Man Is a Dog's Best Friend

I recently came accross an article on the USGA website titled 'Man Is a Dog's Best Friend' and I could not agree more with what the article has to say.  I bring my dog Benni to work everyday, Benni is an Austrailian Shepard mix that is 100% deaf, and probably 50% blind.  many times when I introduce myself to new members or see golfers away from the facility they great me with 'your that guy with that deaf dog.'  Having a deaf dog has its perks as well as its downfalls.  Some of the perks include being able give him sign language signs around golfers so I do not have to talk to him while people are hitting, I can sneak out of the office while he is sleeping, and its funny to watch people whistle at him and he just walks the other direction.
Benni is the most obediant dog that I have ever owned, he will sit in my golf cart all day if I need him to, he will stay in the shop yard chasing maintenance equipment while I am out on the course, but it is difficult when I am in a hurry and he is 50 yards up the fairway marking his teritory, I can't just whistle to get him to follow me.
I still laugh when I tell golfers that Benni is deaf, and the first thing they do is whistle at him, acting like he will be able to hear them.
Even though Benni is deaf he is the best listener that I know, and he makes my bad days good, and my good days even better.

Cart Path reconstruction is finaly complete

Eric Porter working his magic in the skid steer

Over the past year we have been converting our road base cart paths to the gray crusher fines pathways.  In the last 12 months we have replaced the paths on 2, 7, 8, 13, 15, 17, and 18.  The path on 13 was the largest undertaking because we needed to re-route the path to new areas that were better for cart traffic and out of the line of sight from the tee complex.  We still have some seeding to do along the edges but it is a great relief to have  the bulk of this project completed.

the new path on 13 after the box blade and before the skid steer

 We also rebuilt the cart exit point by 17 green to better accommodate the large amount of traffic that this pinch point receives. The new paths will be a little bumpy for the next couple of week, but as we continue to smooth them out with the box blade they will get better and better.

17 cart path exit area during construction

Deer fly control

With so much open space and water on the golf course we have a had a bad deer fly problem over the past couple of years.  These are the fly that have a triangular appearance, and they will follow you for a great distance then bite you multiple times.  We are trying a deer fly traps on 15 to see if we can help reduce the population.  This trap is designed to be chemical free, and will trap horse fly, deer fly, and yellow fly.  Next time you are on the 15th hole look into the native to the left of the green and you will see the trap.

Pump house repair, again.

Last week we discovered a leak just outside our pump house, to our surprise it was more than just a leak.  Our pump house has a steel pipe that comes out of the pump, angels down, and attaches to a 12" PVC mainline for the irrigation system (Z pipe).  When we dug up the junction between the steel and the PVC we found a hole lot of corrosion.  So much corrosion that we were able to easily stick a screwdriver into the steel pipe.  We are lucky that Landscapes Unlimited, the company that owns the Broadlands, is one of the best irrigation companies in the business, and that they were working in town at Columbine Country Club.  LUI came up and made our pump house repair look very easy, even though it was a very big job.

screwdriver in 1/4" thick 12" steel pipe

Once we were able to get the steel pipe out of the ground we found a couple of holes, and multiple areas that were very close to becoming holes.

hole in steel Z pipe

pitting in Z pipe

grove in pipe

LUI decided to replace the entire steel pipe with a section of HDPE(high-density polyethylene) pipe.  HDPE pipe is beginning to replace PVC in the irrigation world due to its versatility, strength, and ease of use. 

New HDPE pipe installed

view of flange on new HDPE pipe

HDPE pipe running out of pump house into thrust block

 We were able to pressure up the pump house yesterday morning and begin to water the course again.  I would like to thank everyone involved from Landscapes Unlimited and my crew for working together and making our 'major' problem look like a small problem.

Drainage project

3 fairway has been our most challenging fairway since the golf course opened 13 years ago.  With very high sodium and bicarbonate levels, along with the heavy clay soils is has been very difficult to get a good stand of grass in some areas of the fairway.  While we have been able to make progress on these areas over the past few years, the thin turf in the fairway is still not up to our standards.  So the next step in trying to improve these areas is to add drainage.  This drainage is being installed to try and intercept ground water, allowing the surface to drain better, which will allow us to flush more sodium from the surface and giving us better growing conditions.

While adding drainage seems simple it is a very labor intensive job.  We first come in with a trencher and create a trench about 5" wide and 12" deep.  We then come back in and remove all the loose soil from inside the trench and on the surface.  The next step is to add 4" slotted drain pipe and fill the trench with pea gravel to add in collecting more water.  We will cap the drain lines with sand. 
There will be 800 feet of drainage installed on 3 fairway, 100 feet installed on 7 fairway, and another 150 feet installed on 15 fairway.

Mr President

I was recently elected president of the Rocky Mountain Regional Turfgrass Association.  This Association is responsible for putting together an educational conference and trade show each December for people that work in the green industry in the Rocky Mountain region. The RMRTA not only helps provide education for the golf course superintendents, but also helps the Rocky Mountain Sod Growers Association, Colorado Sports Turf managers Association, Colorado Association of Lawn Care Professionals, and Colorado State University.  I am very grateful to be a part of such a great organization.
Please visit the RMRTA website for more information.

