2012 Year End Review

Another great year of golf is quickly coming to an end for the Vestavia CC golf maintenance team.  As a staff, we would like to thank all of the members of VCC for allowing us to work at such a great club. Below are some of the highlights from this past year.




Jan 09, 2012 Irrigation leak in #13 fairway.  Had to hammer out rock to make room for new parts.

 

Heavy rain puddling on #9 green.

Heavy rain fills up green-side bunker on #16

Heavy rain puddles through middle of #16 green (Hint- this is great way to see how a golf ball actually breaks during a put.  Hard to see these low areas when you're playing)

Spraying Poa annua that was not controlled by the Pre-emerge herbicide

Ryegrass overseeded in the bermuda islands at the parking lots.

Adding new sand to bunkers.  #3 fairway bunker

Renovated practice bunker on back range tee.

Adding new sand to bunkers.  #12 fairway.

One of the very few hole locations due to very fast greens speeds.  #15 green.



Deep drill crew drilling the greens before we come behind them and aerify. 



Aerifying the green to remove organic matter and allow for better air and water movement down into the root zone.

Azaleas blooming in flagpole bed at the front of the Clubhouse.

Tulips blooming at front door.

First fairway and approach mowing of 2012.  Adding a new close mow area left of #7 green.

First fairway and approach mowing of 2012. #9 fairway striping a little.

Cherry trees are the first to bloom.  behind #12 green.

Installing Celebration bermuda grass under the shade of the oak tree in #11 fairway.



Bunker washed after a moderate rain.  #11 greenside bunker.



Just before the new mat system was added at the practice area tee.



Irrigation leak wasting water.  #5 rough.



Verticutting after aerfying the teeboxes.  #11 tee box

Topdressing tees after verticutting and aerifying.  #6 tee

Verticutting fairways.  #1 fairway.

Why it is not a good idea to apply sunscreen/bug repellent while standing on the turf.

Replacing flowers near the Presidential Entrance.

Sodding along new cartpath addition.  #3 Par 3 Course



Mowing fairway



Aerifying short game practice area greens

Aerifying Par 3 greens for first time since construction.  #7 green Par 3 Course

Pinestraw company spreading straw around property.  #6 tee

Tree service removing large dead tree.  #16 rough

2012 Member-Guest Tournament

2012 Member-Guest Tournament

Aerifying with small needle tine Monday after Member-Guest Tournament

Irrigation blow-out.  #2 fairway

Straight-line wind storm leaves a lot of debris behind.  #2/#8 rough

Straight-line wind storm breaks down a maple.  #18 near green

One of many kids' summer clinics on the Par 3 course.  #2 green Par 3 course.

Signs of another drought start to show.  #2 fairway

Irrigation repair #8 fairway



Nice root depth for end of June.  #18 green



Molly goes for a swim in the lake that has dropped a few feet because of no rain.

More signs of a long stretch with no rain.  #9 fairway

Irrigation leak that cannot be valved off because it would stop water from getting to the green.  Not something you like to see especially during a drought when water is even more valuable.

More dry spots in the rough.  #18 rough

Washed bunker.  #15 green

Another well attended kids' clinic.

Roots look good for mid-July on the weakest green.  #3 green

I was surprised when I looked up and spotted a Porche driving down the cartpath.  #18 cartpath.

Root length looks good.  The longer the better.  #9 green

Kyle with an injured hawk (Geronimo) in a box at the maintenance shop.  Hawk is taken to Oak Mountain to be rehabilitated.

Club Championship Saturday.  #10 green

Final preparations for Club Championship.  #18 green

The pedals for the brake and reverse are really close to each other!!  Creek at #4 tee. (due to operator having his seat belt on, he was not hurt.  Amazingly, the machine drove out of the creek and was able to continue mowing.) 

Sunday morning sunrise.  #9 green

Erecting temporary green fan.  #3 green

Advertising for upcoming Progressive Dinner on Par 3 course.  #3 Par 3 Course

Finishing mowing the green in the pouring rain.  #9 green Par 3 Course.

Trimming hedge row along OB line.  #9 rough.

Heavy weekly sand topdressing of driving range tee.

