Course Aeration

This past week we were able to complete the aeration and topdressing of greens, tees and approaches. We were scheduled to topdress and aerate fairways but due to the contractor over booking, he was not able to make it here this week. Next week looks like it will still be a good week for fairway aeration and topdressing.

All surfaces that were aerated are healing nicely. A lot of this has to do with the fact that we did not core aerate. All surfaces are only being solid tine aerated with either a 1/2" or 5/8" tine. We really don't have any thatch issues to deal with so there is little concern nor a need to pull a core. Secondly the less surface disruption we create the greater we can optimize conditions to favor the bentgrass.

The staff worked hard on Monday and Tuesday hand brushing sand into the greens and tees. Aeration leaves the surfaces soft so we prefer to hand broom the surfaces as opposed to driving a cart and a broom around and around and around on the surfaces. Which then takes a longer period of time to roll out the ruts. The process may take a little more time, but the end results is really all that matters.

The process to get the greens into summer conditions is really simple, do as little as possible. Following the topdressing we have cut the greens one time to remove some of the excess sand as well as some of the grass that was stood up from brooming. Greens were fertilized with an organic based product and now we will roll for a number of days before we attempt to mow again. The grass needs some time to recover as well as grow out from the layer of sand that was applied. The sand was placed there for a reason and we want to collect as little as possible, so we will wait until Saturday to before we mow for the second time since aerating. Once the mowers are no longer picking up sand we will then begin to gradually lower the height of cut on greens, tees and fairways. By the middle of May we should be very close to our optimal cutting height on all surfaces.

More Wildlife

I pull up to the 13th green yesterday afternoon and low and behold a juvenile Red tail Hawk was on the ground. After a few minutes he flew into a nearby Oak tree. It's great to see all of the raptor bird species on the course, they are here for a reason and obviously between the Bald Eagles, the Great Horned Owls and the Red Tail Hawks, there is a large enough food source for them to thrive in and around our property.

Great-Horned Owl

In the past few years there have been a pair of Great-Horned Owls making Minikahda their home. Last year us in the Grounds Department watched as the pair successfully had a young offspring in the pine trees behind #11 green.


This year they are back again. Late last Sunday afternoon i received a phone call about an owl that had fallen from its nest by hole #11. Member Archie Smith phoned in the sighting saying that the owl was sitting next to one of the pine trees. The first thing i did was phone The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota. I was asked to go make sure it was not injured and then send them some pictures. After sending the veterinarian some pictures and discussing our options, we decided that the best thing to do was leave the juvenile owl alone since both adults were in the trees above, along with two other juveniles. Below are a few pictures of the Great-Horned Owls that roam Minikahda at night.

Course Aeration

This week we begin the process of aerating greens, tees and fairways. Greens will be aerated today with 1/2" solid tines followed by a roll to firm the greens before the topdressing of sand is applied. The sand is then hand brushed into the greens by about 10-12 guys on our staff. Finally greens will be fertilized with an organic granular fertilizer at .5#N/M. During the same time we will be solid tine aerating approaches with 5/8" tines and will follow the same process for greens. If time allows today we will begin solid tine aerating tees as well as topdressing and hand brushing.

Tuesday we will begin topdressing fairways. We have contracted with Sports Turf Specialties, Inc. from Farmington, Minnesota to make the application of sand. Our goal is to apply 20 tons of sand per acre. Following the topdressing we will begin the aerating process on fairways using 5/8" solid tines and then drag the sand into the profile.

We have a busy week ahead of us and we hope the weather cooperates so we can get it all accomplished in a reasonable manner.

Aerify

Over the past week several guys on our crew have been hard at work aerifying several areas of the golf course. The one area that typically takes the longest is deeptining the fairways. We usually try to deeptine our fairways twice per year. The picture below is of long time Assistant Superintendent John Jarosz deeptining #1 fairway. Deeptining does several things for the golf course; it reduces compaction, opens airspace for roots to grow and allows water to move through the soil profile more rapidly. It will take us about 2 weeks to finish the deeptining process on our 27 acres of fairway.

