Hickory Ridge Golf Course Turf Care Center

One of the many winter projects

2011-12-13T10:11:00.001-06:00

One of our older tractors has had a nagging leak this season. After diagnosing the problem we realized it was going to be a very big job and winter would be the best time to address it. Our Equipment Technician Dave Miller is a hour or so into what looks like a lengthy repair. We are lucky to have someone with Dave's many talents. This trusty tractor will be running like a champ in no time.

Welcome Darby!

2011-12-06T21:53:00.001-06:00

Good job waiting until the off season Mike! In all seriousness, I couldn't be more happy for my assistant Mike and his wife Andrea on their first born. Welcome Darby.

BASF Video.

2011-11-21T13:30:00.001-06:00

Nice Addition

2011-08-16T10:09:00.003-05:00

GPI M075 Flow Meter

While browsing through one of my latest turf magazines, I saw a ad for a new sprayer that had one of these flow meters on it. The first thing that popped into my head was, "this would help us measure the water that we add to our sprayer for small spraying jobs so often".
One of the websites that I belong to is TurfNet. The advertisement that I spoke of was for a company called Smithco. I remembered seeing one of Smithco's employees on the forum on the site and contacted him. He got back with me in a day and pointed me in the right direction to find the flow meter above.
We installed it last week and it has saved us plenty of time already. We use such precise measurements in everything we do and this addition has helped us make certain our small sprayer applications will be properly applied.
This is a link to where we purchased ours.
Thanks Emil.

How HOT is it???

2011-08-02T09:36:00.000-05:00

Finally cooled off

Hot enough that when you pull your new iPhone out of your pocket to take a picture of some Imprelis damage to Pine trees, the phone tells you it is too hot and must cool off before you can take a picture. I kid you not.

Anatomy of a Bunker Problem

2011-07-25T10:24:00.000-05:00

Existing sand is excavated on hole #8.

It seems like we have talked about bunkers at Hickory Ridge for quite some time. Boards have changed, my boss has changed (several times) and the plan for action has changed. The one thing that has not changed is the drainage and the quality of the sand in most of the bunkers.

The economy of golf has also changed. Gone are the days of hundreds of new courses opening every year. At that time, the money or budget never seemed to be that much of a issue That building boom brought both good and bad with it. As far as bunkers go, it brought synthetic bunker liners, machines that are made to filter rocks out of existing sand (not soil), sprayed in coatings to keep the subsurface and the sand separate, engineered bunker sand which is less prone to wash and many other new ideas and products which were introduced during the boom. Fast forward 15 years and the word is SUSTAINABILITY. This has many meanings to different people but as stewards of the environment, superintendents think about sustainability plenty(for good reason). My thought process has always been two fold, #1) How can we get this done and #2) What products and process will work best for our golf course (within budget and with a reasonable life span).

Over the last few years I have picked the brain of other superintendents, architects, agronomists, builders and product vendors. We are always looking for the "right way" for us. During this time period bunker projects and maintenance have elevated in price. It is another area of the golf course which has trended towards being well maintained, playable, and consistent. Now keep in mind, bunkers were no more than shelter for sheep from the gales coming in off the North Sea at St.Andrews back in golfs beginning. Those burrows have come a long way.

In a nutshell our problem is this, heavy rains wash sand away from the faces of the bunker cavity. The soil that is now uncovered washes a little and is left mixed in with the sand after each heavy rain event. The silt or soil slowly makes it's way down to the gravel trench which envelopes the 4" drain tile that runs down the middle (low spot) of the bunker and out to near by ditches or swales. The silt bridges with sand and rock to form a barrier to water entering the tile. Sometimes the tile itself is clogged with silt. The outcome is bunkers stay full of thousands of gallons of water until they are pumped out or drain very slowly.

Seems like a weekly ritual this year

A rebuilt high flashed bunker after 3.7" of rain. We can live with this.

Silt that is left on the surface after a heavy rain

Plenty of work goes into bunkers after heavy rain.
After days of hard work to get them back in shape,
PLEASE RAKE YOUR TRACKS OUT.

