dense.
When compared to 419 bermudagrass, the growth and color of Common stand out drastically. In fact, Common bermudagrass makes 419 almost appear to be a dwarf type grass.
Before mowing fairways this morning, we verticut several of the more noticeable areas to create a more even surface, while trying to remove some of the “legginess” of the grass. In the pictures associated with this post, you can see just how much more material the Common bermudagrass produces and also how much more aggressive it grows.
As the temperatures continue to get warmer and all the grass starts to grow more rapidly, we will continue working on these selected areas by verticutting, but also by removing the Common and replacing it with 419. It is a summer project that we hope to do several holes at a time to not affect every hole or fairway.

Quick Update

2011-02-14T10:22:00.002-05:00

After nearly 6 weeks of heavy play, mowing and rolling, there greens were finally "vented" and they were ready to breath. As we have done previously, we topdressed the green, vented with 1/4" solid tines, brush/roll the green and finally, mow the surface. The sand helps with diluting organic matter and also is incorporated into the hole that was created from the venting.
Last week Monday, we began applying a pre-emergent to the golf course for weed control, specifically goosegrass and crabgrass. Because of the need to have a dry surface and water this product in, we are accomplishing this application over the course of 2 Mondays. Unfortunately, we do not have the ideal situation here, as closing the golf course in our busy season is not an option. Ideally, as with any fertilizer, Ronstar Pre-emergent needs to be watered in immediately. With the fact that cart traffic and golf was going to follow behind us, we could not complete the ideal application. We began at 5pm, to lessen the chance of golf following behind. Unfortunately, we have starting to see some discoloration on the front 9 fairways because we were unable to water the product in immediately. This discoloration should not be noticeable by the end of the week with the temperatures that are being predicted. The uniform color will return and the “tip burn” on the plant will be mowed off.

Tree Work

2011-02-08T09:47:00.003-05:00

Right of #15 ladies tee

Even though we are in the middle of our busy season, there are plenty of things to do. Today, we began removing and transplanting several guavas that are located on the right #15. This area is the ONLY place on the entire golf course that has foliage on both sides of the cart path. The guavas that are being removed will be placed in the perimeter planting to fill in any voids. The foliage that is being removed will allow for space where carts can access the fairway and not wear out any one specific area.

Cart Traffic

2011-01-27T10:56:00.001-05:00

Pine Tree is very unique in the fact that we feature tifeagle putting surfaces AND tifeagle approaches. Tifeagle is a putting green quality turfgrass, requiring extra effort, fertilizers, topdressing and aerification to make it perform to its expectations. We go to extreme measures to allow our approaches to play similar to our greens. They are rolled, sprayed with the same products as the greens are and are certainly puttable from any distance. When the golf course was renovated in 2005, a very obviously line was created between the fairway and the approach, creating a distinctive interface because of a visible difference in height of cut.
If you pay attention to when we have had to place ropes to direct cart traffic, much of the roped off areas are around green sites and in most cases, to protect our approaches from cart traffic. NEVER at any time should cart be driving on our tifeagle. In fact, carts should NEVER be within 30 yards of greens, unless a handicapped flag is being utilized.
We do not enjoy having to adjust, tighten and add rope to the golf course, as we believe that it takes away from the experience and gives the golf course a cluttered look. Currently, we have to protect greens #1, #3, #4, #5, #8, #10, #14, #15, #16 and #17 from improper cart traffic. If we can just pay a little more attention to where we are driving and what the cart path rules are, I am confident that we can minimize the need for more ropes and I am hopeful that we can get away from having to rope off our green surrounds as we currently have them.

#18 Tee

2011-01-26T10:10:00.004-05:00

As previously stated, we redefined the edges of #18 main tee. Since the course was renovated in 2005, the 419/common bermudagrass surrounds had crept onto the tee surface over 24" in some spots. This created a very unsightly tee box and without proper removal, the 419/common bermudagrass would just continue to contaminate the tee surface.
We first strung a line to identify how much of the existing sod we were going to be removing. We then set the depth of the sod cutter and cut a perfectly, clean and straight edge. The sod was removed and replaced with pure tifeagle from our nursery.

Redefining our tees

2011-01-21T10:18:00.002-05:00

Over the last year, we have spent a good deal of time redefining the edges of our tees and insuring that the lines remain crisp and tight.
The 419 rough surrounds grow at a much more aggressive rate than the tifeagle tee surface. Because of this, every 2-3 weeks in the growing season, we must edge the tifeagle and remove any 419 runners. There are several tees that are in need of the turf actually being adjusted and redefined. In the past week, we began removing contaminated tifeagle infested with 419, and replacing it with fresh tifeagle off of our new nursery. Many of these areas happen to be in the corners of the tees where it is difficult to establish a tight, clean cut. Several tees, like on #2 and #4, actually needed to have one grass removed, and another grass added. Next week, we will be removing the contaminated tifeagle on #18 tee and replacing it, as well. #18 is by far the worst tee for encroachment and this will be rectified. The work will be quick and neat and with the way the weather has been, should knit into the existing turf in a short period of time

Ahead of the curve.....

2011-01-12T18:39:00.011-05:00

About 3 weeks ago, I posted a blog topic about what we, as a maintenance staff were doing to withstand the cold temperatures and keep our turfgrass green during the cold weather that December brought us. The USGA has just come out with some literature with recommendations, along with photos and their analysis on what they have seen during this last month. Now, if you click on the link below and read the article, SOME of what they are speaking about has been applied to the fairways here at Pine Tree. The product is new and seems to just now starting to gain popularity, now that the turf has lost its vibrant green color. I’d like to think that Pine Tree is on the cutting edge of these types of new turfgrass techniques.

CLICK HERE

Fairway Needle Tining

2011-01-04T09:20:00.001-05:00

This past Friday, we began needle tine aerifiy the fairways, just as we do the greens, tees and approaches. The benefits for the actual aerifications have been well documented throughout this blog, but beyond that, there are several reasons for this cultural practice at this point.
With the weather that we experienced in December (which I will elaborate futher later on in this post) the grass doesn’t know whether to protect itself and store up is resources for cold weather, or come out of dormancy. We decided to begin needle tinning the fairways to encourage any new growth and break up any soil compaction. Following aerification, we are mowing the fairway and spraying the fairway with several products to help flush out the salts from our irrigation water.
Speaking of weather, December of 2010 has gone into the record books as the COLDEST December in Florida history. Our average high for the month was 70 degrees, while the average low was 47 degrees. This resulted in an average of 10.5 degrees below normal, much of that coming from 4 cold fronts that we experienced at the beginning of 4 consecutive weeks.

Spray Hawking Greens

2010-12-30T09:05:00.002-05:00

Yesterday marked the first day since my arrival that we have spray hawked our greens. For years, we sprayed the greens with a 160 gallon, riding sprayer. There were times when we could not spray due to the greens being too soft and the potential for tires tracks being left. Even when the greens were firm, we would still leave tire tracks on certain greens. This was because the sprayer could only spray in certain directions due to the Mr. Wilson’s bunkers around our greens. Now, we walk spray them with a spray hawk. The hand held sprayer, shown in the pictures, is connected by a 150' hose to a 160 gallon tank. This allows us to decrease the footprint left behind after an application and it allows us to spray whenever necessary. The spray hawk also allows for more precise application of fertilizers, insecticides and fungicides.

Cold Temperature Measures

2010-12-21T10:17:00.003-05:00

After last week’s low temperatures on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, (33 and 32 degrees, respectively) a majority of our turfgrass is now dormant and has a “biscuit brown” look in appearance. Dormant turf is not dead turf; it is just not growing because temperatures are not conducive. It still needs to be water, still needs to be protected and when temperatures return to normal, we will gradually get the green color back.
In the meantime, we decided to spray a specialty product on the fairways when we sprayed out typical foliar fertilizer spray. This product is actually a plant protectant and we’ve used it for months on our greens, tees and approaches. While protecting the plant, the green pigment of this product absorbs more sunlight and creates a much better visual appearance as golfers play their round. The parameters of the fairways are easily distinguishable and creates a pleasant contrast between our roughs and fairways.

