Fall Maintenance and Paspalum Removal

Fall maintenance has nearly wrapped up for 2017. We aerified greens less than two weeks ago and they are healing nicely. For this round, we went with larger tines than usual and punched as deep as we could. The greens will appreciate all that oxygen and fresh sand and we appreciate your patience and support during this process.

We still have some select seeding to accomplish in the rough, but all tees and collars are finished. Soon these areas will be a carpet of dark green. The fairways will also be greening up soon, with the help of our winter pigment that provides the color golfers enjoy without destroying the bermudagrass base we worked so hard to build.

Finally, a project we planned months ago is the removal of any remaining paspalum in the greens. We timed a herbicide application to coincide with aerification, so all the ugliness happens at once. The herbicide works great this time of year and produced the results we were looking for, dead paspalum.

Most greens have some brown paspalum around the edge. The majority is less than a few inches wide, but some is larger. Our Assistant Superintendent, Heather, has been leading the sodding effort on the green edges. We pull the sod from our nursery green that we rebuilt two years ago and replace the dead paspalum while coring out any remaining roots and stolons.

The sodding project should wrap up next week. Any small spots that remain will heal on their own and we will finally be paspalum free. Thanks to all the members who complimented the crew during the last few busy weeks. I've had many reports from my staff of the encouragement and thanks they receive from passing golfers. They notice when you notice, so thank you.

Shades of Bermuda

Bermuda is a fantastic turf for golf. It can take all sorts of abuse, drought, traffic, and maintenance practices and bounce back quickly. Recently, we've really put bermuda to the test, with some scalping in new low-cut areas and aerification of the fairways. Below is a good example of recovery from scalping. The green surround on the par-3 9th hole was trimmed down and went brown for a couple weeks. It's now green, heathy and smoother than ever. These new areas are giving our members more shots to consider and helping to eliminate undesired grasses.

Over the past two weeks, Bernardo Heights has installed 62,000 square feet of new bermuda grass. This new turf replaces half an acre on the 18th hole, all the collars, a long strip along the range tee, and many locations in the fairways.










I've had many questions about the project and the new turf, so here are some of the most common:

Will the new collars go dormant?

The collars are Tifgreen 328, a fine leaf, hybrid bermuda. This was chosen for a few reasons. It can be mowed very short, it moves laterally less than other warm season grasses, we can overseed it, and it plays well. Yes, it will go dormant, but not like the paspalum we've been dealing with. Also, we will seed in winter with Poa trivialis, which provides a green cover in the cool months, but transitions quickly and dies when it warms. 

Is the sod OK, it looks a little brown?

Whenever we lay bermuda sod, it is very common or standard that the sod goes off color, sometimes solid brown. This is the turf going into a defense stage. It puts all its effort into sending down roots and the leaf tissue above will turn brown. It will green up soon and already has roots down 4 inches in about 10 days. Please don't going looking for roots like this yourself, you'll have to take my word for it.

Why do some fairways look better than others after aerification?

I've always felt that the fairways that get torn up the most are the ones that need the most work. This past week, we have been solid tining (not pulling a core) the fairways with our big tractor-mounted aerifier. Hybrid bermuda sections show very little damage. This includes most of #5 and #17. It almost looks like we didn't do anything, but there are many, many holes to get oxygen into the soil, improve infiltration of irrigation, and relieve compaction. Where we have common bermuda, most of holes 4, 7, and 10, the turf gets ripped up. Lateral runners of 4-6 inches are severed and pulled up during the process. We drag the fairway with a large mat and then mow off the plants above our cutting height. This is excellent for bermuda. It might turn brown for a few days, but where the bermuda is cut, new growth is stimulated and fresh, healthy leaves replace old tired stems.

 Why did we renovate #18?

This area is shaped like a bowl. Insufficient drainage caused sodium from our irrigation to pile up and turf to thin and die. Instead of continuing to core out and replace patches, we spent some money and did it all the right way. The root zone is deeper and healthier with quality sand blended into the existing topsoil. There is 1000 feet of new drain lines which will prevent the sodium from building up again. Irrigation heads have been moved and added to improve coverage. Finally,  3 to 4 types of bermudagrass is now one uniform variety.


