Multi Mats Will be Back!

 

After a successful implementation of the multi mat program this past winter we are excited to continue the program this coming off season. Last year we estimated over 200,000 divots were not taken on fairways through the usage of the mats. This year we will be expanding the program to tees and the mats will be required on any tee shot where you would potentially take a divot. We feel this will be a better solution as opposed to the fixed mats on Par 3 tees last season.

The mats will be in play from November thru February. Thank you for your support of this program.

What lies ahead this "off-season"?

A previous drainage project on #15 fairway

As the shorter days and slightly cooler temps start to signify the winding down of our peak season, the OV Grounds Team is starting to prepare for some winter projects. While recouping from a long season and taking some needed vacation are on the list for the winter, we also have a few items in mind for the coming months.

• Repairing walk paths around the course is at the top of the list. This work can be conducted in most winter weather conditions and we have stocked up on the required gravel / drainage material to make this happen.
• As mentioned in the bunker post, we will look to fill in 2-3 bunkers this off season. This requires non-saturated conditions so picking windows in the weather will be key to executing these projects.
• Last winter we installed 10 "quick couplers" or easy connection points for hand watering hoses to the irrigation system. These points of connection make hand watering much quicker / more efficient and we will look to add the same amount this winter.
• Continuing replacement of irrigation isolation valves throughout the system will continue this winter. Replacing 30 year old isolation valves is essential in ensuring the continued smooth operation of our irrigation system.
• Drainage upgrades (including new catch basins) on the worst puddles that form on cart paths will also be on the list.

While I am sure that our appetite for improvement is no doubt greater than what we can actually get accomplished through the winter, rest assured we will be continually working to make Olympic View Golf Club even better for the coming 2023 season!

No Fall Greens Aeration?

Some nice roots (especially down the deep tine aeration hole) for late August on our predominantly Annual bluegrass greens. Poa annua is known for shortened roots at the end of the summer months.

Unlike my previous bunker post, this one will be a lot shorter!

We are closely monitoring greens organic matter accumulation and practicing organic matter reduction techniques that are less disruptive to greens playability. These include:

• Tightly managing nitrogen applications
• Using plant growth regulators to utilize nitrogen applications more efficiently
• Frequent light verticutting
• Frequent light sand top dressing 

In addition to our annual winter testing, we conducted testing on a few greens in early August. In spite of our efforts, we are seeing a rise in organic matter that will need to be checked. While we are not aerating greens this fall, it would be safe to expect a greens aeration in the spring of 2023. 

Organic matter itself is not a bad thing, the appropriate amount provides resiliency in the surface (more receptive to shots) and support for the turfgrass plant itself (the ability to better withstand wear & ball mark damage). Too much though, and greens can hold too much water, not be firm enough to properly mow / roll and be more susceptible to disease. 

The subsurface sand mix that the greens was originally constructed of does not drain exceptionally well to start with. This has been observed by past Superintendents and was confirmed by recent infiltration tests conducted on some greens. This is why when we have rain, the greens will accumulate standing water quickly. Keeping greens within a reasonable organic matter level is important so we do not further exacerbate this underlying problem. 

We will slightly increase our verticutting / light top dressing frequency in the remaining months of the year to work towards a reduction before our next testing in January. 

Let Talk Some More About Bunkers!

Everyone loves to talk about bunkers right? This post is a bit longer, but it's a popular topic so let's get after it!

Bunker Maintenance

While we have yet to achieve the overall consistent quality I would like, we have made strides in the right direction this year. Our bunker draft program, discussed in a previous post, worked very well through the spring. As we moved into summer and irrigation season, we adapted to a more dedicated bunker person or two each morning. Now as those high school and university students have returned to school, you will see almost every Team member on the course with a set of rakes on their vehicle. While completing tasks like changing holes, mowing or rolling greens and hand watering, Team Members will also be raking as many bunkers as possible each morning. The first tee time has moved back a half hour each day but we have retained our same start time for Grounds in order to have a bit more time in the morning to complete all these tasks with less Team Members. Headlamps are our friend this time of year!

Adding Sand

Traditionally, we have added sand to the tune of about $5000 per season. In an effort to improve bunkers we have more than doubled that amount and spent $12,000 on bunker sand this season. We have deployed this not only in the spring but throughout the season. Multi day stints in June, July & August saw numerous Team Members working on this task.

