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.

Golf at Altitude

Golf at Altitude of 18 green

Altitude Sorts & Entertainment was filming our featured episode of 'Golf at Altitude' this morning at the golf course.  We have been fortunate to have the program feature our golf course for the past 5 seasons.  The program has been a great advertising tool for our golf course and helps attract golfers that might no usually play at the Broadlands.  The filming of the thirty minute episode usually takes four to five hours of time on the golf course to shoot.  Follow this link to the Golf at Altitude website for air times.

Tee Size

2 gold tee scalping

Over the past couple of seasons some of our tee boxes have been getting smaller due to improper mowing.  This is a training issue that arises when the mower operator does not want to scalp the rough so they cheat there cleanup lap in a couple inches.  Cheating in once or twice is not a big deal but when it happens for a period of a couple seasons we can loose significant teeing ground.

  Last week I went out and mowed the tees back to the original size and shape that they are intended to be.  While most tee boxes only needed a minor adjustment, #2 and #11 tees needed to be widened by three to four feet. This scalped brown turf will be noticeable and unsightly for a couple of weeks but once the areas heal in the tees will be in better playing condition due to more teeing ground available to use.

Pump house issues

Motor being lifted out of pump house

Our pump house is equipped with three 75 horsepower pumps that can supply up to 1900 gallons per minute to the irrigation system of the golf course.  The pumps tend to work very well but with thousands of hours of use each year the bearings on the motors can wear out.  This happened about two weeks ago to one of the motors in the pump house.  With the pumps weighing approximately 1500 pounds each, it is no simple task to remove the motors when they need to be repaired.  Arapahoe Pumping Systems is always willing to help us when it comes to big repairs like this.  The motor was removed last Tuesday and was repaired and reinstalled yesterday morning.



The big issue we run into when a motor goes bad is that it takes about 40% longer to irrigate the course at night with one less pump in operation.  Most early morning golfers had probably noticed the irrigation running a bit longer for the last week, but lucky for us is that the bearings went out now as apposed to during the heat of the summer.



Spider Mites

circle caused by spider mite damage

As the rough on the golf course begins to green up you will notice some patches of brown grass on the mounds that appear to be in the form of large circles.  In years past I used to think that these patches were caused by these areas of turf being exposed to the wind and sun more than the areas around them due to early snow melt.  But last winter I attended an education seminar where Dr. Tony Koski from Colorado State University educated Superintendents on winter damage and showed us a picture very similar to this one.  While these areas will look undesirable for a couple of more weeks, once the temperatures increase the turf will out compete the mites and no damage will be visible.


close up of might damage. Look close and you can see some mites.

 A good test to see if the turf has been damaged by Mother Nature or mites is take a piece of white paper and brush it on the grass along the brown edge of the circle.  If the paper comes up clean you have damage from Mother Nature, if the paper has red streaks on it you have spider mite damage!

When the weather report is wrong

Wednesday night the low temperature was forcasted to be 36 degrees so we decided to water our fairways and driving range tee complex.  When I arrived at work the temperature was down to 22 degrees, 14 degrees colder than forcasted, causing a nice ice show on the golf course. During the summer growing season we are always excited when the weather forcast is wrong and the air temperature is colder than expected, but in the spring when it can cause ice wherever we ran water the night before and cause a 3 hour ice delay for our golfers. 

Mainline Break on 8 Fairway

sod ripple from mainline break

 When we came into work on Thursday morning we were greeted by this beautiful site 100 yards off the tee in 8 fairway.  We are very lucky to have a good automated irrigation system at the golf course, the only problem is when something breaks it usually does it in dramatic fashion.  This leak was caused by a junction point where our mainline feeds a 2" lateral line, the saddle that was used to supply water to the 2" lateral failed. 


hole created when mainline broke on 8 fairway

 As you can see by the second picture there was a lot of water flowing from this pipe.  The irrigation system was operating at 120 psi at the time of the break, the 6" mainline has the potential of having 1,000 gallons per minute flow at that pressure. We did not have to do very much digging at all to repair this pipe, the hole you see was completely dug by the water .  The hole was large enough to fit an entire golf cart in.  One positive to this break is that all the water from the pipe flowed directly back into our main irrigation pond on 8 so no water was lost due to this problem.

Tree prunning

One nice thing about having an assistant that spent 7 years working for a tree care company is that he loves to prune trees.  Eric spent his winter going hole by hole pruning every tree on the golf course.  The most noticeable improvement is on 11 tee box, where Eric removed all of the Russian Olive trees and thinned the Cottonwoods on the south side of the tee.  This widened the tee corridor on 11 significantly, making the tee shot much less intimidating.

The best thing about how Eric has pruned the trees is that most people will notice that something looks different, but you can't put your finger on it.  Thanks Eric for all of your hard work this winter!

More goose damage

Turf damage on 7 fairway from geese

The snow has finally melted and we have been able to get out to begin cleaning up the damage left by our flock of Canada geese.  When we get a large snow events along with a lot of wind the course is left with small areas of exposed turf while the rest of the course can be under a foot of snow.  When we have these exposed areas of turf the geese will begin to feed on these areas until there is no grass left to eat.  This picture from 7 fairway is a perfect example of there feeding pattern.  While the grass has been chewed down to the crown, we should see a 100% recovery from this damage once the grass begins to grow a month from now.

Golf Cart Maintenance

Our shop has turned into a golf cart repair shop

The month of February is when Matt, our mechanic, services the 72 golf carts in our fleet.  While Matt is responsible for repairing damaged golf cars during the entire year, this is the time when Matt really takes care to thoroughly go through each cart and makes all the necessary repairs to keep our fleet running smooth all summer. While one of the most important jobs Matt does to the carts is change the oil and filters, he is also looking to repair bald tires, dead batteries, broken hubcaps, suspension issues,  lubricating all joints, and repairing any body damage that my have occurred during the year.  With the golf course enjoying over 41,000 rounds of golf in 2010 the golf carts can take a beating and there are many dented fenders that need to be repaired.  Matt can service about 4 carts per day on average, so our shop will be golf cart central for the next 3 weeks.

Vole Damage

Typical vole damage in rough (B. Guddat of NV from volecontrol.com)

Recently I was reading Golf Course Management magazine (GCM) and came across an interesting article titled Voles, voles and more voles!.  We have a serious problem on our golf course with voles due to the amount of undisturbed native areas around the golf course.  Every year since I have been at the golf course we have had some vole damage, ranging from dead trees to ruts across the rough and fairways.  With over 300 new trees planted on the golf course we have taken extra steps to try and prevent voles from eating the bark and roots of the trees.  In the fall we mow a 8 foot wide zone around every tree in the native down to a height of 2", then we spray an area 3' wide around each tree with roundup to kill all vegetation that is close to the tree trunk.  After reading the article in GCM I have come to realize that we will probably always have a vole problem, we just need to make sure we are doing everything we can to limit the damage.

What we do when there is snow on the gound.

There seems to be more going on in the maintenance shop during the winter than the summer

I always get the question from our golfers, what do you guys do when there is snow on the ground?  Even though there is not much work to be done outside there is always something for us to do inside.  This week we are working on refinishing the driving range dividers, painting the green traffic control blocks, and rebuilding the cutting units for our greens mowers.  We have a pretty full week worth of work when there are over 400 4x4x8 blocks that need to be cleaned, sanded, and painted and 26 range dividers that need to be sanded, stained, and re-spiked.