Dodging Bullets

In more way than one, this week has been full of near misses.  Although the weather has been dreary and not very conducive for golfing, we've actually lucked out with the rain.  On Tuesday, many parts of Madison were hit hard by the south-to-north moving thunderstorms, and the National Weather Service's official rainfall total was 1.36" for that day.  At the golf course, we only received 0.25".  So, while it certainly is wet out there, our normal maintenance has been largely unaffected, and the course is doing quite well.  It's spells like these that we're especially grateful to have well-drained soils, rolling topography, and cultural practices (especially the dreaded annual aerification) that keep the course surprisingly playable in times of wet weather.

Last night, we also apparently dodged another bullet when someone pulled a u-turn near the 16th green.  Had they decided to travel another 15 yards to the north, we would've had one ripped-up green on our hands.  With the course sitting between two heavily-travelled corridors of vehicle and pedestrian traffic, vandalism is an ever-present threat that we simply hope will never happen on a large scale.

In between dodging (the word of the post) rain drops, we were also able to complete a few small projects on the course, and I'll let the following pictures do the talking for these...

The perennial garden by the putting green has really filled-in over the last two years.  Yesterday, it was decluttered so that there is now some semblance of organization to the plantings.  Also, we added a bird bath, and I have to say that the birds will have quite the view when they're getting cleaned-up. 

The overgrown junipers that lined the left side of number 1 forward tee were removed this week.  Beneath them, we found a very nice rock wall (and a few golf balls from errant tee shots).  When we get an order of sod, we'll complete the transformation.



Course Happenings

With the arrival of our complete summer crew (who were profiled in the last Divot), the action has really been picking up on the golf course.  We've begun and finished several projects over the past couple of weeks, and if you've been on the course recently, I'm sure that you've noticed some of them.

The most striking change has been the transformation of the small wooded area between 9 green and 1 tee.  Over the years, the oaks, along with a black locust, that dominate the upper canopy of this area had become lost amongst a tangle of mulberries, honeysuckles, and buckthorns.  With the exception of a large mulberry that remains, we cleared the invasive understory plants, and I believe that it's a dramatic improvement. 

The before and after pictures really illustrate the changes between 9 green and 1 tee. 

Along with the invasive species removal, we've also stopped mowing the hillside and sprayed the weeds growing on it.  Over time, it should be a great looking native area, and we hope that you also like the change.

Last week, nine trees were planted around the course.  Shagbark hickories, red maples, and crabapples were the selected species for this planting.  Of special note is the shagbark hickory that was planted between 12 and 13 fairways (near 12 green).  This tree was donated by the Tilsen family in memory of Mr. Tilsen's father, Cy.  We certainly appreciate the donation and are sure that Cy's tree will be knocking down many errant shots in the years to come.

Our resident tree expert, Howard Kulke (on the left) and Angel Ramirez in the midst of planting the Tilsen memorial tree.

Yesterday, the repainting of one of our cold storage buildings and the bathroom by 2 green began.  The first step in the process was to waterblast the loose paint and debris from the surfaces, and if you're near the bathroom, you'll see that there was a lot of loose paint.  For the meantime, the bathroom looks even worse than normal and only one side is open.  Next week, it will be repainted (weather permitting) and fully opened.  The job has been contracted out to a company that specializes in painting metal buildings, which is why we aren't painting it immediately.  When it's done, it will look a whole lot better than the green paint that had seen much better days.

Finally, if you've been on the range lately, you may have noticed that the chipping green is covered in white dots.  These dots separate the different treatments of a trial that's being conducted by Dr. Jim Kerns (turfgrass pathologist) and Paul Koch (doctoral student and turfgrass diagnostician) of UW-Madison.  Once they share more details of the project, I'll be sure to pass them along.  Nearly every year, we host a UW-Madison turfgrass research trial, and the partnership that we have with the university is most definitely mutually beneficial.

First Week of June

 It certainly was a busy week on the golf course.  Although Memorial Day offered the golf course maintenance staff an afternoon free of work, the lost time made the remainder of the week a little crazy.  Besides the normal weekly mowing and course upkeep, we were also able to get some special projects completed this week.  As many of you have noticed, all of the annual flowers were installed on Tuesday through Thursday.  As I had alluded to in the May Divot, the flower beds will most definitely have a different look this year, and we believe that the much more intricate designs will be well-received.

On Tuesday, five pallets of sod also arrived, and we used it to improve a number of areas on the course.  Most of the sod was laid where a large silver maple was removed on the left side of 10 green.  This tree, and the extensive amount of cart traffic that traveled on both of its sides, made it impossible to maintain a stand of turf that would allow for fair shots.  Last week, on the same day that the aforementioned silver maple was removed, a large poplar that was between 11 and 12 was also taken down.  The poplar had a very large crack that made the tree a tremendous safety concern.  Getting back to the sod, we also spruced up the cart path surrounds by 13 green, 17 tee, and 18 tee, and in my opinion, this work has made the paths look almost like new.

As part of our Audubon environmental initiative, we've also recently created a few no-mow areas on the course.  These areas are located to the right of 3 forward tee, on either side of the cart path by 9 green, and on the left side of 16.  These areas were sprayed with a herbicide to kill the unsightly weeds, and we expect them to evolved over time.  The area by 9 green will take a new look when we remove the invasive buckthorn, honeysuckle, and box elder plants that have taken over the wooded areas on both sides of the cart path.  We removed some of the invasives a few weeks ago, but a broken chipper prevented us from getting very far.  In time, it is our hope that this area will take on the look of an oak savanna.

Today, we replaced some of the damaged turf areas near the center of 7 green with plugs from the back right perimeter of the green.  Hopefully, these will be the last of the plugs.  Although they are unsightly and occasionally slightly bumpy, the plugs that we installed in 7, 8, and 14 green have greatly enhanced recovery during the chilly spring (more on that later).  Due to the number of plugs that we knew would have to be done, we took the majority of them from the chipping green.  Unfortunately, the many different colors and compositions of creeping bentgrass and Poa annua that populate our greens make these plugs stand out, but they will blend in over time.  If you look at the ugly plugs that line much of the chipping green, we hope that you'll agree that the mismatched plugs on 7, 8, and 14 look a whole lot better than the alternative.

Returning to talk of the frigid spring (ironically on a 90+ degree day), Chad and I received an email from Dr. Doug Soldat, who's a Soil Science professor at UW-Madison.  His email contained the graphs that I've copied below, and the data that was collected at the Arlington, WI agricultural research station really illustrates the the growing degree day lag that's been discussed in prior posts.  Of course, after today's heat, I'm just about ready for some cooler weather...

Please note that the graphs will only show up when using the Firefox browser, and they'll be a red "x" in Internet Explorer.  Sorry for the inconvenience, but I'm not tech savvy enough to correct the problem.

Although they may be difficult to read, these graphs show the normal growing degree units (the solid blue line), along with years that have had significant deviations (both high and low) over the past 30 years.  2011 is represented by the black dashed line.