Golfers Cold Weather Etiquette

2010-12-15T07:27:00.003-05:00

For the second winter in a row, we have been hit with yet another blast of cold, Artic air. Over the last 2 mornings, many low temperatures records have been broken, along with wind chill temperatures in the teens! Our hopes are that our temperatures will rebound back to normal for the remainder of the winter and our members and guests can enjoy the #1 reason they are here in Florida-the warm weather!
What can you expect to see on the golf course because of this? Well, initially, you will notice that the color of the golf course has a slight tan complexion, as opposed to the nice green canvas that we are all used to. We will be doing several things leading into the weekend to encourage our turfgrass to green back up, and in time, begin to grow again. Several mornings of cold temperatures as we’ve experienced take a lot more than a few warm afternoons to reverse.
What can we do to minimize turf wear? CART TRAFFIC is the #1 problem when the turf is not actively growing, especially to the point that we are at now. Please take special precautions to observe the 90 degree rule, not follow previous cart tracks and stay away from green and tees banks. A golf cart should NEVER be within 30 yards of tees and greens, ever. Unfortunately, we observe this type of cart driving all the time and it just makes for a lesser experience for everyone playing.
Filling divots and repairing ball marks are critical when the turf is not growing. Granted, the turf isn’t going to grow over the sanded divot in a short period of time, but it keeps the appearance of the course the best and gives the turf something to grow into when our normal weather returns. Because the greens are not healing as quick, ball mark repair is our due diligence. It keeps the putting surface smooth, allows the grass to heal properly and minimizes the chance for scalped balls marks when the greens are mowed.
You will notice that the greens have a little more sand on them than they usually do. We decided to topdress heavier than normal on Monday to help protect the crowns of the plant from the cold weather, but also to help the plant withstand mechanical and foot traffic when it is not actively growing. The sand acts as a cushion to the plant and gives it some rigidity.

Clearing out

2010-12-06T13:58:00.003-05:00

Now that we are digging into our winter months, we begin to put more focus on sunlight and shadows. With the current sunrise, sunset time, along with the angle of the sun, we are receiving about 11 1/2 hours of light a day. We will continue to lose nearly 2 minutes a day for another 2 weeks before we begin to gain more sunlight during the day.
That being said, our tifeagle grasses thrive on 5-6 hours of sunlight a day. Because some of our tees are directly against the property line, this time of year can be difficult to unsure the turfgrass receives enough sunlight. We take any chance we can get to open up areas to enhance the opportunity for light to penetrate surrounding foliage. Much like last winter, today we began thinning out the growth behind #10 Championship tee. This time of year, the back 1/3 of this tee receives 2-3 hours of sunlight, thus making it very difficult to have healthy turfgrass.
Also, with the anticipation of the cold weather over the next few mornings, we applied several products to our tifeagle to hold it's color over the next few days. This will ensure that when temperatures return to normal, will will have healthy, active turfgrass.

Topdress, needle tine, repeat...

2010-11-30T00:53:00.001-05:00

As we move into December, we continue to do our necessary cultural practices to ensure that we are able to maintain dense, healthy turf grass that has the ability to withstand extra mowing and rolling, along with foot traffic and the low sun angles.
As we have the previous 2 Mondays, we solid tine aerified our tifeagle grasses. This time around, we focused on our greens. The timing of this was perfect, as we incorporated a wetting agent designed to “pull” moisture through the soil profile, thus creating a firmer surface.
Today’s program consisted of the following;

1. Spraying the greens with a wetting agent and watering in the product for 4 minutes.
2. Sand topdressing the green before the venting process. This allows the sand to be worked into the vented holes.
3. Venting the green with ¼” solid tine on 3”x 2” spaces.
4. After the sand has dried, the greens were brushed and rolled, working the sand into the profile and smoothing the surface at the same time.
5. Lastly, the greens were mowed to clean up any excess sand and “tufts” of turf that the aerifiers created.

Thankfully, the rain held off and we had a sunny, dry morning. Speaking of rain, we received a crucial 1” of rain over a 20 minute period yesterday. Granted, this amount of rain creates a small mess for us to clean up, but most importantly, we had a flush of built up salts in our soils.
Pine Tree is irrigated with reclaim water that is typically high in sodium. This creates an environment in the soils that, without a flush of natural rain, the sodium levels build up and tend to lock up the soils, blocking important, beneficial nutrients from getting to the plant. Sodium seldom has a chance to build up in the summer months because of the typical Florida afternoon rain showers. Last week, we sprayed a product called Calphex from Floratine on the fairways. Calphlex in a sense, washes the soil of sodium and allows the plant access to the nutrients that it needs. Couple this with Mother Nature’s rain from yesterday and the fairways had a fresh, green look to them this morning.

That time of year...

2010-11-16T13:23:00.004-05:00

Sand being brushed in

After sand is brushed in

It's that time of year, again. Yesterday, we began topdressing and needle tining our tifeagle approaches. This helps elevate compaction, encourages new growth and when done with sand topdressing, allows sand to be worked into the holes. The needle tines that we use are ¼” solid tines and are inserted into the soil about 3 ½”. This process offers VERY little effect of any playability.
Weather permitting, this same process will be done to tees on Monday, November 22nd and greens on Monday, November 29th.

New plantings on #11

2010-11-11T08:12:00.002-05:00

The triangle of turf located left of #11 tee and left of the cart path after #16 has not always been an eyesore, but also and area where carts are interchanging without much of sense of separation between holes.
Yesterday, we finished the removal of the bermuda and signal grasses and planted 115 spartina patons. In trying to remain consistent throughout the property, these spartina plants are the same species located along the bridge at the driving range and also behind #10 tee.
In time, these new spartina plants will mature and fill in some of the voids, but will offer a nice separation and contrast to high traffic, visible area.

"This rough is tough"

2010-11-04T10:26:00.003-04:00

With the condition of the rough after last years cold weather and golf, there was great concern that it was not healthy and dense enough to provide the definition and contrast that our membership wanted.
As a maintenance staff, who put together a program to increase the health and density of the rough by doing several basic things;
1. Core aerify the rough.
2. Vertidrain typical wear areas
3. Amending the soils
4. Extra fertility
At this point, the rough remains very dense, to the point where finding a golf ball has become extremely difficult. This has also been aided by the unseasonably warm weather we have been having, particularly the nights, which have been 12-14 degrees above average. On Monday, November 8th, we will begin mowing the rough 1/4" LOWER than its current height. We have to finish this weeks mowing at 2" before going lower, otherwise there will be some scalping on the course.
The predicted low temperatures this weekend will also help the rough "settle down" and not play so tough.
Keep in mind, last winter the rough was maintained at 2.5" and is currently being maintained at 2". We will begin mowing the rough at 1.75" on Monday. Please be patient with us and this will result in a few mow clippings and a little more of a mess that we will be cleaning up.

Finishing touches

2010-10-27T13:56:00.000-04:00

Its finally feels like “season” is upon us. As we welcome back our members, we are in the middle of putting some of the finishing touches on the golf course as we enter our winter months.
On our final closed Monday, we needle tine aerified and topdressed the greens. We will continue our venting of the greens throughout the season, as we did last season. We will also begin using kiln dried sand on Monday mornings to lightly “dust” the greens with sand, thus allowing us to continue to dilute organic matter and provide a smooth putting surface.
We also applied an organic, 5-4-0 fertilizer to the entire golf course, excluding greens. This organic fertilizer has a black prill and is loaded with microorganisms, beneficial to turfgrass. The black prill also absorbs the sunlight more, thus allow the soil to remain slightly warmer than if it was without the black prill.
On Thursday, Real Landscape will begin planting all the winter annuals at the clubhouse grounds. The maintenance staff will then follow up and place a fresh bed of mulch around the new plants.
On Friday, the pinestraw beds will receive a light covering of new straw. Our intentions are to NOT have the pinestraw be fluffy and unplayable and this desire and been heavily stressed to the installers.
We have begun mowing the front entrance area. This year, we decided to overseed the front lawn with ryegrass to create a more pleasant entrance for our members and guess. This overseed look will provide a lush, green landscape that will compliment the clubhouse grounds

The Art of Handwatering

2010-10-18T07:41:00.003-04:00

Over the last year, we, as a maintenance staff, we have changed the watering practices of the turfgrass. Without question, turfgrass needs water to grow, regenerate and survive, but the amount of water that it can actually use and store is a science in itself. The beauty of handwater is the ability to apply water to only the areas that need water and keep water from the areas that do not.
Over the past year, we have retained quite a strict handwater practice of our tifeagle grasses, in particular. On any given day, you can find employees handwater greens, approaches and even tee surfaces. Now, this typically results in more manual labor, but those costs are recovered when the surface remains drier. A drier surface requires fewer pesticides, less fertility inputs, deeper roots and creates a much firmer, consistent playing surface for our membership. Drier surfaces with deep roots also hold up to the rigors of double cutting and rolling much better during our winter months, thus allowing us to achieve the green speeds and firmness that the membership enjoyed last winter.
One of the major misconceptions about golf courses is that MANY are overwaterers, over fertilizers and over pesticide users. The above practices are directed and followed to allow us to use MUCH less of all three, not to mention, maintain a much healthier plant.
As for our fairways, we have been using wetting agents on our drier spots to hold moisture in these areas throughout the day. Most wetting agents “make water wetter” or allow the water droplets to cover more surface area. The use of wetting agents allow us, as a maintenance staff, to NOT have to run excess water on the stressed areas of the fairways and thus, creating unwanted wet areas.
What does this all mean? Even with a drier than normal summer, the success of these programs comes down to the bottom line. The maintenance staff saved almost $21,000 in electric and water over the last year. It isn’t cheap to run our irrigation pumps, but when less water is running and hoses are being utilized, the need to have all three pumps running is less, as well.

