I need your help

This has certainly been an interesting year so far. In this earlier post "tree work" I showed pictures of the right side of three green where we removed a few trees trying to improve the growing environment and playability of the hole. I discussed removing the emotion of trees trying to temper peoples reaction to some tree removal. Then we had 4 nor'easters come through in just a few weeks and the devastation was severe on this hole. From the back of the 3 green to the 2nd green we lost approximately 30 trees. Some were uprooted as earlier posts showed. The clean up has all been done and the repairs have been made to the course. We now need to give the sod and seed a chance to establish to ensure its longevity. Seedlings and new sod have this in common: they both fail under traffic. In fact, most grass fails under intense traffic. This is where I need your help. Eventually we will have to figure out the best way to get carts and walkers from the short turf to the path and next tees. For now it is a temporary path well short of the old path. This is so we can establish grass where it was basically woods.

"Seedlings and new sod have this in common: they both fail under traffic"

Concentrated traffic equals dead grass and a path. Whether drive carts all exiting a fairway in the same spot or push/pull carts all walking on a collar. The grass doesn't know the difference. The ropes on the course are for both. The "ALL CARTS" signs are for both. The "NO PULL CARTS" signs are for push carts also. We have once again put green stakes at the edge of the tall rough to remind carts to stay out of there. I also placed them on the right of 3 to keep carts out of the short rough. This section of rough has never been good from the lack of sunlight, tree competition etc. It took a real beating from all the tree company trucks this spring. It has been given some attention and seeded so hopefully with a break from cart traffic the grass there will bounce back and the seed will germinate. The right woods has also been seeded to repair from all the tree removal and the ensuing damage. Please take care while searching for errant balls. Once this area heals it will be a completely different hole. Below is a picture showing the green area and the traffic pattern.

3 during construction looking down old path to bobcat

3 now mowing week old sod. crazy

looking back towards tee. new bunker

looking back towards tee old bunker during tree work 

spiking rough on 3/ Topsoil being spread on 2 and logs being removed

It has been a busy few weeks trying to get all these projects wrapped up. The weather has been cold but a we are seeing more players every week. The grass is starting to grow and regular maintenance is demanding our attention. Thank you for your patience and understanding while we recover from the storm damage and please help us give you the best course conditions by staying off the damaged areas as best as you can.

Getting closer

Well it has been almost three weeks since the last update. I lamented then about the weather and honestly nothing has changed. We have received some rain and the place has greened up, so it is starting to Look like Spring but we had snow flurries again today so it certainly doesn't Feel like it!!
In the last post I showed the spoils from the marsh project dumped on two being spread. One of our members and landowners flew in on a Cape Air flight and grabbed this picture. I circled the two main areas we worked in. You can clearly see the trenches and fish pools dug in the marshes.

Aerial of West Chop showing our marshes

We graded out the spoils again and spread the fill over the top. It was too wet to drive the loader on and even our bobcat was rutting the fill and not able to do a great job of it. I gave it a couple more days to dry out and was able to get it smooth but it was still like walking on a waterbed and the water was trying to poke thru in a few spots.

Marsh spoils on corner of 2 fairway

spoils with a line to show rough plan for grass and pollinator habitat

Tomorrow we turn on the irrigation system. A very frightening day since we had so much frost in the ground this winter. The last time we had that much frost it took a week since we found 13 pieces of galvanized pipe that had leaks. We no longer use any galvanized pipe from the original system but if it is attached to the original 1936 main it is technically live. Last Fall we lost power to a bunch of the satellites. We knew we had to replace the leg from 9 to 8 (1500 feet) but I was hoping to find a single break in the leg from 8 to 7 and repair just that. No such luck. Similar to the other piece it was riddled with so many breaks it needed to be replaced. So another 1100 feet of trench to dig and clean up. Part of the problem with this type of work is hitting things inadvertently such as the three "abandoned" galvanized lines I hit in the first run. With the main line being 6 feet deep repairs are not fun. I am praying for a miracle and these lines are no longer connected to the main. To say we need a new irrigation system is the understatement of the century considering we are still using parts of the original installed early in the last century.

Wire and trench issues

The tree cleanup from the storms continues slow and steady. These are the ones on the lawn which I showed leaning in the last post. Pictures do not do this justice. Even the video of the partial pile accumulating does not give you the full breadth of the damage all over the property.

Two large pines on clubhouse lawn

At least we have some golfers enjoying the property. I caught these two on 8 while it was flurrying last week.

Spring?

Well Spring has officially begun. You would not know it by the snow on the ground, temperatures and another Nor'easter bearing down on us. I documented a few more trees that have been damaged in the storms. Some work is getting done whether cleaning the course again or spreading the marsh spoils on the outside corner of number 2. I have decided to plant that area to pollinator habitat. It was full of scrub oak, invasive Russian olive and poison ivy. I think adding to the habitat for bees and butterflies will be a great thing and blend with our environmental approach.

