Thursday's Windstorm
Late Thursday afternoon we experienced our first major windstorm of the late summer season. The event littered the course with a tremendous volume of tree debris and presented quite a challenge when preparing the course for play on Friday morning. Thank you for your patience and understanding during the clean up efforts.
Bugspray and Turf
Although our pesky nat/flying insect season is short, it happens to coincide with the peak heat of the summer. We ask that when applying insect repellent, please do so when not standing on tight cut turf areas (ex: tees, fairways, and definitely not greens!). Below is a photo from #3 fairway illustrating the impact the aerosol chemistry has on closely mown bermudagrass.
Golf Business Article~ Oct 2010
Almost a year later and I've finally added a link to the article that was published in the October 2010 issue of Golf Business magazine, titled "Building a Better Product". The article briefly touches upon the improvements to the club and how they were achieved from the perspective of former General Manager, Steve Henthorn.
Chipping Green Transformation- Poa to Bentgrass
For those members that have been following the two year transformation/improvement program of the poa/bermuda chipping green to bentgrass, here are some photos. This is a unique turfgrass transformation project for Southern California: poa to bentgrass. I'm sure that it has been attempted elsewhere in this region, but not with the success rate that we are achieving.
The chipping green was previously sodded bermuda grass to test if the species should be the turfgrass of choice for the greens after several years of failure in the mid 2000's. After the loss of the greens in 2006, Greenway was hired. Upon Greenway recommendation, the decision was made to sod the greens with T1 & A4 Bentgrass. The decision to sod versus seed was made to limit course closure time. The entire project (including corrective shaping) was completed in four weeks, during the annual closure for the over-seeding process.
Due to limited funding the bermuda green, which was failing to perform to previous consultants beliefs and subsequently transformed to more poa than bermuda, was not touched. In September of 2009, the green was double aerified and seeded with A4 bentgrass. The slideshow below illustrates the establishment of bentgrass, which now populates the green in the 90-94% range.
The green is maintained in the same manner as the course greens in terms of mowing frequency and height of cut (currently .090") To aid in the establishment of the bentgrass, the frequency of additional nitrogen applications is the only major alteration to our typical maintenance protocol.
4/2007
6/2010
9/2011
Tennis Court Renovation Complete
The tennis court resurfacing is complete and ready/open for play. The color scheme has been updated to Blue/Green, the color combination of the courts at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in NY- home of the U.S. Open of Tennis.
Improving D.U. (Distribution Uniformity)
One of the elements to water conservation is improving DU or distribution uniformity. Distribution uniformity is a measure of how uniformly water is applied over a given area. Sprinkler nozzles and sprinkler spacing greatly influence DU and have negatively impacted water consumption in the past. The lower the percentage of DU, the longer a sprinkler head will need to run to "flood" an area. The higher the DU percentage the less time a station or sprinkler will need to run to supply ample moisture based on ET. At ACC we have corrected spacing issues on all of the greens and upgraded the sprinkler nozzles to increase uniformity. The photo below is just a sample of the multiple nozzles present on the course. One major issue discovered was that the main blue/rear green nozzles prevalent on the course can only throw 58' optimally at our sprinkler base pressure. This poses a monumental problem when our sprinkler spacing is 70+ feet.
Venting
A common cultural practice that is monthly procedure here at ACC is venting the greens. The 10" long, 1/4" diameter tines open a void to allow for gaseous exchange within the rootzone. To establish and maintain roots to the depths we produce (6 - 9 inches), it is critical that we supply oxygen at these depths. It is as simple as no oxygen, no roots. In the heat of the summer, the moisture requirement of the plant increases. With additional irrigation requirements, oxygen is displaced from the soil profile and most courses experience root decline. Venting is critical to lessening or negating this phenomenon from occurring. The minor holes do not impact ball roll and usually heal within three or four days after the practice is completed.
Ugh... Summer in the I.E.
We have had a relatively mild summer here in the Inland Empire. For those of you that follow this blog and were not aware, the weather in the Inland Empire is not at all similar to San Francisco, San Diego, or Los Angeles, but more like Palm Springs. The average high temperature from late May to early September is in the upper 90's. This past weekend, we experienced highs in the upper 100's: 108 F & 109 F. That drove soil temperatures at a depth of five inches to 90+ degrees. A little extra attention and some supplemental hand watering was all that was required. We still maintain root depths of 6-9" on our A4/T1 Bentgrass greens and feel fortunate that we are not managing poa annua.
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