Clearing of natural areas

We are currently doing our yearly trimming of all the brush/natural areas at #2,4,5,8,9,and 13. We will work on these areas throughout the winter during frost delays and other slow times. Here is a picture from last week on #2.

New root growth

Golfers always complain about aerification, but most realize it is a necessary evil. Below are two pictures showing how important aerification is even when small holes are punched. Notice the new white root growth we have seen in the new holes just in the past 16 days.

Notice the new white root growth that goes down in the aeration hole from the surface

Looking good

A week ago we punched little 1/4" holes in the greens. They have almost completely healed already. With weather in the upper 60s the next few days we decided to lightly topdress them today. This should further smooth out the surface and increase ball roll.

Up Close almost 100% healed

#18 green

View from the hill behind #18 Green

Giving the greens some air

On Tuesday we punched small 1/4" holes in the greens. This will reduce our thatch and organic matter levels, relieve soil compaction, increase oxygen levels, and stimulate root growth going into the winter. The holes are so small that after three rollings and a mowing this morning, the surface is very smooth and fast. You can still see the holes, but it has not affected putting quality. No sand was applied yet, but if the weather is as good as forecasted next week, we will do a light topdressing to even further smooth the surface. You can see in the pictures below how small the holes are and how they looked right after we finished on Tuesday. They look even better today.

Fall pictures

The first picture was taken at #2 tee box with frost on Saturday morning. The second picture is from #4 approach in the evening with the trees in full fall color.

Ryegrass pictures

The ryegrass has come in nicely this year and has matured well going into this cold stretch we started yesterday. With temperatures around freezing tonight and later this week there is the potential for some frost. I do not expect any tonight or tomorrow because of the high winds, but our first frost delay is in the near future.

Pansies

We have added our fall color around the clubhouse in the annual beds. The past two years we have just mulched these areas because of our deer population. This year we decided to put flowers back in. I have talked with other superintendents and horticulturalists and have developed a plan to hopefully have beautiful flowers instead of deer food. Lets hope this continues.

Ready to be cut

With the rain the past two days the ryegrass has taken off. If we dry out enough between now and Thursday afternoon we will cut all 40+ acres then. As you can see in the pictures below it has come in good and is ready to cut.

5 inches of rain

Bear's Best Atlanta received 5 inches of rain since Sunday night. It is very wet out there. I have only seen the bunkers washed worse one other time in the past two and a half years.

Aerification and overseeding completed

After 1.6" of rain on Monday and Tuesday and finishing up overseeding during play the past two days we are done. We aerated all the greens Monday and overseeded 4 holes. Monday around 5pm the rain shut down the overseeding and did so again all day Tuesday. We did all but 2 fairways yesterday and finished up this afternoon. Below us a picture of the guys overseeding 16 approach and around the green late Wednesday night.

Practice Green

We always get a lot of traffic on the practice greens. One problem we get is people practicing in one spot around one cup and not moving around. Usually it just leaves foot prints for a couple days (which is not good) but this week someone camped out and killed the grass. If you see someone planted in one area please remind them to move around.

Aerification and Overseeding

We will be aerating and overseeding on September 17th and 18th. The golf course and range will be closed both days. The greens have recovered nicely from the summer stress and will be in great shape coming out of aerification. Here is a picture of #9 from late last week and it was one of the worst greens. You can see how it has recovered nicely.

Piebald Deer

Tim Foster, Director of Instruction here at Bear's Best took some pictures of a piebald deer fawn last week here at the club. He also did some research and here is what he found out about the piebald deer.

A genetic variation produces the piebald condition in white-tailed deer, not parasites or diseases. Piebald deer are colored white and brown, similar to a pinto pony. Sometimes they appear almost entirely white. This genetic condition is rare, with typically less that one percent of the population being affected. Often fawns born with this condition do not survive at birth, or if they do are easy prey because they lack the normal camouflage coloration.

