Fresh faces

     It's been a long time since I've been able to publish anything to this blog and I apologize.  The growing season was crazy hectic last year with projects and to put it gently, an unfavorable winter. With the help of Xingyu, last year's architect intern, we designed 4 flower beds, a rock retaining wall and a newly designed and finished black tee box for #1, and a wildflower establishment area located by the tunnel entrance to Fair Hills Resort.  These projects were completed and look fantastic; a job well done by all who helped.  A special thank you to the Schupp family for providing extra hands to plant the native wildflowers just before the 4th of July.We also completed construction of the chipping green located adjacent to the driving range tee box.  We are still growing this in and plan to open it around the fourth of July.  We also began construction of a 6800 square foot bentgrass nursery as most of you are aware.  Last fall we pressurized and checked the irrigation system addition and are very pleased with the in-house design and installation.  This spring, we will finish the final grading and amending, and will plant bentgrass soon after.  This addition to the facility will prove beneficial two-fold.  It will allow us to harvest bentgrass for damaged areas on our tees, greens and collars; and provide a "test plot" for maintenance practices that we will employ on the rest of the playing surfaces. 
      Now that this is all behind us and we are once again looking forward to the upcoming season, I thought I would post some information on Wildflower's two newest additions to our crew. 
     We were fortunate enough to hire two assistant superintendents to add to our experienced staff who have more than 30+ years in the golf course maintenance industry. 

Course Update April Fools Day!

A few weeks back the temperatures were getting into the 60's and I was debating on pulling covers. It was beautiful, the sun was shining and birds were chirping; spring was for surely here. Then the next two weeks brought cold and some really nasty winds... I am really glad I listened to my instinct and relied on my experiences with Minnesota weather and decided to wait and pull covers. There is a game to play each spring when dealing with greens covers. Do you pull them early because you are getting into a warm spell? Do you leave them on and gamble through the warm spell? You can literally get burned if you do the wrong thing!!!

Snow Melt Field Trial and a small course update

With the coming of warmer temps, I am starting to shift my thinking from shop work to getting back out on the course.  I am so excited for these temps, as I'm sure everyone else is too!  I am going to warn you, this post is long and somewhat boring if you don't like melting snow!!!

Metrics of success, to measure is to know.

This winter, like the last three I have had at Wildflower, have a few different phases.  There is the initial phase, I like to call it the 3R's. Relax, recuperate and reflect.  This usually starts around the first of December when the majority of golf course work ceases and I begin my move indoors not unlike a large brown bear to await spring.  This is the time that I get caught up on a lot of the paperwork that was pushed aside when we are scurrying around the course in the last month getting ready for the arrival of winter.
    The second phase, I would call it the transitional period, largely due to some time spent out on the ice and a slower than usual work ethic in the shop.  Without the pressure of the "need it done now" mentality that keeps us running in all directions in the peak season, it is nice to be able to work on equipment and get some more CEU's. There is reel grinding, major work done on the equipment, and book work and planning that is done in this phase. I would believe that I am at the tail end of this phase right now, getting ready to transition into the third and final phase of the off season.  I like to call this phase the calm before the storm.  You know what's coming just around the corner, so you take stock and plan out what you want to get done in the upcoming season.  This is the time to get your chemical applications in order and reflect on what worked and what ultimately didn't work the year prior and compare it to years past.  I wish spring had a concrete date each year, so I could plan out when to have all the reels ready for the first mow, but that's the thing with my job, you just never know.
     As I transition into the calm before the storm phase, I have decided (although we'll see how staffing levels, environment and equipment acts) that I am going to take a different approach to my management style.  In years past, I will admit that I was a rely on my previous experience kind of manager and not take into consideration hard numbers of what I am doing.  I read a great quote online tonight, and that is partially why I can't sleep so I'm up writing this blog post.  I am sorry that I can not give credit to the author as I have tweaked it and added my own spin on it.

