4th Hole Improvements

Today Miquel and Roel completed clearing of white willow trees along the edges of the 4th hole.



Before

After - Now a much more interesting and attractive hole to play.



There is a nice stand of fescue grass beneath the areas we have been clearing around the ponds. We will be able to mow these areas to control noxious weeds such as thistle.

Miquel and Roel are now clearing the growth of thistle with knives and pruners 

Meanwhile Peter continues to find more drain lines. This one on number 16 is fairly close to the low areas where water puddles after a heavy rain. Every dollar that we spend on drainage generates revenue in letting carts go sooner after a rain.

Miquel



Noe repairing a leak on 2 fairway





Fairway Drainage

Peter has been locating drain lines using a wire tracker. Here he has found a surface riser in the rough. He will be sending an electricians "fish tape" down the drain line and wire tracking it to see if it is conveniently located beneath any areas where standing water may be a problem.



100 foot of fish tape is down the pipe and connected to a transponder

Below Peter is painting the drain line and fortunately it goes right near an area where we had standing water on the fairway in July, when the daily temperatures were in the high 90's after heavy rain fall.

Now Peter is beginning to install surface risers in the wet areas. Rainy days like we are currently having are ideal for doing the work, because you can see that the drain is actually working while you are installing it.



Peter has found the drain line - right over the line he painted two weeks ago

Peter has installed a surface riser and he is now back filling the hole with Pea Gravel.



A torpedo level is placed on the grate during back fill



Another riser



The sod is placed back and the soil from the hole is hauled away

Fairway Expansion

In many places the fairways and approaches at Bittersweet were designed to play much too narrow and difficult for the average player. 

Looking backwards down the 10th hole

Miquel and Bernardo, two of the better players on our staff, have helped me to lay out the various areas where our fairways should be expanded to make the golf course play easier. Our mechanic, Kieth, is going out three days a week to mow theses areas down in gradual increments with our intermediate cut mower.

Kieth



We have also widened the cut on many of our approaches.

The area to left of the approach has been lowered from 2.5" to 1"



The same area from the fairway - double the width of the original approach

The golfers that have played Bittersweet from the day it opened report that they have enjoyed the golf course much more now that we have opened up some of these narrow fairways.

11 fairway expansion

15 fairway expansion right side

New Bunker Sand

The last two weeks we have been adding fresh sand to our bunkers. This will allow our players to have more control over their recovery shots.

Every year we will need to add a few inches of sand over the top of the old sand to replace that which is lost from rain washouts, wind and degradation.

The sand is dumped directly in to the bunker and spread by hand.



For the next two weeks we will power rake the bunkers every day to help the new sand mix with the underlying sand. This will make the sand play firmer.

We are very fortunate here at Bittersweet that the bunkers were grassed with fescue when the golf course was originally built. Fescue does not creep or grow laterally in to the sand as does Kentucky Bluegrass, the conventional species of bunker grass. Kentucky Bluegrass bunkers must be mechanically edged several times during the golf season. But our fescue bunker edges can go up to two years between edging without loosing their shape. And the edges of the fescue bunkers are more whispy and natural in appearance.

The oldest bunkers in America were originally fuzzy and irregular like ours are now. But with subsequent remodeling of bunkers those original fescue grasses were sodded over by Kentucky Bluegrass - it was not very easy to find fescue sod in those days - sod farms were not growing it. So the American bunker evolved into something that is actually very expensive to edge and maintain. And the appearance of the American bunker became unnatural - the edges took on a crisp and curvilinear pattern to conform with the mechanical edging tools that were used to maintain the Kentucky Bluegrass edges.

We are very fortunate here at Bittersweet that our bunker motif is economically and environmentally sustainable.



Willow Tree Removal

The willow trees are becoming a serious problem on the edges of our ponds. As you can see below, the championship tee on our third hole is blocked by willow trees that have grown up along the edges of the pond. We are also concerned by the environmental problems that the willows can present.




#3 Championship Tee




















Miguel and Roel are removing these trees to open up the view of the green from the tee.

Miguel

Roel

This will make this hole play much fairer.

The small willow shrubs that are growing on the edge of the pond are also removed.

Now a much more open shot at the green

Beneath the willows there is a nice stand of fescue grass. Now we will be able to mow as close to the water's edge as possible to control future growth of willows and noxious weeds.

We also find infestation of thistle wherever the banks of ponds are allowed to become overgrown by willows. Thistle is a noxious weed and it does not do a very good job of stabilizing the soil on the embankment from erosion and sentimentation pollution. Our work to clear and mow these areas down to promote the spread of fescue grass is good for the environment AND the game of golf.

Thistle and Reed Canary Grass (noxious weeds) growing beneath willows

 

September 12

Lots of interesting stuff happening today.  Miguel and Vicente are cleaning up a fallen tree limb.

The fairway expansion on 18, that Keith has been cutting down in gradual increments, is beginning to play firm.

Kieth has been expanding the fairways on 2, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15 and 18. This will make the golf course much more enjoyable and playable for the mid to high handicap player. 

Keith Da-Man

 

Noa is leveling heads on the edges of greens for better coverage - this should help us to cut down on hand watering



Bernardo continues to replace defective solenoids and valves on our Hunter Sprinklers. Notice that the soil in this repair has sand in it, a good indication that this sprinkler has been worked on before - irrigation techs will often back fill a repair with sand when the soil is wet.  

Hunter Sprinklers require constant repair.

Peter and I took advantage of the dry conditions to trace drain lines. Here Peter has located a riser. We ran a fish tape down the pipe and wire tracked it. 

We then moved the fish tape to the next riser down the line and tracked the wire through an area that was extremely wet back in July when we had the big rains.

This is me tracking drain line with the wand and marking paint. 

We will dig down and place a surface risers on top of the pipe - this will save us from having to spray this fairway for Pythium Blight the next time we have another hot wet July/August.

First Week of September

The Burr Oaks put on 10 inches of growth on side branches this year. You can trace the amount of growth by the joint in the branch where I am pointing.

The Morning Doves are nesting.

Turf is looking good overall but showing signs of hunger after a long period of high humidity through July and August. Only a week ago the grass was lush and actively growing - now it needs some fertilizer.

Even though the daylight hours are fading and the temperatures are cooling dramatically, we continue to water. In fact Thursday this week was one of the heaviest waterings that we applied this whole year.

This week we will be giving the turf a good balanced feeding of NPK, and then we will begin the process of leaning it out before the winter months.

Topdressing

At Bittersweet we have begun topdressing every 2 weeks with a moderate layer of sand - now that we have the equipment to do the job.


The Toro Pro Pass Topdresser

Our mechanic, Keith Vavrusa built our drag mat with two coco mats that we ordered out of the McMaster Carr catalogue. He sewed the two mats together with heavy gauge wire every three or four inches.



Keith

He made a rigid but light frame out of aluminum.

Aluminum Frame

The brush is very soft and nonabrasive, allowing us to topdress and drag even in hot weather like we had this summer. Here you can see Peter Anderson brushing the sand in.

Peter

Hey how many of those Anderson boys are there anyways?

Da Man!

Topdressing with sand provides a firm and smooth surface for the roll of the ball.

It helps fill ballmarks, and to make the green firmer and more resistant to ballmarks.

It also helps to dilute the formation of excess organic matter at the surface so the green is healthier - the natural way!