You may have seen the control satellites on the golf course as you play. They are the green pedestals(some with duct tape reinforcement) located throughout the property and they contain the 80’s era electronics that turn sprinklers on and off on the golf course-mostly in the evenings when you are not here but sometimes into the day as well as we have to lengthen our watering window due to the meager pumping capacity we have. Anyway, age, corrosion, and obsolescence are beginning to take their toll on this vital part of the irrigation system. Repairing them is always an adventure as you never know what you are going to find.

Upon arriving at a satellite on 14S to discover why it is not working, I found the following gibberish on the display:

Bad Clock 7-7-2023

Upon opening the box for closer inspection, I found this:

Snake resident 14S Satellite 7-7-2023

And this:

Wasp Nest 14S Satellite 7-7-2023

This box had been run over 5 years ago or so and was never quite right since then. We finally took matters into our own hands and installed a new satellite:

New Satellite 14S 8-3-2023

This relatively low cost($2000-everything is expensive these days) satellite should get us through the next few years until we have a new system installed that will not have these on the golf course at all. Technology exists now that allows us to control everything via a computer in the superintendent’s office with access via portable electronic devices like our phones as well as 2-way radios. These new boxes are a stopgap measure allowing us to hold on until a new system is in place in a few years.

Sometimes these boxes are damaged by players who run them over:

Satellite 11W Green 7-19-2023

This satellite was run over by a player who promptly, and honorably, owned up to their error. We all make mistakes. Luckily nobody was hurt but the damage done to this satellite was terminal. Limited to non-existant parts availability and cost made this unit more expensive to repair than replace. Which we did with a unit similar to the one on 14S. These are just a few examples. The shop is full of dead clocks that we have replaced this year with more going bad every week as we lean on the system more:

Bad VT-4 and LTC Clocks 8-4-2023

Keeping Nemadji alive during times of drought stress really is a battle-and a costly one at that in time, money, and stress. Much work goes into doing our best to present as good a product as we can to our patrons. This is our job-we do what needs to be done but I often wonder how much better of a job we could do at Nemadji if we were not tying up so much time and money into a dying irrigation system. We could be adding sand and drainage into bunkers, edging bunkers, brushing areas that need it, aerifying and topdressing tees, plugging out weak areas in greens, really anything besides this. I look forward to that day.

See you on the golf course.

The post Dodge’s Dirt August 2023 appeared first on Nemadji Golf Course.

9N Tee 6-24-2023

9N Tee 6-24-2023

Turns out that seeding really worked out quite well for this project as the use of prohibitively expensive sod would have been horribly difficult to keep enough water on during the excessively dry June that we had. With the proper know how, seeding new turf areas is really the only way to go. The only downside of having such a good seed catch is that some players just have to “be that guy” and hit from a tee which is clearly labelled as not open yet.

9N tee 6-24-2023 Divots from players who cannot read

We now mow the tee with our regular tee mowers and hope to have the tee open for play on August 1. We still need a few weeks of solid growth to build the tee’s resistance to wear. The tee has been so much fun to build that we are now currently in the process of building an additional tee on 9E.

This is the replacement tee for the Enbridge dig-destroyed old tiny black tee for 9E. This new tee will likely be 5 to 6 times larger and much more useful than the old tee. Can possibly be utilized as a double tee for 18W as well. We also took the opportunity while Enbridge had their big work machines here to have them remove the old tetanus shelter that was there. Work on this is in the shaping stage but our goal is to have it seeded by August 11 and hopefully open for play sometime in 2024.

9E Tee in Progress 7-5-2023

No Nemadji summertime newsletter would be complete without a leak of the month mention this time on the mainline from the pumpstation to the west golf course. When golf course watering demands are high, I often come into the golf course at night to make sure stuff is kind of working. Last Saturday night when I came in to water, I found that the West course system had shut down due to low pressure. This is indicative of a large leak and so after charging up the system I found said leak:

18W Mainline Failure 7-8-2023 8 pm

This “waterbed” was about a third the size of our shop and about 2’-3’ high. Nasty. I promptly shut the system down, stuck my arm into the most washed-out area, and found the leak 3’ underground while it was still fresh, and marked it. The next Sunday morning I dug the leak up and found the following:

Dug Up Leak 18W 7-9-2023 11 am

At this point, water seeping into the low lying area made making an immediate repair difficult-especially on a Sunday at about 90 degrees. I decided to let the area dry and tackle it the next day. Rain Sunday night removed much of the urgency of making a hasty repair. The next day I continued my work by draining the remaining water and cutting out the damaged area.