           "You can't manage what you can't measure, so measure everything you can."

 

Pretty deep.  When you think about it, the reality of it, to me, is the very thing that a golf course superintendent strives to do.  You can't manage green speeds without measuring it weekly.  You can't manage surface drainage if you don't measure percolation rate.  You can't manage the efficiency of your crew's day to day without measuring how long it takes them in relation to the quality of work as the end result. 

      Now there are all sorts of fancy ways to measure this, but to me, finding the point of diminishing returns seems the most viable.  I.e., let's say I send two laborers out to hand rake greensides and it takes them 4 hours to do the whole course.  That would mean that it took 8 labor hours to perform the task, but the hidden variable in the equation is the quality of their work.  If we were to give an un-biased view to the quality, say, from a pro shop employee or golfer's viewpoint, we could ascertain a rating from 1 to 5 and figure out the point of diminishing return.  The point at which it takes the 2 laborers too long to do greensides, and we don't see the quality improve.  This is the point in which I am interested in, largely because we are always trying to find ways to be more efficient at the course.

     This year, we will be logging the hours it takes each employee to perform each task, and trying to assign an un-biased rating to the quality of work.  This will not be a one season study, but I feel that in the end, we will be able to get a solid grasp on our point of diminishing returns for each and every task that we perform on the course.  There is one variable in this equation that would be very hard to measure, and would make for a very complicated data; the differences in laborers and the work ethic that they show.  This means that not every laborer is capable of doing the job in the same way as the next laborer.  There are some guys out there that can dig an irrigation leak, do it well, and be done twice as fast as the next guy.   This is where we will have to find out who is best suited for each specific task to get the best data for this study.

     This approach to business is not new by any means.  When you think about it, you can use this in every single industry if you tweak some of your thinking.  Imagine the golf course as a gigantic assembly line, churning out great rounds for the golfers every 7 minutes ( a standard tee sheet interval for those of you that wonder why the random tee times!!!)  There are laborers assigned a task which fits into the overall assembly of a set up and ready for play golf course.  I like to look at the course in this way, because it's fun to think about your job in a different light sometimes.

     If things go according to plan, we will have a boost in our labor hours this year.  We have done some asking around and realized that we were grossly understaffed last year.  Talking with some other superintendents through the GCSAA, a comparable golf course in size, (because without knowing everything about the two properties you could never get a true comparison) usually has around 17 to 20 staff in the peak season.  We had 13 including me last year, so this leads me to believe that we were way under staffed.  There is no one to blame here, except for me.  I thought that we could just work more hours and still get a quality product off the assembly line each and every day; some people were just going to have to run two machines at the same time.  Going back to the assembly line analogy, last year we had machines to do the work, but no one to oversee and run those machines.  This year, if we are able to get into that 17 to 20 range, this is where the metrics of this whole thing will prove or disprove my idea that more is better.  I wish I would have had this idea last year, to document each person's hours per task.  That would have given me the proper benchmark to base this whole thing off of.  Instead, this coming year will be the benchmark going forward, and we will be able to base other seasons off this season.

     I am trying to purchase a new topdresser for the golf course.  We do have a topdresser that works, but to be more efficient AND a higher quality application of sand, I am looking into a new piece of equipment.  I could have thrown out some numbers to make it look like we will be saving tons of money, but there is no merit in those numbers until I can explain exactly how we came up with the numbers.  We will be demoing two different manufacturers and logging the time it takes in comparison to the older model we currently have.  There are many factors in just this piece of equipment, so taking my time and due diligence should pay off for the course in the long run.  Looking into not only the reduction of time spent topdressing, but the reduction of wasted material, labor time to incorporate the sand, mechanical wear and tear of the greens mowers after the application, the physical stress to the plant while incorporating the sand all have to be factored into the purchase decision.  Maybe I'm over analyzing, but I would rather be right that wrong.

       Now into the nuts and bolts of my plan.

