WINTER GOLF

Traffic control & winter spikes

As we head into winter the excessive local rainfall is now taking its toll, to counteract this we have installed traffic management in the form of white lines around all aprons and localized wet damageable areas.

Please do not cross white lines with trolleys or riding buggys.

Spikes

It is my firm belief that soft spikes are totally inappropriate for winter use, to see an excellent article on this subject by a colleague please click here the author is Mr Andy Boyce  a fellow groundsman with whom I traveled to the GCSAA show in Orlando a couple of years ago, it says it all really namely soft spikes are damaging to turf surfaces during the winter as a result of the build up of snow/frost/grass and mud around the cleats it is his belief that metal spikes are safer as well during the winter. Should you require a set of "winter" metal spike's our Professionals Mick and Julie have them in stock.

Greens during winter

The Greens are hopefully going to be in play during the winter more than previous years, to facilitate this I need your cooperation by voluntarily wearing winter spikes thus minimizing turf damage and surface disruption, It is my aim to play on frosty greens and yes this can be controversial but for the last 15 years I have never had any temporary greens and I have never seen damage by frost done to the greens surface except by soft spikes, I am however wise enough to accept that each golf course/location is different and as mentioned in an earlier post the "bio types" are different so what can I do to monitor the greens health.

• Establish a frostometer i.e. mild-moderate-hoar  possibly by ambient air temperature/humidity  
• Examine for scorch 
• Look for sward composition change
• Look for surface disruption
• Increase in disease

The amount of footfall will also have an impact for example if on Friday the number of golfers are quite low and we have a moderate frost, more than likely no damage will occur. However if its the first Saturday of the month and there are 60-100 players and we have a moderate frost it may be necessary to place some or all greens on temps, it could be just the first 3 are on temps because 2nd and 3rd are in a frost pocket. You get the picture its a suck it and see scenario until we can establish parameters.  

We will be aerating during the winter as much as possible because we need to "catch up" in this area and it will help dry up the greens and allow them to "breath" this process will ultimately set the scene for the 2014 season with regards the the greens performance.  

I will also increase the potassium levels of the soil over the coming months I have already applied a granular product and I will follow this up with a liquid solution when conditions allow, this will make the grasses a little tougher against abrasion (spikes) and disease attacks. There will however be times where temporary greens will be needed, you will notice that the temps are closer to the front of the greens because it is mainly around the hole cup that 90% of foot traffic causes damage as the photo shows.

Typical wear around hole cup

Drainage

As you are aware the 11th open drainage dyke has been completed, however due to surface conditions the other work has slowed down somewhat. Next week there is a cold snap forecast which usually brings drier conditions and hopefully work can continue.

Winter Golf......Enjoy

As you will be aware the winter course was set up on Tuesday 29th Oct, The ultimate aim is to play the greens all winter, however there will be times where this is not possible due to agronomic pressure. The ground staff and the committee want to you play on greens and grass tees where ever possible and to facilitate this we will be verti-draining the greens on a regular basis throughout the winter that is whenever conditions allow, we are going to set into some tees (par 3's) the artificial grass tees mats this will give maximum length and minimize damage in times of deteriorating conditions.

You can phone the information line for course condition and restrictions ect from now on, please allow time for the course to be inspected before the line is updated we are starting work during the winter at 7:00 am to maximize on daylight hours. 

We continue to shuffle our workload between leaf collection and general maintenance prioritizing certain areas of the course, but please be aware that we have a lot of trees of mixed species that shed their leaves at different times and the grass is still growing!

Wet conditions have temporally halted construction on the 11th area, be assured we will continue work ASAP and we view this as a priority. The few drain lines that we have installed are working very well as is the open dyke. 

Plea:

1. Please repair your pitch marks
2. Please observe traffic management
3. Please give way to Ground staff
4. If anyone knows where the dyke at the back of the 14th Tee comes out in Brinsworth please let me know, you can Email me at phoenixheadgroundsman@gmail.com 

Thank you 

Graham

11th Drainage & Tee Project

  Drainage

The project is well under way as you probably have seen when you are playing golf, if you haven't seen the progress yet click on the link below to see a range of photos.

click here to see photos of the 11th project

The trenches are to be left open, by that I mean the trenches are to have gravel up to the top and no soil/rootzone. By doing this it allows the surface water to enter the drain more quickly and they will eventually grow over, because the 11th suffers from surface water and not a high water table this is the desired design. The 11th area has natural or otherwise springs surfacing in several locations and looking at the photos you will see that there is only about 30cm of topsoil below this is heavy clay, suffice to say about 1.25mm of rain will water log this area which is compounded by the springs.

The conditions are proving to be challenging due to being very wet already however the team are very determined to complete ASAP

Before

11th Tee

The 11th tee is being completely rebuilt, it will benefit from new auto irrigation which we will install ourselves. The Tee will be elevated a further 30 cm or one foot and be 15m x 15m a total of 225 m2 much bigger than the old tee and further to the left by about 5 m the spoil from the drainage is being used to elevate the tee and construct gentle banks to the front and sides, these will be much easier to maintain.