I love the strength and durability of bermudagrass. I appreciate the many shades, and this summer, I'm sure you'll all be seeing more green than ever before. 

New Collars are Coming

Paspalum has been a dirty word around Bernardo Heights for a very long time. The green collars, installed about ten years ago, have never been enjoyed by the membership. This turf is a bit sticky, nicknamed velcro by many players. The winter conditions have been poor, overseeding unsuccessful, and even when it looks good, it doesn't play particularly well.

Over the next few weeks, the collars will be removed and replaced with bermuda 328. This surface will blend nicely with the fairways and green surrounds and new collection/low cut areas. Overseeding will take place in the winter to maintain year-round playability and aesthetics.

The first step in this process is removal of existing sod and a portion of the soil below. USGA sand will be installed, compacted and graded before sod is laid down. While the crew is completing their tasks, we will have temporary greens in place. Speaking with some members today, I apologized for the inconvenience of temporary greens and the response was an emphatic, "do whatever you gotta do!!"

Another project, that actually is well underway, is the renovation of #18 fairway. We've battled this section for years, with many aerifications, topdressings, tons of soil amendments and conditioners. It has improved, but not nearly to the standards we expect for our members. The problem is dense clay soil below the 4 inch sand profile of the fairways. Drainage is not sufficient to drain excess water and salts, we are unable to flush the soil like we do on the greens.

Long time members may remember a similar situation on the 17th fairway. This area was a "salt bath" and plagued by the ill effects of bad water, even though it was potable water at that time. Now, our well water, with three times the sodium we used to battle is finding new areas that need a little help. Just like the front half of 17 fairway, we will install drainage and sand to give new hybrid sod some breathing room. And, just like the front of 17, your closing hole is about to be gorgeous.

To make the most of this project, much of the sod coming off of 18 is quite good and will be relocated in other areas. Our staff installed about 2000 square feet on the range floor yesterday and they are busy prepping locations today to use as much as we can.




The excitement around the club is obvious. The grand opening for the reinvented clubhouse was just weeks ago and now new collars are coming. As a bonus, the 18th hole is getting a facelift. Things have never looked better and we still have a very long ways to go.

Coyotes, ropes, and fences

For years, Bernardo Heights has been the site of a mystery, a frustrating whodunit and why would they do it anyway. The nylon rope we use for traffic control was repeatedly cut, over and over again. Many times the rope would be cut on either side of the green, plastic stakes that serve as fenceposts. The cut is too perfect to be made by anything other than a very sharp knife or a pair of scissors, or so we thought.

The crew had their guesses of who was responsible. A certain member that complained more than his fair share or the school kids walking home or causing mischief at night. Many ideas were shared to catch the perpetrator such as trail cams, or placing rope outside the homes of members serving as our neighborhood watch. This was a case of senseless vandalism, and somebody was going to pay for it. 

Neighboring superintendents suggested coyotes, but the cut was too perfect. I ventured onto the TurfNet forum and read a long thread about this issue and many people swore the cut from a coyote's teeth is as clean as a knife. Finally, I got smart and escorted Izzo, our resident canine detective, to a recent site of "vandalism." She smelled the rope and the hair stood on her back. She darted around sniffing more pieces of rope and a tree and stopped to mark multiple spots. I could replicate this at every new location. 

So, mystery solved, we are no longer searching for Edward Scissorhands, which was the criminal nickname the club awarded to our suspect. The problem, however, still exists. Many nights the rope is cut, sometimes across the entire course. Traffic control, unfortunately, is a necessary tool to manage turf conditions.

Our solution is a split rail fence that is dyed to match the color of the mulched areas. The photo above is the 4th fairway, our longest current stretch of fence. I have much more in the shop that will be installed later this year to eliminate daily repair of coyote damage and provide a cleaner look than rope and stakes. 

The woes of winter

Cart Path Only

These three words are more feared than "you're still away." Unfortunately, you've all been hearing "cart path only" for a few weeks straight. With another inch about to come down, we won't be driving on the course any time soon.

This year's rain total, now up to 6.13 inches since October 1st, has been excellent for the course, but not so great for playing conditions. Slow, soaking rains have saturated the soil and we need a stretch of dry weather to firm up. Hopefully, we get some dry days after the next storm.