Details, details, details

2010-10-12T07:47:00.001-04:00

As many of our members anticipate their return for the winter months, we, as a maintenance staff, have begin to put the finishing touches on the golf course. All the pine straw beds are being edged and prepared for new pinestraw on October 25th, the mulch beds are edged with chocolate colored mulch being applied. The traffic circle in front of the clubhouse has been scalped down and is being prepared to be overseeded. This will provide a nice, dark green color for members as they and their guests enter the property. We will also be overseeding the lot located directly right of the main entrance. Also, the winter annuals have been ordered and will be installed in the next 2 weeks.
Why do we wait until October to begin this scale of details? Well, I type this gingerly as a hurricane Paula stirs in the Caribbean, but we wait for hurricane season to be over. Because of the amount of main hours and cost of materials associated with our bed work, the last thing we want to experience is 6-10”+ of rain that would most likely wash pinestraw and mulch down the fairways and into drains.
As for the circle drive entrance, we will overseed this area over the next 2 days and being a daily water cycle over the next 2 weeks. We will handwater nearly every hour from 11am-4pm. It is tremendously important to keep the seed moist and in contact with the soil to ensure the best, most consistent overseed possible.

PT Happenings

2010-09-28T08:59:00.005-04:00

Bunker after adjusted sand

Bunkers play a very important part to the design and playability of Pine Tree. Mr. Dick Wilson designed Pine Tree with 128, uniquely shaped hazards, some that pinch fairway landing areas and many around green complexes.
Last week, we began adjusting sand depths in all our bunkers, beginning on hole #1. We purchased a blade for our bunker rake that allows us to move sand from the low areas and distribute it into areas of less sand, but also the faces themselves. This allows the bunkers to play much more consistently, but also allows us to incorporate the clean sand that remains under the top 2” resulting in bunkers that appear to have new, white sand in them. This is a very time consuming process, but a very important one. We should have all the bunkers completed in 7-10 days.
With anticipation on the mass amounts of rain predicted, we venting the greens this morning. This is a same process that we will do every 4-6 week in the winter, allowing for water to percolate and oxygen to exchange, among other things. This solid tine creates a hole, 3-4” inches deep and has a diameter of less that ¼”. This will allow the green to take in the excess water better and allow the surface to firm up faster.

Perpetual Weak Areas

2010-09-08T10:37:00.005-04:00

Ever since the renovation of 2005, there have been selected areas of the fairways that have not performed as well as the others. The bermudagrass has not wanted to grow aggressively and fill in properly.
This summer, we have taken tremendous strides to amend these areas with core aerifying, vertidraining, filling the holes and weak areas with and organic/lime/soil combination. We continue to topdress these areas with a green sand/organic to ensure that the plant has the BEST growing beduim, but also create a cushion for the traffic in the upcoming season. These areas also receive extra fertility to continue to strengthen the plant. Now, if it would only stop raining….

Rain...and lots of it!

2010-08-31T16:33:00.003-04:00

North seawall #18

New pavers after 3.5" of rain

A newly sodded area on #17

Sunday Night, we picked up 3.5" of rain in about 35 minutes. I, personally, have never seen it rain so hard in my life. The ponds have filled up, but there was certainly a mess on the golf course to clean up. Unfortunately, we've experienced some damage to our new pavers and also the north side of the bridge on #18.
We have also spent considerable time resodding and contouring the pinestraw beds along #17 fairway. Last winter, there was only one true area to enter the fairway from the tee, resulting and VERY weak turf concentrated in a small area.
We removed several small pines and have created 3-4 distinct areas for carts to enter the golf hole. We also resodded the left rough, about 75 yards short of the green. The area was too shaded to grow anything but signalgrass, a hardly, Florida weed.

Fresh Turf

2010-08-24T13:36:00.003-04:00

Another quick up date of what is happening at Pine Tree. We have been laying a lot of sod, replacing areas that were damaged or replacing grass that was covered by too much shade.

The front entrance grass was decimated this past winter by the cold weather. This area also did not have irrigation. We replaced the old grass with new, St Augustine grass and irrigation is being installed to ensure that this turfgrass survives and maintains its vigor.

About 6 weeks ago, 3 large, olive trees were removed on the northeast side on #18 tee. The back corner of this tee fights shade the first 5 hours of each morning and also in the late afternoon. Knowing that morning sun is the best and the fact that tifeagle really needs 5 hours of sunlight a day, so it was decided to remove these trees. The 419 bermudagrass surrounding this tee was also very weak. This week we resodded the surrounds and used tifeagle off of our new nursery to restore the turf surface. We will continue to roll and topdress this area to match with the exsisting turfgrass.

Lastly, the left side of #17 featured 4 trees (2 oaks and 2 olives) in a cluster. Theis area was shaded such that the only living material under it was signalgrass, a weed. We removed about 7000 sq feet of signalgrass/soil mix, removed the 2 oaks and now this area is presented with fresh turf that receives enough sunlight to thrive.

Finishing Touches!

2010-08-17T10:29:00.002-04:00

We are in the process of putting the finishing touches on the coquina path/pavers project. Today, we are laying a new sod edge along the edge of the new pavers. The sod along the coquina was completed last week. This will allow for a nice, clean finished edge and complete the project.

New paths & pavers

2010-08-09T15:07:00.003-04:00

The following photos are just a quick update of the cart path work that is taking place around the putting green and south driving range tee.

The staff is laying sod along the new edging. The edging will keep the coquina from mixing with the grass and vis versa. The coquina will be installed tomorrow.

#10 tee area. Unknown to us, there has be upwards of nearly 6 overlays of asphalt over the years, hence the 10" soil edge. This will be filled with a lime rock material and the new pavers will be flush with the current grade.

Busy week for Pine Tree

2010-08-04T17:40:00.002-04:00

To say that we’re busy might just be the biggest understatement of the summer. This is the last scheduled closure of the golf course until next summer, so we’re packing as much into it as possible.
We began by verticutting the green surfaces in 2 directions. This was followed up by running the vertidrain on the greens. If you remember, the vertidrain is the same machine that we have been using on our fairways all summer long. The vertidrain was followed by a ¾” coring tine aerification of the putting surfaces. We decided to go with a slightly bigger tine and NOT core aerifiy the greens again in a month. This was then followed by a lot of sand, brushing and rolling. Once the holes were all filled with sand, we ran a Graden deep verticutter on the greens to a depth of nearly 1”. The greens were again brushed and rolled. By our best estimates, we removed 22-24% of the surface area. With proper growing weather and Mother Nature’s help, greens should be healed in 3 weeks time. The same program is being done to the approaches. The fairways are being core aerified with ¾” tines, as well. This program will be the foundation to healthy, dense turfgrass that our members expect for the winter months.
Also during our closure, the remaining 2 bridges are being replaced and the seawall on #18 is being fixed. The areca palms located along the entire east side of #2 and #9 are being thinned and the dead fraunds are being removed.
Lastly, the asphalt located around #10 tee, #18 green, and the cart path on #10 and #18 is being removed. The cart paths along #10 and #18 fairway will be replaced with coquina and the path along #10 tee, #18 green and behind the south driving range tee is being replaced with brick pavers, the same ones currently located in the cart staging area. This will offer A MUCH different look to the clubhouse area, not to mention a brand new driving range tee surface.
Other than that, not too much happening here at Pine Tree!

Graden and Tee Aerification

2010-07-26T08:43:00.004-04:00

Today, we began a process on our tifeagle tees that will be a very similar process that we will be using on the greens next week. We began by aerifing the tees using a 3/8" tine and followed that by using a Graden, with 1mm thick blades, set at 3/4” deep. The graden is a deep verticutting unit that can verticut up to 1” deep. The machine removes a 1mm think channel of thatch and organic material that we will replace with sand. The benefit to this machine versus the usual verticutting units, is the amount of material that these machine bring to the surface for removal. This tool will help us affect nearly 7% of the surface area. After the tees have been cleaned off, we will topdress the tees and fertilize then to aid in their recovery.

What is happening in the Northeast?

2010-07-25T10:54:00.002-04:00

Many of our members go north for the summer months to enjoy cooler temperatures and more comforatable golfing conditions. Typical summer months in south Florida consist of 90 degree temperatures, high humidity and several afternoon rain showers a week. Just as Florida experienced some of coldest temperatures in 120 years, the northeastern states are experiencing some of the hottest and wettest conditions on record. In fact, the weather pattern that has gripped the northeast is MUCH closer to south Florida weather, where we have currently had little rain and lower humidity. The grasses in the north are not engineered to withstand the stress the weather is providing. The grasses that we use here in south Florida are made to handle these extremes and survive undamaged.
As golfers up north experience "softer conditions" on grass that is extremly stressed, trust me when I say, each one of those Superintendents are working as hard as they can, using every tool they have at their finger tips and have not had a good nights sleep in over a month. Staffs are working around the clock handwatering, spraying turf saving chemicals, needle tine aerifying and directing cart traffic OFF of stressed areas. There are many different rumers flying around regarding what exactly is happening to the turfgrass in the north. If you're a member up north, do yourself a favor and ASK your superintendent what he/she is doing, what has been done and what his/her plan is.
Much of what the northeast is experiencing is new to those members and also to those Superintendents. Patience in the key, but as we sometimes forget, we are 100%, completley dependend on mother nature. Regardless of all the technology, research and development we have, mother natural is in complete control. What the northest needs more than anything is the rains to stop, the humidity to subside and cooler nights. The cooler nights allow the plant to recharge, much like when we walk into the air condition. The cool nights allow for the plant to make it through the hot days.
When this current weather pattern FINALLY passes and your superintendent can finally take a breath of fresh air, but him/her a beer. It will be hardest earned beer they have ever had!

