Enlarging the Tee Surfaces by Mowing...

Steve Hammon, Traverse City (MI) Golf & Country Club:

"The fronts and backs of the tees tend to creep in over time from operators trying not to scalp the edges while mowing. Centimeters turn into inches and inches turn into feet over the years. You can see in this photo the different shade of grass towards the back of the tee.

Yesterday we went around to all of the tees that needed to be enlarged and scalped them down to tee height. They will look odd for the remainder of the season but by next June they will start blending in. We took this same aggressive approach to the enlargement on left of 18 fairway last fall."

Visit Steve's blog at tcgccgrounds.blogspot.com.

The Journey of a Grow In...

Sean McCue, Country Club at Castle Pines, Castle Rock, CO:

"Anyone who has grown in anything on a golf course goes through a wide range of emotions through the process. Like many things in life there are ups and downs along the way that help shape the journey.

In the beginning there is a tremendous amount of excitement and anxiety all rolled into one, knowing that the success or failure lies squarely on no one else's shoulders. The excitement of what could and will be is the motivating factor from Day One up until the completion of the grow in. The excitement of seeing your first germination as predicted based on environmental conditions and years of agronomic experience. The pride that you feel when your protocols are producing exceptional results.

Receiving a little personal attention.

The impatience you feel when the seedlings are not growing fast enough. The doubt you feel when things don't respond in the manor you wish. The worry you feel when you push too hard and it causes a step backwards. The relief you feel when things get back on track and once again. The amazement you feel when literally watching the grass grow before your eyes as if it were a time lapse.

In the end, the satisfaction of knowing that you created something that will be enjoyed by many people.

These are just some of the emotions you will goe through during the grow-in process; some days you just might experience them all in one day. I know I have."

Visit Sean's blog at cccpgcm.blogspot.ca.

Melting Down Potassium Nitrate...

Paul Carter, CGCS, Bear Trace at Harrison Bay, Harrison, TN:

"Once again the time of year has come to start applying Potassium nitrate to our greens. This product is excellent for preparing our greens for the winter and helping them to recover from the summer stress but it is a major pain to mix up and get into solution as anyone who has dealt with it before can attest. Most people, as we have in the past, mix the product a little at a time in a five gallon bucket and add it to their spray tank hoping they can get it all mixed up before they run out of room in the tank.

We wanted to find a better, easier, less time consuming way of getting the product into a solution and into the sprayer. As the old saying goes, "Necessity is the mother of all invention" and this is what we came up with:

We took a spare 55 gallon drum, rinsed it out, and cut a large hole in the top of the drum. I went to our local ACE Hardware and purchased a 1/3 horsepower sump pump to which we connected a one inch hose. We filled the 55 gallon drum with 40 gallons of water and placed the one inch hose down to the bottom of the drum so that it coiled around the bottom. The sump pump was placed so it was about half way down in the water. With the sump pump running and the water circulating at a nice pace we slowly added the potassium nitrate to the water. We placed the 200 pounds of product that we needed to apply to the greens in the drum, filled the water volume up to the 50 gallon mark and let the pump run throughout the night.

When we came in this morning all of the product was melted down into solution and ready to be added to the sprayer. We used the pump to transfer the solution to the sprayer in just a manner of minutes which would have taken us close to an hour and a lot of frustration on Willie's part to get all the product melted down and ready to go. The drum was then filled back up with water and the rest of the sprayer filled up rinsing the tank and the sump pump all in one motion.

Granted, this is a 'prototype' of the design but it worked great, saved us a ton of time and effort and did a better job of getting the product properly dissolved for application."

Visit Paul's blog at bthbgcm.blogspot.com.

Segment herbicide trial...

Joel Kachmarek, Tacoma Country and Golf Club, Lakewood, WA:

"We recently sprayed the new herbicide called Segment in an effort to kill the ryegrass that is growing amongst our pure poa stands. So here is how the trial turned out. These pictures were taken 2 weeks after we applied the product to our nursery green.

The turf on the left of the photos was untreated and the turf on the right side was obviously treated since a lot of it doesn't look too hot. Actually the green is just fine as only the ryegrass died. The poa never even discolored. In the foreground of the top picture, you can see that almost all the turf is dead on the treated side. This is because this areas was recently cut out and reestablished with ryegrass since that is what we always use for our roughs when starting from seed or sod.

The bottom photo is a close up of the short mowed area. You can clearly see how well the dark ryegrass clumps are no longer present in the treated turf on the right.

Visit Joel's blog at www.tacomaturf.com.

Collar aerification...

Pat Daly, CGCS, Framingham (MA) Country Club:

"The collar aerification was completed yesterday. We core (removed plugs) aerified with 1/2" diameter tines on a 2" x 2.5" pattern. We have always aerified the collars with our greens aerification but plan to be more aggressive with it this fall and will try to complete this process again in late October or early November. We have found that they have struggled the last two years during the heat of the summer. The struggles can be tied to increased mower traffic (each mower weighs 259 lbs.), turning on the collars during double cut (single cut we use mats for mowers to turn on), decreased nitrogen inputs on greens and collars, and weak turf found in the areas that were expanded over the years from rough to collars.

