Rule 13-4

The LPGA doesn't get a lot of mainstream publicity, but after this past weekend's incident at the Kia Classic, it warranted a little airtime on ESPN's Sportscenter. I don't subscribe to
negative press, so what happen yesterday for Michele Wie should be a
reminder and lesson for us all. Know the rules.

Rule 13-4. Ball in Hazard; Prohibited Actions

Except as provided in the Rules, before making a stroke at a ball that is in a hazard (whether a bunker or water hazard) or that, having been lifted from a hazard, may be dropped or placed in the hazard, the player must not:

a. Test the condition of the hazard or any similar hazard

b. Touch the ground in the hazard or water in the hazard with hand or a club; or

c. Touch or move a loose impediment lying in or touching the hazard.

Wie was given a two stroke penalty for violating rule 13-4b. She stated that she grounded the club to regain her balance. The rules official did not agree.
Like the call or not, it certainly is debatable. Just like an umpire calling balls and strikes, or any referee calling fouls or penalties in many other sports, they call it how they see it. It's unfortunate for Wie, it cost her $91,000.

More clearing, but no playing

The 18 was cleared yesterday and it looks good as well. But please, I ask that no one play these greens. #17 green has many recent ballmarks and does not help the green come out of dormancy.

I had a great question asked of me about snowfall on the greens after they have been cleared. Well there are pros and cons. The let me start with the upside of new snow cover. First it prevents dessication. The last thing we want to do is blow snow back onto the green if the plants receive no moisture. The second positive is that the snow acts like a blanket and protects the plants from severe temperature fluctuations.

The downsides are disease and crown hydration. The disease we run the risk of seeing this time of year is pink snow mold or fusarium. These are not fatal, but can slow the plant down for the start of the season. If we notice any disease develop we can apply a light rate of fungicide to prevent it from spreading.

Crown hydration is a tricky one. When you lose the crown of the plant, you lose the plant. Similar to frost damage, the crown is the heart of the plant. In a nutshell we want to prevent standing or melting water on the green with severe low temperatures. When the plant takes up a lot of water, the crown of the plant can freeze, shatter and die.

DirecTV

The Masters is coming and most likely it will be the most watched tournament ever, for obvious reasons. The reason for this blog is if you are a DirecTV customer you can view the tournament on channels 701-705 all in HD for four days and it will give you the option to watch four different areas of the course including "Amen Corner". It will also provide a real time leader board at all times.

6 Green

Today we cleared the 6th green. It looked much like the 3rd green with a lot of ice. Which I found strange because we did not notice any winter traffic around the green.

Now that temperatures have increased, we are beginning to see more ice form at the surface of the green with all of the melting. Which means that we will continue to clear the greens until all 20 are snow-free.

Golf GPS Apps

As the spring snow is coming in from every direction, I have been able to see what is going on in FLA. The Golf Channel advertises a GPS phone app so I did a little research.

Golf Logix is one of many tools and they claim Vail Golf Club among many others in the valley are mapped on this app. Golf Logix can be used by almost all smartphones. It is $39.95 for an annual membership. It claims that it can help you with your game in various areas. It can be your handheld scorecard and download to the clubhouse. It can track how many greens and fairways you hit, measures the distance of your shot. The app also provides aerial pictures of the hole you are about the play. The have over 25,000 courses in their data base worldwide.

After spending a little more time in the "app store", come to find out there are almost 100 different golf apps for the iPhone to better your golf game. Some are worldwide, and some are local. Some courses even have their own app for a small fee, or for $20-35 annually you can get various apps that all help with scoring and distances up to 50,000 courses worldwide. The free ones seem to attract you to their app, but demand an upgrade for the "benefits".

However, I am still waiting for those golf balls with a micro chip in them so it can be located by your phone. Wouldn't that help with the pace of play!

If you become members of any GPS phone related golf tool, let me know. I would be happy to compare and contrast them through the blog. Sound like an excellent Father's Day gift (hint, hint, you know who!)

Round 1

Adobe Creek National Golf Club was the scene yesterday for my first round of the year. I am trying some new clubs this year and the front nine certainly had a bit of rust. For the most part, I was hitting the ball well all day and I hit most of the greens in regulation. We did play a scramble, so I didn't have many shots from the rough, which I am sure contributed to hitting greens, but it was a great way to start the season.
The golf course was great, Not much growth yet, but the weather was beautiful. The greens were rolling great for early season, I just wish I was putting better. Adobe Creek is a very well designed and maintained public course in Fruita. It consists of 27 holes and they seemed to be busy all day. Wide open fairways, not many trees around the course, big greens with many subtle hills around the perimeter of the course.
The foursome of Superintendents I was put in sure was fun. It consisted of Mike Miner, Red Sky Ranch, Andy Nikkari, Redlands Mesa and Tom Huesgen, Cornerstone GC. The only downside to a foursome of Superintendents is that we start yapping about everything and we are not the quickest group on the course. But it was great to get out there.

