Sand in Bunkers

 Be on the look out, the golf course maintenance staff will begin receiving loads of sand for the bunkers. naturally we will start with greenside bunkers and if there's still more to come then we'll move to the fairway traps.
 The maintenance staff finished rolling the sod around the bunker at #17 green right side. So that's where we'll begin, doing #16 & #17 greenside bunkers.
 From here, I'll meet with Greens Committee in moving forward on which greenside bunkers to add sand in. For the most part, three to four inches of sand will be added to the bunker.

ENJOY!

Off-Types in Ultradwarf Putting Greens

Spot infestations of different bermudagrass in putting greens are a resurfacing issue

The ultradwarf bermudagrasses (Champion, Mini-Verde and TifEagle) have been available since the late 1990s and have outperformed their predecessors Tifgreen and Tifdwarf in research trials (Morris, 2003) and on putting greens. Superior surface smoothness and faster putting speeds can be maintained with these grasses because of their finer leaf blade texture, greater shoot density, and tolerance to lower mowing heights. Many golf courses throughout the southern United States have converted to an ultradwarf bermudagrass, and this has raised the bar as far as putting green quality.

Golf courses in the transition zone have also realized benefits of ultradwarf bermudagrasses. Bentgrass has long been favored because of its superior putting characteristics compared to Tifgreen and Tifdwarf. However, bentgrass struggles during the summer months, a time when peak playing conditions are desired in the transition zone. Many bentgrass putting greens have suffered severe turf loss with extreme heat and humidity, as greens are stressed to produce fast speeds at the expense of turf health. Bermudagrass has been viewed by golfers in the transition zone as a second-class citizen, but ultradwarf cultivars have changed this opinion with their excellent playing conditions.

Development of spot infestations of off-type bermudagrasses has also been a longtime problem with Tifgreen and Tifdwarf bermudagrass putting greens, resulting in a change in composition over time from a monostand to a collection of different bermudagrasses (Foy, 1997; Busey, 1997).Typically off-types became noticeable within five years after planting Tifdwarf bermudagrass, growing in size and number over a short period of time. Many Florida golf courses regrassed putting surfaces every 10 to 15 years due to a progressive increase and poor performance of bermudagrass off-types (Foy, 2003).

It was hoped that ultradwarf bermudagrass putting greens were immune to off-types, as there were very few apparent issues within the first seven or more years. In fact, there are ultradwarf bermudagrass putting greens that are more than 12 years old that have no apparent off-types at this time. However, off-types have become a significant issue on golf courses in recent years. This article attempts to shed greater light on bermudagrass off-types on ultradwarf bermudagrass putting greens and offer some insight as to how they are currently being managed

Frost Delays

Frost is a common reason for morning tee time delay. The reason for the delays is the damage that can occur from foot or equipment traffic to the turf when frost is present. Generally speaking, nice fall golfing days and frost go hand-in-hand. With more frost days expected, this is a good time to look at the conditions favorable for frost.

Frost occurs on clear cold nights when turfgrass plants re-radiate heat (exothermic reaction). As the plant loses heat to the atmosphere the plant leaf cools. If the plant temperature is cooler than the air temperature then moisture from the atmosphere will condense on the leaf. If the leaf temperature drops below freezing then the water freezes and frost forms. This will occur even if the air temperatures are slightly above freezing. At this time of the year it is not uncommon to have frost form even if the air temperature is in the mid to high 30s.

Frost itself does not cause damage, but injury does occur with traffic on frosted areas. Turf damage is generally superficial. This is not to say that traffic should be allowed on frosted turf. If traffic occurs, whether it is foot or mechanical, damage caused by crushing the leaf blade will occur. Initially the symptoms will appear purplish to black in color (almost like an excessive Iron application). The damaged turf will then progress to a straw color. If no damage occurs to the crown, recovery will occur from the generation of new leaves.

Hogs Hogs Hogs Let's say it again HOGS

 I will tell you I have never witnessed such damage to a golf course as we have experienced here at Willow Fork Country Club. Some protective measures have been tried to restraint the hogs from entering our property, bottom line the club has alot of open territory these hogs could be entering from. We have even witnessed the hogs destroying homeowners front yards around the course, so even the entrances to the subdivision can lead to the golf course as well.

 I have been asked a numerous of times; Why are they hogs coming here? Think about it, we're as much as twenty inches behind in rainfall. If you were to take a walk out in the wooded areas normally you could see small pockets of water or wetland areas saturated with water. Today you go and look at these same sites and they are 100% dry. Bottom line is---There's very little water and food available where these animals would normally feed. With the drought the soil base is dry up to eight inches below the surface-that's where the insects live that normally hogs would feed on.

 So what does a wild animal as a hog do; It will find areas that are irrigated and fertilized "What a great menu for them". Once they locate such an area and begin to set a track they will repeat and as they have babies, they will learn the same route as well until some type change happens and causes them to go another direction for food.

