TURF BROWN OUT WARNING, CONSERVE ENERGY

Sometimes, in the summer, during extended heat waves, your Power Company might issue a Black Out Warning, meaning if everyone uses their air conditioners and other electric consuming equipment, they, the Power Company, might not be able to meet the energy demand which would trigger a network shutdown or a Black Out.

Well, I'm not the Power Company, I'm a Golf Course Superintendent and I'm issuing a Brown Out Warning for the cool season grasses, Bent and Poa Annua. When temperatures get hot and humid for extended periods of time, Bent Grass and Poa Annua will use more energy than they can produce. This energy deficiency weakens their whole vascular system and the normal wear and tear of mowing, rolling and foot traffic that had no effect on their health during cooler times now has a drastic consequence of turf thinning or outright kill. So, much like the Power Company asking you to conserve power during high demand periods we will conserve energy by raising the green mowing height slightly from .095" to .11", mow the greens every other day rather than daily and roll every other rather daily, by making these simple adjustments we reduce the stress on these weakened grasses. Yes, this will slow green speed down but it will also conserve energy and get these grasses through, this hot weather period, with minimal damage.

SWEEP-N-FILL BROOM PLUS PLANETAIR DELIVER GREAT GREENS

Pictured above you see the Sweep-N-Fill broom flicking up grass blades that are mowed off by the walking mowers creating openings for the sand topdressing and followed by the PlanetAir with its 1/8" knives penetrating to a depth of 1 1/4" allowing oxygen a pathway to the roots and severing stolons to generate new growth and control organic build up. Put it all together and we just increased green speed by 1 foot.

DRYJECT SAND INJECTION COMPLETES ORGANIC DILUTION GOAL

Each August we audit our green maintenance program by taking undisturbed core samples off of 5 of our greens which represent five different eras of green construction on our course and BenchMarking them against samples taken in previous years, our testing is done by ISTRC (International Sports Turf Research Center). We test the infiltration rate, air porosity, water holding capacity, bulk density and organic matter accumulation in the top 4" of the green and the results dictate our management program for the next 8, growing season, months. Last year, because of 23" of rain in 8 weeks and the resulting weak turf it left behind we were unable to perform routine minor management practices throughout the summer so our ISTRC test result indicated we were in need of a more aggressive program which started with a DryJect late last August followed by aggressive core aeration the last week of October and finally the DryJecting last week. Had we been able to perform our summer program there is a good chance the aggressive coring last October would not have been needed.

OK, so what does all this mumbo, jumbo me to me the GOLFER??  Smooth, fast, firm, healthy, consistent greens are a result of having the right balance of drainage and dead and living grass roots in the surface 4" of the green and that balance, inturn, renders the correct balance of oxygen to water that grass roots thrive on. Let me also say, grass root growth, itself, depletes oxygen pore space by pushing it out with new root growth and old roots die off naturally all season long leaving behind a mussy residue that  plugs the soil reducing water infiltration rates. Well, this is a simple explanation of the dynamic world of grass root growth on a green and is the reason why we sand topdress, spike, knife, dryject, hydroject, solid tine and sometimes have to core aerate to maintain a prescribed soil balance that renders a fast, firm and smooth putting surface. 

Pictured; DryJect sand injection. Profile of injected sand. Sweeping surface sand. Finished. 

SAND, LOTS OF IT = FAST, FIRM, SMOOTH, HEALTHY BENTGRASS FAIRWAYS

Why sand the fairways? From a golfers perspective; longer drives, consistent ball reaction with bump and run approach shots, firm up-right turf for excellent club to ball striking performance, swing plane angle superior due to positive foot, leg and hip pivoting on the firmer surface, no plugged lies, less fatigue pushing a cart or caring your bag, use of golf cars more frequently after rains, no muddy core aeration or multitudes of earthworm casts to interfere with THE GAME.

From an agronomic perspective; less disease, better drainage, deeper rooting, superior wear tolerance, fewer earthworm poa planting casts, competitive advantage for bentgrass over poa annua means less winter-kill potential, fewer summer stress situations, organic matter control, less scalp potential, fewer chemical inputs, better drought avoidance means fewer irrigation events and the ability to use equipment much sooner after heavy rains and snow melts. All of this equates out to economic and quality sustainability.