What's changed this year? We are now have a spray with liquid fertilizer for just our collars and greens clean up passes (the areas on the outside edge of the green that abuts the collar.) As noted above we are now turning on mats during the single cut on greens and we are limiting how much time the rollers move across the collars. We are seeding the collars with new varieties of bentgrass which will tolerate wear better and provide a tighter playing surface.

Here are some photos of the aerification process.

One final photo from the DryJect. This was taken on Monday and clearly shows some sand columns from previous DryJect operations. What you don't see is that inside each column is a solid root mass from greens. The depth of the roots drives our maintenance program and dictates from how much we water to how aggressive we are with our height of cut.

Visit Pat's blog at http://fccgrounds.blogspot.com

Bunker Edging...

Shane Conroy, Asst Supt, Park Ridge (IL) Country Club:

"Golf courses as we all know are living, breathing entities, and due to this need constant maintenance. The bunker edges are one small piece of this puzzle but still require their fair share of attention. Over time bunker edges can become overgrown and may change shape. Here at Park Ridge we edge our bunkers weekly, but as the years go by edges will gradually begin to creep in, and the bunkers usually become smaller. This week we started addressing the slowly moving bunker edges and are working to get the bunkers back to their original shape.

In some of the more extreme cases the turf has crept in more than a foot from the original design. We will go in with sod knives and remove the excess turf and soil, and add additional bunker sand where needed. A few holes have already been completed and we will move along with this project as time dictates."

Visit the Park Ridge blog at parkridgeccgrounds.blogspot.com.

Anger Management, and the right moment...

Matt Crowther, CGCS, Mink Meadows Golf Club, Martha's Vineyard, MA:

"Our player with the anger management issues has peaked again. There was a divot on the 4th green the other day and I have noticed club stabs into the green near the cup on a regular basis for the last several weeks. Figured it was only a matter of time before a full-on divot appeared.

I used to get furious and take it personally but now am happy it does not happen more often. Not sure that bodes well for me or the game and it's current state. Maybe I am getting soft...

The vast majority of our players are exceptional, however, and occasionally you look up at the right moment as this picture shows. I was mowing the 8th green and just happened to look up and out at the water and there was a rainbow. It had not rained much that morning just a quick light shower. That was when I was on 4 so never even thought about it. Nice surprise."

Visit Matt's blog at minkmeadows.blogspot.com.

A Tribute to Man's Best Friend...

Jeff Johnson, The Minikahda Club, Minneapolis, MN:

"On September 13th our dog Pepper lost her battle with cancer. It was only a month ago when I took her to the vet, as she was not her usual self. The test came back as cancer and it took its toll on her quickly. Pepper was almost 14 and she spent here whole life here at the golf course. It was her favorite place to be. After a weekend of being at home she could not wait to get back to the course. As we would make the turn from France Ave. onto 38th Street she would whine with excitement as she knew we were getting close to work.

There weren't many animals she hadn't chased or tried to tangle with on the course. The squirrel population definitely was diminished during her early years (her best day was 3 squirrel kill in a time span of 30 minutes) as her herding ability allowed her to turn on a dime. Her mix of Border Collie and Australian Cattle dog provided her with exceptional speed, agility and of course intelligence. She pursued many raccoon's (one time just a little too close costing here the tip of her ear, a trip to the pet hospital and $250 for me) and chased many deer. One morning while touring the course Pepper got a little too close to a fawn and was subsequently pursued closely by a doe that was not too pleased with Pepper. This may be one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed; seeing a dog get chased by a deer.

For almost 14 years she rode everyday next to me on my cart. Sometimes she was relegated to the office and usually for reasons she did not understand. Pepper wanted to be where the action was. Sunday evening cart rides were always a treat and she would sit right between me and my boys. Most mornings we would stop at the club house; for me a better cup of coffee and for Pepper a blueberry muffin and if she was really lucky fresh bacon from the kitchen. Her final ride was on September 13th. I knew she was not feeling well. She laid on the cart all morning. I was in my usual morning rush, rolling greens and hurrying around the course. She didn't seem to mind. I'm pretty sure neither one of us knew that day was going to be her last ride, but I did find time to talk to her as I usually did and tried to comfort her as I knew she was not well.

The ride for me is a little lonelier now, but I have many wonderful memories of my fury friend. Having grown up on a farm, we always had dogs, and many of them, but Pepper was by far the BEST dog I have ever had. Her first place ribbon from obedience class has a permanent a place in my office and she will always have a place in our hearts. Thank you to the members of Minikahda for allowing me to have Pepper roam the grounds and earn her keep maintaining the golf course free from geese. We had a good run, Peppergirl.

Visit Jeff's blog at minikahdagrounds.blogspot.com.