Fall at Fossil

So. How many of you saw New Moon this weekend? I did. You see, its my wife. She insisted that I go. (She reluctantly read the books after my sister insisted, and of course as anybody who has read the series knows, once you start its all over--you're hooked). And being the sweet husband that I am, I went along. We got there early so we could have decent seats. We waited in line for 45 minutes or so. My neighboor buddy also took his wife (or more accurately--she took HIM) and he and I counted 11 other guys in line. We likened it to a giant henhouse. (Normally being around that many girls is a good thing, however, they were all UNDER 16!!)

But anyways. We survived. The movie was...entertaining. LOVED the music. Great soundtrack.

Back to Fossil.

It's fall and winter is coming. It was a good season, though the weather has not been ideal for golf this year. Though we didn't get the extreme heat this summer, we have had many rain/snow events that have closed the course.

One question we seem to get every year about this time is people wanting to know what we do during the winter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKa68kWkP48

There are many things we do during the off season that keep us busy. The following pics will give you an idea of a few things that we do to prepare the course for the cold, WINDY weather we get here in Golden.

One thing we do every fall is cover many of our bunkers with landscape fabric to contain the bunker sand. After several years of losing large quantities of our sand due to major winter wind events (see pics) we have determined that covering them is the best solution to this problem.

Yes, that is SAND covering those bunker faces. You can see the white snow contrasted against the sand.




You can see how the wind created "sand drifts" in the bunkers and also blew it out into the fairways.

Anyways, to cover them we first pull the sand back away from the edges and pile it towards the center of the bunker: (Thanks Ryan McCarthy and Brent Schmidt for demonstrating).

Next, we lay out our sand bags (they keep the fabric in place) and fill them with sand:

Then we lay the fabric out and place the sand bags on top to hold it in place:

This process took takes about 1 and 1/2 hours to complete per bunker.

Another important project we do is put up snow fence around certain greens. This serves two purposes: First, it helps keep skiers, sledders, and snowboarders off areas that could be damaged by this type of traffic and second, it helps keep elk off of certain greens that seem to always get large amounts of elk traffic.

We also do many other projects during the off season like equipment maintenance, sanding/painting of course accessories, many outdoor course projects (when weather cooperates), evaluating the past season, planning, etc...

Here is Craig doing his thang:

Brent Schmidt is working on course accessories:




This gives you an idea of what goes on during the off season here at Fossil golf maintenance. Feel free to stop by and say hello to us if you are in the neighborhood...

Stinkin' Elk

This year we have seen an abundance of elk on the golf course. Elk seem to use the golf course as their main thoroughfare from Lookout Mountain to South Table Mountain (I don't know what's over there that they want, but that's where they like to go). We have put out signs for them to stay off the golf course but they just ignore them. Usually we see them mostly in the fall and winter, but this year has been different in the fact that they seemed to have stayed around all summer.

Each year during the "rut" the males go around and try to get as many females as they can rounded up for mating. During this process, they do all kinds of crazy things. However, they don't wear knickers. But they do do other crazy things like tear up small trees, pee all over themselves, roll around in mud--all for the females. Fortunately, MOST humans don't do this.

Check out these pics of what a bull elk did the other night to one of our Locust trees out next to the cartpath on hole #18. You can see that this tree was a good sized tree, and it was snapped off at about 6-7 feet high--so that bull was probably a good sized animal.

Now one thing I would like to mention about this blog. My purpose is to use this as a place for information about what is going on here at the golf course. I hope people find it useful, informative, and hopefully a pleasure to read. I will not use it for promoting products, my opinions, or any other type of shameless advertisements for stuff that I think you should buy or use, etc. For example, if there were a particular type of "cell phone" that I was partial to--you know, one that really sets the standard for all mobile phones, one that has limitless possibilities, one that is the "cat's meow", etc., I would definitely not use this forum to promote it. But anyway, look what that elk did to this tree:

What Are You Doing?!?!?

Aerification. Aerifying. Aerating. Punching. Plugging. No matter what you call it, we are tearing things up. But it's a good thing. Twice a year we go through this process, and always we get asked what and why we are doing what we are doing.

There are many reasons why we do this, and it always seems to take place right when the greens are looking and playing their best.