To reap all of the above you need at least a 2" layer of sand and the maximum you can safely apply in the cooler spring and fall period is 1/4" per application and this is best done in two 1/8" applications with incorporation of the sand into the canopy between the 1/8" applications. During the summer months 1/20" to 1/16" should be the target so as to avoid the smothering of turf and tissue damage that would be caused by incorporation techniques of higher quantities.

Our goal is to apply 3/4" of sand per year with a ultimate target depth of 4". Once the 4" depth is attained our yearly total will be reduced to just over 1/4" for maintenance of the surface.

THREE PRONGED ATTACK SOLVES #6 DRAINAGE PROBLEMS

To solve any problem you first have to determine the causes. The causes, for the wet area left of the willow on #6 and to the left of the silver tee box on #9 were a corroded, leaking Water Level Control Device for #17 ponds, plugged 1930 era cement drain tile and a low area where the predominant soil is clay.

Last fall we replaced the corroded Water Level Control Device and a good stretch of pipe that carries that water to #5 pond, now the challenge was to locate the 1930 cement drain tile, no blueprints existed just a reference from our Westmoor History Book that in 1930 drain tile was installed. With Mark Mejchar at the controls of the Mini-Backhoe we located the tile and it gust water to the surface, we pumped the water out and inserted a tracer wire into the tile so we could locate it and dig it up again about 30 yards down grade, once again water gust to the surface and we continued down grade where we found, as you can see in the middle picture above, a mass of willow roots in a 4" cement tile. We cleaned the roots out and continued our tracing all the way to the pond. With the tile now functioning we placed vertical, clean out basins, over the drain tile about every 30 yards. With these clean outs in place locating the tile and cleaning it out is simple. Unfortunately, the 1930 drain tile is 4' deep and the lower 3' is in clay soil, so this drainage network, although functioning, would be slow due the water having to go through the clay to get to the tile. So to speed drainage in this area we added shallower trenches with solid, willow root proof, pipe and surface drain inlets as you can see in the last photo above.
Now we have a drainage network that will keep this area dry and playable all season long and will be easy to maintain in future. Playable and sustainable, a good combination.

DRIVING RANGE DRAINAGE WORK COMMENCES

Mark Mejchar, our Operations Manager, in the mini-backhoe, and Assistant Superintendent, Bryan Bergner, with rake in hand, start the first of four drainage pipe installs. The first, pictured here, is on the driving range just in front of the renovated practice tee. Mark and Bryan along with the help of Second Assistant Superintendent, Zac Houfek and Nick Narlock, Assistant Operations Manager, will install 6 catch basins, connect them with 4" drain pipe, all of which, will intercept and collect rain and irrigation runoff water from the tee and target green and transfer it underground, into the city storm water drainage network.

The second drainage install will be on hole #6 in the left rough near the willow tree about 170 yds off the tee. Third, will be a Water Level Control Device and connecting pipe install between #5 pond and #4 pond just in front of #5 tee.  The final install will be on hole #11 on the fence-line to the left of the green. With these all in place by May 6 we will enjoy a full season of golf on much drier turf.

MARCH 19, 2011 A LOOK AT CONDITIONS

# 7

#15

#12

#7 green looking to #15

#8

SNOW GONE! GREAT SHAPE! SUN HEADING NORTH!

Put another Wisconsin winter in the books, we came through in flying colors! No snow mold, no winter kill! Our snow mold fungicides worked great and they were applied flawlessly by our Operations Manager, Mark Mejchar and Assistant Superintendent, Bryan Bergner.  Yes, the course is still very wet and frost is still in the ground and it might snow alittle next week but it sure was nice to walk all 18 holes and see grass again.

Most likely, it will be about 2 weeks before we open the greens, so if you come out to play the course backwards, as it is set up now with cups and flags in the tees, please do not walk over the greens as you make your way to the next teeing area, located about 25 yards infront of the green at a blue 3 foot tall wooden stake. Our greens are very soft and wet and if you walk on them now your going to leave depressions behind that will play havoc with your putting 2 to 3 weeks from now.

Here are a few photo's from my walk today.

SKIN CANCER! MAN UP! BE A LEADER!

If your family, friends and employees love the outdoors like I do, than they, like me, have a destiny with skin cancer. The only difference between us is I'm 60 years old, and likely, most of the people you care about are younger. I've had more sun exposure time, which means, I have skin cancer, Basal Cell Carcinoma and a precancer called Actinic Keratosis. The good news is, I was on top of it, have a great Dermatologist, Dr. David Crosby, and he removed the Basal Cell and treated the AK so it would not develop into cancer. I'm good to go.