Playing Catch up!

2010-07-21T09:11:00.001-04:00

As you travel throughout the golf course, you will notice a lot of exposed, bare areas. These areas have been or are being prepared for sod. Some of these areas are were tree stumps were removed, where cart compaction destroyed the turf or where the wrong type of grass was previously use. Several of these areas (#4 and #9) are going to be regarded and plate tamped to ensure minimal settling. Currently, there are areas on #1-4, #6, #8, #9 and #15 that will receive new sod next week. This sod will take about 2-3 weeks to tack down and be playable. Until that time, you will see staff members watering these areas during the day and they will remain roped off until they are ready for traffic and golf.
Also, the new bridge has been completed on #10. The remaining 2 bridges on #12 and #18 will be completed the first week of August when the course is closed. The new, south driving range tee has been growing steady for a month now. We are currently mowing it at .600 and topdressing it weekly. This tee should be ready to be open sometime in August.

"The Greatest Flat Course in America"

2010-07-07T14:47:00.006-04:00

In August of 1962, Mr. Ben Hogan played Pine Tree and deemed that Pine Tree was "The greatest flat course in America." For those that do not know, there was a rock, located behind #1 tee with a plaque on it with this above quote. Because of its location, we believed that many guests (and members) were unaware of this special quote by one of golf's greats. Today, we moved the stone to the left of the cart path as a golfer enters the teeing area near #1 tee.

New Bridges

2010-07-01T11:47:00.003-04:00

Work began yesterday to replace the the stingers and decking on the bridge from #10 tee to #10 fairway. This bridge was scheduled to be replaced during our closure in August, but because of the damaged that was done to the bridge during the south DR tee renovation, the decision was made to move up the work. The bridge on #12 will be replaced in August along with a new seawall and bridge on #18.

Step 3 of South DR Tee renovation

2010-06-24T14:29:00.002-04:00

The final and most noticable part of the DR tee renovation is the sod. JW Sod began laying Celebration Bermudagrass sod on our south range tee today. The sod is dense, slightly darker, has great color and will create an outstanding practice surface.

Step 2 of South DR Tee renovation

2010-06-22T09:46:00.002-04:00

As you can see in the following photos, the old, contaminated and thin turfgrass that was once on the south tee, has been sod cut and the sod removed. We will begin leveling the tee, with the intention of lowering the entire tee 3-5". We will then LIME and organic fertilize the entire teeing surface prior to the sod arriving tomorrow. Lastly, we will apply a pre emergent to make sure that there new sod remains pure.

Step 1 of south DR Tee Renovation

2010-06-15T09:34:00.003-04:00

Now that the aerification of our short grass areas are complete, we turn our focus to an area of the course that has been an eyesore and a disappointment for quite some time-the south driving range tee.
It is very common for southern golf courses to re-grass their driving range tee surfaces every 5-7 years. Over time, the constant use from golfers and the sand topdressing from maintenance, can create a surface that is very sandy, uneven and completely different that what a golfer encounters on the course. I was an important part of a 20,000sq foot range tee renovation at Long Cove Club that was done by the maintenance staff. We would be re leveling and resodding from the eureka palms on the east, to the eureka palm to the west and to the cart path on the south side. We will also be able to pick up 2-3 more hitting stations. The picture above is the current state of the south range tee after 2, non-selective herbicide applications. (Round Up and Fusilade) It is important to kill off as much of the old turfgrass as possible to avoid contaminating the new sod.
Once the tee is regraded, we will lay Celebration bermudagrass sod, known for its vigorous growth and cold tolerance. We suspect, with normal weather patterns, the south tee will open within 4-6 weeks. More pictures and updates next week.

Greens Aerification

2010-06-07T16:30:00.004-04:00

Our first summer aerification began this morning. (Actually last night) This process is long, tedious and has many steps, but I cannot even begin to stress the importance of this process which allows us to maintain fast, firm and healthy playing conditions.
First off, we verticut the greens in 4 directions, allowing us to remove thatch and help control grain. We set our verticutting units 1/16” deep and began to make channels for the sand to be placed. Secondly, the greens were mowed to cleanup any of the material that the verticutters were unable to remove. The greens were then aerified using a 5/8” hollow, coring tine. This size tine allows us to remove nearly 8% of the surface area. (The USGA recommends 25%) As the greens were aerified, the staff began cleaning the cores off the greens and shoveling the debris into carts. The greens were then “washed,” meaning we handwatered all the remaining silt and soil into the holes to allow a clean hole for the sand to be placed into.
We then took kiln dried sand and poured the sand into lines on the greens to be hand shoveled into the holes. This allows the holes to be completely filled to the top, allows us to fill every hole and also keeps any machines off the greens that may rut the soft surface. Lastly, the greens were brushed, rolled and smoothed back out. We will apply several amendments and fertilizers later this week.
Greens aerification is single handedly the most important practice that takes place to our greens, On top of all this, the front 9 fairways were verticut and aerified and the cleanup process began there as well.

2nd Insecticide

2010-06-07T05:38:00.004-04:00

Our second insecticide application was applied on Friday on a granular fertilizer. The insecticide Talstar (chemical name Bifenthrin) was applied to all the fairways, green surrounds, tee surrounds and rough. The insecticide was impregnated on standard fertilizer granules, in this case, a 16-4-8 fertilizer. Talstar is very successful in suppressing mole cricket populations, an insect that devastated Pine Tree’s turf last summer. Because of the insecticide being applied with a granular fertilizer, we were also able to apply another pound of nitrogen to continue to thicken our turf and fill in the last of the weak areas.

Also, our nursery is about 75% grown in, 4 weeks after sprigging. We are currently mowing the grass at .200 of an inch. We are hopeful that we will be able to start using this turf in 4-6 weeks.

Summer Tee Aerification

2010-06-02T11:40:00.003-04:00

Verticutting and mowing of the tee surface

Topdressing of the tee

Core Aerification

We finished core aerifying our tifeagle tees today. We began the aerification process yesterday and were unable to finish because of several thunderstorms that popped up yesterday evening.
We began the process with verticutting the tees in 2 directions with the actually cutting units 1/16” deep. This is amore aggressive depth than we would use for a normal verticutting and topdressing process. This depth gets into the thatch layers and removes a lot of unwanted material. The tees were then mowed to cleanup the organic matter and topdressed heavy. We chose to topdress the tees before the aerifiers to minimize the number of machines that drive on the soft, tee surface. The tees were then aerified using a ¾” coring tine. This tine allowed us to affect 11.5% of the surface area. The USGA recommends disruption 25% of the surface per year. Finally, the tees were rolled and brushed to encourage more sand to fill in the holes. While watering the tee surface, the sand packs into the holes and makes it appears that the holes are not completely filled. We will be applying a little bit more sand to the surface tomorrow which should fill in any voids left by the removal of the aerification holes. Lastly, tees will be granular fertilized this afternoon with an 18-2-9, Greens grade fertilizer to encourage new roots and the holes to fill in quickly. We suspect the tees to be healed over in 2 weeks.

Aerial photos

2010-05-26T14:48:00.003-04:00

The following are a few photos that I took while on a lift, trimming tree limbs to increase the amount of light the bermudagrass receives. The first photo is of #8 and upon looking at the green, you can notice the aerification of the greens surrounds that has taken place minutes before. If you click on the photo, it will be enhanced and you can see the difference between our tifeagle approaches and 419, among other things.
The second photo is of #1 and you can see that the green had just been sand topdressed.

Pine Tree Happenings

2010-05-26T14:36:00.004-04:00

There have been several things happening around the golf course, some aesthetic, some are problems that seeming have been occurring for several years.
In the first photo, you will notice the weak spots on #3 fairway that have yet to perk up, are being removed and replaced with sod. The sod is being taken from the south range tee that is being renovated in several weeks. The sod is clean, 419 grass to match the existing fairway. The second photo is after the sod has been laid, rolled and watered. The timing of this sodding is important, as it should be tacked down in time to aerify in 2 weeks.
The photo below is an area where some foliage was removed. Directly to the left of the ladies tee on #6, the tee bank and surrounding area have continued to be under watered and sparse. We removed 2 large bushes that were allowed to grow over and cover the only irrigation head that waters this area. With the removal of these bushes, we expect this area to be much healthier and consistent with the rest of the golf course.

