Here's a picture of the green on #3 after a good rain. Notice there's a puddle on the front of the green. This puddle is not there because there's a low spot on the putting surface. This puddle is there because all the spots around it are higher. Let me explain. We all know that in order to have good playing surfaces we must topdress the turf with sand. The longer grass that surrounds the putting surface absorbs more sand than the closely mowed grass that's on the putting surface. In addition we normally mow greens with baskets and therefore remove some sand each time we mow them. So it happens gradually but over time the longer grass areas get built up with more sand than the short grass areas. Eventually these raised areas can cause problems one of which is trapping water on the edge of a putting surface. That's why this condition is called a sand dam, or since the area around the greens is sometimes called the collar, we sometimes call them collar dams.
So there's a couple of ways of dealing with this problem but when it becomes severe like on #3, the sure fire way is to physically remove all the built up sand. In order to do that the first step was to remove the sod.
After that we cut some trenches in the area in order to establish the necessary grade which will allow water to run off the front of the green.
That yellow stick is a "smart level" which tells us the exact grade. In this case we set the grade at 3% which is more than adequate for moving surface water efficiently. After cutting the ditch to the desired grade we then removed the surrounding sand making sure to match the grade of the ditch. I took this picture with Brian standing in the ditch to show just how much sand we had to remove. In the end we removed over 7 yards of sand. That would weigh about 10 tons. The last step was putting the sod back and here's how it looks today.
So no more sand dam and no more puddle. Some of you might be saying "who cares" because you don't play golf during the rainy season, but there's more to it than that since now this area plays as it should year around. Here's a diagram I made to show you what I'm talking about. This is a cross section of the approach and putting green showing the sand dam holding back a puddle of water.
Now forget about the puddle and imagine hitting your shot into this green. If you're attempting to land a shot short and have it release onto the green, you're going to be really frustrated when there's a collar dam present. Look at this next diagram. If your ball lands on spot "A" the ball will launch forward. If your ball lands on spot "B" it might release just the way you imagined it. If your ball lands on spot "C", the ball might check up and not even get onto the green.
Now imagine hitting into the same green but without the sand dam. This last diagram shows how the approach should look. You can imagine that whether your ball lands on spot "A", "B", or "C", the reaction of the ball is going to be nearly the same and therefore predictable which is undoubtedly the way the original designer intended.
By the way we also removed the sand dam on #6 and #14 (see pictures below). When we get the opportunity we're going to work on #5.
THE "FINE" TURF AT TACOMA IS REALLY A BEAUTIFUL SWARD OF PERENNIAL POA ANNUA. WHAT IS THE "FINE" TURF? THE FINE TURF IS EVERYTHING BUT THE ROUGH TURF OR "ROUGHS". SO I'M TALKING ABOUT GREENS, TEES, APPROACHES, COLLARS, AND FAIRWAYS. AS YOU CAN SEE BY THE PICTURE BELOW WHICH SHOWS THE 12TH GREEN AND THE 16TH TEEING GROUNDS, IT'S HARD TO DEFINE WHERE THE FAIRWAYS OR TEES START AND STOP SINCE IT'S ALL MOWED TOGETHER AT ONE MOWING HEIGHT WITH THE SAME MACHINE.
FOR THIS REASON, WE NO LONGER HAVE MAINTENANCE STANDARDS THAT ARE DIFFERENT FOR FAIRWAYS, TEES, APPROACHES, ETC. WE SIMPLY TREAT ALL FINE TURF THE SAME AND WE HAVE A LOT OF FINE TURF. 40 ACRES IN FACT. SO THIS TIME OF YEAR WE ARE TOPDRESSING A LOT. TOPDRESSING 40 ACRES IS A SERIOUS UNDERTAKING.