(OK, let me clear something up. I know some of you are asking "what IS a GREEN?? It's all GREEN, right???" Well, yes, we HOPE it's all green, but a golf course GREEN is the area of shortly-mowed grass where the hole/flag is located. It's the "putting" area of the golf course.)

Golf course greens are the most important area on the entire golf course. At Fossil Trace we have 88 irrigated/maintained turf acres and only 3 of these acres are "greens". This is the most challenging area on the golf course to maintain and it is also the most critical. If you cannot maintain nice greens, people are not going to come back to play the golf course.

We mow our greens at sometimes less than .125". That is 1/8th of an inch. Try doing that at home! (Actually, DON'T try that at home--you wont have any grass left in your yard). When we have people set foot on a green for the first time often the immediate question is "is this grass REAL???". Yes, it's real.

Anyways, back to aerification. This process allows us to do several important things. First, it relieves compaction. With over 40,000 rounds of golf going through here, traffic is a huge factor and challenge at Fossil Trace and all that traffic plays to these 3 small acres of turf, creating soil compaction. Aerification relieves that.

2nd, it allows for oxygen to get to the roots of the grass plants. Like most all living things, grass needs oxygen to live, and oxygen is taken up by the roots. If the soil surface gets sealed off, oxygen cannot make its way down to the roots and the plant will die. Aerification opens up this surface.

3rd, aerification allows for removal of thatch build up. As plant leaf tissues die, they build up in the top layers of soil creating layers of dead organic matter that can prohibit the transfer of nutrients to the roots, create poor gas exchange, and also create a soft mat layer that is not conducive to golf ball roll.

There are several other factors as well, but this gives you an idea of why we do what we do. If we did not do the aerification process, the quality of our greens would deteriorate rapidly. The time it takes to heal is always dependent on the weather, and if we have warm temps then we can expect about two weeks for complete healing. Timing is always critical!

The process goes like this: We punch the holes, remove the plugs, topdress with sand, drag it in to fill the holes, and add our nutrient ammendments. As simple as that sounds, it takes a good 2-3 days for us to complete this process! Check out the following pics...

Flymowing

Bunkers. Nobody likes them. Except Jim Engh. Golfers really hate them, especially when they are in them. By definition, they are a hazard--in more ways than one at Fossil Trace. It has been suggested that we add T-bars to a few of ours to help people get out of them.

Fact is, bunkers are high maintenance. Even though they are a hazard, people want them to be pretty. If you play golf, you can probably recall seeing bunkers that are not very well maintained. At Fossil, we try to maintain all in-play areas to a high standard. Regardless of the fact that bunkers are a hazard, we want them to look nice and play well. When someone (Jim Hajek) hits a shot into them, we want (Jim Hajek) them to have a good chance of getting out of them. The size of some of our bunkers are penal enough--we don't want them to be even harder than they already are. Plus, if they are too hard, then people (Jim Hajek) will shoot higher scores (something you DON'T want to do in golf) and the pace of play will slow down. So we do what we can to help create a positive experience for our guests--even in our hazards.

So how do we mow these things? Well, it's probably the most physically challenging thing we do out here. We FLYMOW them. What's a FLYMOW? See the following pictures. It's basically a pushmower with no wheels. It kinda "hovers". Key word being "kinda".

Spoon Feeding

Sunrise this morning...

Growing grass has come down to a science. No longer do we take out the spreader and broadcast a generic fertilizer when we have the capability to dial in precisely what the fertility needs of our grasses are.

In the following pics you see us spraying a green with a foliar fertilizer. In the tank we have about 8 different liquid products we are applying--each one with a specific nutrient or "mix" of nutrients. By applying fertilizers "foliarly"--meaning that the grass is taking the fertilizer in through the leaf tissue--we can determine the mode of uptake by the plant, keep them from growing too much too fast, and help them through the various stresses they go through during the growing season (heat, traffic, drought, disease, etc). Basically, we "spoon feed" the greens throughout the year and try to keep them on a fine line of being somewhat "hungry". This makes for ideal greens conditions. If they are too lush then green speeds may be compromised (see previous post!) and if too lean then they become more susceptible to disease, traffic damage, and will start to look chlorotic or "yellow".

