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!