3’ Long Split of Previous Repair 7-9-2023

This line had been repaired previously as shown by the repair fittings but over time finally let loose and split along a line about 3’ long. This is one of the more nasty, messy leaks we have encountered on this property but all of them suck. Anyway, with the assistance of Dave Drabek and Dustin Kern, we were able to make the repair shown below and now have it backfilled and ready for powerup this evening just in time to get some water down on some dry West greens. I used some higher strength parts for this repair so hopefully it endures for a few more years until we can upgrade this system.

Final Repair 7-11-2023

We will continue to have these sorts of labor gobbling, expense generating, water wasting, stress inducing, and turf damaging issues as long as this system is used at Nemadji. The inherent problem is one of design-these lines are simply too small to handle the volume of water being forced through them to get enough water down on the golf course during dry conditions. Add to this the poor workmanship during the initial construction and the age of the system and you can easily understand how these problems are just going to grow more and more prevalent. This is not a sustainable situation-much like the situation with our neighbors to the north.

On a final, happy note, while weeding ornamental beds in front of the clubhouse a crew member noticed these caterpillars eating the milkweed plants that we have intentionally left in the area:

Milkweed Clubhouse with Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar 7-12-2023

These are indeed Monarch Butterfly Caterpillars that are eating the leaves of the milkweed plants in order to grow big and strong and ultimately turn into Monarchs to continue their 3000-mile migration journey. These caterpillars will head south to Mexico as soon as they make the change. Nice to see some success with our efforts to help these guys out.

7-12-2023 Nemadji Clubhouse

See you on the golf course,

Vince

The post Dodge’s Dirt July 2023 appeared first on Nemadji Golf Course.

Typical Non-irrigated Area at Nemadji May 30, 2023

When these dry conditions persist, we are increasingly forced to rely on supplemental water in the form of irrigation to keep the golf course from going dormant from drought stress. On a normal golf course, this is optimal as we are able to control the moisture levels of the golf course and thus conditions and playability. At Nemadji, however, when we are forced to rely on a decrepit and poorly designed system, we have to deal with stuff like the following picture:

Massive Leak 18 West 5-30-2023

I like water hazards as much as the next guy (and apparently so does Bentley) but this one resulted from a failed irrigation line behind 18 West green. This is not the first time we have had system failures and will not be the last as long as we are forced to rely on this irrigation system. This leak was promptly fixed as well as several others throughout the golf course and as I write this article, we are currently repairing yet another one. This will be the reality in dry conditions until this system is replaced, hopefully in a few years. It’s a shame we lost this water (which costs money) as we could have used it to help the grow in of the new tee on 9 North.

9N Tee after seeding and fertilizing 5-26-2023

This project is the culmination of the past few years we have spent increasing the size of the tee with drainage spoils from other parts of the golf course while removing a deteriorated wall that was a safety hazard and an eyesore. We took the opportunity to level the tee and make the space we have more usable. While not perfect it will be a vast improvement.

We chose to go with seeding the area as opposed to sodding for a variety of reasons. One is the cost in material and labor. Another is our ability with seed to select superior turf varieties that will result in a much better stand of turf in the future. Not all turfgrasses are the same and the ones we selected for use on the tee are proven sports turf performers unlike the sod we can purchase locally. In addition, sodding turf areas often results in persistent layering issues that can take years to correct through aerifying. A seeded surface, while slower to establish, results in a superior future playing surface and fits better with our goal of ensuring optimal turf long into the future.