More tree damage

Marsh spoils spread out on #2

Last storm had blowing wet snow

Number 3 Nor’easter

A lot has happened since my last posts. I went away to the NERTF.org conference and show in Providence. During those 4 days we had another Nor'easter. That middle one was simply 1.27" of rain and 50 mph winds. Just another day. Now the 3rd storm was another story. In case you have not been following NE weather that was a not a typo. 3 Nor'easters in 12 days. #3 had bigger winds and lots of heavy wet snow with a wet start of .9" of rain. Power loss, more trees, a real storm for sure. The course appears to be OK without any major tree damage that I could see from my quick walk and drive around. the roads suffered a bit harder with trees down all over the place. The snow will not hurt the grass but it will slow down the cleaning of the course from all these storms. I am hearing rumors of a possible storm next week. This is not a fun pattern. Guessing we had 6-8 inches of snow. Hard to tell since it was blowing around so much.

What a difference a day makes. 1st hole 24 hrs apart

Roads. Snow stuck to everything

Course. Heavy wet snow

Forecasts from Twitter

Storm update

The pictures and videos cannot do the damage justice. I had checked the beach area and roads looking for damage anywhere. Many landowners had substantial damage but it appeared the course was spared. That is how it looked at least from the roads and driveways. When I finally toured the course it was another story. Certain areas were devastated. Luckily it was not on any major playing surface.

Storm update

Pictures do not do it justice. Clubhouse was without power for 24 hours. Others in Mink Meadows Were 2 days and 6 hours getting power last night at 11:20 PM. As far as I know the rest of Mink is up and running. Most of the course looks great and it is hard to know we had a major storm. Other sections look like a tornado struck. No major playing area is affected so that is great news.

Busy couple of weeks

I made it to San Antonio for the Golf Industry Show and had a great time. The talks I was involved with went really well. The Great Debate was a debut light-hearted event meant to be educational but entertaining. We had a blast and the overflowing room did also. I heard a lot of positive comments throughout the rest of the week about the talk. One guy unsolicited said "was that the seminar with everyone laughing? I was in an architecture seminar next door and we were all jealous thinking we took the wrong seminar!" The other was in a booth on the trade show floor. Not as many people but just as much fun.

Speaking engagements

As I always do at GIS I spend a fair amount of time at TurfNet events. This year the Beer & Pretzels event had extra special meaning. We kicked off the Jerry Coldiron Embrace Life Awards This article sums it up perfectly: Press Release It was a very emotional night with awards given to some amazing people with stories we have all followed in the TurfNet forum over the years. We have a term called the "TurfNet Village" because we have formed a community that goes far beyond just an online forum. Another part of this wonderful evening was reuniting the ColdIrons with a student they had housed many years ago from England. That story is HERE There was a personal twist to that story since Josh Webber was my roommate for a couple of days. It was fun to meet one of the bright young men in our industry and be involved in the surprise. The TurfNet Emerald Challenge/Byrne Cup had lower attendance so instead of playing golf on a course against the Irish Greenkeepers we moved it to a Top Golf. That was a blast and I recommend you try one. Cheryl and I are looking forward to this event in Ireland come October.

TurfNet events and Professor hi-jinks 

Meanwhile back at Mink we opened the greens for the first time all year. All except number 3 which is still frozen due to all the shade even after all the trees we removed. We will continue to open that green up to more sunlight in the future.The weather continues to be a roller coaster. 25 one day then 50 the next. Otis said his yard was full of robins so maybe we are over the hump? The rain and temperatures over the weekend certainly changed the color of the course with everything starting to turn a bit green again. Finally the much awaited hard fought project to clean out the old drainage ditches in the marshes began. This may not be on the radar of the golfers who play Mink Meadows but if the intended consequences of a healthy marsh come true every golfer will be thrilled. Less Mosquitoes. A better flowing marsh and having fish pools to support natural predators is in everyone's best interest.

Marked up photo for environmental committee 

Marsh and beach channel work

Boat ride off

Update

Against my better judgement I opened the course this morning. I was surprised at how dry and firm some areas were after the 2.44' of rain last night. Clearly the frost has broken in some areas. Unfortunately the areas it has not is the mostly greens and bunkers. They were saturated and had standing water on and in them respectively. So we are open for play for the first time in 2018 albeit walkers only and on temporary greens.

7 green bunker

8 approach

Practice bunker and putting green

4 fairway puddle has shrunk tremendously from earlier in the week 

It has been very windy all morning with some sun but not much. the forecast is for temperatures to plummet to below freezing so any moisture around will lock up yet again. Hopefully the remaining frost in the ground breaks and the turf can dry and firm up before that happens. Otherwise we will be on this cycle again when the temps climb back up.

Fall Season

I cannot believe it has been almost a month since the last post. September has flown by or maybe blown by as the latest storm is upon us as I write this. We have had our share of massive storms this season luckily down south and not up here but our thoughts and prayers should be for those affected. The Caribbean has been devastated and parts of this country have had their issues as well. We are no stranger to wind, rain, and tide damage on MV but hopefully these big storms do not add up to much more than the typical Nor Easters we get.

