"...more like a work of art than just another sport"

         These words come from crew member Cody Hanna.  Cody is a native of Weogufka, AL in Coosa County, and a recent graduate of The University of Montevallo in Mass Communications with a concentration in journalism.  Cody is helping us out this summer and has a writtin a synopsis, posted below, of his perspective of golf course operations thus far.

"Long rolling fairways, well watered greens and sunset backdrops are just a few elements that make up ones favorite golf course.  For most, a golf course is a place to get away from the everyday rigors of life and enjoy time spent with friends and being outdoors.  Others may spend a lot of their time in frustration over trying to better their handicap, but both parties at some point while they are on the greens take time out of their game to admire what makes up the course.  You notice the pristine greens; well cut fairways and smooth bunkers on television when watching a major tournament, but exactly what all does it take to keep a course looking so good? 

Behind every breathtaking golf course is a well dedicated crew that works throughout the day and sometimes into the night battling the elements to better the appearance of the course.  When someone talks about mail carriers working through rain, sleet or snow; they should really be referencing golf course crew members.  The crew works through hard rains, heavy winds and sometimes scorching heat.  A survival kit for a grounds crew member would include: rain suit, protective glasses, change of clothes, gloves, 3 to 4 bottles of water and close to a pint of sunscreen.  A normal day involves coming to work early in the morning to get the course set before the first tee times.  Jobs vary in difficulty and most are tasks that not even a day to day golfer would recognize.  Removing silt, fly mowing, aerifying greens and fairways and operating a turbine are just to name a few.  Greens, fairways and tee boxes are usually mowed in the mornings along with raking bunkers.  Though keeping greens smooth and well-kept in appearance is usually the main priority, a lot of attention has to be made towards keeping bunkers in good condition.  Bunkers are to be raked on a daily basis and must be protected from weeds and overgrown grass.  Speaking of grass, the worst enemy for a crew member is just that, grass.  Grass grows constantly and always comes back after being trimmed down.  Grass is everywhere and has to be mowed, blown and sometimes raked.

After a brief break for lunch, the second half of the work day begins.  Tasks may include something as simple as fixing divots and spot weed eating around fans and trees or can be more backbreaking such as digging a hole to fix irrigation.  Tasks such as fixing a couple of divots on each hole may not sound too daunting, but one must always factor in weather conditions.  Pouring rain and beaming down heat can make as simple of a task as refilling water coolers an uncomfortable experience.  Golfers may arrive for their tee times to find greens and fairways as green and well-kept as you could imagine, but only hours before a small wind could have blown leaves and debris all over the course.  Small rain showers accompanied by variable winds can add more hours and labor to the work day for the crew.  Heavy rains cause debris to run over onto roughs and fairways and can wash out the edges of bunkers.

Keeping up the grounds on a golf course may not seem like the most exciting job one can have, but the crew takes pride in making the course they work on look as good as possible.  Very few have what all it takes to deal with the sporadic weather and hard work, but when you can put together a group of determined individuals then golf becomes more like a work of art than just another sport."





Cody pictured above on #5.



Fairway patches

I am sure that you have noticed the patches of brown grass in the fairways over the past month or so.  These are patches of bermudagrass that have encroached into the zoysiagrass fairways over the years.  The brown color is the result of herbicide applications that we have been making targeting the bermudagrass encroachment.  The herbicides will not kill the bermudagrass, but merely suppress it and put it in a state of dormancy for about 3-4 weeks, which means that those patches should play similar to bermuda fairways in the winter as opposed to bare ground.  By making the herbicide application every 4 weeks during the growing season and keeping the bermudagrass suppressed, we will provide the zoysiagrass the opportunity to retake those areas.  Zoysiagrass has a slow growth rate so it will take some time, several years likely, for the zoysia to completely retake those areas. 

The herbicide application dings the zoysiagrass a little and consequentially slows the growth of the zoysiagrass for a couple of weeks following the application.  We normally apply growth regulators on the fairways during the growing season to help make the grass more manageable and to also help maintain the consistency in playing conditions.  Due to the growth regulating effects of the herbicide application coupled with allowing the zoysiagrass a better opportunity to fill into these patches, we will not be applying the plant growth regulators this year.  Subsequentially, we will be mowing the fairways more frequently to help keep playing conditions consistent.

So why are we just starting to treat these areas?  Well, actually we have been making these applications for over 10 years.  However, in the past, we only spot-treated the fairways.  The problem with that is the bermudagrass can be very hard to distinguish, without the aide of morning dew, while driving through a fairway on a spray rig.  Our consistency with applications has not been where it needed to be in the past either.  We made a commitment this year to make it a priority to treat the entire fairways every month during the growing season.  By spraying the entire fairways, we eliminate the possibility of missing any bermuda with our application.  We also increase the consistency of the fairways as well, due to the aforementioned  growth regulating effects immediately after the application.

a view of the patches in #4 fairway

looking toward #4 green

a closer view of some patches

an up close view of a patch

The Buzz Around the Legacy

Well Mother Nature gave us a bit of a break in early June, but the time has arrived to turn on the green's fans.  With forecasted highs in the low to mid-90's, nighttime low's in the upper 60's to low 70's, and a noticeable increase in humidity levels, we made the decision to go ahead and turn them on this morning.  The fans help cool the turf, by improving transpiration, which is the process by which the plant cools itself.  The fans improve transpiration by lowering the atmospheric relative humidity.  The lower the humidity the steeper the gradient between the leaf and the atmosphere and the steeper the gradient the faster the plant evaporates moisture to cool itself.  The temperature reduction caused by a fan ranges from up to 15 degrees in front of the fan to around 5 degrees 100 feet from the fan, which has a profound impact on the health of the turf.

Change in Plans

A storm came through the Legacy Course Sunday afternoon taking down 25+ trees, littering the course with debris, and washing out the bunkers.  Our plans for the week quickly changed from grooming the course to putting it back together.  A second round of storms on Monday morning hampered the process, but we were able to get the course back playable that morning.  Today's tasks consists of repairing the bunkers, picking up and blowing debris, and continuing to cut up and remove the downed trees.  The course should be back to normal in a couple of days. 

Preparing for The Player's Championship

An incredible amount of work goes into preparing a golf course for a major PGA tournament.  Tom Vlach and his staff at TPC Sawgrass did an outstanding job documenting the preparations for this years Player's Championship on their blog.  If you ever wonder what all goes into preparing a golf course for a big event, I would encourage you to click on the link below and check it out.  Tom and his staff had the course in phenomenal condition, which should come as no surprise to anyone who knows him.  I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to work under him for the 7 plus years that I did when he was here at Greystone!

http://www.tpcsawgrassagronomy.com/