Stone Creek Golf Club

Ron Plath, United States Blind Golf Association

2012-01-27T08:44:00.000-08:00

The guys in the pro shop directed me to this video about Ron Plath. Ron plays at Stone Creek often but he is not your normal golfer; he is legally blind. Ron is an inspiration to many who have loved this game but have lost their vision later in there life, including my father. It's a great story.

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

2012-01-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

The weather makes the headlines once again last week. We started with snow early in the week and finished with a fair amount of rain. We averaged just under an inch of rain a day since the 15th, with our maximum daily rainfall occurring on Thursday with 2.52 inches.

The Willamette Falls are just about as high as I have seen it. Not quite the level of 1996 but still pretty impressive. If you get a chance be sure to drive down there and get a first hand look. I didn't get any pictures of Beaver Creek but if you like to walk the trail you will be in for a good sight as well.

Sixteen green

The golf course received very little damage as far as the flooding is concerned. We saw a number of places where the drain pipes couldn't keep up with the flow so the water backed up on the path and grass. You would think that with over 2.5 inches of rain on Thursday, the tee sheet would have been empty. Not true. These guys along with one other twosome made the full 18 holes. The water here actually backed up from the lake to the right which is normally a dry lake in the summer.

With all this lousy weather it is hard to do drainage so it is safe to say that we didn't get any pipe in the ground this week. We will postpone any further drain projects until the conditions become more favorable. We did, however work on the picnic tables and the benches from the golf course. We are sanding and applying a fresh coat of stain.

Steve has been going through the tee mowers, replacing bushing and repairing cracked welds. These mowers are still working great but at 11 years old they have neared the end of their normal expected life thus we are having to put a lot of time and money back into them to keep them going. The condition of our equipment at Stone Creek is a testament to the quality work Steve does. He takes a lot of pride in his equipment and not only keeps it running smooth, he keeps it looking great as well. When he finishes up with the tee mowers I'll be sure to share a photo or two.

Last week Chris spent two days at the Toro Site Pro Training Seminar at Skamania Lodge. This week is the annual crew seminar hosted by the Oregon GCSA. This has always been a favorite event for the guys, a chance to break up the winter season and listen to some great speakers.

We have our new driving range signs completed and are ready for the new season. We had these 12x12 inch signs made at our local sign shop and we mounted them on the Standard Golf sign posts. I have had a lot of favorable comments on them from fellow superintendents but now the trick will be to educate our golfers. I don't expect this sign to do it all, it is going to take a team effort on everyone's behalf to help the players learn.

Finally, I would like to share a letter that Doug received at the pro shop from one of our neighbors. It's not everyday that someone takes the time to let you know when you are doing something right. I would like to also point out the Doug Garfield from the County Parks Department deserves recognition for his part in maintaining the trail. Doug has put a lot of his pride in the trail which shows by the number of walkers we see daily. I can't say it enough, but everyone puts a little of their pride in what they do here and it shows.

To The Crew at the Stone Creek Golf Club,

I walk the golf course almost every day and am very grateful to all of you working there.  I especially appreciative of how fast you took care of the problems with the walking trail daily and especially this week.   I am, also, sure the golfers appreciate what a great job you do on the course.  It is very gratifying to know how dedicated you are serving the public, especially during these tough economic times.  You deserve to be commended by us county residents a lot more.

Again, thank you very much for your hard work!

Remembering Michael Hindahl

2012-01-20T09:24:00.000-08:00

I found this article in a Turfgrass Management in the Pacific Northwest magazine from the summer of 2005. I often speak of Michael and the influence he had on me while he was with us. On February 28th I will be receiving the GCSAA's Presidents Award for Environmental Stewardship at the Golf Industry Show in Las Vegas. I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Michael for his encouragement and for being such an inspiration to my career.

Remembering Michael Hindahl

Monday, January 16th, 2012

2012-01-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

The weather tops the news once again this week. It looks like winter finally started to appear across much of the country. I noticed the much of the Midwest has finally hit the single digits. Our weather last week was fantastic but as I write this weeks post it is snowing outside my window. I don't think this snow will be anything like the winter of 2008 but I'm pretty sure the course may be closed for a short period.

Frank DiMarco

Earlier in the week the weather did cooperate and give us enough sunshine so Frank DiMarco could come out and shoot some photos for Golf Course Management's upcoming story on the Presidents Award. Frank is a great guy and gives me all kinds of tips on my photography. I was able to grab my camera and put Frank on the other end of the lens for a change.

Three Fairway Drainage

Three Completed

Our drainage work continued last week. We completed our first project on three in only two days and before I knew it the crew had already started in on the second project on eighteen Wednesday morning. Three was the perfect job with no rocks, it was like cutting through butter but when we got to eighteen the Stone Creek Gods came to light and placed a large boulder right in our path. No rock it to large and the guys put the business to it and carved right through the middle of it in no time at all. (It's a good thing the rocks are comprised of weathered basalt and we can chip right through them). By the end of the week we completed 185 feet of drainage between the two projects.

I have had some questions regarding our drainage procedures and would like to explain what we have found to work best here at Stone Creek. In my years of drainage experience, I have heard of and seen many different variations of drainage. Some have used 1" to 1 1/2" river rock in trenches with a pipe placed in the bottom of the trench. Some have used a filter fabric, or a sock if you will, over the pipe to supposedly keep from plugging. I prefer not to use the sock and most of my drainage has been with straight slotted ADS pipe or ridged sanitary drain pipe with holes along the bottom third. The back fill material has been pea gravel ranging from 1/4" to 1/2" in diameter.

Eighteen fairway

I began to hear of straight sand being used as the back fill material and thought we should give it a try. We found that it seemed to have a more positive effect on the drainage, plus it was easier to manage the dry lines in the summer. But like any turf system, we can't place soil base sod on top of the sand so we have started growing our own sand based sod. Using sod grown on the same material as the back fill, insures there will not be any layering which could impede water infiltration. In the beginning we planted our nursery with creeping fescue and ryegrass for stability, but still had to cut it pretty thick to keep it together. Then we discovered the new creeping ryegrass and have found that we can cut the sod much thinner (one inch) and not have to worry about it falling apart.

Small Detour

Drainage is one of those things where everyone has there own opinion of what works best and my opinion is, "if it works for you, stick with it". I don't claim this will work for everyone in different parts of the country but I do know it is working well here at Stone Creek and we have been doing it for over 5 years now and we haven't had any problems. Not to mention, we have not had to worry about pea gravel getting mixed with our topdressing sand and that's a good thing!

Piping with 4" ADS

Back filling with straight sand

Finished with fresh sand based nursery grown sod

Sun Sense

2012-01-09T10:49:00.000-08:00

This video came to my attention earlier and after sharing it on Facebook, Pat Jones suggested that I share it on the Blog. As golf industry professionals we spend much of our time outside, and sunscreen is the one thing that is overlooked the most. I have always provided pump bottles of sunscreen in the shop which I often forget to use myself. A few years ago after visiting the sun cancer screening booth at the GIS, the technician told me that I had a suspicious mark on my left hand. I had it looked at by my dermatologist when I got back and sure enough it was a form of skin cancer called squamous cell melanoma. I was very fortunate to catch it early and every since I have been seeing the dermatologist annually.
If you don't think it is ever going to happen to you I dare you to Google "squamous cell melanoma pictures". Actually just click on the link and see for yourself. It's not pretty.
If anything, please watch this video and share it if you feel compelled.

Monday, January 9th, 2012

2012-01-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

We took a break from drainage and much of last week was spent working on the bunkers repairing the wash-outs that were created by the four plus inches of rain that occurred the last week of December. It was good to finally be able to spend some time on the bunkers, not only repairing them but adding some much needed sand to the bottoms of many. The course continues to play well. Aside from a quick quarter inch of rain we had early one morning, we are still enjoying some great golfing conditions.

Wednesday was such a nice day, I even got in a rare eighteen holes with the Men's Club. I hadn't played since my memorable round at Pinehurst #2 in November but am glad to say that my driver was in full swing and I actually kept it in the fairway (most of the time). I really need to play more often in the winter, I can appreciate how well this course plays year around.

As I drive around the course I try to look at it with many perspectives in mind. When I have my camera I tend to see things differently and am able to capture some of the views that we may not pay attention to when we are playing. Last week I noticed the big rock on eleven. We have all seen it, it is usually our aiming point off the tee box, but this time I noticed the growth on it. The rock was left there from construction simply due to the fact that it was much to large to deal with and it was mostly out of play. Over the last 12 years the rock has grown some mosses and lichens which really stand out this time of year. In addition to the rock on eleven, Above, I also included a picture of the rock pile near the fourteenth tee within this post. The rocks have finally begun to take on a mossy character which is much nicer than the plain fresh-out-of-the-ground look.

If the current weather pattern holds true, it is looking like we are in for another stretch of dry weather. The seven day outlook looks like a lot of sunshine with the morning lows in the 30's and the daily highs in the upper 40's. Unfortunately this means a good chance of frost. As a reminder, if you are playing in the morning it is a good idea to call in first even if you don't have frost at your house. It is common to have frost at Stone Creek and have none at all three miles down the road in Oregon City.

We will be beginning the drainage project on the third fairway this week so there may be a temporary on that hole from time to time. We will keep it open as much as we can but don't anticipate this project taking long at all.

Finally, as I was playing on Wednesday I saw a small flock of Western Bluebirds! As many of you know, I used to work at The Oregon Golf Club as Russell Vandehey's assistant and while I was there the bluebirds became a permanent resident there. To this day Russ continues document multiple successful nesting pairs and we have yet to have one pair here at Stone Creek. Even though we are only five miles as the bird fly's from The Oregon Golf Club and we have placed 24 bird boxes throughout the property, it must just be a matter of time. I have threatened to kidnap one of his pairs but since this sighting I am hopeful that this is the year. Here is a photo of the Western Bluebird, so if you happen to notice one, please let me know when and where so we can track their status. If you click on the link above it will take you to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology which will give you a complete description including the sound of their chirp.

Monday, January 2nd, 1012

2012-01-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to everyone! I certainly hope everyone survived the Holiday season. Let's just get on to June... Quickly.

So much for smashing the all time driest December record. We pretty much wrapped up the entire months rainfall in just one week. We had a total of 4.3 inches this month with 4 inches coming from Christmas on. I would still take it this way than any other. At least we didn't string it out over 30 days and were able to enjoy some bonus rounds of golf. At the time of writing this post I am forecasting 410 rounds more than our budget for the month! I took this snippet of the radar on Wednesday and thought how stereotypical this must look. Most of the entire country with the exception of the NW is enjoying dry weather. This depicts living in the NW at its best. It may be wet now, but we sure have great summers. That's just my opinion and am sticking with it for now.

As predicted, we wrapped up the drain line on eleven on Tuesday. We are all very pleased in how it turned out. I took this photo in the middle of the heavy rain on Wednesday which gives you an idea how the rain sheets off the grass. This demonstrates the benefit of having a properly graded golf course. The quicker we can get it off the surface the firmer we can keep the grass on top.

As we are prepare for our next drain project on three, the heavy rain it gave us a good opportunity to line out where we want to place our trench and catch basins. We like to strategically place the drain grates in areas that will intercept the most amount of surface water and get it off the surface. The red flags show the location of the drain pipe and the white flags will be the location of the surface drains. We'll start this project first thing this week.

As a budding amateur photographer I like to try new things with my camera. The Nikon D90 has the ability to bracket photos which means it will shoot three consecutive photographs but will automatically adjust the exposure for each shot. Usually one under exposed, one over exposed and one in the middle, depending on how you set it up. With special software you then combine the three shots to get a single photograph. This is called HDR, high definition resolution. John Kaminski, a turf professor from Penn State University has become very proficient at this and has posted some remarkable shots on his photo blog at http://johnkaminski.me/blog/. Please take a look, its worth your time.

I downloaded a trial of Photomatrix at home and gave it a try. This was the sunrise last weekend. I processed one in black and white and one in color. I think they are both pretty unique images.

Monday, December 26th, 2011

2011-12-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

Yes, It is another Monday morning post. It just happens to be the day after Christmas. Please don't think I sat down and wrote this on Christmas Day. I do plan ahead and write these things in advance. I like to start my posts out with nice pictures and I would like to lead once again with the Great Egret. I have discovered the trick to getting close and was able to get a nice shot of it. I was listening to a story on NPR this week about the Christmas bird count, and how people are finding unusual species for the time of year. I don't know if this is unusual but I have never seen it around here. I sure hope it sticks around.

We are heading for the driest December on record. After next week I will tally the numbers and see where we came out. One thing that is nice, is the rate in which we can get our drainage projects completed. It always seems like these projects can linger on when it rains just for the shear fact that shoveling mud is much slower than dry soil. Last week we could have easily finished the drain line on eleven in three days if the sod on the nursery wasn't frozen. We should have this one wrapped up by Tuesday Even with all the rocks that we had anticipated, all 180 feet of this one went off without a hitch.

The weather is looking like we may be in for a turn next week but we have our eye on a few more places. After the new year we will head over to the third fairway and drain the soft spot just past the fir on the left, nearer the green. Our unofficial count on total feet of drain pipe installed this year is 500 feet. It sure feels great to be able to get this kind of work done in December. I can't think of a better way to finish up the year.

To finish this post and keeping it short, just a quick reminder why we keep the carts off the grass when there is frost. We're not sure who is responsible, it could have even happened in the evening when the late golfers were coming in. These tracks aren't permanent but they sure look bad.

Dirty Divots!

2011-12-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

Last summer I ran into Jim Achenbach and Billy Crenshaw on the patio just after they had completed their round at Stone Creek. The subject of the driving range tee box came up and I mentioned to Jim what we were trying to do as far as educating the golfer on how to use the grass as efficiently as possible. I told Jim that I had seen a video on You Tube uploaded by Dan Meersman of the Philadelphia Cricket Club and immediately he felt it was worth a story. Last year just from posting the video, I started seeing the new divot patterns developing. Hopefully this will encourage more golfers to do the same.

I would like to thank Jim for taking the time to write this article and feeling it is important enough to share with the greater golfing world.
Dirty Divots Golfweek

Monday, December 19th, 2011

2011-12-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

Great Egret

Last week we added a new bird to our bird list. We had started seeing it a few weeks ago but I didn't want to say anything until I could catch it with my camera. The Great Blue Heron is a common sight at the course, often seen in the native grass areas looking for mice or along the edge of the ponds feeding on small fish. Very similar to the Great Blue Heron is the Great Egret. A large white heron, the Great Egret is found across much of the world, from southern Canada southward to Argentina, and in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. It's the largest egret in the Old World, and thus has garnered the name Great White Egret. In the New World, however, the white form of the Great Blue Heron is larger. In the United States, the Great Egret used to be called the American Egret but that was hardly appropriate, since its range extends beyond the Americas and indeed farther than other herons.

Great Blue Heron

I tried to get a better photograph of it but as soon as I stepped out of the cart it took off. I'm lucky I had the camera ready for just that moment. I'm sure I will have better opportunities in the future to get more shots. The Great Blue is not as shy and is allowing me to get pretty close. I took this shot just after the Great Egret took off.

While I'm on the subject of herons, Jerry Hines took this video of the Great Blue Heron catching mice in the field between the third and fourth holes. Jerry was very excited to catch it with his Droid and I'm happy to share it with everyone as well. Thanks Jerry!

Once again, last week was very productive. Treecology came out and cleaned up a few trees which left quite a mess behind. Our goal was to remove dead wood from a few select firs around the thirteenth green including the complete removal of the large dead tree just north of the green. We also thinned the grove of trees between the fifteenth and the sixteenth greens. All of the logs will be cut up and taken to the Senior Center at North Clackamas Park where it will be split and used to provide heat for the elderly citizens of Clackamas County. So please, no further requests for firewood. The remaining limbs have been chipped and added to our chip pile, which will then be spread beneath the firs groves around the course.

The weather cooperated, allowing us to mow and fertilize the greens on Thursday. It was nice to be able to clean them up and get a nice fresh clip on them. The weather continued to cooperate on Friday, giving us an opportunity to apply a treatment for microdochium patch. We are still seeing some signs but they have slowed drastically with the frosty mornings.

We managed to cut some sod last week, enough to finish off the small drainage project on the eleventh fairway. We also cut the sod over where we will be beginning our new project closer to the green. The ground had been so frozen it had prevented us from continuing the work.

Finally, Friday was our annual crew breakfast at McCrea's. As usual we all over ate but enjoyed coming in to work an hour late! When the guys returned to the shop they found that Santa had been busy and left them all Christmas gifts. I can never say enough about all of these guys. I am so grateful for everything this crew does. As I told them Friday, I have received a fair amount of recognition for the environmental work that is done at Stone Creek, but none of it would be possible without their hard work and professionalism. They, as I do, take a lot of pride in their work and it shows every day. The breakfast and gifts are just a small token of Stone Creek's appreciation for the great work they do!

Monday, December 12th, 2011

2011-12-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

Frosty mornings seem to be the norm as of lately. Unfortunately, last Tuesday we were unable to open the course until after noon. Saturday was a similar situation. I sent the weekend crew home and came out later and determined we could start play at 11:40. If you were out on Saturday, you may have wondered why we started with ice still on the trees and the turf. The greens were frozen underneath but the crown and the leaf tissue was moist after wiping with my hand. The air temperature was hanging around right at 33 to 34 degrees which made the thaw take a long time. It seems like every frost is different. I am just grateful that we were able to get the golfers off and not miss out on our Saturday revenue.

Last week we were a bit short handed with Chris, Steve Pearce and myself out attending the OGCSA Pesticide Applicators Meeting. As usual the meeting was well attended by golf maintenance, parks, landscape, and municipal employees from across the state. Some of the key speakers were Joe Vargas, Michigan State University, Frank Wong, Bayer Environmental Science, and Rob Golembieski from Oregon State. We learned much about the latest in pest control but we certainly missed out on some dry working days.