            I have been working on a SOP, which is a standard operating procedures document for the golf course.  Something that is a great tool to have if everyone in the organization can agree on it's content.  So far, I have 6 pages just on equipment operation and will hopefully get it done in time for the 2015 season.  I will provide a link to the document once I am finished, so if anyone wants to see it they are more than welcome.  A brief outline of the intention of this form is to standardize what we do to maintain the golf course to a set expectation of the members, owners and the ultimate consumer, the returning golfer.  Taking into consideration the labor force, capitol, and hours in the season, we will decide what practices best suit our needs and implement them on a yearly basis.  This document will change, be amended and modified from year to year, but that is where the metrics come into play.  We will be able to have a better understanding of the time it takes to perform each task, and where we need to focus more of our time or less depending on the importance of the task.  I am really excited about this, because to measure is to know... maybe



A Christmas Update

4 Fairway looking towards 8 Fairway

 

     As you can see, almost all of the snow has melted off and we are just getting into the coldest part of the winter months.  Now, this is definitely not ideal because we welcome a thick blanket of snow to help insulate the turf from the winds and cold temperatures we receive from December until March.

make new again

 

 

Here is the new look at the wildflower golf course tee markers.  Obviously, these are the yellow tees, but I decided to do one with black and one with white to look at the difference.  Hand painted by yours truly, I think we will go forward with the white border to make sure there is no confusion what the tee marker is designating.  

Looking ahead

I feel as though I have not done my part in keeping this BLOG updated.  Considering that I am the sole author, I can see how I feel this way.  I wrote a post a few days ago, but before that, it was early in the spring as everything was coming out of dormancy.
     The thought of writing articles and updates for the loyal Wildflower members as well as anyone who will listen to me upon my soapbox gives me a great feeling; like I am doing some sort of a public service.  I know most of you may stumble upon this site looking for something else and just mindlessly read along, but it is my hope that you find something of relevance and something to take away with you to think about.

let it burn/ then and now

This is something that I normally wouldn't like to see at the course, but since we decided to start the native burns this fall, this is a great sight to see.  Torching some of the areas that are severely overgown will allow a better stand of wildflowers popping up next spring.  This area was the little island between 13 and 14 fairways, and if you can remember, there was a pretty decent amount of wildflowers in this area this year.  We will continue to try and burn some more areas to restore some of the wildflowers.  Some areas that we have designated will be between 2 and 3 and between 2 and 6.  These are relatively large areas and require some very careful planning before we start the burn.  We did two smaller areas last Wednesday to "practice" and see how the fire and it's fuel will act so we can better understand how to control it in case of emergency.  The outcome was rather anti-climactic due to the moisture content that is still in some of the native areas.  We were able to light some of the drier, bunch type grasses, but most of the under layer was still actively green and growing, so it didn't burn as well as we wanted.  We will reconsider and try again maybe at the end of November to see what we can get burnt before the snow covers the ground!

This is a 2 part entry, mainly due to the lack of entries ALL SEASON LONG. We had a rough year, mainly due to winterkill and a somewhat under-amazing spring.
     

 

 

Here is a before picture of Number 9 green.  This was a sad sight this spring, and another reason why I take so many pictures to remind me of some of the worst areas and things that should have gone differently.

 

Here is the after picture taken the end of September.  Things change a lot in 6 months, and I sure am glad that they did.  We had so much winter kill that I was wondering all summer what I did wrong the fall before.  I looked back through all my records, and all my measurements were spot on, and the applications were all the same.  This year, we are going to switch to a different nozzle selection to put our fungicide down.  With the differences in nozzle selection, there should be a more uniform coverage of the leaf blade this year.  The reason I used a larger droplet sized nozzle last year was due to the amount of wind that we deal with here at Wildflower.  With the larger droplet size that reduces drift, you compromise the coverage on the leaf tissue due to the fact that the larger droplets will penetrate the leaf canopy and not cover the leaf blade as it needs to be.  With the change to a smaller droplet comes the increased risk of spray drift but the better coverage of the leaf blades.  We will have to spray on a very calm day to be able to get adequate coverage, but that is one of the only reasons I can think of why there was so much superficial damage to the turf. 

