Golf Course Maintenance Weekly 3/7/16

Upcoming Golf Course Aerification

Spring aerification this year is scheduled to commence on Tuesday March 22nd weather permitting. The process of aerification and its associated cleanup cannot be done in wet conditions. Typically we would need a few days of dry weather to start the process on the greens and up to a week of dry weather before we can attempt starting  the fairways. Fortunately for now the extended forecast has wet weather through this coming Monday 3/14/16 then a dry, partly cloudy to sunny pattern through Monday 3/21/16. This should be perfect if it holds up, however we need to remain flexible if the forecast changes. I will update status, aerification details and course closures next week.

It needs to be dry to clean this mess up properly.

Drought Update

Our weather station here at GBGC measured 1.72" of rain from last Friday 3/4/16 through the Sunday 3/6/16. This brings our rainfall seasonal total here at GBGC to 13.16", over 11" behind the seasonal average of 24" for this area. The CIMIS weather station in Fair Oaks (#131) has recorded 13" through 3/7/16. I check this station frequently as a comparison and calibration to our on course weather station and there are storm events where we measure more precipitation here and others where the CIMIS station measures more. But as you can see, our totals are pretty close.

FR level as of 3/9/16.  I dont know if the level is an all time high for this
time of year but it has surpassed the 1982-1983 wettest year mark for March 9th.

Five flood gates open at FR releasing over 15,000 cfs. First time they have
been open since 2011 according to news reports.

Although our local rainfall accumulation is not overly impressive, I am hopeful other events statewide will bring us closer to easing drought restrictions in 2016. The reservoir near and dear to our hearts, Folsom Reservoir (FR) opened 5 spillways on Wednesday releasing over 15,000 cubic feet per second (cfc) for flood control. The politics of FR's release protocols are complicated however despite these releases the reservoir is now forcasted to be at capacity  after the Sierra snow melts this spring. Will FR's filling be enough to ease drought restrictions in 2016? Only time will tell.

State lake levels as of 3/9/16. Shasta and Oroville are almost
at historical average.

Best news for this drought is the snow water content
 is just below historical average.

GCM Working On More Irrigation This Week

We got started on another little irrigation project this week as well as cleaning up after trees the fell during last weeks storms. We needed to move some irrigation heads near the Granite tees on #13 to improve coverage in the area which we walk up to this teeing surface. After the irrigation improvement we plan to do some soil modification and re-sodding making this summer eye sore disappear.

Gama and his crew working on moving a
sprinkler head near #13 Granite Tee.

The walk-up area to #13 Granite Tee gets a little suspect
in the summer months. First things first, get the
irrigation right, a little sod, we should be good to go.

Walnut Shell Maintenance

In the spirit of proactive communication I wanted to address our walnut shell areas breifly. One unique feature of GBGC is the 5-1/2 acres of walnut shell areas under many of our native oak trees. These shelled areas are can be very attractive and a decent surface to play out of, but can get sparse and displaced particularly during the winter months. This is because walnut shell material it self is pretty unstable during rain events which is why refreshing them during this time of the year is counter productive. We have to purchase the shells early in the season as that is when they are available, however if we spread them out on the course at this time of the year we run the risk in a moderate to heavy rain event of having them all wash out onto the course. This year we are hoping to get the shells out in April sometime.

Walnut shell areas do get thin in the winter. The unstable nature of the material
keeps us from refreshing before the rainy season is over.

Walnut shells are already on the ground for 2016.
Once the rainy season is over, we will
put them out.

Golf Course Maintenance Weekly 2/29/16

Spring has definitely been in the air the past few weeks shifting our efforts from winter projects to spring time tasks. One of those spring time tasks is a process called vertical mowing which is something we do on the greens when growth habits of the turf start to get more active.

Miguel vertical mowing #17 Green early Monday
morning.  GCM staff will come behind him and blow off
the mess then we will apply a light sand topdressing.

This is what a vertical mowing cutting unit looks like.

Vertical mowers sort of thin out the surface of a green eliminating some of the friction and aiding ball roll. If we want to get really aggressive we vertical mow the greens twice in two different directions. Typically we will go in one direction followed by a light topdressing of sand.

You might have seen these lines in the greens before
that were left by the thinning of the vertical mower.

The finishing touches of a vertical mowing operation is a
light sand topdressing. This entire operation is repeated
weekly or bi weekly in the spring and on an as needed basis
summer and fall. 

