Looking Back and Comparing

As you can imagine, with the weather this winter I have not much to do on the course which is great because if I'm out there having to do something that means we've got a problem. Typically, I spend January reading and reviewing the previous years operations by looking at data we collected and then compare year over year.

When it comes to record keeping my motivation is to accumulate relevant information about KGC that I can use to make decisions to improve the upcoming year. Data entry and collection is time consuming so when I read how some guys are using online tools to collect and arrange data I started to do the same. I've been a user of Excel for decades but limitations in transferring files between computers made me look for an alternative. Enter Google Sheets.  It took some retraining and, initially I had to give up some options I depended on when using Excel, but I'm slowly making Sheets work. The one problem with changing and tweaking things is there can be a bit of a disconnect between data from other years so in presenting comparisons in this post I'm going to generalize a bit.

The biggest difference about the data for 2017 is I've included my hours and the mechanics hours spent on the course when we were performing tasks that in the past were normally covered by regular maintenance staff. Going with the adage a picture is worth a thousand words I'm going to post a few charts to look at:



I've done this before and the obvious take home message is the hours spent maintaining the course are trending down. I'm not too sure if everyone understands the scope of how much the hours between years differs so for the next two charts I will use the same data but I will use a different scale on the vertical axis:



The difference in the amount of time spent maintaining the course is more obvious. Now take a look at this chart:


 If we focus on 2015 to 2017 I can point out some interesting things. Certain members have been generously donating their time for quite a few years (go HERE) but we never had a formalized volunteer program until 2015 (go HERE).  Take out the hours the Greens Team contributes to the regular maintenance and you see how much the volunteers "free" labour contributes to grooming the course. It should seem obvious that volunteers are the only way I can keep certain maintenance tasks, such as hand mowing the greens, a regular part on the maintenance schedule here at KGC. Going one step further in collecting information in 2017 I began to track the hours myself and Neil L. spent on the course performing the basic daily maintenance that, in the past, was covered by seasonal staff. Combine mine and Neil L.'s hours together with the volunteer hours and subtract them from the total hours all turf staff worked in 2017 and you will get a number that will only be the total number of hours worked by seasonal employees. Comparing that number to hours collected in 2010 (remember that we had no volunteers and I wasn't tracking mine or the mechanics hours so the amount for 2010 is strictly the amount of time seasonal staff spent maintaining the course) and it reveals that we are spending close to 40% fewer hours in 2017 performing routine maintenance on the golf course as compared to 2010.

* As an aside, the blip in 2016 is the result of the early start we had (go HERE) that year *

Again, in general the staff is working less hours maintaining the course but I think the second chart example does a better job at making the point. I'm going keep beating that same old tired drum about smaller staff and fewer hours spent maintaining the course until everyone has a firm grasp our situation and realizes how unsustainable, as it relates to my department, this situation at KGC is becoming.

Not so Good News or Maybe Good News, Depends....

That was a really big wind last week! How big? Check it out:

7 foot Root Ball

That is the tree on the right #6 fairway that got in the way of a few drives.  Now when you stand on the tee you see this:

Tree is Gone..Take a Rip at it!

It's still a three shot hole, at least for me, but with that tree gone I'll be able to widen the fairway and make it a nice landing zone for the short hitters with the potential opportunity for a bit of roll.  From a selfish standpoint I am somewhat happy since that particular spot is one of the many nuisance spots on the front nine that I struggle to keep green.  That tree negatively impacted the throw of the nearby irrigation heads and because of its location it had a tendency to funnel traffic through one spot.  Poor irrigation coverage and lots of traffic are the perfect ingredients for wiping out turf and leaving bare ground.

Except for a small tree next to the maintenance shop no other trees seemed to have been knocked down by the wind.  The course is litter with branches and other detritus that will need to be removed before opening.  Keep your early April open since I'll be asking for help to get ready for the golf season.

"Since You're Gone"....

It's the last week of October and we are pretty much on schedule with all the preparations needed before the snow flies.  The awesome weather has allowed us on the course in good time each day with frost only being a problem over the past couple days.  This time of year frost usually sticks around until "noon-ish" which drags out most of the fall prep activities, especially the fall spray treatments.