It is common for superintendents to adjust the greens fertility based upon golfing or maintenance schedules. For example, when preparing for a big tournament it is not uncommon for supers to "lean out" the greens to help speed them up. By doing this, growth is limited and there is less resistance to ball roll. You may have noticed that some golf tournaments on TV have "yellower" greens. It's probably not your TV set, but likely that the superintendent has cut back on the fertility to help speed up his greens. Sometimes you can "mask" this infertility by applying iron. Iron gives you a green color by not the growth. Kinda like the beer commercial --"tastes great, less filling"...

Also, it is not uncommon for a super to "juice up" his greens when preparing to go into a stressful period. For example, when preparing for aerification I will generally increase the fertility to help in the post-healing process. (Look for pics of that in September.)

This is another part of my job that I LOVE. Talking fertilizer is especially exciting for me!! Come by anytime and we will chat!! What? I should get out more?

Balloons and things...

Last week we had my wife Dawn come out and take a few pics of our maintenance staff. It is something we wished we had been doing from the first year since Fossil Trace was built. It would be nice to look back at each season and see all the faces that have worked here--some of which no longer work here but still keep in touch with us. Some staff that are working now have been with us since that first season... Working at this golf course just gets in your blood and the hard work is very rewarding. That is what attracted me to this career path initially... Plus all the benefits of working on such a beautiful golf course. What's not to like about it??? OK, maybe not the Flymowing part... But I can't imagine doing anything else!

Another notable item from last week was the balloon photo shoot set up by Mr. Jim Hajek, Head Golf Professional at Fossil Trace Golf Club. He can explain more thoroughly what his plans are with the photos, but from what I understand these photos will be used in future advertisements for the golf course. It was PRETTY COOL!

The most interesting thing about the balloon was the way they were able to conserve fuel by just putting Jim Hajek in the basket. All they needed to do was to keep him talking and all the hot air lifted the balloon off the ground in seconds flat. In fact, the lift created was so great that the guys on the ground could hardly keep the balloon tethered--they had to tell him to stop talking otherewise the balloon would have been sent into orbit...

The US Open and Green Speeds

This week the 109th US Open is being held at Bethpage Black in NY. Will Tiger repeat? Personally, I hope so...

But lets talk about green speeds.

If you ever watch golf on TV and listen to the commentators, one subject they like to talk about alot is "green speeds". Why? Who cares, right? Well, almost all golfers care about this subject, and the better the golfer, the more important green speeds are. This week I have been hearing talk about the greens "rolling 13" at Bethpage...

What does that mean? Well, that means that the greens are rolling 13 feet off the Stimpmeter. What's that, right? Well, contrary to some peoples beliefs, a Stimpemeter is not ALWAYS used just to whack a surly Head Golf Pro...sometimes a Stimpmeter is a tool used to measure green speed. See here as our model Craig holds it:

It was designed by Edward Stimpson in 1935, and is used worldwide. Basically it is a long aluminum v-shaped track with a grove on one end that the ball sits in. As you gradually raise the tool, the balls rolls out of the grove and down the meter. The distance the ball rolls away from the tool is measured in feet, thus giving you a "speed". So, Bethpage's greens are rolling on average 13 feet away from the Stimpmeter.

To get a green speed reading...

The challenge is that one must find a level spot on the green to measure. You cannot take accurate readings on the slope of a green. With todays designs it is hard to find level spots
on greens--especially at Fossil Trace. To get an accurate measurement, after finding a level spot, you roll 3 balls one direction and take the average, then turn around and roll 3 balls the other direction and take the average, then average those together and you will get your reading. (I know, you are thinking "just get to the pictures")...

It sounds confusing but it's pretty easy--that is unless you cant find level spots...

We could never get away with greens rolling 13 at Fossil Trace. Our greens are way too undulated. Here, we have determined that greens rolling 10-10.5 are ideal. If we have them faster than that, then play slows down, people shoot higher scores (Jim Hajek), and we lose area on the greens which to place hole locations. We try to cater to all golfers, not just the pro's! Take a look at these pics of us "Stimping" the greens:

So there you have it. Now go and impress your friends this week while watching Tiger tear it up at Bethpage and lay some knowledge on them about Edward Scissorhands. I mean Stimpson... And no relation to Jessica Simpson...