New Traffic Control Stakes

We recently made a minor change to the relatively  new Golf Cart Traffic Control protocols here at the club, which most everyone who has been taking advantage of the spectacular weather have already seen. We replaced the green and white exit stakes (stakes closest to the green) with red and white stakes. Green and white stakes still indicate where you should enter the golf hole with your cart and the red stakes indicate the area you should exit with your golf cart. Additionally we added one more red and white stake across the fairway from the three red and white exit stakes which delineates a imaginary line of sorts where carts should not proceed any further. 

New red and white stakes for exiting golf holes with
golf carts.

Golf cart exit area clearly defined on #1 with the new
red and white stakes. Green go, red stop. Pretty simple.

Irrigation Work in Progress

We added a few of our smaller irrigation heads on the south bank of the #16 green last week. As Ive mentioned on numerous occasions, these smaller heads dramatically improve irrigation coverage in areas that struggle in the summer months. These additional small sprinklers allow us to adjust the run times of  the large golf course sprinkler heads down so areas don't get to wet all the while providing superior irrigation coverage so soil moisture is properly maintained minimizing turf grass stress. 

#16 green bank getting some added irrigation coverage.

We will be starting and finishing another one of these irrigation projects along the cart path and walnut shells on #1 this coming week.

Gama getting started on adding some smaller irrigation
heads along the cart path on #1 which will extend along
the walnut shell edge today on 2/29/16.

Golf Course Maintenance Weekly 2/8/16

The rainy weather of the last few weeks has changed to spring like the end of last and for the foreseeable future.We only measured 0.09" of rain last week bringing our seasonal total to 10.43" which is -13.43" from the 24" normal for our area. Snow in the Sierras went from 116% of normal last week to 110% this week. These percentages are likely to continue to decrease as extended forecast is dry. 

FR storage increased over 67,000 acre feet
last week forcing the fed's to accelerate
release for flood control. 

The change in weather pattern did not slow Folsom reservoir down as it continued to raise to almost 600,000 acre feet so the Bureau of Land Management and the State began to release higher volumes for flood control. Despite all of this great local water storage news the SWRCB voted last week to extend the drought mandates for another nine months through the summer. Some adjustments have been made for climate that should affect our current conservation mandate of 36% and the water board did state they would re-visit the order in May after the El Nino winter had ended. The San Juan Water District also stated that the water board did mention that some "regional" adjustments could be made for regions such as ours, where storage is looking to end up above normal. Bottom line, we will still have a conservation mandate to adhere to in 2016, but the amount is likely to be less than the 36% mandate of 2015.

A cleaned up view from #17 Tee

GCM stayed on task last week and caught up on the detail work of trimming sand traps and edging cart paths. Additionally we finished the pruning near #17 culminating several weeks of work near #14 green, #15 & #16 bridge, #16 green and #17 tee. Next up for pruning starting this week is the native area along the slope on #5 fronting Roseville Parkway. Additionally we plan on  tee leveling and re sodding  of the Granite Tee on #14 and the expanding, leveling and re sodding of the drop area on #3.

Getting started on leveling and expanding
the drop area on #3 this morning.

Golf Course Maintenance Weekly Monday 2/1/16

We received just over a half of inch of rain last week here at GBGC so I wasn't really paying much attention of what was going on with Folsom Reservoir (FR). I customarily check the reservoir levels every Monday morning as a ritual of sorts and was shocked to see how much it came up last week. It came up 80,525 acre ft. in a week crossing last years level and crossing the Normal level for this time of the year. However it is the only reservoir that is above normal on the State Department of Water Resource's map of Major CA reservoirs. 

On this chart FR is the only CA reservoir
at normal

The weather station measured 0.56" of rain last week bringing our annual rain year total to 10.35" behind a 24" normal by 13.85". We did get some dry weather last week and were able to let the carts off cart paths for the first time in awhile only to have to restrict them again after weekend storm that lingered through Sunday AM. Dry weather forecasted for the week so we will be able to let carts off the path by Tuesday.

What a difference a week makes. FR surpassed last years level and went above normal

Besides mowing the golf course this week since it still will be dry, we will be trimming sand traps along with miscellaneous weedeating and edging cart paths. Trimming sand traps and associated weedeating takes the GCM staff between 80 and 100 man hours depending how we deploy the labor. As in most routine maintenance tasks we are much more productive if we put a  several maintenance staff on the task at a time as well as getting them started first thing in the morning. This job really slows down when we are caught by players which puts a premium on staying ahead of the crowd. Today, (Monday) we don't have a tournament so we deployed 5 GCM guys to get a big jump start. 

Edging Bunkers

The process includes weedeating the edges and banks followed by blowing the created clippings and debris out of the bunker. Next we rake the bunker and check sand depths on the faces. We target one to two inches of sand on the steep bunker faces as we want golf balls that hit in these areas to move down to the bottom of the bunker. That's our intent. It doesn't always work out that way as I am sure everyone has found out on a occasion or two. 

