Antelope Flower Bed

The season is now under way and golfers have been teeing it up all week. The weather has been cooperative this last week and has allowed us to get quite a few projects going on the course. One smaller project was rebuilding the “Antelope” flower bed on #18.

 

Digging up the flower bed

 

 

A "Before" look

 

 

 

 

The total area almost doubled in size to allow for more marble rock

The antelope bed has needed some attention the last couple of years and has finally been completed. The area was dug up and new soil was added to the actual flower bed while sod was cut around the entire area to allow for white marble rock. The white marble rock was added to give more “pop” to the red annual flowers. A metal edging was used to contain the rocks while a weed barrier was also put in place to lower the daily maintenance of the flower bed. The flowers will be planted in a couple of weeks and the area will be complete and ready for the season.

A look from 200 yards out at 18 fairway

The Covers Are Off And Snow Continues To Fall

May is officially here and the golf season is just around the corner. (If only someone would tell Mother Nature that). The recent weather has been extremely cold and more snow continues to fall. With the colder temperatures, much of the course is a bit behind schedule, but still is in great shape. As each day passes, more and more green grass is starting to appear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last week was nice for a few days, which allowed us to remove the covers from the greens. Each winter a lot of time and energy is given to the greens to ensure that as little damage as possible occurs, and this year was no different. All of the hard work paid off as the greens came out of winter beautiful. Once the current storm passes, the greens will be prepared for the season.

The rest of the course is coming along nicely as the crew continues the spring cleanup and gets prepared for another great season.

Saying Goodbye

Well it only seems like yesterday that I was interviewing this guy from Colorado for the Assistant Superintendent position at OBC. When it seems like a short time ago, it was going on four years that Kyle Merritt was hired at the Old Baldy Club. I am sad to say that Kyle has moved on to manage his own course as the head golf course superintendent at Eaton Country Club, in Eaton, Colorado.

Keep flexing Kyle!!!
I'm sure someone will eventually notice.

 

             While all of us are excited for Kyle and his new adventure, it was hard seeing him go and wish him the best in this phase of his future career in the Turf Industry. Kyle was a key employee in the day to day operations and he will be greatly missed, although I won’t miss seeing that Ram head cover on his golf clubs every time we played, (or getting outdriven by his three wood).

 

 

Why is a CSU grad wearing a Wyoming Cowboys hat?
Weird!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry I woke you up from a nap Kyle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               The assistant superintendent position is an important position in the overall operations of The Old Baldy Club. The position is now being advertised and we hope to have a new assistant in the near future. For the final time, good luck Klye (and yes, I know his name is mispelled).

 

 

Spring Cleaning

It seems that spring has arrived and we accept it with open arms. Most of the seasonal staff has started and are busy prepping the course for the upcoming season. The nicer weather has allowed us to also get a jump start on the spring aerification, as well as course cleanup. The greens are looking good under the covers besides a few select areas and will they will be removed later this week or early next week. The early removal of snow helped limit ice formation/damage and protected the Poa annua grass on the greens.

The course irrigation has been charged and water is being applied due to windy conditions and lack of moisture. Since our course sits at 7,000 feet, it always seems to be a few weeks behind when compared to surrounding courses in our region but won't be long until the course is ready to go.

 

A look at #10 fairway

 

 

 

 

 

Paul doing some fabrication

Our irrigation tech. Ian Lee, is also excited about his new cart. We took one of the gators (utility cart) and transformed it into an extended flatbed. This allows Ian to put tool boxes and hoses in the back and still has room for other tools needed to do his job.

 

 

 

Almost done, tool boxes and a vise were also added to the cart

 

 

Snow Covered and Cabin Fever

#8 looking from the tees

One quick drive around the course and it is evident that it will still be a while before the golf clubs can be dusted off. The entire course is covered in snow and the temperatures remain right around 30 degrees or lower. There still seems to be little ice formation on the course which is great news. The major problem mother nature can cause now would be a drastic temperature increase,  rapidly melting the snow cover we do have.

 

 

 

#7 from behind the green

An excess of moisture and warmer temperatures at this time of year can trigger the grass to come out of dormancy, especially the Poa annua. Poa is the one type of grass that is famous for this occurrence, and the real problem comes when it breaks dormancy and takes up water and then the temperatures drop off, killing the grass. The extended forecast looks to be in our favor, and a close eye will be kept on the entire course as we stroll through March.

Green Sand

A couple of seasons have now passed since green sand has been used to fill in divots on tee boxes and fairways. The green sand not only does a good job of camouflaging the many divots, especially on par three tee boxes and driving range tees, but also speeds up the rate at which new seedlings germinate. In the spring and fall, the daily temperatures are much cooler, slowing down seed development.  With the help of green sand, the small increase in temperature that is resulted in the darker sand is enough to increase seed development.

 

Ian and Kyle making the sand and loading it into bin
 

There are two types of sand that are used on the golf course throughout the season. One type of sand is very fine that comes from sand dunes north of Saratoga. This particular sand is used primarily for topdressing the tees and fairways. The other type of sand is hauled in from Colorado and consists of larger aggregates and allows for better drainage and plant growth and is used strictly on the greens at the Old Baldy Club. Both types of sand are kept separate to avoid contamination of the putting greens sand.

Final product of the dyed sand

 

As each season arrives and all of those divots are made, large amounts of green sand are used. The green sand can be purchased for a pricy amount and our location drives the price up even more, forcing us to dye it ourselves. Normally the sand is made during the season, but is used faster than it can be made. The equipment manager, Paul Perue, is off for a couple of days allowing us to sneak in and make a mess while he is gone.

Each scoop of sand is put into an electric concrete mixer where at this point it is mixed with water and green dye. After it is properly mixed, it will be put into a bin (made of recycled pallets) and then moved into one of our storage areas. Seed is added later on right before the sand is applied to the turf. The plan is to get as many bins made as possible before the start of the season. The only setback so far is dealing with frozen sand and snow contamination, besides that the entire process is going good.



A quick update from the last post.
Here is a look at the greens samples taken two weeks ago, great progress.

 

Turf Samples

 

 

 

As winter progresses and the temperatures seem to be all over the place, we do the best to monitor all of the turf on the golf course, with the most emphasis on greens. As of right now, the course is under snow cover and insulated from the drastic low temperatures that we saw earlier this week.  This does not mean that we still can’t see what is going on with the turf.

 

 

A few samples taken from greens earlier this week

As spring nears closer (I know it’s only February and winter still has a ways to go) we take samples of turf from some of our problem areas from the past and bring them inside to break dormancy. So far the samples have shown good potential. There has been some ice formation on greens, but was quickly removed to lessen the chance for damage. There have also been some exposed areas that have been watered to prevent wind desiccation. Overall everything sampled seems to be doing great and we now wait for warmer temperatures to slide us into spring.