Frost at The Rim

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It is that time of year in the Rim Country. Overnight temperatures are below freezing and frost is inevitable. Fall is a great season with many colors to look at along the forest, but it also means frost delays are here.

Photo Courtesy of Purdue University www.ppdl.purdue.edu/PPDL/images/frostdamage1.jpg

We have adjusted are start times to reduce any frost delay during the winter months. We also have had cold enough weather to have frost stick around long enough to even delay our 1000am start time. We will do our best to get the course ready during the cold weather to reduce any kind of delay that may occur.

During the times of cold winter weather we will need to delay traffic on the turf until frost is melted. We want to avoid frost damage, because recovery is very slow this time of year. Damage from a cart or a walker can take more than a week to recover. The damage will start out purple in color and turn to a straw brown as the leaves begin to dry.

I like to use the analogy of a piece of glass shattering, when I explain frost damage. When the leaf blade of the plant is frozen and becomes crushed by a tire or a shoe it is basically like a piece of glass shattering into many pieces. Microscopically when the leaf blade sustains the damage the cells shatters into pieces. The pieces move through the plant destroying cells in its path. Once the plant begins to thaw the plant fluid leaks out and the leaf blade and will look water soaked and purple. The leaf blade is now dead and will turn brown. Rarely does this damage affect the crown of the plant so the plant itself is not dead. The problem is that growth is slowed during cold weather, which makes for a slow and painstaking recovery.

With that being said, we ask that walkers and cart traffic avoid turf while it is frozen to protect the grass. If there are any questions about frost and how we make the decision to delay golf please contact me.

Justin C. Ruiz, CGCS

December Green Committee Report

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Course Condition

The Rim Country has received some snow. With the cold weather the snow has been reluctant to melt. The ground has been frozen most of the day and the grass has undergone dormancy. We are seeing the benefits of our late fall fertilizer application with keeping some color through the winter months.

Projects Completed

This last month has been slow. Snow restricted crew access to the course for a few days. We have kept the projects more manageable with our small crew. We have finished fire-wise on #5 and the hill on #8.
I am sure you have also notice we have given a majority of the native its annual trimming. We have completed the hand work around trees, tees, and steep slopes to make way for a tractor mounted Brush Hog that will make quick work of the flat open areas.

Projects in Process

The projects that we have on our plate at this moment are fire-wise and pro-shop landscape. We have started the ornamental grass plant trimming behind 18 green and will continue this through the parking lot. This will take first priority now that we have completed #8 fire-wise. We will have a couple staff members continue fire-wise along #11, but it will be slow moving until we finish the trimming at the pro-shop area. We usually do fire-wise in the morning hours while we wait for frost. The late morning is mainly course set up. Now, we will start at the pro-shop then move to course clean up. We will concentrate on fire-wise in the afternoon if we feel there will be members present around the pro-shop area as to not bother everyone with the noise and flying debris.

We are also working on goose clean-up. It has been a frustrating winter so far with the geese. We use Chloe to chase them off, but they know when we are done for the day and return before dark. Lane has come back in the late afternoons to scare them off, but we still have had little success. If you would like to see more about the geese clickhere.

ElK

We have experienced tremendous damage in the past month due to elk. With the recent storm when we lost a few trees we had numerous breaks in the fence. This allowed many elk to gain access to the property. We recently hired the cowboys to round up the elk that were on the property and they successfully removed two. I know that number does not match the amount of elk damage we are getting. The elk travel onto the property at night and leave in the morning when there is an opening. Since the cowboys showed up in the late morning, the majority of the elk had already exited.

We have also been having trouble with a couple of our gates. Boards have mysteriously been removed or popped off and elk have gained access that way. We walk the fence once a month and if we see the remnants of elk we will walk it that day. Our most recent issue was the gate near the main entrance. The portion of the fence on the left as you drive in has been slowly sliding down the hill. This caused a gap near the gate that we have been blocking with boards. Recently that gate had boards popped off of it and left a large opening for the elk. With that being said we have straightened the fence and fixed the gate and we will see if most of the elk left the property in the morning or if we have some residents. Since the fence has been mended we will be ready for another visit from the cowboys, if indeed there are still elk on property.

Projects Planned

Future winter projects that we are looking at are as follows:
- Pro-shop trimming.
- Fire-wise.
- Walk path repair.

Ballmark and Divot Repair Party

If you missed our first party we are having another 3:00pm on January 15, 2010. We had a great time for the first party. We completed the entire repair in a little over an hour. “Many hands make light work.” – John Heywood. We will all meet at Mr. and Mrs. Paczkowski’s house on #5 after the repair is completed. If you need the flyer that was sent out or have any questions please contact me.

