Aeration of Greens is Complete

Aeration of the greens is finally complete. The process started on Sunday evening and finished Wednesday afternoon. It was a HUGE effort by the entire staff to get all of the greens punched, cleaned, washed, sanded and broomed. Below is a chronological look at what our aeration process at The Peninsula Club entails.

The greens looked amazing at the start of aeration.

The first step in the aeration process was vertically mowing the greens. This removes undesirable lateral growth in the canopy. 

View of the green after the vertical mow. Slicing into the canopy allows for more sand incorporation into the channels.

After the greens have been vertical mowed they are rolled and mowed.

Dumpe'! Dumpe'! Dumpe'! Aeration begins and the staff immediately catches and removes the cores. This makes for a very clean green after the holes have been punched.

Arnold cleaning the holes and making sure the holes are ready to receive sand!

This is exactly what the goal is. Large, clean and open holes. The bigger and cleaner they are the more sand that can be incorporate into the holes. 

The dry sand was push broomed into the open holes. This entire process decreases the amount of heavy equipment driven on unstable, open holes that can potentially cause shifting and rutting of the green surface.

The final look after the sand has been brushed in. The holes officially have begun the healing process. 

Now the process of healing and repairing the putting green slate begins. The holes will rapidly begin to heal and the greens should be like new in 12-14 days.

This process would not have been successful without the excellent help of the entire GCM Staff. 

Thanks Nick, Drew, Cesar, Jonathan, Paolo, Arnold, Margarito, Bradley, Alberto, Raul, Chayanne, Roberto, Brian, Wilfred, Jose, Milo, Wes, John! You guys rocked it out! 364 days and counting...

Jared Invited to Speak for USGA

Jared Nemitz, Director of Golf & Grounds at The Peninsula Club has been invited to speak at the Annual USGA Southeast Regional Conference being held at Hope Valley Country Club in Durham, NC on March 24th. His speech is titled, "Data Collection Ideas to Assist with Putting Green Management". It will highlight the data collection, organization and scrutinizing of scientific data that helps the agronomy team make sound agronomic decisions. Jared has spoken at various conferences and industry expos across the United States and the world.

Peninsula Bird Project

Over the past 16 years The Peninsula Club has been a participating partner with Dr. Mark Stanback and Davidson University. Dr. Stanback and his graduate students have been studying bluebirds, chickadees and wrens at the Peninsula Golf Course since 1999.

Dr. Stanback and his students have been studying the nesting and breeding behaviors of these birds, documenting their group composition and the competition between nuthatches and chickadees. They have also collected small blood samples from all of the nuthatches for DNA analysis. The Peninsula Club has allowed them to put up over 40 birdhouses across the golf course for this research. The data they have collected has been integral in a variety of studies that have been published in multiple scientific journals. 

Over 40 stands like this can be seen across the golf course. Another stand can be seen in the background.

 If you would like to know more information on the research conducted by Dr. Mark Stanback you can reach him at 704-894-2325.

Root Pruning Has Begun

Root pruning is an integral and necessary part of golf course tree maintenance. The majority of the holes on the course are tree-lined, creating beauty and dimension. Unfortunately, some of the rough adjacent to these tree-lines has performed poorly. When dry weather persists the tree roots out compete the turfgrass for water and nutrients. Perhaps most concerning is the fact that surface roots (see image below) are severe in many areas creating extremely poor playability.

Surface roots cause turfgrass decline, equipment damage and playability issues.

Tree roots can also wreak havoc on cart paths and contribute to increased equipment repair costs. Tree roots are one of the most significant contributors to cart path failure as a course ages.

Tree roots are a significant contributor to cart path decline.

Our root pruning program is accomplished with an Imants Root pruner. The machine cuts two parallel lines ten inches into the ground, suppressing and severing lateral growth by the tree. By only cutting ten inches deep, the roots are severed and turfgrass quality and golfing playability are not affected.  Roots are pruned along the tree's drip line.  After the roots have been cut, a small crew manually removes the root from the playing surface. Soil is then placed in the areas left void from the removal of roots.

