Brush Removal Around 9 Green

This winter we are focusing our attention on 9 green.  We are removing trees and brush that have a negative impact on growing conditions in the area. Turfgrass requires adequate amounts of air and sunlight to remain healthy and these two factors have been limited in this location.  Trees located to the south of 9 that shade the green have been removed.  The dense understory to the left of the green has been thinned while the brush behind the green has been removed completely. This project will improve the growing and playing conditions of this area. 

Back right of 9 green prior.

 

 

 

 

 

Back right after.

 

 

Back middle prior

 

 

 

 

 

Back middle after.

 

Crew actively chipping brush and trees.

 

Clean forested area behind 9 green after brush removal

 

Beautiful native grasses will begin to establish this upcoming spring as long as we manage the area to inhibit regrowth of vines an other brush type plants.

New Sod Installation

This week we have been installing sod in multiple areas around the course. The main goals of this project is to cover all small bare ground areas on the course, cover more of the straw bed closest to 9 green and to resurface 7 pro tee. The bare ground areas around the course have been sodded with certified Tifway 419 bermudagrass which is the variety that was installed when our facility was built. The strawed area near 9 green and 7 pro tee has been resurfaced with a new variety of bermudagrass known as Tifgrand. Tifgrand exhibits a more dense growth habit, darker green color and can grow better under lower light levels than 419. The tolerance to shade makes it a good selection for the areas on hole 7 and 9. We look forward to evaluating this new variety over the next year.

7 tee being prepared for Tifgrand bermudagrass

7 pro tee sod install complete

Strawed area on 9 prior to Tifgrand installation

Stawed area on 9 after installation

 

 

Drainage Installation Hole 12

This week we completed a drainage project in the approach on hole 12.  This area has been an ongoing trouble spot for the last few years on the course.  The soil in this area has tended to drain poorly which helped to promote black layer formation on the front edge of the green.  We have added a smile drain to the front edge of the green to help promote a drier surface while also adding some lateral drain lines in the approach.  This project will provide a much improved playing surface in this area.

 

 

 

Hurricane Isaac Impact

 

 

Update 8-29-12 at 12:00 P.M.

As you can see by the photos below Hurricane Isaac has caused minimal damage to our facility over the past couple of days. There were only a few small fallen trees on the golf course and several leaning trees that were planted during construction. If Isaac will move on out our Agronomic team should have the course looking nice and clean for our golfing customers when we reopen tomorrow. As of 12:00 P.M. today the maximum recorded wind gust by our weather station was 35 mph. 

  

Planted trees leaning on the right of the driving range.

Dead fallen tree on 1 cart path.

Leaning tree behind 3 green.

Leaning tree to the right of 3 green.

Update 8-30-12 at 11:00 A.M.

Hurricane Isaac was down graded to a tropical storm but he forgot he was unwelcome in these here parts! Isaac slowed to a blistering pace of only 5 mph last night and feeder bands have remained on top of the course all day. Our team will begin cleaning up the course Friday morning and normal tee times will resume at 12:00 P.M. Isaac dropped 8 inches of rain on us over a 3 day period.

 

Update 9-5-12 at 11:00 A.M.

 

Hurricane Isaac is a memory but his remnants had a major impact on our area last night.  We received 5.25 inches of rain over a 12 hour period last night.  This brings our rainfall total for the week up over 13 inches!  Fortunately Old Fort Bayou which borders our hole number 14 stayed in her banks and the storm left us with  washed bunkers and few new small ponds due to storm debris clogging our drain inlets. 

 

Number 3 immediately following the last rain this mornings rain.

Wetland on hole 4.

Another view of the lake on 3 later in the morning.  The lake spilled over into 3 fairway.

 

 

DryJect Aerification 8-6-12

Today we performed our last DryJect/aerification application of the year to our putting surfaces.  We performed a 3/8" aerification for organic matter removal and then injected approximately 40 tons of sand into our greens.  The DryJect technology allows us to cultivate our putting surfaces while providing excellent putting conditions the following day.  Click here for more information on this topic from a blog entry from this past May. 

DryJect application following a 3/8" core aerification



Photo of green sand that has been injected through the organic layer

Green being smoothed post application with a 1.5 ton roller

Fan Installation on Hole 9

This past week we installed a new 50 " BreezeMaster fan made by Precision near our number 9 greens complex.  Fans have been a staple for summer heat stress management on bentgrass greens for the past 15 years in the southeastern region of the U.S.  We do not have bentgrass greens here at The Preserve Golf Club nor do we have to worry about our bermudagrass dying from heat stress but fans provide several other benefits that can be beneficial to bermudagrass also.

Staff installing new fan near 9 green complex.