Side Notes

I was asked to write a case study explaining our water conservation efforts at The Rim. The case study has been posted on the Environmental Institute for Golf web site. You can view the entire case study here.

I have recently been asked to be on the cover of Golf Course Industry Magazine. The Editor had many questions about our divot and ball mark repair party and wanted to feature it along with other superintendents doing things a little different than normal maintenance. This will be coming out this month. Read more.

I have also begun the search for this season’s intern positions. You can view the blog post about our internship program here.

With the use of Twitter, I have been able to keep up with other superintendents across America to gain some insight on how they are dealing with issues on their courses. One of the superintendents is starting a series of posts on his blog called “What we do in the Winter”. I am going to take a similar approach and do a series of posts on what we do on the course. I will try to capture the nuts and bolts that define our work. If you would like to follow along, click here.

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

Justin C. Ruiz, CGCS

justinr@therimgolfclub.org

928.951.3421

Dan Devere, CGCS
ddever@chaparralpines.org
928-951-3272

The Rim Golf Club Internship Program

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Each year at The Rim Golf Club we advertise for interns. On my way to becoming a superintendent I too did an internship. I graduated from Oregon State University and did my internship at Waverley Country Club in Oregon. An internship’s purpose is to close the gap between academic skills and in the field experience. I feel like I can teach students things that I was not taught during my internship and schooling. The Rim Golf Club is a great place to learn with many issues that are uncommon to the average facility.

Our past interns have included Adam Troyer, from Ohio State University. He went on from our facility to become and assistant superintendent at New Albany Country Club. William Bosland, from New Mexico State University, went on to become an intern at the #1 course in America, Pine Valley. He is now an assistant superintendent at the Olympic Club in California. Eric Scharf from State University New York Delhi, he became our second assistant superintendent and now resides at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale. Matt Ruth from North Carolina was hired onto our crew for a while and then took an assistant position in Virginia. Andrew Fortin was our most recent intern from Walla Walla Community College. He has proven his work ethic and is considering coming back to be my assistant next season. These are a few great interns that have worked with me over the past three years and have gone on to become successful in the industry.


We are going to advertise for interns for this next season. They have a great opportunity to learn about water management, Integrated Plant Management and personnel management on a high maintenance property. These young individuals are the future of our industry and are eager to learn and work hard. They are highly motivated students and are great crew members.

I usually advertise nationally and then select certain schools to send a more descriptive notification too. I usually target Oregon State University, my Alma mater. We also send information out to Walla Walla Community College, because of our recent networking with Andrew Fortin, and University of Arizona.

The benefits of having interns during the season are having knowledgeable crew members that have the common goal of becoming a manager in the industry. In most cases they have been trained on a majority of the equipment and have the “eye for detail”. These individuals are always well motivated and are here to impress. They help keep the quality of the golf course elevated during the season.

If you would like to know more about our internship program or have any questions regarding our interns please feel free to contact me.

Justin Ruiz, CGCS

justinr@therimgolfclub.org

Water Savings Hard Data

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The water issues at The Rim have been a common topic each summer for many years. There has been some changes in the where we have gotten water in the past and how we get it now. In the past there were well on site that used to supply us with some water and now we rely on the sanitary department for our water. These past years have left the range and the rough of the golf course thin and in some areas dead from lack of water.

The past two years have been different. We have been able to make it through the summer with the range in tact and the golf course healthy. We did a large reassignment in the computer to get the computer and the field on the same page with water usage. We also made hundreds of head adjustments along the perimeter to correct alignment so all the water being applied is being used efficiently with as little over spray as possible.

The next step was balancing the irrigation system. Many people like to say they do this each winter by reseting their system and adjusting from that point on but unfortunately that is only part of the balancing process. The way we make adjustments from that point on is a major portion of the balancing. This is where we have succeeded in saving water and being more efficient.

This chart shows the average water use from 1999-2008 and our last year to date water usage. You can see the extra use during monsoon season because of the lack of monsoon moisture. If we had a normal monsoon season you would see even more savings.

The average water usage for the past nine years has shown our savings over all. We have tried to keep the course firm and dry with some off color areas. The soil media that supports the grass is made up of mostly organic matter (thatch). Growing grass in thatch is very difficult. There is not much between too dry and wet. Our aerification process and additional sand topdressing will begin to alleviate this issue.

2009 is on track to be the smallest amount of water received from the sanitary district. Not only did we have the lack of rain but, we are also looking at the population of Payson being much smaller. Less people using water, equals less reuse for the courses.

We are on the right track to keep saving water and begin to have consecutive years of healthy grass. This will help the turf stand get thicker and healthier. Over time with sound cultural practices and proper irrigation management the course will get better year after year and produce better and better playing conditions.

