What’s going on with the Greens

More aggressive core aeration is necessary if we are to ever have the consistent firm and fast surfaces we all desire

When I arrived at Granite Bay just prior to the 2008 golf season there were two items that were high on the Memberships concern list. First was the deteriorated condition of the sand traps and their need of renovation, and second was putting surface roll & speed. In 2008 we embarked on an “in house” bunker renovation project and have just recently completed all green side bunkers. This work has been well chronicled.

Additionally in 2008 we addressed the green speed issue by introducing regular greens rolling and manipulating, or better said lowering our mower heights of cut (HOC) to achieve a smoother and faster ball roll on the putting surfaces. We were successful in getting ball speeds on the greens from 8 to 9 feet on the stimpmeter to 10 to 11 feet. We targeted a goal of 10.5 to 11 feet as a fun speed for the membership as a whole hopefully leaving room to tweak them up to 11.5 to 12 for special events. Admittedly we were only moderately successful in achieving a consistent 10.5 to 11 feet. The reason for this moderate rate of success and quite frankly for the softness of the greens and entire golf course for that matter is an accumulated organic layer called thatch. Once this thatch layer becomes too dense it acts as a sponge and fills with water then the layer becomes black or anaerobic because of the total lack of air.

This produces an “ inhospitable place for plant roots to grow. The pore space in a dense organic layer is dominated by small water-filled capillary pores, while the large air-filled macropores are lacking. Oxygen is necessary for the plant to carry out respiration, which is the conversion of stored food to energy. Respiration takes place in the roots and, therefore, good air exchange in the upper soil profile is vital to plant survival.” (USGA Green Section Record- Core Aeration By The Numbers by Chris Hartwiger & Patrick O’Brien)

Lowering our mowers, double cutting and rolling the greens sometimes as much as five times a week are common practices to produce a faster, smoother ball roll. And if our greens were healthier and were not excessively thatchy, they should be able to handle these procedures. However their current condition is very sensitive as evidenced by turf loss on some of our greens. Everyone likes a smooth fast ball roll on the greens, but if we don’t have healthy condition below the surface, and still try to produce speeds with above the mentioned common practices, you can end up with the situation we are currently experiencing.

There are factors that exacerbate excessive thatch accumulation but for the most part its production is a natural process of highly maintained golf turf and some is necessary. But when it becomes excessive it has to be removed mechanically in a timely fashion through core aeration and de-thatching processes. These removal processes disrupt the surfaces we play golf on and get put off or minimized for a variety of reasons. The problem with this common approach of minimization or delay is the thatch continues to accumulate and then you inevitably have problems.

Some of these delay and minimization reasons are tournament scheduling, others construction and renovation busyness. The maintenance department admittedly got over extended on projects and over promised on putting surface performance abilities. Its not like we skipped scheduled greens aerations, we did not. We have just not been nearly aggressive enough with our aeration practices to keep up and deal with the thatch accumulation of the past fifteen years much less the past two where we have put more pressure on our greens to perform at a higher level. Our motives were to give you the fast and firm you desire however firm and fast are synonymous and trying to make our soft greens fast without doing what is necessary to make them firm is a recipe for mediocrity and potential disaster.

For the most part the greens at Granite Bay Golf Club have been aerated with ½’ coring tines with holes spaced 2”x 2”, two times per year for the past 15 years. This affected approximately 10% of the greens surface area per year with core aeration, which actually removed organic matter or thatch. The USGA Green Section states “golf courses with successful, mature greens have been on a core aeration program where 15% to 20% of the surface area has been impacted each year.” “ The amount of surface area impacted is a direct result of tine size, tine spacing and frequency.” “If aeration has been neglected, a more aggressive program may be warranted.” The USGA currently recommends 20% to 25% of the total surface area should be impacted annually due to modern putting surface demands and procedures to accomplish such demands.