Regarding when this tee will be ready for play, we need to understand that there are many variables at play here. If conditions are favorable-warmer temperatures would be helpful here-we hope to have the tee open by mid-August. We will open it when it is ready. Meanwhile, embrace the mat and understand that hitting off a mat for a few months is worth the many years of productive use that this tee should provide in the future.

9N tee after installation of Futerra blanket 5-26-2023

To those that may be interested, we used an anti-erosion/grow in blanket called Futerra blanket over the top of the seeded area in order to assist in the establishment of the tee. This mat helps to reduce the danger of washouts during heavy rain events and speed germination and establishment. I have used this product with great success in the past during golf course grow ins saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in sod costs and ultimately providing a superior playing surface.

Moving on to a final point of interest, mosquitos are starting to make their appearance and we all do what we can to keep them off of us. The go to with this problem is usually some kind of bug spray. All we ask is that you are careful as to where you stand when applying it.

Bug Spray Damage 1N Tee 5-31-2023

Bug spray is often phytotoxic (kills turf) when it is inadvertently sprayed onto grass-especially on warm days. Here we can see the outline of a pair of feet where someone sprayed their legs while standing on the tee. The resulting overspray did some minor damage to the turf. While not a huge deal, it is a good idea to stand on a cart path or some other non-grass surface when performing this action.

See you on the golf course.

The post Dodge’s Dirt June 2023 appeared first on Nemadji Golf Course.

3 North Green April 13, 2023

This is a typical example of what we did to get snow and ice off of greens during the very warm temperatures mid-April. We manually cleared ice and snow off of the water release points on greens while using a green turf pigment to assist in absorbing radiant heat from the sunlight to accelerate snow/ice melt. This is a lot of work-at this time the course had well over 2 feet of snow in many areas and was extremely soft, which made transport of people and tools something to be done on foot. I have nothing but appreciation for the staff on hand that assisted us with this process. It was warfare but it was effective. While we do have a few greens where the annual bluegrass i.e., Poa annua was stressed, I feel pretty good about the overall condition of the golf course after such a winter. We all have to understand that many of the older, original greens at Nemadji are going to be more vulnerable to winter stresses then the more modern greens on the golf course due to their poor surface drainage, higher annual bluegrass component, and total lack of internal drainage (drainage tiles). This will be a thing as long as those greens remain without extensive rebuild. Meanwhile, we do what we can.

The extremely warm temperatures were great for getting greens clear of snow but sometimes too much of a good thing can be an issue.

5E Bridge 11:34 AM April 13, 2023

Nemadji River Flood Chart April 2023

The flooded bridge picture corresponds within an hour or so to the high point of the Nemadji River on April 13^th. The bridge survived this flooding with no apparent damage but if the river had risen another 4 feet or so to match the record high then who knows what could have happened. If temperatures had stayed extremely warm for another day we may have found out. Makes me think that we should add bridges to the large list of much needed infrastructure improvements needed at Nemadji. To be safe, this bridge should be at least 4 feet higher than its current elevation to have the ability to withstand what seem to be more frequent extreme weather events. Speaking of extreme, winter turf disease pressure in the form of snow mold was about as high as I have ever seen in over 20 years working in snow country.

Back of 4N Green 4-28-2023 Treated Green, Untreated Smoked

3-year-old Nemadji Turf Nursery where tank ran out

Pretty easy to see here the efficacy of our snow mold preventative fungicide application made in October and November of 2022. Where it is green it is protected. Where it is brown it is not. The nursery in particular is interesting in that that was the last greens tank we sprayed for the year. You can see where the nozzles on the rig were sputtering at the end. This was intentionally left as a test area. The entire golf course-greens, tees, fairways, and rough-would look like the brown stuff in the pictures if we were to eliminate this application. While likely not completely dead, full recovery would likely take us well into June or later. Being a limited budget facility, we also, on the cheap, treated fairways at Nemadji experimenting with low usage rates of less expensive materials. Results were encouraging.

