Tree Trimming...Well Underway!

We have started the process of trimming trees up from the ground.  The goal here is to open up the area under the trees to allow a shot from under every tree on the golf course.  We typically address the worst trees or the dead limbs every year but this year we will be looking at every tree on the course to make sure they are all trimmed up for the enjoyment of the errant golf shot!

Tree Trimming.... A Priority This Winter!

Tree Trimming is an annual maintenance task here on the golf course.  The fact that we have mature hardwood trees on the course creates a lot of work year round from deadwood to limbing to safety concerns for golfers.  The trees on the property are constantly evaluated to determine the necessity of the aforementioned tasks.  This year we will be focusing on tree lines of each hole.  Tree limbs should not hang over or impede a fairway boundary in my opinion.  The goal will be to limb the tree up underneath as well as shape the trees with a boom lift the best we can.  A golfer should have a full swing under each tree as well.

This golf course was not designed with the intention of ending up with all these trees we currently have.  Not mush we can do about that  but maintain safety and keep the course as fair and playable for everybody, of all skill sets.

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Tee Renovations, Holes #2 and #5.

We are well on our way in the tee renovation project we are working on in-house.  The project is going well considering mother nature certainly has not cooperated!  The plan is to re-use the sod we have stripped on the 5th tee to save some costs.  The 2nd tee complex will be sodded to brand new bentgrass sod.  These two tees are the two weakest structurally on the golf course so the finished product will be  quite drastic comparatively.  As is visible with the infested tree roots in the tee above,  the health of the tee has certainly been compromised by the roots over the years.  A good example of why trees and healthy turf do not exist together!

New irrigation lines have been trenched and set and the tee soil mix has been placed on the new tees. We will continue to fight the weather to get the projects done in the near future so the sod can establish before the long winter.  The plan is to be able to open the new tees first thing in the spring when the course opens.

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Tee Renovation Scheduled For #2 And #5 Men's Tees.

We recently inquired and received 15 loads of  Free soil from a local pool company building a pool in the area.  The soil was some very nice topsoil so the plan is to put the soil to good use by re-building the 2nd and 5th men's tees.  These tees are the weakest on the golf course for many reasons so we will address the master plan and renovate them to provide a very nice teeing surface for next years golfing season.

 #5 Tee below contains (2) very uneven and misaligned tees.  The tees here are also inundated with tree roots from trees in the area.

 The master plan below shows how the #2 tee will be built utilizing (2) separate tees for the blue and white teeing area.

 The master plan below shows the 5th tee and how it will merge into being (1) large tee at the same  elevation.

In the meantime, we will begin construction sometime in early October and during this time the blue and white tee markers will be placed on the ladies tee until next season for daily play.  Preemptive apologies for any inconvenience this will cause until next season.  

Mike O'Neill, GCS

The Obvious Benefits Of Core Aeration...

The pictures above shows two different portions of greens that we core aerated back in July.  These areas are historically high-traffic areas that receive excess wear and traffic from foot traffic, a wetter than usual area or a pinch point where golfers tend to funnel because of the topography in these areas. These areas are both, as mentioned, "Wet Areas" that tend to stay wetter than the rest of of the green. The extremely wet June we experienced further exacerbated the problem here so we took the approach to core aerate these spots and the benefits are evident with the healthy looking turf in all of the aeration holes.

With the demands to keep greens speed at a certain expected level, these areas that are weaker will be expected to thin out come August.   I have heard members ask "Why are the greens slow today" or "Why can't the greens be this fast all of the time".... The answer is in the pictures above.  We would have extensive thin areas like the ones pictured above if we did't take our foot off the pedal at least a little bit.  These areas will fill in nicely going forward thanks to the aeration process.  We will be core aerating all the greens on September 8th;  the process is very labor intensive but the benefits to our greens is exponential and is the reason our greens play the way they do all summer!

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Wetting Agent Products For Turf...Worth The Investment!