The picture below is of Jim Schnell, one of our interns solidtine aerating around greens, tees and bunkers. Typically we try to aerate those rough areas 1-2 times per year to help reduce the compaction from carts and foot traffic.

An International Flare

For the past 12 years our Grounds Department has been the host of many International Trainees as well as maintaining the majority of the staff with employees from south of the boarder. We felt it was about time to show the representation of trainees (current and past) and employees flags from their respective countries.

We have hosted trainees from Scotland, China, South Africa(2 trainees), Germany (3) one from France and the core of our staff originated from Mexico. We are currently working with Communicating for Agriculture International Exchange Program (CA) which is based out of Fergus Falls, Minnesota. CA was created in 1985 and today has become the largest agricultural exchange programs in the nation.

Hosting trainees is a wonderful experience and through the program I hope we have been able to teach and train the student not only our maintenance practices and philosophies but also a little bit more about our country and our culture. The friendships that we have created through the years I know are to be life long as I still stay in contact with the majority of our past trainees throughout the years.

Ducks on the Pond

Spring is a great time of year to see wildlife around the golf course. Most of the time you'll get to see your common Mallard duck, but if you're ever around the golf course early enough in the mornings a common siting these April days is of the Woodduck. Typically Woodducks chose a nesting site or box in early April, then mate and lay eggs. Incubation period for the eggs is around 28 days. Once the eggs hatch they climb out of the box and run for cover following their mom. The picture below is of two drake(male) Woodducks, probably waiting for their hen(female) to join them for the day after sitting on eggs all night long.

Another spring duck sighting is of the Blue-winged Teal. The picture below is of a pair of Blue-winged Teal. Blue-winged Teal are more of a migratory bird for us here in Minnesota, mostly seeing them in the spring and fall when they are going to and from their Canadian nesting range.

The last picture is of a Ruddy Duck, a small "fish duck" that is typically seen in massive rafts in larger bodies of water. This one decided that our #6 pond looked like a good spot to dive for some minnows.

Rotted Tree Falls

As I was touring the course this morning I came across this fallen Basswood at the entrance to the 6th tee. As you can see by the photos the stem of the trunk was very rotten and decayed quite badly. It was really only a matter of time before the tree would fall. With virtually no wind last night it goes to show it's important to have hazardous trees removed from the golf course before they reach this stage of decay. Thankfully no one was in the area at the time. The location of the tree is right where golfers enter the 6th tee complex as they walk back from the 5th green.

There's a time to save and maintain certain trees on the golf course and there comes a time when a decision needs to be made to remove what may even appear to be a perfectly healthy tree. This is a prefect example of why when the inside of the tree is showing signs of decay the tree needs to be removed especially when the health and safety of the golfers and employees is at risk. Unfortunately Mother Nature took care of this one before we were able to act on it.

Spring Course Preparations

April has provided us with some phenomenal spring weather. Most would say we are a good 2-3 weeks ahead of schedule, not only with our weather but also for course conditions. The early warm weather has allowed our staff to get the majority of spring clean-up tasks completed. Thankfully we have been able to accomplish these tasks without having to increase our staff size and we have been able to maintain our scheduled staff size which allows us to keep labor on budget.

If you take a cart, hopefully you have noticed, No Potholes! Antonio, Alejandro and Jorge did a great job this past week filling in potholes, adding a fresh coating of red rock and then and final groom on the paths.

Treating Fairway Edges

Most Superintendents will tell you the weakest areas on their fairways are on the perimeters and high traffic areas. The fairway edges tend to be where the highest population of poa annua exists. This is primarily due to fairway mowers creating compaction as well as cart traffic from golf carts and maintenance equipment traffic. On our fairways we have a great deal of creeping bentgrass, but on our edges there is a high amount of poa that needs to get converted to creeping bentgrass. We will be putting a great deal of effort into converting these areas this summer as well as making the stand of turf that exists healthier.

