Out with the OLD. In with the NEW.

The course got a little face lift this week. Post aerification means a whole new set of pins, flags and cups. It is amazing to see the difference in the flag color after a year in the sun. New pins and cups means 'hopefully' straighter pins that have not been worn down from the repeated use. Also the new tee markers have replaced the winter globes. This means the return of the senior gold tees, which we have had many questions about. Overall it just makes the course look more attractive and shows us season is finally here!

We found an old microscope in the office last week and decided to test it out. You can see a few tiny blue/green spots here on the leafblade of our nursery green. This is the tracker dye that we use when greens are sprayed.

Aerification!!

Welcome to aerification week! It was a long couple of days out here on the Ridge. Though Monday morning was held off about an hour and a half due to a frost delay, we were able to finish all 20 greens within two days! With holes spacing 2.5x2 inches and an optimum depth of 5 inches, there were about 4 million holes punched in the bentgrass overall. I have taken pictures of every step of the process along the way, and added a note on the bottom explaining what is happening. 

Here you see Jose making the first few passes on #1 green. 

Samples of the cores being taken. Usually I would add keys or a golf ball to show comparison of size. Like I said, the holes are 2.5x2 inches.

Uriel on our core harvester. The cores travel up a conveyor belt to the back of the workman where Eduardo will then spread them around.

I tried to squeeze the whole process in one picture. Victor and Daniel would then follow with backpack blowers opening up more holes and blowing loose cores off to the sides. 

Superintendent Andy Klein was our topdress man. Making many trips back and forth to the shop, as it took roughly three workman loads of sand per green. 

Once the sand was on the green, Wes took a steel mat around to disperse the sand more evenly. 

I then put a double roll on each green to try and smooth them up before the final drag the next morning.

Finally it was my job, along with some help from Letty, to take a finer coco mat and try to fill in all remaining open holes. The greens were then rolled one more time, followed by fifteen minutes of water. 

This is the ideal finished product. 

Breathe!!!

Every green has drain tiles running underneath that gets rid of water and excess gasses. Over time these drains can get clogged causing problems on the greens. As you can see here the drains have been capped underground allowing no way to reach them. Using maps we have been able to locate the drains on a few of our problem greens and bring them to the surface. The next step is to blow air or flush water through if needed to make sure the drain gets cleared.

 'Why is it that every time the greens start to get in perfect condition, those guys go and poke holes in them?' Just one comment that I overheard this week. Yes it is already time for aerification! Monday March 21st the front nine will be closed, and Tuesday the 22nd the back nine. We have started this year with a light verticut. The lines that you will see in the greens are where multiple blades tickle the turf pulling out part of the thatch or organic layer.

             

One of our final winter projects was cleaning up the underbrush behind 16 green. Some of the shrubs were tall enough that they were in play from 17 blue and black tee box. It was no easy task, taking multiple days and requiring tractors to remove some of the larger shrubs and stumps. Eventually we hope to add mulch and tidy up the rock wall along the cart path. With aerification less than two weeks away, all winter projects are on schedule to be completed!

It has been a little over a week since we have completed our zoysia spray. As you can see from the photo below, we are already getting some great results! This is close to the green on hole 2 where we decided to use plywood to help us cover tight corners. By using boards we were able to spray a nice clean edge along the collar. Hopefully we continue to see great results and remove most of the cool season grasses out of the zoysia. 

Shown here is frost damage. Everyone did an awesome job this year, as we did not have any human frost damage on the turf. However, we did have a few greens where animals walked across and caused damage. Though we have minimal control over the geese, deer, or coyotes; we ask that if you are walking your dogs during frost days, please refrain from letting them on the greens.

Spring Tease

Its that time of year again when the fairways turn blue! We couldn't have had better weather over the past few weeks to get prepared for the upcoming season. Hundreds of golfers were out to enjoy the 70 degree weather that gave us an early taste of spring. Weed control was our main focus as you can see from the picture below. Annual spray of non selective herbicide along with a pre emergent and blue dye has been completed. It was a full team effort, taking all four members of our staff three days to accomplish. Also with no extremely low temperatures in the near future, it was decided to charge the irrigation system back up. A sometimes complicated process went fairly smooth this year with no major leaks(knock on wood). We hope the warmer temperatures continue as we are ready to get the 2016 season started! Come out and enjoy a round at the Ridge!

Inside work

Inside work has begun here at the Ridge! With low temps and snow falling two days this week, we decided to stay in and stay warm. As you can see from the photo below, Jose and I used our artistic abilities to paint new tee markers. Tee markers received two coats of paint if needed and then a clear coat to protect from weathering. Meanwhile Uriel spent the week disassembling and sand blasting ball washers.

These past few days we have been blessed with a few warmer temperatures. With that we were able to get out on the course and accomplish a few tasks other than tree work (Front 9 completed). Surrounding our tee features are clumps of pampas grass. These tall grasses are easy maintenance and only need cut back once a year. Usually this process takes place in late winter as to enjoy the plumes for as long as possible. It is now time to start preparing for the upcoming spring season. We have retrieved all ball washers and tee markers to be refurbished or remade. The tee markers have been replaced by the old satellite balls until March. Unfortunately there will only be two sets of markers on the course at this point but feel free to hit from your respected tee box. 

