Mornings on the golf course

The day for a golf course superintendent and his or her crew starts very early, especially as we get into summer.  Waking up at 2:30 or 3:00 this time of year is more common than you would think!  The task of setting up the course for the day, which many of us refer to as the "morning shuffle," is a carefully planned and orchestrated task, as there are only so many bodies to put on equipment for the day.  As we go about our morning jobs well before sunrise, care is taken to ensure that we are focusing on the #1 priorities that will affect not only the health of the turf we manage, but more importantly the experience of our customers.

Here is an insightful blog post from Chris Fernandes, Superintendent at Northwest Golf Course.  Enjoy!
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            This is how most mornings look for the maintenance departments at your favorite golf course.  While most people are just getting up, getting ready for work, getting their kids ready for school, drinking their first cup of coffee or still enjoying a good night's rest, the maintenance staff is hard at work out on the golf course getting the place ready for our customers.  Everyday is different for the maintenance staff, but one thing that is always the same is setting up the golf course for play.  Mornings are the most important part of the day for the maintenance staff and will set the standards for the course that day. 

            Before the staff members even get to the first hole, there are tasks that need to be done.  Blowing around the clubhouse, picking up debris and trash in the parking lot, setting up the cart restriction and hole location signs and communicating with the pro shop on the days course rules, conditions and what the superintendent and the assistants have planned for that day.

Once the staff arrives at the first hole the work really begins.  On the tee boxes the staff will be filling in divots with seed and sand from the previous days rounds, moving tee markers and divot boxes in their new location and depending on the day mowing the tee boxes.

On the way to the green the staff will be checking for trash on the course, blowing any debris and moving the cart directional signs.  Once on the green, depending on what is planned for that day, many of the staff will be on every green everyday.  Weather it is mowing or rolling, mowing and rolling, spraying or just setting the new pin location there are a lot of tasks that need to be completed.

Also while on the green workers will be blowing sand or debris off the green, checking for any high or low plugs and repairing ball marks to make sure the green is perfect before the staff members move on the the next hole to start the process all over again.  During the morning set up other task are being completed such as emptying trash, making sure coolers are filled and checking the bathrooms before golfers start their round.

While workers are preparing the greens others will be mowing fairways, tees, intermediates, and rough while others will be raking bunkers, mowing collars, or anything else that needs to be done. 

Superintendents and their assistants spend these early hours following up on the tasks performed by crew members to ensure quality control, and will also spend time ahead of any equipment to look at dew patterns (good indicator of stress where there is a mottled or broken dew pattern), check soil moisture, scout for pests or disease (or vandalism!), and innumerable other tasks.  The golf course mechanic is also busy in the morning checking to ensure his equipment is performing up to par, and that the quality of cut is excellent.

These are just some of many tasks that happen everyday on the course to ensure that our customers have the best experience possible every time they come out to play.  

Tee construction and irrigation at Hampshire Greens

One of the final winter projects that was wrapped up in March at Hampshire Greens was the construction of two new tee boxes on holes #8 and #14.  Par 3 tees get beat up with divots throughout the season, especially the bentgrass ones at this course.  The new tees will provide increased teeing area to distribute divots, as well as adding an additional challenge to our golfers playing the back tees there.

Here is an update from Golf Course Superintendent Teddy Blauvelt, who has done a great job with MCG since 2007 at this property.
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Many people ask, “What does maintenance do in the winter when it’s cold.” My answer is “projects.” Projects are labeled so because they are outside the realm of everyday golf course maintenance work. They are not completed during the golfing season for two main reasons. The first is because the scope of work would severely interfere with the golfer and their round. The second, is well, there is plenty of traditional everyday work to fill each day for the maintenance staff.

March is a busy month which includes getting these winter projects wrapped up, but also later in the month to get ready for the golfing season with routine maintenance. Some winter projects include: Bunker renovations, tee constriction, irrigation installs and upgrades, drainage projects etc… Today we will focus on two projects being completed at Hampshire Greens this winter. Tee additions, to the par three 14th and 8th holes, and an irrigation addition to the right side of 13th hole.

The tee additions, why? Both holes have limited tee space in comparison to the length of tee shot. The addition of championship tee tops will lengthen the holes, relieve traffic stress, help with divot recovery, and create an aesthetically pleasing yet challenging golf shot.