Past maintenance crews have sought a stop gap fix by installing surface drains that tap into the existing drains. The problem is that if water goes in, what else goes in...sand, now you have lost a lot of sand and quite possibly have clogged drains which might have to be completely dug up.

Sand from a surface drain that has washed into a nearby pond

The best and only way to fix the problem is rebuild bunkers by excavating the existing sand and drain tile, installing new and possibly augmented drain tile and then refilling the bunkers with new fresh sand.

After many experiments on site, adding a perimeter drain which follows the edge of the bunker and tying it into the existing drain seems to make the washes from heavy storms acceptable. Liners and engineered sand would help even more but budget and cost of the project has eliminated those possibilities.

What is left: plenty of work. The main obstacle has been excavating the existing sand. We started by hand but with roughly 32 tons of sand coming out of one average size bunker, another method had to be found. We used several machines to help us but the one that seems to work well for us is the Bobcat T110.

It is the smallest tracked skid steer I could find. The board will consider the purcahse of this machine at the August meeting. Although a big trailer for transporting the sand from the sand bin at the mainenance department to the bunkers is needed, this T110 will give us a great start. Look for work on exisisting bunkers this fall and for the next few years.

After all the years of investigation and no action, I feel we have come up with a process that will work well for our members and patrons while still using only what we need to complete this project.

It's Here

2011-07-20T10:41:00.000-05:00

After plenty of rain over the last three months summer has set in. The ten day forecast has not shown much of a break for several weeks. Historically that should be the case until the end of August when days start feeling shorter and the nights cool down a little.
Right now we are in the middle of survival mode. This article that I picked up on Twitter sums it up pretty well.
Ksuturf.org-Survival is the Keyword and Syringing Greens KSU Turfgrass Blog

Preparing for a HOT few days

2011-07-11T07:57:00.000-05:00

We are starting off the new week the way we ended the weekend, hot. As the above map shows, today is going to be one of the high points in another Midwest summer.
Although we have great concern for the turf, the health of the staff is always a concern during spells like this. Sunscreen, Bucket Hats and plenty of hydration are paramount during the dog days of summer.
Below are a few of the ways we help the turf survive the summer months.

SIUC Turf Intern Eric Suryk hand waters high spots in the early AM

No mowing today, Mike Bushur uses rollers to give the greens a break on a hot day

Take #2

2011-06-28T10:42:00.001-05:00

#8 Green

As any superintendent can tell you, gowing in a putting green while going into summer is not a easy proposition. Although we hope for the best or even average weather, many times we are left to deal with whatever cards we are dealt.
The grow in of greens #7 & #8 (flood), have been meet with extremes in weather. The first was extremely hard rains that washed portions of the newly seeded green. This was followed by twelve days in the high 90's. If you think your feet get hot at the beach, think about a four day old grass seedling.
As you can see in the above picture, much of the centers of the green had pretty good germination and growth but the slopes did not. Last week we reseeded these areas and covered the areas with a straw blanket from ASP. This allows the plant to stay moist and not be subjected to intense sun as well as avoiding mechanical injury from working on the rest of the green. After 6 days we peeled the blankets off and saw a great catch of new seedlings.

Fresh germination on #8

Once again it will be a race against mother nature to get the plant up and strong enough to survive the summer heat and at some point, golfers.

Storms Roll in over Hickory Ridge

2011-06-14T13:45:00.001-05:00

GCSAA Member Relations Committee

2011-06-14T13:32:00.000-05:00

On June 3rd and 4th I attended meetings at the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America Headquarters in Lawrence, KS. This year I have the pleasure of serving on the Member Relations Committee. The meetings were very productive and thought provoking. It is always a pleasure serving our association and meeting and working with such amazing individuals.