Aerification of Greens Surrounds

2010-05-17T17:03:00.004-04:00

We began to aerify our greens surrounds today. We used a ¾” coring tine and aerified about 75 feet around greens #1-6. Because of the extent of the clean up involved, we will aerify 6 more greens surrounds next week and the final 6 greens surrounds the week before closure.
This will GREATLY increase the density and health of the turfgrass around the greens and allow the plant to withstand the stresses of cart and foot traffic. We intend to do this several times this summer to create a great growing medium for the plant with ensuring that we have a dense, consistent plant.

New Nursery

2010-05-13T08:45:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, we were able to sprig our new nursery green. The springs were delivered to Pine Tree from Pike Creek in Georgia. Pike Creek is the same supplier that provided the tifeagle springs during the renovation in 2005. Our new nursery green, located to the left of #10 championship tee, is twice the size of the old nursery green that was located behind #3 green. Once this new green is grown in and ready for use, it will be used to replace the areas of contamination on the approaches and tee boxes.
Sprigs come shipped in refrigerated trucks and appear to be runners of turf, or the debris that is left behind after verticutting. The springs were laid out by several employees and then they were “cut” into the soil using an attachment similar to a disc that is used in a corn field, to ensure good spring to soil contact. The new springs will get watered nearly every hour for the first 2 weeks to make sure that they do not get dry in the Florida heat. If all goes as planned, we will be using this new sod by the end of June.
At this same time, the old nursery was sprigged with 419 and will be returned to normal rough.

#4 Tee

2010-05-08T07:26:00.003-04:00

On Monday, Shane Lader and staff from Real Landscape were on property to take care of a continuous problem-the back of #4 tee.
One of the unique elements to Pine Tree is our tees. We have tifeagle bermudagrass on our tees, a grass designed for putting greens. Because of the nature of this grass, it requires a low mowing height and cultural practices very similar to our greens. That being said, research has shown that tifeagle require 5-6 hours of sunlight a day to remain a healthy thriving turfgrass.
Since my arrival, we have resodded the back section of #4 tee twice. We have removed as much growth around the tee edge as possible to increase the amount of sunlight, adjusted the soil profile, but will little success. The large oak in the picture allowed for a little as 2 hours of light in the winter months and up to 6 hours in the summer, hardly enough to have healthy turf.
With the home owners consent, Real Landscape reduced this oak 30-35%, allowing for much better sunlight over the top of the tree, but also through the tree. This will greatly increase our ability to have a uniform stand of turfgrass on the back of #4 tee.

Greens Aerification

2010-05-04T08:54:00.006-04:00

The maintenance staff took full advantage of the first full, closed day of the season. Though Monday was our official closure, our work actually began on Sunday night. Both Assistants and I returned to the property Sunday afternoon to give us a head start on the work we needed to complete on Monday. Sunday night, we began verticutting greens and fairways. Vertical mowing is the practice of cutting into the turf vertically at various depths to control grain and thatch. Depending on the application and time of year, there are varying amounts of turf debris (a little on greens and a lot on fairways) but there is always something left on the ground that must be picked up, mowed over, or blown off (sometimes all three). On Monday morning, we began core aerifying greens using a ¼” tine. After the greens were cleaned off of all cores and debris, we sand topdressed the greens with enough sand to fill in the verticut lines and also fill in the aerification holes. This was the first core aerification on the greens since last August. The greens were becoming hydrophobic and slightly thatchy on top. Each green was then rolled and brushed in 2 directions, mowed and rolled again. The process takes approximately 90 man hours alone to complete.
The fairways were also verticut for the second time this spring. Our intention is to lightly verticut the fairways, every other week, in the summer months instead of the deep, intensive verticutting that is typical on bermudagrass. By vertically mowing lightly, twice a month, we lessen the impact of thinning the turf dramatically by heavy vertical mowing as in past years and you play on much less disturbed turf. Over time, this will noticeably improved the density and uprightness of our fairways.

Fairy Ring?

2010-04-28T13:32:00.002-04:00

Some of you may have noticed several of our greens have developed irregularly shaped, random circles on them. These shapes have appeared in the last week and are a function of our putting surfaces becoming drier, thatch beginning to accumulate and the greens becoming lean. (Low nitrogen=less growth-smoother/faster greens.) The larger patches are called Fairy Ring and the smaller, more circular shapes are called “mini ring” or Rhizoctonia Zeae. Typically, symptoms begin to show when thatch has begun to accumulate and surface temperatures are above 80 degrees. Both Fairy Ring and Rhizoctonia Zeae diseases are easily treatable, but are most effective when the surface has been aerified or solid tined. Why is this? Both diseases work from the soil layer upwards, which in our case, is about 2-3” below the surface.
Next Monday, after we aerifiy and topdress, we will be spraying the greens with a fungicide called Bayleton. Bayleton is a systemic fungicide that is taken up by the roots and translocated into the shoots and leaves. After the greens are sprayed, we will lightly water the green to ensure that the fungicide gets down to the roots of the plant. Symptoms of these diseases should disappear in 4-6 days.

Sunday PM Greens topdressing

2010-04-26T07:38:00.001-04:00

Today marks the 5th Monday of the last 6 that we have had rain in the morning. With the forecasters predicting a 70% chance of rain and most models suggestion over an inch, we decided to have several staff members come back in last night and topdress greens. Because of the importance of having the sand dry, we have been unable to topdress for 3 weeks. The greens were starting to get a little softer than we like on the surface and the roll wasn’t as good as we would like. Last night, all the greens were sand topdressed, brushed and rolled in a 3 hours time. In looking at the current radar, we are glad that we came in.
Next week, we will lightly verticut the greens in 2 directions, followed by a small tine aerification of the greens. The surfaces will be topdressed and healed in 5-7 days time.

Tee Aerification

2010-04-20T10:21:00.003-04:00

Today, we began a small (3/8”) core aerfication of the tee surfaces. Our tifeagle tees were becoming very anaerobic. (Water was unable to penetrate the turfgrass and get to the root system.) The cores will be cleaned off, the tees will be rolled and we will apply a granular fertilizer, 0-0-22 KMAG, for root strength and turf color. We should be completed by the end of the day tomorrow.

Purple Rough?

2010-04-12T10:12:00.002-04:00

Now that spring has arrived, (finally!) you may notice the grass taking on several different characteristics. Maybe you have noticed these things in previous years or maybe not, but I hope that the follow makes it more clear as to what you are seeing.
Southern grasses do have some similar traits to northern turfgrasses. This time of year in the north, poa annua, or poa as it is commonly called, begins to create seed heads for germination. Many times, poa will be a lime green, bunch type clump, amongst a bentgrass playing surface, which is more hunter green in color. These clumps are unwanted and Superintendents with pure bentgrass surfaces go to all sorts of extremes to remove this unwanted weed.
If you look around the golf course, we too, have clumps, only of bermudagrass that grow more aggressively, are more leggly and appear to have a purplish color to them. This grass is known as “Common Bermudagrass.” This strain of grass was used years and years ago until the typical, 419 Bermudagrass was genetically engineered. It is very easy to find in our roughs throughout the golf course and even spots in selected fairways. Just like poa, this strain of bermudagrass will stop seeding after 3-5 weeks. Until then, we will be mowing our rough a little shorter than we have all winter to try to minimize the height difference in the roughs.

Insect Control

2010-04-05T13:14:00.001-04:00

Last Night, the staff and I applied an insecticide called MERIT, which provides season long control of white grubs, but also 90 days of control against mole crickets. Merit 0.5 G is a systemic, granular product that contains the chemical Imidacloprid, impregnated on standard fertilizer granules. The secret to control of white grubs is to use a systemic product at a specific time of the year.
Our timing of this application is essential to the productivity of this product. Though yesterday was Easter, the plant does not know the date and the plant was ready for its fertility and also helps killing the grub population.
This application is another step in the proper timing and applications of cultural, mechanical and fertilizer practices that we are undertaking this summer to return the fairways to the conditions that our membership expects.

Fertilizer Ammendments

2010-04-01T09:23:00.000-04:00

Some of you may have noticed a fertilizer spreader on the fairways yesterday. We were applying a fertilizer product called “Kmag.” Kmag is beneficial because;

-K-Mag® GRANULAR is neutral in pH and does not contribute to additional soil acidity.
-Potassium, magnesium and sulfur are three basic nutrients essential for plant growth that are vital to profitable crop production.
- K-Mag® GRANULAR is an excellent source of potassium, magnesium and sulfur with a typical analysis of 22%

This is one of the many amendments that will be made to the fairways this summer to return the turfgrass to the dense, healthy plant that is needed for our fairways.

Fairway Vertidrain

2010-04-01T09:11:00.004-04:00

As we continue to vertidrain our fairways and prepare them to have the best possible growing conditions, we are quickly reminded just how compacted the soils really are. But, there have also been many objects buried underneath our fairways that are so shallow, that it restricts the turf from having any stability. At this point, we have removed old irrigation pipe, quick couplers and roots that we not removed from #12 fairway after the Hurricanes of 2005. Many of the objects were less than 5 inches deep in the soil. We are sure that we will continue to encounter many more objects as we continue to vertidrain the fairways. In the photos, you will see the roots that we removed from #12 fairway and always what these objects do to the tines.
At the time of this writing, fairways #1, #12, #15, #17 and #18 have all been completed.

