On January 22nd a meeting was held in the
Forest Creek Clubhouse for the purpose of discussing the Forest Creek golf
course maintenance programs for 2014. The managers from that department, Bill Patton, Graham
Purcell (South), and Chris Noll (North) were there along with Jim Lewis, green committee chairman and
65 members of Forest Creek. This “Pizza
with Patton” night was an opportunity for the Golf Course Maintenance
Department to discuss with the membership the plans and improvement goals for 2014. Bill Patton presented an
outline of plans and also included
responses to several questions that had been provided in advance. A question and answer session followed. The
following summarizes those comments and answers.
PIZZA WITH PATTON COMMENTS
The critical element of the planning for operations in 2014
is the 2014 Golf Course Maintenance budget.
The overall budget has been increased by $320,000 for 2014 over last year’s 2013
budget. The labor budget for 2014 has
increased to $1,068,000 from $903,508 in 2013.
Those percentages of labor to overall budget are in line with normal
percentages in the golf course
industry. One half of our budget
increase is going to labor costs. The
non-labor budget increases are going into more money for chemicals, more money
for fertilizers, and more money for equipment repair. We believe that these budget increases are
what we need to produce the conditions
that you expect .
We are reorganizing
our staff in several ways to improve performance. We have added a second assistant superintendent on each golf course. These are college trained
individuals who have both graduated from the Sandhills Community College
program. One worked as a coop student at
Forest Creek while he attended school.
The other individual had been working as an assistant at Secession Golf
Club before moving back to Pinehurst to get married. These additional assistants will improve the
coaching and supervision of our staff. We are also keeping more staff on through the
winter to accomplish special projects and we have upgraded the skill level in
our new hires by paying a slightly higher wage.
The capital budget
also a reflects our efforts to
upgrade our facilities. Two programs
planned for this year are repairs to the decking and rails of our bridges and repairs to our cart paths by
repaving areas around tees and greens and on steep slopes. Whether these two programs happen is a
function of cash flow to the club. The
profits which the club derives from the 2014 US Open have been earmarked for
capital improvements and our programs are dependent on cash flow from this
event. The third leg of our 2014 capital
program is the purchase of new equipment.
There is a commitment to go forward with a program of
regularly replacing our golf course maintenance equipment. This program would make a regular purchase of
$150,000 of golf course maintenance equipment every year. As a general rule one golf course requires $500,000 of maintenance equipment to be
successful. Two golf courses through a sharing
of equipment should require the lower number of $750,000. Most golf course maintenance equipment has a
useful life of five years. Therefore a
program which replaces $750,000 worth of equipment with $150,000 of equipment
every year should be successful.
Problems developed at Forest Creek because we did not follow this
program of replacing equipment every year and instead skipped equipment
purchases in five out of six years from 2006 through 2011. The last two years have seen improvement
through purchasing $250,000 in 2012 and $140,000 in 2013. During the last year
we have been able to repair many pieces of equipment by opening up our credit
lines with our equipment suppliers that were closed during our hard times while
we transitioned to FCI.
One of the most important goals for improving conditions on
the golf courses for 2014 is a commitment to keeping the golf courses firmer
and faster. Tools which we will use to
accomplish this goal are aerification and topdressing. Last year we began a new program of
intensively core aerifying the tees, the
fairways, and the green surrounds followed with topdressing. This effort
was aimed at thatch removal, something that had been neglected for the last
several years. We plan to continue that
program this year and have scheduled each golf course to be closed for two
weeks at a time this summer. We will aggressively
aerify, then verticut and finally
topdress with sand to promote a firmer, healthier, and smoother bermudagrass
playing surface. The South golf course has more thatch because of the type of
bermudagrass grown there as well as many
years of overseeding with ryegrass. If
we can remove the thatch as well as promote its microbial breakdown with
topdressing then we can have a firmer and hopefully drier playing surface in 2014.
Thatch holds water and its removal will promote drier
conditions. Last year our records show
that we had 61.75 inches of rain at our maintenance facility. We usually notice variation in our gauges
from one side of the golf course to the other.
The state research station in Jackson Springs recorded 71.11 inches in
2013. The golf courses were wetter last year at times than we would like them
to be. Some of that was due to rainfall
that was 50% higher than normal. We
believe that by removing thatch the golf courses will dry more quickly.
The problems that we had with goosegrass contamination on
the South golf course in 2013 was a function of poor application and poor performance of preemergent herbicides. We applied Specticle and Ronstar to the North
golf course and had a good result.