I have mentioned quite a bit about our water management process and I will be presenting our practices at the GCSAA show in 2010. We are always trying new ways to save even more water. Our next procedure that I will present to the greens committee will be the idea of removing some turf to help save even more water. Essentially this is our BMP program. A combination of practices to save water.

If anyone has questions about our processes or anything about irrigation please contact me.

justinr@therimgolfclub.org

Fall Fertilization Application

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We have applied our fall fertilizer application to the golf course. We used a 50/50 organic synthetic mix that we applied wall to wall. The green banks and tees complexes along with a pass around all bunkers was done with rotary walk spreaders while the bulk of the golf course was covered by the vicon.

This application is integral in getting the course jump started next season. Turfgrass management 101 states that a majority of your nitrogen should be applied in the fall. Not only will this application give the plant the extra carbohydrates it needs to store over the winter but will add to the color and vigor of next season. Here is a link to another course explaining their fall application. http://chrislecour.blogspot.com/2009/09/late-summer-and-fall-fertilization.html

When I first arrived on the property the main complaint we had when the course was not in threat of disease was the pocketing around the greens in the rough. We discovered that this was from insect damage but to take care of the problem once the insects were controlled was proper fertility. Fall applications helped the course fill in quickly once the weather warmed in the spring.

Fertility is an important factor when maintaining the golf course. We have the greens tested regularly to ensure proper fertility is accomplished. With the greens being sand based, nutrition can become deficient easily and quickly relative to a soil based system. The fairways and tees are tested annually on the same holes to ensure nothing gets out of control. With our lack of good growing media and our abundance of thatch we are growing grass in a unique situation.

Decisions made on fertility of the golf course course can be just as important as planning your plant protection program. Even though the fertilizer we have applied will do little for color or growth now the pay off will come in the spring when healthy grass will green up quicker and be more vigorous. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Justin Ruiz, CGCS

justinr@therimgolfclub.org

Course Work

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The three years that I have been at The Rim Golf Club I have dealt with many challenges. The first major challenge that has plagued the golf course has been water. The second was disease and insect pressure and as we peeled away these issues, we are now dealing with bunker contamination and drive off path deterioration.

The water problem has been addressed in earlier posts and how we have dealt with that issue. I will have much more information in a near future post to show the hard data on water savings over the past few years. I am completing my presentation for a BMP plan for water conservation for The Rim which will potentially give us a guideline to continue to save more water each season.

The disease and insect pressure has been discussed in detail as well. Two years ago we created an IPM plan for outlining a combination of approaches to monitor, and control insect and disease pressure. Not only have we been successful in our efforts but we continue to grow our IPM plan and eventually introduce more biological control and begin to move away from synthetic pesticides.

To make a long story short we have made large advancements in what I have always deemed the core of golf course management. Playability and presentation. These two attributes go hand in hand by complimenting one and other. When I first got to the property both were suffering and the course was in a downward spiral with the grass being under every kind of pressure you could imagine. Heat and drought stress, insect and disease pressure and excessive thatch. We have been able to reduce some of the stresses through water management and preventative plant protection applications.

So that brings us to now a sigh of relief when we talk about getting to the drive off's and the bunkers. Our efforts can be better directed to getting these areas better. We have finished the bunker work which has given us consistent depths across each bunker for better playability. We are looking at better ways to get sustainable cart exits from the turf.

The root of the problem in our bunkers was the lack of lining when the bunkers were reconstructed. We have revealed that all the renovated bunkers are not completely lined. They were lined on only faces or the steepest part of the bunker which helps that area hold sand during the rain, but this does not aid in keeping rocks from surfacing from the underlying decomposed granite.

We are trying to get the Nolte sand cleaner into the bunkers when we stop water around the bunkers. The machine is relatively effective in removing rocks off of the top 2-3 inches. The inevitable truth is that the rock will continue to come back from underneath. This process will at least give us some temporary playability. We will also try to couple this with back pack blowing the rocks off of the surface into a pile and removing with a shovel. Both processes are both a temporary fixes until the bunkers are ultimately renovated and lined properly.

The Drive offs around the course are definitely a tough fix. We have tried many ways to get the paths to hold up to cart traffic but they have all failed and the paths have gradually gotten worse. I am looking into a soil stabilizer or mixing cement into the top few inches of the granite to see if we can get better stability.

We are trying what we can for the issues on our course. That is what makes this job interesting and fun. Problem solving is rewarding when you can figure out the solution. So far we have done a great job with insects and water. We will find the solution to the bunkers and the drive offs. We just haven't discovered the best fix.