December Update

The winter weather this month has not been typical. Fortunately for us, we have been able to work on a few projects. The 16th tee renovation is in the final review stage.

The Team has started planting trees on the 6th hole and will move to the 8th in the coming weeks. These trees are part of our continuing plan to maximize the natural feel of the property in spite of  an area housing development.

Work on course accessories (garbage cans, ball washers, etc.) has also started. This year we are giving the benches a face lift. Stay tuned to see that transformation.

Planting Norway Spruce on 6

Planting Norway Spruce on 6

16 Tee Before

16 Tee After

  

Benches Dissembled 

Benches before refurbishment

16 Tee Renovation Update

Since the last update in late August, the bed has been graded and shaped, drainage has been installed, and the pea stone and mix profiles have been installed. The final steps are laying the teeing surface sod, installing irrigation, and laying the tee bank sod.

The conditions have been wet, then dry, cold and then warm throughout this process which makes some of these steps tough  to complete in a timely manner.  The Team, which has included some guest Team members from UMGC, has done a great job adapting to these conditions!

 BED PREP

             

DRAINAGE SYSTEM INSTALL

         

                                                  PEA STONE LAYER INSTALL

                               

                                         

MIX LAYER INSTALL

                                                          

2014 Greens Aeration Summary

The greens are in great shape going into winter thanks to the 2014 aerification process.

Looking back, we had great weather for this season's greens aeration. The golf course was open for play with a progressive number of temporary greens each day of this three day process. We decided to try this "course-open-during-aeration" experiment for a few reasons. We wanted our customers to see our Team in action as we tackled this important undertaking. Plus, we needed more time as we decided to add an important step to our fall greens aeration process.

Deep tine machine.

This year we incorporated a deep tine aeration into our traditional hollow core aeration. By doing both processes at the same time we only disrupted the putting surface once. We were able to create a deeper channel (depths of 10") for air, water ,and sand to improve drainage deeper than the traditional 4" depth of the core aeration. This depth also allows rooting to go deeper into the profile.

We monitor and test the physical make-up of the green profile bi-annually to determine the best cultural practices. We are seeing great results using the 1/2" tines. We will continue to monitor our current program and do whats in the best long term interest of the greens' health.

Thanks to our golfers for their patience during this important process. And thanks to our Team for doing a great job! 

Fall Maintenance

Fall is a very busy time of the year for the Maintenance Team. The top priority is recovering the greens from aeration and preparing them for winter. One of the ways to help promote a healthy plant is to raise mowing heights. Historically, Radrick greens are mowed .03" higher in the fall than peak season. This allows the plant more leaf surface to collect sunlight for photosynthesis. Another key area is fertility. There is a balance between over-feeding and starving the plant going into dormancy for the winter.

Right now, our greens are in prime health and offer great playability. Fertility and growth are monitored daily. Adjustments will be made for the remainder of the season to give the turf the best fighting chance during the winter months.

A big part of Radrick's beauty is found in our trees, especially in the fall. But with that beauty comes the dreaded leaf cleanup. This necessary and time consuming process takes an average of 800 man hours each season. The Team does an outstanding job doing this task day-in and day-out in the fall.

There are areas of course maintenance in the fall that don't receive the same amount of maintenance as they do in-season. Bunker maintenance and turf mowing are some of the areas that receive less maintenance in the fall. Turf is mowed only as needed during this time and the bunkers are raked less frequently. Areas the Team focus on include: leaf cleanup, turf health and the off-season project preparations. We try very hard to make the golf course as playable as possible during the fall while balancing the next season's demands.

Thank you for your on-going support of the Turf Team!

16 Tee Renovation

We started to rebuild the alternate tee on 16 this past week. We were able to demo a Turf Stripper from Redexim to make the removal of sod a little faster. Look for updates during each phase of the project.

Before Renovation

Before Renovation 

Turf Stripper loading into dump truck.

Turf Stripper loading material from tee.

Crew working on edges

Turf stripped

July Grounds Update

The Team has been busy this month with routine turf mowing, tree trimming, and natural area work. Trees are being trimmed for safety, turf health, playability, and sight-lines throughout the golf course.  Our in-house Team, led by certified boom lift operator Clint Kutzley, is tackling this project.

Severe Rotting in a limb that appeared healthy.

Tree Trimming on 9th Hole

Tree Trimming on 13th Hole

Also this month, two longtime Seasonal Team Members will be leaving our Team to pursue their career goals. Mario Frankini will be heading East to Ferndale working in the insurance business and Derek Emelander will be going West to join the Team at Egypt Valley Country Club. We thank these two employees for their great years of service and wish them luck in their next career path.

Derek and Mario

June Update

The Maintenance Team has been busy this month preparing the golf course for the events that we have. June is always a hectic month with events and weather. The Team has done an excellent job with early morning starts and some late night finishes. Without this dedicated Team, we couldn't provide great playing conditions.

Work so far this month has included landscape plantings and maintenance, nursery grading and seeding, annual safety training from our U of M OSEH rep, Brett Goecke, as well as our normal maintenance practices. Please help us by repairing ball marks and filling divots.

C.S. Mott Children's Hospital Outing

Removing privet hedg

New boxwood hedge installed

Late afternoon grooming of greens

                            

Annual safety training

Course Update

The Team has been busy battling the growth of the rough this week. They were able to mow all 60 acres twice and removed clippings from the playing surfaces. Our Team worked from sun up to sun down all week. Great Job Team!