 There's four protective measures we have taken here at the club to help slow down the hogs.

1. Electrical wire fencing was installed along holes #5,6,7. the fence is live from 8:00 pm till 5:00 am.

2. There's a hunter that will come out as called, so far he as shot 6. He generally comes after the midnight hours. Night vision and/or infra red vision is used and his rifles are equipped with silencers. 

3. The club has hired an individual to work night hours to monitor the course.

4. Hog traps are being set. I do have some extra one's coming to help out.

Where the Game Is in a Dry Season

 Houston

The current drought map of the U.S., maintained by the federal government, shows a small amber blemish in the Southeast, indicating midlevel drought conditions, and a much, much bigger circular bruise in the middle of the country, shrouding virtually all of Texas and Oklahoma. Its dark purple-brown colors denote not just extreme drought, but "exceptional" drought.
This is no news for Texans. "It's like we've had a big 'H' [for high-pressure zone] parked over us all year, and we've had to watch the rainy weather rotate counterclockwise around Texas, like the spokes on a bicycle wheel," said Charles Joachim, the golf-course superintendent at Champions Golf Club in north Houston.

Reuters

DESSICATION ROW: At 'Home on the Range' in Dripping Springs, Texas, Sept. 9, after little rain for months.

Houston, despite some people's impression of the Texas climate, is a semitropical city that averages about 50 inches of rain annually. This year so far it has received only 12 inches, 5 of which fell in January. More than 15,000 trees in the city's massive Memorial Park, including many lining the golf course there, are visibly dead or dying. (It will cost an estimated $4.5 million to remove them.) At the Tour 18 course north of the city, the hole meant to mimic the 17th at TPC-Sawgrass lacks one essential detail: water in the lake that surrounds the island green.
Miserly precipitation rates this year are only part of the problem facing Texas golf courses. The three-month stretch from June through August was the hottest that any state has experienced since at least 1895, when record-keeping began. Many parts of the state, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area, suffered through 70 days or more of 100-degree-plus weather. "At those temperatures, a course can lose over a third of an inch of moisture every day, just in evaporation out of the turf," said Charles "Bud" White, the U.S. Golf Association's regional agronomist. The combination of drought and heat can cause clay sublayers to expand, buckling cart paths and bursting buried irrigation pipes. (The horrifying wildfires that devastated nearly four million acres in Texas and destroyed more than 2,500 homes have pretty much left golf courses alone.)
Every region in Texas and Oklahoma is its own story, as is every golf course, but surveying how courses have coped with this drought, one thing stands out: Without smart water management and contingency plans, many courses will fail if the drought continues for another year or two.
Even courses with access to sufficient water may find the cost prohibitive. Champions in Houston, co-founded and still owned by two-time major champion Jackie Burke, in normal years gets most of the water it needs from rainfall (stored in its irrigation lakes) and from a local treatment plant that recycles waste water. Both sources are basically free, except for the cost of the pumping. This year, however, the club has been forced to pump additional water from wells. To use this resource, Champions has to pay the local water district $1.75 per 1,000 gallons, which mounted to tens of thousands of dollars a month during the hottest, driest part of the summer. Those costs forced cutbacks in how much of the course the club irrigated and has resulted in the loss of several hundred trees, some of which the club had planted in the years since it opened in 1957.
To the west, by contrast, lack of supply is often the whole story. The semiprivate Quicksand Golf Course in San Angelo draws its water from the Concho River, but the flow was so low for much of the summer that course superintendent Logan Knapp was able to claim only about a quarter of the club's contractual allotment. (And even that was dangerous, since sucking the source dry could have caused $150,000 in damage to his pumping station.) He watered his greens every day, but the fairways and tees only twice a week. About 20 acres of turf died off.
Even that's better than the situation at the Territory near Duncan, Okla. The creek that is normally the water source for that course is bone-dry. Since June, using water purchased at great expense from a rural water district, superintendent Brad Babek has watered only the bentgrass greens, by hand.
The vast majority of courses in Texas and Oklahoma have been able—so far, at least—to finagle enough water to maintain good and even excellent playing conditions. The heat-loving Bermuda greens at Memorial Park in Houston, for example, are as slick as they've ever been, in part because of the absence of fungus and other turf diseases that often arrive in wet summers. In San Antonio, the Quarry and about 10 other courses which are hooked up to the city's recycled-wastewater system have had all the water they needed, since effluent water needs to keep flowing no matter what. Other courses in the San Antonio region that primarily pump from wells have had to make staged, percentage reductions in the water they consume.
Some prognosticators think the drought could last for several more years, but the short term is problematic, too. "The scary part is thinking about where we'll be six months from now if we don't get some good rain this fall," said Brian Cloud, regional representative for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.
Like squirrels gathering nuts, golf-course turf usually prepares itself for winter by storing carbohydrates in its root system. That doesn't happen when the grass is stressed or already dormant, as much Texas turf is this year. A severe winter also could kill off vulnerable turf. "Come spring, a lot of superintendents may have to find ways to manage their courses like they've never had to before," Cloud said.
—Email John Paul at golfjournal@wsj.com.

