Just Add Water.........After Grass!!

The front lawn was sodded today.  You can see the activities below.  The crew did a beautiful job in the hot sun!

Jeff and Angel laying it down with Abner and Fidel, GREEN SIDE UP!!!

Certified TifTuf

After all the detail work, JUST ADD WATER!!!

 

Clubhouse Front Lawn

 This week we are stripping and resodding the the island lawn at the front of the clubhouse.  It is being planted with the same grass that is going to be used on the Practice Facility when we renovate it in the coming months.  It's a bermudagrass called TifTuf.  TifTuf should provide a dense, lush lawn that is highly drought tolerant and requires 30% less water than other grasses.  

Here you can see the site prep.  The old grass is being removed and the soil will then be graded down smooth.

These are stems and stolens that we have to remove to prepare for the new sod.

May Bird Box Check

Brian "Birdman" Beckner was out today to check our bird boxes.  It is late in the season but we are still seeing some great activity.  One of which was a huge surprise for me, we have bluebirds!  Although I have not seen any on the courses, we have newly hatched young bluebirds in a box.  The new purple martin hotel on 10 Bobcat has some martin hatchlings in one of the rooms so its exciting to know we picked a good location for a new hotel.

Mom screech owl is sitting on an egg still.

These bluebirds are in a box on 13 Bear.  Very exciting to see!!

These are newly hatched purple martins in the "Martin Hotel" at the comfort station on 6 Bobcat.

 

New Aquatics on 14 Bear

These canna lillies have been a problem for a while now so we are permanently correcting the issue.  They are located in front of the back tee on Bobcat 2.  When they are fully grown it is difficult to see the golf hole AND hit a golf ball over them.  So instead of just trashing them we are relocating most of them to the lake on the right side of 14 Bear.  Before Hurricane Irma there were aquatics all along the lake on 14 Bear, but all were lost during the storm.  

You can see the problem here.

Francisco and Angel are starting to get after it.

Here you can see Mr. Galla directing the way at the head of the lake on 14 Bear.  These plants will grow fairly tall, obviously, so we are just putting in some "groupings" of plants along the bank.   

As time goes on we will eventually fill in the some of the other areas of the lake with some lower growing aquatic plants.  We already have our eyes on some that we can transplant so stay tuned!!

 

Bear Pump Station Repair

We finished our 2021 CAPEX Project for the Bear Course pump station.  The motor that you see here was refurbished while the pump underneath it was completely replaced due to the old one being worn out.  Effluent water that we use tends to wear out parts quicker due to its corrosiveness by nature.

The other motor and pump was renovated and replaced last year bringing us up to 100% new components now.

 

Bobcat Closure Week II

We hit the ground running again today to start the second week of our closure. Tees are being topdressed with sand and greens are getting mowed for the first time since last week.  We finished verticutting and cleaning up all 18 holes of fairways on Friday, which was an awesome feat considering it normally takes 2-3 days!!  All collars and approach tie-ins were verticut this morning. 

Here you can see the sand going down on 6 ladies tees.  This is done as a final process and will smooth and firm the surfaces.

Kenny is dragging the tees after the sand has dried.  The steel drag mat being used will act as 1000 tiny boxblades dragging the sand to any low areas that need to be filled.

Eulalia is putting the first mow on 13 green.  This will be followed up this afternoon with a foliar fertilizer spray to help protect the plant and aid in healing.

 

Bobcat Closure Day IV and V

This week has been very productive on the Bobcat course.  Mother Nature has played a huge role in that as well as a hard working crew!  The dry weather has helped tremendously and we need  just a few more days of the same to finish up our cultural practices.  On Thursday, the all but one tasks on the tees was finished.  Friday morning started out with a fertilizer application on the greens to help speed recovery.  We also started verticutting fairways.  We hired a contractor to do this work as we do not have the equipment to do it as quick and efficiently as they can.  

Three tractors with verticutters were brought in to tackle the job.  It will take them all day to get through all 18 fairways.  

You can see the huge rooster tail from one of the machines on 18.

