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

USGA: 2 – 4 – 6 – 8 We Dont Need To Cultivate - August 2010

USGA: 2 – 4 – 6 – 8 We Dont Need To Cultivate - August 2010

Lack of Air Movement Thins-Out #6 Green

Hot humid days and nights, 23" of rain in 9 weeks and a lack of air movement over the surface of this small green weakened the grass to such a degree that it no longer can tolerant normal golfing traffic or mowing without thinning out.

An article in the Wall Street Journal, The Ugly Summer of 2010, by John Paul Newport explains why this occurs. "Grass does have a mechanism to cool itself. It's called evapotranspiration and is analogous to perspiration. The roots draw up water from the soil and it evaporates through the plant's leaves, dissipating heat. But when greens are scalped to a quarter-inch, an eighth of an inch and even shorter, the leaf surface available for transpiration declines."
"Prolonged heat causes other problems. One is that root systems shrink, sometimes to within a half-inch of the surface, reducing the amount of water drawn up to the top. Humidity and heavy rain make things even worse. Humidity retards evaporation, while soggy soil stays hot longer than dry soil does. Puddles and saturated soil also create barriers that prevent needed oxygen from getting to the roots. Even when the combination of these factors doesn't kill bentgrass and poa annua outright, it weakens the turf significantly and renders greens more susceptible to fungus and disease."
"When hot weather hits bentgrass courses, course superintendents raise mowing heights. That yields more leaf surface and improves evapotranspiration but can slow down putts by a foot or more on the Stimpmeter, which measures green speed. "Better slow grass than no grass" is a mantra among greenkeepers, but the pressure from golfers to keep the greens rolling fast is relentless.
We have raised the mowing height on #6 to aid in its recovery and have roped off the front of the green to divert traffic away from its bottleneck approach.