Last weekend was the fall work bee (go HERE) with a nice turn out and even nicer weather.  With only a few trees to clean up (dead fir on 2 G, all the weedy poplars back of 14 G) a large number of people were able fill divots on 4,5,6,8,9,11,16,17, and 18 Fwys.  If you missed this work bee don't panic since I'm pretty sure there will be one in the spring.  They are such a huge help.

The crew completed a very minor irrigation expansion located between 6 and 8 greens.  This area is somewhat out of the way but because of inadequate coverage it shows moisture and heat stress early which easily creeps into the neighbouring surrounds on both 6 and 8 greens.  Ultimately, this expansion will continue onto 8 green where we will install irrigation for the surrounds as well as continue to the cart path on the right of 8 green.  I get to hear players complaints about how rough the ends of certain cart paths are and the one on 8 is probably the worst.  The concentrated traffic and no irrigation make more that difficult to keep turf established in that area.  I know from past experience that sodding the end of a cart path with no way to irrigate is guaranteed to fail.

In future posts I hope to cover some of the geeky tech things we do.  This will be the first installment. One of things I like to do is gather information about activities on the course.  This information gathering in relation to fertilizing and tracking pest/disease outbreaks allows us to create a data base which we often use as a reference.  There is numerous companies offering specialized software and devices for just what I describe but in our situation they are not a necessity and are too expensive.  However, as is my style, I'm always trying to cheap out and bastardize a "made in Kimberley" solution.  I started with aerial photographs with mylar overlays and felt pens but a pal gave me an old "I-thing" onto which I was able to download particular apps and now I can map fertilizer applications with GPS and upload to a site which stores the "track".  Go HERE to see the most recent fairway fertilizer (clicking the "satellite" toggle in the upper left corner of the picture gives a real life picture).  My hope is to use this more in the future to track all applications on the golf course that will easily viewed by all.

The Little Dutch Boy.....

I am running out of fingers to plug the all the holes that seem to be popping up all over the place!   There's been lots of good things (weather, successful volunteer work bee, staffing) I could comment on but its the problems that are keeping me busy and distracted.  Here's a brief summary of the what is happening out on the course:

• Winter Clean-up:  We are slowly getting all the tree litter cleaned and with the help from volunteers last Tuesday a majority of the front nine holes were raked.  The biggest problem for completing the clean-up has been breakdowns.  Aside from the tractors front wheel falling off (bearings and planetary gear issues and now, as of Friday, a starter problem) both of our large capacity sweepers have been experiencing issues (broken sweeper shaft on the old Jac and list of costly engine problems on the vacuum sweeper) and both have spent most of the time sitting waiting to be repaired or being repaired.  The nice weather has the rough growing and needing to be mowed but with all the debris still to be swept up we're only able to mow those areas with the least amount of tree litter scattered on the ground.
• Winter Damage and Temporary Greens:  We've had no time to address the winter damage on any of the greens.  Some only require a few hours of plugging to be 100% but others require substantially more work.  Plugging is time consuming and my staff has been spread thin attempting to keep up with the maintenance and routine preparation required once the course opened for play.  As a general rule, players have been very understanding but I still need people to be patient regarding #7 green.  This green is a temp not because I'm worried about how it putts but because I'm worried about how play will affect its recovery.  I've heard the comment "Oh 7 looks fine.  We've played on way worse!" but again its the growth not the play that's my concern (at least at this point in time).
• Staffing:  The early opening has forced my hand and I've had to start some staff sooner than normal but I am also attempting to stick as close as possible to the budget and have adjusted the level of maintenance down to match the staffing numbers.  I am regretting that choice already but we are having to spend more money on equipment repairs early this year and I attempting to be prudent in other expense areas where I feel I have some control.
• Out of Left Field Stuff:  Up until this week most of the surprises have been equipment related but if you've been following the saga at KGC breakdowns have been a typical occurrence over the last couple years.  The seriously major issue that is now on our plate happen just yesterday (Why does sh*t always seem to hit the fan on Friday?).  At one point Friday morning something occurred which tripped a fuse on our 3 phase power line that feeds the river pump house as well as the irrigation pump house at the pond on 16 tee.  Usually, its just a twig that has landed on the power line and crossed phases but this time after the overhead power company repaired the fuse we only had power restored to the river pump house and partial power to the irrigation pump house (FYI, KGC owns the above ground power lines that feed the irrigation system and when we have a problem BC Hydro will not fix it.  We have to call a private company to repair it and we pay through the nose!)  Initially, I thought the problem was a 3 phase monitor inside the irrigation pump house but an electrician was unable to pin point the problem and suspects there may be a transformer issue.  That's a $15 000  to $20 000 replacement, I think.  So again we needed to call the private power company but by this time it was Friday afternoon and no one was answering their phone.  We'll have to wait until Monday.  Until then we have no irrigation but luckily it is only April and a few days without water is feasible but if problem isn't easily solved we may be "in dutch" (full circle, I love doing that!)