2012 Member/Guest

The 45 hole Member/Guest is in the books. While the weather was very hot, the greens rolled very well and the course played firm and fast. Congratulations to all the flight winners. Below are some pictures from Saturday morning and afternoon.

#5 Green Saturday AM

#1 Green and Fairway

Golf Course Maintenance Cookout

Last week Craig Riddle, GM and Kevin Murphey, food and beverage director treated the GCM staff to grilled steaks and sides. We had a great time as Paul and Bianca added their own flair as well to the cookout with tortillas and Pico De Gallo.

Club Championship

This past weekend we had a successful Club Championship. The weather was great. Here is a great picture of the golf course maintenance crew early Saturday morning around 5:30 double cutting the greens and prepping for the day. The lights are from the greens mowers and other vehicles and equipment on the course.

Saturday AM Setup At TPC SAWGRASS for The Players

This is a video of the Saturday morning setup at The Players Championship.  There are many other videos from this week at the tournament in their blog that you can click on under the "Blogs I Follow" to the right of this blog.  Pretty cool stuff

Two down, two to go

We installed the fan on #14 on Wednesday and the fan on #15 today amongst the outings. The bases are installed on #6 and #13 and are just waiting for the fans. The wiring has been trenched in and once the fans are installed our electrician can come and hook them up. This has been a big project that has taken some time to come to fruition, but will benefit the greens greatly when the hot humid weather hits.

New Infield Grass at Turner Field

As I have been watching the Braves the first few games at Turner Field I noticed the difference in color from the infield to the outfield grass(turf need I know). This made me do some investigating and I found this article in the AJC.

"New Infield Grass at Turner Field Designed to be Slower." by Carroll Rogers

The new bright green infield grass at Turner Field is not just for show, though many have noticed the difference during the Braves’ first home stand of the season.

Braves head groundskeeper Ed Mangan planted a new kind of infield grass this season in the hopes of slowing it down for the sake of the Braves infielders. The Turner Field infield is known for being quick, and Mangan planted a thicker grass he hopes will remedy that.

Mangan said he’s been testing out a variety of grass called “paspalum” in the bullpen and center field sod farm, for a few years, and decided to try it out this season. He plans to use it only on the infield for now, but might eventually plant it in the outfield too.

Paspalum was originally found in sand dunes of South Africa, Mangan said, and is used on beach area golf courses because it can withstand a higher salt content in water. What makes it useful for the Braves is that it’s a little softer than the hybrid Bermuda “419” they’ve used for years.

“Just looking for something to take a little bit more speed out of the ball on the infield,” Mangan said. “So far so good. So we’ll see how it pans. But just walking on it, you can tell a big difference.”

Second baseman Dan Uggla said he could tell a difference walking on it – “It feels spongier,” he said – but not necessarily fielding groundballs.

“You can’t really tell that much difference in it,” Uggla said. “I think it may be a tad slower.”

Third baseman Chipper Jones, who’s been playing a lot longer on the infield at Turner Field, has noticed a difference.

“I like it,” Jones said. “It was a really fast infield. It was almost like playing on Astroturf sometimes. This will slow stuff down. It’ll take some steam off.”

Gold, White, Green

The flags on the course will now correspond with their location on the greens. This will give golfers a basic idea of the distance to play and allow the maintenance staff flexibility on where to put the pins. In the past with the caddies, there was no need for different colored flags other than white. The new colors are as follows:

Gold - Front
White - Middle
Green - Back

Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Course

Today we received our official letter stating that Bear's Best Atlanta is a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Golf Course.  We are just the 20th course in Georgia to become certified.  Here is a small portion of the letter we received.

"Congratulations on being designated as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary!  You have shown a clear commitment to enhancing wildlife habitat, protecting water quality, conserving resources, and education......Your efforts are contributing to a nation-wide system of lands that are being managed for wildlife habitat and natural resource conservation.  Perhaps more importantly, you are helping to serve as a model for making decisions in the future that benefit both business and our environment..... Keep up the good work!!!"