HERE'S HOW THE 18TH HOLE LOOKED YESTERDAY AS WE BEGAN TOPDRESSING FAIRWAYS WHICH WE DO EACH SPRING AND FALL. OVER THE NEXT WEEK WE WILL BROADCAST OVER 800 TONS OF SAND OVER THE FINE TURF. AS WE DO THAT WE WILL ALSO BE AERATING THE SWARD WITH A 5/8" SOLID TINE. YES I KNOW GOLFERS HATE THIS PROCESS BUT THIS TOPDRESSING THING IS SO IMPORTANT TO GOOD GOLF SINCE GOLF REALLY IS MEANT TO BE PLAYED UPON SAND. TACOMA WAS BUILT ON A PRAIRIE WITH GRAVELLY SOIL SO THE DRAINAGE IS EXCELLENT BUT THE TOPSOIL IS NOT SANDY. IN FACT THE HISTORY BOOKS SAY THAT THE MEMBERS TOPSOILED THE FAIRWAYS IN 1923 AT THE COST OF $75,000 (MORE THAN A MILLION DOLLARS IN TODAY'S DOLLAR). WHATEVER IT WAS THEY USED AS TOPSOIL, IT WAS NOT SAND AND IT WAS VERY HEAVY AND RICH. THIS TOPSOILING PROJECT WHICH TOOK PLACE OVER 80 YEARS AGO RESULTED IN A PLAYING SURFACE THAT WAS FREE OF ROCKS AND COULD SUPPORT TURFGRASS. BUT, SINCE IT WAS NOT SANDY, OVER TIME THE PLAYING FIELD BECAME THATCHY AND DIDN'T REALLY HAVE THE FIRMNESS THAT A GOLFER DESIRES. I STARTED HERE AS SUPERINTENDENT IN 1999 WHICH WAS ABOUT THE SAME TIME THAT FAIRWAY TOPDRESSING BECAME FEASIBLE AND WE STARTED A FAIRWAY TOPDRESSING PROGRAM.
THAT WAS 15 YEARS AGO AND LOOK WHAT WE HAVE ACCOMPLISHED. IN THE PICTURE ABOVE YOU SEE A SOIL PROFILE TAKEN FROM THE MIDDLE OF 5 FAIRWAY. SINCE 1999 WE HAVE ACCUMULATED APPROXIMATELY 3" OF SAND OVER ALL THE FINE TURF AREAS. I FIND THIS AMAZING. WHEN WE STARTED THIS FAIRWAY TOPDRESSING THING, WE KNEW IT WOULD BE BENEFICIAL BUT I'M NOT SURE ANYONE KNEW IT WOULD MAKE THE GOLF COURSE AS GOOD AS IT IS TODAY IN REGARD TO FIRMNESS AND PLAYABILITY. MAKE NOTE THAT IN THE PICTURE ABOVE YOU SEE A SAND CHANNEL THAT IS ALMOST 6"DEEP. THAT IS THE RESULT OF USING THE VERTIDRAIN OR DEEP TINE AERATOR. ONLY RECENTLY HAVE WE HAD A VERTIDRAIN AND MAKING DEEP SAND CHANNELS LIKE YOU SEE HERE HAS REALLY IMPROVED THE DRAINAGE WHICH WAS ALREADY EXCELLENT. THE COURSE ALWAYS HAD GOOD POSITIVE DRAINAGE BECAUSE OF THE GRAVELY SOIL BELOW THE TOPSOIL BUT THE RICH TOPSOIL MADE THE DRAINAGE SLOWER THAN DESIRED. THE VERTIDRAIN HAS INCREASED THE SPEED OF DRAINAGE. THIS IS A HUGE POSITIVE CONSIDERING WE HAVE NO CART PATHS. WHEN WE DECIDED TO MOW THE FINE TURF FROM TEE TO GREEN AND THEN STARTED TOPDRESSING ALL OF IT, WE HAVE LITERALLY ELIMINATED ALL THE PROBLEMATIC WET AREAS DUE TO CART TRAFFIC COMPACTION.