 

Thanks to you all for a great year at Wildflower and we will be continuing our fall time projects to improve the aesthetics and playability of the course!!!

Wildflower Driving Range is now open for 2014

 Although it may not feel like April, more like late October, the driving range is open for business at Wildflower.  We will be opening the driving range every day this week, weather permitting in the morning, to let all golfers come out and try out their new Christmas presents that they opened up this last Christmas. 

Fingers Crossed

     I took a very cold and windy course tour this morning to look at how things melted off the rest of Friday and Saturday.  Almost all of the greens at Wildflower are exposed and all but a few areas are disease free and looking to be ready for play in 5 days.  Despite our best efforts last fall, there was a little snow mold damage to 12 green, but with a little TLC once the temps come back to normal, we should be looking at a good "green-up" this spring. 

My opinion of snowmobiles...

Wildflower golf course will be tentatively open April 18th.  Man, that seems scary to say when its  April 9th.  Last year, this time I was wondering if I moved to Greenland instead of Minnesota...  Today was the first real day of working out on the course, and I was giddy and excited for spring to be here.  Although it was really tough to bring my spirits down, I still had cause to be upset for some people's actions over the last winter.  I don't know who, but I can assure you that if I did know, they would definitely be getting an ear full from me.

Spring is Here! Wildflowers soon to come!!!

Hello all:
      Yesterday marked the beginning of spring for us, and then of course we get a good blanket of snow last night and the temps are supposed to drop off the deep end here for the weekend.  I took a walk yesterday because it was 40 degrees and was moving snow off cart paths so I can get out and do some tree work.
                                                                                As of yesterday, this was a view looking back from the hill on #4.  There is a large puddle in the second fairway bunker on #3 fairway, but that is to be expected this time of year. 

 

I, however, did see some things that I wasn't to pleased about.

Follow me on twitter!!!!

Actually, I could use some mentoring on twitter.  I am so far behind the curve for social media, it's mind blowing. 

Voles.... The Poa Annua of the vertebrate world

         First things first.  Lets get the difference sorted out between a mole and a vole.  Moles eat insects, and are producers of mole hills, while the vole, or field mouse, is a herbivore and will build tunnels in your grass.  I'm sure we have all heard the saying, "don't make a mountain out of a mole hill."  In this case, don't make a vole tunnel into a mole hill...

NCTGA Conference Wrap-up

Today I had to come home early from the North Central Turfgrass Management Educational conference in Fargo, North Dakota.  Reasons for leaving aside, it was a great experience with a lot of great information and catching up with the vendors and all their new wares.  There was plenty of educational opportunities and I am really honored to be able to meet THE Dr. Vargas from Michigan State. 

Welcome to work

Welcome to the Wildflower Golf Course Maintenance facility.  I wish I could have had a GoPro video Camera of me crawling into the shop this morning before this path was shoveled, probably would have gotten some laughs at 23 below zero this morning...  To say we have some drifts around the shop and pro shop is an understatement.  According to the Minnesota climatology website we're only in the 60th percentile for snow depth rankings according to the historical data, but the amount of drifting snow and where it rests is quite inconvenient.  Last year, we weren't even close to the amount of drifted snow around the shop as we are currently sitting, and it's not even February yet!

Only 18 days left in the year!!!

