Winter Work Begins...

It's almost Christmas and there is snow on the ground which means it's time to reflect back on the year and evaluate our programs.  The constant evolution of our operation to continue to become more and more efficient is at the forefront of my thoughts at this moment.  How can we better get the maintenance jobs done on the course?  How or what projects need to be done to provide an even better golfing experience for our membership?  I believe any competent manager should be evaluating constantly to be better in all areas.

We have removed a few dead small pine trees along Glenwood avenue during a brief break in our weather, but now our attention shifts to our equipment and course accessories as far as the staff goes. We are currently going through all of our equipment to perform any maintenance practices while the  weather is bad outside.  This includes oil and air filter changes, grinding and sharpening all cutting units as well as addressing any issues that each individual piece of equipment may have.  When Spring comes, we do not have time for any problems to arise with the equipment so now is the time to ensure it's functioning properly.

We have also been cleaning, pressure washing and sanding and painting any foot cleaners, divot buckets and any and all course accessories such as tee markers that go onto the golf course.  The picture above shows our Equipment Manager grinding and sharpening bedknifes for our step-cut mower.  The other picture shows the prep work that goes into preparing the natural wood tee markers we have.

I hope everyone has a very merry and happy holiday season!

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Snow Mold Application Down...

Part of the many tasks we do every year to put the course to bed in the fall for the winter is to spray all short cut areas (greens, tees and fairways) with a fungicide to prevent snow mold disease.  The disease, if not treated before the disease appears can be very devastating.  We spray in November on the calmest day we can, and the spray typically gets us about 3 solid months of control over the disease.  Like the snow mold component of possible winter damage, we have to monitor the ice accumulation on the greens even closer.  The damage from last winter on the 6th and 16th greens was a result of the ice accumulation and duration of coverage.  We were out on the greens last March with our tractor loader removing snow and ice but the damage had already been done.  We will be paying close attention to those greens and do everything in our power to prevent another damaging winter like we experienced last winter!  In the end, mother nature is always in the driver seat with regards to how the golf course withstands the winter!

New Rough Mower For Next Season!

We just recently took delivery of the new rough mower purchase from Toro.  This mower will be mowing the bulk of the rough with the 2 smaller (Sidewinder) mowers handling the rough around the greens, tees and tree lines.  This 7 deck mower will take the place of our 2 current mowers.  Our current mowers were quite tired and run down and each had 5 decks.  The idea here is to utilize this 1 mower to take the place of 2 mowers and still get ahead of the rough more efficiently than we have in the past.  The rough is typically a big topic of conversation with golfers as it is...lets just say, VERY HEALTHY and thick!  We are hoping to keep the rough as consistent as possible throughout the property with these new mowers.

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Drainage #12 Approach

Every year around July, the left side of 12th approach gets wetter and wetter as the season goes on. Lower sun angle and typically wetter weather contributes to the problem.  Recently we have decided to attempt some type of drainage work.  The area is actually the low spot of the entire area so sending the water to another location was not an option.  The soils in this area are very heavy clay which exaggerates the drainage problem.  We have dug several "Sumps" to effectively lower the water table where the water sits.  The idea here is to dry out the surface to allow for a dryer playing surface.  This will allow us to hopefully mow the area regularly with the designated mowing equipment when the area heals back up, and the area will not be totally wet and unplayable.

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Greens Roller Down...Engine Problems...

We have recently started experiencing some engine problems with the greens roller.  The engine needs to be replaced but in the meantime we will do our best to keep greens speed up by double cutting.  The greens roller is a key piece of equipment that we use regularly to keep greens speed at an acceptable level.  The greens roller is used to speed up the greens as well as smooth out any inconsistencies on the green surface.  We will have it back going as ASAP.  

Thatch Management on Fairways

It's that time of year again and we are nearly through the process of verticutting our fairways.  The process is very time consuming and labor intensive but in the end it is a great management tool in keeping our fairways as tight and plush as they are all season.

Mike O'Neill, CGS

Using Aeration Plugs To Fill In Thin Areas In The Rough.

Nothing goes to waste on this property...Many have probably noticed we have started using the aeration plugs from the greens to fill in thin areas in the rough.  Most of the areas have been void of grass for decades probably so we decided to start using the cores we harvest from the green to fill the spots in and then we seed them with some shade tolerant fescue grass to get them to fill in and provide cover in these areas.  Many of the areas have big roots exposed so the plugs actually cover them up nicely and gives us a medium to seed into.  Many will notice a lot of these spots have already started to grow.  Just another example of putting all bi-products from the course maintenance to good use!