2E Fairway April 21, 2023, Treated left, Untreated Right

The reason Nemadji looks green overall right now is not because the ground never really froze-indeed heavy snow over unfrozen ground encourages disease development. It is because of protective measures that were taken six months ago. A key reason why we need a window of decent weather late in the season to put the course to bed properly-and why we close the course when we do in the fall. Winter preventative measures are like an insurance policy-some years they may be as necessary but in others, like this past year, we needed that insurance big time. Too bad there is not a policy to insure against vole damage.

Vole Damage 4N April 13, 2023

This sort of damage is prevalent pretty much everywhere in the Northland this year. A vole is a small rodent like a field mouse only typically fatter with a short tail. Not to be confused with a mole which burrows underground and frankly kind of freaks me out with the way it looks. Voles create tunnel networks under snow-particularly in heavy snow years-but above the turf surface like the picture above. Vole damage is always not nearly as bad as it initially looks and the turf will grow out of it once we clean the debris and get into good growing weather. Not really much one can do practically control these guys that is worth the trouble or expense of doing. Just a periodic issue that we have to deal with.

On a final note, wet conditions and cold weather have delayed our need to get a start on mowing operations but there is always time for drainage-especially at Nemadji.

11 South about 150 yards from green 4-27-2023

This notoriously slow to drain fairway needs all the help it can get and our hope is that the installation of a large surface drain combined with a properly graded line under the cart path will remove this water from this area quicker and more thoroughly. In addition, we will be able to grade and seed this area so that eventually it will not look or function like the next picture:

11 South around 375 yards out or so

I have never been a fan of using swales like this on the golf course. They eventually fill with debris, deteriorate in how well they function, and are a detriment to the playability and aesthetics of the golf course. While more work, drainage tile and surface drains have worked better for me over the years. Just my thoughts. The proof is in the pudding as we are only going to do the one swale closest to the green for now and compare its performance to the other two on 11 South. If we like it, which I think we will after large rain events, we plan on doing the others in the fall after closing as this work requires cutting through a cart path which disrupts play.

See you on the golf course.

The post May Newsletter appeared first on Nemadji Golf Course.

I wish I could give you all a better idea as to how well the turf came through this long winter but I believe that it is going to be a few weeks before we really know. My spider senses tell me that we should be okay. We aerified greens deep to end the season and this combined with unfrozen ground should mean that any water that filtered its way through the snow percolated through the surface before forming an impermeable ice layer. Clear ice is bad and often results in dead turf. I think, however, that disease pressure this winter has been quite high.

My experience has shown that large snowfall amounts over unfrozen ground equal high disease pressure in the form of snow molds.

Snow Mold Damage 4-21-2014 Tower, MN

The turf on the left has been treated with fungicide applications from the previous October/November. The smoked area on the right has not. Of interest as well is the vole (small rodent) damage in the green turf in the foreground. They like to tunnel under deep snow and create networks of tunnels in the turf. Neither of these types of damage is that big of a deal on fairways and rough though severe damage may require us to fertilize more that we would like in order to drive recovery. My thoughts are that we will likely see this kind of scenario once the snow is gone-treated areas from the previous fall looking alright (though there might be some breakthrough) and untreated areas with developed disease activity. All this being said, we really do not know at this point-we can only speculate.

Winter survivability is a very difficult thing to predict on golf courses. I have seen years where I thought we would be great and we were stung and I have had years where I was mentally ready to deal with extensive winterkill and the course came through great. Either way, we are prepared to deal with whatever it is that we discover in a few weeks. It is what we do.

I look forward to seeing you at Nemadji this year.

The post April Newsletter appeared first on Nemadji Golf Course.

Drone Photos of Extreme Snow Mold Damage

Wilderness at Fortune Bay April 1, 2019

Very easy to tell from these pictures exactly where we protected the greens, tees, and fairways since those areas actually came through the winter with minimal damage while the untreated areas were thoroughly smoked and were not quite right until July and then only after much expense in otherwise unnecessary fertilization and labor. Not treating greens in this scenario would have been devastating.

More recent photos show some damage from a summer disease and a comparison between treated and untreated areas at Nemadji.

