Course Notes, 9/4/2021

August has come and gone, which means the kids are back in school in some fashion, football season has begun, and Club Championships have been contested. I would like to congratulate all of the winners from this year’s Men’s Invitational and club championships. It looks like we are also done with the “Dog Days” of summer. The golf course continues to look and play extremely well and is in prime condition for a great fall season for you to enjoy.

We as a staff have had quite a busy season so far, and As all of you are aware, finding quality and talented people to help an operation is a challenge in today’s environment, so while our staff has been smaller in numbers, I could not be more proud of their efforts this year and the product they have produced for you to enjoy. So a huge “Thank You/Muchas Gracias” to Adam, Steve, Ron, Bob, Paul, Harold, Larry, Migler, Andonis, Brooklynn, Issac, Ryan, Andy, Jenna, and Joe for all your hard work and dedication to Elcona this year!

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The golf course has made it through the summer in great condition, much in part due to the great efforts of our staff, but that does not mean the year has been all sunshine and rainbows. August brought excessive heat and humidity, and a fungal disease on fairways called brown patch. The higher the nighttime temperatures and humidity create a ripe environment for these pathogens to grow and infect turfgrass. We have treated all fairway turf with a fungicide and the weather forecast is more favorable for turf recovery in a week or so.

We are currently in prime re-seeding season, and many areas that have thinned out are being repaired after a long season, like the rough on the right side of 12. The picture above is not one of those images I enjoy seeing but can happen this time of year. This is damage left by a raccoon or skunk, forging for food. This time of year white grubs are close to the turf surface, and areas that are normally untreated, like this area near the woods on 16, provide areas for animals to dig in search of their next meal. Mole activity is increased this time of year as well, for the same reason: grubs are a source of food for them. We are treating these areas as needed to eliminate the food source so that damage to turf is minimized, and also will be seeding the damaged turf. These areas will be marked as ground under repair for the time being.

A new pest this year that has created issues for many farmers and turf professionals in Indiana is the fall armyworm. Normally a southern pest, entomologists are suggesting the moths that these worms adult as were swept up in the high level winds that were felt here from Hurricane Elsa’s landfall in late June, and were brought to the Midwest and Northeastern US where they have been foraging on our turf. We have had some damage from them in areas of the rough here at Elcona, especially if those areas were contaminated with bentgrass like the above picture right of 2 fairway. Any damaged areas will be or have been reseeded. We treat the rough near the fairways preventatively each year and so this pest has not been a major issue for us like other places. They do not overwinter in our climate, so I am not expecting them to be a major issue next year unless the same weather situation develops.

Other brown turf on the course is the result of an irrigation issue. While I do actually enjoy digging our beautiful sandy soil as a workout, most of the time it is to replace a decoder that has failed.  A decoder is like a mail box for the irrigation system.  Each of the over 1200 sprinklers on the property has a unique 5 digit address that is programmed into both a computer in my office and each decoder in the field.  When I want to run a sprinkler, the computer sends a 24 volt signal through the miles of wire below ground to find the specific sprinkler’s 5 digit address and turn it on.  The computer does the same to turn the sprinkler off.

Tree roots creating issues with a decoder connection

So why are these failing?  There are a few reasons why.  Our beautiful sandy soil can be difficult to make/keep a firm grounding connection, and can create a short in the system.  Lightning strikes can reek havoc on the electrical components, sending surges through the system.  I have also observed tree roots and ant colonies push open the grease packs that protect the wire connections, exposing the wires to drainage from rain and normal soil moisture that can cause a short.  As these issues are found, we repair them as soon as possible to prevent further damage to the components.

Our pollinator areas have continued to see a large increase in butterfly activity this year, especially Monarchs. The areas of milkweed you have noticed along the native areas are the Monarch’s main source of food and habitat for them to complete their life cycle on their migration from Mexico to Canada and back. Where appropriate, we will continue to provide habitat for pollinating insects while not impacting your experience on the golf course.

Lastly, I wanted to remind everyone that we are also starting our fall aerification schedule this month. Tees will be aerified September 7th, and we will be pulling cores during this closed day for the golf course. Greens will be aerified on October 7th and 8th, leaving one 9 closed each day. Fairway aerification will be performed the week of October 11th. All of these dates are of course, weather permitting. I will have more on these and other happenings in my next blog post later this month.

If you have any questons, please feel free to reach out to me at ryan@elconacc.com. Have a great and safe Labor Day weekend, and I hope to see you out on the golf course!

Ryan

Course Notes, 9/2/2018

The hose handle has had enough this year!

The calendar has turned to September, and with it brings yet another stretch of hot, humid weather to Elcona.  The turf on the golf course continues to handle all that Mother Nature throws at it, thanks to the well-draining soils Mr. Sims blessed the club with, as well as a strong agronomic plan executed by our staff.  As the picture to the left shows, our hoses have been well used this year!

A friendly reminder tee aerification will be performed on Tuesday, September 4th weather permitting.  We will be pulling 5/8″ cores, cleaning, and dragging the soil back into the holes.  The golf course will be closed all day Tuesday.

Small practice green repairs

The small practice green continues to heal from the traffic, disease, and mechanical stress it received during the year.  Much of the bentgrass seed that was planted germinated and filled in many of the smaller voids created.  However, we decided to sod and plug many of the larger voids to open the green back to play sooner.  We will be topdressing, feeding, and rolling it frequently over the next week, and my plan is that it is open and playable within the next week or so.  Thank you again for your cooperation in this regard.

