April 2010 Monthly Report

Monthly Report

Course Condition

With the weather being cooler than expected this month we are about a week behind on green up and healing from aerification. We even had some snow!

Projects Completed

We have completed the aerification of the Greens. We used ½” quad tines. The USGA recommends that we remove 20% of the surface annually. These tines got us a little over 9%. We are right on track with the Fall aerification planned with larger tines.

The Fairways have also been completed. The tines used were 7/8”. The spacing on the holes is a little farther apart then the greens so we are right around the 9% with our removal.

Recently we installed Barley straw bails in the lakes throughout the golf course. The theory behind the straw is that as they sit in the water they exude a chemical that eliminates algae from growing. Soon, we will spray the existing algae since the bails will not kill algae already surfacing.

Projects in Process

After our fairway aerification was completed, we had many areas that had excess sand. We are working on spraying the sand out of these heavy areas with water. Once the excess sand is removed the affected area recovers quickly. To alleviate this problem for the late summer aerification, we will apply less sand to avoid the build up. We will have some open holes, but we can then come back later and apply another light application to fill the holes and avoid the majority of the sand build up.

We are still working on #13 storm damage on the left side of the hole. We repaired the clogged line and with the heavy winter moisture the area stayed saturated enough to restrict access for our backhoe. Now that the area has dried we are finally putting the project to bed. There was some supplemental drainage that had been installed a few years back that was also clogged and we abandoned the latter section and are going to tie that into our new drainage pipe. This project will be finished shortly.

We have been slowly making our way around the course edging and cleaning out the sprinkler heads and valve boxes, checking pressure at the heads and making any necessary adjustments on the part circle heads.

The weeds in the landscaped areas are also getting sprayed on a daily basis. We are carrying pump sprayers to get weeds as we see them.

Projects Planned

The warmer soil temperatures will be ideal for new seed to germinate and grow. We will target any thin areas in fairways, rough or green surrounds to slice seed a ryegrass/Kentucky bluegrass mix to help these areas move along.

Of course the irrigation system will be a huge part of our jobs this summer as is every summer. We are continually scouting for improperly working heads and heads operating out of specification. The irrigation system is the lifeline for the course. It is important we have everything working properly as quickly as possible.  Read More

Integrated Pest Management

We have controlled for the Billbug adults at around 300 growing degree days. This should reduce the population of reproducing adults and in turn reduce the pressure of larval damage.

This month we are also on the verge of spraying our first preventative application for summer patch. We are monitoring soil temperatures to accurately anticipate pathogen activity.





Read More

Poa!

There is definitely some Poa out there on the golf course. This year it has become much more noticeable with the wet winter. The Poa has been around since the course has opened. We will continue to have Poa in the Tees, Fairways, Approaches and Rough. The greens, we will take every measure to make sure we do not start to get contamination. Poa may stand out like a sore thumb in the spring but once the seed heads die down in the early summer it will yield a decent playing surface. I think we all know some of the best courses in America are 100% Poa.

Side Notes

I again was invited on the cover of another magazine for the month of May. The magazine is Golf Course Trades Magazine. This article is dear to my heart and it meant a lot to be able to write.  Read article.





Our National Association, GCSAA is sending out the GCSAA TV crew to film The Rim Golf Club and feature the Case Study written last year on our efforts for water conservation. We may also be highlighted on Turfnet TV. This is a national Website with many members throughout the United States. GCSAAtv





If you have any questions, please contact me or Dan.





Justin Ruiz, CGCS                                                                 Dan Devere, CGCS

jruiz@therimgolfclub.org                                                      ddevere@chaparralpines.org

Monthly Green Committee Report February 2010

Monthly Report

Monthly Greens Committee Report

Presented to The Rim Greens Committee

By

Golf Course Superintendent

Justin C. Ruiz, CGCS

January, 2010

Course Condition



The cold weather has come back for a little while and the course remains dormant. Spring is just around the corner though and it won’t be long before we begin greening up.



Projects Completed



This month we have focused on trying to recover from the massive storm we had last month.

We finished fire-wise along the right hand side of #11.

You may have seen us over by #18 approach digging up a valve. We thought the valve was leaking, but the soil was so saturated in that area from the storm, water started to fill the valve boxes. Ground water was finding the least amount of resistance to surface, which was right at the valve. Luckily, no irrigation leaks.

Cart drive offs have been covered with new, finer, mulch and the rocks defining the paths have been removed. We are still looking into a more permanent fix for the rough conditions over time.

