Spring is Around the Corner

The Rim Golf Club Maintenance Department is now thinking of spring.  It won't be long before the weather gets warmer and the grass begins it spring green up.  The recent weather forecast of snow possibilities makes spring feel like a far away thought. 

The upcoming months are important for our team to ensure a healthy stand of turf going into the stress of summer.  To acheive our goals, common cultural practice must take place. Spring aerification, water management, nutrition and grooming/vertical mowing are some of the practices that are important.

Spring aerification opens up the soil for the turf's first big breath of the season.  The soil profile is made up of three different parts; soil (decomposed granite{fairways}, sand {greens}), water and oxygen.  A healthy soil is 50 percent soil and 50 percent water and oxygen, preferrabley equal amounts water and oxygen.  The wet winter has changed this ideal balance with excess water in the profile.  Since soil cannot be reduced in the system oxygen must go.  With that being said, pulling cores and introducing the system with much needed oxygen is key to building a healthy stand of turf for the stressfull months during the season.

That brings me to water management.  Spring can be tricky with weather being unpredictable.  We can have warm spells for a few days straight followed by cooler weather. This increases the importance of weather prediction and the ability of being one step ahead of Mother Nature.  Our goal is to anticipate the weather and apply water accordingly.  Unpredictability can make for an interesting spring.  To help combat the spring roller coaster I have gathered the water usage data from the previous years and averaged the monthly usage to create a guideline or budget to stay on track with our water usage.  Of course, weather will be the defining factor in our actual water needs. With a guidline in place we can monitor our usage closely and better prepare ourselves for the critical months of June, July and August.  

When the soil temperatures begin to rise the grass begins to green up.  Our late fall application of fertilizer was done for the sole purpose of giving the plant available nutrition during this period.  Once the grass begins to green up the roots will be looking for nutrients to support the production of new leaves.  Our late fall application was a blend of organic (slow release) and synthetic (quick release fertilizer). The quick release helped retain some of the color through the winter months while the slow release remains in the soil profile until the temperatures rise starting the breakdown process from various bacteria converting the nitrogen into plant available nitrogen.  We have plenty of light, water and oxygen, food is the limiting factor.

Vertical mowing and grooming is the process of cutting the lateral growth of the plant.  The greens consist of Bentgrass.   Bentgrass uses stolons (above ground stems) to fill in thin areas.  As they move along the surface they shoot roots out creating another source for nutrient harvesting.  If we cut these stolons it forces the cut section to grow and start a new plant.  This helps thicken the turf as well as making room for the new leaves that are making their spring appearance.  Consistent grooming results in healthy upright turf that produces smooth playing surfaces.   

The Spring season is not far away.  Cultural practice planning is important to build a healthy stand of turf that can withstand the stressful conditions of Summer.  Our plan is to have another successful year keeping the course playable and prepared for what Mother Nature will bring.

If you have any questions about our Spring program or just have questions please contact me.

Justin C. Ruiz, CGCS

justinr@therimgolfclub.org        

Winter Course Clean Up

The winter months have given us a chance to do much needed clean up on the course.  Since the temperatures have dropped and the grass has had little growth in the last few weeks, we are able to focus more on trimming and thinning than mowing.

Removing Cattails out of the water feature on 7,8,9 was our first winter effort.  We are also going to try to get the Cattails out of #10 lake before they get out of hand.  Cattails may look natural at first along a lake or in a creek, but soon they take over the entire creek or boundary of a lake.  The creek can become obstructed from view of our members.  This overgrowth can compromise the lake's liner and make the water around the Cattails become stagnate which aids the bloom of algae.

Fire wise is of course our main focus this winter.  The surrounding lots on the course have done a great job thinning the vegetation on their property and we are making a strong effort to thin out the golf course native areas.  We have finished the fifth hole and the next area on the schedule is the 11th hole.  I know I have lost a few golf balls on the 11th hole in the dense manzanita on the left and right of that hole. 

We are nearly finished with the landscaped areas around the proshop, resturant, bathrooms and select tee and greenside areas.  We have been trimming back the ornamental grasses and woody ornamentals to get them ready for the spring season.  These annual trimming excercises will keep the plant healthy and give it the ability to show its true colors come spring and summer.

Lane and I are trying to accomplish some small projects this winter aside from the major clean up that is taking place.  We have worked on the drive off after the bridge on seven by installing large flat sided rocks to level the area travelled.  We are also taking a look at the walking trails from tee to fairway and green to tee that have been eroding over time.  We plan to try to make all the paths passable with pull carts if possible.  We are also looking at the drive offs from the fairways to the cart path.  Some have become incredibly bumpy and we are working at getting those more smooth if possible.

Overall this winter has been productive.  Even with a reduced staff we have been getting a lot of work done.  Last year we had more staff but be pulled in many different directions we tried to get too many projects done all at once and spread the crew too thin.  This year I have been keeping the crew on a better schedule to finish a project before another starts.  We will keep you, the members posted on our progress and we will try to get as much as we can before mowing consumes our daily tasks.

If you have any questions please contact me.
Justin C. Ruiz, CGCS
justinr@therimgolfclub.org