The frosty mornings have allowed us to get caught up on the small details. Monday, Bob retrieved all of the trash cans and hot water pressure washed them. From the looks of it, it appears Bob was responsible for the heavy fog that lingered on most of the day.

Steve Pearce has continued to work on the birch trees in the buffers. I'll have some pictures next week to show how different it looks. He has done a great job.

Weather permitting, we will be fertilizing the greens and applying a fungicide to control mirodochium patch. Last week we managed to topdress the greens with a little sand which will help smooth them out. Mowing will continue as needed.

Drainage continues to be our priority this week. We are currently working on the 11th fairway. First we will wrap up the small low near the 160 yard mark then will move forward, up near the approach. Thank you again for your patience in using the temporary green. We should be off the fairway by the end of the week.

The course is playing great. If you can stand the cooler temperatures now is a great time to play. I can't remember the fairways playing so well for the middle of the winter. Keep a close eye on the weather and remember to call the pro shop first thing to see if there will be any delays.

Monday, December 5th, 2011

2011-12-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

I apologize his weeks post is a bit lengthier than most. We have a lot going on and I want to get through as much as I can.

All week my trusty weather man, Rod Hill, has been showing low temperatures indicative of frost delays, we managed to escape delays all week until Saturday morning. The reason why is we have been in an inversion. The lower temperatures and the frost seemed to occur at the lower elevations but as you rose to Stone Creek Golf Club, which is at 500 feet, the temperature was a bit warmer. With a light breeze mixing the air, we were able to get by the frost without a delay. Saturday was a different story. Our low temperature was in the 20's and there was now wind what so ever. On top of that a low blanket of clouds formed around 8:00 which seemed to hold the temperatures in check.

Stone Creek Buffers

The delay gave Steve Pearce a chance to catch up on the chipping pile. Steve has been busy all week selecting out the invasive birch trees from the buffers. If the birches are left unchecked they can crowd out the preferred vegetation. Red alder, Oregon ash, Pacific willow, Douglas hawthorn and western red cedar are our preferred trees along the buffers with an understory of shrubbery, including nootka rose, Douglas spirea, Pacific ninebark and red-osier dogwood.

Crane Fly Damage

Crane fly damage around aerification holes

In last weeks post I mentioned that we may have cutworms working on the 11th green. Brian McDonald from Oregon State read my post and sent me a note saying that it may actually be crane fly. I was almost sure that it was cut worm from the damage that I was seeing so I took my soil probe and went looking. Sure enough, I found crane fly everywhere. I have always applied insecticides as a last resort but the damage had exceeded our threshold so we had to pull the trigger. We only treated the 11th and the 3rd green and by morning they were popping out of the ground. We have never had an issue on the greens before and figure it may have been the timing of our aerification coinciding when they were laying eggs. With fresh holes in the ground in October it may have been the perfect place to drop their eggs. We figured the larvae were about in their third instar which would be about right.

Emerging from hole following treatment

Large cutworm next to two crane fly

As far as the cutworms go I wasn't all that wrong. I did manage to find a couple the next day so I wasn't all that off base.

Contributing to Research

We are still seeing some fusarium patch persisting on a few greens. Mainly on the large putting green and on the ninth green. We made a treatment on Monday and so far haven't seen anything new pop up. If you have been practicing around the chipping green you may have noticed the fusarium on the chipping fairway. We don't normally treat fairways which made for a perfect place for Dr. Jim Frelich to apply some fungicide trials. Jim works for the Scotts Company and is often asked by leading manufactures to apply trials of certain products, some not even on the market, to evaluate their effectiveness.

I am not sure if I am at liberty to disclose who Jim is doing the trials for so I will keep it fairly generic. Here he is applying the product to the plots in three replications. He will be evaluating a new product that has not been introduced to the market against products that are already being used.

This is very common across the county. Golf courses offer real life conditions and make for a great laboratory. I am excited to have the opportunity to provide a test site for Jim's research. The outcome will benefit many down the road.

Water Quality Testing

As an ongoing part of Stone Creek's Environmental Stewardship Program we test the water at the golf course on an annual basis. We began testing in 2001 on a twice a year basis. After 7 years we had established a strong baseline and now test only once a year, alternating spring and fall. This year the test fell in the fall so we just completed it last week.

We utilize Envirologic Resources, Inc. to collect samples from points where surface water enters and exits the property as well as locations where management practices may affect the water body. This includes Beaver Creek, where it enters the property at Hwy 213 and where it exits the property below the 11th green. We also check the lake on number 6 as well as "Stone Creek" which flows under the bridge on the twelfth hole. The water collected at the entry of Beaver Creek serves to establish a baseline to determine the influence of golf management practice on water quality. It also allows us to determine if there are any influences from upstream.

The samples actually go through a battery of tests. As we dip the sample we first measure the temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen and make a visual determination of clarity. Next we collect four bottles, two small plastic and two large brown glass bottles. The small plastic bottles are sent to a lab to be tested for orthophosphates and nitrates and the large brown bottles are sent to a different lab and are tested for all chemicals that have been applied to the golf course in the previous six months. The testing is not cheap but as part of our Stewardship Program, we feel that it is an integral part of how we operate here at Stone Creek.

For a more complete description of our Environmental Stewardship Program please refer to the Oregon Golf Course Superintendent's Environmental Stewardship Guidelines by clicking HERE. You will find a complete description of the water quality monitoring program that Stone Creek is modeled after.

This week Chris, Steve Pearce and I will be attending the OGCSA Pest Management Seminar downtown at the Convention Center. We will be away Tuesday and Wednesday. Zeferino and Steve Mathre will be here to take care of business. I will be checking in daily.

On Monday, Pacific Sports Turf is going to come out and use their Soil Reliever on our eleventh fairway around the 100 yard area. This area is relatively flat and is known to stay wetter than most areas. I am hoping that by fracturing the soil beneath we will be able to percolate the water much faster through the profile. It will all depend on the amount of rocks that we encounter. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we can avoid any problems.

We will also begin a new drainage project near the approach of the eleventh green. We will be using a temporary green while the work is going on for the safety of the crew.

Peter Jacobsen Receives the Old Tommy Morris Award

2011-12-04T09:01:00.001-08:00

As many of you already know, Peter Jacobsen is the architect at Stone Creek Golf Club and is also a native Oregonian. Since Peter only lived a few miles for Stone Creek during the construction, we were able to spend quite a bit of time together as the course was built. This would not be standard procedure for a typical construction in that a high profile architect would charge thousands for additional visits to a course. Peter put a lot of time and effort into this project and it is apparent by the success this golf course has enjoyed.

I know first hand how great of a person Peter is, and it gives me great satisfaction to see that Peter will be the recipient of the 2012 Old Tommy Morris Award, presented by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. Golf Course Management magazine has done a wonderful piece on Peter and is worth the time to read. Peter will receive the award at the Golf Industry Show this February in Las Vegas and what makes it all the more special is I will be receiving GCSAA's Presidents Award at the same ceremony. I will be looking forward to seeing him again. Congratulations Peter!

Click HERE for a link to the story in Decembers issue.

Frost Delays

2011-11-28T11:27:00.001-08:00

This post is reprinted with permission from Golfdom and Puttin' Down Roots".

Frost Delays

Frost is a common reason for morning tee time delay. The reason for the delays is the damage that can occur from foot or equipment traffic to the turf when frost is present. Generally speaking, nice fall golfing days and frost go hand-in-hand. With more frost days expected, this is a good time to look at the conditions favorable for frost.

Frost occurs on clear cold nights when turfgrass plants re-radiate heat (exothermic reaction). As the plant loses heat to the atmosphere the plant leaf cools. If the plant temperature is cooler than the air temperature then moisture from the atmosphere will condense on the leaf. If the leaf temperature drops below freezing then the water freezes and frost forms. This will occur even if the air temperatures are slightly above freezing. At this time of the year it is not uncommon to have frost form even if the air temperature is in the mid to high 30s.

Frost itself does not cause damage, but injury does occur with traffic on frosted areas. Turf damage is generally superficial. This is not to say that traffic should be allowed on frosted turf. If traffic occurs, whether it is foot or mechanical, damage caused by crushing the leaf blade will occur. Initially the symptoms will appear purplish to black in color (almost like an excessive Iron application). The damaged turf will then progress to a straw color. If no damage occurs to the crown, recovery will occur from the generation of new leaves.

Editor's note: "Puttin' Down Roots," an e-newsletter from Golfdom and sponsored by BASF, focuses on plant health. Each month, Golfdom provides readers with a useful plant health tip so they can do their jobs easier.

Karl Danneberger, Ph.D., Golfdom's science editor and a turfgrass professor from The Ohio State University, can be reached at danneberger.1@osu.edu

Monday, November 28th, 2011

2011-11-27T11:10:00.001-08:00

Shane and Brad heading out to the 1st tee

The holiday season is officially under way now that Thanksgiving and Black Friday are under our belt. It also signifies that the winter golf season is officially under way. Last week we had a few days of solid rain which we only saw a handful of golfers. Once again, I must tip my hat to those golfers that can brave the elements for four and a half hours on a wet and miserable day. I found these two hardy soles on Wednesday heading out to the first tee. The week wasn't all bad. On the days that it didn't rain, the tee sheet seemed to be packed until early afternoon.

Steve Mathre is never short of anything to do. Last week he spent some extra time on our equipment trailers installing extruded matting on them to protect the drums of the green and collar mowers.

Last week Steve also took the initiative to clean out his shop. During the season he is so busy that there is hardly time to keep up with the details. When I walked in the door following my vacation the entire shop looked amazing.

Steve Pearce on 18

Our deciduous trees have dropped and there are just a few remaining pockets of leaves to clean up. Even with the couple rain outs last week, the crew has managed to keep the course in fantastic shape. Friday I managed to get out and snap a few shots of the course and the guys mowing greens for the first time all week.

Blowing the needles off 17 before mowing

We are looking forward to some favorable weather this week. We will be finishing up the drainage on 18 and will look to begin a new project either on 11 or 5.

If the week stays dry and the conditions allow, I would really like to see some sand applied to the greens. The greens will be due for a shot of fertilizer as well. We are seeing some holes appear on a few greens which are the result of cutworms. Cutworms will inhabit the aerification holes where the sand is soft and will come to the surface to feed around the edges. So far the holes are worse on 11 and 12. We will be monitoring the greens and will probably need to make some spot applications to prevent further damage.

Stone Creek's GBH

Final Fall color

Monday, November 21st, 2011

2011-11-20T18:45:00.001-08:00

Pinehurst #2 lives up to its reputation!

Last week my trip to Pinehurst North Carolina topped my all time golfing experiences. Being able to play #2 following the highly touted renovation by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore was an experience I will not soon forget. First of all, Pinehurst is so steeped in golfing history it made my head spin simply walking to my hotel room. The golfing legends who have played and the championships that have taken place are immense.

I cannot say enough about the renovation performed by Coore and Crenshaw. Learning about the history of Pinehurst #2 and how a renovation in the 70's lead to a wall to wall grassing of the course made me cringe. All Coore and Crenshaw did was to put it back to the original intent of Donald Ross and what resulted was a masterpiece. It is so ridiculously simple it was brilliant. The total number of sprinkler heads were cut in half as well as the irrigated acreage. Bob Farren told me that the amount of water delivered to the course was also cut in half. The fairways are simply sprinkled with a single row of heads right down the middle of the fairway. There is no longer a rough cut. There are only two heights of cut, the greens and everything else. As a 13 handicap I found the course very playable from the white tees. However, the championship tees would present a much different challenge. I have a feeling this course is going to present itself well to the 2014 US Open.

I had the pleasure of playing with Clark Throssell and Anthony Williams, CGCS. We had an amazing time. We all made some pars and a birdie or two even found its way on the card.

Anthony Williams, CGCS

Clark Throssell Ph.D

David Phipps (That's a birdie 4!)

I must not forget to mention why I got to go to Pinehurst in the first place. I was invited by Golfdom Magazine to participate in their first annual Golfdom Summit. The Summit was an event for superintendents, suppliers and dealers of golf course maintenance products and provided a means for them to meet on a one on one basis. We attended board room style presentations which allowed superintendents to give open feedback as well as industry representatives were able to ask direct questions of superintendents.

Reese Jones

We also had an impressive line up of key note speakers. The first night we heard from Ken Magnum, Superintendent of Atlanta Athletic Club. He spoke of his experiences hosting this years PGA Championship as well as the decision to convert the greens from bent to Champion Ultra Dwarf Bermuda. Also speaking the first night was Reese Jones. He talked about the renovations that he has taken part in and how he earned the name "The Open Doctor". His remodeling skills have been applied to seven U.S. Open venues, seven PGA Championship courses, four Ryder Cup and two Walker Cup sites. Not a bad list of accomplishments! Bob Farren of Pinehurst spoke the following day on the renovation of #2 and really gave us an insight into the process of the renovation.

I must thank Golfdom for their wonderful hospitality and vision for hosting this unique event. This is the first of its kind event and I feel privileged to have been a part of it. I met so many great superintendents and look forward to keeping in touch with them.

I leave this post with some more photos from the trip. I hope you enjoy them.

The Carolina Hotel

The East Wing

Bob Farren, Seth Jones, Anthony Williams, CGCS

The caddie told me it was a black fox squirl

Clark shows his new home

Great bunkering

The Donald Ross Home off the 3rd Green

Monday, November 14th, 2011

2011-11-13T11:26:00.000-08:00

The good news is, I don't think there will be any frost delays this week, the bad news is, I see a bit of rain in the forecast. It was great to see so many players last week. I think we actually had two capacity days! Pat Jones from Golf Course Industry Magazine commented on Oregon's weather and wondered how people play golf out here. The answer is, we just do. The NW golfer is a hardy breed.
The course continues to play very well. Aside from a few soft fairways we were able to get the carts out a few times. I am happy to report that the carts by in large have been very well behaved.
We began the drainage along the 18th fairway this week. We trenched over 180 feet so far and may still have to do more. Given how soft the area is the crew has done a remarkable job. Our goal is to pipe and fill what we've done so far and add laterals as needed. The leaf removal continues. It has gone fairly well up to now. The wind Saturday night made a mess of things which will take some effort to get cleaned up.

Last Tuesday while I was at the Environmental meeting I got a call from Steve. He said he found a parrot. The guys heard someone laughing in the blackberry brambles and thought someone was playing a trick om them. Steve eventually identified the source of the noise and found the bird deep in the bushes. It didn't leave his shoulder all day. We still haven't found the owner but from the noise it makes you can wonder why.

This week I am taking some vacation time and will be away all week. The first half of the week I'm going to be participating at the Golfdom Summit at Pinehurst North Carolina. I have my camera so there will be lots of pics of the new #2! Yes I do get to play it!

GCSAA Presidents Award and the Michael Hindahl Environmental Stewardship Award of Excellence

2011-11-11T09:40:00.001-08:00

On Tuesday, the GCSAA announced that our Board of Directors have selected me to receive the 2012 President's Award for Environmental Stewardship. This came as a complete surprise which I am honored beyond belief. I will be receiving the award at the 2012 Golf Industry Show in Las Vegas on February 28th.

Dr. Michael Hindahl

Ironically, the awards didn't stop there. Also on Tuesday, while at the OGCSA's Annual Environmental Meeting, I was presented with the Michael Hindahl Environmental Stewardship Award of Excellence just minutes after the GCSAA sent out the press release. It was a little overwhelming to say the least. I would like to thank Oregon's Board of Directors for their recognition. Receiving the Hindahl Award means so much to me in that Michael was a close friend. He was also a friend of the OGCSA and an environmental advocate. Michael had a Ph.D. in Microbiology and worked for Oregon Health Science University researching AIDS. He had a passion for golf and desired to apply his skills to the industry. Prior to Michael's passing, he helped the OGCSA pioneer its Environmental Stewardship Guidelines which received the Presidents Award from GCSAA in 2005. He also played a pivotal roll in the permitting process here at Stone Creek. Without his help the construction could have been delayed considerably. To this day, Michael is still an inspiration. It is fitting that his award came along side of the Presidents Award because without Michael's influence and encouragement, I may not have had the inspiration to promote our incredible game and its relationship to the environment.

I cannot take all the credit for these awards. First and foremost I give credit to the golf course in which I am privileged to manage. Stone Creek has provided a venue in which I have been able to promote golf's environmental attributes through it's sheer beauty. I would also like thank my employer for their support and allowing me to pursue the many projects that have promoted golf's environmental benefits. Also, I give credit to my staff. With their skillful work, they are able to maintain Stone Creek in such a way that shows attention to detail without sacrificing the integrity of the land.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone from across the country and beyond who have sent notes, left voice mails and have commented on my Facebook page. Your congratulations have been incredibly humbling and have been an inspiration. With or without these awards, I am blessed to be part of such a wonderful group of peers called the GCSAA. On February 28th, I will accept The Presidents Award on behalf of all the it's members who are equally dedicated to their industry and the environment.

Monday, November 7th, 2011

2011-11-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

Already the first week of November is under our belt. So far this fall has gone pretty much as expected with a few frost delays, some rain, some fog, and a fair amount of sunny days. One thing for sure, this fall has brought us some cool, but actually pretty nice golfing weather. We are still managing to get through the rough each week but it we are having to take extreme caution when navigating around the soft areas. We got the rough done early last week which enabled Pearce to get around the course with the trim mower on Friday which really put a nice finish on the course for the weekend.

We were finally able to get out our last Redox fertilizer application on the fairway for the season. We added less than .20 lbs of Nitrogen which should give the grass a boost going into the winter. In doing so it really gave me an opportunity to see first hand how the fairways are holding up. They are definitely getting wet, especially the back nine. I have asked the pro shop to restrict the carts to the paths on the back when we are allowing the carts out. In order to avoid further damage we will have to skip mowing a few areas until the conditions allow us to mow safely.

