Planting seed and killing weeds!

Wow! Missed a month and a half. Time flies when you are having fun! Or something like that ...

A lot has gone on in that time frame though. 

First and maybe most importantly, the tees on both courses plus the range tees, short game area, and Academy were all aerified. No doubt this will prove beneficial moving forward.

Tees aerified ... 

We seeded the East tees shortly after they were aerified, which has gone well. The seed took really well and has filled in on schedule despite the lack of rain. There are a few in which we didn't get great germination and we will be redoing them as we do the West.

Seed germinated and filling in ... 

The driving range tees, short game area, and Academy area have all been seeded also. We should see that seed germinate this afternoon or tomorrow. Should be perfectly timed before whatever rain we get the next two days. We seeded #13 West blue tee and #8 West red tee last week also. So we should also see germination on those two today or tomorrow as well. We started seeding the rest of the West tees yesterday and will hopefully finish them this week plus do some of the still thin East tees again as mentioned above.

Back in July we started adding a herbicide to our fairway sprays that would slowly control the clover in the fairways and tees. #3 and #4 West fairways in particular had numerous sizeable patches, but there were patches present on most fairways and some tees. Well the herbicide did its job well and we have all but eliminated the clover in the short grass areas. In this case, things have to look bad before they will look better. We will put some seed into these areas as time allows. 

Clover "disappearing" ... 

Similarly, we made some herbicide applications to the short grass and rough in spots to start controlling the sedges that have invaded. While the clover was more of an issue in the fairways, the sedges are more concentrated on tee boxes. As we seed the tees these areas will fill in, as seen in the last picture of the set.

Sedges being controlled, seed popping through ... 

We've also tried to keep our promise of cleaner and more frequent bunker maintenance. The playability and appearance of the bunkers really depends on the amount of rain we get. Through dry periods, the bunkers look and play like bunkers. After rain events, they look, well, like something else. 

Bunkers #2 West ... 

Well this is getting long. Hopefully we have more interesting things like this to talk about moving forward. Looks like rain the next few days and with all the seed on the ground it will be beneficial. Unfortunately it will come at the cost of the bunkers and rough mowing time. It can never be easy! 

A picture seven months in the making and protecting the greens ...

Look back if you will to this post made on December 23rd of 2019 about the removal of trees around the 18th green on the West course.

Now fast forward to just a few days ago. Here is the result of our work in December ...

We started here ... 

Used an application to map the sun ... 

Removed the trees ... 

And ended here ... 

Think that helped the green? I do. 

Have you seen the weather forecast? I sure have. This will probably be our most difficult stretch of the summer. Mid-July, the greens are already stressed, and now we will add some real heat and humidity with the possibility of some downpours. All of that equals tough conditions for the turf. 

If you played this morning ( Friday the 17th ) you may have seen us spraying and than watering the greens. Yes, we were watering after spraying despite the fact it was drizzling. We did this because we sprayed a product that needs somewhere between 1/10th to 1/8th of an inch of water to properly protect the plants. We want it to protect from the roots up, so we have to irrigate it into the roots. I apologize for it being done on a Friday, but after seeing the forecast worsen for the next few days, I felt it was best to get it down. We also had a soil surfactant in the tank that will allow us to use less water and more evenly distribute the water we do use in the next couple weeks. 

Along the same lines, we will adjust our mowing schedule while the heat is intense. Tomorrow ( Saturday ) we will cut greens and do a clean up pass. Sunday we will roll. Monday we will skip both cutting and rolling to give the greens a break and we will also spray them again. Tuesday we will cut with a clean up pass and base what we do for the rest of the week on the weather. 

We put a lot of time into bunkers this week. After 4.5 inches of rain last weekend they needed some serious work. They should be much better for this weekend. 

Stay cool!

Normal ... kind of.

Well, we are somewhat back to "normal". It has been refreshing. I told my wife at dinner Tuesday night that I finally felt like we made some progress here in the last week or so.

As I'm sure those who have played here the last few days have noticed, we put the flag sticks back out. The cups are still upside down. Please do your best not to touch the stick.

Stick in left side of picture .... 

In an effort to keep up with the mowing while also being able to get to other projects, we've relied on a pretty heavy regimen of growth regulators. Growth regulators, while slowing growth, can have a yellowing or bronzing effect on turf-grass, especially at higher rates. So if you have noticed a yellow, orange, or bronze tinge to the fairways and tees, that is why. It will grow out this week most likely. The tees are handling it worse than the fairways, which probably has something to do with the composition of the soil. 

Picture of #10 East tee "yellowed" ... 

One of the projects we were using the growth regulators to free up time for was "bunker cleaning". Hopefully you have noticed the "noses" of the bunkers are now down to a more rough like height. And the closely mowed edges are clean. 