Pictured below is the Team Member leading up this charge, Mr. John Braddock! John comes to us from multiple season at Victoria Golf Club as their Bunker Foreman. While he also spends time working as part of our Development Team on the residential landscape, we are fortunate to have his expertise out on the course. More often than not, simply adding sand does not cure the underlying problem in a bunker. In most cases sand has been shifted around from play in bunkers and with some shoveling work, existing sand can be better allocated in each bunker. John has the eye for bunkers and evaluates each bunker for what it needs.

John Braddock shaping up a bunker left of #1 green

Once existing sand has been redistributed and there is still not enough in areas, we will add sand. Last season we acquired an new material handler pictured below that has a handy side conveyor belt. This machine makes adding large quantities of sand much easier. One of the challenges with adding sand is that this newly added material often remains fluffy and can lead to "fried egg" lies in bunkers. We do our best to mitigate this by soaking with water and mechanically plate compacting all newly added sand, but it still takes a couple weeks for this new sand to settle in.

Sand being added on #4 green

Underlying Problems

As briefly mentioned above, simply adding sand will not fix all of our problems. Almost all bunkers on the course need some sort of reconstruction. This can range from new liner installation, floor shaping, wall shaping, bunker surrounds shaping and of course drainage. Fortunately in my 15 seasons at Victoria Golf Club I was part of the in house bunker reconstruction there. Rebuilding 70+ bunkers over 10 years gave us ample time to learn and perfect our technique. When we are ready to begin rebuilding bunkers, we will be consulting with our Golf Course Architects, Lobb & Partners, to design and build bunkers that are maintenance friendly and add to the playing experience unique to Olympic View Golf Club.

Bunker Removal

Bunker construction is a costly endeavor, but none the less one that we will certainly embark on in the future. Bunker removal on the other hand is a much more economical process. Currently, including the two practice bunkers, we have 39 bunkers on the course. There is also evidence of original bunkers that have been abandoned over the years including the back of 7, 8, and the left of 12. In the springtime we toured the course with Alex Hay of Lobb & Partners and looked for other bunkers that we could possibly remove. Below are the 5 criteria we used to evaluate each bunker. It needed to have at least one of these to warrant the bunker remaining on the course.

1. Does the bunker have influence the strategic play of the hole?

2. Does the bunker help guide the golfer through the hole? (for a blind shot, turning point)

3. Will the bunker save a ball from a worse fate? (ie OB or water hazard)

4. Does the bunker increase the aesthetic appeal of the course?

5. Does the bunker help frame the hole visually?

Using this criteria we earmarked the following bunkers for possible removal:

- back bunker #2

- back bunker #4

- right bunker #6

- back bunker #9

- left & right bunker #10 (leave the center, widen the approach)

- back bunker #13

- fairway bunker #14

- back bunker #15

- back bunker #16

What would replace each bunker varies greatly but the replacements would include short grass areas, longer grass areas, and new grades shaping either towards or away form the green. The goal in each instance would be to make the golf hole better and reduce the required bunker maintenance. While removing the 10 bunkers above would reduce our overall bunker count by more than 25%, most are smaller bunkers so overall bunker square footage would not be reduced quite as much. The goal would be to complete 2-3 of these removals this coming off season. 

If we can reduce the overall quantity of bunkers, this will allow us to reinvest the funds used to maintain these superfluous bunkers back into the ones that count. The end goal would be to maintain 30 great bunkers at the same cost as 40 "ok" bunkers. 

What About the Machine?

I occasionally get asked where the bunker machine is? You know the little 3 wheeled machine with rakes on the back? Well we have not used it over the past year for a few reasons:

1. It honestly doesn't fit in a large percentage of our bunkers.

2. When it does fit, it causes turf wear in the entrance and exit points. Typically there is only one to two of these points in each bunker and as such the wear can not be dispersed. When I first arrived on the property these points were more than obvious on every bunker the machine fit in. You will be hard pressed to see those wear points out there now.

3. Provided the person on the rake is trained, hand raking does a better job in my opinion, with almost the same or less amount of time invested.

4. I mentioned above about sand being displaced in bunkers through play, the machine also moves sand around as is casts to the outside of the rakes on each turn. More frequent hand shaping is required when a machine is used.

5. Cost. The machine costs over $25,000. If we can rake bunkers by hand (rakes cost $25) we can use that bunker machine value to trade in / purchase machines like the brush cutter featured in a previous blog post. Bunkers are raked AND brush is mowed all for the same cost? That seems like a win to me!

Summary

Well that is an extensive post on bunkers. Likely not all of you made it to the end, but for those that did I hope you found it informative. Please feel free to stop me anytime on the course or drop me an email if you would like to discuss any of this further. I always like talking about anything to do with the course.