That Was a Quick 31 Days

Over a month since a post.  July flew by and already I have to drive to work with the truck headlights on.

So whats been happening on the course?  Mostly good stuff with only a few typical "situations".  It's seems like old news but I'll comment on some small projects completed over the past couple months.  The new sponsor sign has been erected next to #1 tee and is filling up with the three levels of sponsors.  The construction side of the project was completed with volunteer member labour with the only costs being the materials for the structure and the printing of the signs.

Completed Sign With Sponsors

Another completed projected was the flowerbed redo at 4T that I mentioned in the last post.  By far the coolest thing about that project was the donations received from the members.  Alison W. got the ball rolling by donating her 50/50 prize from a Friday night social.  Soon the players from the Rose Bowl tournament voted to donate all unclaimed deuce pot money from their tournament.  A couple more 50/50's and from Ethel J. and Sue O. and all of a sudden it began to look like the "crowdfunding" idea had struck a cord with a certain group of people.  To date there has been over $400 contributed.  I basically used a portion of that money to plant the 4T flowerbed and buy the extra concrete caps needed to "finish" the project (finish is in quotes since I was unable to get the same colour and style cap to match the old style we salvaged so it looks a bit awkward)

Adding and Amending Root Zone

Mixing It Up

Finished Flower Bed

I was very excited and happy to see the response from my desperate plea at the AGM.  People either appreciate our situation or took pity on me.  Whatever the case may have been I was happy to have the cash to do a little something extra and I believe people are pleased with the result.  Is it too bold to ask for more?  Imagine, redoing a weak tee or adding extra tees to make the course more player friendly?  Maybe keep updating/renovating the existing flower beds?  If you've got a bee in your bonnet share it with me and maybe we can find proponents and who knows what can happen!

Getting "Schooled", Again!...Follow KGCtweets

Holy, I am still learning about Twitter.  You may be sick of how daft I am when it comes to this topic but this should be the last change.  A third party pointed out something with respect to Twitter and audiences.  I dare say none of you care about the minutia of growing grass and some other grass geeks most likely aren't interested in frost delays, aerating and top dressing days, or whatever I post as it relates to KGC.  Using the hashtag #KGC to identify posts particular to the golf course works but the tweets seems out of place when I post using my original username so I made a new one: KGCtweets.  Again, if you use Twitter you know what to do.  If you text all you need to do is send a text to 21212 and type Follow KGCtweets in the message body of your text to receive real time updates about the golf course.

Now, what's happening out on the course?  There are18 holes opening on Good Friday.  As usual, we won't be ready but any play in April is all about working out the kinks and renewing friendships.  All greens wintered well with no real problems and all will be in play.  The past couple years we've attempted a pre-opening aeration and top dressing and 2014 will be no different.  The biggest hurdle is completing the task while trying to clean up from winter.  Truthfully, we won't be done and you'll have to deal with the process until we are done.  Sorry.  As predicted, start up of the irrigation is a struggle.  We only just started the back on Tuesday this week and still the hydraulic lines on the driving range, hole 17, hole 15, hole 13, and hole 14 are frozen.  Without the control from the hydraulic lines to keep the sprinklers down we cannot pressure the pipes on these holes so, obviously, we are unable to water.  It may seem early, but with no real moisture this spring the greens have dried out and appear stressed.  It should be easy to get them back but we are at the mercy of our irrigation system.  Tank watering could be an option but without available equipment or staff it won't be happening this year.

This past Monday had the Annual Work Bee and as usual people really chipped in.  I would guess because of the day we picked, numbers were down a bit but those who showed up definitely did their part and I am grateful.  Pictures will be posted on the KGC website under the "Photo Gallery" tab so go check it out.