Grow In

2011-06-14T07:57:00.001-05:00

#8 Green

The picture above shows #8 after a few mowings. This is the first spray with the big spray rig that will feed the young plants and give the them the nutrition they need to spread and grow into a healthy stand of turf.
You can notice that the high areas do not show as much green grass. This is from the heavy rains the week after planting. Those rains washed a portion of the seed off the slopes on the greens.
We have our fingers crossed for good weather up through July to give us a leg up going into summer.

Update on Post Flood

2011-05-25T12:11:00.000-05:00

After a few weeks of long days and internet service provider problems (flood damage) here is the skinny on how Hickory Ridge looks post flood.
Although we continued to hope for the best when the greens came out of the flooding, two of the three did not. The fact that it was lower 90's with very high solar radiation the day they came out probably didn't help matters. Number eight green (shown) was a total loss and number seven was at least a 70% loss. With that in mind there was not much time to spare. These are the cards we have been dealt.
Although we can get hot weather most of the year, late June-early July seems to be when you can start moving into survival mode for low cut bentgrass turf. This leaves 5-6 weeks to get these new greens up and going before summer sets in.
After a evening to think about our course of action I decided to take the turf off of those two damaged greens and reseed them. There were other options but time is our biggest enemy at this point. Those greens were seeded on May 16th & May 18th.
As of this writing we have germination on both. The driving rain storms of late are not making this job any easier but topdressing aggresively will help fix small washouts.
Opening day has yet to be determined.
Stay tuned for more on this project.

Update on Flooding at Hickory Ridge

2011-05-10T08:00:00.002-05:00

The first cut on #1 green after two weeks under water

Today is Tuesday May 10th. The water at Hickory Ridge has receded giving us a glimpse of the greens (#1,#7 & #8) that were under flood water for two weeks. After that long, we did not know what we would be dealing with. Dealing with three dead greens going into summer is not what superintendents dream about.
#1 was spiked and mowed on 5/9. Although the green is not in perfect shape, it appears that it will make a full comeback in the coming weeks.
#7 & #8 are covered in silt and that will be removed this morning. After that the greens will be spiked and mowed. Depending on the health of the plant, they could take a while to get the greens back down to the cutting height that the other greens are mowed at. Stay tuned, we should know what shape the greens are in today.
At this point it appears that the back nine will open for play on Wednesday at some point and the front nine to follow 2-4 days later.

A few days before the below picture

#1 spiked and ready for the first cut in two weeks

May 2011 Flooding

2011-04-28T14:34:00.006-05:00

On Thursday April 21st the rains in Southern Illinois started. I wrote a post about the end of April being wet and that I was thankful that e got in our spring aerification just in time. Little did we know exactly how wet it would be. I am in my ninth season as superintendent at Hickory Ridge and have seen two of our greens (#7 & #8) partially under water. The flooding of this year has dwarfed anything that I or for that matter, anyone else in this area has seen. We are hoovering around the all time high.

Data from 4:30PM on 5/1

These are the highest crests on record:
Historical Crests
(1) 42.00 ft on 05/15/1961
(2) 39.03 ft on 05/12/1961
(3) 37.65 ft on 05/02/1996
(4) 37.19 ft on 03/23/2008
(5) 36.85 ft on 05/05/1983
It is hard to get an exact estimate on the crest of the river but the range is somewhere between where we are at now which is around 40' and 42.5" which is the highest estimate I have seen.
The concerns at this point are how long will the three greens that are flooded stay under water and will the flood water which has entered the irrigation pupmhouse do any damage? With 3" more of rain on May 1st, we are not out of the woods yet.

One of this Turf Nerds Favorite Sites

2011-04-25T11:53:00.000-05:00

Pace Turf

A great answer to a complex question Wendy.

A Wet End to April

2011-04-25T11:15:00.000-05:00

After a decent start to spring, the skies opened up to end the month. The course has seen the following in the last few days:
Friday April 22nd-0.95"
Saturday April 23rd-2.95"
Sunday April 24th-1.99"

The forecast for the next few days shows plenty of this

Hopefully many of the areas that are seeing totals much higher than this will be ok. With the violent weather in this region over the past week, "normal" is going to take awhile.

