Tree Trimming

Some much needed tree trimming was recently done around some of our tee boxes a couple of weeks ago.  The trimming we had done was on trees that were to high for us to reach from the ground with our pull saw.  We contracted this work out to K.C. Arborist who did a fine job in a timely manor.  The pictures below are the before and after of 16 tee.  This is a short par 3 that had an ash tree overhanging the left side of the tee box hampering the use of a good portion of it.  Two other areas of trees that were limbed up were on number 5 and 13.  These areas also had trees that were growing in the line of sight from the tee boxes.  We will continue this winter to limb up trees where we are able.

Two Bunker Renovations on #6

The crew has been at it again with a couple bunker renovations on #6.  A few posts ago, I showed some pictures of the renovation we did to the back left bunker.  This post is about the other two bunkers we completed. 

 The above picture shows some of what we were up against with the renovation.  The bunker floor on this end was lined with large rocks.  The left side of the photo shows some of the rocks we removed. 

We added a couple sections of drainage lines to help catch some of the water coming off the hill a little quicker.

This is the same area with all new tile and pea gravel added for drainage.

 

Here is the completed bunker renovation with all new sand.

The above photo shows the back right bunker after old sand and drainage had been removed and new drain tile and pea gravel added.

This is the completed bunker on the back right of #6.

Number 6 has had quite a face lift this year.  We added a zoysia approach during the summer and have renovated all three bunkers in the last month.  With all that work, it still doesn't make the green any easier to hit.

For the year, we have now renovated a total of 8 bunkers.  I believe this is the most we have been able to do in a single year over the last six years.  My hope is to continue renovating at least a couple over the winter months.  It will be tough to do when we are down to just myself and my assistant for a crew. 

Fall Seeding

We have finished all of our fall seeding for the year in only a couple of days.  This year, we only had to use about 500 pounds of seed compared to 2,000 pounds the last few years.  The timely rains and overall cooler temperatures this year really helped most of the rough make it through the season. 


The slits from the tractor mounted slit seeder.



This is the small portion of our fescue nursery that we had to reseed.

Small area around a bunker that was aerified and then seeded heavily.

#6 Bunker and Course Conditions

The following are pictures of the back left bunker on number 6 that we completed renovation of last Friday. 

 

 

 

 

So far this year the summer weather has been fairly kind to us.  We have had a decent amount of rain and very cool temperatures in late July and early August.  As we speak, we are beginning our hottest week of the year with temperatures forecasted in the mid 90's until Labor Day.  The course is currently in great shape for this time of year.  Mowing is usually very slow this time of year, but the grass has continued to grow vigorously for much of August.  We hope after this string of 90 degree days that Fall will be quickly approaching with cooler temperatures.

Fairway Aerification and Native Mowing

July has been a busy month trying to keep the golf course irrigated and the greens healthy.  So far, we have done fairly well considering the rain gauge for the month.  July is a time we also are able to complete a few other tasks as the mowing of the rough and our green and tee banks slows down.  Below are a couple of pictures of our fairway aerification.  This is done during the summer months on zoysia grass when it is growing at its peak.  The fairways are aerified, dragged with a mat to break up cores, and then mowed.  After the process, the holes are barely noticeable.  We only complete about 2-3 fairways a day because of time restrictions.  We will hopefully be done by late next week.



Tractor pulling the aerifier.

Close up of the plugs.

July is also a time for us to mow down our native grasses and treat for weeds.  We do this now after the seeds have begun to lay over.  This also allows us to spray over the top with our spray rig to remove unwanted plants.

Picture from left of #12 before mowing.  Notice all of the weeds that have popped up.

After mowing with a brush hog.

15 Bunker Renovation

Recently we completed another bunker renovation on the golf course.  The bunker on the right side of 15 green has been completely rebuilt.  This bunkers playability and aesthetic quality has lacked as of late so we reconstructed it from the bottom up.  The pictures below illustrate some of the work that was done.  We began by stripping sod with the sod cutter from around the bunker.  It then needed all of the old contaminated sand and drainage shelled out.  The second picture shows our use of drainage tile to make a form for the new edges of the bunker on the greenside.  Over time, rainstorms and damage from golfers walking out of the high side of the bunker had caused the lip to cave.  New topsoil was brought in and compacted behind the drain tile.  This tile will eventually be removed once the new sod has been able to knit in, and the soil firms up.  The last two pictures show the completed bunkers with new sand and zoysia sod ringing the entire bunker.



After the sod around the bunker and all sod was removed.



Drain tile that was used as a form for the new lips of the bunker.

 

Completed bunker with very little flash left on the face.



View looking towards the green.  The tile used for the new lips is barely visible.