The only picture I want to show is this one:

Elk Tracks

For some strange reason the elk are still around.  They are a problem in the fall and are usually long gone by now but  #2 took a shellacking the other day.  The real interesting part is how the damage to the surface was the worst at the back left of the green and far less severe on the front right of the green.  Why?  Better root mass at the front is my theory.  That green doesn't have great roots to begin with but the front right of the green sees more sun and has somewhat more substance versus the left side which is weak looking and always shows disease stress first. That big fir and ponderosa are going, it just a case of when.

Annual Spring Photo and Twitter Re-visited (Revised)

(I used the wrong syntax for the directions describing how to use text messaging to access Twitter in the original post.  I've updated it now.)

1 Tee, April 2nd

One of my traditions is posting how things appear around April 1st so people can see how much snow is remaining (Go HERE for last years photo).  It's been a somewhat slow melt and as a result we are a bit behind last year.  Opening is still tentatively planned for April 18th and that may be possible but don't be surprised if winter pays us one more visit.

As usual, I suspect we will start with some version of a "9 hole" layout and open other holes as they are ready.  Right now the good news is we have very limited damage and all but one green (#14) are completely free of snow and some are even greening up.

Truthfully, number 2 green is a bit funky and my initial guess is its health relates more to how it entered the winter.  I became concerned last year with the unusual amount of growth (as measured by collecting clippings) experienced on all the greens last season.  My fear was the energy being directed to all the vertical growth (especially in the fall) was been fueled at the expense of CHO storage.  Compounded by the fact that #2 green (in the fall) becomes mostly shaded starting at noon I was concerned about the development of winter hardiness for this green.  I have it tarped and did some tree pruning (more will occur later in the season, I promise) to give it a bit of help.  As it stands now, if the green doesn't improve it will be a temporary until soil temperatures are adequate and we see some good growth.  It's not real bad but it's got a long season ahead of it so I may baby it for April.

Another developing tradition is the Member Spring Clean.  An e-mail will be sent out letting everyone know when to come and volunteer.  It really does help with preparing the course for opening and limiting early season expenses.  This year there is a few extra branches down due to all the snow so I am hopeful for a big turn out.

Back in December last year (go HERE) I decided to try and see how Twitter could work for me, you, and KGC.  What did I discover?  If you're not disciplined, it is a huge time waster!  However, I have found it useful in certain aspects so I've decided to try and emulate what other golf course geeks are doing.  The hardest thing is wading through all the posts.  Truthfully, that's only a problem if you decide to create or already have a Twitter account.  If you choose to just follow my feed with your cell phone via text message you will only receive "tweets" from me and no other persons feed.  How do you use your cell phone to follow my feed?  Assuming you text, all you need to do is type the number 21212 in the "To:" window and type "follow KGCtweets" in the message body of the text and then press "Send" and you're good.  When I send a tweet that relates to the club I will preface any message with #KGC.  Any time you receive a tweet from me that doesn't start with #KGC you can pretty much ignore it since the lack of the hash tag and the KGC mean I am posting on matters that don't specifically relate to the course.  Like I said before, I plan to use Twitter to inform in "real-time" the happenings at KGC such as when we will definitely open, frost delays, or days when we aren't allowing carts, or stuff like that.....I think.  I promise not post my opinion on topics outside of KGC, no pictures of empty beer bottles, and no photos of other local superintendents in compromising positions.....well I am not so sure about that last one, some of those guys need to be knock of their perch!  Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

Apologies and Brief Review

Obviously there has been no posts for months.  Other aspects have cut into the commitment it takes to update information about the "goings on" at KGC.  I'll quickly blow through what happened over the past few weeks.

The last post about the pine beetle was really the only big news or out of the ordinary news during the latter part of the season.  We found a couple more trees but their removal won't have a very big impact.  We sort of experimented with transplanting some small trees (tamaracks) this year and those appeared to have survived.  Bolstered a little bit by that very small victory we prepared some more small trees this fall for transplant next spring. 

The river worked out.  We had to do our usual grunt work making weirs and dams but really only around 70 man hours and one day with a backhoe and a vacuum truck kept at least one pump working (and the horrible wet weather in September helped out - irrigation wise, that is).  A big percentage of that 70 hours was spent cleaning out the sand from inside the wet well.  I believe the wear caused by the sand is our bigger problem in the long run and we need to find ways to mitigate it.

