September, last course closure of the year

October is almost here & to be honest, I'm glad! I can't wait to see everyone back enjoying the course again. This summer is officially the hottest summer on record that we have had in a long while and let me tell you...it has been a long, hot, humid, sweaty summer. Despite the heat, we have managed to accomplish all of the summer goals, and then some. Having the course closed for a week was a huge success and I just want to say thank you to the Club for do it one more time.

This week's closure was focused primarily on detail work. We have about 850 sprinkler heads, about 450 drain basins, and hundreds of trees that we need to finish trimming. Another area of major focus this past week was bunker playability and consistency...or in layman's terms we did the "Sand Shuffle." The sand shuffle is not some new crazed dance move you'll see at a wedding or the disco, its my way of saying we were checking and adjusting the depth of sand in the bunkers.

In order to have a consistent playing bunker, you have to have a consistent bunker sand profile of 4-6 inches. So the first thing done to check the consistency of all the bunker sand depths is to randomly "pot hole" the bunker floor to expose how deep the sand is. Bunker pot holing is a simple process of just using a shovel and pulling back the sand down to the base dirt. You can see here where one of the crew has pulled back the bunker sand so the shuffle crew can see where, and how to adjust.


Here is what the results of "pot holing" tell me...

Not enough sand, need to add


Vs...

Just the right amount


After the depth of sand is checked, the crew moves in fix the problem. It might be as simple moving the existing sand around, such as here where the sand rake enters and exits the bunker.


Or you might have to add some sand like the guys are doing here. Many of you have seen this trailer hauling sand around the course when we are top dressing the greens and how it dumps the sand into the top dresser. When I bought this trailer I also bought an attachment that allows it to fill bunkers as well. Check out this short video.


As you can see, the sand gets added then the staff moves the sand around to the areas that need it. Yesterday I was asked "Why do the bunkers need sand already, we just built them last year" The answer is the sand just gets moved around a lot, either by mother nature or by mechanical means. Sometimes that even means it gets removed from the bunkers, like when we have strong winds. Also, the staff takes great care to keep the sand clean through general maintenance and that means we blow debris out of the bunkers all the time, which also blows sand out of the bunkers. Additionally, certain high use bunkers get the sand whacked out of them from the golf clubs. A great example of this on an extreme scale is the practice bunker at the range. I filled it with sand 3 times last winter, from basically November to May. Think about what Tony would tell you when you're in a green side bunker...."Open the face, hit 2 inches behind the ball, and follow through with you're swing." Right? Well the resulting swing, if done correctly, usually makes a lot of sand fly out with the ball.

Its important to have the correct amount of sand consistency for a couple of reasons. First and foremost is so that your club has a consistent media to play through. You don't want the club to dig through a 1/2 inch of sand then hit compacted dirt, or a rock, which could stop your forward club head motion causing the ball to not escape the hazard, not to mention now you just chunked brown dirt on bleach white sand. Also, a consistent 4 inch profile helps the playability of the sand as it related to firmness. Now firmness of a bunker can be a major debate, some like them hard and some like them soft depending on one's style of play. There are also a lot of physical properties of the sand, as it relates to size and shape that affect playability. When it comes to how the sand depth affects playability its pretty simple. If the sand depth is too thin it could be overly firm. A firmly compacted sand makes it hard to get under the ball to hit the flop shot, or it cold cause the ball to "hit hard" and roll up next to an edge or create a tougher shot due to the lie. If the sand is too thick, it could be overly soft. Softer bunkers could lead to plugging (commonly known as the "fried egg"), or make longer shot very difficult.

Particle size and shape of the sand is important as well. If the sand mix has a lot of larger, round particles it will not compact enough (think of a jar of marbles). If the particles are to angular, they will work themselves into a tightly compacted profile and become very firm (kind of like a jig saw puzzle fitting together). Fortunately the USGA has done massive amounts of research on bunker sand particle sizes and what makes a good, overall acceptable blend. During the reconstruction of the golf course a lot of consideration was given on what "blend" to use in the bunkers and it was decided to use a blend called 328 bunker sand. It is very widely used throughout the area and produces a very good playing surface when properly managed.