#14 West bunker the "new way" ... 

#5 West bunker the "old way" ... 

Finally, it seems as if the change to an overall drier golf course has been noticed already. Wednesday afternoon through to Thursday afternoon I felt as if we were at the ideal moisture level. Especially for a links style course. I felt like it looked right and I'd bet it was playing right also. Eric and I took a ride Thursday mid day and I liked what I saw and felt so much that I almost got my clubs out for the first time this year! 

Lighter green and perhaps even a tinge of brown as opposed to a lush, wet looking dark green. #4 West ... 

#17 West ... 

Until next time ... 

How about that for a sunrise?!

We were treated to couple awesome sunrises the last few days. Makes for a good start to the morning!

We cut greens twice this week which means we have cut all the playing surfaces at least once. We also did some more bunker clean up, getting to some of the bigger fairway bunkers that were holding leaves. 

Maybe the biggest development was the removal of the snow sticks! Hopefully it doesn't jinx us ... 

Another nice weekend on tap highlighted by the Irish Open tomorrow. Sounds like we have a good crowd for it. If interested, here is the link to sign up: Royce Brook GC - Irish Open ...

Enjoy the weekend everyone! 

Wet paint!

Wet paint. Wet turf. Wet ground. Wet everything most of the last 10 or 14 days. While still warm, we haven't had great working conditions for the golf course in a while.

We have been productive though! We got a lot done in the maintenance building. Moved the job board, moved and rewired some wire connections. Did some drywall repairs and repainted the entire shop. We also helped removing the rug in the restaurant and have done some painting in the clubhouse. So while we haven't made much ground outside, we have knocked some work out none the less.

Today is another warm one. We are raking green side bunkers this morning and are hoping to get to cups later on. We tried to do this yesterday but things were still too frozen from the cold snap we had.

Spring isn't too far off!

The winter that never was ...

I cannot remember a winter like this one. Will we pay for it over the next month and a half? I hope not.

I think we have made the most of the weather here in the agronomy department. We raked green side traps on both courses on Friday. Saturday we raked green sides and changed cups on both courses. Monday we raked all the traps and changed cups on both courses. Tuesday we put the cherry on top by cutting tees on both courses! The main purpose behind that mow was to clean up the divots and debris that had accumulated on the tees but we also ended up dumping the buckets three or four times per course. So it was a worthwhile.

The 10 day forecast looks like more of the same. So hopefully you can get out and enjoy it!

#10 West tee post mow ...

Another one ...

Looks like a great stretch of weather coming! In preparation for that, we blew out all the green side bunkers on the West course yesterday. We also mulched the areas around the bunkers that had the most leaves. Today we are going to reset cups, check tee markers, and hopefully rake green side bunkers on the West if they aren't frozen.

We took a big tree down from between eight and nine East this week. Had obviously been dead for sometime and was in pretty bad shape. We completed the clean up other than the stump grinding.

Hopefully you can get out and enjoy the course over the next week!

Beautiful!

What a beautiful morning!

We changed cups, blew off greens, and raked green side bunkers on both courses this morning. Enjoy it!

More bunker progress!

Some more pictures of bunker detail and overall green complex clean up.

#1 Green complex after ... 

#10 Greenside bunker before and after ... 

#10 and 11 Green complexes after ... 

Welcome!

Welcome to the Royce Brook Golf Club Agronomy Department blog. It is odd, writing this knowing I'm speaking to no one. Will that change? Who knows. But in my short three weeks here at Royce Brook I've seen as much if not more member and guest engagement than I've seen in 17 years as a Superintendent or Assistant Superintendent.  I think we do an interesting job as Golf Course Superintendents and so far it seems there is plenty of interest from our guest. I thought this would be a fun way to share what we are doing on the course as well as give those of you interested in golf course maintenance some added insight. I think you will find that I'm pretty available on property, especially to those who play here often, but this will serve as an extra avenue to get information out about the whys, hows and whens of the RBGCAD and maybe, if you ask nicely ( lol ), answer some questions. This will also act as an another form of documentation for myself moving forward. 

Since my arrival we have tried to catch up on the detail work that was being overlooked. In particular, we have made a conscious effort to spend more time and energy on bunker complexes, especially around the greens. I think we are making progress and a few of the members have given us positive feedback about it. 

Bunker rakes ... we are in the process of removing any broke, bent, or otherwise damaged bunker rakes. So if you end up in a bunker with limited or no rakes, there is a reason. At this point in the season it doesn't make sense to put new rakes out. 

What a beautiful place Royce Brook is. I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone that plays here that. I'm happy and thankful for the opportunity at RB!  

Be on the lookout for the two Bald Eagles frequenting the area around the cell tower!

Some recent pictures ...

#1 post bunker clean up:

#11 post bunker clean up: