Greens Renovation Information

I will provide information on the FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions) for the Greens Renovation. I will update this list as we progress through the year. Keep checking the blog for new information or questions regarding the conversion. Also, if you have a question you want answered email or post in the comments section and I will try my best to provide an answer.

AND OFF WE GO.....

Right now a lot of the information with be basic knowledge of the new variety of grass we will be planting in June. Mini Verde is a type of UltraDwarf Bermuda grass, the reason we chose Mini Verde over other types of UltraDwarf Bermuda grass (Champion or TifEagle) is for its Agronomic benefits.

1. MiniVerde® Bermuda grass variety 'P-18' has been the number one rated Ultra Dwarf in trials in the United States and Australia. Years of independent research has proven that.
2. Ultra Dwarfs MiniVerde® Bermuda grass variety 'P-18' requires less cultural practices which include verticutting and topdressing.
3. Putting green speeds can be easily maintained between 10 and 12 on a Stimpmeter.
4. MiniVerde® Bermuda grass variety 'P-18' can handle foot traffic better than all other Ultra Dwarf varieties and its recovery from injury is outstanding

FAQ

Why are we converting the greens, anyways?

Currently, St Ives has Crenshaw bentgrass on the putting surface (greens). Bent grass is a cool season turf that thrives in temperatures that range from 50F-75F. Since Atlanta is in the Transition Zone, Superintendents, have been able to "fool" bent grass that it is in an optimal environment. This would include syringing, fans, subsurface cooling systems and around the clock baby sitting. UltraDwarf bermuda grasses are a warm season turfgrass which thrives in tempatures that range from 75F-90+F. St Ives does the majority of play in the Spring, Summer and Fall and Mini Verde will allow the club to provide the membership with the highest quality putting surface available during our peak usage months.

How many times a year will you "Punch" the greens?

The Maintenance Staff will Aerify the greens 1 time per year, this will be an aggressive punch that will consist of Aerifing 2 directions and Verticutting 2 directions. The recovery time will be 10-17 days, depending on the weather. There will also be weekly groomings and topdressings that will be non disruptive to play (ball roll).

I heard you never have to water the greens again! (I know it is not a question)

I wish!!!

MiniVerde is still a turfgrass plant and the turfgrass plants are 85% water no matter what species. However, MiniVerde is adapted to warmer climates and its wilting (death) point occurs at much higher temperatures. In order to maintain really good greens, whether cool season or warm season, a lot depends on water management. We will keep the greens on the firm side, so therefore we will still have to do hand watering daily (before play) and run the overhead irrigation 3-4 times per week. We will eliminate hand watering (wilt watching) in the afternoons during play, which should enhance your round.

What are you going to do with all those beautiful and quiet fans?

We will be removing the fans and selling them to courses in the South East that still manage Bent grass greens. They are not cheap and are in demand this will help us offset our cost for the renovation.

Ryegrass Fertilizer

The maintenance staff is spraying fertilizer on the driving range tees and targets. When the temperatures drop the grass plants do not take up a lot of nutrients via the soil. To get a growth response from the turf we spray with a foliar application. This will ensure quick absorbtion of nutrients. 

Lake Aerification

    

    If you are like me you have expected to see this guy swim out of the pond on #11 or #15. After numerous herbicide applications with minimal control of water meal and algae, we did extensive research on Lake Aerification units and the golf/grounds committee decided to install lake aerifiers.

   

     A good aeration system is designed to operate 24 hours a day, and 365 days a year. Older established ponds can have excessive amounts of decaying organic material that release toxic gases. These gases are detrimental to the health of your pond and fish by depleting the oxygen level in the water. These gases also produce an environment of oxygen starved water that insects and algae can thrive in. Aeration systems will eliminate thermal stratification and turnovers in the lake providing oxygen throughout the water column. By providing oxygen in the lower water column you will also provide oxygen to beneficial bacteria. These bacteria help decompose organic matter on the lake bottom. Keeping the water circulated will help deter algae growth by lowering the nutrient levels. Additionally, water meal and duck weed do not thrive in moving water.

Renovated walk path to #14 green

The maintenance staff did a small renovation project to the walk path between #14 green and #15 tee box. It turned out better than expected. I hope everyone enjoys the new look.

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Bunker Maintenance

There will be green flags in the bunkers marking areas that need extra work. These are marked so we can come back and spend additional time in these areas. Please bear with the staff as this will be a work in progress.

St Ives Garden

Over the last two weeks the Agronomy Team has built 6 raised garden beds for the kitchen. I know I am waiting to see what delicious treats Chef has in store.......

Photos (excuse the quality taken from phone)

Greens are back from Aerification

October has brought great weather and the greens have fully recovered from Septembers Aerification. The Agronomy Team has really started to grind on green speed over the last 2 weeks and our goal is to have them rolling around 11 or 12 on the stimpmeter daily. I hope everyone has found sometime to get out and enjoy the great weather.  

#17 Green

(This is a current picture of the 17th green on Sept 17th. It is amazing what a few well timed fertilizer applications and cooler weather will do for bent grass. It almost makes me look smart. There was a lot of plugs and sod added too.)