A reminder if you are golfing with a handicap flag on your cart. Please continue to obey the signs. We have placed "Wet Area" and directional signs on the course to make it easy for you to identify troubled areas. Many times the fairways will be firm and just off in the rough you may find your cart needing a tow to safety so please stay alert and watch where you are going.

We are beginning to see some disease on the tee boxes. This photo was taken from the black tee on number six. We have a few small patches here and there and will keep a close eye on it. On this particular tee we treated it locally instead of treating all of the tees on the entire course.

Speaking of pesticide applications, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has announced a new Clean Water Act permit requirement for certain pesticide applications in, over, or near waters of the State of Oregon, effective October 31, 2011. This new permit – a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) pesticide general permit – is required by a Federal Court order and is implemented in Oregon by the DEQ under an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). I cannot give advise to other golf courses other than I would suggest downloading and printing off a copy of the Pesticide General Permit and reading through it thoroughly. In a nutshell, the permit regulates how chemicals are applied in and near the waters of the State of Oregon. It will probably take some time to understand the complexities as it relates to each property. I am sure this will be a subject at the Oregon GCSA's Environmental Meeting this Tuesday, November 8th, at The Oregon Golf Club. Greg Lyman from the GCSAA will be there to help clarify the permit as it relates to our industry.

Monday, October 31st, 2011

2011-10-31T00:01:00.000-07:00

Fog rolling in over the frost

Along with all of the great weather we had last week, the skies cleared and brought us our first frost of the season. We had a full tee sheet but managed to pull off a shotgun by mid morning to accommodate the patient golfers. On another day last week it was 43 degrees when we came in but as the sun began to rise the air chilled considerably, causing us to have to pull our equipment off the course and wait to see what the frost was going to do. Strange as it was, it formed just as the fog began to roll in and the moisture removed any frost that was beginning to form. It was one of the strangest frosts that I have experienced. It just shows how quick conditions can change; each day is different.

Along with the clear skies, we had a great time conditioning the golf course. When the weather cooperates, October can bring some great golfing conditions. The greens are pretty much healed from aerification and are rolling pretty well. This week we may consider a verticut to help smooth them out. As we roll into November we will be cutting back on our mowing as the growth of the grass dictates. November is normally a transition month for us as we approach the winter. Leaf pick up and storm debris clean up will be the norm over the regular mowing.Fall drainage projects will continue as we will be focusing on the wet area in front of the 18th fairway.

One sign each year that we look forward to is the arrival of the Bufflehead ducks. This little guy is the smallest diving bird in North America and breads in Canada. It overwinters down here in the US. We always enjoy watching out for them like we do with the swallows in the spring. We are seeing lots of new birds as the fall migration continues. Friday Jorge spotted the Bald Eagle and I view this Greater White-fronted Goose hanging around with some crows, which is different than the normal Canada Goose that we normally see here at Stone Creek. (Right)

Monday, October 24th, 2011

2011-10-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

I started this week off in Lawrence Kansas for the GCSAA Environmental Programs Committee meeting. This is my second year on the committee after taking a break last year. Having the opportunity to serve next to some of the finest individuals and environmental stewards is a privilege and an honor. I am very excited in the direction GCSAA is heading in the environmental arena, putting forth programs that will position our industry among the nations leaders in sustainability. Stay tuned for a surprising announcement in the coming days!

I returned Thursday to find the course in magnificent condition. Chris and the staff had been busy topdressing the greens, aerating and seeding the driving range tee and keeping up on all of the mowing. The fall color on our Autumn Blaze maples has peaked and the leaves are finally beginning to fall. By Saturday the entire parking lot was a blaze with fallen leaves and were blowing everywhere. Looking forward to this coming week, we are in for some dry but cool weather which should make leaf pick up a breeze.

Earlier in the week we had some vandalism on the course but nothing too bad. The usual tee markers flung about and trash cans thrown in the lake but the icky part was the portable tip-overs. Bob was quick to call and have the sanitation company come out and clean up the mess. I think we have remedied the situation now by bolting the units to the enclosures. I will be surprised to see them over again.

The course has really firmed up the last few days. We are still going to keep the carts off the 15th and 13th fairways so please bear with us and obey the ropes. Our biggest concerns are the slopes and what could happen if a cart could not stop. If all works out this week we are going to try to get some extra sand out on those pesky wet areas in hopes of keeping them more playable. The good news is new drainage on 17 looks great and has firmed up the area nicely.

Last week we had a golfer slip on the turf while walking up to the fourteenth green, so we decided to extend the chip trail a few feet closer. We appreciate players pointing out these areas in that safety is very important to us. Just last Friday I saw a player with mud up the side of his leg and asked him if he was alright. He said he was fine and deserved to fall in that he had stepped over some ropes that were placed to direct traffic away from the wet area in the first place.

Finally, please welcome our old friends back home. It looks like they summered well where ever they went and are now back here for the winter. This is just a small flock in comparison to what other golf courses have to deal with so if this is all the geese we get this year then we should be okay. The only thing that concerns me is they are roosting in the lakes. Friday I saw them all congregated around our flashing buoys. We will continue to keep them moving when we see them on the course in hopes they may find a quieter place to dwell.

Monday, October 17th, 2011

2011-10-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

Wetness, wildlife and turf diseases are the topic of this post. Soft areas are making the top of the discussion this week. We have seen an unusual amount of areas which are normally firm, become wet and soggy this year. It is our goal to allow carts out as much as possible and we ask that extreme caution be taken when navigating to your ball. We have placed ropes on the 12th, 13th and 15th fairways and placed signs warning of wet areas throughout the course. Please be mindful of these areas this week even though the sun may be shining.

We have begun numerous drainage projects including basin repair work on four, ten, fourteen, and sixteen. Last week we installed 130 feet of drain pipe along the left edge of seventeen fairway. We will move to the front left of the eighteenth fairway next. Following that we would like to drain the right of the lower driving range tee box in the chipping area. This area is wetter than I have ever seen it.

It has been some time since we have seen a beaver down by the creek but it was brought to my attention this week that some activity has been noticed below the sixteenth green. I would prefer to see them down on the creek but at this time they seem to be taking care of the volunteer popular tree which we would probably take down ourselves later on. We will definitely be watching the situation to make sure we don't lose any of our good trees.

The other day I was speaking to a friend from Estacada who had seen a black bear around her house. She described seeing a stump that the bear had ripped apart in search of grubs and that made me wonder about a stump I have seen behind the eleventh green. One of the neighbors had told me a while back about spotting a bear but I had dismissed it. But now that we have had bears in Tualatin and have even spotted a cougar here at Stone Creek, anything could be possible. Wild animal sightings seem to be happening closer to urban populations, but just remember they are more afraid of us and are normally gone before we ever get a glance. If by chance you do spot a large wild animal, please contact the Stone Creek staff as soon as you can.

Finally, a note about turf disease. In the past years we have seen a few spots of Fusarium patch or Microdochium nivale on a few select greens, mainly on nine and the putting green. It has pretty much been isolated to the new patches of Poa annua. This fall it has appeared once again on the putting green and nine. We have taken all the appropriate actions which should stop it in it's tracks. Our latest application of mancozeb and propaconizole on Saturday should give us a few weeks of good protection. Notice on the photo how it is only on the Poa annua patch. If only we could find a simple way of keeping Poa out of greens we could save so much on pesticides.

Just an FYI, I asked Chris to calculate, based on our fertilization application records, how much N we have given the greens year to date and the total came to 1.9 pound N/1000 square feet. Looking out to the end of the year I don't see us using any more than 2.2 lbs for the entire year. This is less than half of the rate that we used to use. Based on the conditions of our greens and how consistent the growth and color has been all year, I really can't believe we are so low. Applying the same fertility program on the tees and fairways should be resulting the same outcome on nitrogen inputs. Reducing our inputs has long been a goal of mine and to actually see it coming into fruition gives me great satisfaction. Projecting out into 2012 we will be saving over $4k on granular fertilizer applications on the fairways alone!

This week the weatherman is promising a few nice days of sunshine. We will be throwing out some sand Monday morning to finish off the remaining aerification holes and will hopefully be able to get some sand out on a few wet spots in the fairways as well. We are already ahead of the game and have established temporary greens on three, five, six and fifteen. I don't anticipate frost soon, but you never can tell. This way we should be able to get the golfers out earlier and on the course where they belong! I will be in Lawrence Kansas this week for the Environmental Programs Committee meeting and will be back in the office on Thursday. Have a great week and enjoy the sunshine while we have it!

Monday, October 10th, 2011

2011-10-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't have called it a perfect day on Thursday for aerification but we managed to get it done. We were never able to get the sand to completely dry but it could not have been done without our new TB 200 turf brush. With the sand still damp we were able to sweep the sand in just two complete passes. The abrasion on the greens was much less thus decreasing the time it will take to heal. There are just a hand full of greens that will require some additional sand but over all I am quite pleased how they all came out.

The crew could not have done a better job. It seemed like once we started we didn't stop until the last green was done and that was a half an hour before our regular quitting time. Everything seemed to run like a well oiled machine.

As part of our Integrated Pest Management program (IPM) we normally spray the broadleaf weeds in the tall grass only every two or three years. This was the year that we needed to spray. The false dandelion were getting way too abundant and were spilling out onto the golf course. I took the opportunity to spray 7.5 acres of our tall grass areas Thursday morning while the course was more or less closed for aerification. If you look for it you will see the weeds beginning to curl. Although the yellow flower can be pretty, you won't be seeing too much of it next year.

Last week we were able to get the fairways back on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule. It really made a difference in the appearance. We will continue on this schedule until the growth subsides. Last week we had an inch and a quarter of rain and the fairways are beginning to soften up in the usual places. Our goal is to keep carts on the fairways as long as we can, especially on the weekends. Ropes will be going up this week on the areas where we will need to keep the carts off.

Now that aerification is complete we will continue working on our projects. Last week we finished the drain line on sixteen and repaired the low on ten. Zef and Chris removed all the old sod, lifted the catch basin and regraded it with sand. Instead of putting the old sod back in place they used the sand based ryegrass sod from the nursery which should remain firm throughout the winter.

The bottom tee of the driving range is almost complete for the season. Once we finish it off, which will most likely be this week, we would like to aerate, seed it and put it to bed for the winter. If the weather cooperates we would like to do it as soon as possible and may need to close part of the range in order to get it done.

Mike Holl

Mike Coppedge

I would like to take a quick moment to recognize our two summer seasonal employees. Mike Holl and Mike Coppedge have done an outstanding job for us. I wish we could keep them both year-a-round. Mike Holl has been asked to help out a family friend with their business so Big Mike will be leaving us a tad early. Tuesday will be his last day of the season. Thank you Mike for all your help this year, we have all enjoyed having you on the crew.

Just for fun, I like to take pictures of the various mushrooms that I find growing around the course. Many time you will find them associated with a turf disease but they aren't normally this showy. The ones to the right are pretty much found in all the mulched tree rings. It must be related to the decaying wood matter. The mushrooms below were found on the edge of a bunker next to the seventh green. At first glance I thought they were golf balls.

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

2011-10-03T12:05:00.000-07:00

As October arrives so does Fall! The rains have begun, at least for now anyway. Not good timing as far as our greens aerification schedule is concerned. This is the first year that I can recall that we have been rained out. We have set aside this Thursday as our alternate date and are hoping the forecast will stay clear.

The weather did, however, cooperate last week while we did the tee boxes. It was a textbook operation up until the last set of tees when the 440 jack-knifed and punctured the tractor tire. Thanks to Steve's quick response, we were able to replace the tire and finish the job before the afternoon shotgun went off.

Please welcome Chris Robson, our new assistant superintendent, to Stone Creek today. We are glad to have him on the team and are looking forward to working with him. Chris will be making rounds and familiarizing himself with the property, so please be sure to introduce yourself to him when you get a chance.

In a way Chris was fortunate that he didn't have to start right in on aerification today and that he has a chance to get to know the crew first. Today he is helping Zef and Jorge install a quick drain line off the path on sixteen to alleviate the puddle that has plagued us for some time.

Between now and when we get into the leaf season, you will see the guys working on small projects around the course. This is a good time to start those small drainage projects while the ground is still firm. We are hoping to get around to as many as possible before we get rained out.

One thing I noticed last week was the color of the driving range. I wish I had a photo two weeks ago but if I did, you would see it completely brown. With just one week of cool and damp weather we are almost ready to mow it again. As a matter of fact we are planning on cutting it Thursday. I will have to quantify the actual savings that we incur some day by letting it go dormant. Right away it saves 3 1/2 hours of mowing each week which equates to increase range revenue as well as fuel and labor savings. We also save roughly 6 acres of irrigation as well. Since the range is comprised of fine fescue it has the ability to regenerate quickly once the water becomes available. I am surprised how well it takes the wear from the range picker!

Monday, September 26th, 2011

2011-09-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks have gone by so fast. It seems like this has been our busiest tournament schedule of the season and with Mike gone everyone has been stepping up to get the job done. Last week Brian completed the restroom project by the 11th tee, the crew trimmed and edged the bunkers and I fertilized the tees and made our second fairway fertilizer application. Zeferino stepped up and single-highhandedly repaired the drainage issue at the 14th tee box. Being down an assistant plus one crew member The entire staff has done a fantastic job.

This week we are looking at a couple smaller events on Monday and Tuesday and then will embark on tee aerification on Wednesday. Our goal will be to try to get them all done in one day so we can stay on our regular mowing schedule. The following Monday we will be aerifying the greens. So far the long range forecast shows no rain. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

To help us keep up with the bunkers I have asked Jim Horstman to come back and work three or four half days a week until we get through the season. Jim worked on the crew last summer and is willing to help us out when he is not busy driving dump truck.

Finally, I would like to take this time to introduce our new Assistant Superintendent. His name is Chris Robson. Chris graduated from the turf program at Oregon State University in 2008. He spent his internship at Royal Oaks Country Club then worked for Orchard Hill Country Club after he graduated. Recently he has been the 2nd Assistant at Glendoveer and is now excited to take on the Assistant roll at Stone Creek. Chris enjoys hunting and fishing and holds a single digit handicap. He grew up working at Glendoveer and thanks George Walker, Glendoveers superintendent, who inspired him to pursue this as a career. I had so many tremendous applications and could have done well with most of them. Chris just stood out in my mind as an individual that will mesh well with the staff and is going to work hard for everyone. He is going to be starting on Monday, October 3rd. Unfortunately for him it will be his second greens aerification this fall! It will be a busy day for him learning the ropes but I have no doubts he will succeed. I don't have a photo yet, but should have one shortly after he starts. The crew is looking forward to welcoming him to the team.

Monday, September 19th, 2011

2011-09-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

Friday I attended the OSU Turf Alumni & Friends Weekend and Field Day in Corvallis. It was great to see such a great turnout. The day started with the field day at the farm followed by golf at Trysting Tree then back to the farm for dinner. The turf farm is looking as good as it ever has. Dr. Rob Golembiewski and his staff and students have been doing lots of great research including, divot recovery, green speed, poa fertility, anthracnose and Microdochium patch and much more. There is now more than 20,000 square feet of putting green turf in which to perform much of their work. The day concluded when Rob presented Pat Doran, Superintendent at Trysting Tree and myself with an award of appreciation for contributing to the success of the program. It has always been an honor for me to speak to the students when ever I am invited, but I never expected to receive an award. Another classy way Rob has found to recognize individuals for their efforts. Thanks Rob.

We had a great week last week. The tournaments went off without a hitch from our end and we managed to get all of our cultural jobs complete. We fertilized the greens Tuesday, once again with zero nitrogen. With the way they are growing I'm afraid that if we added N to the mix we would be pushing to much growth. We decided to take advantage of the evenings to work on the course with tournaments scheduled each day. Wednesday we topdressed all the greens starting at 6pm and wrapped it all up by 8:00. Thursday we decided we should at least try to mow half of the fairways in the evening to prepare for the 7:45 shotgun Friday morning but we weren't able to get on the course until 7:00. Thanks to Mike Holl, Brian and Jorge for staying until 9:00 to get the job done.

This week we will be in a similar situation with the tournament but we should be able to stay up on all of the mowing in the morning hours. Our second fairway fertilizer application is scheduled this week and we will be planning on Thursday for that. This is also our week to fertilize the tee boxes but I think we have some room to push them back a bit. They are still growing well and look great. We are going to start plugging the tees next week on Wednesday and will coordinate with the pro shop on reversing the nines if necessary. The greens aerification is right around the corner. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the weather will hold. The warmer the temperature the quicker they will heal.

Brian has been working on the restroom enclosure at the 11th tee. If all goes well that should be wrapped up by Tuesday. With the cooler temps Zeferino will have time to resume raising sprinkler heads. He has already adjusted all the range tee heads which look great. As time allows we will be starting a few small drainage projects starting with the wet area along the path near the 14th tees and the puddle along the path near the 16th green.

Wednesday marks the first day of Fall and to honor the change in seasons we shut the deep well off on Sunday. This year was one of our best water years that I can remember. We always seemed to have plenty of water in the lakes while maintaining an adequate level of irrigation on the golf course. This doesn't mean that we are done irrigating for the season, chances are we will irrigate plenty by the end of October. I would like to draw the lake level down somewhat allowing the fall rains to fill the lakes. Since most of the drain lines feed the lakes I'm sure we won't have a problem filling them back up. My other reason is cost savings. With our ET rate down now that we are in the fall season we will be able to save a considerable amount of money by not running the deep well.

The Dick Estey Golf Collection

2011-09-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

Ted Westling and Dick Estey

Stone Creek's golf pro, Ted Westling had told me about Dick Estey and his golf collection and said that some day he would arrange a tour. Last week Gordon Tolbert and I got the tour of a life time and I would like to share some of Dicks collection with all of you that follow my blog.