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Irrigation Control Wires In Greens!

When the irrigation system was rewired, maybe 16 years ago, for some reason they decided to trench in the wires right into the collars and greens.  This is easier soil to trench into but when we implement the deep tine aeration once a year it seems we hit the wires in a few locations which causes us to lose control of those irrigation heads.  This poses a big problem because we then have to hand water those areas where we could have automatically turned the water on with the computer.  When we can we use a wire tracer to try and find where the breaks are and sometimes there are many breaks.  So if you see some areas where the green has been dug up and re-sodded, it is us trying to reconnect the broken wires.
Mike O'Neill, GCS

The Little Things That Make The Course Look Better!

We recently set aside 2 hours to edge out the ragged grass and gravel below the stairs to the men's tee on 8. We then installed some stone we had from other projects and the whole area looks 100 times better.  I am constantly looking to make simple inexpensive changes that better the enjoyment of our members as well as the guests that play the course.  It really does come down to making the "little Things" important!


Mike O'Neill, GCS

Very Wet Lately...

Last week we received 4.5" of rainfall for the week and then Sunday we received an additional 2"!  When we get that much rain in short periods of time, the above photo is the end result.  We end up having about half of our bunkers looking like the above pic of the front bunker on 17 looks like.  This requires a great deal of labor to pump the bunkers, remove rocks and push the sand up onto the bunker faces and get them back into some sort of playable condition.   Not only does this create more work but you can see the soil and rock contamination that occurs every time the bunkers wash out this bad. Without liners in 95% of the bunkers we get a tremendous amount of soil and rock contamination and leaves the bunker in worse shape than it was.  We do our best to remove the noticeable stones but this process makes the bunkers look and play worse and worse....

Mike O'Neill, GCS

NYS Amateur...A Great Success!

The NYS Am went very well by all accounts.  We had the greens about as firm and fast as we could get them, even after the .6" of rain in 15 minutes we received on Wednesday.  The course played and looked great as a result of the hard work of the individuals pictured above.  My staff worked their butts off to get the course into the tournament shape we had here at Bellevue the past few days.  I would like to thanks them for their hard work and dedication in making the event a great success!  Now we regroup and focus on providing the best conditions possible the remainder of the season for the membership.

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Flower Bed #8 Men's Tee...Not Weeds!

At first glance, the flower bed behind the 8th men's tee looks like it is full of weeds, but it's not!  The new low growth is a Northeastern Wildflower mix we hydro-seeded back in April.  The mix will offer a variety of different wildflower species native to the northeast such as Snapdragons, Lupine, Baby's Breath, Wallflower and Catchfly just to name a few.  As the plants mature they will offer a variety of different colors as well as a good stabilizer for the soil in the flower bed.  The bed will still need to be carefully weeded often until the flowers mature and provide a nice dense cover over the ground.

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Clover And Weed Control!

With the recent dry weather we have been experiencing, out irrigation deficiencies become very noticeable. Sure the grass gets dry and brown looking where the irrigation does not cover, but the by-product of notkeeping healthy full grass with good irrigation is the invasion of weeds and mostly clover! We have been attacking the clover recently with some targeted sprays.  The sprays will work temporarily but the clover and weeds will eventually come back in.  In the end, and with your own home lawn, the best weed control is always a well irrigated, fertilized stand of turf!

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Thin Greens Filling In Nicely, We Needed The Right Weather!

The photo above of the 16th green was taken May 12th.  The photo below was taken June 2nd.  A drastic difference in turf quality considering the hard work it took to get it to the picture below.  We have sodded, seeded and sprigged the green to get it to the point it is now.  The main factor that helped us is the soil temps have come up to a good point which are conducive for seed germination.  The greens that were thin will continue to fill in as we get the warmer weather and our cocktail of fertilizers continues.

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Inter-seeding Bentgrass Into Areas On Greens With Winter Damage.

Many courses in the northeast suffered very severe winter damage this winter.  We are not severe here but we do have some stubborn areas where the turf is not going to come back very quickly.  The top (2) photos are from April 16th, when we manually spiked and seeded the thin areas on the greens with A4 creeping bentgrass.  The bottom (2) photos are from May 15th when we went into these thin areas again with a slit-seeder machine that physically injects seed into a groove made into the green.  This allows for the seed to soil contact we need for effective germination of the seed.  These areas will be nursed back to health with frequent watering to allow for complete germination.  Getting some bentgrass to fill into the voids will go a long way in the future as the bentgrass is way more hardy than the poa annua that populated the thin areas before last winter.  We will repeat the process on any thin areas as we go forward in getting the greens in championship condition!