Dollar Spot Damage 17S Approach   –   September 23, 2022

Nemadji 12 West – Treated vs. Untreated

September 30, 2022

The area on the left, adjacent to a green, has been protected while the area on the right has not. The disease pressure in this case is from another common turf disease called Dollar Spot(another fungus) which if left unchecked can run amok over a period of time causing a gradual but substantial loss in turf quality. Golf course greens are quite clean at Nemadji at the moment but without a well timed, label directed, and environmentally safe application, greens at Nemadji would be much like the right side of the picture. A final recent picture shows a textbook example of what is called localized dry spot.

Localized Dry Spot 9N Approach

Soils underneath turf can often become what is called hydrophobic-they resist rewetting once they become dry and water-in the form of both rainfall and irrigation-simply runs off the surface instead of being absorbed by the soil profile. This can be prevented by regular application of what is called a soil wetting agent which assists greatly in preventing this condition from developing. This condition can be especially prevalent on sand based soil mediums like we have on the East and West greens at Nemadji. Without the proper use of wetting agents, many greens at Nemadji would be showing symptoms similar to the photo above unless we were to irrigate a great deal more, wasting water irresponsibly and greatly reducing the playability of the putting surface.

These are just a few examples of common technical issues that arise on the golf course-there are many more.

I show these pictures and explain their meaning because I think that it is important that people understand the highly technical nature of golf course maintenance. This field is not just mowing stuff, raking bunkers, and cutting cups-much thought goes into anticipating issues and getting a handle on them before they become a problem. Today’s player is very demanding in conditioning and so we must do what we can to accommodate them within our budgetary allowances.

On a final note, I would like to offer my perspective after 38 years of working golf courses regarding the use of chemicals on the golf course. I started working in this industry in 1984 and remember some pretty nasty products-both environmentally and to people-that were used. The industry needed a thorough cleaning up and this has been accomplished over the past three decades through tighter environmental regulation(which thankfully banned the worst products), higher superintendent education requirements, a much tougher licensing process for the approval of new products, a willingness to tolerate some pest damage on the golf course, and the embrace of IPM(Integrated Pest Management) principles. Superintendents as a whole care greatly about the greenspace and wildlife habitats that they are responsible for and do what they can to minimize negative environmental impacts. More information will be forthcoming regarding the topic of environmental stewardship as we move forward at Nemadji with the certification process as an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. This is a very thorough certification which takes a number of years to complete as the documentation requirements are quite thorough.

ACSP for Golf – Audubon International

The topic of environmental stewardship is indeed very important to me as before arriving at Nemadji, I was superintendent at a very sensitive environmental site on Lake Vermilion in Tower, Minnesota. During the construction process, grow-in, and into routine maintenance, water quality testing over a period of five years at nine different sites around the golf course scanning for pesticide and fertilizer contamination came back as clean.

Water Quality Testing Sites

We were justifiably very pleased with these results as they proved through science that our practices were indeed environmentally responsible. That site was/is loaded with all sorts of wildlife including Monarch butterflies which we helped by planting an acre of milkweed in an out of play area. These efforts resulted in much appreciated recognition for our crew in 2010:

We have taken these same practices and put them to use at Nemadji and hope to continue to make similar efforts to enhance the site in a responsible manner while providing optimal playing conditions for our patrons.

See you on the golf course.

The post October Newsletter appeared first on Nemadji Golf Course.

Depth About 7” (At bend in wire)

You may have noticed some tearing on some of the fairways on the golf course-such as 8 North and 9 East. The main culprit causing this sort of tearing is the severe thatch issue on many of the older fairways.

Thatch Layer 9E Fairway 8-22-2022

This layer of dead and decaying stems and roots(the lower parts of the thatch layer are probably over 50  years old) pretty much seals off all water from entering into the soil beneath resulting in fairways that dry up under any kind of droughty conditions regardless of how much we water. In some instances the thatch layer is over 3 i

nches thick. Creating channels for air and water movement with the deep tine aerifier helps with this but the fundamental problem remains that there is simply too much thatch on these fairways. What these fairways really need is a complete renovation involving stripping and regrading but this would involve course closings and a substantial investment of time and money. More realistically, we could begin to remove this thatch with very aggressive deep verticutting to a depth of 2”-3”. This would require a more modest investment in equipment and labor and currently we are exploring our options. The big challenge with Nemadji is that there are so many things that could be done to improve but we simply cannot afford to do everything at once-we have to pick our battles. Which always seems to lead us back to our irrigation system.

