Chickens Coming Home to Roost.

As a general rule the season has been fairly mundane on my end with not very much to comment on.  We are well into the golf season and past all the negative comments regarding green speed and now into the judgment calls regarding unfair pin locations because of green speed....ironic.  There's probably a post lurking in that statement but that would make me proactive; obviously not the case this year.

A good thing as of late definitely relates to staff.  Aside from my core group of 4 guys, the Greens Team group composed of member volunteers has been a huge help in getting the course into summer condition.   Randy K. developed and fleshed out the idea last year and has been the driving force this year (go HERE) in recruiting and organizing.  I'll try to demonstrate how much those guys are helping out.  The daily basic maintenance at KGC is as follows:

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Holes	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Greens	1	1	4	3	3	3	3
Fwys	1	1	1		1	1
Rough	1	1	1		1	1	1
T/C	0.5			0.5	1
Roller	1	1	1	1		1	1
Bunkers	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
3100	1		1		1
Blower	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Spray/fert					1
Top Dress				1
Total Staff/day	8.5	7	11	7.5	11	9	8

If you read the chart vertically you will see how many staff members each task needs with a total amount of staff for each day at the bottom of the chart.  For example, on a typical Monday I need one person to change holes, one person to mow greens, one person to mow fairway, etc, etc, for a total of 7 staff.  Any day with a number greater than one means multiple staff performing that task.  Again, for example, I need only one person on Monday to mow greens since we are using the triplex but on Tuesday we are double cutting greens with the walk mowers so I need 4 staff.

The next chart identifies the people I've hired:

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Mr. Scott	4	7	7	7	7
Garry	4	7	7	7	7
Neil			7	7	7	7	4
Liver			7	7	7	7	4
Horticulture			"7	"7	"7	"7	"4
Kenny L	4			4		7	4
Jim E					7	4	4
F/T Stud -			"7	"7	"7	"7	"4
P/T Stud- Brock	4	7	4
Chantal	4
Peter L			4	4
David Mc	4	7	7
Darcy C					7	4	4
Ricky			4	4
Rick B				4		4	4
	6	4	8	8	6	6	6
	2.5	3	3	-0.5	5	3	2

More complicated to read but the take home point relates to the very bottom line.  Those numbers represent the difference between the required people needed to maintain the course vs the staff actually working at KGC.  So on typical Monday, again, I need according the first chart 8.5 people but according to the second chart I only have 6 staff working which means something isn't getting done.  Throw in an irrigation break, extra work either from projects or extraordinary maintenance and even less of the routine maintenance won't be getting done.

I was unable to fill two position (the Horticulture and Full-time student) with suitable people which exasperated the situation.  Luckily, 7 members showed up for training and are helping to make up the deficit staff wise

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Mr. Scott	4	7	7	7	7
Garry	4	7	7	7	7
Neil			7	7	7	7	4
Liver			7	7	7	7	4
Horticulture			"7	"7	"7	"7	"4
Kenny L	4			4		7	4
Jim E					7	4	4
F/T Stud -			"7	"7	"7	"7	"4
P/T Stud- Brock	4	7	4
Chantal	4
GreensTream			4	4	4	4
GreensTream			4		4
GreensTream					4
Darcy C					7	4	4
Peter L			4	4
David Mc	4	7	7
Ricky			4	4
Rick B				4		4	4
	6	4	10	9	9	7	6
	2.5	3	1	-1.5	2	2	2

If I take that second chart and add in the Greens Team to create a new chart, now Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday look a bit better; especially Wednesday. When there is a negative number highlighted in green it means I have extra staff for that day!!

The real point of describing how staffing relates to the present level of maintenance is my backhanded way of explaining why some routine or typical maintenance practices are being ignored or only partially attempted.  Even with 7 volunteers we still have too few people to maintain the course at a level that players may have enjoyed in the past.  Third party comments have left me with the impression that some of the more vocal members are disappointed with the existing course presentation. If you happen to be privy to any one persons rant please direct them to this particular post, or better yet directly to me since I can best explain the reason why particular situation may or may not exist as it relates to maintenance at KGC.

