Course Notes, 10/30/2023

It was nice to see many of you enjoying 80’s in October, and trust me we all as a staff enjoyed working in it! Reality hit this past weekend, and deep freezes are forecasted for the majority of this week. This serves as a great reminder about frost/freeze delays and how it is important to use the Clubhouse Online app to check for push notifications regarding activity here at Elcona. If you want more info on why we delay during frosts/freezes and how damaging it can be if we don’t, I wrote a blog that you can read here.

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Wissco Irrigation began work replacing decoders last week, and has about 400 replaced as of today’s blog. Our staff has been busy changing our grounding and surge equipment, finding many bare wires that had corroded to the point of break down in the soil. These corroded wires and broken grounding rods do not always show themselves as an obvious issue right away, and are a main cause of the major decoder failures we have seen here at the club. Wissco will be here well into the month of November working on this project, so please continue to heed signage on what hole is closed for play so they (and our staff) can work safely. I appreciate your patience and cooperation while we continue this much needed course improvement!

While golf activity on the course begins to dwindle down, many jobs will need to be accomplished by our staff before the real cold air shuffles its way here. Leaf clean up consumes most of our time in the next 3 weeks. The native areas are currently being mown down for the year, herbicides are applied to take care of any weeds on the course, and other course features such as bunker rakes are pulled inside for the year. Another major job ahead for us is winterizing the irrigation system, which will take place November 6-8th. If you are out on the course these days, please heed caution as sprinklers are automatically turned on and off during this process.

The greens will have their annual deep tine aerification performed on November 13th-14th as well. These 1/2″ holes, penetrating the soil profile about 10″, create three advantages: additional channels for spring root growth, aid in relieving any deeper compaction within the rootzone soil profile, and extra drainage capabilities for ice/snow melt to prevent ice formation on the plant surfaces. The greens are rolled immediately after being aerified, and these holes do remain open throughout the winter for the above mentioned reasons.

We also have begun other activities that will maximize turf health and protection from the severe winters that can visit our area. For the greens, that entails the following:

Raising mower heights. The height of cut on greens has been slowly raised starting in early October, from the normal height of .110″ to .145″ currently. Raising height of cut allows more leaf surface for the turf to maximize their photosynthetic capabilities and carbohydrate storage. Raising height will also lessen stress to the plant and create a deeper root system going into winter. While raising heights may not create the speeds that summer brings, it is best for the long term health of the greens going into winter. Normal maintenance will be mowing as needed, while rolling on the other days.

Fertility and Plant Protectants. While we limit nutrients on finely maintained turf during the season to provide great playing conditions, the fall is the best time to feed the turf to maximize carbohydrate storage going into winter. The more carbs the plant stores, the quicker it will break dormancy when temperatures warm up in the spring. When the grass stops growing, a final granular fertilizer application will take place that will aid in spring green up and plant health. Winter can also bring the threat of snow mold to all varieties of turf on the golf course, and our sprayers will be out applying plant protectants to help prevent infection from those fungal diseases.

Topdressing. When growth has ceased for the year, we will apply a thick coating of sand topdressing to bury the crowns and as much leaf tissue as possible. This sand helps protect and insulate the crown of the plant from any extreme cold temperatures. This practice is very effective in protecting the turf from any potential ice damage and helps maintain a smooth surface when the course opens next year. This application will take place before the forecast calls for the first heavier snow.

If you have any questions, please reach out to me at ryan@elconacc.com. Thanks and enjoy the beautiful colors before they all come crashing down!

Ryan

Course Notes, 10/3/2023

The calendar has flipped over to October, but the weather forecast has been anything but these last few days. Even with this weekend’s dip in temperatures, there is still plenty of great days for you to come out and enjoy your golf course. Nothing like fall golf!

As a reminder, greens aerification will begin on October 10th, with the front 9 being closed. October 11th will have the back closed for play so we can aerify. If the weather cooperates, all 18 holes will be open on the 12th, when we will begin poking holes on fairways. Both greens and fairways will be aerified with 5/8″ solid tines, with sand added to greens holes, which is the same process we’ve used for the past 3 years, depicted in the video below. All aerification activities should be completed by October 20th. Please check with the golf shop each day you visit Elcona for the latest updates on our aerification schedule and facility availability.

Many of you have mentioned why we seem to not drain as well as we do in the springtime, or even why we do not drain as well as in the past. The answer to those questions are explained by total maintenance and golfer activities. While our sandy loam soils are a blessing to manage turf on and often allow us to reopen the course much earlier than other facilities after heavy rains, drainage rates still slow down as the season progresses, beginning from the day after Spring aerification takes place. Daily/weekly maintenance on playing surfaces creates traffic compaction, as does the foot and cart traffic from the 18,000 rounds of golf that are estimated to be played on the course this year. All of that wear and compaction, combined with the lower angle of the sun, increased rolling and expectation for firm/fast conditions, can “seal off” the playing surface and make water percolation rates much slower. This continues until fall aerification takes place, in which compaction is relieved and drainage rates increase with the addition of fresh sand in the surface below.

One project we have begun is the repairs to the settling that has occurred on the north end of the practice tee. For those who do not remember, this area was where a bunker and collection area for water were located prior to the bunker renovation of 2020. Since this area was filled and seeded, much settling has occurred in the last 3 years making this area sub-prime for a practice area. We have stripped the bentgrass area behind the main hitting tee, and will be raising the grade to that area back to where it was when the new tee was constructed. Bentgrass and bluegrass sod will be installed after grading has been completed, and this area should be ready for use beginning in 2024. I look forward to completing this within the next 2 weeks in between greens and fairway aerification.

Another project that will begin in mid to late October is a technology upgrade to our irrigation system. For years, we have battled countless shorts, ground faults, and lightning strikes to the irrigation infrastructure and buildings, and these issues have severely increased in frequency over the last couple of years. In 2023, there have been a few instances of over 400 sprinklers scheduled to run overnight and none actually did due to one decoder shorting out, causing an entire wire path to shut down. The useful life of these electrical components are 15 years, which is how old the system is (2008 was date of installation!). As decoders are replaced, more burn out and need replacement depending on the necessity of system usage.

In meeting with both the Golf/Greens Committee and the Board of Directors, a plan was developed and approved to replace all 1340 decoders on the property with ones designed with upgraded technology, replace much of the grounding system that has become compromised due to 15 years of electrical faults and lightning, and the pump controls, in which have also become obsolete and would be catastrophic to course conditions if they failed and prevented water from being pumped our of sprinklers in the first place! At the end of the day, all of these much needed upgrades will allow our staff to focus fine tuning the efficiency of the irrigation system, rather than repairing it so it runs. These upgrades will also allow us to troubleshoot any future electrical problem on a wire path within a matter of seconds, not hours as is the case currently. Wissco Irrigation has been selected as the contractor that will perform 90% of this work beginning in mid to late October, with our staff performing some of the work as well.

As always, if you have any questions, please reach out to me at ryan@elconacc.com. I look forward to sharing the progress of this and all other fall projects with you as the season winds down. I hope you have a great rest of your week, and I hope to see you all out on the golf course!

Ryan