 The greens complex located at hole number nine is surrounded by deep, thick vegetation which inhibits good air circulation.  When you combine this situation with the normal high temperatures and humidity of the Mississippi gulf coast region you have an increased risk of disease and algae forming and negatively impacting the green.  Number nine green has historically been a weak green due to these two common turfgrass stresses.  Increasing air movement across green number nine will reduce the potential for disease and algae formation by lowering the humidity of the turfgrass canopy and reducing the length of time the turfgrass leaf remains wet over a 24 hour period. Another side benefit is our golfing customers will have an excellent opportunity to cool themselves by standing in front of the fan as they leave the hole!

This state of the art fan is able to throw air at a distance of up to 175 feet.

Rain, Rain, Rain

Well we had some wet weather to say the least this past weekend!  We are taking advantage of being closed for regular maintenance and letting the course dry back out today.   Fortunately for us we made it through the bad weather with out any damage to the course and we should be in excellent shape when we open back up for play tomorrow.  Here at The Preserve we had 6.5 inches of rain over a 2 day period but we feel very fortunate it was not more since some areas to the west of us had amounts reaching close to 20 inches of rain over the same period.

View from 18 fwy

June Aerification

We have some great news here at The Preserve Golf Club for the month of June.  Our scheduled aerification for June 18, 2012 has been canceled.  The cancellation is a bi-product of all the hard work our staff has done over the past year which is allowing us to reduce the number of aerifications from 3 to 2 this year.  The DryJect/aerification is still scheduled for later in the year during the month of August but with the minimal impact this process provides there will be no need to close the course. 

Summer Fertilizer Application May 2012

Label for fertilizer applied to the golf course in May 2012.

This past Monday we began making our summer fertilizer application to the golf course.   We have changed our primary nitrogen source from Nitroform to Polyon this year.  Nitroform has been a preferred nitrogen source for professionally maintained turf in the southern region since the 60's but it has performed inconsistently for our particular property.  Polyon is a newer controlled release nitrogen source that hit the market in the  90's and has a history of providing excellent turf conditions.  This spring we developed some test plots to compare the performance of these products and the Polyon source has provided superior turf quality.

Photo of Nitroform and Polyon test plots

The visible squares are both the Polyon plots. The left is 1 pound of N/M and the right is a 2 pound of N/M rate.  These squares are beside plots that were treated with Nitroform.  For us the response was significant.

We look forward to an even more beautiful green golf course this summer!

Dryject application May 7, 2012

This week we treated all of our putting surfaces using a state of the art machine known as a DryJect. This machine blasts a high pressure stream of water directly into the green while incorporating our selected amendment ( gypsum and sand) into the green at the same time. Below is a video of 16 green being treated this past Monday.

This machine effectively penetrates the greens to a 5-6 inch depth and incorporates approximately 50% of the material into the green that we are able to achieve with a normal core aerification. This gives us with the ability to remain effective with our cultivation practices while still providing excellent putting conditions the following day after treatment.

Pictured is a profile sample of 16 green after treatment. The light green area is the amendment that was injected into the sub surface.

This photos shows how the water and amendment follows the path of least resistance. You can see the light green is in a zig zag pattern from the water fracturing the soil profile.

Another Dryject application is scheduled for August 6th, 2012.

Spring Annual Flower and Pinestraw Installation

 The course is transitioning into the active growing season and this is the time of year we replace our winter pansies with annual color that is adapted for warmer temperatures.  This year we have also chosen to apply a good quality cypress mulch in the color beds to help maintain adequate moisture and minimize weed seed germination in these areas.  Plants chosen this year are pictured below:

New flowers along the front of the clubhouse

Petunias 'Easy Wave Red'

Pentas 'New Look Violet"



Celosia 'New Look Red'

Angelonia 'Lavendar Pink'

Coleus 'Kong Red'

Coleus 'Saturn'

Along with our flower installation a fresh application of pinestraw is applied around the golf course.  We normally try to time our pinestraw application after the live oaks have completed their seasonal spring shedding of leaves and catkins in an effort to keep the straw looking clean. 

Municipal Water Main Installation

We are currently in the process of installing a new municipal water line that will run from our entrance at highway 57 to our clubhouse. This improvement will allow our facility to transition from a well water source to municipal water. There are many benefits to this project but the 3 main reasons are to lower operational costs, provide a more dependable water source for our fire suppression system in the clubhouse and to provide a back up water source to the golf course.  The following are some recent photos of our current project.

Pipe that was delivered.  Notice some was damaged due to an issue during shipping.  This batch was returned to the distributor and replaced.

8" pipe being prepared to be hung on the outside rail of the bridge crossing Old Fort Bayou.

6" pipe being installed up the road.

Boring contractors beginning to install a 6" HDPE pipe beneath our entrance drive.



Machine used to fuse the HDPE pipe together creating on solid seamless pipe beneath the road.  This will dramatically reduce the potential for leaks beneath our road.

Contractor finishing the boring project.

Jose Martinez preparing the pipe for connection to the water line

Another look at our staff working hard to complete the project!