(Picture taken 17 days later)

The green on Hole #17 looks awful and I want to apologize for it appearance. I believe we had a couple of issues working against us:

1. We finished the topdressing/aerification in the rain on the Tuesday of last week. In doing so the sand was wet and did not “fall” into the holes, instead it matted, smeared and bruised the greens. The edges look worse because the week prior they were punched, sanded and brushed, so this second round caused even more damage.
2. Dealing with the wet sand we had a few spots accumulate a thicker layer of sand, which caused the turf underneath to not receive any sunlight (think about a tee box when the tee marker is not moved) for a day or two.
3. The crew sent to disperse this layering used brooms instead of blowers (this is my fault for lack of communication/follow up) and therefore smeared wet sand into the canopy. In turn defoliating any viable turf left in theses spots
4. The weather had also returned to normal August “heat and humidity” for the last 7-10 days. We have had many days with upwards of 70% humidity and little to no sun. The bentgrass has not had the ability to use the sunshine to produce the necessary energy (chlorophyll) to grow out of the damage.

The good news is that we have increased our fertilizer inputs, started plugging out bad spots, have some 70/50 degree days and nights with sunshine in the short term forecast. It already looks better today than it did on Monday. It sickens me to have to write another email dealing with greens issues and I can promise we will get this back on track.   

Please feel free to contact me at anytime and share with the membership.

Faliure to update Blog......

I want to apologize for not keeping the Blog updated on a regular basis. The summer is a crazy time for a Superintendent and I don't find myself with a lot of time in front of the computer. I am attaching a few pictures below of some of the things the maintenance department has been working on. Enjoy!!!

We built a "Ball Drop Area" on Hole  #11 for the ladies out of Zeon Zoysia. So now you will have a level area and the same turf conditions as the tee boxes.

 Aerification started August 27th. We used 3/4 inch tines on a 2x1.5x4.25 spacing/depth. I am amazed at how quickly they are healing within 9 days we have 60-70% closure.

 The Driving Range Tees were over seeded with P. Rye grass @ 900 lbs/A. This should produce a great turf stand and look for winter play.

 Medalist Golf is on property doing some renovation work on holes #1 and driving range. Hole #1 had a 36 inch drainage line collapse.

 Last year the 3 pines near the Driving Range tee were struck by lighting. After they were removed the azalea's began to suffer. In this area we also had a drainage issue which needed work, since Medalist was already working on hole #1 they are making the repair up top for materials. I believe you will enjoy the new look when it is finished.

RIP Pip

Membership: 

Pip had started chemotherapy 5 weeks ago and it was ineffective in reducing the Lymphoma. Prior to chemo, Pip was on a high dosage of Predinsone, as soon as, the Predinsone treatment was over she declined rapidly within a few days (weight loss, difficulty breathing, lethargic, appetite loss, vomiting, and diarrhea). On Sunday night, Kevin took her to the emergency vet because she had extremely labored breathing. The vet proceeded to drain a half of a liter of fluid from her lungs. However, Monday night she again had shallow/labored breathing, lethargic and seemed to be in pain. Kevin and I made the decision in the best interest of PIP to ease her pain and suffering. It was not an easy decision but if she was my dog (which she was in a way) I would have made the same decision.  Her are a few pictures of Pip enjoying a "Dog's Life"!

Fertilizer + Rain =

Hole #9:

It is amazing what fertilizer and rain do to a golf course. The maintenance staff has done a tremendous job over the last couple of weeks keeping the golf course in great shape, I hope the membership is enjoying the conditions.

Bailing Hay.

This is what happens when you apply 1 lb nitrogen/1000ft2 a week before 7+ inches of rain. This is our 1st time mowing fairways since last Tuesday. There will be a lot of clippings and the cut will look bad until we can mow them a few times. Don't worry, this is normal, by the end of the week they will look perfect. 

18 Consecutive Days Above 90!!

18 Consecutive Days Above 90!  Including 3 days above 104.


The greens are holding up okay to this point. We are seeing some general thinning on high traffic areas, which is expected. We will plug these areas out with grass from our bentgrass nursery green. Hopefully, we will see the day time temps fall below 90 degrees this week. The greens will need the break.

HEAT WAVE!!

I apologize for not having more posts over the last few months.  It coincides with what is happening on the golf course. We seemed to have made it through the latest heat wave (104,105,104) fairly well, now we need some rainfall and cooler temps to help the greens recover from the beating they took from the heat. We applied a fertilizer package this morning to the greens to give them a little food to help with recovery.

It looks like we will continue to have temperatures in the mid to low 90's for at least the next 10 days.

DryJect

We started the DryJect on Tuesday because the rain shut us down on Monday. It took 2 full day to complete the job but overall it was a success. We have a few areas that got damaged but nothing a few plugs can't fix. The sand gets blasted into the green at 5000 PSI and creates new channels for roots. It also shatters the soil to break up any compaction or hard-pan layers. The holes will heal quickly and you have probably noticed it is not that disruptive to play.