It is wet when this guy is looking for higher ground!

Saluki Invitational

2011-04-16T09:26:00.000-05:00

Most years, our real work outside starts with late winter cleanup, cleaning up all the bunkers and redistributing sand within them and spraying dormant warm season fairways. That early work always has added emphasis here.
Hickory Ridge hosts the Saluki Invitational every year in late March. The tournament hosts between 14-18 of the best college teams in the Midwest every March. Having that size of a tournament is certainly a task this early in the year with late winter-early spring bringing plenty of surprises.
For us, it isn't just a average golf tournament. The truth is that Dianne Daughtery (SIUC Women's Golf Coach) sets the bar very high for every aspect of the tournament and she is such a amazing woman that everyone puts forth their best effort to make this a special tournament. Ask any participant that has played in it, it is special.
This year was extra special. A BIG congratulations to Diane, Sam and her girls on finishing 1st this year.

Daily Egyptian Press Coverage

The Southern Press Coverage

Tree Work on #16

2011-04-07T14:38:00.001-05:00

Over the last year or so the Oak that guards the right side of #16 fairway has started to decline. Although it still leafs out each spring, it has lost some of it's vigor and the decaying base was cause for concern. With help from Chris & Mike with Long Forestry, we evaluated the health of the tree and determined it needed to be removed. April 7th was the last day it guarded the right side of #16 from that draw that started a little to far right.

Top 10 List

2011-03-17T08:09:00.001-05:00

Driving down the cart path this morning it struck me. There are so many little things in life that I take for granted. As many are trying to get from 0-60mph this time of morning, I get to see this.
I never get tired of seeing the sun creep over the tree line. One of the many things that make this job amazing.

Verticutting Putting Greens

2011-03-09T14:57:00.001-06:00

At the start of every season, we outfit one of our greens mowers with a set of blades called verticutters.

The reel and bedknife system that mows the greens everyday during the season mows horizontally sheering off the grass blades with precision. Verticutting blades work the opposite and cut through the turf canopy vertically. The term is cutting but it is really more of a cutting and pulling action.
This process helps thin out the turf canopy. This is advantageous for a few reasons. This time of year the Poa Annua (bright green spots) in the putting greens, outgrows the bentgrass (duller more pale grayish green). This helps smooth out the surface and helps with a consistent ball roll. The process also takes some of the dead leaves out of the canopy. This in turn leads to more air movement within the canopy and grass that does not stay wet as long. These together help reduce disease pressure.
The process takes a few days and takes an amazing amount of plant material out of the putting greens.

What comes out of two greens

Drain Line Augmentation

2011-01-05T13:47:00.001-06:00

During the colder months the staff takes the opportunity to recondition most of our maintenance equipment and the golf cart fleet. During this process there is plenty of repair, replacement and sharpening that goes on. One of our steps is to really clean and detail the piece of equipment and wax all areas that we can. We have room to wash a single piece inside but the problem has always been the floor drain that is in our building. It was poorly placed and like most floor drains, 90% of the water did not flow into it naturally. This also created a safety hazard.

What was done in the past was suit up and brave the elements to wash outside and then bring the equipment inside. Not an ideal situation. In the last few weeks we cut into the maintenance facility floor and installed a new strip drain that feeds into the existing drain. Although the job was a challenge, it turned out well and it works perfectly. Gone are the days washing outside during cold weather and the safety hazard of a floor with water standing on it.

Trenching in electrical line for a fountain.

2010-12-13T09:23:00.000-06:00

This is the installation of a new conduit and electrical line from an electrical pedestal behind number one tee to number 9 pond. This was a repair for lightning damage. Out of all the line we have trenched at Hickory Ridge this was the only one that was not originally put in conduit. Guess which one is the only one to fail?

Lesson learned.

Two sides to every story...