The stone wall from the front of the old tee is to be recycled into a bridge in front of the yellow/social tee.

I would like to give thanks to the groundsmen for their continued efforts and support during the project and to the committee and members for their support and understanding. 

Surveying

Autumn Renovations

Apologies

Please accept my apologies for not keeping this blog up to date, however the Grounds team have been very busy with the autumn renovations.

So far...... verti-draining was completed last week and this week hollow coring was also completed, top dressing is currently work in progress due to the adverse weather but I expect to Finnish it Friday 4th October, and as I have mentioned before this is a crucial process for the Greens Improvement plan.

Leaves

Phoenix has an abundant amount of trees and unfortunately most of them shed leaves from mid September until at least December. The leaf collector has been busy since Wednesday 18th October and shall remain so for the foreseeable. 

Projects

The Executive committee have OK'd the 11th drainage project and the reconstruction of the 11th medal tee (more details to follow)

17th Green at sunrise

General update

Topdressing/aeration

The topdressing/aeration was completed on Tuesday 20th August and went to plan, we applied a little more than previous applications with the intention of catching up due to the pond drain down. At this point I would like to mention the lads, we had a difficult week because of holiday entitlements and topdressing however the team gave a valiant effort and completed all the maintenance tasks on time ready for the weekend, well done team.

Rabbits

We have a gentleman that is controlling the vermin, to date he has dispatched around 200+ rabbits

Phoenix has epidemic proportions of rabbits mainly due to It being a Green Island in a sea of industry, this is good for wildlife and biodiversity, not so good for the bunkers and greens though. When the foliage has dropped in the Autumn he will be able to clear the burrows, hopefully this will control the adults and lower spring breeding for 2014 

Winter planning

I have started putting together the Autumn/Winter program, this includes all the usual stuff and a couple of Major improvements. Once the program has been agreed and clarified I will post the details here on the blog. 

Tonight my wife and I are looking forward to the joint Captains bash and race night, I hope the golf went well and the rain held off, it didn't here in Pontefract!

The roundabout at Brinsworth

Top dressing

Top dressing is planned for Monday the 19th August weather permitting of course, the irrigation ponds have now been re-filled and are available for irrigation water if the summer make a return.

We have a disease on several greens that is not usually seen in the UK not to worry I have had the offending pathogen identified by Dr Kate Entwistle of the turf disease centre and now we can deal with it in the correct manner.

fungus Bipolaris, most likely B. sorokiniana

This disease lives within the thatch layer which we are aiming to reduce by aeration and top dressing. Bipolaris leaf spot is caused by high daytime temperatures above 20c which is what we have just experienced now the temps have come down and the general weather forecast is dry the disease should "grow out" without any detrimental effects, but rest assured we are keeping an eye on things.

8th viewing area

 

Dry patch and Wetting agents

What is dry patch? 

This an area of turf normally on the Green which is showing sings of drought stress.

Causes

Dry patch can be Biotic or Abiotic, that is to say caused by living organisms or non living causes such as poor construction.

Biotic causes

Fauna and flora can both have a dramatic effect, insects that eat grass roots such as leather jackets (tipula paludosa) or daddy long legs. 

Another Biotic cause is fungal activity or thatch fungus and fairy rings, these fungi live in the thatch that is produced by the growing turf which is a normal process, however it needs to be controlled and our verti-cutting and topdressing program will over time reduce the thatch levels. 

Fungi produce a waxy substance that coats the sand particles and causes a hydrophobic environment that gives the visual appearance of dry patch.

Abiotic causes

 Poor construction, bad irrigation practices and inappropriate irrigation installation can and will have a major effect on the moisture levels within the rootzone.

Remedies 

Biotic  

Many insects live their life within the soil and only emerge as flying critters to find a mate and breed, daddy long legs lay their eggs in late summer and hatch in early Autumn, at this point we apply an insecticide to the turf which should severely diminish populations and minimize damage.

As mentioned earlier thatch is being reduced and also thatch fungus, as the thatch reduces so will the dry patch associated with it.

Abiotic

With regards to irrigation I have been replacing some of our old sprinklers with new low pressure Rainbird sprinklers, these give a much better quality/even application of water, I have also been repairing/servicing some of the old ones. With regards to construction, not much can be done except to identify the problem and act accordingly.  

Wetting agents

In the meantime we need to apply a product that will facilitate the re-wetting of the hydrophobic turf.
We use a product call Breaker advance by Rigby Taylor which is a general wetter, however next year at the beginning of spring we will apply Breaker Curative to strip off the waxy coating and then follow up with Breaker Advance.

Typical dry patch

3rd Green showing fungal activity