Summer Venting

Fernando Plata is using the ProCore to vent the greens in preparation of the stresses of summer. Venting is punching small holes into the turf canopy to allow for gas exchange, water infiltration and new channels for root growth. These small holes are non disruptive and will be gone in 2 days. One of the changes in our Maintenance Plan this year will be to incorporate this practice throughout the summer. Let me know if you have any questions 

Kevin Dunn

 

 

 

 

 

 

My name is Kevin Dunn. I grew up in Macon, GA and graduated from ABAC in Tifton, GA. I have been working in the golf industry for 10 years. I have previously worked at Reynolds' Plantation, The Landings Course and Oconee where I did a valuable internship. The last 2.5 years have been spent at Indian Hills Country Club in Marietta, GA. I have enjoyed the experiences and learning opportunities from each course that I've worked and look forward to the new challenges/opportunities that await.  

 

I look forward to seeing you on the golf course: jdunn@valleycrest.com

 

Kevin Dunn, AGCS

Native Grasses

The Maintenance Team is in the process of converting landscape beds to natural areas. A natural area will consist of a couple of native grass species (Fine Fescues, Chewings Fescue and Lovegrass). This will not only allow us to save the club money on pinestraw installation, it will also add a few extra benefits to the course. Once these areas are established they add texture and definition to the course, as well as, providing erosion control and a buffer for the creeks and streams that run through the course. The key to these areas is PATIENCE, think, Year 1 (sleeps), Year 2 (creeps) and Year 3 (leaps). Weed control and reseeding will be necessary to establish and maintain these areas. These areas will look spotty and thin, however, once established will provide a great texture and contrast in addition to being environmentally friendly.

Wall to Wall fertilizer application.

On Monday we applied the first wall to wall fertilzer application of the year. This truck can fertilize the entire course in UNDER 4 hours. It would take my staff over 2 weeks to accomplish this same task. By utilizing this truck we can have the course done in one day and not disturb play. The early summer time temperatures have really greened up the course and this fertilzer application will help with the density of fairway/roughs/tees and surrounds. 

Light Dusting of Sand

We applied another dusting of sand this morning to put one of the final touches on Aerification. This topdressing application will help smooth out the greens. The greens should be nice for the week of "The Masters". We will apply our PGR(Plant Growth Regulator) on the greens this week as well. This product will force the plant to grow laterally instead of vertically, allowing us to gain more uniformity and speed, while reducing the amount of clippings collected. It also relocates the plants energy to the roots, which is a great benefit this time of year. 

Entry-Exit Posts

We have installed new "Entry and Exit" posts throughout the golf course. Please enter the hole THROUGH the posts at the beginning of fairway and exit THROUGH the set of posts at the end of the fairway. There are 2 sets of posts on all holes (except Par 3's and hole #12). 

Day 14

 They are really starting to close up but they are still bumpy. I am planning on putting down a light topdressing around Day 21, which should help smooth them out a little. 

Fairway Fertilizer

Here is Gilberto throwing down our 1st fertilizer application of the season. We are using a rate of 3/4 lb of Nitrogen per 1000 ft2. Studies show that bermuda grass is active when soil temperatures are 65 degrees at a 4 inch depth. During this record breaking March weather, we are already seeing these soil temperatures.  

When lighting strikes!

 During the thunderstorm last night we had a lighting strike off the right hand side of the 1st hole.

 The lighting hit this pinetree and then traveled underground for about 30 feet. It was attracted to an irrigation wire that was next to one of our irrigation lines.

You can see what happens when lighting hits a PVC pipe. This is just another reminder; do not continue to play golf when lighting is in the area. 

Day 11

Day 11 (March 16th)

Day 7

Here is a photo of Day 7 after aerification and you notice the difference from Day 4. I would imagine by Day 14 we would be almost 100% healed.

Recovery!

After we have finished the aerification process we begin our recovery phase. This will include fertilizers and wetting agents which will help build soil nutrients and increase water infiltration.

The photo above is Day 1 of Aerification. We will take similar photos on Day 5, 7, 10 and 14. I have used a nickle in the first picture to use as a reference point. 

UPDATED
Day 4

You can already see the holes starting to "tighten up"

Where are the geese?

Aerification

We have finally reached March 5th and we will begin our Aerification today. I will update the blog with new pictures during the day. I will try to show as much of the process as possible.

8 am Update: Here is a little bit of what has happened in the first hour.

The ProCore in action!

The core harvester (below) pulls the plugs behind the ProCore and leaves them in piles for the guys to scoop up. This eliminates a lot of hard work pushing plugs across the greens.

 The Core Harvester

 The holes (.625 inches on a 2x1 spacing 4 inches deep)

The greens mix has a tendency to cover the openings of the holes. We use a hose to blast the holes back open which will allow the new sand to drop into place.

Update 9.30 AM

The topdresser dropping sand onto the green.

Rolling the surface smooth before the brush.

Brushing the green in 2 directions (X pattern)

A final light blow of excess sand and brooming any accumulation on the edges.

 

 

The final product.