Bottom line is we need to get more aggressive with our core aeration on our specified dates if we are ever going to produce the consistent firm and fast surfaces the membership desires. We are in the process of getting physical soil testing done on our greens which will give us data for recommendations to proceed. I would not be surprised if we needed to effect 30% of the surfaces for the next few years to get caught up with accumulation.

We can achieve this by aeration with 5/8” coring tines spaced 1” x 2”, two times per year, in other words bigger and more holes. Additional procedures could involve deep vertical mowing which in combination with core aeration could really effect the surface area. What all of this will mean is a prolonged recovery time for the putting surfaces to completely recover after aeration.

Currently we have experienced some turf loss as a direct result of the thatchy conditions explained above and exacerbated by all the things we try to do to get speed out of them. We have a lot of loss around the perimeter of #14 green and some patches on #3, #13, #16 & #17. Additionally the customary summer thinning has taken hold on our #7 green. We plan to sod the rear perimeter of #14 and all of the patches on #3, #13, #16 and #17 by the end of this week. Additionally we hope to pick a morning in the next week and core aerate #7 with small coring tines along with light topdressing. Additional strategies to help us get through the summer will be a stepped up spiking events to all of the greens along with preventive fungicide applications to prevent disease in our susceptible condition. These short-term strategies are designed to help us get through the stressful summer without further turf loss. The long-term strategies of aggressive thatch removal by core aeration will be the key for our greens moving forward and need to begin this fall.

I believe we can have great greens here at Granite Bay however we cannot achieve this goal if thatch accumulation continues. Fast is directly correlated to firm and firm is directly correlated to an absence of excessive thatch. Even better the absence of thatch is directly correlated to a healthy condition that requires less water because the roots are deeper, less disease pressure because the green is healthier and fewer problems overall. Its that simple.

We’ll continue to address the greens situation in the course updates through the summer.

Thatch induced anerobic black layer

Recently sodded area on #14

Patches sodded on #13

Front area sodded on #7

The Aging of Our Ponds

Part Four – The Solutions for Our Ponds

The following is the conclusion of the four part series I started last fall addressing the two water features at Granite Bay Golf Club.

Part I, II & III covered the function, history and aging of our ponds and now Part IV will cover some solutions.

In a nutshell the importance of our ponds as a source for the life blood or irrigation water of the course cannot be over emphasized. The Naturalized style and beauty of our water features are also crucial to our Audubon status, design integrity of the course and our use permit with Placer County. A healthy, happy median must be maintained on a go forward basis. We must apply the same proactive maintenance procedures to our ponds as we do to our turf. If we don’t the natural aging will interfere with our ability to irrigate the course and continue to give us sub standard water feature aesthetics in the summer.

Tentatively scheduled beginning June 7th we have a contractor arriving to thin out some of the encroaching vegetation along with the sub-surface decaying stems of water primrose that are surrounding the pump station intake area. Along with this work we plan to replace the pump station intake screens which have rusted away.

Additionally we will continue to control aggressive aquatic vegetation as it starts to encroach into the ponds, creating an unsightly appearance and adding additional biomass to the already overloaded situation. This strategy of mechanical removal and chemical and biological control is the beginning of a maintenance program that will be essential if we are to maintain the function and the natural design features of our ponds.

I will update progress in our next update.

Recent picture of George's Lake

Audubon

Something new for the course updates moving forward is highlighting the status of Granite Bay Golf Club as a Certified Signature Sanctuary of Audubon International.

Audubon International is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to fostering more sustainable human and natural communities through research, education, and conservation assistance.

Granite Bay has been a member of Audubon International since 1993 and became certified at the bronze level in May of 1998. We are one of only six certified golf courses in the state.

I look forward to learning and sharing with you the multitude of benefits that go along our certification with Audubon International.