Goose Problems

Every winter golf courses run into one problem that no one can seem to solve. Geese. Canada geese can be considered one of the biggest nuisance pests to not only golf courses, but many parks and suburban areas with ponds or lakes. Because these giant birds are federally protected, superintendents are forced to come up with creative ways of keeping geese off their courses. Many courses around the nation use dogs to rid their facility of any unwanted birds. Occasionally we will bring our German Shepard pup Letty out to do the job. Unfortunately she is not able to be here every day with us. Rarely do just one or two geese show up and invade an area, they come in masses. When a large gaggle of geese take over they can excrete a large amount of waste and cause turf damage. It is not pleasant trying to putt on a green with all of that in your way. In order to reduce this problem, we have decided to rope off holes 11 and 12. The idea being that the rope will hit the geese in the chest and will stop them from creating any further problems on the greens.

A Change in Weather

It looks as though winter is finally here! Only a couple days late for a white Christmas. This little winter storm has brought severe weather to much of the Midwest. We have received a wintry mix over night and throughout the day. As of now the temperatures are hovering around freezing and have not caused any major issues. However, over the next few nights the temps will dip into the lower teens and may ice things up a bit. That being said it is time to drain our irrigation system to prevent any damage. This is a fairly simple process which involves opening three dump valves around the course and the water comes rushing out. We then go around to sprinkler heads in the low areas and open the valves to get any remaining water out of the system.

Catching up on education

Every year the Heart of America Golf Course Superintendent Association holds a two day educational conference. This is an opportunity for superintendents as well as lawn care companies to learn about the new advances in our industry. There are also certain classes that allow us to re-certify our pesticide applicators license in both Kansas and Missouri. Many vendors attend and sponsor this event to show their support. In doing so, we are able to build our network with not only them but other superintendents in the area. These events especially help new members, such as myself, to establish good relationships. As we returned Wednesday, the two inches of rain we received has restricted us to more tree work. With trees shading the greens and tee complex, holes five and six are next on the list. These trees will be removed to promote healthier turf growth

Beautiful Weather

What a beautiful week we have had here in Kansas City! It hasn't been the typical December weather we are used to with temperatures reaching into the 60's. Hopefully you were able to get out to the course and enjoy a round of golf. With the higher temperatures we continued our normal operations of mowing and course set up. Having a couple frosty mornings there was time to rebuild the rock walls on numbers 10 and 11. These rock walls served as old property lines before the course was built. Since they were falling down and no longer level we decided to clean them up a bit and make them more uniform.

Rain Rain Rain

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend and was able to eat all the turkey and mashed potatoes that you could! It wasn't the most ideal weather to spend time outside with rainfall totaling just over three inches. That being said, most of the bunkers have been washed out. It has taken a few days but we were able to push and rake the bunkers to try and dry them out a little bit. This is also the time of year when we begin tree cleanup. At times it can be tricky on deciding what trees to take out and what trees to leave. There are many factors that come in play when selecting a tree for removal. Overall turf health, tree health, location and playability are just a few of them. You might also notice that we will be taking around a pole saw and limbing up a little ways to raise the canopy. In doing so it will allow us to better maintain these areas and give the course a cleaner look. As you can see from the pictures we started on the second hole. Our main goal was to push the tree line on the right side back just a little bit for easier mowing.

Short week

We had quite a bit of work to accomplish this week before the holiday. Starting the week off trying to spray some of the undesired cool season turf and clover out of the zoysia grass. You may have noticed a light green tint from the tracker dye. From there we spent two full days marking sprinkler heads and edging around them. Finally, with high chances of rainfall coming Thursday we decided to do a little heavier than normal topdress. Where usually we settle the sand in with overhead irrigation, this time the sand was drug in with a coco mat. The course will be closed on Thanksgiving day but will reopen for the holiday weekend! We would like to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and hope you enjoy the day with your families! Safe Travels.

Project Complete!

Good morning! As we draw a conclusion to another crazy week here at the Ridge, we would like to give you a few updates. First off, our edging of the bunkers has been completed. #4 greenside was one of our bigger tasks but we were able to finish it up Thursday afternoon. There are currently 7 of our 52 bunkers to completely renovate and will hopefully get to them soon. Also there were some crazy winds that whipped through this past weekend causing some damage to our shop roof, however we have some great members on our maintenance staff who have prior roofing knowledge and were able to tackle that task for us! Finally we did receive about an inch and a half of rain Tuesday. Unfortunately that restricted us to cart path only a few days sooner than we would have hoped and we will be strictly path only for the remainder of the season.

Bunker Renovations

If you have been out to play lately, you have probably noticed that a majority of our bunkers were renovated this summer. Where it used to take up to two days of pumping out bunkers after a heavy rainfall, the renovation has reduced that down to none. Currently we are touching up the edges and digging out some of the washout areas. This is a tedious process but has greatly improved the quality and appearance of our bunkers.

New Blog

Welcome to the Maintenance blog at Falcon Ridge Golf Club. Throughout the year we receive many questions regarding the operations we are working on. That being said, we have decided to create this blog to keep our guest informed on the progress we are making. We hope that you find this beneficial and enjoy our golf course!