2010-12-13T08:22:00.000-06:00

As I hopped in my truck this morning and looked at the temperature pulling out of the driveway, I was struck by how different the temperatures are every year in this part of the country.
We are now getting ready to go plow snow at the golf course entrance road and parking lot. I couldn't help but reflect on what the last portion of this year has been like. These pictures are taken about four months apart (could have easily been two) and tell a very brief story of what it is like to grow grass in the middle of the transition zone. No matter which side of the climate debate you are on, seeing roughly a 100 degree swing in temperature reminds me of just how tough 2010 was.

Perspective

2010-11-05T11:16:00.000-05:00

In October, I accepted a invitation from one of my vendors to play in a Annual Golf Tournament between the Mississippi Valley Superintendents (St.Louis) and the Kansas City Superintendents. I have never been able to attend because of the timing. We hosted the IHSA girls state championship around this time and there was much preparation for that.
In this business and probably every business there is always one more thing to do at work. Most superintendents get used to spending many hours at their facilities during the golfing season and sometimes it is hard to let go of that for a few days when the season starts slowing down. I did and so did at least a hundred other superintendents and turf professionals involved in our business. It was a very nice break and the weather could not have been better. It is amazing how a short break with colleagues can give you ideas that you can use at your course and can recharge the batteries.
Thanks to my foursome of: John Soetaert form Annbriar GC, Bob Kane from Rolling Hills GC and Mark Toennies from John Deere Golf.

A tee shot looking for short grass @ Old Kinderhook GC

Equipment Lift Upgarde

2010-11-05T10:30:00.000-05:00

Golf Lift GL-9

Above is a upgrade made to the maintenance shop this summer. The previous lift that we used to work on equipment lifted from one side. To get some of our bigger equipment (fairway mowers) on the lift, we needed a safer alternative to the single side lift. Enter the Golf Lift. The staff researched our options and spoke with plenty of other equipment technicians and found that this lift has served plenty of other facilities well.

Because of the nature of reel mowers, it is necessary to adjust them often and it requires much more maintenance than a typical rotary blade that would be found in a homeowners lawnmower. The trade off is that you are able to cut at much lower heights with a much better quality of cut. Actually, if adjusted properly a reel mower will "cut" the grass while a rotary mower actually rips the grass. The previous is ideal for turf that is subjected to the wear and tear of a golf season.

Above you see that the new lift might be making David Miller a little too comfortable:)

Irrigation Technology

2010-10-26T11:12:00.001-05:00

It may be hard to make out this picture but this is a very small example of how inovation leads to solving problems.
Above is a Toro 855S sprinkler. We have a row of irrigation heads along the entrance to the golf course. The last head on the row hit our entrance sign during it's rotation on nights when it was set to run. It sounds like a easy fix but because of the angle of the head and it's location we always left it set to off and tried to remember to turn it on by hand every once in awhile. This would save the sign from being destroyed over time by the high pressure stream directed right through the center.
Well, most heads that are not functioning properly and are only turned on by hand don't usually run enough at a golf course. The picture above is from a new sprinkler head made by Toro that allows more adjustment of where the water is placed than has ever been possible. The new sprinkler body has allowed this sprinkler to once again be used and will lead to a better stand of grass on the north west side of the entrance.

Fall application of Gypsum

2010-10-25T08:24:00.000-05:00

Mike & Mike (not the ESPN hosts) put the finishing touches on the fall application of gypsum at Hickory Ridge. This application will help displace the salt that accumulates in the irrigated areas at the golf course. This salt load slowly rises over the course of a year due to the use of effluent water for irrigation at the golf course. During most years the rains of spring and fall will help along with the gypsum to reverse some of the salt load that the is elevated from the use of our water source. The Calicum (Ca) in the gypsum will take the place of salts on the Soil Colloids.

Top Soil?

2010-09-23T08:06:00.000-05:00

It always amazes me when I get a load of "top soil" delivered. Luckily this was just for fill.

2010-09-21T12:14:00.000-05:00

On September 20th I attended a John Deere Turf demo day hosted by Erb Turf & Equipment. The event was at The Country Club at St.Albans. It gave a group of about 40 superintendents a chance to try out new equipment and exchange ideas and give feedback with our regional distributor and attendees from John Deere Cooperate. Although the summer weather was back for the day and the club had received a big rain overnight, it was a great day. It helped with the selection process for new equipment and shed light on how the John Deere products might fit into our maintenance operation.

