I guess I shouldn't be surprised that my degree, Turfgrass Management, should be listed as one the "Weird-but-True College degrees."
Check out the link to CareerBuilder.com's article: http://msn.careerbuilder.com/Article/MSN-2504-College-Internships-First-Jobs-Weird-but-true-College-degrees/
I get the same quizzical looks when I answer "What do you get a degree in to be a Golf Course Superintendent?" as when I tell people I do beekeeping as a hobby. Oddly enough, my alma mater, Cal Poly - SLO, offers the Viticulture major as well. For what it's worth, I'd highly recommend either major, and the school, for anyone interested in either field. Who knew you could major in two things most people would consider an enjoyable hobby?! Yet another reason I love my job.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Recycled Landscaping
A big winter project at Winchester will always be to do some clearing, thinning and removal of native plant material that has become overgrown and obstructive. Hopefully many of you will have noticed by now much of the native clean-up that we have performed. If not, here's a quick list:
#2 - Cut back a small oak next to the forward tee that was blocking sightlines
#3 - Cut back small pines and manzanita on the hill left of the tees to exposure the view of the left side of the hole
#5 - Cut back small pines to the right of the blue tee that were obstructing tee shots from the gold and black tees
#6 - Removed a larger pine that was blocking the view of almost the entire right side of the fairway
#10 - Cleared out all underbrush on the hill to the right of the green to improve air circulation and to make balls easier to find
#11 - Cut back willows on the green side of the marsh that would eventually block out the view of the green
#13 - Cut back brush and small pines from the right side of the blue tee that were blocking shots from the gold and black tee
#17 - Cut down willow bushes and a larger pine that blocked views and certain shots from the tees
More clearing may be done as we find time, but recently we've been using our chipper to make mulch out of all the material that we've cut down in these areas. It's not the best looking mulch in the world, but for our basic on-course landscape areas it will definetely serve its purpose of buffering the soil and helping to prevent weed growth. The best part is that it's free, and all part of a necessary process for our maintenance of the course. So we saved a few dollars and found a "greener" use for our chippings than just adding them to our compost site!
#2 - Cut back a small oak next to the forward tee that was blocking sightlines
#3 - Cut back small pines and manzanita on the hill left of the tees to exposure the view of the left side of the hole
#5 - Cut back small pines to the right of the blue tee that were obstructing tee shots from the gold and black tees
#6 - Removed a larger pine that was blocking the view of almost the entire right side of the fairway
#10 - Cleared out all underbrush on the hill to the right of the green to improve air circulation and to make balls easier to find
#11 - Cut back willows on the green side of the marsh that would eventually block out the view of the green
#13 - Cut back brush and small pines from the right side of the blue tee that were blocking shots from the gold and black tee
#17 - Cut down willow bushes and a larger pine that blocked views and certain shots from the tees
More clearing may be done as we find time, but recently we've been using our chipper to make mulch out of all the material that we've cut down in these areas. It's not the best looking mulch in the world, but for our basic on-course landscape areas it will definetely serve its purpose of buffering the soil and helping to prevent weed growth. The best part is that it's free, and all part of a necessary process for our maintenance of the course. So we saved a few dollars and found a "greener" use for our chippings than just adding them to our compost site!
Chipping brush on #10
Recycled mulching on #17
Friday, January 28, 2011
Irrigation Inventory Complete!
After slogging through two months of checking every sprinkler on the golf course, soaking our assistant Joe on far too many occasions, and even occasionally soaking an unsuspecting golf cart (sorry!...again!), we've finally finished the tedious but very important task of taking inventory of all the irrigation sprinklers.
To remind those of you who may not know or remember, we embarked upon this task because it was somewhat obvious at the end of last summer that the irrigation system wasn't functioning quite as it should. The requirement for handwatering was far too great for this advanced of an irrigation system and, to top it off, when we checked the computer used to program irrigation, it thinks it's putting out 100,000 gallons, yet the flowmeter on the pump station the morning after says it actually put out closer to 300,000 gallons! Something was definitely wrong....
Just over 2,000 sprinkler checks later, we've ascertained the majority of those problems. The troubling, though not completely unexpected, news is that approximately 38% of the sprinklers had some sort of functional problem, ranging from minor to major. The bulk of the problems we've categorized as such:
- Arc adjustment: All part circles operate on an arc, or some part of a full circle. With some sprinklers, the arc was too much, or too little, causing either overthrow or missed spots where turf wasn't getting hit at all. On others, the arc was fine, but the entire sprinkler was rotated to water the wrong area (i.e. native area or cart path) as opposed to the turf it should be irrigating.
- Leaking: Fairly obvious; a number of heads had problems leaking water, either while running, or just while stagnant, just from being pressurized. These leaks cause overwatering and perennial wet spots.