THIS PHOTO SHOWS A SOIL PROFILE TAKEN FROM 13 FAIRWAY. HOLES 13-15 WERE RECENTLY CONSTRUCTED (1989) AND THEY WERE BUILT UPON LAND THAT WAS "SAND CAPPPED" MEANING THERE WAS A LAYER OF SAND PLACED OVER THE SOIL BEFORE SEEDING. SO NOW WITH THE TOPDRESSING PROGAM IN PLACE, WE HAVE MORE THAN 6 INCHES OF SAND TO PLAY GOLF UPON IN THAT AREA OF THE PROPERTY. THAT IS HIGHLY DESIRABLE.
YOU CAN SEE HERE I'VE TAKEN A SOIL PROFILE FROM AN AREA THAT WAS ROUGHS BEFORE WE STARTED MOWING FINE TURF TEE TO GREEN. IT HAS ONLY BEEN TOPDRESSED MAYBE 4 TIMES. CHECK OUT THE DIFFERENCE.
YOU CAN SEE THAT THE SURFACE IS PRETTY THATCHY AND HAS JUST A LITTLE SAND IN IT. YOU CAN ALSO SEE THAT MY SAMPLE HIT A RECENTLY PUNCHED AERIFICATION HOLE THAT IS FULL OF SAND. BEFORE YOU KNOW IT, THESE AREAS WILL ALSO HAVE SEVERAL INCHES OF SAND BUILT UP AND THAT MEANS THAT TACOMA'S SURFACES WILL ACTUALLY GET BETTER BECAUSE THERE WILL BE MORE ACREAGE OF SANDY GROUND AND LIKE I SAID, GOLF WAS MEANT TO BE PLAYED ON SAND.
Okay, remember the deep drain we constructed in the back half of #9 green????
And remember the "Turf Guard" sensors that we bury into the turf which monitor moisture, temperature, and soil salinity??
Well I thought it would be interesting to use these sensors to evaluate the performance of that drain on #9 green. Check out the diagram of 9 green below.
The two black lines define the location of the trench drain we installed. The three red spots indicate the location of the sensors. The sensor in the front of the green is measuring what I consider to be very satisfactory conditions. The front half of the green has never really had a serious drainage issue. Granted this is basically a "push up" putting green so it doesn't drain like a modern green. So, the fact that I condider the performance of the soil in this area to be satisfactory just goes to show how well our native soils drain. Anyway, if I can get the back half of the green to drain as well as the front, we would have no real issue and I wouldn't be writing this blog. Now the sensor in the drain is obviously measuring how well the new drain works. Lastly, the sensor in the back of the green measures what I consider to be unsatisfactory drainage which is why we installed the drain in the first place. When I placed these sensors, my hope was to determine wether or not the presence of the new drain would improve the drainage of the back half of the green or was it just helping the area immediately around the drain. By the way I installed the sensors just days before we went into a very unseasonable deep freeze. Again this winter we saw temperatures dip into the teens and we froze solid several inches deep. Check out the graphs below which shows you some of the really interesting data we collected.
First, real quick look at the bottom graph which shows temperature. You can see all three sensors on a flat line during the first few days that are graphed. At this point the green was frozen so no matter what the outside temperature was, the sensor shows that the soil temperature pretty much stayed constant at freezing or 32F. You also can see that once the green thawed, the outside temperature had a direct impact on soil temperature since there is some nice peaks and valleys in the data. Cool stuff. Now lets get down to business and look at the moisture data which is in the top graph. Below you see a close up of that graph.
I've labeled the three lines as "front", "trench", and "back". Start with the bottom light green line labeled "front". That's the data from the sensor in the front of the green which measures what I consider good drainage. You can see the sharp spikes which are havy rain events. Those spikes are pretty short meaning the rain events where heavy, but brief, and that the area in front of the green drains rather rapidly. Now look at the sensor labled "trench" which is obviously the sensor installed in the trench drain. The line is quite flat throughout all the rain events. Clearly the drain works well and not surprisingly drains faster than the soils in the front of the green. Now finally look at the dark green line labeled "back" which is the data gathered from the sensor in the back of the green. This is a clear picture and not a pretty one. As soon as the rains came, the soil became saturated and remained saturated. This is dissapointing as the sensor is only about 6 feet from the trench drain. Well..................okay, although it's dissapointing that the drain isn't helping a larger area, it's quite exciting to see how well the sensors show us what we were trying to determine. We know that we are not done with the back of #9 green. Somehow we have to find time to install more drainage into the area. The sensors cleary show that without more drainage, we will not be happy with how the back of the green performs in the future.