New Tifeagle Nursery

2010-03-26T08:29:00.004-04:00

Some of you have probably noticed that there seems to be some sort of disturbance to the left side of Pine Tree’s main entrance. If you have not noticed, take a look next time you enter the main gates. What you will see is the beginning stages of a new, tifeagle nursery.
Pine Tree features 10 acres of tifeagle playing surfaces. The tifeagle is located on the greens, tees and approaches. Over the last 5 years, some areas of the tifeagle have become contaminated with “off type” grasses. These grasses play differently, grow differently and do not react very well to the low mowing heights that tifeagle requires. Because of the need to use the old nursery grass, located behind #3 green, last summer for tees and approaches, we extinguished all our tifeagle grass.
We decided to install the new nursery near the maintenance facility for several reasons;
1. Members and guests will not have to view an area where there is sod cut out of the ground.
2. We will not have to risk any golfers playing off of the nursery grass.
3. This will allow us to test fertilizers and chemicals without being in the way of golf.
4. The size of the nursery at the maintenance facility will be twice as big-9,000 square feet.
The old nursery, in the top picture, was rototilled and will be grassed in the near future and play as normal rough. The lower photo is the new nursery, prior to being sprigged. This project should be finished up within the next 2-3 weeks, with the intention of using the new grass by the end of June. Once grown in and healthy, we will begin replacing the “off types” that are located on our approaches and collars to ensure a clean, consistent look and one that is much easier to maintain.

The Deep tining has begun!

2010-03-24T14:53:00.006-04:00

Our last and final piece of new equipment arrived yesterday-a Redexim Vertidrain. The Redexim Company has been around for 30 years and is the leader in deep tine aerification. This piece of machinery will be become the foundation of our fairway aerification program.
This specific aerifier is much different than the typical aerifier that is typically used on putting surfaces. It has the ability to reach depths of 12”, compared to other aerifiers that only reach 3-4” into the soil. When the solid tine is inserted into the ground, the machine is designed to create a “kicking” motion, affecting more area and increasing how alluvial the soil is. The end result is a better, deeper root structure.
Why is this important, you ask? During the renovation in 2005, the fairways were stripped of the old 419 bermudagrass, rototilled to a depth of 4” and regrassed. This created a wonderful soil profile for the juvenile grass, but traditional core aerifications (3 – 4 inches deep) that followed never allowed the roots to get to a depth where they could withstand the stress of cart traffic, mowing and insects. Over the years, the soil has become “locked up” and severe compaction has settled in, along with the soil’s inability to flush salts and release beneficial nutrients. The top 3” provides a fairly good growing medium for the plant, but that is where it stops…literally. In many cases, the layer below the surface is so compacted, that a hammer was needed to insert a soil probe past a 3” depth.
We used our new Vertidrain machine on #15 fairway and were shocked as to how soft the soil was when we finished. We’re confident that that this is the beginning of the process to return the fairways to the healthy, dense, aggressive turf that we all expect and can be proud of.
Our intentions are to deep tine the fairways 3-4 times this summer, and continue with traditional core aerifications and verticuts. This, combined with continued Lime applications; to adjust our pH levels and proper fertilization, we’ll have a hard time controlling the growth.

Fairway Solid Tine Aerification

2010-03-16T13:48:00.002-04:00

We have begun the long and “painful” process of returning our fairways to the dense, healthy turfgrass that we all desire. Yesterday, the fairway on #1, #10, #17 and #18 were aerified using a ½” solid tine. With the amount of cart traffic our fairways experience and the long winter we have had so far, this process with help to minimize compaction and will encourage the turfgrass to grow out of its dormancy stage. During my employment at a previous golf course, I have found that this process helps “wake up” the turf and encourage new growth nearly 2 weeks earlier, than if we had not done anything. This solid tine aerification is only step 1 in our fairway cultural program that we have planned for this summer. Several other of the steps include;

-Core Tine aerification
-Deep Tine Aerification
-Verticutting
-MERIT fertilizer application for grub control
-TALSTAR fertilizer application for mole cricket control.
-Applying amendments, such as lime to raise our low pH.
-Applying KMAG to help with new rooting

Many of the previous stated steps will be done several times to ensure that we are able to return these fairways to the level that our membership deserves. The included photos are showing the machine that is actually doing the aerifying and also, an up close photo of what the fairway looks like after the holes have been made. The fairways are immediately mowed after the machine is finished to smooth out the fairway and cover the holes.

Men's Invitational Morning Preparations

2010-03-04T10:46:00.001-05:00

This morning was our first very early morning for the staff and we had to prepare for the Men’s Member Guest Invitational. All our machines are equipped with lights to aid with early mornings without sunlight. Also, the roof of the clubhouse has 2 floodlights that we utilize to ensure that we are able to see and perform our morning tasks.
As you can see, it takes a lot of man power to prepare an entire golf course before play tees off. If you look closely, you can see 2 mowers on #18 green and 1 on the approach, 2 mowers on #9 green and 1 on the approach, a mower on the putting green, a roller and mower on the putting green and a machine mowing the grass around the putting green. I would call it orchestrated madness! All the greens were cut twice and rolled once. The staff will be coming in on Thursday and Friday night to mow fairways, double roll, double cut greens, fill divots and do detail work.

New Equipment has arrived!

2010-03-03T11:04:00.005-05:00

As we prepare for the upcoming Men’s Invitational, we have received delivery of several new pieces of equipment. This equipment will help us continue to be efficient; finish jobs in a shorter time period, but also give us the flexibility to do a lot more important turfgrass practices.
The first piece of equipment pictured is the Toro ProCore 648. This is a turfgrass aerifier that is the fastest, widest and makes the cleanest hole of any aerifier on the market. When the golf course is closed, this aerifier will combine with our other Procore 648 and allow us to aerified more turf in a shorter period of time. The quicker the course can be aerified, the quicker that it will be healed. These machines will be vital in the summer, not just to aerified our shortcut surfaces, but also our green surrounds, cart traffic areas and in between bunkers. Our intentions are to aerify all the rough this summer at least twice. This will strengthen the plant to become more winter hardy, withstand cart traffic and also drain much better after rain events.
The next piece of equipment pictured is a Toro Workman. This vehicle is large utility vehicle and it will allow us to haul more debris off the course without having to use so many employees and so many small carts. This vehicle will also be designated to pull our topdressers and trailers, as well.
And now, the most important machine that we purchased. (Not pictured) We purchased a Redexim Vertidrain 7312. This piece of machinery is a solid tine aerifier that creates a aerification hole 8-10” deep. For those that don’t know, Pine Tree was built on an old dairy farm with farm type soils. Our fairways (and roughs) are in dire need of numerous deep tine aerifications. When the course was renovated in 2005, the old fairway grass was stripped and rototilled to a depth of 4”. The inconsistencies of our fairways are a direct result of this soil layering. The roots do not have the ability to drive themselves down deeper into the soil. Once the roots are stronger, the turf will become denser, we will use less water and the grass will perform much better during the winter months.
Having this machine on site, at all times will allow us to use it on fairways, roughs and all other playing surfaces several times a summer, with the end result being great, consistent, healthy fairways and roughs.
Lastly, we received collection baskets for our fairway mowers. (Not pictured) These baskets will collect the grass clippings each time that the fairways are mowed, reducing much of the clippings that congregate around the drains during rain events. Removing the clippings also helps in minimizing the thatch, cleans up divots and provides a much better presentation when mowing in the mornings.

Let there be light!

2010-02-19T08:37:00.002-05:00

As we are all aware, we struggle with grass coverage on several of our tees the border the property lines of the golf course. The tees on #3, #4, #8, #10, #12 and #18 have shade issues because of the surrounding foliage. Because of these difficulties, the staff has begun thin out any overgrowing plants, limbs or trees that prohibit the sunlight and air from these tee boxes. Recent studies have suggested that tifeagle needs a minimum of 5 hours of sunlight each day to maintain its health and photosynthesize. In the winter months, the back sections of the previously mentioned tees, struggle tremendously to remain healthy and vibrant. In an effort to save money and cut down on tree removal costs, we have started to do this type of work in house. The following is a photo of the Championship tee on #10. We lowered the hedge about 6 feet and removed about 2 feet of bulk. This has allowed for the morning sun to be visible on the tee nearly 2 hours earlier than with the hedge as it was.
This rings true for all grasses, including your home lawn. Sunlight is the MOST important factor in having a healthy stand of turfgrass. As you play your round, you may notice that we’ve also removed limbs that have inhibited turfgrass to grow. We’ve removed limbs to the right of #1 fairway, behind #2 green, #3 fairway, right of #9 green, near #13 tee and to the right of #17 fairway. We will continue to selectively prune trees, in house, to ensure that our membership has quality turfgrass throughout their golf course.