Texas drought could last 15 years

Lake E.V. Spence in Robert Lee, Texas (AP)

A Texas climatologist says the state may face another 5 to 10 years of the current agriculture-crushing drought.
Texas state climatologist John Nielson-Gammon tells The Lookout that he fears the drought--which has already cost more than $5 billion in damage--may be similar to the one that struck the state in the 1950s. The weather patterns at the source of this drought are likely to continue, Nielson-Gammon said--namely the "La Niña" weather pattern in the Pacific. The drought cycle began in earnest in 2005--though 2007 and 2010 were wet years--and may stick around until 2020. Ninety-five percent of the state is experiencing severe or exceptional drought.
"Many residents remember the drought of the 1950s, and tree ring records show that drought conditions occasionally last for a decade or even longer. I'm concerned because the same ocean conditions that seem to have contributed to the 1950s drought have been back for several years now and may last another five to 15 years," he said in a statement.
The 1950s drought, which lasted seven years, reshaped Texas by spurring a movement away from rural areas and into cities. The state also formed a network of artificial lakes that are still around today.
It's still unclear what the long-term impact of this drought will be. The past year has been the driest year on record in the state, while the past summer was also the hottest on record, according to the National Weather Service. More than 125,000 acres burned in wildfires. Half of the state's cotton crop has been destroyed, even long-time ranchers are selling off their cattle en masse, and millions of trees are withered and dying. The touristy area of Lake Conroe, near Houston, is quickly drying up as well.
In April, Gov. Rick Perry asked Texans to pray for rain in an official proclamation, but those prayers have gone unanswered.
Federal aid will offset most of the drought's damage so far--approximately $5.2 billion in agricultural losses and $250 million in wildfire devastation, reports The Christian Science Monitor. But the drought may cause more long-term damage, according to Hillary Hylton at Time. The price of cotton products is likely to go up soon, while beef prices might go down for a while before rising dramatically in two years or so. That's because Texas farmers who are selling off their cattle now will glut the market, but in a few years there will be fewer cows breeding.

Texas Courses Try to Survive Heat Wave & Drought

Texas Courses Try to

Survive Heat Wave & Drought

By: Steve Habel

If you live in Texas, where it has been famously reported that there are two seasons - hot and not, you're accustomed to extremely warm and dry weather every time the calendar turns from April to May.

A Fairway in West Texas Shows
Effects of Heat & Drought

But the summer of 2011 will go down in history as the hottest and driest season ever. Rainfall has been virtually nonexistent since November 2010; temperatures soared to triple-digits in the spring and have stayed there for a record number of days.

The lack of rain has taken its toll on just about everything in the Lone Star State as reservoirs have virtually disappeared, crops have withered or were never put in the ground, and animals and fish continue to die from the effects of the heat.

With water at a premium, golf courses - which rely on precipitation to augment wells and effluent, or reclaimed, water to keep their greens, tees and fairways alive - have restricted their irrigation schedules in accordance with mandated water-rationing orders.

Some golf courses have closed, victims of a battle for water to quench the thirst of municipalities, while most have soldiered on, adhering to water-conservation practices while finding inventive methods to stay alive and keep their players on the course and members satisfied, if not happy.

"It quit raining last September and really hasn't rained a significant amount since," said Travis Miller, a drought specialist with the Texas Agrilife Extension Service and a specialist with the Governor's Drought Preparedness Council. "More than 90 percent of the state is in an exceptional drought or in an extreme drought. The remarkable thing is the extent and the severity of the drought combined."

Stranded Docks on Dried-up Creek
Feeding Lake Travis

The Hard Facts

Since January, Texas has received less than seven inches of rain, compared to a norm of about 14 inches, making it the most severe one-year drought on record. In August, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center said the La Nina weather pattern blamed for the lack of rain might be back soon, and if that happens, the dry spell would almost certainly stretch into 2012.

The extreme dry conditions have extended into parts of the Great Plains, including Oklahoma and Kansas, and, until the recent monsoon season, heavily affected New Mexico as well.

Some Texas rivers and lakes are at lows not seen since the 1950s - the decade when Texas suffered its worst drought in previous recorded history. Of the state's 3,700 streams, 15 major rivers and more than 200 reservoirs, at least seven reservoirs are effectively empty and more than half of the streams and rivers are at below-normal flow rates.