2010 Aeration Progress

Not only did the weather delay our spring aeration process, the colder then normal temperatures associated with the rain hampered recovery especially with the fairways. Greens and tees recovered relatively quickly despite the unseasonable weather. Fairways were / are another story.
We core aerated the fairways as planned during the last couple of weeks. The coring process that I more or less outlined above is more aggressive then we have employed the past couple of years on fairways. In 2008 and 2009 we solid tined the fairways which involved just poking a hole a couple of inches deep then vertical mowing to remove some thatch over the top. This process was much less aggressive and recovery was almost immediate.

The aggressive coring process we used this year removes substantially more organic material along with creating a longer lasting hole facilitating expanded movement of air and water. This organic material or thatch, in excess is our enemy and the main culprit of our soft conditions in the summer months. The down side to any aggressive cultural practice on turf is recovery time. But as I have mentioned in previous course updates Granite Bay is a “thatchy” golf course. The situation did not develop overnight and it will not go away on its own. It has to be managed in an ongoing fashion.

So the yellowing in the fairways we have been experiencing over the last couple of weeks was primarily due to the aggressive aeration procedure. This was compounded by unseasonable weather, which caused a slower then normal recovery. The good news is that we are currently getting some good weather and have applied an application of fertilizer last Monday and we can already see the color return to the surfaces.
We still plan to core aerate the rough but will start with the putting surface surrounds.
This summer we plan to solid tine the fairways starting in Late June. We hope to do this procedure every month until we core them again in the fall. We hope this will go along way to keeping the fairways firmer up the middle then in past seasons.

Aerifying fairways

Verticle mowing fairways

Sweeping up the mess

Removed thatch from fairways

Wet Spring Delays

Weather Plays a Part in Everything We Do

I feel like I am stating the obvious when I mention the weather in our course updates but it truly does effect everything we do on the golf course. Additionally it is major contributor to course conditions both past and present effecting everything from surface speed to maintenance procedures.
I mentioned in our last update that our plan was to take the entire month of April and do a through job of core aerating the entire golf course. As you know we have traditionally maintained two partial closure days in both spring and fall for putting surface aeration which went very well this spring. We are currently coming up on four weeks out from the procedure and the greens are performing well. Immediately following the greens our plan was to core aerate tees and fairways. This is where the wet early spring weather caused some delays.

To remove cores from an entire fairway requires dry weather. We typically core aerate the surface and drag all of the cores a bit to separate the soil from the thatch. Then we added a procedure of slicing the turf removing additional thatch and chopping up the cores even further. Following this we sweep up the remaining mess with sweepers picking up all of that removed thatch. Next we mow and blow the surface and we are done, simple. Simple, yet messy if it is dry, virtually impossible and a disaster type mess if it is wet.

Wet weather in the spring also hinders our ability to mow and keep turf under control. This problem is particularly noticeable in the longer mowed turf such as around the greens and tees and native rough. The longer days and somewhat warmer temperatures cause the turf to grow at a faster pace and the wet weather hinders our ability to mow. When we can finally get to an area and mow after it adequately dries out, we sometimes end up scalping some areas, which can lend to some temporary unsightliness.

On the bright side we have not had to purchase water or irrigate very much so far this spring. Bottom line we are a little behind on aeration and we have some really tall native grass that we are chasing. Dealing with weather issues is, and always will be something that is part of maintaining and playing a golf course, part of the charm and part of the fun.

Progress Since October

We have been on a Roll

For the last six months beginning in October of last year we have been on a tear improving this golf course. Some of the things were very visible and others not so visible yet all will contribute to having a successful summer not just this year but beyond.

We started with the cart path extension on #18 in October. If you remember I also mentioned that we re-established and added a lot of irrigation in the adjacent areas on #17. That hillside adjacent to the #17 green and approach was chronically mediocre in the summer months, a situation in which these irrigation additions will go along way to remedy.

We did get the bunkers on #10 done in November, which depleted all of our funding available for 2009. We did not stand pat and completed two irrigation expansion areas behind #15 green and to the right of #13 green. These two areas were other examples of summer mediocrity that we identified which the additions should remedy as well.

