April Employee of the Month

Rueben Robles from the golf course maintenance department was the April Employee of the Month. Rueben has been on staff since June of 1997. Rueben is a leader on the South course and he is called upon to wear many different hats. He can operate all of the different pieces of equipment and he is also a great crew leader doing small projects.

Update on # 7 Fairway Bunker

According to the Master Plan the fairway bunkers on #7 North will eventually change. One of the changes that takes place is the filling in of the old bunkers that are currently there. As you probably saw in an earlier posting that I did we had a tremendous wash out after the storm that we had on April 14th. This storm and some previous storms have been very hard on this bunker with all of the water that runs through that area in a big rain fall event. This last storm even washed out 50% of the sand in the bunker.

I asked for permission to move ahead and fill in this bunker. That request was approved at the Green and Golf Committee meeting and last night the Board of Directors gave us permission to proceed in filling in this bunker and making the area turf.

The Job Board

During peak summer months we have almost 50 people on staff in the golf course maintenance department. All of these people start at the same time everyday and once they clock in we expect them to go right to their jobs and start their day.

Sometimes it can be very confusing but we have refined our methods a little bit and we now rely on our job board to get staff headed in the right direction. Each morning I meet 1/2 hour prior to the crew starting with the 2 superintendents. We discuss our day, what events might be taking place and where we want crew to go. They in turn fill out the job board to meet those demands of the day. Is it perfect - no, because a golf course environment can change so much during the day. But the job board helps us to stay organized and it allows us to communicate to the staff what they need to do. The board gets updated several time during the day by the superintendents and their assistants. Once crew members finish their jobs they come back to the maintenance facility, check the job board and change equipment to do the next task.

Bluebirds!

Well we have been putting out and monitoring bluebird houses for many years and we have not been very successful. This year I am very happy to say that we finally have a nesting pair of bluebirds at DMGCC. On #18 North along the no mow area there is a bluebird nest box that we put out this spring. It has a #4 on the nest box. The female has laid some eggs and hopefully they will hatch some little ones this spring. They are a very colorful and beautiful bird to watch and have on our property. Please observe them but do not disturb them. Thank you. Here are some photos of them.

Frost

Last week we experienced some very cold mornings and most of those mornings included frost delays. Here in the maintenance department we talk a lot about frost and the potential damage it can do. The frost never really does damage but having any traffic on the turf in frosty conditions does do some damage. A lot of the times it is very cosmetic and superficial damage to the turf. It bends and bruises the turf blade and causes some unsightly damage. Here is a photo of foot prints where someone walked across the turf while the frost was still present.

As you know we are a Certified Audubon Cooperative Bird Sanctuary, as part of that program we participate in an annual bird watching day. It used to be called the “Bird Watch Open” and it was done on the same day each year across the United States. This year the name was changed to the “Bird Blitz” and the nice thing that changed is you are given a range of dates to host your event and pick what might be a better suited date for your area when birds might be migrating through or might finally get to your area. This year we will be doing it on Saturday May 5th.

We are very lucky to have a local bird enthusiast who is also a recently retired employee, Ben Taylor. Each year Ben works hard to find people to come out and participate with him. Here in the Des Moines area we are very lucky to have 4 individuals who care and take the time to come out and participate with Ben. They are Pam and Reid Allen, Sharon and Dick Stillwell. They spend hours looking for birds, and also they help educate others such as myself in identifying birds and habitat. I have gone with them in the past and I have learned a great deal from them and it is just more than watching birds. So if this in an interest to you or you would like to participate with us on this event, please send me an email and we will be happy to have you join us.

#7 Bunker North Course

Here is another photo of the power of water in a big rain event. You can see that the tile line got washed out also.

Rick Tegtmeier
Sent from my iPhone

Washed out bridge

Saturday nights 3"+ rain storm washed out this walking bridge on # 1 South.

Rick Tegtmeier
Sent from my iPhone

Drill and Fill Aerification Benefits

Every fall we do the job of aerification and then we do a similar process in the spring of the year using solid tines. Here at Des Moines Golf and Country Club we are “blessed” with greens that were built out of the native Iowa soil that was on site. Over the years with several aerifications and topdressings we are now growing our turf roots in a media that is better suited to good root development. However aerification has to continue and on certain greens we still need to do the “Drill and Fill” that leaves the big, ugly scars that take some time to heal in the spring. I have been asked if the big aerification holes are really necessary. The answer is a resounding Yes. I have included a photo of a profile that I took this morning. You will notice the big Drill and Fill hole that was done last fall and then filled with sand. The impressive thing in the photo is the white roots that are coming out the bottom of the aerification hole that was filled with sand. We are seeing this in all of the aerification holes made last fall but the Drill and Fill holes are really filling up and being utilized by the plant.

April Aerification

Each spring we do a deep tine aerification on greens, tees and fairways. This year is no exception to that. We are starting our greens deep tine aerification on the North greens today. We spread a layer of topdressing sand down on the putting surface first.

The we operate the deep tine machine on the green. We then brush and roll the green to help smooth it out again. This process will take a few days to do 18 holes. We will be doing the North greens the first 3 days of this week and next Monday April 17th we will do the South greens.

Deep tine aerification on the fairways is done with a different machine that does go faster and it does make a bigger hole in the playing surface. We are done with 1-13 fairways on the North. We will finish them this week and then move to the South fairways as soon we are done on the North. Tees will be completed as soon as greens and fairways are done.

We know this is not a popular maintenance procedure for the golfers but it is a process that we do that has to be done to help promote good root growth and plant development.