The 14th will be about 155 yds and consistently hold the black, championship tee markers.

We utilized the hillside behind the current 14th tee to simply cut and fill, then shape the new tee top.

The new 8th will be about 205 yds and will be used in rotation with the current championship tee to hold the black markers. 

We needed to add a LOT of soil to build the tee. We used soil from 2 mounds on the seventh hole to build the tee. We did this to alleviate a cart traffic problem created from these mounds on the left side of the hole. We also needed to lower the current blue tee top on the 8th in order for the new tee top to have clear sight to the green. This will also increase area of the blue tee, a win win. Almost a, “3 birds 1 stone deal!” 

Along side the right side rough of the 13th fwy we installed a third irrigation line and sprinkler heads. Currently, the sub-par irrigation system has two rows of irrigation heads. One runs down the left side intermediate/fwy. The second runs down the right/middle of the fwy. This leads to very poor irrigation coverage to the right side of the fwy, especially in the tee shot landing area. By adding a third row of heads we will create a superior playing surface on the right side fwy, relieve labor hours from hand watering, and provide a more efficient way to water.

I hope this helps answer any questions about some of what maintenance does during the "off-season."

Teddy Blauvelt

Golf Course Superintendent

Hampshire Greens Golf Course

It's that time again! (Aeration)

The most important cultural practice that is performed at our facilities is core aeration, and I could literally wear out the keyboard discussing the benefits of this process!  The process of aeration and recovery is very stressful both physically and mentally for our staff, because we take such pride if maintaining great conditions for you!  But this temporary disruption to our playing surfaces is what helps the turf remain healthy throughout the year and is very important!  So what exactly is so great about removing all these plugs of soil from your beautiful golf course?

• Improved root growth
• Improved gas exchange (oxygen to the root zone and actual air movement underground!)
• Decreased thatch and organic matter that can hold excess water (bad for root development and increases disease pressure and insect problems)
• Incorporation of pure sand in greens to keep these important channels open (tremendous root growth in these holes!) as well as firm the playing surface
• Alleviates compaction caused by foot and vehicle traffic
• Improved water infiltration
• Improved microbial activity (healthy microbes help the soil environment function better)
• And the list goes on!

Superintendents LOVE this root development in aeration holes!

So when exactly will our courses be aerating? 
Find our aeration schedule HERE.  

On the date of aeration, the areas mentioned (front 9/back 9) will be closed for the day.  We have selected aeration dates that work best for the specific needs of each course based on types of grass, staffing levels, equipment sharing, and environmental conditions, as well as trying to work around major events and outings that are already scheduled.

Little Bennett Pump Station Upgrade

Did you have any idea an irrigation pumping system was so complex?  

Little Bennett has just upgraded from an antiquated, energy-wasting system to a new state of the art control system that will provide dramatically improved and safer performance, use less electricity, and give the superintendent the ability to see what is happening at the pump station from anywhere there is internet access!

Golfers may occasionally wonder what it takes to irrigate a golf course.  An 18-hole golf course can cover anywhere from 100-300 acres of land and requires miles and miles of pipe to deliver water.  At least 2 to 4 pumps are required to keep pressure and move water across the golf course.  These pumps can provide up to 2500 gallons per minute(GPM).  Main pumps are powered by 50-75 hp motors and most courses utilize a small pump called either a jockey or pressure maintenance pump.  These smaller pumps are powered by 5-25 hp motors.  The small pumps are there to maintain pressure on the irrigation lines and for low flow operations.  An example of low flow would be 1 or 2 irrigation heads running or multiple hoses being used.  Pump station output is usually 10 times the horsepower of all your motors combined in GPM. 

