February 23, 2016

As I sit here at my desk on a cloudy February morning, I catch myself thinking about two spots that are not on any of the greens, but are on my skin – one on my ear and the other on my wrist.

Last month my dermatologist diagnosed these as precancerous cells and froze both spots (cryotherapy). In a few more weeks I am scheduled to go back to the dermatologist to be rechecked. Hopefully this initial treatment has removed the cells, but if she has any reservations, she will have them biopsied, and we’ll go from there.

I get teased a lot because I don’t wear shorts or short sleeves very often, even on the hottest days. Most people ask how I can do that and my answer has always been that I am protecting myself from skin cancer – my mom had it and beat it, yet a cousin, at age 26, left behind a wife and two kids because it was found out too late.

Because I wear long sleeves all year long, I wasn’t expecting her to find a spot on my wrist. I am sure though, now that I think of it, that my sleeves inch up throughout the day so that my wrists don’t stay covered as much as I think they do. And too, sunlight penetrates fabric.  It all starts to makes sense.

One of the things I don’t do is wear a hat, so when the area on my ear began to feel rough, scabby, and a bit painful, I suspected that there could be something going on there.

 I don’t like hats. Hats of any kind have always been uncomfortable to me.  Even in the winter I will let my ears freeze before I put one on, and even then, I will take it off every few minutes. But now, I will have to find a way to change my mindset and deal with wearing a hat, or at the least, use a lot of sunscreen on my ears. It would be best to do both.

Having cryotherapy isn’t that uncommon – I know many people who have had this procedure, but this time, it is my wake-up call. Although I have always taken precautions, I will have to take the sun even more seriously now and wear a hat and use a lot more sunscreen, while continuing to wear long pants and long sleeves. You’ll be able to tease me a bit more, but that’s ok – to me it’s worth it.

I thought I would share this experience and what I am thinking because as cautious as I have been, it wasn’t quite enough. We may think that we are doing all the right things, but it still may not be enough. It’s best to get screened at least once a year, even for those of us who aren’t outside all day. And if anything seems suspicious, its best to get it looked at. Waiting too long, or ignoring it, is the worst thing anyone of us can do.

The best thing to do, is to take care of yourself.

December 21, 2015

Today marks the winter solstice – the shortest day of the year with only 9 hours and 32 minutes of daylight. With the warm temperatures that we have been experiencing I am not sure if a real winter will ever come, but just in case it does, we have been getting ready.

Over the past few weeks our staff has been doing their best to prep the course for the cold. Some of these preparations are:

Winterizing the irrigation system, or “blowing it out”. Using two air compressors we push the water out of the pipes and irrigation heads to prevent freeze damage. We also winterize the pump house, draining the pressure regulating valves, the system control cooling system, etc.

Needle –tining the greens which will help with surface drainage, air exchange, and will promote root growth while the soil temperatures remain above freezing.  

We applied a fungicide to the greens to suppress cold weather diseases which can be very hard to control. Most likely we will follow this up with another application in four to six weeks, depending on the weather and disease pressure.

A light topdressing was applied to the greens to help protect them from winter desiccation.

We filled divots on tees and fairways, adding seed that will break dormancy and germinate as soon as the temperatures warm up in the spring. We also completed dormant seeding to areas on a few fairways.

A specialized turf cover was put over the Bermuda grass driving range tee. The cover will add a few degrees of warmth.  A few degrees may not seem like much, but when you think about it, one degree is the difference between freezing and not freezing, so it can really matter.  As the days lengthen in the spring, the cover will create a difference of up to ten degrees or more. Overall, the cover will help moderate temperatures, protect the turf from winter desiccation, and help the turf green up weeks earlier than it would if it was not covered.

We finished verti- quaking the fairways, tees, and areas of the rough. This of course isn’t just for the winter, but loosening the soils does provide better drainage through the winter, lessens the chance for disease, and helps with root growth come spring.

For the same reason, we ran the verti-quake over the lower practice green. If we have time and weather permits, we may also do the few greens that have heavy soils and poor drainage.

There have been a few other preparations, such as readying the tunnel pumps, bringing in tee and green accessories, etc.

We feel that we have done the best we can to prepare the course for the winter and in doing so, have also gained a head start on this coming spring!

With the season almost over, we want to take this time to wish all our members a very safe, happy, and joyful Holiday Season! Thank you for giving us your support this year – our staff appreciates all of you!

November 24, 2015

Frost occurs when temperatures approach 32 degrees, freezing the dew upon the plant surface and more importantly, the water that is present inside the plants’ cells. The expanding pressure of the freezing water inside the cell stretches the cell membrane, and subsequently the membrane loses all of its elasticity and resiliency that enable it to withstand outside forces such as foot traffic, etc.  In this state, the membrane cannot absorb impact or stretch and re-conform to pressure, so it breaks, causing the cell fluid to leak after thawing, killing the cell completely. If enough cells are affected, the whole turf plant will die, and if enough plants are affected, large areas of turf, whether it is greens, tees, fairways, or rough, can be killed.

An easy way to understand this phenomenon is to imagine a water balloon. The balloon skin is elastic, flexible, and can easily supply generous “give” to forces exerted upon it. But when the balloon is frozen, the skin is stretched by the expansion of water as it turns to ice, and it becomes thin, rigid, and brittle, unable to flex against outside pressures. Its only “give” is to break

By delaying play until the frost is gone and the temperatures moderate, we give time to allow the plant cells to thaw and the cell membranes to regain their original elastic qualities that enable them to withstand traffic.

October 31, 2015

Within the week, we put down our syringe hoses and picked up rakes!

It is just the start of the leaf season which will not end until next spring. We have many trees, and many varieties, so the leaf drop does not occur at the same time! Although I will not account for every variety, leaf drop starts with the maples and cherries, then the hickory, sassafras and dogwood, and finally the oaks that extend their leaf drop well into the next spring. Throughout this time, the evergreens drop last year’s needles, acorns fall, twigs break, and so it goes. Managing leaves and tree debris becomes a full time, full crew, job.

Each day we blow off the play areas and mulch the leaves as best we can. In some areas, we also use the leaf vacuum, and in others we blow the leaves into the woods. Then there are many places where we have no choice but to rake them into piles, pick them up by hand, and take them to our refuse area.

An unseen challenge is the neighbors – leaves blow from their properties onto ours and ours onto theirs. We continually try to do our best to cooperate with our neighbors to keep our leaves under control so they aren’t  their problem.

On an average day, we spend over 35 person hours on leaves alone. On most days we are able to keep up with the leaves. There are times, especially when it’s windy, when nothing seems to work no matter how much time we spend managing the leaf fall. With the winds, it’s like herding cats as the herd is multipling out of control.

Leaf season is one of the most labor intensive times of the year, and it is sometimes the most frustrating!