New Germination

2010-09-17T10:03:00.000-05:00

It might be difficult to pick out but the wiry appearance in the below picture but it is the germination of T-1 bentgrass that was seeded during late summer core aerification. In past years we have made attempts at seeding into our existing stand of grass on the putting greens but this process is akin to throwing some corn down in a field right before harvest and expecting it to compete with the mature plants.

We used several techniques to give the new seed the best possible chance. A late summer aerification along with judicious watering and a weekly spoon fertilization program among other things has given the young seedlings a great start. It appears that we have a pretty good catch that will be part of the putting surface next year.

If we keep this process up for several years, the hope is to slowly transition the putting greens from the older wide bladed type bentgrasses to the newer, smaller leaf bladed more stress tolerant bents over time.

Tall Fescue Seeding

2010-09-17T09:02:00.001-05:00

The heat of 2010 was not kind to many areas of rough around the golf course. Every year we do some spot seeding but this year we will be putting down quite a bit more than we would in a usual year. The heat in combination with daily play was hard on many areas of the course that see high or condensed traffic.
This years process started early with seed selection and delivery. One of the advantages of living in a university town is that I get to see many of the newer varities in field trials under real world conditions instead of just reading about how well they stack up. Year in and year out certain varities are always rated near the top in our region of the United States but the breeders make strides every season in making the grasses we use more stress, disease and insect tolerant. Dr.Ken Diesburg at SIUC has plots that are part of the National TurfgrassEvaluation Program. Turf Mangers can use this tool to help evalute varities when making their grass selection.
At Hickory Ridge we use Turf Type Tall Fescue in the rough areas. This species works well in our warm summers and tight soils.

Putting Green Recovery 2010

2010-08-30T16:54:00.000-05:00

2010 will indeed go down in the record books of most golf course superintendents as one of the most challenging in recent memory. Much of what made this such a brutal summer was the heat. In a normal summer we are used to high temperatures but we receive enough of a break every week or so that the grass has a fighting chance. This year saw few such breaks. Couple this with very high night time temperatures and drought like conditions and it made for a dozy of a year for many that work with Mother Nature

Over the next few weeks I will be adding some statistics that show what made 2010 different. But until then I wanted to report on how the recovery of all the weak turf that this summer produced is going.

All of the putting greens were core aerified on the week of 8/23/10. Many of the putting greens had just become thin and lost their vigor while others have spots that will need some repair. The "thin" greens have already shown improvement with the cool down in recent weeks. This coupled with the aerification will be about all these greens need. Look for more on future drainage projects on these greens. All of the putting greens have been overseeded with a new, genetically superior bentgrass called T-1. I could write pages on the process of trying to alter the population of bentgrass in existing greens but that would bore most. Suffice to say that it is a tough road but new techniques have shown promise of, over time, increasing the population of the greens to newer varieties that are more drought tolerant and withstand temperature extremes better than the old bents. Because of the lack of vigor that many of the greens came out of summer with, we decided to pull the trigger on aerification early and give the new seed a better chance since the existing bentgrass plants are weaker than they will be in another month. That gives the new seedlings more of a chance to get a few weeks old before they have to compete against not only, foot and equipment traffic but the older more mature grasses trying to crowd them out as they compete for water and nutrients.
A few spots near the collar on #1 and #4 have been roped off to get traffic away from the areas that are void of turf and very soft. We are hoping to see germination of the young seedlings in the next few days. Look for more updates on the greens and other areas affected by this summers heat in coming days.