Although I can't say for everyone that this year flew by, I feel like I don't recollect anything from this summer.  Maybe it was due to the feeling of never being done with anything; maybe it was due to the fact that we were still moving snow off Wildflower's greens May 1st. Looking back on the year, I am so glad I keep a daily log book of what went on every day.
     One of the biggest advantages that I personally think every superintendent should do is keep a very detailed daily journal of happenings on the course and weather. Now, I'm sure the majority of superintendents do this is some form, but I also think it's a great learning device for assistant superintendents out of college. I was introduced to this by my former superintendent Rex Saddoris at Lake Powell National.  My first day, Rex handed me a 5-subject notebook and told me I had to keep track of everything that we do during the day.  When he told me this I really wanted to say no, and that it would take up way too much of my time trying to remember and write out everything that we did.  Looking back on it, it was maybe the most beneficial task I was assigned my entire career. Being able to look back and see what was happening on the course from year to year is invaluable and provides the superintendent with historical data (albeit not quantitative) but nonetheless extremely important.  Learning from your mistakes is a whole lot easier when you have them written down and you can flip back to the exact date when you made the mistake and think it through given the outcome.  I can't stress enough how valuable being able to look back in time and see what worked and what didn't.  History doesn't repeat itself, and every situation is different, but being able to relate past experiences to the task at hand will make the outcome lean more in your favor. 

Ahh...Fall pt. 2

My last post lead into what it really takes to "put a course to sleep for the winter".  In this post, I'll shed some light on what we do to put a golf course to bed for the winter.  I'm assuming that some of you out there understand that there is a lot of work that needs to be done to ensure that the grass will come back healthy and vibrant once the snow is gone.  I am going to outline the basic needs of winterization, and try not to be sooooo long winded as to lose your attention.

Ahhhhh...Fall pt.1

 

 

Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year.  Spring is pretty neat, but you always can count on some nasty cold, rainy days which remind you of the not too far out-of-mind winter that you just came out of hibernation from.  Fall brings a welcomed drop in the heat, not only to us humans, but to the turf we hold so close to our hearts.  Cool season grasses are aptly named just that- they grow best in the cooler, shoulder-seasons of the summer.  The turf has mainly rebounded from the various summer stresses, and you don't have that "it's so bright it hurts my eyes" sun beating down on you.  You can actually enjoy being out in the sun and your face doesn't hurt from all the squinting. 
      Another great thing about fall is around the course, there is more time to get those projects done that have been nagging you all summer. 






     Here at Wildflower, we had an "interesting" pressurization, to say the least.  Two major breaks isolating loops in our system that were altogether, around 400 feet.  It was so convenient that BOTH of the breaks happened to be under cart paths, so I decided this spring to isolate them and come back to them at a later date.
   This is the beginning stages of our 250' irrigation re-build.  I can't say for sure that all of the 250' of pipe looked like this guy here, but I do know that we dug up just by the gate valve by the cart path and it was shattered right up to the cart path.  On the other side, towards 15, we dug a trench 40 feet long and all of that pipe met the same fate, completely shattered pipe with razor sharp edges. 

As you can see, it did go RIGHT under the cart path by 16 Tee box, so we rented a Demo saw and a ditch witch.  With a little planning, we were able to knock out both fixes in a day.  Today was mainly spent gluing the pipe together and working on the angles to make the pipe fit just right.

 With the last few days being in the 70's, there has been a decent amount of golf and we really appreciate your patronage.  This time of the year is always tough to make decisions because you are basing your reason for the decision on the weather.  We could be buried under 2 feet of snow by tomorrow; you just never know.  There are a lot of things that we need to still get done here at Wildflower in order to keep us ahead of the game in the spring, mostly being leaf removal and fungicide applications.  The difficult decision to close the course is always being asked and we will stay open as long as we can.  I feel we owe it to our members who lost the better half of the spring to inclement weather, but if the weather is going to change here soon, I don't think too many of us will be knocking down the door to go out and play in 40 degree weather that's super windy.  I'm going to wrap this post up, but it leads right into my next post...