Weeds

A very high maintenance priority for the next four months will be weed control throughout the course. We lost a very effective weed barrier when we removed 35 acres of turfgrass and replaced it all with mulch and decomposed granite. This year, we are training additional staff to spray weeds and we'll be experimenting with some pre-emergent herbicides. You'll see a lot of little weeds peeking through the mulch. We go hole-by-hole in a continuous loop to keep the landscape as clean as possible.

Frost Delays

To end on a positive note, we only had a single frost delay this year and I don't expect to have another as days lengthen and temperatures begin to climb. This has been good for the members, but it has been especially good for the bermuda. Normally, we spend March just waiting for the bermuda to green up, but this year, we didn't lose much color in the first place. The growing season is longer thanks to the mild conditions and we will take full advantage.

Everybody knows that California needs every drop of this moisture to make up for too many dry years. Let's appreciate our good fortune even when we are cleaning mud off our spikes.

This is supposed to be the dry winter?

 La Niña, they call it. It's the positive phase of the El Niño system and it is associated with cooler than average temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, these cooler sea temperatures are sure to bring less rain to drought stricken California. Right?

Here we are, late December, and the weather station at Bernardo Heights has recorded 3.46 inches of rain in this month alone with more to come this weekend. Last year, we picked up 1.6 inches in December. Then the skies opened up and the biblical rains came down and washed away mulch and DG and bunkers and did very little good. It was all at once, 4.29 inches in 3 days and 2.6 inches in 5 hours. It all ran off and made one hell of a mess.

This year's rains have been slow and steady. There is some cleanup work to do, but nothing like last year. More importantly, these rains were useful in pushing through our soils and flushing out two years of sodium that's accumulated from our well water. There is no substitute for rain like this.

Hopefully you've noticed that the many acres of decomposed granite and mulch have held up pretty well this year. We spent a lot of time and money spraying stabilizers on our major runoff areas. I'd say we are about halfway done and we continue to learn as we go. We still need to install more drains and reroute some rain water, but we're making progress.

Another positive I see right now is green bermuda. We just passed the shortest day of the year and the bermuda in most fairways is still green. We have used some colorants, but they have been mowed off and you're looking at grass that is still growing. One reason is a healthier stand of bermuda after all the fairways have enjoyed their first full year of bermuda-only growth. Another is the warm temperatures and lack of frost with only two minor frost events on the year.

We are in a really good spot right now. The fairways will get back to growing in late March, the mulch and decomposed granite will be groomed and stable, and the greens will be refreshed and ready for another summer after all this amazing rain. All of this points towards excellent conditions in 2017 and that prognostication is far more reliable than a weather report.

Paspalum Collars

Collars are rarely a topic of conversation at golf courses. The main purpose of a collar or fringe cut is to create a transition between the higher cut green surround and the putting surface. In fact, before Bernardo Heights, I've never heard, "the collars are amazing" or "the collars are terrible." They rarely enter the golfer's mind and they do not need to be thoughtfully played or navigated. If the collars are in decent shape, you'll never hear a word about them.

We have a different situation here. The collars are Seashore paspalum and they were installed with a five foot width. During most of the year, they look great, but the grain is so extreme that a shot into the collar, even a low chip, will check up hard and stop quickly. If you land down grain, the ball shoots forward. Each chip or pitch requires a decision on how to play the collar. It's a great defense for the golf course, but it's not an enjoyable challenge.

When winter rolls around with cool temps and short days, the collars lose their color and density. Some areas thin out completely and we are left to putt on soil around the greens. At least this surface is smooth and predictable. Overseeding is nearly impossible and past attempts have resulted in tufts of cool season turf. Putting on this surface was like Plinko on the Price is Right. Once again, not an enjoyable challenge.











Our goal is to replace these collars and expand the greens. We have been making progress the last few years, but it may look like the opposite. I get a lot of comments about the paspalum creeping into the greens. We are actually cutting into the collars and expanding the greens. The crew members have  been very aggressive, mowing into the collars during the cleanup pass. We then spray the paspalum with a herbicide that does not kill the bentgrass or Poa annua. The photo above is an example of this application. The light, six inch band next to the collar has been sprayed and most of this paspalum will die. The photo to the right shows a collar that has been scalped down to green height. The collar is now only three feet wide in this section, but the reclaimed green will need to be converted or sodded to the proper turf type.