Blowing out the debris

Along with sand trap trimming we made a light application of sand topdressing to the greens this morning and will continue pruning near #17. That's our plan, any major changes I'll let you know.

Thanks 

Checking depth and raking bunker faces

#18 Sprinklers Finished

Your GB GCM crew finishing the irrigation project along #18 cart path that we started on Monday. Again a 900 ft. trench, 36 small rotor sprinkler heads, a happy golf course superintendent.

Golf Course Maintenance Weekly Monday January 25 2016

Granite Bay Golf Club is starting off 2016 with a lot of changes even in golf course maintenance although ours are not as dramatic as in the clubhouse and golf shop. Our changes have to do with communicating on a much more consistent basis what our plan's and processes are for the course. I originally set up this online course update to do just that and it evolved into more of a monthly or bi-monthly article on what was done on the course rather than explaining what is happening in the now. Interested Members can get e-mail updates by submitting a e-mail address in the top right hand corner and you will be notified when an update has been posted. My goal is to send out short and sweet weekly updates including pertinent information and of course pictures. 

Current level of FR as of 1/27/16.  As you can see the reservoir is
still below its level at this time last year but should eclipse that mark
in early February.  The drought buster news is snow pack in the
Sierras over 100% of normal for this time of year.

Last week was a wet one. Rainfall measured 2.68" from 1/18/16 through 1/24/16. Total rain so far in January was 5.10" Only two other January's exceeded this  amount at GBGC since 2005. YTD rain season (October-September) accumulation 9.79". Greens remained firm in part due to a light topdressing we applied last week on Thursday ahead of rain on Friday. We have found that light top dressing the greens this winter ahead of a rain event works out well as the rainfall drives the sand into the turf canopy. Since it was so wet last week we were able to shift most of our labor resources into pruning and a re sodding of the wedding ceremony area. With some dry days this week we were able to get out on the course and mow along with allowing carts to leave the path.

Recent pruning efforts at the #15 & #16 bridge. 

Additionally this week we started a irrigation project along the cart path on #18. If you recall previous summers, turf conditions along this path can become marginal. These supplemental irrigation heads will change this situation for this upcoming summer and beyond. In addition  to starting this irrigation project we kept a crew working on the pruning we started  in the #14 green, #15 tee, #16 green, #17 tee area. We hope to finish the pruning in this area by next week and then move these pruning efforts to the fence line along Roseville Parkway starting in the area behind the restroom on #5.

Small sprinkler heads being installed
along cart path on #18 this week.

Trench along #18 cart path.   900' long.
40 new sprinklers. 

2015 in Review

The approaching year end gives us  an opportunity to reflect on the past years successes as well as setbacks and as most years Granite Bay Golf Club can point to some of each. The historic continuing drought was a big part of the golf course maintenance story in 2015, and continues to be the defining issue of the season as we approach years end however not the only thing to look back on.

Weekly light topdressing is something we committed to
in 2015 and believe contributed to a more consistent
putting surface throughout the year.

2015 Drought

In April 2015 after 4 years of drought which included one of the the driest years, the warmest year & the year with the lowest measured accumulation of snow, Governor Jerry Brown issued an executive order directing the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) to impose restrictions to achieve a statewide 25% reduction in potable urban water usage through February 28, 2016.

The executive order (EOB-29-15) stated “The Water Board shall impose restrictions to require that commercial, industrial, and institutional properties, such as campuses, golf courses, and cemeteries, immediately implement water efficiency measures to reduce potable water usage in an amount consistent with the reduction targets mandated by Directive 2 of this executive order”. Responding to the Governors Executive Order the SWRCB adopted a conservation regulation which placed each urban water supplier into one of eight tiers which are assigned a conservation standard, ranging between 4% and 36%.

Current conditions of Folsom Reservoir is pretty bleak, however we still
have the winter ahead of us with unanimous El Nino predictions.

Granite Bay resides in the San Juan Water District (SJWD) service area and was assigned the highest conservation level of 36%  based on residential gallons per capita per day (R-RGPCD). By the end of the year we achieved the 36% reduction from 2013 use in raw water purchased for golf course irrigation and through November our combined potable water meters on the property had reduced 40% from 2013.

Even with the unanimous prognostication's from weather forecasters of a strong El Nino winter to hit the west coast, many doubt it will be enough to end this historic drought. Through December the States reservoirs are filling and more importantly the mountains have above average snow however these reservoirs were so depleted over the last four years that it will take allot of El Nino to fully recover. My suspicion is we are in for another year of mandated reductions which could lead into a new normal particularly with another CA State government mandate "20 X 2020" which requires a 20% reduction from all Californians by the year 2020.