Playing off Grassless Fairways Are the
Norm on Some Texas Courses

Meanwhile, brush fires have destroyed more than 12,000 square miles of land since mid-November. The wildfire season usually wanes in spring but has persisted this year because of the unusually hot and dry conditions.

Just this week, the area surrounding Possum Kingdom Lake 45 miles west of Fort Worth was struck by its second huge wildfire in five months; the latest blaze was threatening as many as 400 homes in the area and had scorched about 6,200 acres, fueled by high winds, parched vegetation and unrelenting heat. Thirty-nine homes have been destroyed by this latest fire after 160 were incinerated in an extensive April blaze.

Central Texas has been among the areas hardest hit. In Austin, there has been no recordable rain since May and it has received less than a fourth of the 30 inches it usually gets each year. And the heat has been unbearable, even for longtime residents. On September 2, the city of Austin will endure its 78th consecutive day of triple-digit temperatures, far eclipsing the previous record of 69 days set in 1925.

Dry Bed of Pedernales River in Texas

Battles over Water & Survival

Texans are golfing more this year than last but course conditions have been severely affected. "Golfers want greens to be green," said Jimmy Mettlen, general manager and golf pro at Neches Pines Golf Course in the east Texas town of Diboll.

"The fairways might be a little harder than what we'd like, but the greens and tee boxes are good. That's one thing about golf: wherever you play, you remember the greens, and we've been able to keep ours in good condition. Our guys work very hard to keep it that way."

Mettlen has been drawing from the course's own water supply, which is good, but not as good as a real cloudburst. "The bottom line is we all need the water, and there's no water like God's water," he said. "Rain has a lot more of what the grass and trees need than anything else as far as both water and oxygen. When it rains, the course gets full coverage. That's impossible to do with simple irrigation."
Many municipal facilities in Austin are staying green in the scorching heat thanks to the city's use of reclaimed water. The city also uses untreated lake water to keep courses like Morris Williams GC playable during the drought. One of the problems is finding a time to irrigate as golfers are showing up before sunrise and playing into dusk to avoid the heat of the day, so crews have to move fast.

Keeping the grass healthy isn't the staff's biggest worry, but rather doing the same for the players. "I don't think people truly grasp what this heat is," said Kevin Gomillion, who oversees all operations for Austin's five municipal tracks. "We had our city championship in August, and we provided water bottles and water on every hole."

Because of the extreme weather the Lower Colorado River Authority, which regulates water use for more than a million people in Central and South Texas, asked its water users in July to implement a voluntary 5 percent water reduction.

Twin Creeks County Club, located in the Austin suburb of Cedar Park, complied with the request and went even further by reducing irrigation on out-of-play areas -practice-area targets and roughs - by 25 percent.

Because of the dearth of precipitation, the LCRA will soon mandate that Twin Creeks and other area golf courses reduce their irrigation by 20 percent. "Hopefully, relief will come and restrictions of this kind will not be necessary, but with the bleak weather forecast reductions of this magnitude are unfortunately likely," said Don Alexander, Twin Creeks' superintendent.
At Onion Creek Club in southeast Austin superintendent Michael Moore is bracing for another mandated water reduction. "The Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer reduced our allotted pumpage by 30 percent beginning last week," Moore said. "We can expect this allotment to be reduced to 40 percent by the end of September if we do not start getting some type of rainfall. We are doing our best to try and keep all of our fairways green so that we do not have as many areas to grow back in after this drought is over."

Onion Creek Club has 27 holes of golf but will limit play to 18 holes daily through next week to reduce the traffic on selected nines for extended periods.

Bay Forest Golf Course in La Porte, south of Houston, uses reclaimed water or "grey water," which isn't restricted, to try to keep its course alive. Even so, the irrigation system can't keep the 170-acre layout wet enough as the roughs are cracking and trees dying.

Residents of the Hill Country town of Spring Branch are at loggerheads after the state gave its local golf course - Hawk Golf Club at Rebecca Creek - permission to use water from the barely moving Guadalupe River to irrigate its greens.

The town is under Stage 3 water restrictions because of the drought. The owner of the course says he goes through 150,000 gallons a night but added that the amount is less than half of what is a normal night's use. The course is working on purchasing a new irrigation system to save more water and its owners haven't been fined for excess watering.

In the Austin suburb of Manor, one golf course has given up the fight, at least temporarily. ShadowGlen Golf Club, a highly regarded daily-fee facility, shuttered its doors August 25 after a continuing and long-festering dispute over water. ShadowGlen's water source was shut off, forcing the club to close according to Blake Chaffee, the club's director of golf. Chaffee indicated that the club's management and owners hoped the closure would be temporary.

ShadowGlen's owners have been embroiled in a battle concerning the use of effluent water the course owns rights to but is not receiving. The water is not potable - drinking water-quality - that is being taking away from others in the community. It's grey water that is being dumped into nearby Wilbarger Creek, even during the drought.