Brush Mowing Trial

 

You may have noticed a few newly cleared areas around the course in recent weeks. We trialed a new brush mulching machine that mounts on the front of our Kubota skid steer. We mowed down areas behind 6 green, left of 7 green, behind 14 green and the left side of 18 fairway. In years past these areas may have been kept free of broom and blackberry. Trying to keep up on these areas in a challenging labour market is obviously next to impossible. We prioritize down the middle areas and greens of course and these outside areas have been somewhat neglected.  

While not all of our broom / blackberry areas could be mowed by this machine, some hand work would still be required, being able to tackle large areas with one operator in a matter of hours as opposed multiple Team Members taking days to complete the same area by hand is very appealing. 

Left side #18 before....

Left side #18 a few hours later.

Were we to purchase this machine, the goal would be to mow down these areas a couple times per year and eventually be able to establish a fescue grass area as opposed to areas filled with broom, thistle and blackberry. As you can see by the last photo, this area on the left of 18 was originally shaped as part of the course and it would be nice to recover some of these lost features.

As labour continues to be scarce and the cost rising, investing in machinery that can replace multiple Team Members only makes sense. We will be further evaluating this plan in the coming months but please do provide any feedback you may have.

Chasing the Numbers - Green Speeds / Smoothness

Grounds Foreman Jake Hamilton taking a greens speed measurement
on #17 green. July 30, 2022

As I may have mentioned in my introductory bio, I love numbers and data points. It's all well and good to feel, "Yeah, greens were pretty good this year", but when I can back it up with the facts provided in the table below that screams, "YEAH, greens were great this year!"

The table below summarizes 204 measurements of greens speed and smoothness taken in the 152 days between March 1 - July 31. We measure one to two greens everyday (other than downpour days) and record these measurements. 

Our target speed is between 10' - 10' 6" and a minimum smoothness of 8. This seems to be an adequate speed for our greens and our clientele. Any slower and putts do not hold lines like they should, any faster and things can get a bit ridiculous, especially for higher handicap golfers. Of course contrary to what seems to be popular golfer belief, we do not simply set the greens speed with a dial on the wall of the maintenance shop each morning. 😉

Of course weather/growing conditions will affect our ability to meet our target, but also grass type, labour availability, event schedules and other factors all play in to what we can provide each day. The column 'Missed Days' in the table below refers to days where we did not reach our target speed of 10' and there was not significant precipitation on these days that would have affected the greens speed. Our ultimate goal is to have this column equal zero. As you can see we are doing quite well with only a handful of days each month that we are falling short. None in July!!!

OV Grounds Greens Speed / Smoothness
Month	AVG Speed	AVG Smoothness	Missed Days	Days >10' 6"
March	10' 1"	8.1	2	5
April	10' 5"	8.3	4	14
May	10' 5"	8.4	3	12
June	10' 6"	8.2	3	14
July	10' 6"	8.5	0	12
204 Measurements over 152 days

For those wanting faster greens, in an effort to ensure we make the 10' goal we end up over sometimes. Since April we have been faster than 10' 6" over 1/3 and almost half of each month.

We take daily smoothness readings using the bobble test method. This test method does not require an expensive tool and has been scientifically tested to be the most useful way of testing. It's downside is that it does have some subjectivity to it, but as a Grounds Team we have decided to be fairly critical. The rating scale is between 1-10 but for all intents and purposes we generally live between 7-10. None of us have been brave enough to post the first "10" of the season but there have been a few days in July where we certainly could have been. The video below speaks about greens speeds, smoothness and the different ways to measure smoothness. Skip ahead to 7:45 for specific discussion on the bobble test method.

I have been asked about posting this daily greens speed so it is available for members and guests. This off season we will be looking into ways to post this information on a daily basis. 

I look forward to following up with more numbers later this season and then again this time next year to update and compare our progress. Rest assured we will continually tweak our programs and operations with the constant goal to provide the best greens possible, no matter what time of year.

 

#7 Green Tree Removal

We removed the tree to the front right of #7 green this morning. While the tree was not showing signs that it would fail soon, the health of the tree was declining. This coupled with the fact that it detracted from the playability of the hole, led us to the removal decision.

During our spring course tour with Alex Hay and Tim Lobb of Lobb & Partners (our golf course architectural consultants) they noted that removing the tree would improve the playability of the golf hole allowing more shots into what is already a tough green site.

Phase 2 of this project will come in the off season when we expose the natural feature that is the bedrock mound below the tree. We will also fill in the short grass depression behind the tree approximately 50%. Filling this feature in partially will create an easier to mow slope and also a slope that may allow for putting to the green from this short grass area. 

Before

After