Vertical mowing of greens

Now that we are healed in from the small aeration we have started to verticut the greens again. With the warm weather and all the fertilizer releasing to grow back in quickly, the greens have been on the slow side the past few days. They are growing like crazy. We double verticut the all three practice greens and then cut them for a second time today. We will then verticut all the greens on the course tomorrow morning and mow them as well ahead of play.  This cuts out excess lateral growth and stands the leaf up to get a good cut.  They will still be a tad on the slow side for a few more days, but with the verticutting, extra mowing, and some rolling we will get them back up to speed.

Standing the grass up 2 directions

Machine used to verticut

New water cooler stand on #8

We have installed a new water cooler stand that can be accessed on your way to #8 and #10 tee boxes. It will hold two coolers so we can avoid that stand running out of water in the summer.

Audubon International

Over the past year here at Bear's Best Atlanta we have been working towards the goal of becoming Certified in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses.  So far, we are certified in Environmental Planning, Water Conservation, Wildlife and Habitat Management and have done an extensive Environmental Case Study on our property.  We are currently waiting to hear from Audubon on becoming certified in Outreach and Education, Chemical Use Reduction and Safety, and Water Quality Management.  Once these three catergries are certified, we will be certified in the complete progam. According to http://www.auduboninternational.org/ we would be only one of 12 properties and 19thh course so far in the state of Georgia to become certified.  If you have any questions or want to know more about the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses please let me know.

Please goto their website to learn more http://www.auduboninternational.org/.

Small Tine Aeration

We aerated all the greens ahead of play today. We used between a 1/4" to 3/8" tines depending on inside vs outside diameter. It went great and the greens were actually faster than yesterday after they were double rolled. With the play behind us we cleaned the plugs off the greens, blew clean and then double rolled. After play went through the remaining sand from the plugs was drug in and the leaf blades stood up. We will mow, lightly topdress and spray our wetting agent tomorrow. This aeration is mostly visual and the ball still rolls great.  I will post more pictures this week.



View from #9 green after it was drug this afternoon



New bunker sand

The new green side bunkers on holes 2-9 and 11 have performed great in the first month since they were built. One issue is the fluffy sand has not packed in completely yet. We are continuously packing the sand down to make them more playable and to avoid fried egg lies. We have rebuilt one of our old sand pros to pack the sand with the tires yet only lightly rake the top to avoid getting into the liner.

Packed down edges with lip

Pulling excess sand off faces and packing edges

Rebuilt sand pro with rakes that will not pull up liner

A surprising morning

When Dave Merritt, assistant golf course superintendent, got to the shop this morning he noticed the pumps were pumping 900 gallons per minute. This is not good. A thrust block at #1 green had busted at 8:56pm last night causing the 900 gallons per minute to run for about 10 hours. We started right at 7am with the crew and had #1 playable by the first tee time at 9am. The following pictures are a timeline of the cleanup.  The crew did such an awesome job, no one would have known what we went through before play today.


#1 Green at 7:20am this morning



Dave looking at the damage at 7:20am

After the water drained, mud was left.  Jesus cleaning off the green about 4 times with hose

What caused this damage

#1 Green at 8:40am.  20 minutes before the first tee time.  No one knew what it looked like 1 hr and 20 minutes earlier

#1 Green this afternoon.  The maintenance crew did a tremendous job getting this green playable today.

Round-Up and Cart Path Only

We have been spraying our Round-Up and pre-emergent on our Bermudagrass roughs this week. That is why we have been Cart Path Only so we do not track the products onto the ryegrass fairways. You will notice the slight blue dye that we use to see where we have been. Thanks for understanding and we will be back to 90 degrees on Saturday, weather permitting.


Slight blue dye look in the roughs



Tree Removal #15

We have finished removing the pine trees from around #15 green to create a better growing environment. The maintenance crew then chipped all the trees up and is currently disposing of the mulch. What a difference this had made.

#15 Before Tree Removal

#15 After Tree Removal