I wrote extensively last update about the bunker progress we made starting in February, which will culminate the end of this week with the completion of the greenside bunkers on #13. In the nine weeks beginning February 1st we completed 13 bunkers three of which were some of the largest on the course. Along with all of this work we were able to soften two critical fairway exit areas on #16 & #13 and substantially improve irrigation coverage to the right of #9 green.

What is most exciting about completing all of this work is that it sets us up for a successful summer. We might not ever have a period of time where we make as much diverse progress as we have the past 6 months. As rewarding as the time has been we look forward to when we can re-direct manpower resources into playing surfaces and details on the course. And that time is much closer then I thought it would be six months ago.

Completed greenside bunkers #13

Newley sodded fairway exit #13

2010 Aeration

Aeration of turfgrass has a multitude of benefits. It includes a variety of techniques that punch small holes in the turf & soil surface as a means of relieving soil compaction. This loosening of the soil facilitates air and water movement in the soil improving root growth and mass. Additionally the process produces a firming of the surface when aeration is done in conjunction with sand topdressing. We include sand topdressing with aeration on putting surfaces, teeing surfaces and approaches leading up to the greens.

Another huge benefit of aeration when you actually remove the aeration cores from the ground is the removal of the associated thatch with the core. Thatch is excessive organic matter consisting of roots and stems that form the soft mat directly below the green leaves of the turf stand. Excessive thatch is the main culprit of the soft conditions we experience at Granite Bay in the summer because it acts like a sponge retaining a portion of applied irrigation. We need to continue to reduce this excessive organic matter to improve conditions. We have some different plans to accomplish that goal this year, in part, which I will now explain.

As planned we will start aerifyng the entire golf course beginning next Tuesday 4/6/10. We will start with the green’s which really need an aeration to get the bentgrass going & growing so as to catch up with the patches of Poa Annua. These two different growth rates definitely contribute to sporadic bumpiness we have been experiencing in the afternoons. We have not been able to roll the greens as much this spring to date because of the hit and miss rain storms which would have helped with this bumpiness. Rolling the greens when they are wet just compacts them further ultimately hindering rather then helping the situation. We hope to aerify and topdress a portion of the tees immediately following the greens and finish up what we missed the following week.

We plan to core aerify the fairways along with deep vertical mowing to remove additional thatch the following Monday 4/12/10. What fairways we do not complete on that Monday we will complete on Tuesday 4/13/10 after the ladies clear the front nine. The approaches to the greens will be done at the same time followed by sand topdressing.

Rough areas or the tall grass areas between holes and surrounding greens and tees will be core aerified the last two weeks of April. Because the cores are typically damp and prone to being smashed into the turf, we will ask during this process that carts remain on the path on the holes we are working on. A wet plug is difficult to pick up much less a smashed down wet plug. Once we clear the hole of cores we will re-open the hole to cart traffic.

As I have mentioned previously this course has a fifteen-year accumulation of organic matter that has become excessive. Again it is the primary cause for the soft surfaces we experience in the summer. We have done some work on inhibiting further development and reducing accumulation the past two years but lets face it we have been busy with any number of projects improving the course. Now as we get closer to completing the bunker’s (at least the greenside bunkers) we need to start focusing more efforts on our playing surfaces. I think we have come up with a good aggressive plan for core aerifying all of the surfaces this spring, and we have some non aggressive, unobtrusive plans for this summer that we calculate will really help with surface softness up the middle. There will be definitely more to come on this subject.Bottom line is most everyone knows that aeration is a necessary evil. However we feel it is legitimate to expect the most rapid recovery of the putting surfaces as humanly possible.

Core aerating putting surfaces

Aeration Plugs

Picking up the aeration cores

Applying topdressing

Deep solid tine aeration

Brushing in the topdressing