The above picture shows how dry the intermediate rough has gotten recently with the dry weather we have been experiencing.  It is very noticeable how healthy the fairways look compared to some of the rough.  In the picture above, you can see a distinct line where we sprayed wetting agent on the fairways this spring to help keep the fairways moisture level adequate.  The lackluster irrigation system is the main reason we spray the wetting agent in the spring.  Next year we will include the intermediate cut in the wetting agent application for very obvious reasons!!!

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Proactive Aeration On Historically "High-Traffic Areas" On Greens.

This week many will notice the random strips where we have core aerated the greens that tend to go south during the months of July and August with our rigorous maintenance programs to keep up greens speed.  These areas tend to thin because of an existing issue with drainage or lack of soil underneath.  The spots we aerated are areas than cannot withstand the pressure of frequent mowing and rolling coupled with excessive foot traffic.  The aeration is an attempt to be proactive in creating a healthier environment for the turf in these areas.  You can see by the above picture, my assistant Keith Eilertsen is also applying seed to these areas to promote an even more tolerant bentgrass turf species to traffic for the future.

Mike O'Neill, GCS

#12 Approach...Much Improved!

The late fall project of creating "Drainage sumps" for surface water removal of the 12th approach has been completed.  The drainage is doing a nice job through this very wet spell.  We recently removed bentgrass/poa sod from our nursery green collar and sodded the entire area.  This area should play and look a whole lot better from here on out!

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Divot Etiquette On Range

The driving range is a great place to hone your skills and tweak you swing as you so feel necessary. The driving range is an excellent amenity to have for this purpose.  Here at Bellevue we struggle every year with inadequate teeing surface area to accommodate the amount of golfers that use the range tee, usually in the evenings I have noticed.  The above photo was taken of the range tee yesterday which shows an abundance of divots being taken in one spot.  The bottom photo shows how we would prefer divots be taken, with a small gap between each divot.  This small gap will allow the grass to eventually creep back into the void and reduce the healing time needed to achieve 100% coverage of grass again.  Please consider doing this the next time you are on the range tee to allow the tee to stay in much better shape through the course of the season for everyone to enjoy.
Mike O'Neill, GCS

Tough Spring For The Irrigation System!

The abundance of irrigation breaks this spring is attributed to a long cold winter and an aging irrigation system.  The pipes in the ground are an old type of pvc that has a very thin wall and in turn gets very brittle with age.  The pipe in the ground is pushing 40 years old so we are starting to get more and more breaks as we start the system up.  We are at 16 sprinkler breaks and 5 main line breaks already this spring.  We also ran into problems during the recent hot stretch of weather not having the whole system working.  We ended up having to run tanks of water around the section of the course that is lacking the irrigation because of broken lines.

We are hoping we are finally getting ahead of the problems but every time we have a break, that takes away from the detail work we could be accomplishing on the golf course.

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Moving Ahead With Getting The Course In Top Shape!

As mentioned in previous blog posts, the course has come through the winter in relatively excellent shape.  Many of our annual problem areas have already been graded and seeded in hopes to get them to fill in as soon as possible.  The area in the top picture is the drainage project we started late last fall on the 12 approach area.  This area is essentially the "Low spot" in the area so water tends to sit here. The soil underneath is heavy clay which does not drain at all.  We cut in very deep sand sump channels in the hopes to remove the standing water from the surface.  The area should drain much better and we are hoping the aesthetics and firmer and dryer conditions will promote a much better approach shot.  The middle picture is the 17th green which always looks great coming out of winter.  The 6th fairway as seen in the bottom picture is always a drainage problem.  The fairway has literally only 3" of soil on top of bedrock, so drainage here is not much of an option.  We re-seed the area each year and it fills in only to thin out in the fall.  Options here are very few here but we do our best with the cards we are dealt! 

Mike O'Neill, GCS

The Golf Season Is Approaching, Course Update.