We have shrunk many collars down to 3 feet, but some are still very wide. Eventually, we would like to reduce the collar to 18 inches and return the rest of the area to putting green. We may complete this task with one major project, installing bentgrass sod that will transition to a blend of bent and Poa like the rest of our greens. If this does not happen, we will continue to convert this turf using our current methods, plus sodding from our nursery green. Some sections are transitioning on their own, like the front of #15, shown here, where Poa annua has filled in most the collar which is half the size it once was. The paspalum will still need to be removed or killed because it will come back during the summer.

We have made progress and I assure you that the paspalum's days are numbered. I look forward to the day that nobody mentions collars when discussing course conditions. Usually, no word is the good word.

Check out our new equipment

We've finally broken in all the new toys we got last spring. Most were put to use right away, like our new fairway mower, new rough mower, and large utility vehicle. A new shipment of equipment is exciting for all of us. A vehicle or mower that drives smoothly and is comfortable makes for a happy operator. It's really a big deal when you ask somebody to spend the majority of a day on the same machine. Giving them a brand new mower with a comfy seat, tight steering, ergonomic controls, and a quiet, yet powerful engine will make them more productive.











The new rough mower replaced a pull behind unit that was 12 years old and wearing down quickly. I was really getting tired of the constant repairs, down time, inconsistent cut, and Jorge complaining daily. Now his only complaint is the fan on the canopy is too strong and makes him cold, so he leaves it off.

Our new aerifier replaces two 12 year old units that had their limitations. First off, they were slow, which is why two could be replaced by one. The Toro unit can also be adjusted to go deeper in the soil profile. Just a few weeks ago, we pulled the deepest cores in years, breaking through a layer that formed after too many aerifications at the same shallow depth.

We have a backhoe now, which attaches to our largest tractor. We've used this machine many times in a short period, installing drain lines, digging up bad cart path, and exposing irrigation pipe for multiple repairs. The native soil at Bernardo Heights resembles concrete. Hand digging for main line repairs is a two day affair with a couple of employees. Now it's a two hour job. We save time and no one has a sore back.

Our sweeper has already saved countless hours of labor. Last year, we gathered leaves in piles and then bundled them in burlap tarps to be piled into carts. We didn't have a better option, but now it seems crazy that we were doing that, what a waste of time.

Lastly, we have a new verticutter that replaces a very old unit that had been used and abused for well beyond it's useful life. This one is simple and powerful. That's all we really need and the overseed result on the driving range tee is proof. Can you see the rows of ryegrass? Without a verticutter, it is very difficult to get the seed established into the dense hybrid bermuda that makes up the majority of this tee. Next year, we will use this unit to control thatch in the fairways and push density in our relatively young stand of bermuda.

I can still think of 20 more machines I would love to have. Trade shows are an endless parade of dream equipment, a candy store for any turf geek. I'll keep asking for more, but I'll admit that we are better off now than I've ever been, at any course.

The greens are great!! Must be time to aerify.

Aerification time is here again and just when the greens are healthy and rolling true, we're about to tear them up. I know it seems strange to punch thousands of holes into a surface that is smooth, green, and dense. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?

I subscribe to this thought regularly, but not with greens. We need to be out in front of the problems and complete all the mandatory preventative maintenance that keeps our greens in the best shape possible. The fact is, they are not perfect. They need an injection of oxygen after a long season of traffic and poor quality water. Sodium has piled up in the soil and air porosity has decreased. We are not seeing any symptoms from these problems and we don't want to. So we punch some holes and make it breath again.

Fall aerification is my favorite of the year. There is little chance of rain to spoil the day and soil temps are very high. This promotes excellent growth and quick healing. We are always healed up in fall in a week's time. Spring is another story, sometimes needing up to 3 weeks to fully recover, especially in shady locations.

So next week, expect some sand on the greens and a few more maintenance workers getting in your way. We send staff out to make sure that each and every aerification hole is filled with sand. The crew will be working with buckets and brooms to fill the holes and to remove any excess material. The topdress will be pretty heavy in order to "cap" each hole. This makes for a smoother surface later on and prevents the dimple pattern that most golfers know all too well.

