Update at "The Crest"

As we wind down the year we are still waiting on those winter temperatures to move in. This week we saw highs in the low 80's with cooler temps on the way for Christmas. This has been a busy fall at Golfcrest as we have extended our high mowing frequency right through December. Usually this time of the year we are already concentrating on tree trimming and drainage projects. We have found ourselves still mowing rough and cleaning up leaves into December. This is not necessarily a bad thing for the grass. If you can remember last year at this time we had already had snow, record cold and heavy rainfall before Christmas. All areas of the golf course had become completely dormant by the first weeks of December.

As a result of the warmer temperatures our tee boxes, fairways and greens have stayed green and continued to grow creating a more plush playing surface than years past. We have continued spraying fertilizers in these areas through the last few months to keep them growing as long as possible. The first picture below is a picture I took last year around the same time in December. The following pictures are from December 2010. If the warmer weather sticks around through January we can expect a great start to 2011.

Carter Hindes

Golf Course Superintendent

Finally, Cold Temps Moving In

Today was our first day to see frost on the ground. It did not effect any tee times but there was some on the driving range and native grass areas. After many weeks of summer heat and drought, we finally have broken the trend. We had about 5 inches of rain this week and the night time tempatures are creeping into the 40's. Moday we sprayed the majority of the golf course with our pre-emergent herbicides. We will finish #18 and the driving range on Monday. This application will help us eliminate many winter weeds from growing and keep the golf course clean with bermuda grass throughout the winter. Two weeks ago we put down our overseed on the driving range tees and par 3 tees on the course. We are starting to see this rye-grass fill in in some of these areas. We overseeded these selected tee boxes because of the wear and tear they receive from divots. When the bermudagrass becomes dormant and it is not overseeded it becomes very hard for it to recover. We have this same issue in the fairways most years. We have changed some fertility practices on the fairways leading into the fall and winter and I feel we are going to see positive results in the coming months. One thing to remember is to use the 90 degree rule throughout the winter. Cart traffic is the biggest contributor of the thinning fairways. The bottom line is the less traffic they receive, the better the lie will be. With that being said get out and enjoy the great golfing weather.

Carter Hindes
Golf Course Superintendent

2010 Black and White Member-Guest

The 2010 Member-Guest has come and gone. The greens were fast, drinks were cold and the weather couldn't have been better. We start a new week with topdressing and spiking the greens on Monday. This will help air out the greens a bit and recover better from the busy week and weekend we had. We will be cleaning up from the tournament and praying for rain this week. The golf course is very dry for October and we could use rain in any form. We had two hole-in-ones in Sunday's matches. Amazing. Congratulations to the winners and hope to see everyone back next year! Here are a few pictures I took of the course during the weekend.

Marathon Day!

Today we had our annual Golf Marathon. This tournament is a beat down. How many holes of golf can you play in a day? Next year sign up so you can find out. We had a few things we are trying to accomplish today on the course. We put down a granular fertilizer this morning before everyone hit the course. We also topdressed all the tees with sand (photo on left) and caught up on a few other task after the rainy weekend. We recieved a much needed .75 inches yesterday.

The picture above is of our cartpaths. You may ask yourself why the cartpath edges are brown? Last week we sprayed out all of the cracks in the cartpaths with Round-up. This browning look on some of the egdges was overspray. Grass grows in the seems and cracks of the paths overtime. Sometimes I scratch my head and think how can we grow grass on concrete but sometimes not on good soil? And even on asphalt? The oversprayed grass should recover just fine and I am sure in the future we will have to spray out the seems again. We have two full weeks to get ready for our Black and White Member-Guest. With the cooperation from mother nature we are hoping to have the course in great shape for one of our biggest tournaments of the year. Get out and enjoy the cooler weather. Thank you for your continued support of the club, and I hope to see you on the course!

Golf Course Superintendent

Carter Hindes

What's Going on at "The Crest"?

Wow we could'nt have picked a hotter day to do this! It is 99 degrees and feels like 109. Today we are core aerifying the Greens. We will continue tomorrow on the Tees. We are using a traditional coring tine that is 1/2 inch on 2 inch spacing. We will use a 5/8 inch coring tine of the tee boxes. Usually we try to verti-cut and aerify at the same time but because of the heat, we are trying to get holes punched, covered and watered as quickly as possible. We will then verti-cut and topdress again next Monday. The following are some pictures from today. The second is of a two-ton asphalt roller we rented. This will help work sand into the holes and roll out any tire tracks from equipment on the green. This will also help us level out some of our high collars around the edges of the greens. The high collars allow water to stand on the green and create problems because the water is not able to run off of the greens. We will continue using the roller on the Greens and Tees all week. We are looking forward to cleaning up and getting ready for the Club Championship in a few weeks.

Carter Hindes

Golf Course Superintendent

The NGA Hooters Tour is come and gone!

I can't believe we are already into mid July. We had come crazy weather to make the NGA Hooters Tour tournament even more challenging to setup for. The week prior we had 11 inches of rain and the Wednesday of the Pro-Am we had 3 1/2 more inches to top us off. Its was a whirlwind the week of the tournament to get the golf course even playable. We had many early mornings last week pushing water out of fairways shoveling bunkers and trying to cleanup before the four rounds of the tournament. My hat goes off to the staff and volunteers that helped us last week and put up with the enormous mosquito's. The tournament was a great success and that was made possible by all the hard work they put into it.