GCSAA Turf Conference in San Diego

2010-02-10T08:27:00.003-05:00

As some of you know, I am in San Diego attending the GCSAA Education Conference. The location of the conference moves around the country from year to year. Next year the conference will be held in Orlando and in 2012, the conference will be in Las Vega, NV. During my time here, I have attended classes titled "Advance Management of Ultradwaft Bermudagrass Golf Greens," Golf Course Renovation: What Can and Can't Be Done In-House," and lastly, "New Herbicides, Old Weeds." I will also be attending the Trade Show which features 250,000 square feet of new equipment, new pesticides, new technology and many other new tools marketed to help out Golf Course Superintendents.
Since my departure, David, Parker and the remaining staff have been busy as approaches have been needle tine aerified and top dressed, greens have been top dressed, fairways continued to be sprayed with fertilizers, amendments and wetting agents and weeds populations continued to be suppressed.
Upon my return, we will be putting out our pre-emergent herbicide which will greatly minimize our weed populations and continue our goal of having a weed free golf course. We will again apply a pre-emergent in May that will focus on our “summer weeds.” I will also report what I learned from the classes I took, the equipment I saw and how this is all extremely beneficial to Pine Tree Golf Club.

Collar Compaction

2010-01-25T10:21:00.001-05:00

If you been on the golf course in the last week, you may have noticed that we are starting to have several “wear areas” on some of the collars. We do all we can to minimize the thinning of our collars by using turning boards, mowing the collars at a slightly higher height with a different roller, along with additional weekly fertilizers. Many of these areas are located where golfers enter and exit the green. Unfortunately, so many of our greens have only 1 or 2 access points for golfers to approach the green and when we have 125 rounds a day, that's the potential for 500 foot steps (Walking on the green and walking off the green) over such isolated areas. If you look at these areas closely, you can see small, dime sized circles with healthy, green turfgrass in them. These areas were also core aerified in November to aid in this same issue. The small pieces of turfgrass you see are healthy, thriving turfgrass that have had room to grow because it is not severely compacted. Because of this, we actually PULLED a small core today to help alleviate some of the compaction in the areas. The holes have been filled with a soil amendment to help with the compaction. I expect the holes to be healed by the weekend.

Hydraulic Leak on #10

2010-01-20T14:20:00.003-05:00

The next time that some of you play, you may notice a long, black, shiny line running from west to east on #10 fairway. This, unfortunately, is from a dreaded hydraulic hose breaking. This event happened this morning while mowing fairways. IF there is anything positive about this, the operator noticed the leak after 1 pass instead of continue to mow. The area was immediately watered heavy with a hose, aerified and watered again. The initial watering removes a lot of the oil OFF the plant; the aerification removes some of the damage plant. The second watering allows for any remaining oil to wash off the plant, down and away from the plant. We will have to wait and see what happens to this area, as it will receive extra fertilizers to aid it in its recovery.

2010-01-18T11:32:00.000-05:00

It’s a busy day here at Pine Tree Golf Club. The weather is perfect and we’re busy at work accomplishing very important tasks on the golf course.
As we have in the past, we needle tine aerified greens this morning. We used a ¼” solid tine with creates a very small hole, but does not remove any material. This was followed by a light topdressing of the greens in 2 directions, a brush and a roll. This is procedure and cultural practice is the foundation to our greens program. Without the necessary aeriration, we would not be able to mow as frequently, mow as low and defiantly not be able to roll everyday, as we currently do. With the forecasted temperatures for this week, the holes should be healed over in several days time.
Also, we resodded a “finger” on the front bunker on #2. This bunker receives a lot of wear and tear from golfers walking down the finger to enter the bunker. Also, years of hitting sand shots out and blowing sand resulted in nearly 3 inches of sand that the turf was trying to survive in. This sod will establish quickly and provide a much better presentation.

A good day to watch football...with a blanket and cup of soup!

2010-01-10T09:29:00.007-05:00

For those of you that don't know, I am originally from Michigan and over the years, my discontentment for cold weather has driven me to work in the southern states on warm season grasses. The weather as of late has reminded me of Thanksgiving time back home! Many cities in our area have experience record or near record lows and some of the coldest weather in over 20 years. As of right now, Palm Beach County is currently under a “Wind Chill Warning” and a “Freeze Warning,” two warnings I never thought to experience this far south.
What does all this mean for the condition of the golf course? Well, as you can see by the photos associated with this posting, the vibrant green color of the golf course is now a grayish, dull green. We sprayed several things onto our putting surfaces and approaches to help maintain their color and they have proven worth while. Our current soil temps are slightly below 55 degrees, resulting in "unhappy" growing conditions for our turfgrass. The 5 day forecast and Farmers Almanac predict our temperatures will be back to normal by the weeks end with the long range forecast predicting above normal temperature. When our normal temperatures return, so will our color. 10-14 days from now, I suspect that the golf course will have a much better “green” color than it currently has. We do not allow carts or equipment on our turfgrass when the tempratures are bleow 38 degrees. This is a number that we are comfortable with that unsures that even the "coldest" spots on the golf course are above freezing. What happens when carts or equipment drive on areas of turf that ARE NOT dormant, but rather frozen, is the weight of the cart causes the cell walls of the turfgrass plant to shatter, resulting is a much delayed greenup and in some cases, dead turfgrass.
Because our turfgrass isn’t growing or healing, this puts an even higher importance on fixing ball marks, filling in divots and being aware of where we are driving carts, my staff included. Thanks for your understanding.

Ballmarks, Ballmarks, Ballmarks.....

2010-01-04T11:35:00.003-05:00

As we have had our first REAL cold front move through and the growth of our grass has slowed to a snail’s pace, the importance to repair ballmarks is essential to maintain the firm, smooth putting surfaces that our membership enjoys. As a golfer, there is nothing more disappointing that having to put through an unfixed or improperly fixed ballmark. Every morning, our staff spends several minutes fixing unrepaired ballmarks. The importance of this is as follows:
-An unrepaired ballmark takes twice as long to heal than a properly fixed ballmark.
-A tuft of turf that a ball makes CAN get scalped by a mower if it is unfixed.
-Repairing ball marks isn't just important for the health of the greens and for smooth- rolling putts. It isn't just a matter of etiquette but it is our obligation to help take care of the golf courses we play. Repairing ball marks is a big part of that obligation to the game.

The adjacent photos are of our #9 green taken this morning. Each red flag represents an unfixed ballmark. Thank you for your help!

Bunker Work

2009-12-28T13:56:00.003-05:00

The bunkers at Pine Tree are such an important feature to the how Pine Tree was designed to play. Mr. Wilson placed many of our bunkers on both sides of landing areas, in front of greens, and in many cases, on both sides of the greens. Because of this unique feature, we believe that it is important that the bunkers play fairly, with proper sand depths, bunker faces that allow the ball to roll back to the floor and a definitive line to know if your ball is in or out of a bunker. As you may have seen today or will throughout the week, our staff is going through each of our 128 bunkers and adjusting sand depths, shifting sand from exit points of bunkers, covering liners and even in some cases, removing liners. (Several liners were improperly installed, resulting in a very poor “concave” look to the faces of the bunkers.)
Please understand that the bunkers might be slightly softer in areas where sand was adjusted, but that we’re doing everything that we can do to firm the areas with hand tamps and the tires from of bunker raking machine. The pictures are of our staff in action!

Tee Aerification

2009-12-23T05:50:00.002-05:00

On Monday, all our tifeagle tees were aerified using a 3/8" tine. Aerification relieves soil compaction. Our playing surfaces get inundated with foot traffic and machine traffic, resulting in soil compaction and high bulk density. Any type of aerification can aide in this, whether it be core or solid tine aerification.
Aerification aides in soil percolation, healthier roots and gas exchange. Whether a solid tine aerification is performed or a hollow tine aerification, the holes that are left behind allow water to get into the subsurface of the playing surface much easier and through to the soil profile. When there is an open hole in the aerified surface, gases that CAN become harmful to the turfgrass are allowed to be released from the soil. Our tees were becoming slightly anaerobic, meaning the thatch layer was thick enough to not allow for the water to penetrate the surface and get down to where we want it-THE ROOTS
Aerification allows for healthier, stronger roots. An open aerification hole is the best way for roots to take in water, fertilizers and other important nutrients. This is when roots become stronger and deeper, resulting in healthy, less stressed turfgrass.

Turning Boards

2009-12-16T06:07:00.003-05:00

Why would a golf course need plastic sheets placed around its green edges? Well, as we approach the winter months and temperatures start to drop into the 70’s and below, our turfgrass growth slows dramatically. As a result, it’s unable to recover as fast from wear associated with foot traffic and mechanical stress caused by mowers and rollers. Turning boards, as we call them, are placed slightly off of both sides of the green where the mowers will be turned. We use these boards in our higest traffic areas and where we must turn our machines in tight areas. (Front of #3, front of #5, back left of #6 to name a few.) The boards provide a cushion for the grass, resulting in less mechanical damage and a more dense and healthy turfgrass. This practice adds about 30 additional minutes to the greens mowing operation, but provides a much better playing surface.