This was one of those years where my 9 old could have grown grass for you to play on.  We had a hard time keeping up with all the grass.  What makes that interesting is when you compare conditions to last year.  In 2012 the wet June carried us for a long time until about early August which was when the cracks started to show and the turf began burning out and things started looking haggard.  This year the weather helped conditions stay great all year.   Unfortunately, I know I will have an opportunity to lament about our 1980 irrigation system in the future but suffice to say that when there is no burned out areas between sprinklers improperly spaced at 110 feet (versus the specified maximum spacing of 90 feet) you know the weather is having an immensely positive impact on growing grass. 

With respect to the beetle infected trees we fell them once play was done and a work bee was organized to help clean up the branches.  Luckily we had the regular group of 25 or so members (who appear to make up the backbone of these events!) show up an clean all the debris left from falling the trees.  I am depending more on these types of work bees since they really help out and save money.  Keep next spring open!

There is more but I have all winter to cover other topics assuming there isn't a ton of powder days.

I bet you thought I forgot

I threaten way back at the beginning of the year to create a maintenance standard that outlines the course maintenance.  Obviously, it would be best to have it all done at once but this year (most years, it seems) has been tight on office time once the season got going.  I will place an evolving draft copy in the clubhouse next to the handicap computer for your reading pleasure.  Ideally, a standard would be developed by numerous individuals from a good cross section of golfing members, manager, and directors.  That is a lot of people to get together for a number of meetings.  Instead I used the online survey people filled out this spring as the bench mark for the basic maintenance practices.  I've furthered "fleshed" out the maintenance practices to provide information as a reference in the event there is a question regarding any of the maintenance.  Take a look and I'll tweak it as I get more done.

Golf course wise it's been a typical spring with disease, hydraulic leaks, snow, snapped axles, cracked frames, and lots of seed head on the greens and fairways (take a look at the right of #4 fairway by the big tree; there is so much seed head the grass hardly looks green!).  The mechanic has been swamped with our "new" used equipment starting to show some of why it was traded in not to mention all the sh*t he has to repair on our old stuff.  The only thing really working out, and I know I've said this before, is the staff.  Not having to train or baby sit opens me up to filling in on the course where we have man power gaps.

This month we will try to catch up on some of the stuff delayed for various reason (aerating  and top dressing collars and top dressing greens).  Extra ordinary projects we've undertaken (completing the #7 mini irrigation expansion and re-fencing the maintenance compound) have kept us busy as well.

Volunteer work this month will be highlighted on the deck and in the beds around the club house as all the plants and pots were planted by a group players on their own time.  Take a look.

Catch up

Finally some time (or so I thought) to catch up on the goings on at the club.  Obviously we are open and people are playing.  The original opening date for 9 holes (April 15th) was a flop weather wise but people managed to get some play in that week.  Opening 18 holes on April 22 isn't a record but if you go back and look at the posts for the last couple years it would be hard to dispute the fact that we are ahead of the game this year.

The biggest news for April is the huge amount of time put in by member volunteers.  People stepped up for the annual spring work bee and provided their time and energy to help get things ready for the season.

Raking Needles

Cleaning Up Trees

Group Repairing Holes in Netting

Cleaning out Flower Beds

Attempting to Finish 15 Tee

As documented by the pictures, this years volunteers tackled more than the just the traditional raking.

Weeks before the work bee some members donated their time, their expertise, and even materials to help repair and fix up some of the problem areas that needed immediate attention.

Dean P Working at Clubhouse

Kevin D and Dave W Repairing Half Way House Vandalism from Last Fall

Painting Benches

There is still lots of work being done by member volunteers even as regular play ramps up at KGC.  A group has taken on the task of painting many of the weathered looking accessories.  Sign posts, benches, fences and railings have been blitz by some of the same group pictured painting the deck tables.  Ted G. has also continued with his own pet project of painting yardage blocks on the tee's and fairways.

I can't find any reference to last years spring work bee in older blog posts.  That is a serious oversight on my behalf since they obviously bring so much benefit to the course and to me.  Aside from the from the actual work accomplished, I think the organized work bees and individual volunteer projects bring less tangible benefits such as fostering loyalty and commitment, creating the feeling of ownership/pride, and encouraging a sense of community and belonging.  I read somewhere that belonging is part of a hierarchy of human needs and people who are social live longer....O.K. maybe its a bit of a stretch to suggest volunteering at KGC will make you live longer but it can't hurt!