Golf has been a passion for me for so many years and if you know me it is not because of my playing ability. It is the venue in which it is played and the seamless tie in which is has with the environment. For me, understanding this becomes more evident as I learn more of the history of the game and those that played a role in the early development. Being privileged to view such a rare and complete collection of historical artifacts collected by Mr. Estey will always be a memory in which I will cherish for years to come.

We started our tour sitting down and discussing the history of the game and where it all began. Right away I learned that the game did not begin in Scotland like we have all been let to believe. Yes, golf has certainly established its earliest roots there but the game of golf was invented by the Dutch. It was the Scots that brought the game to their country and refined it to where it is today. The Dutch clubs were nothing like what we have seen from the past, they looked more like a hockey stick and the ball they hit was more like the size of a softball.

I really don't know were to start in talking about Mr. Estey's collection so I would like to highlight some of the most meaningful items that I saw. The rest will be shown in photos at the end of this post. As a golf course superintendent the one person that stands out in our history would be Old Tommy Morris. I had to ask Mr. Estey if he had anything that belonged to him and low and behold what he showed me gave me goosebumps. First, there is a painting of Old Tommy Morris that we have all grown to identify him with. It is on post cards and has been printed on many things over the years. When Mr. Estey explained that to me and asked me to turn around he showed me the original painting hanging right in front of me.

Then to top that off he showed me the ball press and one of Old Tom's actual balls that he made himself as well as a club that was used by Young Tom Morris in the 1870 Open.

Mr. Estey didn't have a lot of player memorabilia but he did have a few medals from some major players at some of the major golf events. The one players memorabilia that he did possess was Ken Venturi. Mr. Estey and Ken Venturi are the closest of friends. They spend much of their time together in the winter months in the Desert.

A lot of the collection was of original artwork. Many of you will find some of these pieces familiar. It added so much to the collection and tied it all to the history of the game. Below are some of the original pieces the were displayed.

Toward the end of our tour Mr. Estey sat behind his desk and proceeded to tell us the history of one of the oldest and most sought after publications in early golf history. The title of the publication is called the Glotta Poem. Personally I had never heard of it but believe me I will never forget now. After learning the history of the document and to then have it displayed right in front of me is an experience I will not soon forget.

Throughout the tour one of the things Mr. Estey liked to do was test our knowledge of golf and ask us if we could identify the artifact and what it was used for. I managed to get the leather hoof protectors for the horse drawn mower correct but that was about it. I would like to do the same for you readers out there and see if you can identify the artifacts. Here are a few of the items he tested us on. The boxes in the upper photo and the ivory looking letter opener in the bottom photo. I don't have a complete photo of the wooden spool object but if you know, go ahead and guess on that as well. Please feel free to post your answers in the comment section below.

I would like to end this post with a number of photos showing the remainder of the Estey collection. Many of the photos have tags which explain the item and some are self explanatory. I hope you will get a sense of the magnitude of this collection. I would like to thank Mr. Estey for allowing us to view the collection as well as photograph it. This short post cannot do justice to the entire collection.

Monday, September 12th, 2011

2011-09-12T01:00:00.000-07:00

This weather has forded us the pleasure of watching the sunrise each morning over Mt Hood. You tend to take the mountain for granted when you have lived in the NW all your life, but when you are given regular opportunities like this to watch the sun track each morning, it really makes you appreciate where we live. Here are three photos taken just three days apart from different views on the course. It is amazing how fast the sun moves over the mountain each day as we approach the fall season.

September 3rd

September 6th (Taken by Steve Mathre)

September 9th

We said good by to Mike last week. I have nothing but admiration for the work he has done for us at Stone Creek over the last six years. He will be a tough act to follow but from the stack of applicants I have received thus far, we are sure to find one that will fit the spot just right. My goal will be to have the new assistant on board by the first week of October.

Mike, Aubrey and Leighton

It may have been Mike's last week but you would have to look hard to find a short timers attitude. He worked so hard to make sure that all the scheduled spray applications were completed which really helped me out a lot. He also worked hard on getting the restroom enclosure completed at the cart barn. Class act to the very end.

Thursday we all enjoyed a hamburger BBQ in Mike's honor. Thanks to all of you that were able to come by and say so long.

The schedule is looking pretty busy the rest of the month with golf tournaments so we will have to squeeze in a topdress this Wednesday since we didn't get it done last week. We did however manage to verticut the greens. To remind everyone, we will be aerifying the greens on the 3rd and 4th of October. It's a little later than I normally feel comfortable doing but given the amount of play we are expecting, it's kind of nice to keep the greens rolling so well all month. As long as this weather holds up we are going to be in for a great September.

We are starting to accumulate lots of small drainage projects which we hope to get to this fall. These are just small projects but they should really make a difference once we get them done. Many of the areas will be catch basin repairs where they are set too low and need to be regraded. We will be using the sand sod from the nursery to fix these areas. We hope we can get to some of these before we get into the leaf season. Our first priority will be to finish the restroom enclosure on eleven then we'll start in.

A word of caution. The yellow jackets are out in force. This spring we failed to get the traps out which trap the queens before they can establish nests. As I was mowing the tall grass I was amazed at how many I stirred up. We have been spraying them as we come across them so please be sure to let us know where they are so we can schedule to get them first thing in the morning. This trap was placed outside the starter shack and literally filled up in a few hours.

Last week we finally got the trim and the doors painted on our shop.Chris Anderson's guys did a great job. We are still hoping to to get the yard paved one of these days. As you can see by the photo to the right, the amount of dust and dirt that is tracked into the shop is crazy. The dust finds it's way on and into everything including our computer equipment. We spend a lot of our time dusting and sweeping the shop to manage the dirt. Once we pave the yard the problem will be alleviated. We understand it won't happen overnight but it is our goal to improve our facility to make it better and more efficient.

Monday, September 5th, 2011

2011-09-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

Lingering smoke in the atmosphere from the fires around Mt Hood

Just like that, another month has passed and Fall is right around the corner. It appears that now that summer is in full swing it isn't going to give up it's grasp on us quite yet. The forecast is calling for another seven straight days in and close to the 90's. That means that we still have lots of great golfing conditions left. We may be hitting the 90's but the night time temperatures are dropping down to the low 50's. That means that our ET rates are low and we shouldn't be seeing any more significant drying out of the grass.

It always seems that once football season begins, our play drops off. We still have a good amount of outings scheduled for this month but there should be lots of great tee times available to enjoy the great golfing conditions. Speaking of conditions, we will not be aerating until October so don't miss out.

This week we began to give the course a "close shave". August has always been the month that we begin to cut down all the tall grass. I have been cutting early in the morning to avoid exposing the customers to excessive dust and swarming yellow-jackets. The job should be complete by the end of this week some time.

One of my favorite qualities of this course is its many looks that it has throughout the year. June is always one of my favorite times when the tall grass is going to seed and it sways in the wind. Now with the tall grass cut down, I must say that this look isn't a bad one either. The first few groups out in the morning hit the bonanza on finding lost balls. The mower tends to kick them out undamaged and they find there way into passing bags rather quickly.

This week we have a lot on our plate. Mike's last day is Thursday which I hope many of you can stop by for lunch and wish him farewell. Unfortunately we're not letting him off the hook easy. He and Bryan are working on the portable toilet enclosures and hope to have them wrapped up. We will also be spraying tees and greens this week.
It's going to be a banner weather week, enjoy it while you can!

Lake Algae Control

2011-09-02T06:41:00.000-07:00

If you are a regular golfer at Stone Creek, you probably remember past years when the lakes would turn green with algae each August and they would emit a strange odor as well. Over the last three years we have finally been able to control the algae with a product that I found to be extremely environmentally safe. Copper based products and dyes were always something that didn't sit right with me so we would just wait it out and let the algae take it's course.

I finally met Dan Anderson with Northwest Environmental Specialties. I am usually suspect when someone tells me something that is to good to be true but he finally convinced me to try the product. It is called Ponder. Ponder is a carbon bio-based product that will assist in mediating the conditions that can promote algae development. It reduces gases and organic nutrients as well as turbidity associated with blooms by binding to pollutants and other suspended solids while stimulating resident bio digestion of the organic solids.

It requires a monthly application throughout the summer and in August I dropped the ball and didn't order it in in time, thus a bloom occurred in our main lakes. I called Dan and told him my dilemma and he casually said go ahead and get it out there and you will see results. This is why I am actually making this post because last Friday the ponds were a mess so I made the application and hoped for the best. By the next week the results were astounding. I took this photo Thursday but the ponds had already changed by Monday. I had thought I lost them for the season but now they are as clear as ever. I know this is another shameless promotion but I enjoy sharing knowledge that I learn along the way and if it can help anyone else then it is worth it.

Monday, August 29th, 2011

2011-08-28T20:05:00.000-07:00

The course continues to play well. We have seen quite a few days in the 90's and the course is holding its own. We have been diligently adjusting the irrigation daily to meet the needs of the course while keeping the pond levels up. Last week we had a couple days of threatening weather but unfortunately it didn't measure up to much. One nice thing is it sure made for some pretty sunrises.

Again, we had another very productive week. Steve got the rough mower back on track and now we are back on a regular rough mowing schedule. We have been picking away at the bunker edges and they are pretty much done throughout. Monday we seeded the upper tee box on the driving range. We suspect we will run over it one more time this season so it will be imperative for us to keep it wet as it germinates. This means we will need help from the cart barn staff moving the portable sprinkler around throughout the day. This will insure a complete germination and a quick recovery.

The highlight of the week was the inaugural run at spraying the fairways. As we predicted, the entire job took only 4 hours to complete using the new Boominator spray nozzles. Mike made a perfect application, mixing it all in our batch tank and then applying it based on the settings of the computer controlled spray system.

Just to clarify there are two types of liquid fertilizer applications that can occur. There is the "foliar feed" application in which the fertilizer is applied to the foliage and is taken up through the leaf tissue. This is very common in many greens fertilizers. The other is a "foliar applied" fertilizer application. This is basically what we are doing with the boominators. We are using water to apply the fertilizer to the foliage which is then washed into the soil with irrigation or rain. You may compare it with a granular application but only with more precise control. The nutrients that we are applying are mostly feeding the soil which will then sustain the grass plant from below. It would be safe to say that there is also plant tissue uptake but that isn't the primary goal of our program using the Redox fertilizer.

This week on Tuesday the crew will be playing in the OGCSA's Annual Crew Tournament which is held down the street at Arrowhead Golf Club. This is always a great time for the guys. A chance to play another course and enjoy the camaraderie among themselves. Today (Monday), Doug, Jason, Mike and I will be playing in the Oregon Turfgrass Foundation golf tournament at Columbia Edgewater. This year the tournament has sold out which should be a huge success for our fund raising efforts for Oregon State University. I would like to recognize the Foundation Board of Directors for all their hard work in putting this event on. Especially Bo Hepler our President and Linda Whitworth,our Executive Director. They have provided so much of their time organizing and making it all come together. Rumor has it that Stone Creek may be favored!

Turfgrass Water Conservation by S. T. Cockerham and B. Leinauer

2011-08-28T17:14:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I received a copy of the Second Edition Turfgrass Water Conservation by S. T. Cockerham and B. Leinauer. The first thing I noticed was Stone Creek Golf Club on the front cover! Quite a while ago, I was contacted by Rossana Sallenave, New Mexico State University Animal Science and Natural Resource Extension Specialist, about providing a few golf course photos depicting wildlife and water conservation. Rossana is one of the contributing authors and was writing the chapter titled: Environmental Issues Surrounding Turf-Dominated Urban Landscapes. She managed to use three of the photos I supplied her. One of Stone Creek, one of the bluebirds I shot when I worked at The Oregon Golf Club and one Al Nielsen, CGCS of Royal Oaks Country Club gave me of one of his bird houses. I had no idea they would use Stone Creek on the front cover. If I had known I would have sent more to choose from.

I might as well give the publication a plug. The contributing authors list is rather impressive, ranging from James B. Beard, Turfgrass Science Emeritus, Texas A&M University to Frank P. Wong, Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside (Frank is now the technical service specialist for Bayer Environmental Science). This book is a collective body of knowledge that will help provide the most recent water conservation and information and guidelines for the scientific community, the golf course superintendent and grounds manager, the general public and hopefully a few politicians as well. I checked on Amazon and it is going fast but more are being ordered. The cost is $24. Click HERE for a link to Amazon.

Taking Applications for Assistant Superintendent

2011-08-25T12:31:00.000-07:00

With both sorrow and joy in my heart I must report that Mike Turley will be leaving us at Stone Creek. I believe behind every good superintendent is an even better assistant. Mike was every bit of that and then some. I am very excited for Mike as he accepts a partner position within a very successful family business. I will most certainly miss his hard work and the friendship we shared daily. I only lost a good assistant but our friendship will remain forever. I wish him all the joy and success in his new venture.

Needless to say, I am now accepting applications for a new assistant superintendent. The following is my official post for the position:

Overview
The assistant golf course superintendent reports directly to the golf course superintendent. Under the superintendents supervision, the assistant directs and participates in the overall maintenance of the golf course. The assistant superintendent may serve in the superintendent's capacity during his/her absence.

Functions

Assists in planning and supervising the maintenance of greens, tees and fairways; schedules work, and supervises the employees and the use of the equipment.
Instructs equipment operators on the operation and care of mowing and other equipment, supervises pesticide applications and/or operates and calibrates pesticide application equipment, and supervises and participates in the operation and maintenance of pumps, and in the maintenance of irrigation and drainage systems.
Assists in personnel management and evaluation, employee safety and personnel discipline.
May modify the daily work schedule based on professional interpretation.

Employment Standards

Possess a four year bachelors degree or a two year turf related degree.
Working knowledge of the maintenance of golf course tees, fairways and greens; seeding and maintenance practices for golf course turf, planting, cultivating, pruning, and caring for plants, shrubs and trees; characteristics and proper use of various fertilizers and soil conditioners; herbicide and pest control methods and materials; drainage control methods; and irrigation systems, including wells, pumps and automatic controls.
Ability to schedule and supervise maintenance work to achieve the most efficient utilization of workers and equipment, prepare clear and concise reports; and maintain effective employee and public relations.
Possession of a valid driver's license.
Possession of a valid State of Oregon pesticide applicators license or the ability to obtain within 60 days of hire date.

Compensation $30,000 to $40,000, DOE

Benefits

Medical and dental insurance after 90 days of employment
401K after one year of employment
Annual vacation
OGCSA and GCSAA dues paid

Send resume` and cover letter to:

phipps.dc@gmail.com

or

David Phipps
14603 S Stoneridge Drive
Oregon City, OR 97045

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

2011-08-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

This week I would like to start out my post with a recap of an earlier post I made regarding driving range tee divot repair. We have planted the new "Natural Knit" spreading ryegrass on our nursery and on the driving range tee box to see if it would increase the rate in which divots would repair. The thought is that with the new spreading characteristic combined with the wear tolerance of perennial ryegrass, we would be able to have a better quality driving range tee. We were having a difficult time gauging the rate of repair on the actual driving range tee box since it is always so messed up so we did a divot pattern on the nursery which is located above the range next to our shop. The two photos below were taken 38 days apart and the divots were filled only with sand, no seed. It is pretty evident that the divots do in fact fill in quickly.

Taken July 14th, 2011

Taken August 21st, 2011 (38 days)

In addition to the rapid repair we have also noticed that the texture of this grass is extremely fine. If I were to build a new tee box this would be the grass of choice. I can only imagine what it would look like planted in a fairway too. In some of the trials I have seen with this grass, it resembles bentgrass in many ways, only without the heavy thatch build-up. It performs very well at heights around 0.50". This week we will aerating and seeding the upper tee box and we will continue to plant the Natural Knit.

In a side note, speaking with Dr. Golembieski at Oregon State. He has some trials of the same grass at the Lewis Brown Research Farm and he noted that the grass performs optimally at cutting heights below 1.25". In addition to golf tee's and fairways, Natural Knitt would make a very nice soccer pitch or baseball field which receives a high level of maintenance and cut below 1.25".

Course Conditions
We finally found the 90's! Saturday hit 93.6 degrees here at Stone Creek which is the first time we have exceeded the 90 mark all season. The course is finally beginning to take on that Stone Creek trademark late summer appearance with the edges of the rough showing some brown. I am glad to see that Stone Creek golfers appreciate good dry conditions. In my opinion this is how golf was meant to be played. I feel it adds a completely new dimension to the game with the skinny lies and the additional ball roll. You will definitely find your ball in places you may not have been able to reach earlier in the season. The greens are still rolling true and fast and the tee boxes are the best I have seen them. Zef has been doing a wonderful job managing the moisture on the fairways. Early in the morning you will see him running a few multi-manuals in select areas, being careful not to allow the fairway to become too wet.
This week we will verticutting and topdressing the greens as well as fertilizing them. Mike will also begin fertilizing the fairways with the new Boominators. Last week I started mowing the tall grass in between the tee boxes and this week I will begin to cut the large areas between the holes. This is a big job and will take some time. We will normally mow early in the morning while there is plenty of moisture on the grass. This helps keep the dust down to a minimum. We should probably be able to mow close to 5 acres a day.

The parts are all in for the 4500 and we should be able to resume our regular rough mowing schedule. The entire crew has done a magnificent job keeping up with the rough using the trim mowers.

I am happy to report that Carl is home from South Dakota and is doing well. If you missed it, Carl took a dive on his bike at 70 mph after his front tire blew out. Bob and Steve took over an electric chair that Bobs mother used to have. Carl is so grateful for that. He can now motor around the property and get to places that he hadn't been able to before. I stopped by Saturday for a visit and he is already talking about another bike. Not so sure if Sandy is going to allow that. He should be in his casts for close to 90 days and will then need quite of bit of rehab to build back his strength.