Little Bennett runs two 75hp main pumps and one 25hp jockey pump.  The pumps are 20 feet long and are located in a wet well inside the pump house.  The pumps draw water for the golf course from the irrigation pond on hole #10.  The station requires 460 volt 3-phase incoming power.  The system was designed with a pressure tank and regulating valve to deliver 1800 GPM at 125 psi.  There's a panel that controls motor/pump starts and stops and is run by a programmable logic controller(PLC).  The PLC controls the station by inputs that regulate when pumps turn on and off based on pressure and flow.  The tank is designed to build pressure on the upstream(between the pumps and the valve) side.  When pressure drops on the downstream(between the valve and outflow pipe to the golf course) side of the regulating valve(e.g., heads running on the golf course), the valve opens and allows pressure to equalize.  When pressure in the tank becomes equal to outflow pressure the valve opens completely and allows water to flow freely.  The PLC calls for a pump to turn on and it comes on at full speed for however long it takes to build pressure back up and sustain flow.  This is what is called a fixed-speed system and this is very energy inefficient. 

old pump station control cabinet with PLC

old pressure tank

We decided that it was time to upgrade our control capability and take advantage of new technology.  The jockey pump and regulating valve were worn out and not functioning well and there was concern of interior deterioration of the pressure tank.  We've had to adjust our effective output down to 1000 GPM to prevent the system from shutting down.  The pump station was faulting more often than it would run successfully due to high and low pressure situations and component failure inside the cabinet.  The control cabinet was also becoming obsolete and components were either very expensive or impossible to find. 

The best time of year to do any work to a pump station is late fall/early winter when the need for irrigation is minimal.  We knew that we would have no capability to pump water for at least 7 days once work was started.  Contractors were selected for this specialized work and work began the week after Thanksgiving.

The work to be done included demolishing the cabinet, valve, and tank.  It also included removing and replacing the jockey pump and motor.  A new control cabinet would be put in place and a new manifold and section of pipe would replace the tank and valve.  The new cabinet would contain two variable frequency drives(VFD) that control the motors and pumps.  The VFD regulates the amount of power supplied to the motor and only allows the pumps to turn at the speed required to deliver the amount of water that is needed.  This is very energy efficient.  Radio receivers would be installed at the pump house and maintenance shop so that we could view real time pump performance.  This would also allow the greens staff to view the pump station PLC screen at any time and from anywhere using remote log-in to the irrigation computer.  In the future the radio communication will allow us to integrate the pump with the irrigation control computer for truly optimized pump performance.

Here are the main project phases in pictures:

Demolition of the old tank

Demolition of valve and control cabinet

Ready for manifold

New manifold going in

Manifold attached and skid primed

Carefully moving the new control cabinet in the door

New cabinet in place on the skid

Crane setting up to remove old jockey pump and motor

Pump coming out through opening in the roof

New pump going in

New pump installed and skid freshly painted

new, state-of-the-art, control cabinet PLC interface

Installation of radio receiver at maintenance building

With the work now completed, we expect to have a much more efficient pumping system.  We should realize a significant reduction in energy usage and associated cost.  Since we have a better functioning station, we should be able to effectively run at a higher GPM than in the past.  This will shorten the amount of time that it takes to run irrigation programs.  High and low pressure faults will mostly be eliminated with the new control system.  Dangerous pressure swings will also be eliminated and that should lower the number of pipe breaks we face every year.  This is a crucial infrastructure upgrade that benefits the golf course but is not something our golfers would normally see!

Matt Burton

Golf Course Superintendent

Little Bennett Golf Course

Forward tee construction at Northwest

If you have played Northwest from the forward tees, then you know that some of the teeing areas are not level.  Since this golf course was not originally constructed with forward tees in mind, an area of rough mowed down to tee height and converted to perennial ryegrass has been the norm. .

Superintendent Chris Fernandes and his team have begun taking the most out-of-level teeing areas and building a proper tee box on holes 6, 9, and 18 so far.  And apparently it has been well received, indicated by the hugs he has received from some of our lady golfers there, who are thrilled at the new addition of these tees!

New tees were built closer to cart paths for easier accessibility and reduced turf wear.  Each area was built up with some good local topsoil, and graded to a fine level with hand rakes while using surveying equipment to ensure they are precisely correct.

Sod was stripped off the old tee box and transplanted to the new one, and the new tee boxes were well-rooted and ready for play in as little as one week!

Kudos to those guys for a great job, and some much appreciated work!

stripping sod off new tee location

staking out area to be levelled

a little hand raking after rough grade established

plate tamping the surface

Rough sod outlines the tee box; ready to be grassed!

New tee box ready to go!  This tee box was opened for play in 14 days after some quick rooting of the ryegrass and tall fescue sod.