2nd Assistant On His Way To Druid Hills

Taft Burrell, 2nd Assistant at The Peninsula Club has accepted the Senior Assistant position at Druid Hills Golf Club in Druid Hills, GA.

Taft has been with the GCM department for just over two years leading the way on many of our renovation projects over the last few years. He has worked at many great clubs such as Eagle Point Golf Club, Starmount Forest Country Club and we were lucky enough to snatch him from Sebonack Golf Club.

Taft has been an integral part of the success of the team here at The Peninsula Club and we are sad to see him go. Although we are sad, we are extremely proud of what he has done and where he is going. Druid Hills is an amazing club and we cannot wait to hear what Taft accomplishes in his next position.

Another Record Broken

Spring is in the air and it feels as though we did not have a winter. February was the warmest on record since 1927.  Most of the days recorded above average temperatures as well (See Figure 1). That means a lot of golf was played and the course is greening up very early. Turf managers across the southeast are holding our collective breath. A huge dip in temperatures could cause wide scale turf loss similar to two years ago.

Figure 1. The records continue to be broken

Due to warm temperatures the turf covers on the practice tee have been removed. The tee is waking up and if temperatures continue we may begin using the tee in the coming weeks. If the temperatures dip for an extended period of time we will put the covers back on. 

We are continuing to topdress all surfaces with bunker sand from the green side bunkers. All fairways, tees and approaches have been topdressed at least once. Some wet areas are getting secondary applications.

Topdressing #10 Fairway

Staff Attends Turf Colorant Seminar at Pinehurst

On February 2, 2016 Jared Nemitz and Taft Burrell attended the USGA Turf Colorant Seminar hosted by Pinehurst Resort (Figure 1).  Over 50 superintendents and club officials from across the Southeast and even the Dominican Republic attended the event.

Pat O'Brien organized the 5th annual Turf Colorant Seminar which was attended by over 50 participants.

The seminar was a combination of in-class case studies, product discussion, science of colorants and field demonstrations. A variety of superintendents shared their case studies on how they have been successful painting their golf course.

Pinehurst Resort and New Brunswick Club Staff displayed how to correctly set up sprayers and application procedures to paint fairways (Figure 2). They discussed timing of applications, rates, number of applications, various paint products and what expectations one should have when painting.

Sprayer demonstrations showed how to effectively paint taller turf such as fairways and tees.

 The seminar was very educational and one that will help in the future if we wanted to paint other aspects of the golf course besides our greens.

Trees on a Golf Course

Recently the USGA conducted a tree evaluation report at The Peninsula Club. This report went into great detail about the pluses and minus of every tree on our golf course. They looked at playability, health, rooting masses, turfgrass health and safety of trees among many things. They put this report together and it can be viewed on the Peninsula Club website.

Below are two links to videos produced by the USGA about Trees and their impacts on a golf course.

FORE the Golfer: Trees on the Golf Course

Managing Trees on the Golf Course 

 If you would like to know more about trees and how they impact the golf course here are some more great articles on this topic.

A Guide for Selecting and Planting Trees on a Golf Course

How Trees Impact USGA Course Rating and Slope Rating

Man's Friend or Golf's Enemy?

Employee Break Room Renovated

A mentor of mine always said:

"How can one expect a staff to take pride in the front of the house if there is no pride in the back of the house?" 

In the Peninsula GCM department we believe in this motto. We take pride in our golf course and the conditions we provide on a daily basis. We also take much pride in our facilities that we work out of every day. We strive to maintain a clean, organized and efficient maintenance facility.

Two years ago the employee break room, the management offices and equipment storage area flooded when we received over one inch of rain. This made it difficult to maintain the type of facilitiy we know is needed to do the job up to member's expectations.

The Club graciously decided to allocate funds to repair and clean up the Golf Course Maintenance Compound permanently. We have been working on doing this for the past two years. We have cleaned, organized, instituted more efficient storage techniques and made a much more professional looking department.

The next step in this process was renovating the break room that had been damaged from years of flooding.    

During rainfall events water would build up behind the shop leaving it no place to go but into the maintenance facility.

The first place to flood were the management offices and employee break room.

It did not take much water to make the employee break room uninhabitable.

Flooding of the locker rooms

First we had to divert the water away from the building. Adding over 300 feet of drainage pipe did the trick.

Once we had controlled the water, the next step was to renovate the inside that had been destroyed from year's of flooding.

The HVAC system was serviced to stop leaks from the ceiling and new more energy efficient lights were installed.

The break room was gutted, all cabinets removed, and new hardware was installed.

Club Maintenance Director Brian Frank and Earl Gillon installing the new cabinets. This project could not have been completed without the help of these two individuals.

Staff installing new hardware on the cabinets.

New paint, light fixtures and plumbing were installed.

The final product. A clean environment that staff can feel good about and take pride in.

This project would not have happened without the graciousness of The Peninsula Club, Ray Armini, Brian Frank, Earl Gillon, Ryan Wells and my GCM Staff. They did an amazing job making the break room a place to be proud of! I am proud of what our team accomplished and look forward to moving onto the next step!

Frost...Ugggghhhh!

 It’s that time of year again…

Statement: “We are under a frost delay.”

Responses: 

"Are you kidding me?"

"I have to get my round in before the game starts?" 

"What's it going to hurt"

"What if I am careful?"

"The guy won't let us have any fun!!!!"

I get it, I know! I don't like it anymore than you do!

It’s that annoying email, call, check of the club website or tweet that sends ripples of emotions down your back. You want to get out and play and get on with your day. It’s getting light later and getting darker earlier. The amount of time to get eighteen holes in is small. (Thankfully we have not had any cover days to complicate this situation even more. By the way, by this date last year we had covered the greens five times!)

Frost up close and personal

So why do we institute frost delays? Grass blades can crack and die when traffic is applied to frozen turf.  A more serious concern is damage to the turfgrass crown (the base of the plant that produces new leaves), which kills the entire plant. All species of turf are sensitive to frost damage, including dormant bermudagrass.  The dead turf will persist until temperatures get warm enough in the spring to encourage regrowth.

Cart traffic damage from frost.

Even animals as small as geese can cause significant damage to grass under frosted conditions.

 Unfortunately, the only things that will melt frost are sunlight and warmer temperatures. Under some conditions, the best chance for frost to settle in is just as the sun rises. This can make it difficult to estimate how long the frost delay will need to be to ensure adequate protection of the turf stand.

It is our goal to make the decision on how long a frost delay needs to be 45 minutes to 1 hour before the first tee time. We also delay tee times for 30 minutes after the frost melts to allow the GCM staff to prepare the course for play.

Check out this video from the USGA on Frost!

 Remember to check the Peninsula Website, Penisula Turf Twitter account and with the Pro Shop before you arrive for your scheduled tee time.