 

 

 

Aerification... Taking one step back to take two steps forward

     Some of you out there may wonder why golf courses seem to always be destroying their greens, tees, and sometimes fairways.  I'v heard it a million times, "You just got the greens looking wonderful and then you go out and punch a bunch of huge holes and throw down way too much sand and it ruins them!!!"  Rest assured golf course superintendents (and myself included) all want their golf course to play perfect each and every day for a long time to come.  It is that exact reason that we aerate; we want the playing conditions to constantly improve.  Sometimes you have to take one step back to move forward to reach your goal. 

 

This is the main reason that we aerate a few times each year...

     You can see the different striations just under the grass.  See that darker brown layer just under the grass?   That is the main reason that the tee boxes at Wildflower golf course took such a hit when it finally decided to warm up this year.  With that much thatch, it is inevitable that your grass is going to become a weak stand sooner than later.  This cut was from #6 Main tee box, and if you've golfed out at Wildflower, you probably noticed how dry #6 looked. 

      These are the main reasons to alleviate thatch in grass:

        1)  When thatch dries out, it becomes HYDROPHOBIC. hydro=water   phobic= repels

        2)  Thatch that stays wet is a perfect breeding ground for fungi

        3)  Excessive thatch can lead to scalping and "puffy" stands of turf

        4)  Elevated levels of thatch actually take the crown (the actively growing part of the plant) up off the soil profile and can lead to pulling out of the crowns and actually rooting just in the thatch.  This problem leads to turf that is easily damaged by mowing, walking and divots taken by normal golf. 

         There are many more reasons to hate thatch, but you do need a small amount (usually around .25 inches) for a healthy stand of grass.  Thatch, although mostly talked about in a negative way, buffers the crowns from temperature extremes and when thatch is broken down on a microbial scale, it adds much needed food for the surrounding plants.  Thatch gets detrimental when it is allowed to build up past the range of normal acceptance. 

       When were talking about thatch becoming hydrophobic, I mean it literally is scared of water.  No matter how much you pour onto the grass, it won't work into the soil because the thatch is so tight and becomes water repellent when it dries out.  Look up professor Larry Stowell, PACE Turf... This guy is amazing!!!!  He has a pretty good YouTube video on why us superintendents aerate.  The use of wetting agents will help alleviate some of the hydrophobicity of the thatch, but if you don't want to add more chemicals to your grass, the only option is aeration.

      The very basis of aerification is simple,  you punch a hole in the ground, fill it with sand, and the magic starts.  Usually taking what's called a "core" from the turf opens up the root zone to let much needed oxygen, water and growing media (sand) into the holes left from pulling the core out of the ground.  This mix of porous sand mixing into the usually organic-matter rich soil also aids the microbes in breaking down even more thatch.  Microbes need oxygen to do their job, just like we all do to survive.  Without oxygen, or in an anaerobic state, means that the microbes aren't doing their job, and then the thatch starts to build up once again.  This is the major reason that we have to continually disturb the soil profile to add oxygen to aid the microbes in breaking down the organic matter.  Another benefit of pulling out cores and filling the holes with sand is that grass roots will take the path of least resistance in search of water and nutrients.  Imagine trying to stick a pencil into compacted clay and good black dirt.  Wouldn't you think that it would be easier to stick that same pencil into sand, and wouldn't that same pencil go deeper and require less work to get deeper?  Now, I know most of us can push a little harder on the pencil than the grass roots can, but aerification holes provide the grass with an easy route down to find more water and more nutrients. 

 

   The grass will fill in, the sand will work it's way into the thatch layer, and the grass will be healthier for all the work we do to destory a beautifully rolling green.

    As I'm writing this, we are finishing up punching the back 9 tees at Wildflower.  Greens will be aerated later this summer, and I look forward to hearing all the complaints of the golfers who didn't get a chance to read my lecture on why I do what I do!!!  We're not the only golf course that aerifies, and I'm certain that my crew loathes the job board when it says aerification just as much as golfers!

 

Keep Hacking-

  Aaron

 

PS-  I welcome comments/complaints!  Please feel free to leave a comment and Ill do my best to get back to you in a timely manner on here!