Course Conditions on April 23

We have been lucky to have a few days with above normal day time highs which have really helped getting the grass to green up start to grow. We also have most of the irrigation going and that too has helped. Last fall and winter was a tough one on the irrigation system (especially the back) because of the lack of snow cover and how deep the frost went into the ground. I thought I would post some recent pictures to show how the place is greening up. We are still rough around the edges (bunkers need to cleaned and sand moved around, clean up from the fall still, etc., etc.) but as we bring seasonal staff online starting the first week in May it shouldn't take long to get caught up.

#17 Hole


#18 Green


#9 Green


#1 Green April 5

#1 Green April 21

We will play all 18 regulation greens for this weekend (April 23 and 24) and make a decision on what will be open for the following week but come May we plan to have all 18 in play for the season.

Paving

BA Blacktop has been at KGC for the past 2 days and finished their part in paving the cart paths. We had to close the front and back nines on different days to limited interference between the paving crew and the players. Each day the paving crew shows up on your door step it costs over $7000 so it was to the clubs advantage to make sure the pavers could work without any interference. Everyones understanding with the respect to inconveniences caused by the paving project is greatly appreciated and will be, hopefully, rewarded with a nice smooth ride!

Hot mix had to brought to the paver from staging areas since the tandems could not access areas within the golf course


Loaders travelled across certain areas on the fairways with the only real damage on #6 where there was severe rutting.


This just shows the amount of equipment needed to do even a tiny project like KGC just did


End result

You can go to www.kimberleygolfclub.com/news.html to understand how we chose which areas to core out and completely re-do versus "over paving". There remains numerous spot that still need repairing but it is probably wise to look at paving cart paths as an on going maintenance process versus a one shot deal as long as we are dealing with trees and their roots. Now that paving is complete the grounds crew will spend the season tying in the edges and cleaning up all the seemingly random piles of debris left all over the golf course.

New Irrigation for #1 Green

During the time that #1 green is out of play we decided to take advantage and update the irrigation heads and control. The irrigation system at KGC is a mish-mash of control systems and design logic. A quick and dirty explanation with respect to water distribution (i.e. pipes) is best said by the phrase "size matters". More of an explanation would make an uninteresting subject even more boring. The control system can be explained a little easier. A irrigation head is kept down by either the absence or presence of a stimulus which can be either electric (called a normally closed system) or hydraulic (called a normally open). KGC has hydraulic on the back and electric on both the front and back. Number one green is has electrically controlled heads but, because "size matters" and because of wiring the old heads could only operate in one particular orientation. What we are planning to do is increase the volume of water feeding the green by looping the pipe and increase control by adding new wire. The following pictures show the process, equipment, and supplies needed for such a project.

First we had to dig out the old heads and add new heads and pipe.


Sometimes you can push the limits of the pipes properties and give it an extra tweak to make a corner!

Adding extra heads means adding new wire too.


We pulled over 3000' of wire from #1 green back to the field controller on #3 tee


The resulting trench requires some clean up but not as much as a trench made by a chain trencher


Where we used a chain trencher we had to screen out the rocks when we back filled

New heads watering #1 green

When Do We Open?

There may be a belief that the only thing we wait for before opening the course for play is for the snow to melt and the ground to dry up. Most years this is true. In 2010 most of the course was free of snow by the end of the third week in March. This was more an indication of the general lack of snow cover not the warm weather. An important point to consider before opening the course (and certain greens) is soil temperature. In the fall when we get below freezing overnight there is considerable heat in the ground that allows roots the ability to keep growing and absorbing nutrients. In the spring soil temperatures need to reach temperatures near 10 degrees C or 50 degrees F in order for roots and most soil microbes to start functioning (maximum root growth occurs around 15 C or 60F). When cold fall and winter contribute to a deep frost it takes longer for the soil to warm up . Continual overnight lows of -8 to -2 such as what we've been experiencing make the warming of the soil a long drawn out process.

I have been taking soil temperatures over the past few weeks and have seen some dramatic reading between greens and even within a single green. For example, #17 is pretty much the sunniest and therefore the warmest green at KGC and last week (March 27) the soil temperature during mid day was close to 17 C (mid 60's F) at 1.5 inches. One of the coolest greens in the spring is #7 and last week it was 3 C (38F) at 1.5 inches. Number 9 had soil temperature readings of 10C (50F) at the back and 15C (60F) in the front.

I again went out on Friday, April 2 to check soil temperatures on #7 green. I took the following picture from the back of the green and the importance of soil temperature as it relates to greening up is fairly obvious. In the picture foreground (the back of #7 green) temperatures were 3C while at the front of the green temperatures were 7C.

The other important thing to note is that those temperatures were taken from a green that has been double tarped since we exposed it on March 16th. Tarps help turf by moderating the lows and by allowing the turf underneath to warm up during day to a higher temperature than if they were exposed to the air. We only have a limited number of tarps so most greens are openly exposed; as a result, the speed by which the soil warms on these green is more impacted by the overnight lows.

That was sort of a boring topic so I finish with to pictures that show difference between years. I started taking pictures yearly to compare the snow cover on a certain date and how that relates to when we open. The first picture was taken March 25, 2008. That year we opened 9 holes on April 27th and 18 on May 2nd. (I've misplaced the 2009 photo but opening was 9 holes on April 17th and all 18 on April 22nd). The other picture is this year on April 1st. Hopefully, 9 holes on .........

Spring 2008

Spring 2010