We have also been able to work on some projects on the practice green and the nursery. One of the practice greens was damaged from the winter. We re-evaluated the use of this green and decided to create more chippable area.

Area prepped for sod

First pass with sod cutter

Sod installed

The South nursery project has also started. This is not a new nursery, but we are preparing it for a new grow-in. The nurseries are so important for us to be able to do all our course repairs and renovations in-house. The nursery will have turf for greens, tees, fairways, bunker faces and rough areas. 

Removing turf

Removing turf

First step in grading. Using a Blecavator

What's Up With the Rough?

The golf course Maintenance Team has been hard at work this spring creating an exceptional golf course. While the golf course suffered some winter damage, we believe that our Team has done a great job repairing the golf course.

Growing Degree Day models show we are roughly 3 weeks behind "typical" weather for this time of year. For more information about Growing Degree Days, go to: http://www.wunderground.com/about/faq/degreedays.asp.

We are seeing the growth, especially in the rough, that we would see typically in late April/Early May. We are mowing rough daily to try and keep up with the amount of growth.

It has been a challenging season thus far, but the weather will get better and so will the conditioning. Thank you for your patience while we work to repair and maintain the golf course to our high standards.

Greens Update

The majority of the greens are open to play on! We will still utilize temporary greens on 1,2, and 3. Mother Nature has given us a little help the last few days allowing us to aerate, topdress, fertilize and seed all the greens. The use of temporary greens on the remaining few, will allow the turf to fill in and get healthy for the summer ahead.

For more information on temporary greens and course conditioning, check out the latest USGA Regional Update from Keith Happ, Director of the North-Central Region.

http://www.usga.org/course_care/regional_updates/regional_reports/northcentral/Turf-Will-Need-Time-To-Heal-This-Season---April-2014/

Thank you for your patience and continued support.

The Course is Open for Play!

We finally have some decent weather.  This winter has been brutal with all the snow, wind, and cold.

We will be opening on temporary greens because the soil is not warm enough for the turf to start growing. Without growth, the greens can't recover from normal, day-to-day golfer traffic. By utilizing temp greens, we can enjoy the property without risking damaged greens for the rest of the summer.

There are a few greens that are currently under greens covers to help increase the soil temperatures and stimulate growth.  This tactic will allow us to see any areas that may need some additional attention. The good news is that there is no catastrophic damage, but some spots may need a little assistance.

Thank you for being patient as we work with Mother Nature and kick off the 2014 golf season.

Golf Course Opening Factors

Weather is the biggest indicator on when it's safe to open the golf course. Changes in soil temperatures and moisture levels are dictated by the weather.  Once the surfaces are clear of frost and snow, the turf can begin to grow out of dormancy.  Turf must be growing in order to allow player traffic, otherwise there is no opportunity for recovery from the normal wear and tear that occurs during normal play. The course needs time to warm up and start growing.

Patience is required this spring more than ever given the extreme conditions of this past winter.  To paraphrase the assessment of Dr. Trey Rogers of the MSU Turf Team, "the turf thinks it's really March 8th".  It is quite telling that the Golf Association of Michigan has declared that the "official" start to the golf season (for handicap posting purposes) has been delayed more than two weeks.

Team Member Retirement

The time has come.  One of our very best Greenskeepers ever, Robert Noworyta, has retired from the University after 24 years of service. Robert's talents include: tree maintenance; including planting, trimming and removal, design and maintenance in landscapes, facility maintenance, and an uncanny sense of humor. Robert has played a major role in improving the course and has touched so many lives of past and present employees. As former Executive Associate AD Mike Stevenson once said, Robert's "fingerprints" are all over Radrick Farms.

He will be missed by many, many people at Radrick Farms and the University.  But we won't be surprised to see him roaming the course with camera in hand this season!  We wish him the best of luck on this next phase of life.

 2014: NHL Winter Classic 

1999: Installing new roof on 12 lightning shelter.

1998: 18 Landscape Installation 

2008: New railing on the walk bridge on 6.

2000: New wash pad install at the Maintenance Facility.

Winter Conditions

Many weather records have been broken this winter so far. With this kind of weather, turf (in particular greens) can go through changes that have many different outcomes. Academic research, has shown that certain turf species can survive under ice for different lengths of time. Annual Bluegrass (Poa Annua) has been said to last only 45-90 days under ice. Bentgrass can survive up to 120 days.

With that said, we have sampled greens at an interval of 2 samples per week since late December. Thankfully, the turf looks good within these samples. There is a lot of winter left and the worse conditions may still be coming. Crown hydration may still be an issue when the "big" melt happens. We are closely monitoring the turf conditions and will continue to do so throughout the rest of this record breaking winter.

We have also created a testing area on the one of our practice greens. This area will give us valuable insight into how removing snow can affect ice layers on turf. Our hope is to learn as much as we can about the timing of snow or ice removal, techniques to remove ice, and how different weather patterns can affect these decisions. We have also brought plugs from greens into the shop to see how they grow out of dormancy. Thus far, the plugs have grown out of dormancy well.

For further information check out the MSU Turf Teams blog at http://www.msuturf.blogspot.com/2014/03/ice-and-poa-survival-update.html. Click here for a letter from Drs. Frank and Vargas from MSU http://www.migcsa.org/uploads/Winterkill-Letter-2014.pdf.

Plugs that have been removed from greens so far.

Snow removal on the Old Putting Green

Turf inspection

After clearing a portion of the green.