"V DAY," Venting and Verticutting

2009-12-07T10:59:00.005-05:00

We decided to lightly verticut our fairways this morning. Verticutting is the process of removing some of the vertical growth and organic matter (thatch) that occurs around a grass plant, but also provides several potential benefits for the turf. It can:
- force the remaining turf to stand up straight;
- opens the turf canopy to allow in more sunlight;
- allows the plant to put more energy into growing upright shoots instead of lateral shoots.
In the top photo, you can see how much material is removed by verticutting. This pales in comparison as to how aggressive we are in the summer, but the benefits are the same. The lower photo is a fresh mowed fairway after it has been verticut. We followed the verticutting by mowing the fairways in 2 directions, to ensure that we get a quality cut.
We also finished solid tining the greens and collars that we has started last night. If you recall, we did this same process 5 weeks ago and we hope to continue every 4-5 weeks during the winter months. We used 3/8" solid tines, sand topdressed driectly behind, rolled and mowed. The aerification holes are almost invisible! With the amount of double cutting and rolling that we perform, it is vital that we maintain the health of our turfgrass.

Square Tee Boxes

2009-12-03T09:25:00.004-05:00

Pine Tree is very unique in the fact that we feature tifeagle tees, as well approaches. Tifeagle is a grass typically used on putting green surfaces and is required to be maintained at a low mowing height. Because tifeagle is usually used for a putting green, its growth habits are less aggressive than the 419 bermudagrass that is on our fairways and rough. That being said, our square, tifeagle tees require bi-weekly to monthly edging, depending on the time of year. Since the renovation in 2005, the tees have lost their tight, straight line edge because the 419 has been allowed to grow in without proper edging. As you play the course, you will see that several tees that have been edged back and we are working on edging the remaining tees. The tees that have been edge have a laser straight edge and even a small gap where the tifeagle and 419 meet. In time and continued edging, the tifeagle will grow out and fill in these voids.
Thankfully, we have several staff members who have worked for concrete companies and are very familiar with edging and producing straight lines. Because we do not believe that the yardage plates on the tees have moved over the years, were are using those as a guide. A string line is being used as a guide and the edger has been equipped with a rod to following the string line. The pictures show the edger in action and what the finished product looks like. It’s quite a difference and creates a nearly perfectly lined tee.

5" of Rain!

2009-11-27T05:59:00.006-05:00

With a day to dry out and a cool front that ushered in a steady breeze and cooler temperatures, we will be running carts 90 degrees throughout the course today. We received a little over 5" of rain on Wednesday, our first REAL rainfall in nearly 6 weeks. The ponds are once again near capacity, but because of the amount of rain in such a short period of time, we had a lot of our pine straw beds and coquina cart paths wash into our drains or surrounding turfgrass. The maintenance staff will begin working on restoring these areas today by dispersing the rain gathered pine straw and removing any unwanted coquina. Extra material has already been ordered to replace any lost pine straw and coquina. The red mulch that frames the flower beds around the clubhouse grounds will also be addressed and new material will be applied where the rain waters removed the mulch. We will be working diligently to restore these areas as soon as possible.

Course Closure

2009-11-25T10:22:00.002-05:00

At 10am this morning, we closed the golf course. At this point, we have received 3" of rain with a lot of red and yellow on the radar, yet to come. There are areas where the pinestraw and coquina has wash into drains and there is puddling in nearly every fairway. We have already ordered pinestraw and coquina to replace what was lost and my Assistants and I are working on our staff schedules to allow the course to be as clean and playable as possible for the remainder of the holiday weekend. Thank you for your understanding.

2009-11-24T12:34:00.001-05:00

There are a few tees at Pine Tree that continue to be a nuisance to the maintenance staff. These tees include both tees on #10, the right side tee box on #17, the back of #12, the back of #4 and the back of #8. The common problem with most of these is too much shade or not enough direct sunlight. Obviously, these tees require more delicate care than the other tees. This morning, we aerified the problem areas with a 3/8” tine. The aerification was followed by an application of a soil amendment named “PROFILE.” Profile is a premium soil amendment for sand-based root zones. It works continuously in the soil to solve and prevent problems associated with compaction, poor drainage and poor water and nutrient retention. Profile Greens Grade mix meets the specifications outlined by the USGA. After this application, the holes were then filled with sand, brushed and rolled.

Pre Thanksgiving Monday

2009-11-23T10:53:00.002-05:00

Just a brief update as to what we are accomplishing today.
1. We will be sand topdressing greens with our fertilizer spreaders

2. We will be sand topdressing approaches and brushing the sand into the canopy.

3. Classy Cut will finish prunning and cleaning up the palms on the Back 9.

4. We will be flymowing bunker faces and surrounds, resulting in SOME footprinting, but not nearly as much as last Monday.

5. If time allows, we will granular fertilize the greens with a 0-0-50 Polyon to help strengthen the roots.

Palm Tree Trimming

2009-11-16T11:41:00.004-05:00

The last 2 weeks have been quite breezy in south Florida resulting in a lot of extra handwatering, but also a lot of unwanted debris on the golf course, particularly from our palm trees. Pine Tree features 3 types of palms that are native to Florida-Sabal Palms, Queen palms and Royal Palms. Much like leaf bearing trees, palms also lose their frawns each year. In our case, the end result is a lot of unwanted, dead material that is scattered throughout the golf course, particularly when it is breezy. In fact, we have lost several palms in the last month because of the wind. With most of the weight of the palm tree being on top of the tree, this creates a very unstable situation during a breezy day. To help in minimizing the about of debris, tree loss and the overall health of the palm trees, all of the palms located within the boundaries of the golf course are being trimmed today. Classy Cut is removing dead material, coconuts and seeds that are located at the base of the palm frawns. The look of the palms is much cleaner and the danger of the dead material falling on to golfers or carts is greatly minimized. The following is a before and after photo of just how much debris is being removed.

Today's Maintenance Practices

2009-11-09T10:48:00.002-05:00

This morning, our maintenance staff is sand topdressing approaches and greens. Because our approaches and greens are the same grass, similar cultural practices are performed on each. Since July, our approaches have been aerified 5 times with the largest tine on the market. We topdress approaches and surrounds bi-weekly and handwater daily. As we continue with bi-weekly topdressing and core aerification of the approaches, they’ll firm up and allow our players more options around the greens. Our goal is to allow our players the option of chipping or putting the ball from the approach areas. Additionally, as the approaches firm up, short shots may release onto the putting surface.

The amount of sand applied to our greens is a direct correlation to the rate our plant is growing and the accumulation of organic matter. Cooler temperatures combined with growth regulators limit the amount of growth we have on our greens. Today and throughout the winter season we will apply kiln dried sand to the greens using fertilizer spreaders. By using fertilizer spreaders the amount of sand applied is limited. The kiln dried sand drops directly into the turf canopy and is almost invisible to the eye but very important to firmness and ball roll.

Monday Closures

2009-11-03T12:39:00.002-05:00

Reminder, the course is closed on Mondays until 10:00am. At that time, play will go off of ONLY #1 tee, until further notice. The golf course is open for play, but in reality, it’s a day of rest for our turfgrass. Because our turf grows 12 months of the year, it is critical that we continue to perform routine cultural practices to ensure the health and longevity of our playing surfaces. Our maintenance staff uses this extra time on Monday mornings to perform these cultural practices. In order to maintain the playing conditions that we desire and expect, our turf must be pampered and treated on Monday mornings.
What type of playing conditions can you expect on Mondays?
GREENS: Greens will not be mowed, as studies have shown that it is very beneficial to allow the turf to rest, without the mechanical damage of mowing. Greens will also be topdressed EVERY Monday. As the growth of the plant begins to slow down, we will apply less topdressing sand, resulting in the sand being less noticeable. Not mowing greens on Monday also leaves the leaf blade slightly longer, allowing the sand to fall into the canopy more easily. Depending on temperature, greens and collars may be “vented” prior to topdressing.
We also try our best to spray our wetting agents, insecticides and soil amendments on Monday. Softer conditions may result because of the need to have these products watered in.
BUNKERS: Bunkers will be trimmed, flymowed and checked for sand depths. There will not be any routine raking of the bunkers, resulting in the possibility of unwanted lies in the bunkers.
TEES & APPROACHES: In most cases, tees and/or approaches WILL NOT be mowed on Mondays. Because our tees and approaches are the same turfgrass as our greens, we treat these in a similar manner. We will topdress tee boxes and approaches every 2-3 weeks and brush in the sand. These surfaces will also be spot aerified throughout the winter season.
Our turfgrass is growing, strengthening and producing 12 months out of the year. This means that we must continue to do some of the same practices that take place during the summer months to make sure that our turf can handle the stresses of day to day mowing, rolling and foot traffic and perform to the level that our membership expects. Bottom line is that Mondays may not be the best day to entertain guests nor expect optimal playing conditions. The work that is performed on Mondays allows up to have outstanding surfaces the other 6 days of the week."