Finally, we are starting to see that there is still actually grass under all that snow cover!  I was starting to wonder!  As mentioned in previous blogs, the course has survived the winter without the damage we had last winter.   We did however experience more than usual snow mold breakthrough on the fairways this year.  The fairways are treated with snow mold prevention fungicides but the prolonged snow cover was too much pressure for the product.  The snow mold damage is on most fairways but is not a big problem going forward as the damage is all cosmetic.  The grass in these areas will eventually grow through the blemishes and fill right in and look normal with some warmer soil temperatures.

Also note the picture of the "Footprints" on the 4th green above.  These footprints were caused by someone and their dog walking on the green while frost was on the green.  We police the course the best we can but for some reason, people seem to think they can walk across the course whenever they want.  This damage will grow out but will take some time and in the meantime will look quite unsightly.  As pictured above, there is still snow in pockets on the course and we will keep everyone informed as to when we will be able to open the course.  Lets think warm weather!

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Tree Trimming, Forward Tee Utilization.

In an attempt to get out and accomplish some work on the golf course, we have recently moved forward with the trimming and removal of various trees and limbs along the beginning left side of the ninth fairway.  The intention here is to open up the left side of the fairway as well as expose the forward tee here and open up the tee shot to utilize this tee in the future.  The Trees were growing over the fairway here 20-25'.  Anytime the trees and branches start creeping over the fairway, the situation becomes unfair to the average golfer and eliminates the way the hole was intended to be played.

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Winter Is STILL Here!

I know, I know it actually has been a ridiculously cold and snowy winter thus far.  A record "Coldest ever February" has been recorded and as I add this blog entry here on March 6th it is 6 degrees outside.  The one positive note for us though is we have been able to attend to some longtime issues with some of the equipment.  We are still working diligently on our golf cart fleet here in the maintenance department.  We have some older golf carts we use to move and transport our workers around the golf course.  They are all up and running at this point which will eliminate some headaches when the snow finally does melt!  We have also made some new hazard stakes, which are all cut and painted at this point.

I did recently get a look at the 6th green under hip-high snow as can be seen in the bottom picture. Everything appears great at this point.  The picture with the shovel was taken where we had all the issues last winter and the turf here appears very healthy.  The blanket of snow without any temperature fluctuations keeps the turf from freezing and thawing.  When the snow finally does melt we should be looking at some healthy turf in these areas.  In the meantime, lets hope for a warm up, SOON!

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Winter Tree Work, Making The Course More User Friendly!

The middle of winter is upon us and as is the case with most winters, we are able to shift our focus to tree trimming and removal on the golf course. The frozen ground allows us to haul our heavier equipment out on the course where we otherwise couldn't when the ground is unfrozen.  The pictures above show the work currently being done to the beginning left side of the 9th fairway.  Here we are selectively pruning and removing any of these unsightly trees that unfairly encroach onto the fairway playing surface.  As is visible from the top picture, the trees actually impede a fair shot from the forward women's tee here.

The removal will also help the turf in this area and will also reduce the pesky maintenance of pine cone removal through the season in this area.  The pine cones cause big problems with our fairway mowers in this area as they get stuck in the mowers and gouge the fairway turf.  The end result here will be healthier turf to play from as well as a much more fair shot from this area of the fairway.

Mike O'Neill, GCS

Organizing And Streamlining The Shop For Efficiency.

The winter months allow us to get everything we do in order.  During the golf season, we literally focus all our attention on the golf course and often times the winter allows us to see where we can improve.  Organization is a key ingredient in keeping 14 staff members as efficient as possible  while they are on the clock here.  The organization starts in the shop with the ease at which employees can access equipment like blowers and other handheld equipment.  The above photo shows a work bench being built to store blowers more effectively as well as to act as a work bench for staining and painting course accessories like ball washers, bag stands and foot cleaners.

Mike O'Neill, GCS