Carl's spirits are high and he is doing great. He loves company so feel free to drop by and visit for a spell. Oh and by the way, while he was in the hospital he quit smoking. It has been three weeks now and he has no desire. He even let me take all his tobacco off his hands so he wouldn't be tempted. And no, in case you were wondering, I found a good home for it.

Thursday we held our annual rib-eye barbecue. The steaks were incredible and we ate like pigs. We enjoyed having Mike McLees there. Now that he has retired from the County he can finally make it. He will always be on our invite list. This is my way to say thanks to everyone who works for me, including the staff at the ball field as well as Mark and Doug with the County Parks Department. Especially all my staff here at the course. All wouldn't be what it is today with out their hard work and expertise. It was especially nice to have Gordon there as well. We managed to forget our bocce ball tournament but will have to do something later. Thank you Gordon for offering my staff a group lesson! I think that would be huge for the crew. We should be able to use the nursery tee behind the shop and continue our divot recovery trial. Thanks again for doing that Gordy, that really means a lot!

Finally a word of thanks to Fazio Brothers Sand. Russ showed up with his new truck so I had to snap a quick picture of it. Richard Fazio is one of the Oregon Golf Course Superintendent Association's biggest supporters. They manage to keep golf courses supplied with some of the finest topdressing sand around. They deliver from Coeur d'alene to Bend and the greater State of Oregon West of the Cascades. Besides thanking them for all their support I really wanted to post this picture. It is such a good looking truck!

David Feherty Addressing the ACC Maintenance Staff

2011-08-19T10:59:00.000-07:00

Daren Davis lead me to this video on You Tube through one of his Twitter posts. I really love what David has to say to Ken and his staff. What a great course the entire staff provided the PGA for this years final major. Kudos to everyone!

Bill Webster Live on AM 750 The Game

2011-08-19T08:53:00.000-07:00

Tune in to AM 750 to listen to Bill Webster, CGCS talk about the LPGA Safeway Classic

Bill Webster, CGCS at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, will be a guest on radio station 750 AM “The Game” hosted by Tom Hewitt and Conan Elliott this Saturday, August 20th at 8:15 a.m.

The Game’s interactive mobile radio player gives you the freedom to listen anytime and anywhere. Click HERE for instructions to listen live on your iPhone, Blackberry or Android.

Or

Call 712 432-6646 to listen live over any telephone

Monday, August 15th, 2011

2011-08-15T08:29:00.000-07:00

Off and running on Sunday morning!

Like the PGA, we too had a successful club championship. I wouldn't compare Stone Creek to the likes of Atlanta Athletic Club, but it was a great championship on both ends. As AAC prepared for the PGA Championship Ken Magnum had surrounded himself with some of the finest people he could find and the results were astounding. The key to any well run organization is not just the leader, but the people he works with on a daily basis. I would like to take this opportunity to recognize a couple of my key staff for all their hard work this summer. I will make a point to highlight a few each week until I am able to give everyone the credit that they are due.

One of the toughest positions on the course is the job of the assistant superintendent. Mike Turley has done an exemplary job ever since he joined us almost 7 years ago. Mike's job has been primarily the scheduling of daily activities and the application of fertilizers and fungicides. He must also be able to read my mind and stay one step ahead of me. To my astonishment he manages to play the role just like Radar on the series M*A*S*H. He has the uncanny ability to see the course as I do and many times has the jobs in motion before I can even mention it to him.

Like the assistant job, the equipment technician ranks right up there. Steve Mathre has been with me from the start. He was the second person I hired when I began to hire employees for Stone Creek. I hired him sight unseen from Ames Country Club in Ames Iowa. Steve made his way out with his family and has never looked back. I cannot site how many times Steve has gotten us out of a pickle or has helped a fellow coworker with a mechanical issue. He can do it all. This has been an especially trying year now that our equipment is aging and showing the signs of wear. Somehow he manages to get things right-side-up and back out on the course to keep things running smoothly. I would just like to thank Steve for all his patients and perseverance over the years in helping to keep this place in the condition that it is in.

In preparation for the Championship we spent some time checking the bunkers for sand depth. In many of the bunkers the sand has become uneven due to the constant raking from the front to the back. Jorge was able to use the blade on the Sand Pro to reallocate the sand throughout the bunkers, thus avoiding having to use additional sand. We did however need to fill quite a few green side ones. Special thanks to Jorge for all his expertise and effort in getting all the bunkers back in shape!

In our efforts to reduce the amount of pesticides we use on the course we have developed threshold levels which will dictate when we treat for a particular problem. The greens however, are the only area on the course where we will spray preventatively. Insect damage in the rough has been an area which we have allowed to go unchecked. Crane fly is the usual suspect up until now. We have discovered an infestation of billbug in the surrounds behind the 11th green. The damage first appeared as a dry spot but upon further examination we found the turf had no roots and small white larvae were present throughout. We have had small infestations like this in the past and we will reseed the area this fall. We will be sure to watch the same area next year perhaps with traps and determine if treatment will be warranted.

This week we will begin cutting the tall grass and should be fertilizing the fairways with the new Boominator nozzles. I will be sure to report next week on how well they worked. In the mean time enjoy the course, it is playing the best I have seen in quite some time.

Monday, August 8th, 2011

2011-08-07T21:58:00.000-07:00

Looking west over the 8th green

Last week was another picture perfect week in the weather category. Still not seeing the 90's and managing to stay in the low 80's. It can stay like this until October as far as I'm concerned.

Once again we were productive and managed to get quite a few things accomplished. Our scheduled events such as tee fertilization and green topdressing went without a hitch. We got a start on mowing some of the tall grass down along sixteen and will begin in earnest following the Championship next week. We also began relocating the sand in the bunkers. Many of them appeared to be shallow but only needed to have the sand pushed back around to uniform levels. We will continue with the bunkers throughout this week. The new portable toilets were delivered Monday and so far I am very happy with the first round of service. They are doing a very thorough job cleaning them out. We installed a new door on the ladies restroom which had broken last year due to high wind. A heavy duty closer was used to insure that it stays shut this time.

The evenings have been amazing out at the course. I enjoy coming out early in the evening to pick up Adam from work and spend some time to take photos and play around with the new camera. I have been playing around with HDR photographs lately. HDR stands for high dynamic range imaging. To make it as simple as possible it involves taking multiple shots of the same subject with different exposures. Mainly an under, a mid, and an over exposed picture. I use Photoshop to combine the three photos which results in a picture that more accurately represents the range of intensity found in real scenes. Above is a picture I took of the cart barn that is a combination of these three shots below:

I have far from perfected it and could probably done it with the first and third shots only but it is fun to play around and see what turns out. If I ever get anything halfway decent I'll be sure to share it.

Speaking of great evenings, this year Stone Creek organized a couples par 3 tournament following our Friday afternoon event and from what I could tell everyone had a great time. Jason and I laid out the course and I set the cups and mowed out the temp greens in the fairways Friday morning. I think we ended up with more players than we expected so an extra two holes had to be added. Given how fun it was and the response from the participants I am sure we will have more by the summers end. Here are some more shots I took of everyone having a great time.

Great work Paul showing everyone where to go!

Megan was in high demand for the event!

Finally I am sorry to report that Carl had another accident on his motor bike last week. He had been planing on this two week excursion to the Sturgis motorcycle rally for a year and just as he arrived his front tire blew out at 60 mph. He suffered a broken leg and another broken wrist. I actually think he got away lucky. I am grateful he didn't hurt his head or anything else more serious. "I think this is it for the motorbike thing", says Sandy. Please keep Carl in your thoughts the next few days as they try to get him back home.

Monday, August 1st, 2011

2011-08-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

Some may say we have had lousy weather this summer, but as far as the grass conditions go, we couldn't ask for better. The extra rain that we have received hasn't been that great for play but it has for the turf. We are now experiencing the dividends of such a moist spring and early summer. The rough and driving range are still actively growing. Normally by this time of year these areas are pretty much dormant. We may increase our fuel consumption from mowing, but the money we saved from not turning on the deep well so early will far exceed that.

In the month of July we never broke the 90 degree mark. It is the first time since 1993. The forecast for the first part of August is looking much like the regular pattern that we are used to seeing. We will be well in the 80's and this will mean that we may start seeing areas of the course become stressed and turning brown. Similar to the winter when we have frost, grass that is drought stressed becomes susceptible to injury, especially the fine fescue. This is why I would like to remind every on to remember: “If it is brown, go around” This will prevent unsightly tire tracks. The damage is only temporary and will recover as soon as water is replenished. By navigating carefully around the course, we can preserve the appearance of the grass.

This month we are starting a new portable restroom service. We have received many complaints on the conditions of the toilets and the problem didn’t seem to be resolved. I am confident that our new company will provide us with excellent service. They will be servicing the units on Tuesdays and Fridays. If you find conditions less than acceptable at any time please let me know as soon as possible. I know they are portable restrooms but our customers don’t need to be using facilities that are offensive.

Friday was a busy day with an AM and PM shotgun. I always enjoy the My Breast Friend Tournament each year as they seem to really enjoy themselves. I liked there little game off the third tee, although nobody was able to get the ball in the boat, they had a great time trying. Saturday seemed like one of our busiest days yet. I thought it was amazing how we were able to host multiple tournaments at once and send them all out in a single shotgun. Great job by the deli staff and the proshop for all their organization.

Tuesday we will be applying a light topdress to the greens and Thursday we will be fertilizing tee boxes. This month we will begin our Redox program on our fairways but given how green the course is we won't be adding any nitrogen.

Finally a word of gratitude to all my staff for the great work they have been doing on the course this season. I am so proud of their efforts and their pride they have in the job they do. It is a team effort and their work is evident by the amount of complements they are receiving.

Monday, July 25th

2011-07-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

We finally turned on the well! Once again our summer has been late to arrive and we have been able to use water from Beaver Creek up until now. We actually got the word from the Watermaster over a week ago that we reached our limit on the creek. But since then, we have had enough rain to keep us from having to irrigate so we just left the well off. Sunday morning the lake level was down about 4" from the previous nights irrigation, so the well is now on. Compared to some of the previous years we are still quite green, including the range which is normally dormant by this time of year.

On Monday we aerified the lower driving range tee box and seed and sanded the entire surface. I will continue to remind everyone to be aware of your divot pattern while practicing. I am working on developing a sign which will demonstrate the proper use and will hopefully help avoid divot patterns like this. The range is a huge source of revenue for us and the better we can manage it the better the conditions will be for our customers. I am beginning to see our new divot patterns appearing hear and there and I would like to thank all who are doing their part.

The course continues to be in the best shape I have seen it for this time of year. Our greens are healthy and strong and so far have avoided much of the disease that has been going around due to our inclement weather. Our plant health care program, which includes our fertility, as well as disease management, has seemed to be very effective this year. We have managed to dodge the anthacnose and many of the usual summer ailments thus far. We normally spray a preventative application on a monthly basis but due to the disease pressure that has been reported in our region, we will be making our second application of the month this week.

Bill Inman, Bill Rommel, Frank Phipps

On a personal side, I would like to share an experience I had with my father last week. My dad is now in his eighties and has developed macular degeneration which has taken much of his eye sight. His vision is now at 80-20 which legally puts him in the blind category. It hasn't been easy for him especially since golf, the game he has loved for so many years, has become a serious challenge for him. All last winter he had been telling me that his golfing days are over and perhaps he will be able to get out one last time, perhaps for just nine holes. The good news is he made that nine holes and then some. So far this summer he has played three times and has his fourth tee time booked for Tuesday! Last Tuesday my schedule opened up so I joined him and his buddies for eighteen holes. By the fourth hole my dad had holed out twice from off the green! Keep it up dad, you are an inspiration to us all!

AM 860 - Gordon Kiyokawa, CGCS

2011-07-19T06:38:00.000-07:00

www.oregonturfgrassfoundation.org

Last night Gordon Kiyokawa, CGCS, had an opportunity to speak with Ron Callan of KPAM Radio on the Northwest Sports Tonight Show. Gordon speaks on superintendent awareness week and discusses the importance of the Oregon Turfgrass Foundation.
The link will play the entire show so if you want to get to the interview run the slider on the podcast player to the 22nd minute.

AM 860 - Play Now

Monday, July 18th, 2011

2011-07-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

They say that time flies when you're having fun and that pretty much sums up the last couple weeks at Stone Creek Golf Club.When you are able to accomplish many things and in turn see the results quickly, it gives us all a sense of job fulfillment which is why we love this line of work. The entire staff has been extremely productive and their results are evident by the condition of the course.

I'll try to make this post as brief as possible but there is quite a bit I would like to cover. We started the week out with a few spray applications, beginning with our anthracnose control on Monday followed by our bi-weekly fertilizer application on Tuesday. Wednesday we topdressed the greens lightly, remaining on our every two week rotation. The greens were rolling great all week and for the Men's Club Open tournament on Saturday. Mikes fertilizer application has begun to take effect, bringing on a whole new dimension to the course. We don't normally have so much dark green growth but with the additional rainfall we are experiencing The grass is really beginning to take off.

The guys managed to trim all the bunkers once again and have them looking great for the coming week. With our busy tournament schedule this week this should allow us to stay well clear of our guests and be able to focus on some out of the way projects.

Zeferino has been busy working on the irrigation system, making adjustments to increase the efficiency of the heads. Shown here, Zef is raising a head in the approach on fifteen. This is an ongoing job which will never be complete. The sprinklers are constantly being monitored and raised as needed.

We are currently in our 2nd year of a three year program of replacing our sprinklers around our greens. We have been replacing our 730 and 760 series sprinklers with the more efficient 855 and 835 series sprinklers. This is done by simply removing the guts from the existing cans and installing the new ones. There is no digging involved. We have currently replaced all the heads around the greens through the twelve. The old sprinklers aren't going to waste. Zeferino has been using the part circle 760 sprinklers to replace full circle 730 sprinklers in the rough along the perimeter of the course. By doing this we are able to reduce our water use by half in these areas. Another way that we can make use of what we have to make simple changes and incur significant savings.

This week I placed new sand bottles in the landing areas on twelve and fifteen where we seem to accumulate a large amount of divots. It appears it is working since the bottles have been empty each morning after. I would like to implore the player assistants to keep a 5 gallon bucket of sand with them to keep these bottles full. This will help expedite the recovery of these areas.

Driving Range Continued

On a final note, to follow up with my previous post regarding the driving range tee titled "Practice Like a Pro, I am doing a little experiment of my own up on the nursery above the range. From the photo shown here, I hit 25 balls twice using two different methods. The first, which I will call the shotgun method and the second I call the caterpillar method. The photo speaks for itself in the amount of space that was taken by hitting the same amount of balls. The caterpillar method is simply accomplished by placing the ball immediately behind the previous divot. That way you are only removing a very small amount of turf each swing. If you simply make short rows of consecutive divots and space them apart by two to three inches each row, you will see a significant increase of recovery time and also reduce the impact on the overall range tee.

Here are some photos of our current tee box showing some do's and don'ts.

Shotgun Method - Not acceptable


Caterpillar Method- Acceptable

This photo was taken on the back of the lower tee box where we haven't even reseeded yet. Note how well it is healing vegetatively. This area will be ready to hit from in no time at all.

Excavation Method - Not Acceptable!!!

The days of carving large patches needs to end. These are difficult to get to fill back in by the time we come back to this area. The narrower the patch the quicker it can fill in from the sides and the new seed isn't damaged so easily by mowing.

Boominator Boomless Spray Nozzles

2011-07-16T16:51:00.000-07:00

I have made it no secret how I feel about our fertilization program here at Stone Creek. We have been on the Redox program going on three years for our greens and have now started applying to the tees and fairways. One of the factors keeping us from going to a liquid method to the fairways was the way in which we would have to apply it. The traditional fixed boom method would take us much too long and with public play beginning before 5:30am we would never get it done.

Boom 405TD by Greenleaf Technologies

The boomless nozzle isn't anything new but when Redox worked with Greenleaf Technologies to develop an air inducted Boominator nozzle to apply their product, they hit a home run. The air inducted venturi which precedes the nozzle is what makes this work so well. I first became aware of this nozzle while I was in Vancouver BC at the Canadian Turfgrass Conference. The Brett Young company was promoting it along with their line of Redox fertilizer. What I didn't realize was how few of these are actually available. I managed to get a hold of a pair from Mike Powers from A&L Supply. He told me we probably possess the only two in the United States. From what I see, the demand will soon increase and they will need to step up production.

Installing the valves was simple. We simply placed a TeeJet 3-Way Nylon Manual Ball Valve between the #1 and #3 electric boom valves and the spray booms. This allowed us to simply direct the flow to either the booms or the boomless nozzle with a quarter turn. This also gave us the use of the left and right electric valves for simple operation.

Using a couple pieces of angle iron, Steve built a frame off of the existing boom frame and set the height at 42 inches (We read that they can be set from 36 to 48 inches so we chose the middle). He then bored a couple holes large enough to attach the valves using a couple bulkhead couplers. Once we installed them we ran them in the parking lot and made sure that they met at the bottom without an overlap.

Our Toro Multi Pro 5500 is equipped with a Raven control system so we had to set the parameters so the calculations would be accurate. Our effective spray width was measured at 33 feet so divided that by two and multiplied by 12 inches which gave us the number 198. We plugged that number in the "boom one" and "boom three" calculation. Boom two was set at zero of course.

Below are some photos and a video which show us spraying water over the nursery. Note the distribution uniformity and how fast we are able to travel. At 40 GPA Mike calculated that he should be able to spray at a rate of 24 acres an hour. That is basically a tank, which is 300 gallons, every 20 minutes, which will cover 10 acres. At that rate it should be less than three hours to spray the entire course including mixing and loading. Once we make our first application in August I will post an update on the process and let you know how it worked. From what I can see it looks very promising.