It's been really fun these past few days as we have most of storm debris picked up and we are back to working on a number of different course improvement projects. The guys did an excellent job with the reclamation of the black tee on #2. As always, we needed more material than previously anticipated to get it leveled out but today it is just that............................dead level.
The sod came from the driving range and the 13th green complex. It looks really good considering it's January. Once spring hits, this should fill in rapidly and look like it's always been this way.
Here's a picture from the very back and yes, it is a tight driving hole.
The back of 9 green has had drainage issues for as long as I can remember and I have always wanted to do something about it. The problem is trying to do any subsurface work on a putting green means disturbing that beautiful smooth surface which took many years to develop. Well this week the conditions were just too nice to resist. We've had a record dry winter meaning the green was very firm for this time of year. The ground was not frozen and there wasn't even frost in the forecast so getting out on the turf was going to be easy. We had the opportunity to start on a Monday and that's important to me because I didn't want to leave a project open during the weekend. I figured this project would take several days so it's nice to have a whole week at your disposal before the weekend busy period. Aerification is just weeks away. This means you don't have to put up with the unevenness of the area for very long. Anyway, the timing was perfect so we cut into the green this week in order to make that area firmer and more consistent with the rest of the greens.
We excavated 4 feet deep in order to find that beautiful free draining gravel layer.
As we backfilled the trench, we started with just 3/8" pea gravel and flooded it throughout the procedure to ensure the fill would be adequately compacted. Next we backfilled the top 12" of the trench with a 80X20 sand/sphagnum blend. That we also flooded with a gazillion gallons.
Thursday, we started putting the green back together. Sodding putting green sod is tough. It just never looks smooth enough but at some point you just gotta say this is good and we will get it smooth later with topdressing and aeration. I love this picture because you can see the puddle in the background meaning it rained pretty good the night before. Now look at the trench area. Dry as a bone. This drain will definitely make a huge difference.
So here is how it looked today and it really is good work. Again the staff did such a nice job. I'm so excited to finally do something about the wet conditions on the back of 9. By the way, because of the sod work on the back of the green, we will leave the pin on the front half of the green until after spring aeration. Sorry for the inconvenience. Talk about excitement................How bout those Hawks? Everyone is fired up about the Seahawks going to the Superbowl and the members of the staff are no different. We are such big fans that we painted this logo on the first fairway.
This says it all. Nearly 8 inches of rain this month and it really didn't start raining till the 17th. That's almost 6.5 inches above normal for the month, so let's just say, it poured!.. This really messed up my plan to punch the greens a second time with that small 1/4" tine. When your plans depend on the cooperation of mother nature, you simply win some and you loose some, because Ms. Nature likes to keep you on your toes. In this case, she beat me with my experimental aerification strategy, but I am definately winning the battle of me versus wet conditions.
Check out some of these pics from the record rain events of September 2013. Above you see 12 greenside bunker washed out again. All together I think the bunkers were washed out 3 times. It takes a little work to shovel the sand back in place but the reality is we have some really awesome bunkers given we installed the sod liner during initial construction. The liner is performing beyond my expectations. The sand is simply washed out, but the only thing washing out is bunker sand. The liner is keeping the native soil and rocks in place and the bunker sand remains completely clean and free of contamination. I JUST LOVE IT!!! Mother nature can't ruin our bunkers now.
This puddle on #7 was impressive.
This puddle was between 5 and 8 green. It's no surprise that this area is holding water. Since it was always roughs before the renovation, it hasn't been on the top of our priority list. Well right now it is fine turf and this new short mowed area is one of our favorites. This area will be on the top of our list now. Standing water here will soon be a thing of the past.