Number 1 produced a lot of material.  We were not able to do this procedure last year due to COVID so this will be a welcome relief to the golf course. 

This is just the material removed from 1 fairway.  

You can see the sweepers working on hole 18.  They started out with 2 machines this morning and will start a third eventually.  The clean up process may take a few days.  If Mother Nature helps us out they should finish on Saturday.

The final step is to circle cut the fairways.  This will be done several times and will help cut any runners that were lifted from the verticutters thus eliminating more material.  The thatch and stems will be blown off the fairway afterwards leaving a smoother, firmer surface than before.  The final result should yield better water infiltration, healthier turf and ultimately for you, the golfer, more ball roll! 

Bobcat Closure Day III

We had another great day today without any wet weather.  All greens processes were completed and now we can start fine tuning those.  Aerification continued on the tees along with the addition of amendments.

Here you can see the aerifier in action.  The holes are 3/4" wide and 4-5" deep.  This is creating a space to work in some amendments, relieve compaction and stimulate root growth.

Here you can see the tees being topdressed with an organic compost.  This will aid in water retention, soil structure, root growth and nutrient retention.

#7 tee immediately after the application.

Here you can see the material being brushed into the holes.

The crew has been working so hard this week and have done an outstanding job!!  They were rewarded with pizza at lunch today.

 

Bobcat Closure Day Two Part II

Cultural processes continued today on the Bobcat greens.  The second verticutting of the greens was completed.  Topdressing with sand, aerification, adding soil amendments, and brushing and rolling started as well.

More material is being removed from the greens on the second verticutting.

Aerification started after the greens were heavily topdressed with sand.  The sand will fill the holes in order to dilute organic matter in the soil profile, therefore firming the surface.  

Closeup of 3 green after aerification.

Soil amendments are added to the greens after aerification.  These will aid in growing the turf back in, as well as helping remove unwanted salts easier during watering.

The greens are then rolled and brushed at the same time to smooth out any imperfections while brushing the sand and amendments into the holes.

Water is added to the finished product.

 

Bobcat Closure Day Two Part I

Thatch management continued today on the tees.  As seen in yesterdays post we verticut the tees just like the greens.  

After the tees were cleaned up they were circle cut.  This practice is used to smooth the surface and mow it from as many different directions as possible to cut off any remaining shoots.  Any clippings are then blown off.

Here is a completed tee.

As I rode around checking out all the processes I noticed how green 17 tee was even after all the processes were complete.  You, as golfers, actually do thatch management on the par 3's when you take a divot.  Notice how much less thatch there is in this picture compared to a par 5 tee that takes no divots at all.

 

Bobcat Closure Day One

We had our first day of cultural practices on Monday.  We started with thatch management of greens and tees.  We remove thatch in our playing surfaces for many reasons, but the ones you benefit from the most is firmer and faster playing conditions.  Thatch builds up naturally over time and must be removed in order for the greens not to be soft and spongy.  

This is 5 green after the first verticutting.  This practice is done twice but must first be cleaned up in order to get good results from the second go around.

After verticutting the greens are then blown off with the turbo blower seen above.

After blowing off the majority of the material, the green is then brushed to loosen and move any remaining material to the collar of the green.

This is the result after the first day.  This same practice will be done again the next day.

After performing the second verticutting and cleaning the green is then mowed and the result on 18 green is above.

The tees were given the same type treatment with another larger verticutter mounted to a tractor.  Stay tuned for more coming soon!!

 

Lightning Damage

When you leave 12 Bear green, look backwards once you pass the first oak tree on the right.  You will see these two big gashes.  At first glance it looks as if someone ran into the tree but it was actually lightning damage.  If you look closely at the crotch of the tree you will see another area where the bark was peeled away.  

All trees are susceptible to lightning, but studies have found that Oak trees tend to be hit more often than other species in Florida. Oaks tend to be taller than other surrounding trees and hold more moisture naturally, making them particularly vulnerable.  

It will be interesting to see if the tree survives.  It has about a 50% chance of survival.  The strike has caused this oak to be more susceptible to insects and disease.