I went through my phone camera for some of the highlights of the last month:

4th tee before thunderstorm shut us down

almost finished

The trees had started to creep in on both sides of the 4th tees. From the back tee it was becoming a shoot only a PGA Tour player could get through without clipping a branch. Our tree company was going to be at a neighbor's house so we scheduled to sneak them in with the lift to open this area back up.

Every year the trees grow taller and wider. We need to keep in mind that the playability of the course should be our priority. If allowed, the forest would close in and take over. Trees need to be pruned and even removed to keep the course design and integrity intact. This includes shrubs planted as distance markers that now have become full size trees and may be a hindrance to play. They certainly have no distance function anymore as everyone has some electronic device to tell them distance, wind speed, elevation, temperature of the water coming out of the fountains etc.

Fun with fescue mowing

I started to mow some tall grass areas in preparation of the Bass Ackwards. Chris Morse was playing and mouthed to me "can't you leave some?" as he walked by. I too like the definition the tall grass areas give the course but as I posted here mid-summer, this year it is so thick it is unplayable. I started mowing a labyrinth pattern and probably should have left it for a couple of weeks. I found an irrigation leak on the hill so became distracted and decided to mow it all before we fixed the leak. 

Tall grass leak, Bert supervising Murph's glue job.

break at the test head. no thrust block on original. Bag of cement this time

Rotted nipple on 3 and end of a wire spool

The bad luck of irrigation breaks came in 3's with the last being on the 3rd hole. Luckily we caught this one before it was a major blow out. It certainly was ready. We discovered a massive amount of extra wire in the ground. Our guess was they were at the end of the spool so simply hooked it up and buried it. This is never a good idea since while digging up the head it is hard enough to avoid hitting the regular amount of wires in the ground. We cut it out when making the repair. Every hole is an adventure. 

Lastly, I had the pleasure of playing golf with the President of GCSAA Bill Maynard, CGCS. He was invited to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of Cape Cod. We were originally slated to host the Sept meeting but it became the perfect month to have this celebration and New Seabury volunteered. We do not have the facilities and as luck would have it I heard they were the first location 50 years ago. It was a perfect day and the current board did a great job with lots of memorabilia, a slide show of historic pictures, 50th pin presentations and great gifts. The foursome pictured is Bill, Brian Smoot, President GCSACC, Paul Doherty, Past Pres. GCSACC, and me Way past president GCSACC.

GCSACC.org turns 50

September at last. Careful what you wish for...

The last 24 hours finally felt as if we have made a turn in the weather. It has been one heck of a hot and dry summer. The showers yesterday were just perfect as soft gentle rain. We received .18" over a few hours. 5 more days of that and we will be in business. Add to that the nice cool temperatures of 64 this morning and we have ourselves some happy cool season turf. Sadly we cannot always get precipitation when and how we want it and the forecast for the weekend does not look great. I guess our streak of perfect golf weather may be over. If all we end up with during this hurricane season is rain I for one will be pleased. Wind an all that comes with it is never any fun. Besides who could hate a storm named Hermine? She was one of my favorite Harry Potter characters.

photo from Facebook

1st green Thursday afternoon

Interesting colored dragonfly

Salt damage on vegetation

The one good thing about heavy rains is the flushing aspect. The salt levels in our irrigation well have been very high lately as evidenced by the damage to the trees (see picture above). It builds up in the soils and wreaks havoc on grass roots as well. Hopefully any rain will help flush some of those salts away and we can begin our road to recovery in the areas most affected by the drought.

sunrise 1st Green

What are all those brown spots?

Well we finally received some rain. This allows us to drag the washboard out of the roads which is caused by cars traveling too fast when they dry out. Everyone tells me if you go fast you don't feel them as much, but that just makes it worse. If we all drive 15 mph we might never see a washboard and make the speed bumps unnecessary also.

dragging tine harrow on roads

Of course the rain does bring it's challenges. The fungal disease known as dollar spot usually grows out of control after a rain event. It gets it's name from the silver dollar size brown spot it leaves on the turf. 1 or 2 is no big deal but hundreds or thousands and it becomes serious. When active it has a white cottony mycelium seen in the picture below in the rough behind 6 green. We use the Bioject to brew up a naturally occurring soil bacteria and then we spray it on the fairways. This approach has worked since 1998 and allowed us to not use synthetic fungicides on fairways to control this fungus.

active Dollar Spot fungus

viewing platform

water view from platform

real estate pamphlet at platform

Some of you may have noticed the new wooden structure in the woods to the right of 8 approach? It is a viewing platform of the nice water view we have from number 8. One of the few remaining empty lots left in Mink Meadows is on the market and they think this will help sell the lot. Of course if you want water views there is actually a water front lot for sale also. Both pond and Vineyard Sound front to be exact. I will say it is a nice place to live with some amazing sunrises over that pond and sunsets over the sound.

Mirror-Mirror on Mink Meadows pond at sunrise

sunset at beach July 4th      Nature's fireworks