- Nozzle problem: The nozzles on a sprinkler dictate the range (how far) of the throw of that sprinkler. Some nozzles were worn out, others were incorrectly sized, causing sprinklers to throw water too far, or not far enough.
- Internal drive problems: The majority of these are sprinklers that are currently full circle that need to be changed over to part circle. Most are located on and around tee complexes. The full circles cause over-irrigation and overgrowth of surrounding native areas and weeds that don't need that extra water. Other sprinklers had gears that had gone bad, such that they no longer rotate at all and stay stuck watering in one spot the whole time.
- Raise & level: In order for a sprinkler to operate as designed, it needs to be flush to grade and level with the surrounding slope. If a sprinkler is too low, or set at an odd angle, the irrigation is compromised, either by reduced range or interference from surrounding turf.
- Trim or move: Over the course of time, many sprinklers on the perimeter of the course have snuck farther into the native areas or become overgrown by surrounding plants and turf. Some of these need to be moved back to the edge of the mow lines, or need to be trimmed or mowed around enough to not have surrounding plant material interfere with their job of irrigating.
- Electrical problems: These are often the hardest to solve and most perplexing. Some sprinklers we found, but they don't turn on electronically. Some sprinklers run on multiple stations. Some sprinklers are oddly combined with other sprinklers they shouldn't be. And some stations on the controllers have a wire, but we can't find a sprinkler to go with it. We'll solve these problems by tracing wires, replacing electronics and, in some areas, redesigning or modifying the existing layout of the sprinklers.
So there's still alot of work to be done. But the promising part is that we now have a "face" to our monster. We know what's in front of us to tackle. And tackle it we will. And once the problems are fixed, and the central control computer has been updated to reflect exactly what's out in the field, this multi-million dollar irrigation tool should finally operate as it should, and help immensely in keeping our turf alive, healthy and thriving.
To remind those of you who may not know or remember, we embarked upon this task because it was somewhat obvious at the end of last summer that the irrigation system wasn't functioning quite as it should. The requirement for handwatering was far too great for this advanced of an irrigation system and, to top it off, when we checked the computer used to program irrigation, it thinks it's putting out 100,000 gallons, yet the flowmeter on the pump station the morning after says it actually put out closer to 300,000 gallons! Something was definitely wrong....
Just over 2,000 sprinkler checks later, we've ascertained the majority of those problems. The troubling, though not completely unexpected, news is that approximately 38% of the sprinklers had some sort of functional problem, ranging from minor to major. The bulk of the problems we've categorized as such:
- Arc adjustment: All part circles operate on an arc, or some part of a full circle. With some sprinklers, the arc was too much, or too little, causing either overthrow or missed spots where turf wasn't getting hit at all. On others, the arc was fine, but the entire sprinkler was rotated to water the wrong area (i.e. native area or cart path) as opposed to the turf it should be irrigating.
- Leaking: Fairly obvious; a number of heads had problems leaking water, either while running, or just while stagnant, just from being pressurized. These leaks cause overwatering and perennial wet spots.
- Nozzle problem: The nozzles on a sprinkler dictate the range (how far) of the throw of that sprinkler. Some nozzles were worn out, others were incorrectly sized, causing sprinklers to throw water too far, or not far enough.
- Internal drive problems: The majority of these are sprinklers that are currently full circle that need to be changed over to part circle. Most are located on and around tee complexes. The full circles cause over-irrigation and overgrowth of surrounding native areas and weeds that don't need that extra water. Other sprinklers had gears that had gone bad, such that they no longer rotate at all and stay stuck watering in one spot the whole time.
- Raise & level: In order for a sprinkler to operate as designed, it needs to be flush to grade and level with the surrounding slope. If a sprinkler is too low, or set at an odd angle, the irrigation is compromised, either by reduced range or interference from surrounding turf.
- Trim or move: Over the course of time, many sprinklers on the perimeter of the course have snuck farther into the native areas or become overgrown by surrounding plants and turf. Some of these need to be moved back to the edge of the mow lines, or need to be trimmed or mowed around enough to not have surrounding plant material interfere with their job of irrigating.
- Electrical problems: These are often the hardest to solve and most perplexing. Some sprinklers we found, but they don't turn on electronically. Some sprinklers run on multiple stations. Some sprinklers are oddly combined with other sprinklers they shouldn't be. And some stations on the controllers have a wire, but we can't find a sprinkler to go with it. We'll solve these problems by tracing wires, replacing electronics and, in some areas, redesigning or modifying the existing layout of the sprinklers.