Because the South was overseeded with ryegrass we were unable to use
those two products and relied on our traditional herbicide of Barricade. Its performance in many areas was
unacceptable and a serious problem.
Because we did not overseed this year on the South we will be able to
use Ronstar on both golf courses.
Ronstar is much better at preventing goosegrass than is Barricade.
At the suggestion of the USGA green section we will use a
different aerifier in the fairways this summer which will be less disruptive to
playing conditions. Our goal will be to
loosen the soil, promote air exchange while not creating unacceptable turf
conditions. We want to return the golf
holes in good condition at the end of the two weeks that we have closed.
We have done the most extensive prevention program for
“spring dead spot” this year that we have ever done at Forest Creek. We applied “tebuconazole” to all the fairways
and tees on the South golf course and to
typical problem areas on the North golf course. “Spring dead spot” is a fungal
disease of bermudagrass roots which typically occurs in fall but only becomes
visible in the spring. We will not know
how effective our prevention program has been until spring.
We have several regrets about what happened in 2013. The outbreak of goosegrass was devastating
and we regret not using different herbicdes and applying them more carefully.
We regret not overseeding the driving range on our regular schedule of between
9/15 and 10/15. We waited until after
the Member/Pro tournament which pushed us into November. With this year’s early hard freezes that was
too late to have the ryegrass
established going into winter. We also regret that we did not communicate effectively to the membership about why we
were closing the golf courses for
aerification and why this disruption was
necessary. We did not explain the
ultimate benefits that it was intended to produce. We felt that we had put this information on
our blog but the message did not get out.
In the future we want to do a better job of directing people to the blog
for information.
A major goal for 2014 is to do more golf course maintenance
on the weekends to promote better playing conditions on the weekends. We will schedule more people to work weekends
and we will do more mowing. We have
spent the winter rehabilitating two older fairway mowers so that we can mow
more often. We will begin walk mowing
the smaller tees on both golf courses in 2014.
We will also begin walk mowing the approach cut outside and around the
greens to reduce compaction and wear between the greens and the bunkers this
year. We want to mow our tees and fairways more often and with sharper mowers in
2014. We will try to handrake greenside
bunkers when we are mowing the greens to reduce the problems with our
mechanical trap rakes. We will continue
to remove asphalt cart paths where they are compromised by tree roots and
replace that asphalt with native sand.
We will install more drains in our sand cart paths to stabilize them and
also experiment with some spray-on polymer products that will stabilize the
sand.
We have begun a
leveling and topdressing program on the left side of the driving range. We will continue this effort and also install
herringbone drainage if necessary. We have constructed a new cart path on the left side of the
driving range which will enable golfers to get to the practice area at the back
of the driving range without going through the maintenance facility. We hope to continue to upgrade that area with improved accessibility and improved turf
conditions. We have found that this
practice area at the back of the driving range is being used more and we wish
to further promote its use. We plan to pump bunkers that continue to hold
water after rainfall and to work on the internal drainage of these same
bunkers. We have already repaired the internal drainage in bunkers on holes 9,15,16, and 17 on the north golf
course this winter. We have rebuilt the
bunker faces in the front bunker on 17
south and we have also changed the bunker sand in this bunker. Due to concerns about the wire grass plants on the bunker faces on
the North golf course, we will communicate with the Fazio Golf Design to get their input on these features and
follow their directives.
There is an ongoing program of tree removal where the trees
are causing agronomic problems. We have
rebuilt the championship tee on 18 south and sodded it with “zeon” zoysia
grass. We have leveled the short
tee on 2 south. There are plans to address drainage issues on the tees of 15 north
and 12 north with topdressing and internal drainage. There are plans to add
a new tee on 16 south in front of and below the existing Long tee. The completion of these plans on 16 are depends
on the availability of capital funds later in the year.
It is our general practice to mow the greens every day when
the weather is suitable for their growth.
Sometimes mowing is done when they are not growing to simply remove the
brown winter-burned leaf tips. Sometimes in the summer when the greens are
stressed because of heat we will skip mowing. This winter has been unusual and
we have been mowing more than usual; the temperatures have fluctuated widely
with extreme lows followed by remarkable warming. Cups are not scheduled for changing every day.