Projects in Process

The storm damage on #13 has become our priority. The large amount of water mixed with DG plugged the drain pipe. At construction they installed a 6” drain pipe that then reduced to 4” pipe toward the end of the drain. It is like coming down from the Rim on 260, Sunday afternoon; everyone races through the passing lane and then when it merges back to one lane everyone is hitting the brakes. All the water had to go somewhere so it washed out the whole trench containing the pipe.

The left side of #11 and #6 are currently getting fire-wised during frost delays.

Projects Planned

Once #11 is completed, the right side of #6 will be fire-wised.

Removing excess DG in drainage areas will take place this next month.



With frozen conditions letting up we can get back to working on pressure adjustments to the sprinklers.



Divot and Ballmark Repair Party



We completed another repair party the 26th of February. The members that volunteered their time were able to complete all 18 fairways and greens in a little over an hour. A big thanks goes out to those who -olunteered. It helps our staff and the course out tremendously.



Integrated Pest Management



March 1st will begin our degree day count and start our trap monitoring for this season’s insect pests. We will also begin checking soil temperatures to plan our control process for the root infecting disease, Summer Patch. If you would like to read about our IPM practices, click here.



Aerification Notice read more



Greens Aerification April 12th.



Fairway Aerification April 26th.



Side Notes



The Golf Industry Show took place at the beginning of this month in San Diego. I was lucky enough to get a portion of the conference and show sponsored by some of our vendors. I took a class about irrigation auditing to continue to make improvements on water conservation. read more I spoke about our water conservation efforts over the past three years to nearly 200 golf course superintendents in the innovative superintendent session.



Dan had mentioned in a previous newsletter about my use of twitter and blogging to increase communication to our members and with other superintendents in the industry. The February issue of Golfdom has a great article on the use of twitter in our industry. view article

January 2010 Monthly Report

Monthly Report

Monthly Greens Committee Report

Presented to The Rim Greens Committee

By

Golf Course Superintendent

Justin C. Ruiz, CGCS

January 2010

Course Condition

Yet again, the golf course was covered with snow from the recent storm that hit The Rim. We had nearly a foot of snow cover the golf course, with a total of 11 inches of precipitation for the week. That is nearly the total amount of rain recorded in 2009.

Projects Completed

This month we completed trimming the plants and bushes around the pro shop, spa, and course bathrooms. We also finished work on #7 drive off, after the bridge. There was a large bump at the cart path’s edge.

Projects in Process

Projects that we are working on right now are as follows:

We are spending all of our time doing course clean up. Large amounts of rain we had last week carried a lot of debris and rock onto the course. We had a couple drains get plugged and we worked on getting those to drain, so the potential of water damage to the turf would be reduced.

We lost a couple of trees on the course. One tree was down on the left side of 16. The other tree was on the left side of 9. The trees were both in the native areas, bordering the holes. Read more.

We are also working on trimming and thinning the bushes on both sides of whole #11. Before the storm hit, the crew finished the pro shop trimming and began to trim #11. Our goal is to get this hole completed during the winter months.

Elk



This month we faced quite a bit of an elk problem. We had chronic problems with the gates on the west side of the fence. The Elk seemed to figure out that the gates were our weakest link. They began just walking up to the gates and pushing through them. With Lane’s re-design of the gates we have yet to have a problem. Click here to see Lane’s solution to our gate problems.



Projects Planned



Future winter projects that we are looking at are as follows:





- Storm Cleanup.



- #11 Fire-wise.



- Walk path and drive off repair.



Divot and Ball Mark Repair Party



The divot and ball mark party, held earlier this month, was a huge success. A big thanks goes to the Paczkowski’s for letting us all meet at their house after our repair party. Read the article in Golf Course Industry Magazine.



Side Notes

Last report, I mentioned that I would be on the cover of Golf Course Industry magazine. Well, here is the magazine in digital format.



I am also getting ready for the Golf Industry Show. I will be going to a water auditing class to hone my skills on irrigation system management, view the latest technology for golf course equipment, and do a presentation to 500+ people on our efforts for water conservation (similar to the case study in last month’s report).



During the month of August The Rim Golf Club will be featured on the Environmental Institute for Golf website. Next month Arizona Golfer News (the paper in the lobby of the pro shop) will feature an article about the work done at The Rim Golf Club.



If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Dan or me.



Justin C. Ruiz, CGCS                                           Dan Devere, CGCS



justinr@therimgolfclub.org                                    ddevere@chaparralpines.org



928.951.3421                                                        928.951.3272