What is frost and why do we have frost delays?
Why do we close the course on Mondays and other scheduled days during the year?
What is the reason that carts are restricted to the cartpaths on certain days?
How do you measure green speed and what is the daily goal for green speed?
What is golf course setup and how do you determine hole locations?
What is core aerification and why do we aerify?
What is sand topdressing and why do we topdress?
How do we know that aerification was successful?
What is frost and why do we have frost delays?
Frost is the solid deposition of water vapor from saturated air. It is formed when solid surfaces are cooled to below the dew point of the adjacent air as well as below the freezing point of water. Turf is very susceptible to frost due to the dew that forms during the night. Frost crystals differ in size depending on time of cold exposure and water vapor available. Frost on the grass blades tells us that the water inside the leaves is frozen. Water is the primary component of plant tissue. When this water is frozen, traffic on the turf causes the ice crystals in the cells to puncture through the cell walls, killing the plant tissue. The frost will eventually melt or burn off depending on temperature, sunlight exposure, and severity of the frost. Once the frost is gone, we have to allow thirty minutes to begin mowing and cutting cups before play can start. If we do not wait these thirty minutes, play will easily catch our staff.
The four letter words of Golf: Frost Delays and Cart Path Restrictions
Link to Top of PageThe four letter words of Golf: Frost Delays and Cart Path Restrictions
Why do we close the course on Mondays and other scheduled days during the year?
Willow Oaks Country Club has made the commitment to close the course on Mondays in order to allow maintenance that cannot be done during play. Our staff maximizes our efficiency on these days by working a minimum of twelve hours. Fertility and chemical applications can be made and watered in so that they do not disrupt member play. The range is maintained, the tees, fairways and roughs mowed out during the growing season, and any cultural practices to our putting greens are performed during these closed days. The club has protected the membership’s investments further through the closing of the golf course on select days throughout the year for aerifications and topdressings.
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What is the reason that carts are restricted to the cartpaths on certain days?
Carts are restricted to the cart path when current weather and soil conditions do not lend themselves to cart traffic. These conditions include but are not limited to excessive soil moisture, excessive drought, turf dormancy, or young turf. At the end of the growing season, just prior to dormancy, turfgrass growth has slowed to a minimum. The process of dormancy (when the grass turns a beige color) is an attempt to protect the plant from freezing temperatures, frost, snow and other winter damage. While the plant is still alive and well during dormancy, it is not able to recover from damage. Raising our mowing heights, limiting traffic, and implementing the correct agronomic practices can maintain plant health and protect the club's investment.
The four letter words of Golf: Frost Delays and Cart Path Restrictions
Link to Top of PageThe four letter words of Golf: Frost Delays and Cart Path Restrictions
How do you measure green speed and what is the daily goal for green speed?
The Stimpmeter is a device used to measure the speed of a golf course putting green by applying a known force to a golf ball and measuring the distance traveled in feet. When weather and agronomic conditions allow, our putting greens will be mowed, rolled, topdressed and groomed on an as needed basis to maintain speeds in the range of 10 – 11.5. Greens speed will be measured via the Stimpmeter in order to maintain minimum speed objectives. These measurements will be conducted and monitored by the Superintendent and his staff.
Stimpmeter Demonstration
USGA Animated Stimpmeter Demonstation
USGA article on Stimpmeter
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What is golf course setup and how do you determine hole locations?
The objective of golf course setup is to use various pin and tee locations that will change the lay out of the golf course, challenge the golfer, and maintain turf quality by spreading out traffic in order to reduce stress and turf damage. Hole locations are determined using our daily pin sheet. The pin sheet dictates the depth of the hole on the green but not the lateral placement. The pin sheet is divided up by the second digit of the day of the month. April 1, 11, and 21 would all be pin position 1. The different pin selections vary the depths of the holes to give you a variety of front, middle and back hole locations. Our management team decides the lateral position of the pin based on the pin sheet, turf quality, undulations, and fairness of play. We use a digital level to be certain that the area three feet around the hole is less than a 3% slope. There are no guidelines for hole locations in the rules of golf but our objective is to maintain a fun, fair golf course at all times.
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What is core aerification and why do we aerify?
Core Aerification is a mechanical process of removing cores of soil profile from the compacted soil, allowing for an infusion of air and water and a resurgence of growth. Core Aerification improves turf health by creating more air space in the soil, improving water infiltration and gas exchange, allowing new sand to be introduced into the soil profile, promoting deeper rooting, reducing compaction, and removing thatch (a layer of organic matter resulting from an accumulation of dead stems, leaves and roots; too much thatch can obstruct water, air and gas exchange and inhibit root growth.) Core Aerification is a long, labor intensive project that involves aerification, core removal, fertilizer applications, sand applications, dragging, rolling, and brushing. This process is very disruptive to play and the playing surface so we schedule our aerifications to maximize recovery time and minimize the disruption of play based on the growing and golfing seasons.
Glossary of Employed Agronomic Practices: Core Aerification
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What is sand topdressing and why do we topdress?Glossary of Employed Agronomic Practices: Core Aerification
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The sand used to topdress our USGA spec putting greens undergoes rigorous physical testing to insure that particle size, shape, and distribution fall within USGA guidelines and match our current soil conditions. The sand used on our putting greens comes to us kiln-dried and bagged and has been chosen to improve putting green firmness. We topdress our greens with rotary walk-behind spreaders to prevent damage from heavy mechanical topdressers.
Glossary of Employed Agronomic Practices: Topdressing
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How do we know that aerification was successful?
This picture is a vertical profile of one of our putting greens, Post-Aerification. You can clearly see the aerification holes were backfilled with sand and our process was a success. You can also see a very defined sand layer between the turf and the thatch. This proves that our topdressing program is successful. This will lead to firmer greens. You can also see excellent root growth. Very exciting!
A1/A4 Creeping Bentgrass
Sand Layer from Topdressing: ~ 1/4 inch
Thatch Layer: ~ 1 inch
Original Greens Mix
The aerification hole on the far left of the profile that is filled with sand will serve as a channel for the turf between the plant and the original greens mix. This channel will allow water infiltration, gas exchange and root growth.
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