However,
during the seasons of the year
when play is busy, we will change cups every day. As a rule of thumb, we use 75 rounds as a
threshold for changing but will not go very many days without changing. We are now committed to changing cups on
Friday, Saturday and Sunday regardless of the number of rounds played when we
are in season. Our practice in regards
to the “cleanup” pass around the greens is different from what was done historically
in our industry, but it is commonly done this way now. We mow the “cleanup” pass around the edge of
the green with a different mower set at a slightly higher height of cut which
is operated by a veteran skilled operator. This cleanup is usually mowed every
other day. This pass around the edge of
the green can become worn and compacted if done every day. When the morning dew pattern shows that we
have not made this pass it is not usually a mistake by the greensmower. However if you can look down and see a
difference in the grass heights then we have gone too long between cleanups and
have made a mistake.
We are seeking feedback on the practice of painting fairways. It has not been what we expected. Early dormancy and harsh weather has made for
a different experience industry wide with painting than in past years. We purchased sufficient paint in the fall to
apply 10 gallons of paint to the tees and fairways of the South golf course and
planned three separate applications of 5 gallons, 3 gallons, and finally 2
gallons. We used all our paint by
December 1 to produce an acceptable look which is now fading. The industry recommendation is now to start
with 8 gallons and not paint as early as they had previously recommended.
Efforts are being
expended this winter to refine our pin position matrixes and to coordinate tee
position placement with those pin depths to give variety on par three golf
holes. We are edging golf holes and edging around tress to give defined lines
to the golf courses. We are also trying
to manage the turf edges to maintain playability so that an errant shot can be
found and played. This involves making
sure that the blowers do not pile pine straw up in areas as well as limbing up
the holly trees that are in play so that a golf ball can be found underneath
them.
We want our golf course to be a “player’s “ golf course and
we will try to achieve firm and fast conditions. We will not manage for color. We may not always achieve that goal but that
is what we strive for.
We realize that bunkers are a priority and that we have to
work at getting them better. The trap
rake operaters have to be careful coming
out of the bunkers and also not ride too high on the edges. These efforts are part of ongoing golf course
maintenance. We constantly coach and
instruct our employees how to do this properly.
We are hopeful that more handraking of bunker and changing the rakes on
the riding trap rakes more often will solve some of this. The plan is to have
the greensmowers hand rake all greenside bunkers as they mow their set of
greens.
The maintenance employees are trained to get out of the way
of golfers. This is a constant
educational process for us. We have 25
core employees who work throughout the year.
We will add 20 more throughout the season. Ten will be brought on for the March through
October season and ten more will come on as summer help or as part time interns
or coop students from Sandhills Community College. We are constantly training these new
employees throughout the season.
Irrigation for Forest Creek’s two golf courses is controlled
by one central computer so we have to be careful with watering because often we
will get rainfall on one part of the property and not another. We adjust irrigation through field satellite
controllers so that different areas get different amounts of irrigation based
on their topography and their soil types.
We strive to keep the grass healthy with sufficient irrigation but
without over watering. Sometimes
mistakes are made with heads sticking on and control systems not working. There are more sophisticated systems
available with more opportunity for control of different areas through multiple
weather stations, but these are expensive.
The management philosophy of “firm and fast “ also embraces having playable
fairways. The mowing height of our
bermudagrass fairways “ in season” is .045 inches. We believe that this allows the ball to roll
while also providing sufficient grass under the ball for it to be
playable. Firmness will be managed with
moisture control, thatch control, and frequent mowing with sharply adjusted
mowers.
The conversion of either golf course at Forest Creek to
ultradwarf bermudagrass is not planned at this time. We have planted two bermuda grass greens to
experiment with ultradwarf bermudagrass
and to learn the different cultural
rquirements that these grasses have. The
advantage of ultradwarf greens is in the summer when you can have firm
greens. We will almost always be soft in
July and August with Crenshaw bentgrass greens.
Normally we should recover and begin to firm back up during September.
This year the most difficult weather for Bentgrass was in September and the
greens were late to firm up. Firmness is
a function of a healthy growing root system and soil that contains the proper
mix of organic and mineral matter. We
believe that the greens are still performing properly with good internal
drainage and good greensmix. There are
problems at the edges of the greens with bermuda grass encroachment and there
has been some discussion about resodding
those edges with one of the newer bermuda grass hybrids such as “tifgrand”. Most of the problems with the greens in the
summer are heat related. We experience difficult
weather in which to grow bentgrass .
Bentgrass grows roots throughout the fall and spring, but when the hot
weather arrives in summer the bentgrass roots recede. The plant will feed on its own roots to such
an extent that by the end of summer the
roots are very shallow. This diminished root mass allows the soil to
become softer.
Deer have become a larger problem on the golf courses with
the eating of ornamentals. They are more numerous than ever but they cause little
damage to the golf course itself. We
have had some success controlling the geese with the use of dogs, a motor boat
and string lines.