So there's still alot of work to be done. But the promising part is that we now have a "face" to our monster. We know what's in front of us to tackle. And tackle it we will. And once the problems are fixed, and the central control computer has been updated to reflect exactly what's out in the field, this multi-million dollar irrigation tool should finally operate as it should, and help immensely in keeping our turf alive, healthy and thriving.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Above the Fog, Below the Snow
After nearly 28 inches of rain and too many frosty mornings to count, we can't complain that Winchester is living up to it's motto of being "above the fog and below the snow." I feel so sorry for my superintendent friends swamped in the valley.
It won't be long before the grass starts growing like crazy again! Though we definetley wouldn't mind getting a little more rain.....
It won't be long before the grass starts growing like crazy again! Though we definetley wouldn't mind getting a little more rain.....
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Happy New Year!!
What a way to welcome in 2011!! Here are pictures from early morning, New Year's Day:
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Wild Winter Weather
For those of you that may not know me well yet, you'll soon discover that I'm a numbers fanatic. I love to keep records and documentation of just about anything. Fortunately, this often proves very beneficial for this profession, not only in keeping track of all things important, but also in helping to save money, time maintenance practices and having an accurate record to compare historical events.
One of the big databases of numbers I like to keep on top of is weather. Not only is it fun to compare months, and different times of years, along with annual extreme stats, but keeping track of the weather helps us apply various fertilizers and chemicals at just the right time, punch holes when we know they'll heal the fastest, and schedule the right work, for the right turf area, at the right time.
So just to start, I thought I'd share some of the fun numbers generated so far by the few winter months we've endured:
As of December 15, 2010...
- 24 of the last 38 days we've had either frost or rain
- Current rain total for the winter is 16.34" (I've been told we average around 40")
- Max rain in one day = 5.07" (Oct. 24th)
- Lowest temperature = 22.5 F (Nov. 25th)
- Longest cold spell (days below freezing) = 7 days (Nov 23-29)
- NO SNOW!.....yet (last December was when Winchester got almost a foot of fresh powder)
It's already been a wild, wet, chilly winter so it will be interesting to see what becomes of the next few months. The good news is that despite being a bit soft in spots, the golf course is still playing great with the greens rolling truer and quicker than they have in quite some time!
One of the big databases of numbers I like to keep on top of is weather. Not only is it fun to compare months, and different times of years, along with annual extreme stats, but keeping track of the weather helps us apply various fertilizers and chemicals at just the right time, punch holes when we know they'll heal the fastest, and schedule the right work, for the right turf area, at the right time.
So just to start, I thought I'd share some of the fun numbers generated so far by the few winter months we've endured:
As of December 15, 2010...
- 24 of the last 38 days we've had either frost or rain
- Current rain total for the winter is 16.34" (I've been told we average around 40")
- Max rain in one day = 5.07" (Oct. 24th)
- Lowest temperature = 22.5 F (Nov. 25th)
- Longest cold spell (days below freezing) = 7 days (Nov 23-29)
- NO SNOW!.....yet (last December was when Winchester got almost a foot of fresh powder)
It's already been a wild, wet, chilly winter so it will be interesting to see what becomes of the next few months. The good news is that despite being a bit soft in spots, the golf course is still playing great with the greens rolling truer and quicker than they have in quite some time!
Monday, December 6, 2010
Irrigation in Winter?
Some of you may have noticed sprinklers running throughout the course, on or even immediately following a rainy day and wondered to yourself, "Why in the world are they watering the golf course when it's raining?!" Rest assured, we're not irrigating at all, especially with the unusually wet weather we've had so far this year.
Our assistant superintendent, Joe Meyer, and I are going through the entire golf course doing an irrigation inventory. Over the years, many adjustments and changes have been made to the irrigation system and the whole system will only work effectively if those changes are made not only in the field, but to the irrigation central control computer as well. So we are firing off every sprinkler (for a minute or less only) to check proper function, rotation, nozzle type, sprinkler type, potential problems with sprinkler height or angle, as well as anything else that can be noted that needs to be addressed or improved. We're also mapping where each component is located in order to be able to resolve problems and utilize our system more quickly and efficiently in the do-or-die summer heat.
Once we've gathered all this information, we return indoors, where we update the computer database to ensure that what our computer calculates it needs to put out for irrigation is exactly what is going out in the field. Without the marriage of field data to computer data, it's very easy to over or under water, despite the amazing technology we're working with.
Like I'm sure many of us have heard before, a machine is only as smart as it's user. So we're getting smarter, and getting the opportunity to see each and every head close up in operation, which is nearly impossible find time to do during the active growing season and helps us find and remedy nearly all irrigation issues before they cause us serious trouble.
This is one of the many big steps that we are taking to ensure the health, playability and aesthetics of Winchester remain second to none, and that the vital lifeblood system of our course is functioning just as we intend it to for the upcoming warmer weather.
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