Turfgrass quality drastically improves when roots are not competing for water and nutrients.

The Imants (background) severs the roots and the staff pulls them out of the playing ground (foreground).

Arnold pulling up large roots out of the playing area.

Surface roots removed from the first five trees.

The finished product after the Imants has cut through the roots.

We have begun the root pruning program and have completed holes #1 and #2. We will continue this process through March. The process will be repeated every other year to maintain a root free playing surface and increased turfgrass quality.

Shop Drainage Complete

During heavy rain events (>1 inch), the GCM Building used to flood. The equipment bay, shop area, employee lounge and offices would all flood. The maintenance building is located at the bottom of a ravine that receives high amounts of rain from the streets from above. When the water would funnel off the roof it became trapped behind the building in a ditch with nowhere for it to go except into the shop. 

The back of the building, where much of our storage space is located, was also sloped in a way that much of the water was coming back towards the shop instead of deflecting the water towards storm water basins. We created a ditch network with drainage to move all of the water away from the building. We also sloped the back of the shop, cleaned out all of the trash and sealed it with concrete screenings. We are now able to work more efficiently, maintain a dry work environment and be able to get to the golf course.

"If you can't maintain the back of the house, you can't maintain the front of the house!"

Jared's office after a rain storm event.

Over 1 inch of water in the employee break room

Water from the roof and streets above would get trapped in the ditch behind the shop with nowhere to go but inside it.

Drainage pipe and basins were installed every 20 feet.

Surge gravel was installed so we can keep the area free from debris.

Back of maintenance building before.

Back of maintenance building before.

Back of maintenance building before.

Back of maintenance building before.

Back of maintenance building after.

Back of maintenance building after.

Back of maintenance building after.

The landscape in front of the building also received a makeover.

The men showing me how they poured/mixed concrete in their native country.

  

The results of our staff's hard work.

Drainage at #9 Complete

The area on the right side of #9 golf hole near the clubhouse has been drained. Over 400 linear feet of drain tile was installed in the 2,000 SF area. Almost all of the work work was done by hand due to the area being above field capacity for so many years.

In the past this area was trimmed by hand each week to maintain somewhat of an acceptable appearance. This area should drain more effectively now and be able to be maintained with regular mowing equipment.

This area was not maintainable, unplayable and an eye soar for many years.

Matt and Arnold begin the only trench to be dug with a machine. The rest was dug by hand.

Colton Jones and Arnold begin filling in the first trench connecting the area to a stormwater basin.

All of the trenches in the wet area were dug by hand. The men did a great job with this physical assignment.

A seepage basin was added in the wettest area connecting drains from area properties and pipes. Now the water is all going to a central location and has an avenue to move off site.

The final project as seen from the clubhouse.

Greens Have Been Painted

As the greens made their way into dormancy it was time to paint the putting greens. The greens were painted on Monday and Tuesday of this week. The greens now have a bright green appearance that should last between 45 and 60 days. Depending on the color of the greens in January and February another application of paint may be applied.

Painting greens is aesthetically pleasing to the golfer and has agronomic benefits as well. It presents a very visible target to aim at and offers variation from the rest of the dormant golf course. Painting greens also aids in keeping the soil and turf insulated. This helps to protect the plant against cold temperatures. Greens that are painted have been found to keep the soil and turf 3-5 degrees warmer than without.

Figure 1. The test plot on #10 green shows how paint can dramatically impact soil temperatures at 2 inches. (Paint + Regular Apps received paint and regular applications of chemicals and fertilizer throughout the year. Dormant + No Paint received none of the regular chemical or fertilizer applications throughout the year. Dormant + Paint received only the paint this week.)

Assistants Nick and Colton painting #15 green.

Colton and Cesar Lopez painting #1

#5 before

#5 after