Practice Like a Pro

2011-07-15T09:41:00.000-07:00

Next week we will be moving to the upper driving range tee box. This is a timely article written by Ty McClellan, USGA agronomist regarding proper use of the tee box. At Stone Creek we are lucky to have such a nice teeing ground and the more efficiently we can utilize it, the better the conditions will be for everyone. The key is to use the turf in a way that allows the turf to heal quickly yet allows the maximum square foot usage. The days of excavating a large patch of turf are over. Please read Ty's article and help us get the most of our teeing ground.

By Ty McClellan, agronomist, Mid-Continent Region
July 13, 2011


Randomly scattered divots (on the left) remove up to 50% more turf than practicing in a linear pattern (on the right) where each new shot is placed directly behind the previous divot.

Late July is usually the time when there is a lack of turf coverage on practice range tees established with cool-season turfgrasses, such as creeping bentgrass or Kentucky bluegrass. Heavy play removes divots faster than the turf can recover, and hot, dry summer conditions leave little opportunity for seedling establishment or regenerative growth of surrounding turf. Poor turf coverage that comes in mid-summer generally indicates that the practice tee is simply undersized for the amount of play received, i.e. there is not enough time for turf to recover before tee stalls are returned to previous locations. It also indicates that tee stall rotations need to be reviewed for efficiency and that synthetic turf options should be considered at the rear of the tee to provide the additional time needed for turf recovery.
With the exception of an efficient tee stall rotation, enlarging the tee(s) and adding synthetic turf are improvements typically left for the off-season when time and funds become available. So, until then, what can be done? The solution resides with golfers. Since randomly scattering divots can quickly destroy a practice range tee, the better approach is to shrink one’s divots by removing them in a pattern just like the professionals. More specifically, this includes placing each shot directly behind the previous divot. This can easily be repeated for up to 10 shots resulting in much less turf being removed.
Let’s take a look at a practical example that was provided by Golf Course Superintendent Chris Pekarek at The Village Links of Glen Ellyn in Illinois. Mr. Pekarek estimates more than 2 million shots are taken annually from the 1.25-acre Kentucky bluegrass practice tee and that 1.5 million of the shots result in turf removal. Although divots come in all sizes, the average iron shot is believed to remove a divot 3 inches wide by 6.5 inches long for a total of 19.5 square inches. After just 30 shots, or a small bucket of balls, 4.1 square feet of turf are removed, given a typical practice routine (30 shots x 19.5 in² = 585 in² / 144 in²= 4.1 ft²). Therefore, after an entire season, 205,000 square feet of divots are removed from the tee. That's more than 4.6 acres of turf from their 1.25-acre surface.
If instead each shot is played directly behind the previous divot, subsequent divots are reduced to an average size of 3 inches wide by 3 inches long, or 9 square inches. After 30 shots, this pattern removes only 2.1 square feet of turf. (As the first divot removes 19.5 square inches and the subsequent 9 divots remove 9 square inches each for a total of 81 square inches, a total of 100.5 square inches is removed for every 10 shots, which is typical for this linear pattern. For 30 shots or a small bucket of balls, 3 x 100.5 = 301.5 in² / 144 in² = 2.1ft²are removed.) If everyone adopted this method, the annual number of divots removed would be reduced from 205,000 square feet to just 105,000 square feet. That’s nearly a 50% reduction in the amount of turf removed.
Implementing this simple divot pattern into your practice regime has significant season-long implications at your facility. So, rather than voice a complaint about the turf during oppressive conditions in July and August, do the turf a favor and practice like a pro!
NOTE: Special thanks to Mr. Pekarek and The Village Links of Glen Ellyn for graciously supplying the information and photos used in this article. It was Mr. Pekarek’s blog that inspired this month’s topic.
If you would like more information about a Turf Advisory Service visit, do not hesitate to contact either of the Mid-Continent regional offices: Ty McClellan at tmcclellan@usga.org or (630) 340-5853 or Bud White at budwhite@usga.org or (972) 662-1138.

Monday, July 11th, 2011

2011-07-11T00:01:00.000-07:00

Steve Dodds from the Men's Club said it again on Saturday, "It's ridiculous how good of shape this golf course is in." I don't think I could agree more. All I can say is keep coming out because it is going to even get better in the coming weeks, I guarantee it!

We got our tractor back last week which enabled us to get our fertilizer applied to the the rough and the fairways. The guys did a great job, Mike on the tractor and Bryan and Steve P did the majority of the hand spreading. They finished the job on the very last bag. It's either my superb estimation or the skill in making the perfect application. I think I would bank on the latter. Soon you will start to notice the fertilizer kicking and you will really see the contrast from the outer rough to the maintained turf. Looking at the photo above, demonstrates where the "red" in the name creeping red fescue comes from. Pretty dramatic if you ask me. This is one of my favorite views of the golf course in the morning.

If you have had the opportunity to play this week you will have noticed the many slits in the greens. Monday and Tuesday we used the bayonet style tines and aerified the greens. The procedure is non invasive, by rolling afterward you can hardly notice a difference in ball roll. The benefits are many. Often, with the amount of play we receive the greens may tend to become compacted on the surface and will seal up, preventing water from penetrating the surface. This is a very effective tool to allow us to get water to the root zone with out disrupting play. The procedure also allows the exchange of gases. We also call it venting. I shot this quick video to demonstrate the benefit of using solid tines in the summer months.

This week we will be applying our anthracnose preventative application and also applying a light topdressing on Wednesday. With only one tournament on the schedule this week there will be plenty of opportunity to play. So call and get your tee time soon, the weather will be perfect, in the high 70's and low 80's. It just won't get any better.

Phil and Ron enjoying a great round on Wednesday!

Monday, July 4th, 2011

2011-07-04T09:19:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day to everyone!
What a fantastic morning to be working on the golf course. Golfers were teeing it up at 5:04am and the course was looking fantastic. We are finally seeing some modeling on the fairways and a few of the greens are showing a bit of stress as well. All is good though, we are drying it down to that level intentionally to get a feel for where our limits are. This is the point in which we run a long soak cycle on the greens to completely wet the profile. We will reduce the water cycles for a while, allowing them dry them down once again. This is the cycle that will encourage our roots to remain deep throughout the season.

We utilize many tools to enable us to get the moisture through the profile and one of those is the wetting agent Revolution. This aids the water in penetrating through the profile without keeping the soil too wet. We also use solid tine aerification to increase the oxygen exchange in the root zone as well as alleviate any surface problems. As a matter of fact we are planning on using the bayonet tines beginning tomorrow on the back nine and then we'll plan on reversing the nines and doing the front on Wednesday. The bayonets are small knife-like tines that will penetrate the surface to about four inches. We roll immediately following the procedure so there is no significant change in ball roll.

This week we will be fertilizing the rough and the fairways with a granular 36-0-6 for the first and only time of the year. This may be our last granular application to the fairways for some time in that we are beginning our Redox program on the fairways starting in September. We will use very little nitrogen, using only enough to give us the needed repair. If it works on the fairways as good as it is working on the tees, then we are in for some pretty nice conditions.

Looking down the calendar, we are accumulated quite a few shotgun tournaments. It is so nice to see the calendar finally filling up. We are looking forward to providing them all with the finest conditions possible.

Royal Oaks Bird Cam

2011-06-27T06:45:00.000-07:00

Alan Nielsen, CGCS at Royal Oaks just sent me a live link to his famous bird cam. A few years ago when I was hosting GreenLinks on the Environmental Institute for Golf website, I chose Alan's case study as one of the feature articles. This case study got a lot of attention for it's innovation and means of connecting Alan's members to the wildlife which surrounded them.
Alan recently updated the camera which provides live pictures that are much clearer. Here is the link to the bird camera along with a link to the original case study that Alan wrote in 2007.

http://birdcam.royaloaks.net/

Royal Oaks Case Study

Monday, June 27th, 2011

2011-06-26T21:36:00.000-07:00

I don't have a whole lot to report this week other than this golf course is looking great. I think we can officially say that summer is finally here. The tall rough has reached it's pinnacle and the native roses are blooming around our buffers. We were rewarded with a fantastic weekend which brought the golfers out in masses!

Many of the small projects that we did earlier this season are really starting to make a difference. While we were aerating the fairways this spring we utilized the plugs around many of the worn and bare areas that were not supporting turfgrass. Especially along the edge of the cart path near some of the greens and tees. The plugs worked great for this; utilizing the existing organic matter, they held moisture and started growing vegetatively along with the seed that we added. This area here on the third tee is one of the many that we repaired. This is one way that we can do a small thing that makes a big difference in the appearance of the course.

While playing golf a couple weeks ago my drive on ten bounded off to the right over the cart path and into the tall grass next to the 18th tee. After cursing myself for letting all the grass grow tall, it dawned on me that I am probably not the only one that has had to look for their ball in this particular location. After further investigation we found that at least one ball in every group ended up somewhere in this location. The tall grass is tough enough, especially this time of year and when it is located in an area that attracts golf balls. We decided it was time to do something about it. Mike took the tractor with the flail and made the first cut, following up with the turf vac then again with the rough mower. The result is an area where balls will be quickly located and the pace of play will be maintained, not to mention a couple strokes will be saved from my score!

I would like to finish up my report by posting some photos of some of my staff hard at work. There are probably a lot of golfers here at Stone Creek that may only play in the afternoons or the weekends, and have probably never seen the maintenance staff. If you are one of those players, here are some of the guys that make Stone Creek what it is. I can't say enough about these guys. They are true professionals in what they do and they do their job with enthusiasm and pride. If you happen to see one of them please be sure to let them know you appreciate their work!

Jorge Espinoza

Mike Coppedge

Mike Holl

Bryan Nishimoto

Andy Staples of Golf Resource Group and Scott Morrison partner to offer GEO Certification

2011-06-24T16:48:00.000-07:00

When two friends decide to merge their businesses it is worth posting to the blog. Very exciting times for Scott Morrison of Out on a Limb and Turfhugger.com and Andy Staples of Golf Resource Group. They are joining forces in the United States to offer GEO Certification! Will look forward to hearing Andy speak at the Northwest Environmental Meeting in November.

Golf Resource Group expanding, now offering GEO certification

The Phoenix, Arizona-based Golf Resource Group (GRG), North America's leading firm for sustainable golf course design and operations consulting, has announced their endorsement of the GEO certification process. Partnering throughout the industry to establish golf's sustainability mission and inspire progress, Golf Environment Organization (GEO) provides streamlined guidance and practical tools across the areas of management, development, and events. GEO's certification programs are the most credible, comprehensive eco-labels available for existing golf facilities and new developments.

"We saw the GEO certification process as a natural progression to what we've been doing in the golf industry for the past nine years. GEO's philosophy on sustainability very much matches up with the philosophy we've developed over the years so we saw this as an opportunity to provide even more value to the courses who consult with us," explained Andy Staples, ASGCA Associate, a golf course architect and president of GRG.

GRG now offers courses guidance with the GEO certification process in addition to offering resource management planning and golf design services. Staples and GRG have worked with over 100 courses throughout the US and are in the process of expanding services to the international market. Past projects include a new 27-hole design project for Sand Hollow Golf Resort in St. George, Utah, energy management planning at Desert Mountain Golf Course in Scottsdale, Arizona, and a resource management and turf reduction plan for Northridge Country Club in Sacramento, CA.

The work pertaining to GEO certification will be conducted in partnership with Scott Morrison, the pioneer of the GEO process in North America who now advises multiple clubs in Canada and the US. Morrison was responsible for the verification process of Mirimichi Golf Course in Millington, TN, the first fully GEO certified course in the US. He will lend his experience to GRG as a leading environmental consultant in the golf industry through his work as founder of Turf Hugger and Out on a Limb Golf.
"There so much talk about sustainability these days, that I sure hope the meaning behind the word doesn't get washed out and become meaningless," Staples continues. "We're hoping to do our part to make sure that doesn't happen."
About The Golf Resource Group
Golf Resource Group, established in 2002, is a golf course design and development consultancy with contracts for implementing and sustaining efficient design and management practices on golf courses in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Nevada and Washington.

Andrew Staples, ASGCA Associate and President of GRG, has designed, built, managed or consulted on over 125 golf course projects throughout the world. He has served on the Environmental Institute for Golf's Energy Conservation BMP Committee and is considered a leading expert in sustainable golf course architecture including all areas related to resource management. Visit www.thegolfresourcegroup.com for more details.

CONTACT:
Andy Staples, ASGCA Associate
The Golf Resource Group
Phone: 602-845-9074
Email: astaples@golfresourcegroup.net

Monday, June 20th, 2011

2011-06-20T00:01:00.000-07:00

With the soil temps finally exceeding 60 degrees this week, we are seeing some of the finest turf conditions of the season thus far. Irrigation cycles are still few and far between, we have only had to run the fairways once and that was just to get our first application of Dispatch (wetting agent) out.

Monday we verticut the greens with the Thatch-away units. We followed with a little higher rate of sand. Now that the greens are in a growth mode it is important that we match the rate of sand with the rate of growth to avoid layering and a thatch build up. Our goal will be to apply more frequently, maintaining a twice a month schedule at a lighter rate.

We are on our second round of the Redox fertilizer on the tee boxes and so far I am impressed with the results. We started out with a quarter pound of nitrogen in our first application but have now decreased to a tenth. For the tee program, I have asked the distributor to deliver the Redox in a dry formulation instead of pre-mixed like we do with the greens formulation. It now only comes in a single 5 gal bucket that is only half full. We simply add the water to the bucket, turning it into an instant slurry, then add it to the tank with our desired amount of nitrogen. It's that easy. Compared to our previous granular program we will be seeing more uniform growth and repair with much denser turf at a much more affordable price.

Killdeer, Charadrius vociferus

Keep an eye out the window of the event center. A mother killdeer has been on the nest at the base of the maple tree for some time now and should be expecting her chicks any day now. We have placed irrigation flags around the tree to let you know where it is. Please use caution around the nest and try not to disturb her. Also, watch out for here little puffballs around the cart path. The killdeer are notorious for looking like they are injured to draw your attention away from the chicks but what we need to look out for is while watching her, we may be running over her chicks!

Dave Phipps, Jim Goritsan

Last week I took a break and finally played my first round at Stone Creek! Now that spring term is over and I am no longer teaching my turf class, I took the opportunity to play with the Wednesday Men's Club. The highlight of the day was playing with one of my college fraternity brothers. I haven't seen Jim since we graduated 26 years ago! He now lives in Fort Lauderdale Florida and fly's 737s for American Airlines. Now that we have reconnected, we plan to play more golf when he is in town visiting his family.

Finally, I just wanted to show this shot of the event center decorated for the Ladies Club Flag Day event on Tuesday. They came in the night before to set it up so I took the opportunity to get some shots in the morning. I love the way they go "all in" for their events. We are lucky to have such a strong group at Stone Creek.

iaTURF: MORE IMPRELIS DAMAGE PICTURES

2011-06-19T07:25:00.000-07:00

Dupont's new chemistry for broadleaf control is affecting more than the broadleaf weeds. I just purchased enough to apply a couple acres and was not aware of the damage it has on conifers. A word of caution to all here in the Northwest, be careful around your Doug firs! See the link below to look at some damage in the Chicago and Kansas City area.

iaTURF: MORE IMPRELIS DAMAGE PICTURES

Golf Day at Oregon's Capitol

2011-06-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

Monday Gordon and I were part of the Golf Day in Salem. As part of the Golf Alliance of Oregon, we were there to educate and inform the Salem legislators and lobbyists on the environmental benefits and the economic impact the game of Golf has on the State of Oregon. We shared our recent economic impact study that found Oregon's golf economy is estimated at $1.2 billion and contributes more than 27,000 jobs and a total economic impact of over $2.5 billion annually.

Larry Giustina, Denny Taylor, Gordon Tolbert

Special thanks to Barbra Trammell and Eric Yaillen of the OGA, Linda Whitworth from the Oregon GCSAA, Larry and Mark Giustina and Liz Doyle from the Oregon Golf Course Owners Association for all there work setting everything up for the day. We had a great time with the putting contest, pinning the Democrats, Republicans, Independents and the Lobbyists against one another. Not so sure who came out on top by the end of the day but the Lobbyists were leading by the time our shift was over.

I was able to have a nice conversation with Paulette Pyle and Terry Witt from Oregonians for Food and Shelter. OFS is our Lobbyist group that represents our associations best interest in Salem. I just found out that Terry is planning his retirement very soon which will leave a very large job to fill. Thank you Terry for all you have done in Salem over the years in the interest of Oregon's agricultural and horticultural industry, especially all your efforts in protecting our ability to continue using pesticides safely as professionally trained applicators.

Oregon City High School, Advanced Digital Photo

2011-06-15T06:45:00.000-07:00

As I promised, here are the photographs taken by Oregon City High School's Advanced Digital Photo class. Amy Greene has done a wonderful job challenging the students in discovering what their individual style is. I think this gives the students an opportunity to view the golf course in a completely different way. I noticed some students focused on the wildlife while others took photos of golf subjects. All were done in a very tasteful way. I hope the students continue with their craft and are compelled to share their work with many. I look forward to hosting more students in the coming years.

Monday, June 13th

2011-06-13T00:01:00.000-07:00

When it comes time for showing off the beauty of Stone Creek I would say June is the month. The soil temperatures have finally risen and the tall grass is finally growing up between the holes. The tall grass may not be a favorite for many golfers, especially this year with all of the excessive growth from our April and May rains. I love the way the grass becomes fluid like as the wind sweeps across the course. As the grass begins to dry in July, the course will begin to take on a whole new appearance.

We really enjoyed preparing the course and hosting one of the qualifier matches for the Oregon open on Wednesday. The greens responded just the way we wanted them to, giving the right speed for the event. The most notable shot of the day came from, Adam Wilgus of Eugene, who made a miraculous albatross on the 376-yard par-4 9th hole. Also, congratulations to our own Jason Coles (T14th) and Terry Paresi (T10th) for qualifying for the event. Both will be playing in the Championship at Waverly Country Club June 20 -25th. Click Here for the complete story at the OGA website.

