Poa Managment/Ballmark Removal

Maintaining bentgrass greens can have unique challenges, which has required us to adapt in order to provide the best playing surface possible. Two of these challanges are the encroachment of Poa sp. on the greens,which  is actually a weed, and ballmarks that don't heal with the cooler weather. So we sent a team of 4 guys to go around with 3/4" inch probes to remove ballmarks and Poa from the greens, and then they repaired the areas using icepicks.  

In the center of this photo is Poa annua encroaching on the green, which we plugged out. 

Here is an example of a ballmark that was plugged out.

This is what it looks like after the area has been plugged.

This is the final result after the area has been mended with an Icepick.

Here is a good example showing the process. Two guys would be resposible for plugging the areas out, while two more guys followed behind them repairing the areas.

Guys at work.

NCGA Area of Emphasis-Daily Maintenance Operations: Greens Mowing.

Providing the best play surface possible is our goal at TPC Stonebrae. Some of the keys to maintaining a quality and healthy putting surface is the quality of cut, and  frequency. Which is why we prefer to walk mow greens 6 days a week, and only triplex one day when we are short staff. One thing we do here which I've never experienced before is using brushes on the walkmowers, which we will usually use 3-4 days a week. The benefit of the brushes is to stand up the bentgrass to increase the quality of cut and to promote upright growth, which helps with other cultural practices such as topdressing.



This is a font look at the brush system that our mechanic John Cunnigham has created.



This is an overhead look at the brushes on the basket.

Here is a side view of the brush attachment, which can easily be removed.

This is how much grass we got making about 10 passes in a couple directions.

This is a video to give you an example of how the brush attachment works.

NCGA Area of Emphasis- Daily Maintenance Operations: Fairway Divots

One of the many weekly tasks performed at TPC Stonebrae is the filling of fairway divots. Now this may seem like a minuscule task, but it is actual a very important one. There are several reasons why do this, from a maintenance standpoint it helps the fairways recover faster and also ensures a good playing surface. We usually fill divots twice a week in the afternoon.



This photo is an example of a fairway divot taken on the fifth fairway, in a area that receives a lot of play.



The first step for the guys doing fairway divot mix is to prepare the mix itself. This is done in the back of the cart and the mix ratio's are 8 shovels of a soil mix to 2 shovels of Perennial Rye grass seed.  The soil mix we use has provided great results with helping the grass seed germinate, the mix contains sand (20%), soil(70%), and peat moss(10%). After the cart is filled the guys are ready to start, they will also bring 5 gallon buckets with them so they can walk the fairways and fill every divot. Having a cart full of a prepaired mix makes it easy to fill the buckets back up when they run out.

                                         



This photo shows one of the guys dropping sand into a divot, the key here is to put just enough mix in the divot so that its barely below the level of the existing turf. This is important because the fairway mower will scalp anything that is too high, making it hard to establish any grass in that divot. Also you don't want it to be to low as it will leave a depression and uneven playing surface.



This photo illustrates the second step which is to smooth the divot, in this case with his foot. Which is usually a pretty fast and effective way to level out a fairway divot.

This photo shows the divot after it was filled and leveled.

Since the guys walk the entire length of the fairway they will usually bring two carts, park one at the beginning of the fairway and then they will take the second cart with the mix and start at the end of the fairway. This way when they finish filling the divots  they can  drive the cart they dropped off back to the cart with the mix, which is more efficient.

Fall Fairway Aerification

Our Fall Fairway Aerification immediately follows the greens and tee aerification. It usually takes between 5-6 weeks to get everything aerified and top dressed. There are several reasons why this process is important culturally including increased air flow to the roots, compaction relief, and removal of built up organic debris also known as 'thatch'. Because our fairways are predominantly bentgrass which is a high thatch producing grass, we verticut the fairways before the aerifier punched them. Verticutting is a way to thin out the turf as well as remove thatch, using vertical blades that are set the desired depth.

 Fairway Aerification includes the following steps ( flag the heads, verticutting the fairway, aerifing, cleaning up the plugs with a sweeper and Pro-Gators, blowing/dragging the fairway, gypsum application, sand topdressing, and the last step is to drag the sand in the open holes.) Most of the process are shown in photo's below.

After the hole has been flagged it is verticut before the aerifier gets there.

After the hole has been verticut the aefier then proceeds, this photo shows the operator going in a different direction on a mound in order to get a deeper plug.

After the hole has been aerified it is cleaned. This photo shows the tc-125 sweeper being pulled by a pro-gator. When the sweeper is full it is emptied in the back of a pro-gator, and the plugs are dumped in certain areas.

While the sweeper is picking up plugs there are a couple people using snow shovels to push cores out of low areas, which are either hand shoveled or picked up later with the sweeper.