Going Green

 This is an old post from a few weeks ago I just never got out.  Even though it is old news, I kept the topic the same.

 With one complete week under our belt there is still plenty that needs to be done to be in officially an "open" status.  Mostly, we have to put up tee signs and continue to put out the accessories such as ball washers, foot scubs, trash receptacles, and various traffic directional items.  I've stuck to my guns and tried limit how many staff I call in before they are budgeted since I've already had to call in my core group 2 weeks earlier than normal.  The goods news is more staff are starting and by the May 1st week we will have a full compliment; the most staff we've had in years.  There will be the usual malfunctions and training mistakes but hopefully we'll be 100% operational very early on in May.

A very small and recent change brought about on the golf course is the changing of the the RED tee markers to GREEN tee markers on the forward tee decks.  With programs like "Tee It Forward" (GO TO HERE for an explanation) being promoted as a way to improve a players enjoyment of the game, a simple change like painting tee markers a new, less stigmatized colour  is a small first step in encouraging players to hit from a teeing area best suited to their game.  Overtime it is my hope we begin a program of adding more forward tee decks to encourage family play as well as give visiting players the option to choose from a wider selection of tees.  There is potential to lengthen some holes as well but that can be tricky since adding a tee farther back to make a hole play longer doesn't necessarily make it better and can sometimes appear gimmicky. That being said, you can't just plunk a set of forward tees without a bit of planning either so any new tees need to be carefully planned with an eye to the future.

Plug It!

We are up and running on 18 as of Friday, Apr. 16th and it's early season conditions but still tolerable.  The time spent on the front greens paid off with over 1000 plugs used to repair winter damage (tried to do a minimum of 50 a day since the middle of March).  Tarps were on and off up until the end of last week and the protection they provided helped greatly in giving the greens the needed kick in the *ss.

#4 Green. Sorry for Picture Quality. Maybe its all the shade!!!!

The unfortunate trade off was neglect on the back greens which came through 90% but were set back but an ill timed mowing and lack of water.

#15 Green. Looks icky but its coming along

I'll need to pound the water and I would love to tarp them but that would mean they'd be out of play.  I'm not sure but I think I may mess with strategic tarping throughout the week days just to speed/protect their recovery.

We have been able to aerate the healthy greens and top dress them but the will have to hold off on the back ones until they are happier.  The timing is completely wrong and recovery will be very slow.  Even though the ambient temperature is generally above normal this year you have to remember the sun is still in the earlier spring horizon and the type of light (amount and quality) and warm temperatures are short lived during the day.  An early spring aeration is my selfish way of performing a necessary operation at a time of year when people are slightly more tolerant of rough conditions on the greens.  This early in the year I believe most players are just glad to have something to do during the day than stay at home and watch daytime T.V.!

Everyday I'm Shufflin', Shufflin'....

First of all I'll keep with tradition and post the 2016 April 1st-ish photo:

 

April 2, 2016

Go to HERE and HERE for pictures from other years for comparison.  Looks like I missed last year but I'm pretty sure we're ahead by a minimum of 2 weeks. I've mowed and fertilized front 9 green two times already; for March, that's a first.

As mentioned in previous post we had disease on some of the greens again.  You can go to HERE to see a post from last year that provides an explanation of the disease.  As usual I'm looking at the reason but I'm still trying to look for a trend.

The great weather has sped the recovery and combined with tarps the soil temperatures are in the +12 range (at about 2 inches) which has resulted in this:

Looks Good From Afar....

Greens that I haven't covered are off color but are still growing, albeit slowly:

No Fake Green Colour Here!

Again, the nice weather is great for the turf but will screw up my wage budget as I'm having bring in staff 10 to 14 days sooner than I planned.  Hopefully, that can be offset with more play/revenue?

With just myself and Neil L. at work, the past month has been busy with pulling tarps, moving tarps, and re-tarping. Each day I'm here I try to do 50 plugs on the greens to repair the winter damage.  As long as I don't stop for a smoke and a pancake that only takes me about an hour.  The rest of the day seem to be spent messing with tarps (I keep mentioning tarps because they really are that time consuming!) or dealing with the random issues that pop up such as knitting together the driving range net, tree removal, or what have you.  Maybe the next post I'll try and get down and dirty with what happened this winter.