Winter Projects

With all the great snow cover this winter we have been keeping ourselves pretty busy in the maintenance shop.  I always get the question from golfers, friends, and family, what do you do in the winter time?  Well this winter we have rebuilt the dumpster doors for the dumpster holding area at the clubhouse.  We have sanded and preserved the driving range benches.  We have also vinyl guarded all of the bunker rakes (video coming soon), flag sticks, 150yd poles, and repainted all of the traffic control blocks.

dumpster door during rebuild

dumpster door finished

driving range bench before sanding

driving range bench after sanding

Coyotes

Over the past year there has been an increase in coyote activity on the golf course.  This activity can be contributed to the explosion of the rabbit, vole, and goose population on the course.  While I enjoy having the coyotes on the course because of there ability to reduce our rodent and bird population, they can also cause harm to pets and humans.  Once our snow finally melts, please read the brochures posted at the clubhouse and the restroom stations on the course to protect you and your pets.

Goose Control

Now if we could only figure out how to get our greens to bounce geese off of them like this, we wouldn't have a goose problem.    Geese are our biggest problem here at the Broadlands from November until March, eating holes in the greens, defecating in the fairways, and just being in the way of your golf ball.  With 11 lakes and over 100 acres of tasty turf the geese love our course, during the peek goose season we will have approximately 2,000 geese on the golf course at one time.  Every year we try new techniques to try and reduce the goose population but with no success.  The best thing we can hope for is a lot of deep snow cover and coyote activity this winter.
Our new techniques for this season include

• rope install along a few lakes to make it more difficult for the geese to get in and out of the water
• Spraying an organic grape seed and mint extract along lake banks
• goose lights in the lakes on 5 and 15

Greens Aerification

You can feel the chill in the air, and see the leaves turning from green to a nice golden yellow. You wake up with the sun at 6:30, you grab your golf bag and head to the golf course hoping to get in a quick 18 holes before breakfast.  But when you get to the course you hear that the greens have been aerified and the pro behind the counter might as well told you that your dog had been hit by a run away golf cart.  I know most golfers cringe at the sound of aerification, but it is a necessary evil if you want firm, smooth, and healthy putting greens next season.  The aerification process allows us to reduce thatch (part of what makes a green feel spongy), increase water infiltration, get much needed oxygen to the root system, and get nutrients to the roots.  The greens should take about 10 to 14 days to fully heal from this aerification, and once they have completely healed there is still 4 to 6 weeks of good golf left in the season. There are a few pictures attached as well as a quick video showing the aerifier in action.

view of aerifier pulling cores from 4 green

core harvester picking up cores

Brandon cleaning up cores from green

Bridge Repair

If you have been on the course over the past few weeks you should have noticed that the ride across our bridges is much smoother and quieter.  We resurfaced the bridges with new wood planks to make travel across our bridges much safer.  The old planks are the original wood planks from when the course was built 12 years ago and have seen better days.These bridges have had a lot of traffic over those 12 years, we average 44,000 rounds of golf per year with about 80% of those rounds riding carts, this equates to just over 211,000 cart trips over the bridges, not including employee trips in the marshal carts, beverage carts, and maintenance vehicles.  Luckely the support system of the bridge is still in good condition so we only needed to repair the surface. We are still working on the side support improvements, but most of the damage to the side rail is superficial and will be repaired as we have time.

old bridge board next to a new bridge board

Nick using the hammer drill to drive new 10" lag bolts into the bridge from 9 green

Nation Wide Heat, Flooding, and Drought

I came across this article today on the Golf Course Superintendents website that addresses the heat, drought, and flooding and unusual weather that has struck the nation over the past couple of years.  While we had great turf growing conditions last year, the course was not as lucky this year.

http://www.gcsaa.org/Newsroom/News-Releases/2011/July/Persistent-heat%2C-drought-and-flooding-strain-golf-courses-nationally.aspx

To much of a good thing

disease issues on 7 fairway

My last few posts have focused around all the rain that Mother Nature has been supplying the golf course, but we have had to much of a good thing.  Our fairways are suffering from the effects of to much water and extreme heat and humidity.  Our issues began when there a was standing water on the golf course from the 5" of rain we received two weeks ago, and then the air temperatures soared to around 100 degrees. The high temperature in effect caused the standing water to get hot enough to overheat and kill the turf.  Then once the humidity began to rise from our normal 15 percent to the upper 60's the disease issues began to emerge.

disease pressure in 10 approach

We are doing everything possible to get these dead areas in the fairways back, from spiking to increase air and water movement, to overseeding with ryegrass to help fill in the areas as quickly as possible.  As long as Mother nature cooperates for the next couple of weeks we should see a full recovery just in time for some great late summer golf.

The dreaded afternoon thumderstorm

Storm that dropped 1.25" of rain on the course

Over the past week we have had heavy rains hit the golf course every afternoon. 0.6" of rain fell Wednesday night, followed by 0.64" Thursday, 1.25" Friday, 0.26" Saturday, 0.36"Sunday, and 0.28" Monday night. 