Non of the States Reservoir's are looking reallygood at this point of the season.

The Good News is the Snow Accumulation. 

2015 Early Winter and Spring Flash Flood

Despite another year of below average rainfall we did experience some drastic weather that changed the landscape here at Granite Bay. On December 12 2014 we experienced a strong storm that brought 4" of rain in two days. A good portion of that rain fell in the early evening of December 12th causing Linda Creek to overflow it's banks and move a large rock that was stabilizing the creek bank near the bridge abutment on #14. The rock moved off the bank down into the creek exposing soil directly near the bridge abutment to further erosion in subsequent storms. 

As it turned out we didn't get any more substantial rainfall from January through April 2015 contributing to the continuing Statewide drought. One thing lead to another and we didn't get to properly stabilizing the exposed soil near the bridge abutment with the exception of some temporary old concrete rip rap to protect from El Nino this winter. Our permanent plan is to remove the temporary rip rap once the El Nino threat has past and stabilize the entire creek bank with rock on top and in front of a geo-textile barrier to prevent further erosion issues.

Another destructive weather event occurred in May where a unexpected flash flood went over the course creating a substantial mess and damage. This is the storm that collapsed the library patio cover and washed out our walnut shell areas like we have never experienced in 20 years. We received just under 3" of rain and hail, 2" of which came down in one hour. That's the definition of a frog strangler.

The hail that brought the patio cover down.

Summer 2015 Turf Loss and Fall Recovery

Because of the drought and its associated restrictions we decided against aggressive core aerification of green surrounds and fairways in both the fall of 2014 and spring of 2015 because of the amount of irrigation water it takes to recover from such an event. This calculated omission along with irrigation reductions and a warmer summer helped produce some stressed turf areas throughout the course that we needed to recover from in the fall.

Typical Granite Bay turf stress in the summer.

Our corporate Agronomist's visited Granite Bay during this stressful period and concluded if we are going to continue to try to hold onto cool season turf  from July through September we would need to start applying more protection to fairways and green surrounds for disease which is commonly  part of the stress equation in the summer months. This would require more resources which we we able to secure in the way of seed for recovery this past fall and disease prevention products for 2016.

New seeder purchased for seeding
improved varieties of bentgrass
into putting surfaces and 2015
fall recovery

Irrigation Controller Installation in 2015

We completed Phase I of our irrigation controller replacement in 2015 as scheduled. Phase II is slated to be funded in 2016 and we are trying to get it funded early so we can complete the installation process in the first part of the year. Replacing these controllers will benefit us more then just replacing 20 year old electronics. Replacement will facilitate single irrigation head irrigation control to a much higher degree then we currently have. Before we started this project we had 40% single head coverage. Upon completion we will achieve 90% single head coverage. The main advantage to single head coverage is we can control the amount of water each individual sprinkler head applies helping with both dry and wet spots in the summer along with producing                                                                   water savings.

Miscellaneous Traffic Control Changes 2015

We did adopt some different golf cart traffic control measures in 2015 that we hope moving forward will have a positive effect turf grass conditions particularly in the summer months. First we plan to continue to rope off  different holes in the summer to proactively protect the turf from the damages of cart traffic. In the past we roped along walnut shell lines allowing concentrated cart traffic under the Oak Trees inhabiting the shell areas. This added compaction combined with drought was not the best thing for our Oak trees as outlined in a course update entitled Golf Cart Traffic & Native Oaks. Therefore when we rope off a hole in the future we will no longer follow the walnut shell lines but the cart path to eliminate that concentrated compaction. I hope we all agree a few more steps is worth it to do all we can to protect these assets.

Another traffic control measure we put in place late in 2015 was the use of small white and green stake delineating where to enter and exit the golf hole with your golf cart. We have observed many members adhering to the protocol and this will make a difference in managing the wear and tear of cart traffic. Look for the three small white and green stakes at the beginning of the hole and the same trio closer to the green on and enter from the cart path on the first set and exit to the cart path on the second set. Golf course maintenance will move those stakes throughout the week to distribute wear. Simple as that.

A simple traffic control delineation protocol
adopted in 2015

2015 In Conclusion

From the entire Golf Course Maintenance Staff we would like to thank you the Granite Bay Members for your support of our efforts in 2015 and throughout the years. The dynamic nature of maintaining a living breathing "game board" presents unique challenges along with opportunities to exceed expectations. That is our goal, and we appreciate your encouragement and recognition of those efforts. 

Bagpiper on #10 in the morning during
2015 Jones Cup. 

Miguel Machuca was presented in 2015
Granite Bay Golf Club's Employee of the
Year for 2014.