It only took us a month, but the fairway aerification and topdressing is complete! Friday we sanded the fifteenth and thirteenth fairways, wrapping up the project for the spring. Even though it took us a while, I am very pleased in how the fairways turned out. The fairways were a bit soft in areas but the way it worked out we managed to save the softest ones for last. Mike did a phenomenal job spreading the sand, especially on thirteen and fifteen with the slippery hillsides.

The fairway and rough fertilizer has been delivered and will be spread as soon as we determine which tractor we will use. Pacific Golf and Turf is bringing out a demo tractor for us to use since our Kabota needs to go the the shop to have the seals and bearings replaced in the front axle. We nursed it through the topdressing and feel we should repair it before it incurs further damage. If we get the loaner by Tuesday we will try to get the fertilizing started Wednesday.

Thursday, Adam's Advanced Digital Photo class from Oregon City High School came out to the course for a short field trip. They had 30 minutes to capture photographs that depict their own personal style of shooting, using the golf course as their subject. Later this week Amy Greene, the teacher, will forward me their pictures in which I will post on the blog. I'm looking forward to showcasing their talents!

Equipment Wash Station

2011-06-07T05:54:00.000-07:00

This is not intended as and advertizement in any way but only to enlighten those who may not be aware.

Monday, June 6th, 2011

2011-06-06T00:01:00.000-07:00

First off I would like to recognize my son Adam for his newly acquired photography skills. We have both recently purchased Nikon DSLR's and spent the evening of Memorial Day on the golf course looking for some nice shots. This photo here, which is actually my new blog background, was taken by Adam just as the sun decided to make a last ditch appearance for the day. He really captured the essences of Stone Creek with the tall grass in the foreground and the signature bunker as the subject. Thanks Ad's!

Conditions

This week started out like May but ended on a promising note. After receiving almost two inches of rain over the first two days of the month, I was starting to wonder if the calendar simply needed to be set back a month. Finally a couple days in the 80's to get the month off to a great start.

Once again the rain early in the week prevented us from getting the sand out on the fairways. Friday we managed to get the 10th completed and that was it for the week. The course is extremely wet but I am confident that the nice weather over the weekend will give us better conditions. Our goal will be to finish the sand once and for all. The front nine fairways have healed and are looking great.

The recent cool and damp weather brought us a small outbreak of microdochium patch (fusarium patch) on the putting green and number nine. We treated on Friday with Affirm and Mancozeb which will stop further infection. We will definitely be watching closely as we head into this warmer weather too.

Thursday we used our new TB 200 roller brush to "flick" the greens and stand up the grass to get a clean crisp cut. We applied a light topdress over the greens and simply drug them in using a steel mat. The results were just what we were looking for. I usually don't like topdressing so close to the weekend but this time the sand went in real nice and the mowers weren't picking up a lot of material. I shot a short video of Brian while he brushed #11.

Finally, my quarterly contribution to Golf Course Management's Insider Environment column is in the June issue. If you are interested please feel free to read it on page 36 of the digital edition. Just follow the link below.
Golf Course Management - June 2011

Never to soon to promote the NW Environmental Meeting!

2011-06-01T11:10:00.000-07:00

Announcing the

2011 NW Golf and the Environment Meeting

Tuesday, November 8^th, at The Oregon Golf Club

Featuring Pat Jones of Golf Course Industry Magazine!

Pat Jones is the editorial director of Golf Course Industry magazine, where he runs and contributes articles, blogs, videos and his award-winning “Parting Shots” column each month. Pat's unique perspective offers up hope and a dose of reality. You will enjoy Pats presentation on “A Not-So-Brief and Occasionally Painful History of Golf & Environmental Politics”. Joining Pat will be an esteemed list of speakers including Greg Lyman, Andy Staples, Michael Vogt and Walt Osborne. To wrap up the meeting Pat will lead the speakers in a panel discussion on environmental issues facing golf today.

Don’t miss this full day of education and opportunities to improve your facility. GCSAA education credits will be awarded. For those traveling, a room block has been reserved at the Oxford Suites hotel located in Gladstone. Make your reservation at: 877 558-7710 and mention the Oregon Golf Course Superintendents Association to receive your discounted rate.

Watch for registration coming soon!

At: www.ogcsa.org

Monday, May 30th, 2011

2011-05-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

I saw a photograph on the front page of the Oregonian on Saturday. It was of the Peninsula Park Rose Garden without a single rose in bloom. The caption read, "Portland's no-rose Festival". Memorial Day weekend is the kick off of Portland's Rose Festival and normally the Peninsula Park Garden and the Washington Park Rose Garden are in full bloom. Just another sign of the spring we are having so far.

The weather did cooperate for the short time the Gaffney Lane sixth graders were out for their annual bird watching tour on Friday. As I mentioned in last week's post, Kristy McQueen has been bringing her class out to the course since my son Adam was in her class six years ago. Even though it is only for an hour, it gives me an opportunity to show the children the golf course and to give them a chance to see firsthand all of its environmental attributes. Many have never walked on a putting green and it always amazes them that the grass is actually real.

Kristy teaches a course on birds and the field trip gives the kids an opportunity to get out and locate and identify birds first hand. Every year some local birding volunteers help with the tour and this year Steve Berliner and Ron Spencer once again lent their time and expertise. I appreciate what they do so much in that they are also committed to providing a valuable learning experience for the kids. This year I invited Russell Vandehey, superintendent from The Oregon Golf Club to help out as well. Russell continues to have a very successful Western Bluebird nesting box program and I wanted to give him an opportunity to speak to the kids and talk about the Prescott Bluebird Recovery Program. This year Russell has already fledged one box and still has five more pairs nesting successfully. Russell did such a great job, I hope he will come back again next year. As the bluebirds fly, The Oregon Golf Club is only five miles from Stone Creek and we have yet to see a pair of birds in our boxes.I keep threatening Russel that I'm going kidnap one of his boxes and bring a pair to Stone Creek.

Since the weather wasn't quite as sunny as previous years, the birds weren't out in the masses as they have before. We still managed to spot lots of song sparrows, gold finches, red tail hawks, swallows and even a brief encounter with a humming bird. Needless to say I think they all enjoyed themselves and may even come back and take a walk around the trail with their parents. Below are some additional photos of the event.

Gaffney 2011

Course Conditions

The weather wasn't all that great this week but it didn't stop the crew from getting quite a bit done. We were able to fertilize the greens and the tees as well as finishing all the fairway aerification. We only managed to topdress seventeen so we still have ten through fifteen to go. Weather permitting we should have it wrapped up by by the end of the week. We also used as many of the aerification plugs to repair the worn cart path edges. A small detail that will make a big difference on the general appearance of the golf course. The upper level of the driving range tee was aerified, seeded and topdressed. The teeing area is now on the lower tee box which may have a tendency to hold more water after rainy events so we may be having them hit off of the mats for a while until the tee box dries out a bit.

Brian and Mike did a little spring cleaning around the course and used the pressure washer to clean the neighbors fencing along eight and nine. It looks so much nicer and the guys were even rewarded with a big box of warm cookies from the Whites. Thanks Cindy!

All my best to everyone on this Memorial Day and thoughts are with all whom have served and sacrificed for our country.

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

2011-05-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

With a little help from Mother Nature things are looking up. Last week was very productive, finishing topdressing the front nine and the 18th fairways. If everything goes well this week we hope to have the fairway aerification on the back nine wrapped up. We will start in earnest on Tuesday, giving the course to the Senior Pub Links on Monday.

You will notice the ropes have come off of a number of fairways on the back nine. They have firmed up and are pretty much ready for cart traffic. We still have a number of soft areas, especially on number nine. We have roped them off and painted others so please be mindful of those areas until they have dried up.

Killdeer - Charadrius vociferus

Also, please watch out for the little puffballs. A number of killdeer chicks have hatched and are out there scampering about. The chicks are precocial, that means they can move around and feed themselves shortly after birth. Once the chicks' down dries, the parents will lead them to a feeding area. The chicks stay with their parents until they fledge a month after birth. The killdeer may have two broods a year.

This Friday we are hosting the Gaffney Lane 6th graders once again. We will be touring the course and watching out for wildlife and identifying birds. This is a great event in which I enjoy speaking to the kids about all the wonderful benefits golf courses provide for wildlife. I will be sure to post some pictures of the event in my next blog.

On top of all the plugging and sanding that we need to accomplish this week we will be fertilizing both the tees and the greens, as well as making a scheduled fungicide application to the greens. As a reminder to the pro shop, please check in with us prior to sending groups off of the back so we don't run into any conflicts. Monday we are also going to be aerating and seeding the upper driving range tee. This should not conflict with use other than being closed for regular mowing in the morning.

On a final note, Maggie passed this along to me regarding health inspections. Kerry Tomlinson KATU Problem Solver did a restaurant report card on a local golf course and they mentioned Stone Creek as well as a couple of our neighbors. Over all I am very pleased with our industry in regards to how the golf course restaurants performed. Big congrats to Maggie and her staff for consistently making top marks! See how well we did below.

Monday, May 16th, 2011

2011-05-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

I can honestly say we are having more days now without rain than with rain. That usually translates into better golfing conditions and better conditions for us to maintain the golf course. We are still quite soft in many areas around the course and would like to remind everyone to be mindful where they drive their carts. Now that we are in the tournament season full swing, letting carts out is a must for pace of play. We are still limiting access on fairways twelve through sixteen and number nine on the front. The third fairway has developed some soft areas and now that we have plugged it, it is probably in no shape to drive on. With that said we are going to limit access to that fairway as well until further notice.

Last week Mike had an opportunity to visit Farm Links in Sylacauga Alabama. I was glad to give him the opportunity because the education that is offered is always first class. It gave him an chance to see the workings of a southern climate golf course. He said it was neat to see that we are doing many of the same things that they do. The maintenance shop is still in rubble from the fire and they are waiting for insurance to clear before they start the reconstruction process. It is their goal to have a new building up by August.

On the way there Mike didn't drive through any tornado damage but from what Farm Links superintendent Mark Langer told them, the television coverage doesn't give the true impact of the damage. The tornado swept north of Birmingham and Sylacauga, Mark said he has spent hours on the end of a chain saw helping many of those impacted.

On the way back Mike did get a bird-eye view of the Mississippi flooding situation. The flooding impact is unbelievable. I can't imagine what is must be like to be affected by such major natural disasters. You never can tell when it will happen and so far we have been pretty fortunate here in the NW. My thoughts will be with everyone as they recover from such a catastrophe.

With Mike gone last week the crew really stepped up and got quite a bit accomplished. We began to aerify the fairways on Tuesday and had the entire front nine plus the eighteenth fairway plugged and picked by Thursday. Thanks to Steve Mathre and Zefferino for all their hard work manning the core harvester.

On Friday we decided to throw some sand down on the fifth fairway since it was so soft. It drug in and turned out perfect. This week, before we commence plugging on back side we will focus on finishing the sanding on the front nine. We will have to work around the tournaments but that shouldn't cause any disruption. We want to make sure we get the sand down before the holes start closing in. For the future, this would be a great case for a second tractor so we could be aerating and topdressing at the same time. We could probably get the entire course done in one week. With one tractor we are looking at a minimum of two weeks to finish the job with perfect weather.

The back nine fairways are still a bit soft. If the weather cooperates we hope they will firm up, making it easier to pick up the plugs and safely topdress the hilly ones in a week or so.

Last year we used the plugs from the fairways for fill around the new event center. This year we will be repairing many of the worn areas adjacent to the cart paths, especially around the greens and tee complexes. The plugs, when watered will reestablish and grow from their own. We will add a little fertilizer and some seed for a kicker. We already started on the first tee box and the cross-over between the third and the eleventh holes.

We are looking forward to a great week and welcoming back one of our first tournaments at Stone Creek Golf Club. Young Life has been with us since we opened June of 2002! I would like to thank them for their patronage over the years. It is a pleasure to help them raise money for such a great cause.

Finally I would like to close with another wildflower shot. This yarrow was planted on the berm next to the eleventh tee box and each year there seems to be more and more. I love how it proliferates within the existing tall grass.

Monday, May 9th, 2011

2011-05-09T10:34:00.000-07:00

I think we are getting closer to spring, at least that is what they are saying. The signs are around us but the temps just don't seem to be here yet. The good new is I just heard Matt Zaffino say this is the first week in a long time that the freezing level will remain above 3000 feet. We should be in for some great conditions.

I did manage to get out and get some spring pictures last week. The trees are in bloom and the prairie perennials are are beginning to bloom as well. Who couldn't resist taking a picture of fresh dew on the grass too.

The course remains in top condition. We sprayed the greens on Wednesday and applied a light topdress on Thursday which should equate to some pretty nice putting conditions this week.The bunkers are getting a little hairy and we will work like mad to get to them. Our focus will be to start aerifying the fairways. I will be happy to get a couple of them completely done including the practice fairway around the chipping green.We will see how the week goes.

Congratulations to Mike Hall, he and his wife gave birth to a baby girl on the 30th. Her name is Mikala, Mike don't shoot me if I spelled it wrong, I found 15 different ways to spell it so I took the first listed. Be sure to congratulate Mike when you see him.

Thursday I attend a First Green Foundation field trip at Glendale Country Club up in Bellevue. Steve Kealy, CGCS, Glendale's superintendent, is one of the driving forces behind the First Green Foundation. The First Green is an environmental education outreach program using golf courses as environmental learning labs. Golf course superintendents and/or local golf course representatives host students on field trips where they test water quality, collect soil samples, identify plants, design plantings, assist in stream bed restoration and are involved in the ecology and environmental aspects of the golf course. The students are also introduced to many other aspects of golf.

Steve dropped me a note last week and asked me if I wanted to come up and have a first hand look at how they host a large group of kids. We have been hosting 6th graders the past 5 years here at Stone Creek and taken them on a short birding field trips but we have never really offered a curriculum of any sort. I felt this would give me a great opportunity to enhance our program and offer more to a wider range of students.

The First Green Foundation has applied for a grant which will enable them to the expand to Oregon and educate superintendents and teachers alike in the benefits of the program. If so, I hope to become even more involved and provide a source for environmental education to the students of Clackamas County.

Jim Myers from the Plateau Club, Greg Hall from Fairwood Golf and Country Club and Craig Benson from Meridian Valley were also there to assist and lead discussions. What struck me was how simple the program was. There were over 50 students there and were divided into groups and were set to visit one of four stations every 25 minutes or so. The lessons included soils, water quality, storm water management and invertebrates. The lessons were simple and presented in a manner that was hands on and fun. I hope to have a full detailed account of my visit that I will share at a later time.

If anyone is interested or has any further questions I would be glad to talk. If you are looking for community outreach for your Audubon Certification this is the answer.

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

2011-05-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

Nothing like a 20 degree temperature swing to start this week off. Sunday was a magnificent day with temps in the 70's. Today we'll be lucky to break the mid 50's. I'm keeping my fingers crossed we won't get to wet today at the Superintendent Invitational at Oswego Lake. I'm also hoping my swing won't give me to much grief after a long winter.

Tuesday Stone Creek hosted a seminar by OVS Pro Turf Center. The Seminar was on the Redox fertilizer product and was presented by DJ Pakkala. We had superintendents ranging from Bandon to Astoria to Sisters. I enjoyed seeing Ken Nice and John Whistler whom I don't normally get to see but maybe once a year. We all learned the science behind the Redox product and how we can get so much more with so much less. I have touted the benefits of the program in past reports so I won't get into that now. You can see new photos of John and Ken on my "Buck Shot" page.

Thursday was "Take your Daughter or Son to Work Day" and this year Steve's son Jaimon and my son Henry got up before the roosters and came to work with their dads. Why is it when it is time to go to school they have trouble getting out of bed at 7am and they can just pop right up 4:15 and head to work with their dad. Both boys had a great time. Jaimon spent time helping Mike change cups while Steve mowed the driving range tee and Henry spent time checking out the nesting boxes for activity. This was Henry's first opportunity to come to work with his dad, previously his brother was the one to come. Being his 11th birthday Henry had a great day at work and even wrote a report for his class.

I love this program as it gives us an opportunity to let our children have a chance to see what their parents do day to day while they are away from home. I think Henry quickly realized why his dad can sometimes get tired around 8:00 at night. Most of all I think this gives them an opportunity to visit a work place and start thinking about what they want to do when they grow up. I couldn't be more proud if my boys wanted to follow in my footsteps but I'll leave that entirely up to them.

The greens are pretty much healed and the tees are filling in quickly. Last week we applied a granular fertilizer on the tees which is starting to take effect. This week we will be applying a fungicide to the greens to help prevent anthracnose as well as applying a light dose of sand in which we will use our new roller brush to gently work it into the canopy. With the warmer temps predicted this week we should see the greens responding quickly.

As I said Sunday was magnificent and the Demo Day appeared to be a success. As I drove home the parking lot was overflowing, a situation I normally see when we have a double shotgun. Ted was busy giving lessons on the top of the range. I let them hit from our new "Natural Knit" ryegrass nursery which should prove to be a good test of the ability for it to recover with it's creeping ability. The lower range was packed with people trying out the newest in golf technology.

Finally, it is not official yet but the voting is complete and it appears that Stone Creek has won the NW Golf Guys Player's Choice Award with a 9.3% lead over the next course. The credit goes to the entire golf staff at Stone Creek including the cart barn, deli, proshop and of course the maintenance staff. Congratulations to all!

How golf etiquette could help cut your costs on the course

2011-04-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

How golf etiquette could help cut your costs on the course

I timely article following my recent post!

Bunker Care

2011-04-28T10:36:00.000-07:00

Over the years, sand will accumulate on the faces of heavily used bunkers and it will become necessary to renovate the entire bunker face. As the sand builds up, the face will often become weak and foot traffic will cause the sod to break away resulting in an unsightly situation. This is why we place signs in these heavily used bunkers encouraging golfers to exit the rear of the bunker. Below is a picture of Sixteen before we embarked on the renovation.