Right behind the Sweeper is the blower which also has a drag mat attached, this picks up any smashed cores and debris and moves them to the pile for the sweeper to pick up.



This is one of the areas that the cores were dumped, this is a trail from 6 tee.

After the gypsum and sand are put down, the fairway is gone over with a drag mat. The objective is to fill the holes and spread the sand out evenly.

This is an example of an area that has been dragged already to one that has not.

Animal Damage

The location of TPC Stonebrae in the Hayward Hills can best be described as unique, and with that brings its own challenges. One challenge from a maintenance standpoint that we deal with on a regular basis here is animal damage, more so than any other course I have seen. Most of the damage ranges from the high gopher population to wild turkeys running through bunkers, or every once in a while a few deer tracks on a green. On rare occasions we will find damage from wild pigs.The photos below I took this morning on #9 green, it shows damage on the back left part of the green from a wild pig. We do have a specialist that is called whenever there are any pig damage related issues, so we can be proactive and help prevent any future occurrences.



This is a majority of the damage. The area was mended with a divot repair tool to ensure it would not affect playability.



Spring Greens Aerification

Spring Aerification is a chance for use to help relieve the greens from all the stress endured during the fall and winter, which ensures we will have healthy greens going into the summer. Aerification helps remove all the built up organic matter which gives the  roots a chance to breath, increasing air movement and infiltration.  At TPC Stonebrae our greens aerification process involves a number of steps which are shown in the photos below.



This photo shows first three process of greens aerification at the practice center. First all the head are flagged so they are visable for operaters running the aerifiers. Secondly once the heads are marked the aerifiers proceed to aerate the area. Then after the area has been aerified snow shovels are used to push the plugs into piles off the green, where they can then be picked up using scoop shovels and a John Deere Pro Gator.



After the plugs have been cleaned the green is brushed with a greens groomer. This process helps to clean the surface and stands up the leaf blades, so sand will easily fill the holes.

After being brushed the remaning debris are blow off the greens surface using a buffalo blower.

Since we removed a lot of surface area of the green, they are then handwatered to prevent any stress which could slow the recovery process.

Now the greens are ready for sand. This photo shows both the topdresser and the method used to fill the holes. Once the sand is on the green, blowers are then used to moved the sand across the green, while filling the holes in the process. It's a fast and effecient process.

This is a photo of the green after the  holes are filled with sand.

After the holes are filled the greens are then double rolled to help smooth the surface.

Then the greens are ready for the ammendments. The Following ammendments were applied using push spreaders( Earth works 5-4-5, Potassium Sulfate, and Cal-CM-Plus).

The ammendments are then watered  in, which helps break them down so they are readily available to the plant.

Bunker Maintenance

In order to retain the integrity and original design of the bunkers at TPC Stonebrae we complete regular bunker maintenance on a biweekly schedule. Regular bunker maintenance includes the following tasks ( edging with a string trimmer, push mowing the interface between the rough and fescue, blowing of debris inside the bunker, and a full rake.)

On a monthly basis in addition to the regular bunker maintenance the fescue slopes are managed using a push mower set at 4".

Also up to three times a year the fescue edges of the bunkers are gone over with a reciprocating trimmer, Which helps to remove the root mass and stop any encroachment that would alter the bunkers shape and design.

Below is a series of pictures going through the complete bunker maintenance step by step.

This is the last fairway bunker on the left of  #17 before maintenance.

This is another picture before maintenace from a different angle.

This is the reciprocating trimmer which is cutting the fescue roots out of the bunker.

After using the reciprocating trimmer the area is gone back over with a flat shovel. This is to  loosen any roots or grass that was trimmed.

This photo is a mass of fescue roots, which is a good example of why this maintenance is a necessity. Because without it the bunker would be overgrown altering the original design.

After the roots have been loosened with a shovel, they are then separated from the sand using a pitchfork for removal. This helps to prevent excessive removal of sand in the process of cleaning up the roots.

This photo demonstrates the mowing of the fescue around the bunker with a rotary mower at 4".

This photo shows the mowing of the rough and fescue interface using a rotary mower.

In this photo a fly mower is being used to maintain the rough along the bunkers leading edge.

After all the mowing is completed the bunker is ready to be edged witha sting trimmer.

After all the mowing and and triming is completed, the debris are then blown out of the bunker.

Now that the bunker is cleaned of debris, sand levels are checked to ensure that there are at least 4" of sand in the flat areas. Any low areas are marked as shown in the photo so sand can be added in the appropriate locations.

After all the maintenance is completed the bunker is then smoothed out and fully raked.

This is an example of the finished product.

Our goal is to leave the bunker looking like no one was in it.