New posts and cable on #7

The last couple of days Jose, Scott and Tom spent some time installing some new posts and cable down the makeshift cart path on #7. As I have stated before, we are trying to rid the course of our "permanent" rope and stakes and replace them with the truly permanent posts and cable. This saves our guys on the mowers valuable time as now they don't have to get off the mowers twice to move and replace the old rope and stakes. We think it also provides a cleaner look to the course. On #7 we chose not to put in the bender board border or the DG. Next week Tom will come back and spray a little round-up underneath the cable so that we don't have to weed eat or mow the area.

Hole-e-tees

This past Monday and Tuesday the staff and I got an early start and aerified all of the tees on the course. This time around we decided to aerify most of the tee banks along with the tee tops. Since we have not really aerified any of the tee banks since the course was rebuilt we felt it was necessary to get some of them opened up to allow more air and water to reach the roots and help us make it through our summer months. It turned out to be perfect timing as we received a little over a tenth of an inch of rain last night. On some of the harder more compacted tees we aerified in two directions.
We will be putting down some gypsum and our first ever "organic" granular fertilizer application on Friday before the next little storm. I am finally trying to add some organic fertilizer into our mix of plant nutrition products we use throughout the year. We will be doing the same thing when we aerify fairways in a couple of weeks. Here are a couple of examples of the tee banks that were aerified.

Finally Some Rain

Even though the rain hurts our revenue chances it sure has been nice to get a couple of pretty good storms these past couple of weeks. According to our rain gauge at the maintenance shop we have received just shy of 3" in the last couple of storms. We have had to hold off carts for a couple of days but the course has really taken the rain very well. Because of the lack of rain earlier in the year we were able to solid tine aerify our fairways. This has really helped to move the water into the soil these past couple of storms and helped us get carts off the paths and out on the course sooner. The worst area for holding water is the area between #15 & #16 fairways. I think in the future we will look to cut a bunch of drain lines throughout that area and fill them with sand. Here's a couple of pictures of our morning yesterday.

Adding To The Irrigation System

One of the areas we have focused on improving this winter has been our irrigation coverage in some crucial areas throughout the course. Most of these new sprinklers we have added are in areas we have struggled throughout the last few summers since our irrigation system was installed. Every fall Tom, Hung and I sit down and talk about the summer irrigation season and make decisions on where we could make adjustments or additions that would help us better manage our turf for the following summer. Even though our irrigation system is fairly new, it has definitely shown some weaknesses and these new sprinklers should really help fill in the gaps.  

New sprinkler behind #14 green

New sprinkler along road by #2 fairway

New sprinkler behind #2 green

New sprinkler between #3 green and #4 tee

New sprinkler behind #8 tee

New sprinklers down the left rough of #1

Jake and Hung adding new pipe for sprinkler behind #14 green

Changes @ #3 Tee

We've noticed that over the last couple of years we have begun to struggle with the turf quality on the right half of the blue tee on #3. We are pretty sure we can attribute the decline in quality to compaction and traffic from all of the players that take their pull carts up on the tee while they are teeing off. So to try and combat this problem we chose to extend the split rail fence and remove a little turf as you approach the tee from #2. By doing this our goal is to try to encourage the players to keep the pull carts on the path while teeing off and then walk down the cart path to the green. The turf that we removed was also a problem in the summer months because of the lack of good irrigation coverage. Here's a few before and after photos.

Trimmin' & Thinnin'

Today we finally got around to trimming and thinning out some of the cypress trees that were planted when the golf course was rebuilt. This morning we had Hung out with the pole saw trimmer cutting and leaving the branches around the base of the trees. When the rest of the staff was finished with their morning duties and some of the other projects were completed they came behind Hung and hauled off the branches. Hopefully we will have some time this weekend to continue trimming with the rain that is forecast. Over the past year these trees have really begun to mature and give a little light into what the course will look like in the next few years.

More Drain Work In #6 Fairway

Today Tom continued with our drainage work on #6 fairway. Now that the first area we added drainage and new sod to is coming along we decided to continue with another area of the fairway. A couple of weeks ago Tom cut and removed all of the bad sod and today he started in on the drainage portion of the project. With the rain forecast for this week we may have a hard time finishing up with the drainage this week. But knowing my staff they will probably make it happen.
Below is a picture of the area after the sod was removed and then a picture of the beginning of the drainage. We will add pipe in a few of the trenches, but most of the trenches will only be filled with sand. As soon as the drain work is finished, we will prep the area and then lay sod.

Our Resident Gopher Specialist

At just about every golf course throughout the world there is some kind of pest that plagues each course. Whether it is some kind of rodent or insect or other animal I would assure you that what ever the pest it can really be a pain on the superintendent and his staff.
At Monterey Pines we have two pests that cause us grief on a daily basis. The first being the gopher and the second being the mole. This past winter our resident "Gopher Specialist" Mr. Hung Huynh set out to make a dent in our gopher population.



Here's Hung with his recent catch. He only uses traps and his keen hunting skills!

Though we will realistically never eradicate our gopher and mole populations it sure is nice to feel like we are getting the better hand on our situation.

Why All The White Lines???

If you have played our course in the last few weeks or you have probably seen a bunch of white lines painted on the turf. No, these are not out-of-bounds markings. If you look carefully these are dashed white lines which are either new mowing lines for different heights of cut or they are reminder lines for the different mowers.
Throughout this past winter Tom and I made a conscious effort to look at the different mowing lines throughout the course to see where we could make some needed adjustments. One of the areas we have really concentrated on were the areas that are mowed with our banks or surrounds mower. The reason for this was to try to limit the amount of turf we mow with this machine because it is a reel type mower and takes a beating throughout the year. It is also the only mower we have to mow the banks. So with a little less area to mow maybe we can keep this machine for a little longer than expected. The areas that were mowed by the banks mower will now be mowed by the rough mowers. These machines are also a little wider than the banks mower so the extra turf to mow should not increase our mowing time on the rough mowers.

#8 collar on the right side of the green.







Area between the putting green and the 18th green.

New Trees Behind #16

Yesterday Scott and Enrique planted three new cypress trees behind #16 green. Since we cut down the dead pine that was behind the green this past November it left the green a little more open and unprotected from tee shots on #14. We hope once these trees grow taller they will provide a good natural fence for errant balls as well as a great background to the green.



The three new trees with the old stump from the dead pine that was taken down.

GCSAA Show and Course Update

These past couple of weeks have been extremely busy for myself and my staff. Last week I spent five days in Las Vegas attending the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America's manual conference and trade show. I attend 5 seminars and two full days at the trade show throughout the week. The conference is always a nice way to start out the year as it tends to get the creative juices flowing and gets everybody excited about the coming summer.
Before I left for Vegas, I had left Tom and the crew with a long list of jobs to keep them plenty busy throughout the week. As I returned this last weekend I was amazed to find out just how much they were able to accomplish even with a rain day thrown in to the mix. I would like to send a big thank you out to my staff for finding that next gear and really helping Tom accomplish a bunch and for finishing up on some projects from the past. Below is a picture of the new irrigation at the chipping green that my staff was able to knock out while I was gone.

These sprinklers were added because we have always struggled to keep to green from drying out during the summer without making the surrounding area too wet.