Labor Day allowed us to celebrate as a golf course maintenance crew yet another damaging leak:

Leak 17W 9-5-2022

This leak currently under repair resulted in a “waterbed” of trapped water between the turf and soil beneath as big as a tee and over a foot high. This means yet more water wasted and taking the system out of service while repairs are made. These repairs are a dirty, thankless job and I cannot express enough appreciation for those who perform this work. What is funny (peculiar, not haha) is that these sorts of incidents occur with bi-weekly regularity at Nemadji while at a “normal” golf course this might be a once a year thing or less. This is not sustainable and hopefully we can move on from this money wasting process in the not so distant future allowing us to focus our efforts more on other improvements such as bunkers, cart paths, turf renovations, or whatever else we choose to do. One thing I would also like to do is find a way to prevent the occurrences like the two pictures below show:

Vandalism 3E 8-23-2022

Vandalism 2N 8-23-2022

Ballwashers at Nemadji have a tough life-Ballwasher was thrown onto 2N Fairway from 3N tee

Disheartening to say the least. I just wish that all players showed the respect and integrity on which the game was built. I truly think that most indeed do and thank you for that. In the future if anyone sees this kind of nonsense happening on the golf course please report it as soon as possible so that we may protect the facility for everyone’s enjoyment.

See you on the golf course.

The post September Newsletter appeared first on Nemadji Golf Course.

Moving on to the golf course, I pleased with the work this same crew has been performing on golf course bunkers over the past month. We recently began a long overdue edging process on bunkers where we try to give the course a more polished look. As they say, a picture says a thousand words and so I asked a helpful staff member to photograph the process.

5N 8-4-2022 Before Edging-Note jagged edge on greenside

5N 8-4-2022 During Edging-Note quantity off material removed

5N 8-4-2022-Finished Product

We are well aware that Nemadji bunkers are still in need of more drainage, sand, and other work-plans are in place to systematically correct these issues over time. This is not something that can happen overnight or even in a couple of years. We have pressing labor and investment needs in other areas as well and so must be patient. We will get there eventually. Before and after pictures are very helpful to illustrate much of the work that has been accomplished at Nemadji over the past few years. I find the following two pictures to be particularly interesting:

Entrance Sign End of Summer 2020

Entrance Sign 8-8-2022

A complete renovation of this entire weed ridden and overgrown area has resulted in an initial impression for the customer that is now positive. Once the perennials fully flower in a few weeks this area will really pop. A similar transformation has occurred in much of the landscaping around the clubhouse and golf course as well. While improvements like this may not directly affect the playability of the golf course, I really feel they have a positive effect by enhancing the Nemadji experience and overall ambiance. Keep in mind that improvements such as this have been performed entirely in-house. This is a lot of work. Much work and thought has also been put into the maintenance of putting greens at Nemadji over the past few years as well. We are, to put it simply, making much progress in improving the health of greens at Nemadji through practices that encourage the growth of creeping bentgrass. The picture below is a great example of this:

8E Green 8-8-2022

This picture is of a part of 8N green(lower tier) that has historically had a very high population of annual bluegrass or you may have heard it called Poa annua or simply Poa. The sunken in areas are of Poa in decline and the vigorous darker green turf is desirable bentgrass. Here is a closeup:

Bentgrass taking over July 2022

This picture really shows how sad we are making life for annual bluegrass and so encouraging the more desirable bentgrass. We do this through proper fertilization, growth regulation, irrigation(the best we can anyway), and other maintenance practices like maintaining a sensible height of cut (Poa likes low heights of cut and lowering mowing heights encourages Poa encroachment). Also important is a regular topdressing(adding a thin layer of sand and brushing in) program. In addition, we have been implementing deeper but less disruptive aerification processes that I think have really benefitted this facility-especially the older, horribly draining North/South greens. You may ask why go through all this effort. Grass is grass and as long as it is green who cares? I would agree except for the fact that annual bluegrass has a nasty habit of readily dying during the winter. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is worse on a northern golf course than coming through the winter looking like this:

Anonymous Picture. Winterkill-likely ice damage-on a putting green

Bentgrass is much more likely to endure the hardships of a bad winter than annual bluegrass. This has been proven by studies and practical experience for decades. That being said, I have experienced winters that took out everything-bentgrass included-but these types of winters are quite rare. About once every ten years or so has been my experience. With Poa, it seems like issues occur every other year. Our whole maintenance program at Nemadji is geared towards long-term health and sustainability of the facility over short-term playability gains from, for example, excessively lowering height of cut in the quest for more speed. Great way to encourage Poa encroachment and thus affect the condition of the golf course negatively months in the future. Successful golf course management requires this sort of forward thinking or else the Superintendent finds that the golf course is managing them instead of him/her managing the golf course. Just my thoughts. On a final note, we were preparing for one of the many events here at Nemadji in preparation for a modified shotgun start. We had freshly raked bunkers and after few of the early pre-shotgun groups played through I found this:                                                                                                                                                                    8E-July 2022

As can be seen here, the player walked right by the rake to play their shot and then simply left the bunker that way. Pretty sad that this player shows such little regard for the players coming to play behind them. This type of behavior is pretty common not just here at Nemadji but pretty much everywhere. I only ask that those of you that practice golf course etiquette-thank you by the way-please pass this knowledge on to those who may not know anything about golf course etiquette. Maybe they were never taught. Or maybe they simply do not care. Either way, the solution to these issues is not more rakes or signage as I have tried this to no avail(and considerable expense) at other facilities. I am not sure if there is a real solution but if there was one, I think that it would be for the players to educate one another within their group when they see things like an unrepaired ballmark occur. It is all about education in proper golf course behavior and actually caring about the experience of those around you.

See you on the golf course.

The post August Newsletter appeared first on Nemadji Golf Course.

Clogged Drain Basin 4E June 21, 2022

In this instance, about 1.25” of rain resulted in a golf course that was thoroughly soaked but with high winds and relatively low humidity the course firmed up nicely-particularly in areas where we have added drainage these past few years. Areas that would remain wet for weeks now only take a few days to become firm again. A golf course’s drainage work is never done and at Nemadji in particular this is especially the case.

One process that we are particularly excited about is Dryject aerification which we performed on June 7 on all of the older, original native soil greens on the golf course. This process is far more effective than conventional core aerifiying on these greens as it helps us to penetrate the terrible layering issue 4” under the surface which was discussed in greater detail last year. We are getting penetration into the greens of up to 6” and combined with the deep tine aeration of 8” depth that we have performed and will be performing again in the late Fall, really assists in drainage, deeper rooting, and gas exchange on these old, terrible soils. I also believe that this increased drainage is particularly helpful in removing surface water from greens late in the season which in turn enhances winter survivability. Winterkill in its various forms is the worst and anything that we can do to minimize the risk is well worth taking. An added bonus of the DryJect procedure as well is that the surface disruption caused is not nearly as bad as with conventional aerifying. Indeed, greens were back and playable in a fraction of the time that it might normally take. This is a big deal and makes me want to continue this work into the future.1 North Green 6-7-2022-Note Yellow Sand showing aerification depth

On the topic of disruption, I am pleased to report that after two years of repairing well over a hundred and forty irrigation issues, on this third year the work does not seem as daunting as it has been in the past two years. As it stands now, we have made 25 repairs which, while not normal, is an improvement from the previous years-though this may be due to the fact that we are not leaning as hard into the system due to having more rain this year. Even so, we still have situations like the one below:Behind 18W Green June 9, 2022