It is nice to be back to normal for our members to enjoy the course. We solid tine aerified and topdressed the greens on Monday. This will help break up the top layer of thatch and help us move water down into the profile of the greens. This practice was definitely needed after all the rain and wear and tear during the last seven days. Looking ahead we have the four-ball at the end of the month that we will be preparing for. Below are a few pictures I took during the NGA week. Hope to see you on the course!

The Heat is On!

The month of May has been full of projects. The first of which we stripped, leveled and re-surfaced number 11 black tee. We have had some shade issues in the past in this area so this winter we removed a lot of tree limbs that were not necessary. After leveling the tee, we re-sodded the tee with Tifway 419. The tee is back open to play so enjoy.

The last photo is of the aerification that we are doing in the fairways and rough. We are using a 14 inch tine that will go into the ground about 7 inches. This will help break up the hard-pan clay layer and help water and nutrients to penetrate the soil. In return this will help the grass grow thicker and healthier as the roots can now grow down. We are also topdressing (sanding) these areas. This process will help smooth out bumps and sand will fill these holes to create bigger pour space for the plant to breath and make nutrients and water more available. This will also help to drain the fairways when we receive rainfall, if we ever do. We will continue throughout the next few weeks to finish the rest of the golf course.

Carter Hindes

Golf Course Superintendent

Aerification is Here!

There are many benefits to this cultural practice. Many innovators have tried to come up with a way to complete this practice with the least amount of disruption as possible. There are many different ways you can slice it, but in the end if a green needs to perform up to today's golf standards, this cultural practice is imperative. We are using a 1/2" tine with two inch spacing for our conventional coring. We also used a 3/8" solid tine 10" inches deep which is what you see on the tractor. This will help move water and air to our existing roots. If you have ever seen the puddles on the greens after a heavy rain or irrigation, you know that this practice is greatly needed. After all of the sand is down and the greens are smoothed back out, we will work hard to regain our playability. We have positioned a few different spray-able products to help speed this process along. Tuesday and Wednesday we will also core-aerify our tees and approaches around the greens. Again this process will only help to make the greens, tees and approaches that much better and easier to manage throughout the coming months. Thank you for your patience and I look forward to seeing you back on the course!

Golf Course Superintendent

Carter Hindes

New Equipment

Thank You!

I want to take this time to say thank you to the group of members that came together to help us purchase this brand new sod cutter. This will be a great tool for us to use for years to come. We will start Monday on patching up some areas around the golf course that thinned out during the winter. We will continue as time allows to get back to full coverage on the fairways, greens and tees. Your continued support allows us to make Golfcrest Country Club better every day. The weather is great so get out and enjoy your course. Thank you.

Pre-emergent Herbicide is out and Fertilizer is on the ground!

Our spring pre-emergent herbicide applications have been completed. The herbicide we use is coated on a fertilizer granule so in a sense you knock out two birds one stone. This will not only help with weed suppression but fertilize the entire golf course. This application was completed in one day with our new Lely broadcast spreader. Below is a picture of our new Lely spreader that a generous member donated to us. Thank you!

Carter Hindes

Superintendent

Spring Green is Approaching

What a winter we had in Pearland! I was looking back and found that in February of 2009 we had 21 days where our day time highs reached at least 70 degrees. This year we had only 1. This can really keep the grass and plants in dormancy a lot longer than we are used to. However, the first few weeks of March we have seen some green leaf blades and I feel that every input we made to prepare the golf course for the winter is starting to pay off.
This can be a very busy time of the year for South Texas Golf Course Superintendents. We have just wrapped up many winter projects and in the blink of an eye we are in growing season again. I am sure there will be that last frost that sneaks up on everyone but hopefully it will come and go quickly. The following are pictures of number 7 green complex that were taken exactly one month apart. What a difference some sunshine and warmer temperatures can make!

We have a very busy March and April planned in Golf Course Maintenance but we are happy about the progress we have made throughout the winter. This is the best time of the year to get out and enjoy the game so I hope I run into you on the golf course.


Superintendent
Carter Hindes

Education and Demonstration Day at Golfcrest Country Club

My staff and I held an education and demonstration day on the putting green. We looked at some of our golf course equipment and talked a little bit about how they are used and why. This is the first education day we have had and it was attended by some of our newer members and other members of the Senior Staff.

The take home message of this meeting was every tool and practice we use on the golf course is for a reason. We have goals and plans for the entire year and we try our best to stick to these plans. The weather dictates our timing and without the correct timing and weather circumstances we can be hindered. We obviously want the best playing conditions possible everyday for our members and their guests, but sometimes we have to bite the bullet and do whats best from an agronomic standpoint. When we stick to our plans and look at the big picture we will always come out successful, even if we have set backs along the way. Thank you all for coming. I plan on having another event like this in the future.

Carter Hindes

Golf Course Superintendent

First Blog

We mark the beginning of the Golfcrest Country Club Agronomy Blog. This is a tool I use to better communicate what is happening on the golf course to our membership. I am confident this will help answer many of your questions of, "how and why"? Please check back with us shortly as we continue to post.