August 2010 Greens Aerification

2010-08-30T15:58:00.002-05:00

2010-08-16T13:37:00.002-05:00

New Cart Traffic Control Stakes

Over the last few weeks the maintenance crew has been putting out cart control stakes which were built last winter. The stakes are an effort to show golfers that wish to drive a cart where and which side to enter and exit fairways. In recent years traffic and wear around tees and greens has gotten worse because some confussion with the old signs. The old "cart and arrows" signs signaled where to exit but nothing about entry. These more visible stakes will signal where the cart should enter and exit the fairway. Driving to the tee boxes should be avoided. When a cart enters the fairway it is best to keep that cart in the zoysia fairway to travel the legnth of the hole if possible. This keeps wear off of the cool season rough.

Good read from the Wall Street Journal.

2010-08-10T13:43:00.000-05:00

The Summer of 2010 is Wrecking Golf Courses _ Golf Journal by John Paul Newport - WSJ[1]

2010-08-10T08:46:00.000-05:00

Can you tell which species likes the heat?
You are looking at a picture of some of the rough bordering the fairway on hole #3 at Hickory Ridge. Although there are many differences in the two species of grass (Zoysia & Tall Fescue) the biggest difference at this time of year is the soil temperature that the plant needs or prefers for growth. Zoysia, a C4 grass and Tall Fescue, a C3 are worlds apart in this range and the above picture proves just how much difference the temperature can make. Zoysia likes a soil temerature range of 75-95 degrees while the range for Tall Fescue is 55-65 degrees. We have been in the 80's at a soil depth of 2" for many many weeks and it is starting to show on the C3 or cool season grasses.

Holes, holes everywhere.

2010-08-03T16:51:00.000-05:00

Well as we jump from green to green syringing greens late into the afternoon it is hard not to notice that the parking lot is almost empty. I can't balme anyone,, the weather station reads 104 degrees. Although we can go inside and get away from the heat, the grass cannot. This year will certainly go down as one of the hottest in recent history but Mother Nature is going to throw those at you from time to time.
We employ plenty of processes to try and deal with the extreme elevated temperatures. One of those tools is called venting or needle tining. It is the process of installing very small aerification tines and using the putting green aerifier to punch very small holes into the surface of the green. The holes are small enough that if noticed at all, should never affect the golf balls roll on the surface. The holes help in several ways. The biggest of which is reintroducing a uniterrupted channel for gas exchange to the atmosphere and in the oppisite direction, a way for impurities such as salts to be flushed through the root zone without worry of being caught up in the thatch layer. There are other advantages but these are what we are after at this point in the season. Traditional aerification is still needed but needle tining can help give putting surfaces another helping hand. In this type of summer, they will take as many of those as we can offer.

Irrigation Leak Culprit

2010-07-23T10:29:00.000-05:00

6" Irrigation Main Line

This split above on the bottom of this irrigation main line was what caused our impromptu river last Sunday. The amount of force required to split this fitting and the pipe inserted in it are extremely high. Breaks like this pop up from time to time. One of the worst things for an irrigation system is taking it offline or depressurizing it and then bringing it back up to pressure again. Most systems are designed with isolation valves so small sections can be closed off and safely fixed while under no pressure. The system at Hickory Ridge has many of those isolation valves but they were of poor quality from the start and all of the original valves do not work currently. We replace a few a year but are far from having all new valves installed. A fix like this means turning our system off, repairing and bringing it back on line. Loss of the irrigation system on the wrong afternoon when it is very hot, evapotranspiration rates are very high and we are in between irrigation cycles can be disastrous.

The repaired irrigation line.

When does a BIG irrigation leak pop up???

2010-07-19T07:28:00.000-05:00

Only on late Friday afternoons or during a weekend. It is usually very likely to happen when the temperatures are in the high 90's and you need the irrigation system for hand watering.
With the capacity of our irrigation system being 2400 gallons per minute, it doesn't take long for a big break to dig a very good sized hole. This break happened on Sunday mid morning 7/18 on the lower portion of #7 fairway. The video you see is without the pumping system on. It would be much more violent if that was the case. It has just been turned off and the remaining pressure is just bleeding out of the system.

Sixty degree mornings/ Distant memory...