Nearly all the holes will be healed in a week and the greens will be firmed up and sped up within two weeks. This time of year, working in the predictable San Diego climate, we know what to expect and how the greens will respond. By late October, you'll be playing greens that are smoother, greener, and healthier than what you see today.

Thank you for your patience during the next couple weeks. We enjoy making a mess every once in a while and you'll enjoy the results when we clean things up.

Course Condition Update: Fairways

#5 fairway

I'll start by saying that the fairways at Bernardo Heights are in the best condition they've been for a long time. Gone are the clumps of ryegrass from many years of overseeding that hung around summer after summer, creating tough lies and poor looks. Over the last few years, we've sprayed out nearly all of this rye grass. That was step number one. Late last summer, we were still spraying holes 1, 13, and 15. All three of these have filled in nicely besides a few sections that have other problems.


These fairways have a host of problems that the staff are working to overcome. The main issue was the wrong type of grass, which has now been corrected. Another obstacle is the sodium found in our well water. This is causing the majority of the thin spots on holes 13, 15, and 18. You can see the sodium quite easily when it wicks to the top of the profile.

Sodium at surface of #18 fairway

The dark green stripes are drain lines where the sodium can leach out of the soil. Unfortunately, the native soil is so thick that the drain line has little affect just outside of the drain itself. We have no choice but to sod these locations and have been doing so 1500 square feet at a time. This is as much as our staff can handle and install before it burns up in the summer heat. We have already replaced over 6000 sq feet of bermuda sod this year, most of it in traffic zones and fairways. I ordered more today for next week.


I'm happy to say that the major trouble locations are limited. We have a great stand of bermuda out there that is filling it very well with the first full summer of good growing. Last year, only a few fairways were already clear of ryegrass and they had to endure a 5 month construction program that required heavy traffic, intermittent irrigation, and an unusually cool August. This year, warm temperatures just showed up a few days ago and the change is certainly noticeable.

#6 fairway

#1 fairway

Young bermuda in the  sections that were  previously thick with ryegrass, are being treated as a grow-in, getting bi-weekly shots of fertilizer. Wetting agents, which make the most of our precious irrigation source, are being applied monthly. It's expensive, but an increased budget is making this possible. We are spot aerifying where necessary and sodding any areas that do not show progress. 

#11 fairway

#8 fairway

The hard working staff will continue to improve the fairways and the entire course every single day. This course hardly resembles itself compared to 3 years ago. We have 12,000 new plants, 35 less acres of turf, bermuda fairways, bermuda tees, and greens that are healthy and rolling beautifully. We can always make it better and we will, one day at a time.

#14 fairway

Bunker Renovation is Complete

Conditions are improving at a rapid pace. Every bunker on the course has now been renovated with proper sub-surface shaping, new drainage, and new sand. The bermudagrass is waking up, the cool season turf is fading away, and our new drought-tolerant landscape is starting to pop with color.  

We've turned our attention to cart path repairs and spreading out some new mulch.  Green aerification went well and tees are up next, this coming Monday. After a long winter, the crew is anxious to get back to converting this course to dense, excellent bermudagrass.  

Below is our before/after shot of the left green side bunker on the 10th hole. There was nearly 2 feet of compacted, old sand in this bunker. Now there is 6 inches of firm, new sand that is consistent and drains well. I hope you enjoy the change as much as I do!!

Bunker Renovation

Our friends from United GLI are back on site to continue with bunker renovation.  We will be finishing all greenside and fairway bunkers throughout the course, a total of 28 bunkers remaining from our previous renovations.  So far, 11 of the 28 bunkers are fully completed with new edges, sand, and most importantly, drainage.

Bunkers need sand replaced every 5-7 years because of contamination.  Soil from trimming edges, dust from winds, and washouts from rain can bring silt and clay into the sand.  Eventually the bunker will turn into concrete.  Adding a few inches of sand every year is not a solution to this problem.  The common saying, "there is no sand in the bunkers" is not correct.  There is way too much sand in these bunkers and it is all old, contaminated, and unplayable.