#6 approach

We have converted part of the approach on #6 to zoysia this last week.  We thought an approach that we can mow down to collar height (.5 inches) will have greater playability then the 2 inch rough we had before.  It will also look nice from the tee.  We stripped all of the cool-season sod off and used to patch other areas on the golf course.  The zoysia all came from our nursery.

 

Cool season sod stripped clean.

Different view of prepared ground.

Finished product with zoysia in place.

Annual Flowers

This last week we got our annual flowers planted in the flower beds.  We are lucky to get a large amount of flowers from the cities greenhouse to help spruce up the course.  Here are just a few pictures of some of the flowers.

Truck and trailer full of flowers



Flower bed next to 13 tee.



Flower bed by 15 tee.

Storm Damage

Last nights storm caused a few trees to come down and some larger limbs.  All in all, I think we did alright considering how strong some of the winds were.  We will have most of the cleanup done today.  Below is a couple of pictures taken this morning as the cleanup began.

The largest tree to fall between 18 and 10.

This tree luckily fell the opposite direction of our irrigation control box.

16 Bunker Complete

Yesterday we completed the renovation of 16 bunker.  We watered the sand heavily to help firm it up.  The sod on the face is still knitting in so please do not walk up the face. 

I also took this picture this morning as a storm was moving in.  Thankfully, we only had a few sprinkles.  The course is still trying to dry out from previous rain events.

16 Bunker Rebuild

We are getting closer to completing our renovation of the right greenside bunker on number 16.  We just finished all of the sod work today.  The face of the bunker had to be reconstructed due to years of washouts corroding the face.  The new sand and drainage has yet to be completed, but will be finished early next week. 

Greens Aerification

Aerification.  The process the golf course superintendent loves and every golfer hates.  Most courses around town are completing greens aerification about this time and Swope is no different.  We wrapped ours up on Monday afternoon with very few hiccups.  I'm hoping this year we will have a shorter healing period than last year.  This is partly due to the great rain we received Tuesday night into Wednesday, and the use of a slightly smaller tine then last year.  We opted to use a smaller tine but more of them.  Instead of the aerifier having 24 large tines, we had 30 tines of a smaller size.  Last year we never had a nice, soaking rain post aerification.  This rain helps to flush the greens of built up sodium from our irrigation water and promote a flush of growth.  The cool nights forecasted will slow the growth somewhat, but by the weekend we are hoping for warmer temperatures.  Hopefully, in a week to ten days the greens are rolling back to normal. 

We are within one month of hosting the Kansas City Match Play Championship and have lots of work to do.  There are a few bunker projects and a few tees to resurface that we would like to accomplish before the tournament.  With the grass popping out of the ground, we will have to start focusing on more mowing.  With heavy downpours, the course gets extremely wet making it difficult to stay on top of the rough.  Be sure to bring a few extra golf balls because it can get pretty hairy out there! 

Irrigation Controllers

Over the last couple of weeks we have begun installing irrigation controllers on the golf course.  We were able to buy the controllers used from Hallbrook Country Club at a fraction of the cost of new controllers.  These controllers will be a huge upgrade from our existing ones. 

If you have played golf over the last half of the season, you may have noticed us pouring concrete for the new pads.  We completed all of the pads by the end of September.  You can see in the following picture the new controller pad next to our old pads. 

   
In the last couple of weeks we began installing our new controllers onto the pads.  It is a slow, tedious process that involves a lot of wire.  Each station must be spliced and a new wire ran into the controller.  A station has one wire that controls either one or two sprinkler heads depending on their location.  Each controller has between 20-32 stations.  Once completed, we will have installed 18 controllers.  The recent snow storm has slowed our progress.  To date, we have completed 7 installs.



Wires coming out of the new pad before the controller is installed.

All the station wires spiced for the new box.

All the station wires hooked into the new controller.

Completed controller with splice box shown in the foreground.

#8 Trimming



Some recent trimming that was done on the golf course with before and after pictures.

View from the left side of #8 tee box.

After multiple trees along the left side were limned up allowing a clear shot.

Trees along the left side of #13 that where impeding the view.

After we cleaned up the trees and underlying brush

Brush that had been allowed to become overgrown behind #11 green.

Much better.

More Tree Trimming

We have continued our tree trimming efforts since returning from the holidays.  The nice weather has provided us with many days of being outside.  To date, we have made a significant impact across the golf course.  The better part of 12 holes have had their trees pruned substantially.  All of our back nine except for 10 and 18 have had all trees pruned.  Last week, we spent the majority of our time on 2 and 3.  With another month and a half until the grass even thinks about growing, I think we can get through most of the golf courses trees in need of trimming.

Pin oaks on the left side of #2 fairway prior to trimming.

After some much needed trimming.  Now I'll have a shot when I duck hook my tee shot!