This “water bed” measured about 5 yards in diameter and while the repair was readily made by capable irrigation tech George Bibeau and company, it was, as always messy and taking our efforts away from other areas of the golf course that require attention. Much work goes into making Nemadji the best it can within our means and your understanding of this is important to us. Also important to all of us is proper care and respect of the golf course.Par 3 Course June 8, 2022

While probably not the best picture in the world, the players here created two large, bare patches on the 1^st Par 3 tee. These scars will remain here for the remainder of the season. If you are going to the Par 3, hitting a few balls to the green is okay but please refrain from hitting 40, 50, or even sixty shots into the green(unless you bring your own mat like one, considerate customer does). Save that sort of work for the practice tee. And if you are hitting multiple shots, make your divots in a linear pattern like the picture below as opposed to making a 3 foot across hole.Better way to make divots

One final note I would like to make is concerning garbage in the parking lot. We have garbage cans throughout the property that can be used and leaving crushed beer cans, plastic bottles, and other garbage on the lot is just bad form. We take pride in the golf course and we can all make the golf course so much better if we all showed the same degree of care in the property. Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Bentley found Kwik Trip Pizza Box in Parking Lot 6-30-2022

See you on the golf course.

The post July Newsletter appeared first on Nemadji Golf Course.

3 North May 2022

4 North June 2, 2022

Nemadji has been blessed with some of the worst inherent drainage properties I have ever been around with its extremely flat topography (especially the N/S course), heavy clay soils, and lack of catch basins. Areas where we have added drainage in-house have worked out very well but there is only so much we can do to keep the golf course firm when conditions turn this wet. We just have to wait this out and hope for a turn in the weather.

Some of you may have noticed that we now have yellow labels on bunker rakes that ask players to leave bunker rakes in bunkers. There is not a USGA sanctioned wrong or right way in this. Some facilities prefer rakes left outside of bunkers and others prefer rakes in bunkers. Leaving rakes in bunkers makes it easier for our rough mowers to perform their jobs more efficiently as they do not have to leave their rigs to continue their work. Makes sense at a municipal facility with limited means. Even with the labels, though, somehow bunker rakes always end up where they should not be.

9N 6-1-2022

A typical example of where bunker rakes end up at the end of the day. Sometimes in the turf, sometimes in the bunker, sometimes on top of one another. In this example, the players not only did not put the rakes back inside the bunker but we ended up with two rakes on top of one another, creating more work for the next set of players who will likely have to move further in order to retrieve a rake. The solution here is not more rakes, the solution is for players to consider the groups playing after them and place the rake back into the bunker accordingly. Similar to repairing ballmarks or replacing divots, human courtesy is a part of the game and will benefit everyone if all of us were to comply.

Our spring plant order arrived yesterday and we have started putting these plants into the ground starting with the entrance sign. Ornamental horticulture is something that I have always taken an interest in since hanging out with my Mom making the yard look real nice. I have since then been, at times, responsible for hotel and golf course grounds where a typical order might be 400-500 flats of annuals and/or perennials. We continue this sort of work at Nemadji albeit at a much smaller scale.

Ornamental Order Nemadji 6-1-2022

Note the trees we purchased in the background. These will be going out at out/edge of play locations over the next few weeks and we hope to continue this program over subsequent years. Many of you may have noticed that we have removed many damaged, dead, hazardous, or weed (plant out of place) trees over the past few years. Trees can be a wonderful enhancement to a golf course but they can also be overplanted creating long-term issues for the golf course. I find it very interesting how the tree planting programs of the 80’s and 90’s on golf courses were followed by tree removal programs a few decades later at some facilities. We are trying to find a proper balance at Nemadji of sensible replacement with hardy species that are, for the most part, indigenous to the area.

No newsletter would be complete without a dog picture. I hope that this little guy is not annoying too many people but it cannot be helped-he just likes people so much. I was amused by a player who complimented me on the “Watch for Dogs” signs we recently posted. I said thank you and responded that slowing down while driving around the facility is also good for golfer safety. His response was, “Yeah, but people like dogs.”

Bentley Dumpster Diving 6-2-2022

See you on the golf course.

The post June Newsletter appeared first on Nemadji Golf Course.