In order to work at the conversion we will be increasing our aeration efforts to combat the compaction issue and we will be making more frequent soluble fertility applications in order to keep these areas healthy and maintain a good dense stand of turf.

This morning Asst. Supt. Nick Folk made an application of Ammonium Sulfate to the perimeters of the fairways. We have set up Boom-Buster nozzles on the back of our 400 gallon sprayer. With this set-up we are able to spray all of the fairway perimeters with only 2 tank applications. With such an easy application process we will easily be able to make these applications throughout the season to keep the perimeters areas healthy.

The First Spring Rain

Early this morning we experienced our first really good spring rain accompanied by a sufficient amount of thunder and lightening. To date we have been experiencing a dry start to the season, which for the turf is not necessarily a bad thing. A cold dry spring is gives way for quicker growth to the turf than a cold wet spring. So with today's rain (.65") and the warm weather that's to follow this week we should see a big surge in the growth of the turf, which means next week Pete Greier, our rough mower operator, is going to have to begin mowing rough about 2 weeks earlier than normal.

The spring weather temperatures have been above normal and with rainfall amounts below normal we did pressurize the irrigation system 3 weeks ahead of our typical start-up. But even though we have had the system up and running, we have tried to minimize the use of it. There is no need to over-water the course this time of year. The plants will survive and it forces the roots of the plants to search for water. If we provide too much the plant has no need to send roots deep and that does not set the turf up too well heading into the summer.

Spring is when we need to start thinking about the summer and what we can do to condition the turf and prepare it for the hell we put it through. This week was the start of the pre-conditioning process for us. Wetting agents are being applied to greens, tees and fairways. With today's rain it's the perfect opportunity to apply the wetting agent to fairways. We use a product called Lesco-Flo and this product needs to be immediately watered into the soil, so what better time to do it then when it is raining, cool and cloudy.

There are a few greens that I would say are a little week and don't have the density that we would like to see. Those greens are the ones that are predominately poa annua greens. Greens such as 3, 5 the perimeter of #6, 7, 11, 16 and the right side of 18. Later this week we will be making a seperate soluble fertility application to these greens as well as to the weaker tees on 5, 6 and 8. The extra bump in fertility will aid in forcing a little growth and will aid in creating a denser canopy. Again, preconditioning the turf so we can head into summer with healthy greens.

Increased Surface Drainage

If there is one thing a golf course can never have enough of, it's surface drainage. This past week we were able to install drainage inlets in four locations on the south end of the course. Back in the fall of 1995 drainage was installed so the fairways would drain better on holes 4, 13, 12, and 5. The tile started on 4 and runs across 13, 12, 5 and then ends at the pond on the 6th hole. During spring thaws and during heavy rain events or prolonged periods of rain we tend to always have "birdbaths" in a few isolated locations along these fairways. What is also evident is there is quite a bit of poa annua that grows in these low wet areas. In order for us to have a fighting change at getting creeping bentgrass to dominate these locations it is imperative that we maintain these areas as dry as possible.

Devan Visser, our Trainee from South Africa fitting the riser to the existing tile line.

Drainage box set at grade on the 5th fairway.

The completed project on the 5th hole. A job well done!

Once we were able to locate the tile line, our staff, lead by Assistant Superintendents' Nick Folk and Rick Krause, were then able to install the drain boxes. Locating the tile for three of the four inlets was pretty easy since the tile was not more than 18 inches below the surface, the fourth one took a little bit more digging and was about 3 1/2 to 4ft deep. We have a few more minor drainage projects to complete this year and with the mild spring weather we are experiencing we should easily be able to get the work completed.


The shallow tile line on the 13th fairway made for an easy dig and a quick installation of the drain inlet.

Wildlife on the Course

Migration is in full flight and it is one of my favorite times of year to see what bird species can be spotted in or around the golf course. Spring is such a great time to view returning wildlife. Yesterday we spotted a Bald Eagle perched high in the trees and one of them even made a temporary stop on an Osprey platform that was erected about 15 years ago. Time will tell if the Eagles decide to call this ideal location home.