9 days after aerification.  #9 green

Long roots a result of deep drilling before each greens aerification.  #9 green

Bush hogging tall fescue down to around 6-8 inches.  #9 tee

#16 tee

Renovated area to pinestraw bed.  #11 green/#16 tee

Repairing area where Pro Sweep machine plowed through during aerification.  #3 green

Another core of extremely long roots from deep drilling before aerification.  #14 green

Setting up for Progressive Dinner on Par 3 course.  #2 fairway Par 3 Course 

Setting up for Progressive Dinner on Par 3 Course.  #4 fairway Par 3 Course

Setting up for Progressive Dinner on Par 3 Course.  #8 tee Par 3 Course

Sunday morning preparations.  #13 green

New bed installed to add some seasonal color to this area.  Flagpole bed at clubhouse

AGA setting hole locations for State Senior 4-ball.  #17 green

First mowing of ryegrass area at Clubhouse

#4 green Par 3 Course

#6 green Par 3 Course

#8 green Par 3 Course

#8 Par 3 Course

Molly helping out with an irrigation leak.  #8 fairway

Removing trees causing shade issues on the green.  #4 green Par 3 Course

Removed fescue at back tee to allow for mowers to drive straight back off of tee box rather than turning on top of tee causing damage.

Root length starting to grow deep again.

Exposing rock shelf.  #7 green Par 3 Course

Area renovated to pinestraw bed.  #2/#8 rough

Beginning work on walk through area.  #18 green

 

Nov 8, 2012  Geronimo is brought back to VCC healthy.  She is released after about 3 months of rehabilitation.



BEFORE and AFTER (a few more)

Here are a few more that I didn't use yesterday.



BEFORE hole #3




AFTER hole #3



BEFORE hole #4



CURRENT hole #4



Overseeding Clubhouse and Entrance grounds

For the last few years we have overseeded the areas around the clubhouse with ryegrass.  The look from this practice is defiantly eye catching.  We are able to overseed these areas because they are subject to virtually no traffic throughout the year and not used for golf play.  Below are a few photos of the process through the first mowing.



Verticutting to create slits for seed to make contact with soil




After verticutting a lot of material is left on top of the turf




Blowing that material off by with backpack blowers




Spreading ryegrass seed after material/mess has been cleaned away




Seed has started to germinate 8 days later




Seed germinating




After first mowing only 13 days after seeding




After first mowing




From this last winter




From last winter



BEFORE and AFTER (Par 3 edition)

Here are a few before and after photos from the Par 3 course.  I have  amny more older photos so I will try to do some more of these "before and after" over the winter. 



Before #8 green complex



After #8 green




Before #6 green complex





Current #6 green complex







Before #7 green complex





Current #7 green complex from #6 tee






Before #7 green complex





Current #7 green complex






Before #7 green complex





Current #7






Before #8 greenside bunker





Current #8 greenside bunker





Current #8 greenside bunker



2012 Fall aerification Damage -Updated

So you've seen the basic process that we adhere to 2 times each year during our aerification of the greens.  This process has proven to be excellent for us over the last several years and other than some minor tweaks to a few things here and there everything runs smoothly...until Fall 2012.  The large Sweeper machine that we use to clean the greens of the cores dug deeply into #3 green.  This has not happened to us during any of the previously aerifications.  We have been able to get the area fairly smooth and we will continue to work on it and plug it as needed.  We are still trying to determine why this happened this time.

  Here are a few pictures.

*when it happened again on #5 green(less severe) we parked the machine and picked up the cores by hand

I always take a bunch of pictures, but when I saw the machine buried into the green I felt too sick to grab my camera. 



This was taken the first time we laid back all of the pieces into the ground.




The following day

 


  


10 days after the damage occurred


 

15 days later




17 days later



18 days




21 days





2012 FALL aerification

Another aerification is now behind us and our focus has quickly shifted from survival (summer/stress month strategy) back to playability.  The holes have already started to heal in and it has only been 1 week.  This is very promising and with the 10 day forecast looking to be in our favor somewhat, they should heal in as scheduled.  Here are the step by step pictures of what we actually do on those two days. (I used some pics from this past Spring because some things were easier to see in those)





A simple explanation of the aerification cycle





The board is made out and ready to go when everyone arrives--the entire day is planned




Deep Drill company comes in and starts around daybreak.





Close-up of the Drill machine.





Then we aerify right after the drill crew finishes each green.







Our sweeper cleaning up the cores left by the Drillers and the Aerifiers




Then several guys strap on backpack blowers and blow the little bit of material that was left behind







Then we use water hoses to open up the holes so that we can get fertilizer and sand into them more effectively





Everything has been cleaned up and now it's time to add fertilizers that will fall into the holes





Filling the topdresser with sand out on the course rather than making many many trips back to sand pile



After covering the green with sand we drag this brush around to evenly disperse the sand

After dragging the sand around to smooth it out a few more times and using hand brooms to move the sand around and fill in EVERY hole completely; we will begin rolling the greens to get them smoothed back out.