The most important component of a bunker, and maybe an entire golf course, is proper drainage.  When water does not leave the bunker and forms a lake, all the silt rises to the top and contaminates the sand.  This is the beginning of the end for good, playable bunkers. Covering the contaminated sand with fresh, expensive sand will only result in deeper, useless sand.

So, it should be no surprise that the #1 goal of this renovation is to install proper drainage in all the bunkers. We are checking and double-checking all drain outlets to make sure they have proper fall and are not clogged or damaged.  Yesterday, the BHCC staff installed a new stretch of outlet drainage from the fairway bunker on #2, across the fairway to an existing drain.  The previous outlet fell into a gravel bed which did not allow for effective drainage.  Other drainage problems we have encountered include crushed pipes, tree root clogs, improper slopes, and high spots that cause water to back up. We are being very careful to get this drainage installed just right.

Another priority with this renovation is returning bunker edges closer to the original design.  Of course, the original might not always make sense, so we are making some adjustments to fit our players and the bunker's location.  For instance, on the fairway bunker on the par 5, 4th hole, we eliminated a lobe of the bunker that pinned the golfer behind trees.  You're already in trouble, so why make it that much harder?  Also, we are raising some floors and lowering some lips to provide a better view and a more reasonable shot.  Many bunker faces, especially in the fairways, have grown much larger than originally intended.  We are cutting these back and expanding the view of the course.

Finally, I'm sure you noticed the nice brown sod we are laying around the bunkers.  We do not want to introduce more Rye grass that I will have to kill in a few months.  The dormant bermuda sod will root down and green up in a few weeks, matching our end goal of solid bermuda coverage.

Thank you for your patience during this construction period.  More improvements are on the way!!

El Niño Cleanup

A few weeks ago, Bernardo Heights Country Club recorded 4.35" of rain over a 72 hour period.  Much of that rain came down in a few short hours and made quite a mess throughout the golf course.  Our average annual rainfall is just over 10 inches, so collecting over a third of that amount in three days created some problems for the entire region.

January 8th,  #7 Fairway after 4.3 inches of rain

There is some good news, of course.  The mulch zones faired very well and require little cleanup.  Also, the greens received the flush of salts we've been waiting for since last winter.  We have been flushing the greens with well water into the first week of December to try to buy time until the rain started to fall.  The sodium is now back to manageable levels and should stay that way until mid-summer when we will have to start the flushing process once again.

January 20th, #7 Fairway

Our cleanup duties will continue for the next couple of weeks and I am very pleased with the efforts of our staff, working day in and day out with sore backs and shovels in hand.  Our first point of attention was cleaning the cartpaths from mud and sand so golfers could get around safely.  We then turned to bunker repair and completed that task in a week's time.

A few fairways became rivers during the storm after large drains were plugged with debris.  We have examined each drainage location and installed barriers to protect the drains from future problems.  The fairways that took on some sand are not severely damaged, just consider this an unscheduled topdressing.  We will continue to clean them and encourage the grass to peak through.  You can see how much better they are two weeks after the storm. 

New French drains on #5

We are now turning our attention towards the decomposed granite areas that need the sand redistributed and raked.  Nothing is broken out there, it just needs to be cleaned up.  We'll go spot by spot and day by day to get everything back in order. 

We will continue adding drainage wherever it is needed and I suspect we'll never run out of locations that could use more drainage.  We also will work with some soil stabilizers in areas we expect channels of water to form to prevent new erosion.

A little cleanup is to be expected every winter and a storm of this magnitude has the whole county using shovels, rakes, and brooms to tidy up.  The rain is certainly worth the trouble.





Driving Range Tee Improvements

The back tier of the driving range tee has been shrinking for years.  The usable practice area was limited by a landscaped bed at the back of the tee, costing us nearly a week of playable turf.  In early August, we removed the palms in that bed and started to prepare the tee for new sod.

The Tifway hybrid bermuda has been down for over a month and players have enjoyed the tee for the last two weeks.  Playable surface area increased from 4700 square feet to 7400 square feet, a 60% increase.  We should get three weeks of practice time on the upper tee alone.

Further improvements to the area include the renovation of the space between the driving range and the tee complex for the first hole.  We removed some large and overgrown birds of paradise bushes and will be planting over fifty drought tolerant plants matching the rest of our new landscape. Decomposed granite will replace the turf that used to cover this area, providing a clean look and multiple access points between practice area and the first tee.