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Irrigation Problems...More Numerous Than Usual!

The Irrigation system this year has really cost us a lot of down time.  We started to fill the system 3 weeks  ago and continue to find around 2 leaks every time we try to pressurize the system.  I have blogged regarding the system before but the cold, long winter, coupled with very antiquated  and fragile piping create way more work for our staff.  I am hopeful we can get ahead of the fixes but the normal maintenance of the golf course gives us all we can handle without all the labor involved with fixing the leaks.

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Remedy For Winter Injury...Drainage!

With the winter being the toughest winter in 30 years by many reports, we can really see our weaknesses on the course.   The weaknesses in question are that of greens internal drainage.  The damage on the low spot on 16 green is a direct result of not allowing the water to drain from the green internally through the winter months.  We have recently trenched and installed internal drainage with our staff, to greatly improve the drainage, health and hence, playability of the 16th green.

 Neatly removing a thin strip of sod, to be replaced with new sod from our nursery green in the near future.

                                      Trenching to a depth of 18" to allow for drain tile install.

             We used a laser transit to allow for correct slope and flow of the drained water off the green.

Drain tile install.

We backfilled the pipe and trench with a special "Greens drainage" sand to allow for increased percolation into the drain line.

The night after we installed the line, a rain event occured and we can see the water flowing through the green and into the pipe already!

Drainage Project On 16 Green. Will Prevent Future Winter Problems.

The long, cold winter was very tough on our golf course turf, specifically the areas that do not drain.  The pictures above show the middle of the 16th green on April 15th.  Notice the damage which is a result of water standing and freezing on the green since early last winter.  This green has a low spot in the middle that does not drain much at all.  Every rain event we are out there pushing the water off the green.

The remedy for this will be the installation of some drain lines 18" down in the green.  There are companies that have done this type of drainage for clubs such as Oakmont and Baltusrol, so it is a know practice for old style push up greens.  We will be performing the project with our staff in the near future.  We will trench the pipe material into the green and run the drain off the left side of the green underground to a sump in the rough.  We will then be replacing any weak grass on the green with healthy grass from our nursery greens. The link below is the type of drainage material we will be using in the green.  Also, I have provided below, a link to a good article from the USGA on the widespread damage being seen throughout the Northeast from the long cold winter.  Most of the damage here at Bellevue is associated with the week Poa plant.

http://multi-flow.com/Menu/golf_courses_app.html

http://www.usga.org/course_care/regional_updates/regional_reports/northeast/You%E2%80%99re-Not-Alone!---April-2014/

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Long Winter, Will Show On Course Turf.

The long winter is finally starting to let up a bit lately.  We were, just yesterday, able to see some of the turf under all the ice and snow present all winter.  Yesterday we made a drastic move in trying to remove the ice and snow off of the 6th green.   As shown above, we used the front end loader to remove snow from the frozen green.  We need to get oxygen to the green as soon as possible., so with the upcoming temps , we decided to remove as much snow while we can.  The lower picture of 6 green is just with 1 day of thawing. The green had on average, 2' of snow on it yesterday, so we probably saved a few days by physically removing the snow.  The bottom picture shows the middle of the 16th green where water tends to collect and sit.  The ice present there all winter has severely stunted the turf in the low spot.  We can expect this area will take longer this spring to fill in and green up.  We still have yet to see under the ice of the 6th green but we are hopeful that when it thaws the turf will be fine.  Any thin or stunted areas on the greens will be overseeded and pushed to fill in with all means necessary going forward.  Let's think warm temperatures!

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Grounds Cart Fleet Repairs.

I know, I know, enough of the winter already.  I put an order in for good weather weeks ago!  This time in the shop, however;  is allowing us to get to all of the problems we have sitting around the shop for repairs. The pictures below show a cart that had a broken frame through 30 + years of use.  The staff fitted some round tubing and some solid welds to make the frame viable again.  We also added a small bed with some scrap metal for a blower holder or transporting small tools.  A hitch was also added to be able to tow a roller, trailer or blower around the golf course.  The forecast looks like a warming trend into this weekend.  Lets hope we warm up quickly, we need to melt the ice off of our greens that has been set up for 3 months.

Mike O'Neill, GCS