So what am I saying when I say, Man Up, (term, not gender driven) Be a Leader, I'm saying your the person responsible for protecting your family, your friends and fellow employees and yourself. How do you do that? Here is one example; at Westmoor, protecting yourself from the sun is a part of our Safety Training Program and has been for 20 plus years, it's right up there with how to operate equipment safely. We explain what the sun does to your skin and that working and playing outdoors predisposes you to a number of skin problems and that protecting yourself early and daily prevents nearly all skin cancers. We supply sunscreen, a SPF 30 or higher, but most importantly, we the Fulltime Staff slop it on, yes we call it slop because we want to emphasize the amount, every morning and make it a point of doing it in front of our fellow employees. The fact that you, the Leader, are slopping on sunscreen in front of the people you are leading, has a profound effect on them doing the same. You, put a hat on, there is a good chance they will too.

Now you the father the mother the friend take that process home and start slopping on the sunscreen in front of them, family and friends, and you know what, they will do the same. You see, safety is contagious if ----, if you, The Leader, LEADS!!!

Of all the cancers that humans can get, skin cancer is the most common. In the US, skin cancer is increasing in all races.
How can we protect ourselves? Sun exposure is the most preventable risk factor for all skin cancers, including melanoma. You can have fun in the sun and decrease your risk of skin cancer.
Here is how to be Sun Smart:
1. Generously apply a broad-spectrum water-resistant sunscreen of a SPF of 30 or more. We say slop it on.
2. Wear protective clothing; hat, sunglasses, long sleeved shirt and pants if possible.
3. Use extra caution near water, snow and sand as they reflect damaging rays from the sun.
4. The suns rays are strongest between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm
5. Make sure you protect your children
6. Supplement your diet with vitamin D.
7. Avoid tanning beds.

To get the latest on sun-protective products that meet the criteria of the American Academy of Dermatology and to learn more about skin cancer go to http://www.aad.org/

15fwy 3/14. Will Mid-week 60dg melt it all? Most likely not but it will be nice to see grass.

DEAD ELM ON #6 REMOVED IN DECEMBER

This large dead elm on #6 was taken down in December. Its demise was a lightning strike that occurred in the summer of 2009. Whether a lightning strike will actually kill a tree or how long after a lightning strike will it be before a tree dies is really unpredictable. Arborists think many factors come into play; moisture inside the tree and in the ground at the time of the strike, intensity of the thunder storm and the overall health of the tree are just a few of the factors they mention as contributing to survival or death after a strike.

For this season, we will sod the stump hole with bluegrass and the area will remain rough as it was. In the future, when funds become available,  we will proceed with the plan of Golf Course Architect, Todd Quitno of Lohmann Golf Designs which widens the fairway 15 yards where the old elm stood this will make hitting the fairway much easier, but he also plays with your mind by extending the pond up to the site of the old elm also. Risk and Reward at its best on this short par 4. Quitno embraces many of the same design philosophies of the great, early American Golf Course Architect, William Langford, and hole #6 is one of the of five holes Langford designed here at Westmoor.

JERRY NELSON "IS" THE MASTER OF FLOWER POWER. HANDSDOWN!

Soft spoken, but a man with an extensive wealth of gardening knowledge, Nelson delivers the spectacular. He's the "Mailman" when it comes to consistent deliveries. Some landscape companies and master gardeners can talk a good game but fail in delivering a "knock your socks off display" year after year, not so with Nelson, you will be walking bare foot and be happy your doing it.You see, this is a year round deal for Jerry, if he's not speaking at a winter gardening conference in the upper Midwest, he is attending it, with a mission of attaining plant material and a design that will WOW his costumers. 
Having trouble believing me, well tune into his weekly radio Gardening show on WRJN AM 1400 out of Racine every Saturday morning from 7:05 to 8:00 and you will hear the Master at his best. Or take a garden tour at his home, he is a Master Gardener, you know, and in many gardening minds, he is the Master of the Master. He is also a prominent member of many gardening societies one being the Wisconsin & Illinois Lilly Society.

So last week, when I saw Jerry going over his plan for Westmoors 2011 Seasonal Displays, with our Horticulturist, Jim Hicks, I got excited, because I knew the "Mailman" was about to deliver once again!!