This small project increases our turf reduction total by another 3500 square feet to nearly 40 acres in the last three years.

New Tool, New Toy

I recently submitted a video to a contest hosted by TurfNet and Aquatrols on the topic of Smart Water Management.  Our Turf Reduction Program offered some great material and saving water has been our focus for a number of years.  Doug Ayers of Corral de Tierra, one of the most innovative superintendents I've ever known, took first place leaving me with a very cool second place prize.  You can see the top three videos by following this link: TurfNet Videos

We now have a tool in our arsenal that does much more than entertain, which it does quite well.  The DJI Phantom 3 Advanced drone is the most exciting toy I've ever owned.  It reaches speeds over 30 mph, comes with a very good camera, and can capture photos and videos I've always wanted at a golf course.

So, how is this useful to the course?  First off, the obvious answer is the marketing potential, shooting excellent photos at no additional cost.  Aerial photographs have always been attractive to a golf course, but the price tag made it hard to justify.  You'll be seeing many new photos on the website, blog, and newsletter as I pick out the best and share with the other departments.

From a turf standpoint, the overhead view is very useful to investigate problems that are hard to see at ground level.  Drainage issues, irrigation uniformity, soil inefficiencies, fertilizer applications, and shade patterns are just some of the issues we face everyday.  A quick flyover by the drone will produce many photos I can share with our staff as we work to make the course as good as it can be.

Project planning and documentation are also made easy with wide angle pics achieved with altitude.  Before I would draw out plans on the shop's dry erase board and point to old maps in the shop along with a trip to the job site.  Having a actually photo of the area in question with sketches right on the photo takes out any guess work and allows the staff to accomplish exactly what I'm looking for without extra supervision.

  Last night, I was trying to get some sunset photos on the par 3 12th hole.  The sunset was a little disappointing with much of the color lost in a distant marine layer.

I'm still learning to fly the drone, but I can't help to get a little overconfident and fly too close to potential hazards, for example, the the ash tree next to 12 green.  The video of the crash is great, but the blogger site is not liking it right now.  I'll try again later.

The good news is the drone is OK and was back in the sky after I dusted off the leaf debris and bunker sand.

In case you were wondering, my dog, Izzo, hates the drone.  When she is around, I have to land it on top of a golf cart.  I'll post a good example in the near future.

Things you'll see this weekend

Each weekend, members are treated to the first look of some new scenery.  Closing the back nine during the week allows our contractors and the BHCC staff to accomplish so much more while remaining safe from errant shots.  We appreciate your patience and understanding during this very important project.

 In 3 weeks, United GLI has finished holes 12, 13, 14, and 15 and the 16th hole is being planted today. All turf to be removed is stripped off number 17 which will be irrigated with drip emitters next week.  The tee complexes on #'s 11, and 18 are also ready for new plantings and then it's on to holes 10 and 11.

If you haven't been to the club recently, there are changes to be seen from the moment you pull up the driveway.  For 3 years, I've wanted to remove the grass that struggled under the ficus trees and dress up our entry with drought tolerant plants that look good year round.  I'm pretty happy with the new look as are many of the club's visitors.

















The driving range is missing a few plants that divided the pavement from the back tee.  We are transplanting the palms and ornamental garlic to make room for more tee space.  The back tee of the range will be renovated in-house over the next month and this is step number one.  We should gain about 5 days worth of practice, all of which will be on level bermudagrass.

The fairway on #13 has finally been sprayed out with Monument herbicide which eliminates cool season grass, leaving only bermuda behind.  This is the last fairway, besides some of the par 3's.  I'm pretty happy with the amount of bermuda that we have to work with.  Most areas will fill in the small voids and we will sod any large sections.  As intended, we will have 100% bermuda fairways by the end of this summer, 3 years after beginning this campaign and 5 years post-overseeding.

New turf on a reshaped, combo tee for #'s 11 and 18 looks a little brown, but don't worry.  Bermuda sod will often turn brown if it becomes stressed out as a defense mechanism to limit carbohydrate reserves until there are better conditions.  As you can see, there are many new white roots already 3 inches into the soil.  This sod will be solid green in no time.