18 greenside bunkers washed out after 1.25" rain

18 greenside bunkers after repair

The crew has had to repair bunker washouts every day for the last 6 days. This is a long and very physically demanding process that consists of pushing the washed out sand from the bottom of the bunker back onto the face of the bunker. Then the crew works on proper sand depth and compaction. The final step is to hand rakes all the edges and spin the bunker to smooth out the plow marks. The average bunker will take about 30 minutes to fix with two workers, with 68 bunkers, the process can take about 70 man hours to complete. Having to do this 6 times in the last 6 days has been tough on the maintenance crew (420 hours). If you happen to see anyone from the maintenance staff on the course please make sure to thank them for all of there hard work to keep the bunkers in playable condition this last week.

3 fairway

3 fairway in late April 2011

3 fairway in mid June

While 3 fairways turf conditions are not at an acceptable level we have seen improvement over the past 30 days.  Over the winter we experienced a large area of turf loss about 250 yards from the green due to a multitude of reasons, dry winter, extreme cold temperatures, hard clay soils, high salt levels, southern facing slope.  This areas was large enough that the only way we could get turf in this area again was to aggressively treat the soil with gypsum to help aid in the flushing of salts from the soil, overseed with ryegrass, fertilize, water, and play the waiting game.  We will continue to aggressively nurse this area back to health and we should see even more improvement over the next couple of weeks.

Clubhouse planter bed



Flower bed construction by chipping green

Last year we completed the flower bed construction by the chipping green, the project was such a big success that we decided to continue our planter bed project to the other flower beds by the driving range. This project took us much longer than expected due to all the heavy rains and cold temperatures in the month of May, but since the weather has cooperated over the past several weeks were able to finish the project. I have included some before and after picture below so you can the dramatic difference that these beds have made to our driving range facility. Once the flowers are planted and and in full bloom the hard work that was put into these planter bed will really pay off.

Flower bed by driving range after bushes were removed

Flower bed by putting green during construction

Completed planter bed by ball machine

By the number:
798 blocks weighing 35 pound each
300 feet of slotted drain tile
30 cubic yard of topsoil

Vandalism



14 bathroom graffiti

Over the past couple of weeks the golf course has been seeing much more vandalism than normal.  We have had multiple holes dug and divots taken out of our greens, bunkers with obscene images drawn in them, and to cap it all off we found our bathroom on 14 with graffiti all over the walls.  The restroom will be closed until we can strip the graffiti off the walls and repaint.  If you see anyone out on the golf course after dark please call the police.  We need to catch the person responsible for this and show that this type of behavior will not be tolerated.

Front Entrance Sign Landscape

We finally completed the front entrance sign landscaping project.  When you were traveling east on 144th ave you were not able to see the Broadlands entrance sign until you were past the sign.  This is a before picture of what the sign looked like while driving by the golf course.

entrance sign before

Now below is the after picture once we removed all the overgrown bushes, reshaped the rock beds, and added more area for perennial flowers.  All the flowers have been planted and in a couple weeks the sign should stand out a lot more than it has in the past.

entrance sign after

Golf Course Design

I came across this article in the May issue of Golf Course Industry Magazine that highlights Rick Phelps, the designer of the Broadlands Golf Course. The article is a very interesting and has some very good information on the future of golf course design, and how Rick designs courses for the average golfer. Oh yeah, and the Broadlands gets a small mention in the article as well.
Familiar Footsteps

Rain, Rain, and more Rain!

15 cart path under water

 One thing you will learn about this blog is a Superintendent is never happy with the weather, if the sun is out  we are complaining about how long it has been since we have had a good soaking rain.  When it rains, we will complain that the course is getting to much water, and it needs to dry out.  But this year has been to the extreme, after going 93 days this spring with no measurable rain fall, we have received 4.05" of rain in the last seven days.  With 1.75" of that rain coming in just over an hour yesterday afternoon. 


5 wetlands overflowing

 We are lucky that our course drains very well after a big rain event like this, it just takes a little time.  The worst part about heavy flooding rain events is the damage the water does to our bunkers.  Our crew will be working to repair our 64 bunkers today, and we will all be waiting for the sun to make an appearance again to help dry out the golf course.

bunker repair on #4

Golf Cart Traffic

one cart good, one cart bad

While the dry winter was great for the golfer, it was not great for our high traffic areas around tees, greens, and bunker edges.  The only way that we are going to get these areas back into acceptable conditions is to do the best we can to keep carts off of these areas. 
One of the most frustrating parts of my job is controlling golf cart traffic.  Many times when I am putting up ropes and signage I wonder why would someone drive there cart in this area.  When you talk to most golfers about why they park there cart just off the path is to make it easier for carts going the opposite direction to pass them (beverage cart, marshal, maintenance staff).  Most golfers experience traffic on only 2 holes per round of golf but they park the cart off the path on every tee and green complex.  Lets keep our golf course is great condition and keep all four wheels on the path around tees and greens.