The area left of 12 is again one of those new short mowed collections areas and given it is brand new, it's not surprising that it doesn't drain well. I say that because it you look at all our typical wet areas, you will notice they aren't wet anymore. Why???????? One word....................Vertidrain! Our new deep tine aerifier has corrected the drainage on nearly every one of our historically wet areas. ........Observe.
Above you see #2 fairway last week after receiving 8 inches of rain in the 13 days prior.
Here's #2 fairway a couple years ago following a rain event less severe that the one we just had this past month. How cool is that??
Here's a picture of 15 fairway taken a couple days ago. I'm sure you remember that swale holding water for several days following a heavy rain. I'm not sure we will ever see standing water there again thanks to Mr. Vertidrain.
And look at the swale in front of #5. Again, this picture was taken a couple days ago after receiving that 8 inch deluge. In the past, following large rain events, we would have ducks swimming in a small pond fronting this green. (by the way......I hate ducks).
Yes...........I have said it before and I will say it again, the Vertidrain and Kioti tractor purchase was probably the best money we have ever spent. The golf course is not what it used to be. We are currently still able to mow every square inch of the property. Hope you get a chance to come out and enjoy it.
If you make it out to the Club this weekend, you should be pleasantly surprised with the condition of the greens considering they were punched on Monday, or just 5 days ago. Above you see what they looked like Friday afternoon. Basically they are playing just a little sandy and not bumpy at all. Why are they so good? Well this fall we are trying something a little different.
Instead of punching with a 1/2" tine like you see on the right, we punched with a 1/4" tine like you see on the left. Of course they are going to heal much faster with this strategy, but it also means we are removing much less organic matter (OM) and that could lead to softer surfaces that drain less readily. I say "could" because honestly I'm not so sure which is why I want to try this out. Clearly with the smaller tine we are disturbing a smaller percentage of the surface, but because the tine is thinner, we can punch deeper and actually remove the same amount of total material as with the larger tine. We proved this on Monday when we used the same amount of sand as always to fill the aeration holes. Now the plan all along was to punch them again with this smaller tine in October so as to make up for the decreased surface disruption versus the larger tine. If that works out, we will get even more sand on the greens which means this method might actually do a better job of thatch management compared to our past treatment with the larger tine.
But time will tell and we will continue with this method until we actually can see if it is working positively or not. How will we determine the performance of this method? By taking soil tests. Above you can see the results of 4 years of soil testing. If you look at these numbers, you can see that there really isn't a significant change in the values from 2009 up until this year. Since 2009, we have done the same thing in the spring and fall with the 1/2" tine, and just in the last year, we have increased our frequency of solid tine venting significantly. I think it's safe to say everyone is happy with the firmness of the greens and the rate that they drain, so we don't need to get more aggressive necessarily. So the idea is we change to the smaller tine which means the greens will be in better shape immediately after punching, and simply punch them an additional time to make up for removing less surface area by using that smaller tine. The only way to know how this is going to work is to try it for a while and keep testing to measure the results.
Now don't forget that we've added another aeration treatment in the last year...............the deep tine aerifier. In the picture above, you see this machine in action, and click on the video below to see it working on the second green this past Monday morning.
I just love this machine and with it we have totally changed the way the course drains. I can honestly say I don't think there's a situation of slow drainage on this property, that can't be fixed with this machine. On Monday we started aeration of the greens by first running this machine over them using a 1/2" tine that was punching 8" deep.
Then the surface was punched with the 1/4" tine at 3" deep.
The surface was cleaned off using backpack blowers.
Sand was applied and brushed in.
Extra sand was blown into piles and picked up.
Finally, the greens were rolled with the "one ton roller" to correct the surface disruption.
Again, they turned out really good and are rolling great just days after completing the aeration process.
The weather has been perfect for aeration so we also have punched and sanded most of the fairways this week. In the next 24 hours, it's predicted that we will get over an inch of rain. If that happens, the sand will get washed in nicely and the course should be ready for play right away. I hope you find time to get out there and check it out.
