The Benefits of Aerification

The Rim Golf Club is a unique club. The breath taking views from every hole are like no other golf club in Arizona. The idea that we live in a desert climate is sometimes forgotten when we live among the largest forest of Ponderosa Pines in America. There is no doubt; it is tough to find a better environment to enjoy playing the game of golf.

Growing grass in Payson is much different than anywhere in the State of Arizona. Cool season grasses grown on decomposed granite is not accomplished anywhere else in the State. Sedona, Flagstaff, The White Mountains, all have more desirable soils to work with. Sedona is the closest to our climate with warmer summers to cause substantial disease pressure in the Monsoon months. The northern courses will never experience destructive disease like we do. Cooler overnight temperatures keep pathogens in check.

A frequently discussed subject among members is our soil or lack of. Adding soil or organic matter has been a topic for as long as I can remember. This could sound like I am contradicting myself, but we don’t have a problem with not having enough organic matter, actually we grow all of our grass in a two inch thick blanket of organic matter (thatch) that caps our native granite soil. We can utilize this organic layer by incorporating inorganic sand to create an optimum playing field. An ideal soil is shown in this diagram. If you notice mineral (rock, gravel) is a key ingredient. Organic is only a minor piece of the pie.

Building a soil is a slow process. The inability to make use of our native soil has become a reality. Making use of the organic matter (thatch) we have in place and mixing in sand through aerification and topdressing we can create a decent growing medium for turf. It is a slow process. I have been here for four seasons and three years ago we started a consistent cultivation program. The benefits of incorporating sand have been fairways that are more firm, slightly better water infiltration through the organic matter and a healthier root structure. Benefits we will see with continued cultivation will be less disease pressure due to better drainage, deeper roots that will endure drought better and utilize nutrients and water more efficiently. Aerification can be a dirty word in the golf community, but to a turf manager it is literally a breath of fresh air.

In my opinion, Payson is located in the most beautiful area in Arizona. Complementing the surrounding environment is quite a challenge as a turfgrass manager. Grass, being a living organism, needs adequate oxygen, water, and light. Aerification is the most important practice to oxygenate the soil, a practice that is needed twice a year to enhance the course’s future. Conditions will only improve over the years with consistent cultivation.

Aerification Dates

September 20th Greens

September 21st – 24th Fairways

If you have any questions about our upcoming aerification practices please feel free to contact me at any time.
Justin Ruiz, CGCS
jruiz@therimgolfclub.org
928-951-3421

Green Speed

Recently, I was able to watch a little bit of the U.S. Open. Pebble Beach was the host this year and one of the topics mentioned quite a bit from the newscasters was green speed. The greens were rolling 13 at Pebble Beach during the week. Of course, pretty much every golfer in America knows that “13” is fast. Did you know that that number is measured with a tool called a Stimp meter? The Stimp meter was originally designed to give the superintendent a way to measure consistency among all eighteen greens. It wasn’t until recently in golf’s history that the tool was used for speed.

There is no doubt the Stimp meter has changed the way we manage greens and green speed. Rolling the greens has become a management tool rather than a cultural practice. We roll on average two to three times per week to give the greens a break from cutting and maintain speed. The greens are being cut higher than past years, but our speeds have remained similar. With a higher cut, more plant is available for photosynthesis, resulting in healthier root structure.

So, next time you hear the number that so many people use to describe greens, you will know that the Stimp meter was originally intended to achieve consistency over all the greens on the course, not necessarily speed.

If you have any questions about green speed or other course issues please feel free to contact me.

jruiz@therimgolfclub.org

December Green Committee Report

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