GMS at Pueblo del Sol C.C.: November 2022

Yeahhh we have internet again .......for now(knock on wood:) We haven't had a relevant post since July because of our internet issues, and a lot has happened since then, too much to put into one post but I will try and touch some of the major points for the past 4 months.

Rainfall

Iv'e been asked on numerous occasions how much rainfall has the golf course recorded.... so we are just about to our average in rainfall this year, we are currently at 14.5" through November 8th, with 14.89" as our yearly average (Data average from years 2002-2022). UPDATE ...... 16.3 " for 2022

July heat issues.....

We had more than a few days were we had turf areas heat up in the late afternoon. For the most part we were able to syringe( applying light watering to cool the plant) most of the turf areas in need, but we did lose turf in some of our high poa(annual blue grass)areas. There were a few areas in fairways but most of the poa burn was on the back of #5 green.

#5 green.... 7/12 ............... poa fry

Back #5 green.... 7/12 .... verticut two directions

Back #5 green.... 7/12 .... seeded(bentgrass) and topdressed with usga sand

Back #5 green.... 7/12 .... a light brush, fertilized and agua

Back #5 green.... 7/29 .... a light spike in the struggliung areas

Back #5 green.... 7/29 .... re-seed and added a mulch/sand mix for better moisture retention

Back #5 green.... 7/29 ........ finished (seed & mulch)

Back #5 green.... 7/29 .......Ramon in charge of hand watering twice daily

Back #5 green.... 10/19 .... spot seeding and leveling

Back #5 green.... 10/19 .... getting there.....will be ready by spring

July Lightning Damage.....

lightning above our maintenance building

Lightning caused a few issues for us in July, some of those issues we are still dealing with. We had a few strikes that hit ground and took out 14 of our irrigation control boxes. Those strikes thankfully were mostly arrested by the pipe bombs(aka lightning surge protector) located inside the controller. Time consuming work having to go to all those boxes and check the surge protectors continuity and change out the blown ones.They did save some major components in those controllers. We also had 26 solenoids(26 sprinklers) on 5 different holes that got fried leaving numerous stations inoperable via the controller. Those all had to be dug up and replaced. The irrigation control box on #18 fairway also needed repair. This strike must of been closer because it not only fried the lightning surge arrester but we lost the PIB(Power Interface Module), and two OSM's(Output Station Module). Last but not least we have a fried station wire for a double head on #2 fairway(also inoperable via controller) that we will need a trencher to put down new station wire this winter.

The surge protector inside each irrigation control box

Checking continuity for each box

Checking controller #18 ....... OSM's and PIB's

Replacing OSM's/PIB on controller #18 .......

Fall Aerification...... Greens, Tees & Fairways

We were happy with the way aerification came out this fall considering we were without our main aerifier for fairways. Our Wiedenmann Terra Spike finally relented to the hard earth of Pueblo del Sol golf course after 10+ years of duty. The frame finally started showing stress fractures after our spring aerification that were to big to fix. Our backup, a 1980's Aerway Aerator, couldn't go as deep, wasn't very clean but we were able to at the very least create some crevices in the fairways to help eleviate some compaction, get some water penetration and increase some oxygen to the root zone.

Some of our Wiednmann aerifier frame fractures

I know we had a lot of complaints on some of the fairways that some of the crevices were rather large, but the Aerway, with older worn out knives, tends to pull up weak turf areas. In the end, it was necessary to get the fairways done and we were able to seed and sand the areas that were pulled up. It wasn't perfect but we are happy where the fairways are at this point in time.

#13 fwy after Aerway aerifier

same area #13 fwy..... 1 month later

9/14 greens/collars aerification......Toro ProCore

9/19 John Deere pulling the Aerway............ #1 fairway

10/6 Dr tee aerification...... Dave and his ProCore

10/8 #3 Green......... 24 days post aerification mowed at .120"

10/11 Light "dusting" on greens..... 27 days post aerification

11/9 Green #7..... still at .120"

Course care

Honestly the unfixed ballmarks on the greens and divots in the fairways have caused more issues on playing conditions than the Aerway aerifier ever caused. Course care or lack thereof has been on the decline since spring aerification. Every morning and virtually on every green there are 25-30 unfixed ballmarks. On every fairway huge unfixed open divots with intact turf a few feet away not put back OR at the very least sanded. The GMS maintenance preference is to replace your divot.

That's an 8" intact divot.......just put it back

8" chunk of sod laying 2 ' from the massive crater created...... put it back!

Natural areas.....

We have finished most of our winter mow down of the natural grasses in the desert. We have also began to stringtrim walls and prune trees in the desert.

Desert area left of #13 fairway

New tee markers???

We have been mucking around new ideas for custom affordable tee markers the last few months to replace our tired paver bricks and I think we might have come up with a turf friendly and overall better looking tee marker. We found a design and had some samples made for us from a local welder who can make these on his plasma cutting table. What do you think??