2010-07-16T07:57:00.000-05:00

Well, it is starting to feel like Groundhog day. We are half way through the 3 months (June, July & August) which superintendents consider the months with the most sterss on the cool season grasses. We affectinally call them "hell".
After two years with realitivly mild summers it seems that mother nature has decided that this will not be the third. Soil temeratures at the root depth are bordering on a razors edge for survival of some species. On some of the putting greens you will see the spots of Poa Annua which have already secumb to the environmental stresses.
Although we are only half way through, the staff will keep providing the plant with the best possible chance to make it through a summer which seems destined to break a few records. As of this writing we had already had 27 out of the last 30 days over 90 degrees and quite a few of those were temeratures over 95.
During the dog days of summer I am reminded of a saying that an older coworker used to mutter all summer long during those tough days, "COME ON OCTOBER". I would have to agree.

SIU Turfgrass Field Day

2010-07-15T10:08:00.000-05:00

On June 18th I attended Dr. Ken Diesburg's 2010 edition of the SIU Turfgrass field day. This afternoon is always a great chance to see new plant varieties that will be coming to market in future years, discuss issues with other professionals in the green industry and support some great research that is being done at SIU.

Hickory Ridge often employees a few students from this program each year. It is a win win situation and another example of how the park district partners with other community organizations to the benefit of all involved.

2010-03-03T10:53:00.000-06:00

Late winter application of Roundup & Barricade to zoysia.
The first true kickoff to the new golf season for the golf maintenance staff is this application. Every year this combination is applied for a few reasons. Firstly, any winter annual grasses that have germinated in the fairways or tees will be killed by the Roundup. It doesnt take much Roundup at all and keeps the grasses from getting bigger throughout the year and contaminating the fairway. It also will not hurt the zoysia grass because it s still dormant.
Secondly, the Barricade is a pre-emergent herbicide and is used for predominatly one reason, to keep Crabgrass out of the lower cut turf. If Crabgrass germinates in the lower cut turf it takes over areas crowing the desirable turf out. It is also harder to get rid off when it has germinated. Stopping it before it starts is the key and is easily done with Barricade or other "pre" herbicides.
Quick facts:
This application will cover roughly 55 acres or 2,395,800 square feet.
This application usually takes about a full week with no interruptions.
The fairways look slighlty blue after this aplication. This is the dye that lets the operator tell where he has sprayed.

Winter Application of Gypsum

2009-12-17T20:01:00.000-06:00

The winter application of gypsum to all irrigated areas of the golf course is completed.

Although this process takes some time it is extremely beneficial for the golf course.

Hickory Ridge uses effluent as the main irrigation source. Effluent is a term used for waste water. Since golf courses can be a big user of water it makes since for many that have access to effluent from local waste water treatment plants to use it. Turf is a perfect filter for this type of water that can cleanse many of the desirable and undesirable elements. Although a win win situation, the professional turf manager must keep track of different levels of salts, metal ions, and bicarbonates just to name a few. Numerous problems can develop with waste water treated soils if the manager is not educated about its use. Adjusting fertilizer and other amendments can help the soil work well with the waste water and can lead to fewer problems over time.

This gypsum application in early winter at Hickory Ridge is used to loosen soils and leach many of that salts that have accumulated in the turfgrass rootzone during the golfing season when heavy irrigation is used to supplement natural rainfall.

A New Year... Almost.

2009-12-15T21:00:00.000-06:00

Hi from the first post of hopefully many more on the Hickory Ridge Turf Care Center Blog. After thinking about ways to communicate with our membership over the last year, a blog always seemed to make the most sense. I hope this type of communication can help answer questions and explain some of the reasons that we do what we do.

I can remember some of my first years in this business when people that came in contact with the turf care center where always blown away by everything that goes into maintaining a modern golf course. After a few years I am not as surprised as I once was but I still see that interest in many that I come in contact with. Unfortunately the spoken word, especially mine, sometimes does not fill in all the blanks. My hope is along with all the posts, pictures and maybe even video can help educate and maybe even entertain our golfers.

Thanks for stopping by.