In the photo above, Jerry is on the left side and Jim is on the right. Jerry Nelson can be reached by calling his company, Classic Gardens, at 262-835-2530 or 262-951-1463 or emailing him at jerryn72@gmail.com

CORRODED WATER LEVEL CONTROL STRUCTURE, AT 17 POND, REPLACED WITH CORROSIVE RESISTANT STRUCTURE, LAST NOVEMBER

Last March we sleeved our galvanized metal irrigation wet well and intake pipe with a plastic composite material because our sodium chloride rich pond water (result of Hwy salt runoff from I-94) had corroded the metal away. Late last November, we replaced the corroded metal intake pipe, pond level control structure and exit pipe with a corrosive resistant plastic PVC Water Level Control Structure we purchased from Agri Drain Corp, out of Adair, Iowa  www.agridrain.com  You can see from the photos above how corroded the metal intake pipe was and what the new PVC Water Level Control Structure looks like, along with some of the methods we used to install it. Other than the backhoe, and its operator, Chuck Christoph of Christoph Excavting, this replacement operation was done all in-house. Great Job by Mark, John, Jim, Zac, Nick and Bryan!!

2010 ASSET PERFORMACE EVALUATION. #1 ASSET: THE GREENS

How do you go about evaluating the performance of your greens? Well, Chris Hartwiger, Senior Agronomist with the USGA who operates out of the Southeast Region of the US put together a wonderful, and nearly all encompassing, Putting Green Performance Pyramid that provides a building block check list arranged in a fashion to determine a greens overall strenghts and from those strengths it tells you how far and how long you can push that green to attain a peak performance. If you are missing some of the foundations building blocks, lowest level of the pyramid, than you can expect some deterioration of the putting surface if you push the green to peak performance for too long of a time, especially if weather conditions are not favorable.

The weather in 2010 in SE Wisconsin was more akin to the weather of St. Louis and Memphis where bent grass survival is tested annually.This weather was a fantastic test for our one year old, Penn A-1 pushup greens. Eighteen of our greens performed beautifully, our 11th was ok and within our "Standard" for excellence, but our 6th, with its lack of air movement, sunlight, limited cupping area and a congested entry point had a problem. The growth became stunted and the stand thinned a bit. To protect it from further damage we roped of its narrow entry point, raised the height of cut and went to a mow one day and roll the next schedule. These actions protected the quality of the surface but slowed the speed to below our "Standard". Having one green perform below our "Green Standard" is not what we like to have but if this weather pattern is more a trend, than an aberation, this substandard for #6 will reoccur. To insure this doesn't happen we need to install a fan or fans for air movement, thin out trees and undergrowth to the southwest of the green for sunlight an air movement, educate golfers on where to enter and exit the green and make sure our green venting program, a program that produces a small hole or slice in the green for oxygen infusion and the exodus of harmful gasses is adhered to on a 2-3 week schedule throughout the season. With all of these elements of the pyramid corrected on #6, and our venting program intact, we will have a significantly better chance of achieving our standard, even with, The Memphis Weather Blues. To view the entire USGA Pyramid article, by Chris Hartwiger, please view my January 22, 2011 blog post.

NIEMIEC / MEJCHAR INGENUITY = SUSTAINABLE BENT GRASS

It's no secrete that bentgrass loves acid fertility and iron. Give bent a consistent diet of iron sulfate, ammonium sulfate and it will thrive, but how do you do that efficiently, safely and economically? Well with a little background information from our friends Jeff Johnson and Nick Folk of the Minikahda Club in Minneapolis, MN. our staff headed by John Niemiec and Mark Mejchar with some assistance from Nick Narlock built a 1550 gallon mix tank that will mix inexpensive agricultural fertilizers into a deluxe diet formula that will keep the bent grass happy for a long time while making its ugly cousin poa annua rather sad. How did the boys do it? Well, you let these guys look at someones mouse trap, Minnikada's in this case, and they  can't resist the urge to build a better one, and they have. This setup will have better agitation and the ability to download faster so we can crank out the loads to our fairways and greens in a timely fashion. And they put it all together for less than $2,200. This setup will save our club Thousands of $$ over the course of the next few years and make our members and our bentgrass, very happy! Once again American Ingenuity Pays Off!

Wow! 6 hours, shop to Moorland

The Putting Green Performance Pyramid USGA Green Section Record. Chris Hartwiger

DON'T UNDERACHIEVE ON YOUR GREENS UTILIZE ALL ELEMENTS OF THE PYRAMID