So to try and give the membership the best of both worlds as it relates to firmness, I try to maintain the bunkers so the top 1/2 inch or so a bit softer, and the bottom portion of the sand profile is more firm. I've found this maintenance style allows the ball to "splash and bounce" when entering the sand. By splash and bounce I mean when the ball hits the sand it displaces a bit of sand (like when you do a cannon ball into the pool). This splash takes away the force of impact. After the ball splashes through the loose material on the top it contacts the compacted material beneath and bounces a little bit, releasing onto a smooth portion of the bunker. This style also accommodates the many different possible shots from the bunker. A bit softer on the top for the traditional "hit 2 inches behind the ball" shot that many of us use; firmer on the bottom for the longer shots from farther away. You can see in this pic that the upper 1/2" or so is a little dirtier, that's from tilling it daily to create the splash zone. You can also see the bleach white sand underneath that stays compact to make the ball bounce a bit onto the smooth surface.


To produce this layered style of compacted sand, the bunkers are compacted with a plate compactor after the sand depths have been corrected. The compactors weight about 150 lbs and vibrate at a high frequency. Between the weight of the machine and the high frequency shaking, the subsurface becomes tightened up while the surface has that 1/2 inch of loose materials as you'll see in the video. Notice the sides of the compaction plate as it pushes out the loose material on top.


Part of this year's summer projects was to come up with a remedy to all of the lost balls left of #12 green. When the landscaping was trimmed back this year, my staff found three 5-gallon buckets of balls in the tall grass. In discussing the issue with Tony, he had a great idea of just removing the landscaping and sodding the area. Tony's explanation was that by sodding the area anyone that goes left has a chance to chip back to the green and save par instead of dropping a ball and playing for bogey. The concept was discussed with the golf course architect, Gordon Lewis, who endorsed this minor modification. Tony's idea was also brought up at the recent Green & Golf Committee meeting and was given unanimous support before it went to the Club's Board for final approval.

Here is the area right after the landscaping was removed


Final prep


After sod installed...the view as you now approach 12 green


When completed there will be two drain basins in the bottom of the area. Everyone needs to remember that this newly grassed area was designed to be a drainage retention area for 12 fairway, not to be a drained playing area and it might hold a little water from time to time. Fortunately, even when it has rained heavily I have not seen standing water in the bottom of the littoral for very long. I think if it does flood due to heavy rains, there will only be standing water in it for an hour or two and can played under the "casual water" rule. On the south side of the old littoral is an over flow pipe that was installed in case the littoral filled up with a couple of feet of water. I will have to hide the intake of the pipe with some landscaping because I cannot lower the pipe to put a drain box on it. Even still, I think everyone will appreciate the improvement to playability and think the area is 1000% better!


A small project that was completed was resodding the silver tee on 15 with a more shade tolerant grass variety called zoysia. It is the same grass that is on 15 blue tee. This summer we have converted a few tees to zoysia that were in a bit too much shade for bermuda grass; 12 blue, 16 blue, 15 silver, & 18 blue.



Some general stuff that we worked on was trying to get some more sunlight on the tees at 15. Many of you have witnessed over the years how the beautiful cypress head had becomes plugged full of exotics like brazilian pepper and bishopwood trees. These invaders spread prolifically and produce massive canopies that block the needed sun until almost mid-day. To combat the shade issues I had a tree company come in and clear the exotics back away from the cart path. In this picture, inside this massive strangler fig tree there is actually 4 or 5 palm trees being swallowed alive. You can even see the zoysia sod pallets sitting on 15 silver tee...still in the shade. I took this picture at 10:30.


same spot, same time, 1 day later


A small project that is more of a maintenance issue is to always make sure we maintain the smooth contours of the course. Here, the staff is leveling a small depression in the fairway that settled from when we removed the large rocks earlier in the summer.


Our last major project of the summer is to mulch the landscaping. You might remember in the previous blog posting that I had all of the palm tree trimmings turned into mulch. Now its time to use that recycled material out to the course and dress up the beds. This project will take us a couple of weeks.

First it is hauled out and dumped ahead of the spreading crew


Then the crew spreads it around.


I look forward to mulching the property every year! I think fresh mulch makes such a dramatic difference in the course's appearance. When I see mulch rolling out of the shop I know season is right around the corner and the cooler weather is almost here...its a SW Florida version of the leaves changing colors.