Divot on 10 green

Another repair we have had over the last week or so has been a couple divots out of the greens, like this one on #10.  At the heat of the season, the turf’s rooting is at its weakest point and it does not take much force to take a chunk of turf out.  Even if they are placed back immediately (like everyone does on the fairways), divots on greens are much less likely to survive and recover due to the more extreme maintenance a green receives daily compared to a tee or fairway.  Please use caution on the greens with your clubs and help keep the playing surfaces smooth and playable for your fellow members that play after you.

Turfgrass nursery

Both of these repairs would be made more difficult without the large nursery of turfgrass I have at my disposal.  I am very thankful that my predecessors had the forward thinking to construct this area across CR 21 from the Maintenance Facility.  We have 2 greens height nurseries, one that is 90% bentgrass and the other that is more Poa annua than bent.  There is also a large fairway nursery, that we have used in recent construction projects like the widening of #14 fairway and construction of the forward tee on #2. All of these areas have different, newer varieties of bentgrass, which allows me the opportunity to gauge if one variety is more successful in our climate than the others.

Healed damage from 2016

Another cool feature of this nursery is learning from weather events in the past and testing new ways of managing turfgrass to improve our program on the golf course.  Whenever possible, the damaged turf we remove from the course gets placed back into the nursery to gauge if it will ever recover from the damage.  The picture on the left shows a large area of the nursery that was from the Pythium Root Rot damage many greens suffered in 2016.  It took over 15 months, but over 90% of the bentgrass (and Poa) recovered and is now reusable if needed on the course.  This nursery also allows us to volunteer areas for researchers to test new treatment options to again better our agronomic programs.  Currently there is a new trial we are working on with Purdue, seen below.

Current Purdue plots

 

Damaged sod from the small practice green back in the nursery

Finally, I have observed much Monarch activity in our milkweed areas on the course.  I wanted to share a couple pictures, including one of a caterpillar beginning its metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly.  I have posted about the importance of increasing habitat for the monarch butterfly, and it is cool to see the fruits of our labor.

Monarch caterpillar creating its cocoon

 

Monarch caterpillar enjoying a meal

If you have any questions, please reach out at ryan@elconacc.com.  Have a great week and I hope to see you out on the golf course!

Ryan

 

Course Notes, 6/24/2018

Pictures like the scene above are quite beautiful to see in the morning, and a major reason why I enjoy what I do for a living.  These scenes also have been very sparse the last 6 weeks!  Rain, rain and more rain has hampered the Elcona property to the tune of 13.61″ over that time frame.  Unfortunately these rains hamper our ability to stay on track with our maintenance schedules for both playing surfaces and bunkers.

 

Bunkers have received much repair work over that time, and we have removed over 12 5 gallon bucketfuls of rocks from these washouts.  Growth rates on all fine playing surfaces have been on the higher end as well as many of you have noticed.  The forecast looks to be drying out a bit for the upcoming 4th of July holiday however, and should allow us to get a better handle on growth and playing conditions.

When its been dry, the staff has been focusing on detail work in bunkers and cart paths.  Rock removal and moving sand back from where rains wash it away are critical components that are necessary to perform, more so the higher frequency of rain events we have here at Elcona.  We have also placed white dots to redefine areas where the edge between collar and green have gotten away from us.

Finally, I have been taking stock of all the newborns that are taking advantage of the property as their habitat.  There are 2 pair of ducks nesting on our ponds at 3 and 14, and their new set of ducklings should be arriving very soon.

A newborn fawn along the east end of the hiking trails. 

There are also 2 new groupings of turkeys, totaling 18 in all.  We have also see 2 fawn roaming the east side of the property and the hiking trails.

 

The new bee hotel west of 16 fairway.

Another key part of our Audubon program the last few years has been increasing habitat for our native pollinators.  Many of the native areas will be cut down in the next 2 weeks, but some areas of wildflowers will be left to serve as habitat for honeybees, mason bees, and other pollinating insects native to Elkhart County. One new addition to our pollinator areas has been a bee hotel, tucked into the woods edge west of 16 fairway.  This bee hotel serves as an area for native bees, such as the mason bee and the leaf cutter bee, to lay eggs and wall them off for development.  It will be interesting to see how popular this hotel becomes to the native population here at Elcona in the next couple of years.

A close up of the bee hotel.  Some of the smaller holes have been filled with mud already, a clue that a native bee has deposited an egg into the hole.  

Another plant that we will keep in areas is milkweed, which serves as the sole food source for Monarch butterflies.   Monarchs each year migrate over 3,000 miles, a journey that takes 4 generations of insects to complete and many areas of habitat to thrive.  The Monarch population has diminished by about 90% in the last 20 years, and by having areas of milkweed in our native areas that are not in play, we provide that additional habitat for continuation of their migration.  Audubon International has created a program, called Monarchs in the Rough, that commits resources to golf courses to create additional milkweed areas for the very cause that we have been doing here at Elcona for several years now.  Elcona is one of 250 golf courses nationally participating in Monarchs in the Rough, and you can read more about this program here.

A Monarch checking out milkweed north of #2 fairway.  

As always, if you have questions, please ask me when you see me on the golf course, or email me at ryan@elconacc.com.  Have a great week and I will see you out on the golf course!

Ryan