I think the golfer actually had to crawl out on their knees to get out of this bunker. On this job we took about eight inches of sand off the face and returned the bunker back to its original shape. (below)

The above photo was taken approximately one year ago and the photo below was taken today. Again, you can see the accumulation of sand which we will need to be vigilant using a blowers to blow the it out of the canopy. What disturbs me is how the golfers are still walking out of the bunkers through the face instead of waking out the rear of the bunker where they actually entered. This is part of golf course etiquette, the same as fixing a ball mark or raking your tracks after yourself.

We may be able to repair this which can be costly, but as long as golfers keep walking out the wrong direction this will continue to happen. Lets all enjoy the course and treat it as if it were our own back yard and take the extra time to keep it looking good.

Monday, April 25th, 2011

2011-04-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

Last week may have been dry but it would sure be nice to have some temperatures to go along with it. A couple frost delays and on Thursday we didn't even break 50! The good news is the course has dried relatively fast and we were able to get quite a bit of mowing done as well as allowing carts back out on the course Friday and Saturday.

It was great to see everyone out having a nice time on the course and to see Ted and Chris out there giving their group lessons. To give Ted a big plug, he has done a phenomenal job promoting golf by offering these "four for forty" group lessons. I am seeing so many first time golfers attending these lessons and they are getting their first experience of how fun golf can be. The other half of that equation that I am excited about is we are going to offer a short 4 hole round in the evenings this summer to allow the many new golfers to experience the game without feeling intimidated or pressured to keep up with play. My complements to Doug and Ted not to mention Gordy for their innovative approach to making the game available to everyone.

Tee aerification went off without a hitch on Monday and Tuesday. Although I wish someone could explain why some plugs just don't want to come out of the ground. Some of the tee boxes pulled just fine where others had large areas where the plugs either came part way out or not at all. If anyone has experienced the same thing and have found a solution, I am all ears!

On Wednesday I took my lawn installation and maintenance class from Clackamas Community College on a field trip to the Scotts research facility down in Gervais.We were met by Dr Jim Frelich who has been with Scotts for over 30 years. He says he is retired but it didn't look that way to me. I love bringing my class to his facility because his research is very practical in the sense that this is the situation that the average homeowner will see. Most of the facilities that I visit pertain mostly to golf turf but Jim's research is focused on the consumer market and he looks at such things as low fertility vs high fertility in combination with differing mowing heights along with drought and irrigated situations. It is interesting to see how the species composition changes as we change our irrigation regime along with how much fertilizer we choose to use.

There was one plot of tall fescue and Kentucky Bluegrass in particular that was not irrigated all summer last year and it was compared to the same plot but under standard irrigation. Looking at the plot today, the turf that was allowed to go dormant was in much better shape coming out of the winter and looked nicer than the turf that was irrigated. The reason being, when turf is dormant it is storing energy for when it is allowed to grow again, thus when spring comes around it is off to a much stronger start than the turf that had to grow and expend energy all season long. Just think of the money we could save if we could allow our lawns to get a little brown over the few hot summer months.

Part of our community outreach here at Stone Creek involves Kristy McQueen's 6th grade class at Gaffney Lane Elementary. Ever since my son Adam was in her class 5 years ago we have hosted her class on a bird watching tour. I have enlisted a regular group of community birdwatching volunteers and we take the kids on a tour of the golf course. This gives us an opportunity to help the kids understand the benefits of a golf course to wildlife and habitat and to give them their first up close and personal view of a golf course. We just scheduled the day for this year and the kids will be coming out on Friday, May 27th.

Back at Gaffney Lane the sixth graders have been working on an outdoor classroom project the last few years. They have planted a grove of trees with a brick path winding through. My staff was able to contribute some funds to their project and just the other day when I was out for a bike ride with Henry, we found a brick with our name on it. That was quite an unexpected honor.

Monday, April 18th, 2011

2011-04-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

Finally we had some warmer temperatures and some dry weather early last week. It not only gave us the opportunity to plug the greens but it also signaled the emergence of crane fly's. The crane fly is a common pest in the Northwest and can cause sever damage to turfgrass. Stone Creek is not immune to the pest but we have rarely treated for it. The damage usually occurs in isolated areas and does not result in the disruption of play. We utilize IPM in determining the need to treat. The photo here shows the emergence of the adult from the nursery green but there is no sign of damage so we will not be treating this turf. Our only mode of action here is the "boot".

Other than a minor frost delay on Tuesday, the greens aerification went without a hitch. The new brush was amazing in helping us fill the holes quickly and thoroughly. In this photo I have just drug the green once and am in the middle of my second time around. You can see the result for yourself. This will ensure that the holes are completely filled and will speed the healing time significantly.

One of the steps we perform during the aerification process is to add bentgrass seed to the greens. This will not prevent the spread of Poa annua but it certainly maintains a healthy population of bentgrass. We have been inner seeding bent for a number of years and have witnessed a transition to the finer bladed A-1 and A-4 bentgrasses not to mention Poa annua too.

One of the highlights of the week was on Tuesday when I swung by the parking lot and noticed the amount of cars there. Here we were right in the middle aerifying the greens and it looked like a typical busy weekday. This is probably more the power of sunshine than anything else but it was sure good to see people enjoying the course and not complaining about the sand. Kudos to my entire staff for the quick and efficient work and allowing the proshop to get play off as soon as they did.

Last week we managed to squeeze in 2.09 inches of rain in the last three days of the week. Even though we may be experiencing plenty of sunshine this week we still need to be aware of soft areas. Unfortunately this cart wasn't aware of this spot on eighteen. For Stone Creek this seems highly unusual and it is, but it gives you an idea how much rain we have had over the past few months.

The weather looks like it is taking shape this week and we should be in for some great golfing conditions. We will be tackling the tees this week and should not disrupt play at all through the process other than reversing the nines on Tuesday.

Driving Range Divot Pattern

2011-04-13T08:18:00.000-07:00

I found this video on Twitter today. Dan Meersman of Phily Cricket Club gives members a lesson on his preferred driving range divot pattern. Finally a pattern that makes total sense. If we could implement this practice we could save so much grass and have a much quicker healing time!

Monday, April 11th, 2011

2011-04-10T17:48:00.000-07:00

Another week of interesting weather behind us. Although it felt a bit like January we did at least see the sun for a good portion of a day or two. Friday was down right chilly with the low temperature dipping in the high 20's. Although golf was delayed until 9:00, it did make for some nice photos.

Last week we began to prepare the greens for aerification. We like to make sure they are going to be growing actively so we fertilized them early in the week. The greens will often become stressed after aerification, so we sprayed them Friday with a fungicide that will keep them healthy while they heal.

The Men's Club Masters Tournament was Saturday and we wanted to be sure the greens were running smoothly so we used the new roller brush to "flick" the greens. In other words, ran it over the greens with the brush and stood up the grass blades so we could get a nice tight clip. Again, I was extremely impressed how gentle yet thorough the the brush was. Here are some pictures below of the operation.

It actually worked like a broom, sweeping the loose material from the canopy and leaving only the living grass blades standing to be cut by the mower. I can tell that if this was used on a regular basis it would tighten up the canopy leaving a more dense surface.

Here is Jorge mowing 14 just after Mike brushed it. Look closely and you can see how the grass is standing up on the uncut portion of the green.

Aerification Weather Forecast

I asked Rod Hill what he thought about the forecast over the next two days and here is what he sent me:

Monday: Scattered showers, likely some sunshine.
We might see a mostly dry period mid-morning into early afternoon??
Convective temperature around 50 degrees. Meaning, with sun breaks and warming temperatures around noon, Showers will pop.

As you know, when it comes to scattered showers - they could miss you or nail you! If the models are right, Monday afternoon will be
fairly tame..........meaning not much heavy and widely scattered. All depends on how cold the air is aloft and how warm we get.

Tuesday: Looking dry, but afternoon - evening showers will become at least possible.
I trust Rod and I think this is going to be our best chance. Like Rod says, the showers can either "miss you or nail you". I am going to count on the miss. Tuesday looks good so we can count on picking up what we didn't get to on Monday.

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Aerificaton Week

2011-04-08T18:41:00.000-07:00

Next week (weather permitting) we are planning aerifying the greens. The plan is to aerify the back nine on Monday and then to reverse the nines and aerify the front on Tuesday. Each day we hope to open the aerified nine by 10:30! We would normally do all eighteen greens in one day but the course we share machines with planned on plugging the same day so we are both taking two days to complete the procedure.

This time of year, so much depends on the weather and so far we have been pretty fortunate. Hoping not to jinx us, there is always the possibility of getting rained out. Having dry sand is the most important aspect of plugging the greens. This is to insure that the holes will get filled. If they are not filled, the time to heal can be extended.

This spring we have chosen to use the 1/4 inch quad tine. The holes are much smaller than the traditional 5/8 inch but since we went extremely aggressive last fall we feel that the 1/4 inch will be sufficient. The first benefit we will notice will be the quick heal time. Actually there will be very little, if any, disruption of putting quality during this time. We will roll the greens immediately following aerification and then we will be using a new brush to fill the holes.

This year while I was at the show in Orlando, I found a new greens brush that was developed by an ingenious superintendent. He and his partner developed a reverse spinning brush that sweeps the sand in the holes and it is amazing how well it works. The two have since split into two separate companies and I located a distributor here in the northwest that reps one of the units. Friday we decided to plug the nursery green and give it a test and the results were amazing. I have always said that the Toro Procore 648 was the best invention of the decade and now I think I have found the next best invention of the decade. Twice over the green and every single hole is filled. If all goes well weather wise next week, you will be amazed how well these greens will putt. Just because we are aerifying don't feel you are going to have bumpy conditions. You are going to love these greens!

Florida Turf Digest

2011-04-05T15:40:00.000-07:00

Darren Davis, Editor-in-Chief of the Florida Turf Digest and Superintendent at Olde Florida Golf Club, recently asked me to write an article for his magazine on the basics of blogging. The article can be found on page 40 at:
http://www.thepaginator.com/view.php?ID=875
Don't just read my article, the entire publication is excellent! I must give a plug to Darren, he has done a phenomenal job assembling this magazine. His dedication and passion for this industry is found within. Kudos to all of the leadership of the Florida Turfgrass Association for providing such great value to your members!

Monday, April 4th, 2011

2011-04-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

Thank God, March is over! March has got to be my least favorite month of the year and this year it lived up to it's expectations. Portland's average rainfall for the month of March is 3.8 inches, this year at Stone Creek we received 8.73 inches! In case some of you golfers out there have wondered why we have been so strict on cart path rules, this is why.

April 1st seemed like someone changed the channel and the blue sky graced us once again. The parking lot was packed and we were mowing grass like sheep in a posy patch. We mowed the fairways once again and were able to mow some more rough. Things aren't always like they seem though. From an earlier post regarding our lime application and how the buggy was able to float over the course without causing damage, the rough mower went over the same spot on nine and you can see what happened. A true testament to Wilco's spreader but more importantly a reminder that there are still lots of soft areas we need to be aware of.

Last week we were finally able to get some tree wells sprayed and covered with mulch. Since our pile is not endless we are starting with some of the individual trees and will do some of the larger groves after we accumulate more mulch. So far the much has come from the storm debris that has accumulated on the course and from our tree work in January. I may inquire with the County and see if their road maintenance crew wouldn't mind dropping off a few loads. I am real pleased with the look and am confident it will aid in the health of the trees.

We were just notified the Stone Creek Golf Club has made the final selection for the 2011 NW Golf Guys Players Choice Award. The winning course will receive a plaque for their pro shop and a badge for their website. If you are so inclined to vote we would love your support. There are also some other very deserving courses listed as well. Click HERE and register your vote today. Voting ends April 30th!

Mike speech following his roast at his retirement party

Finally, I would like to congratulate Mike McLees on his retirement from Clackamas County as the Parks Manager. I first met Mike before we had even begun construction at Stone Creek back in early 2000. One of his first jobs was to communicate with all the neighbors and answer any questions that they may have regarding the project. Since then Mike has been a huge supporter and ally of all our environmental efforts and all would not have been possible with out his support. I look forward to meeting Jeroen, Mikes replacement. He will certainly have some large shoes to fill but I have no doubt he will do a great job. Now that Mike will have more time on his hands I hope to find a seat on his boat more often and finally land one of those big fish he says he catches so often. Good Luck Mike and enjoy your well deserved retirement.

Nesting Boxes and Scribble Maps

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I was speaking with Russell Vandehey from the Oregon Golf Club today and he mentioned that he has three pairs of Western Bluebirds setting up house in his bird boxes. Russell has had nesting pairs since I worked for him back in 1995. Since the two courses are only 5.2 miles apart as the crow flies, I assumed that we would have pairs flying around here too. So one of the first things we did here at Stone Creek was to install nesting boxes. Unfortunately we have yet to be discovered by the Western Bluebird but we do have an abundance of swallows and nuthatches.

Following our conversation I realized that I haven't cleaned the boxes yet this year and got right to it, hoping that I wasn't to late and the birds had started nesting. I was just in time and didn't disturb any new construction. While cleaning out the boxes I evaluate the condition of each one and look for wear around the opening. Sometimes starlings, or squirrels will gnaw at the holes and invade the boxes, so we either replace the opening like the one shown above or simply cover it with a new one. The templates are are made with the proper sized opening so only allowing bluebirds and swallows to enter.

English Sparrow

When cleaning them out we can also tell what kind of bird has nested in each box. I found four different nests this year. Most of the boxes were violet green swallows but there were two nuthatches, an English sparrow and a starling nest. The starlings and the sparrows are not welcome since they are not native to our area and they are very aggressive and out compete the more tentative bluebirds.

Violet Green Swallow

A typical English sparrow nest will be packed to the top with grass and will almost have a tunnel down through the center. Swallows like to use goose and duck feathers and will make a nice bowl shape in the middle. Starlings are full of coarse grass and are usually a mess and the little nuthatches will build there nest out of small twigs and lots of green moss.

This year I decided to employ the Scribble map program to catalog the location of all the boxes. Simply by clicking on the icon a picture will appear and show it's location. This will make it easier in case someone else would like to check on the boxes and see where they are all located.

The Oregon Golf Club

As the season approaches lets keep our fingers crossed for a pair of bluebirds. I have seen them once here but they never checked in. If anyone feels they have seen a bluebird please don't hesitate to tell me. These guys have a beautiful blue back and a rust colored chest similar to a robin only these are the size of a swallow. I took this photo when I worked at The Oregon Golf Club, a real bluebird haven!

Monday, March 28th, 2011

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I think I am starting to feel like spring is getting closer. We may still be getting low elevation snow but I think the golfers are getting the itch. The parking lot seems to be more full and the tournament calendar is filling up!
It was nice to feel the sun for a couple days, with the little rain that we received we took full advantage of it and got quite a bit done.

We were a little nervous Monday with the Verde-Cal application but all went well. I can't believe how light the actual foot print is of this beast, you can see in this picture how he drove right through the wet spot only to leave a muddy track. This was probably one of the worst areas on the course. With that said, I couldn't be more pleased with the service Wilco offers with this buggy.

We are continuing to roll as often as we can. Last weekend we rolled each day and the greens were perfect. I took this photo this week and after Gordon sent me an email on fuel saving practices I noticed that the two pictured here could probably be sharing a cart. If we weren't so pressed with golfers in the morning, (a good thing) one guy could probably be doing both duties. What I like about having two guys is one can change the cup and fix ball marks while the other rolls.

With the break in the weather we were able to get the dust off some equipment that hasn't been used in a while. We managed to mow almost the entire rough as well as all the fairways with the exception of 12, 15 and the back half of 11. We are still getting lots of good complements on the new pins and flags. I tend to agree, change is good!

Local Recognition
Stone Creek made the headlines in the Oregonian's Northwest Environmental News Thursday with our energy conservation project with The Energy Trust of Oregon. A case study that I wrote is also being featured in GreenLinks, a program dedicated to promoting environmental success stories within the golf industry. Some may remember the story Eric Mortenson did on us back in July of 2009. He is recognizing us once again for our sustainable practices.

Published: Thursday, March 24, 2011, 9:00 AM

NW Environmental News: Green golf courses; sustainable dairy farms; land-use innovators; energy-efficient devices

By Eric Mortenson, The Oregonian

Torsten Kjellstrand/The OregonianSustainable practices at
Stone Creek Golf Club in Oregon City now include an energy efficiency upgrade.

How about some news of things done right? Stone Creek Golf Club in Oregon City underwent an energy audit, upgraded its facilities and reduced energy costs by 11.4 percent in its clubhouse and nearly 27 percent in its maintenance shop.

Course Supervisor Dave Phipps wrote about the project.
Environmental Institute for Golf: Improving the Bottom Line with Sustainable Practices

That wasn't the first time Stone Creek has turned the golf course stereotype - privileged, snooty, environmentally harmful - on its head. I wrote about them in 2009, when they were among the Oregon courses certified as sanctuaries by Audubon International.
The Oregonian: Driven by cost and conscience, Oregon's golf courses are going green

Mooooving on, a trio of dairies were recently honored for protecting water quality.
Oregon Department of Agriculture: Oregon dairies receive award for good stewardship

More good people are on the way up. The conservation group 1000 Friends of Oregon honors a bunch of young farmers, land-use activists and others who care about our air, land, water and food.
1000 Friends: 1000 Friends Announces 35 Innovators Under 35

In eastern Washington, Battelle announced it has granted a license to Encryptor of Plano, Texas, to produce a computer chip that will protect the electrical grid when rolling blackouts threaten. The device monitors frequency and voltage and can turn off household appliances for a few minutes or even a few seconds, allowing the grid to stabilize.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory: Battelle Licenses Grid Friendly Appliance Controller

--Eric Mortenson