Not Exactly Routine

Previous to last week I was trying to get a few unusual tasks out of my hair so I could focus on more traditional spring maintenance. With winter winding down we needed to get a pumper truck and rubber tire back hoe out on the course before the ground got too soft from all the melting snow. Back in the beginning of February I ploughed a road to the restroom on #7 as well as to the snack shack. With the ground being unfrozen under the snow this year I needed to expose areas so they could freeze and handle the weight of the equipment I needed to bring on the golf course

Driver weaving the "Honey Wagon" through the trees

All restrooms located on the golf course are on septic and of the 3 tanks only one had been pumped in my time there.

Sucking out the tank

During the process we discovered a problem in one of the tanks.  A root ball had grown inside the tank at the snack shack and had broken off.  Potentially, the "floater" could plug the inlet or discharge side of the tank so we made the choice to dig up the septic tank lid and remove the root ball (it was too big to fit through the access port).

Betcha' didn't know that is where the septic is!

Goo and Root

Removing root ball...carefully!

The snow was too deep to get to #12 but with cart paths on either side of that particular restroom we should be able pump out that septic most any time.  That same week we began limbing the tree that blew over on 6 fwy and I cut off the root ball had a back hoe come in and haul it off the course.

Knocking of excess before hauling it away

By the end of week we'd finished most of the bull work with minimal disruption from either the pumper truck or either back hoes and I began to remove snow off #7 and #15 greens. I needed to knock down the snow on #15 with black sand to make removing the snow more manageable. It's still a work in progress but I was able to clear #7 and remove the tarp. Much to my dismay there was disease under tarp, again! It's no where near as bad as last year but it's far from perfect. The worst part is as I began to see other greens open up I saw more signs of disease so I've spent the last 5 days removing snow from all greens in a hope to lessen the severity of the disease. I'll keep you informed once I get all greens cleared and things dry out.

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.

Pretty Plain Jane.....

This January, like most January's, was a drawn out affair that bumbled by while I putzed around the shop, the course, the internet, and my computer.   Golf course wise things appear to be O.K.  We have as much as 18" snow in some areas and very little in some of the treed areas.  The little stint of warm weather and small amount of rain has had no impact on the green surfaces since most have plenty of snow.  I would hazard a guess that winter ice wise we are out of the woods and can now start wringing our hands over what type of spring melt we will get.

Like always I spent most of January planning out the year.  Decisions are based on past successes and failures and 2015 saw, IMO, more successes than failures.  For the most part, successes as of late are defined as decreasing costs with limited negative impact on course presentation.  One of last years successes related to fertilizer.  Turf nutrition is the one of the larger line items on our budget with just over $5000 spent on fertilizing greens alone this past year.  Sounds like lots but take a look at this:

The points on the blue line show we've spent less on fertilizer for the greens each year over the past three years.  To be fair that has been the trend for a while now but nothing as dramatic as seen in the last 3 years.  With turf nutrition there is always new information being made available and it's up to each person to wade through the information and decide its value.  Over the last couple years I've been reading lots about a style of turf nutrition call Minimum Level for Sustainable Nutrition (MLSN).  Explanation of MLSN requires its own post but for this post I'll gloss over the details and attempt to relay the gist of it.  MLSN is a type of soil analysis that identifies quantities of nutrients within a soil and then estimates the amount needed to be applied via fertilizer to maintain nutrients at or near a minimum level for healthy turf based on the amount of nitrogen applied throughout a growing season.  

I sent away soil samples last year and the recommendations that came back found our soils were not lacking in any of the required nutrients for growing turf.  So all I needed to add was nitrogen to allow for uptake of existing soil nutrients and to maintain healthy turf.  With respect to the greens, I did not jump in with both feet but I was still fairly true to the MLSN theory and guidelines.  Nutrition for the tees, however, was based 100% MLSN.  I guess conditions this spring could either push me farther done the MLSN road or make me regret the whole idea.  As always, stay tuned.