All Clear

Sorry no picture for #3 green here, but the ice has not created any problems. The color is less green than the others, but there is no turf loss. Justin, Tony and Mark out did themselves today and took advantage of the warm weather and advanced to #5 green. A little bit of ice on the green there, but with today's temperatures, it was easy to remove.
So far we have six greens cleared and all of them look great.
The plan for Wednesday is to clear #2 green and that may be all for the week. Clouds an possible snow may move into the valley by week's end.
Tomorrow Mike Ortiz (the boss) and I are headed to a Rainbird seminar in Grand Junction. Following the seminar we are headed to Adobe Creek GC in Fruita to play a round. First round of the year! I am looking forward to swinging the sticks again and going for a nice long walk on grass.

Lots of ice on 3

This green is quite different than 4 was yesterday. Looks like we had more winter traffic than we thought. Fortunately we have great temperatures on the way today. I'll keep this updated later this afternoon on the progress of 3 green.

The Fourth

Today we tackled the fourth green instead of the third, because it was easier to access. The process went smoothly. The snow depth was a little more than two feet and we had the green completely cleared in about 3.5 hours. The green looks great, plenty of sand left over from last fall.

If you have noticed the greens that already have been cleared are starting to lose their color, your mind is not playing tricks on you. After prolonged snow coverage, the turf does not experience the change in temperature and sunlight. The loss of color is the plants way of responding to all of the changes they are beginning to endure. The turf has not seen the light of day in 3 months which causes the greens to transition slowly through dormancy. At this point, the putting surfaces are still susceptible to any kind of traffic and frost stress during this transition period. They can be fragile until growth begins which is late April or early May depending on the weather.

Life along the highway

Look what I found along the 13th hole! Fortunately I had enough room in the back of the snowcat.

If the weather cooperates tomorrow, we will be clearing the 3rd green.

Another Beautiful Day

Plenty of sunshine today. Seventeen green was cleared today. Some ice build up from elk traffic, however after a couple hours of sun it was easy to pry from the turf. No noticeable damage left behind, the green looks good.

I am noticing what looks like frost heave in some of the greens. I noticed this with the cart path a few years ago when we had a smaller "winter blanket" on the golf course. The smaller blanket provides less protection from the cold temperatures. Some soils can respond by "pushing up" and disrupting the surface. There is more damage with cart paths because of cracking. Other areas of turf that I have noticed this with in the past settle down once they thaw out.

This should not have any impact with the golf season. The greens will level out properly once aerification is completed and growth begins.

Project 50

Living in a ski town you frequently hear the question, "How many ski days do you have this year?" Well, that is how I am approaching the golf season. 50 golf rounds is my goal. By the time the golf course is in full swing I plan on getting 2 rounds a week at Vail. The Rocky Mountain Golf Course Superintendents Association has a great list of events this year. The schedule is as follows, Redlands Mesa, Keystone Ranch, Lakota Canyon, Colorado Springs CC, Hyland Hills, Meadow Hills, and Blackstone CC. Not sure if I can make them all, but I certainly would like to get to each public facility to see how they operate. I have not played any of these courses so I am excited to add them to the list.

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Snow Water Equivalent

Posted under the heading you will notice recent snow water equivalents for a few local peaks. In all three locations the water equivalent is lower than 2002, when the state experienced the worst drought in recent years. I will keep an eye on this periodically to see how it will effect the golf course's water supply. Good thing we have a new irrigation system to manage water more efficiently.

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This picture was taken next to 11 green. This area was an elk bed last night. A few tracks were noticed on the green, but no significant damage.

15 express

Yes, this is the express way that the elk now travel at night as they
pass through 15 green. Mostly just traffic right now, but this may
alter our clearing practices.

Afternoon Putting

Not yet, but we can make afternoon putting available when the practice greens are clear. Frost and saturated conditions would have to subside before allowing anyone to putt. These factors can leave a negative impact on health and ball roll going into the spring. When I feel comfortable letting the public out there to putt I will cut a few cups and put flags in.
This may sound ridiculous, but my biggest fear is the bad apple in the group. Similar to what happened last fall with 14 green. I can not afford to sacrifice any part of the golf season. Check back in 2-3 weeks, I will keep you all posted.

The Process

I recently had a few questions on how we determine which greens are cleared. Under normal conditions I would begin clearing the greens that see the most sun. These greens have the least amount of snow and are easier to clear. Since their melting rate is higher there is a greater chance for ice to form at the surface.

However the last two winters were not very normal for us. The elk traffic have changed our process a bit. So our goal this spring is to target the greens that had a lot of elk traffic which may have created ice forming at the surfaces. So far greens 14 & 15 have come out looking healthy.

As for the practice greens, for a little afternoon recreation on a warm sunny day? I am hoping to have all of the greens cleared by the end of March. Usually the practice greens are last to be cleared. This year they will be last because the practice area is the only area on the course that we noticed zero elk traffic. However, with our recent weather, we may get to the practice greens much earlier.

Today we target 11 green. Then we will move to greens 16, 17, 7 and 3, then we will re-evaluate with the weather and any other elk traffic that may occur over the next couple of weeks. So far we see no signs of the elk leaving Vail. Makes me wonder if they will become year round residents?

14 Green

Yesterday, the 14th green was cleared and the process went very smooth. This green is one that sees very little sunlight through the winter and as you can see it came out nicely. No snow mold or ice damage present.
There was the threat of elk traffic throughout the winter, but there was no evidence.
If you take a closer look to the second picture you will notice some of the sand left from last fall's heavy topdressing. This is a good thing to help protect the plants. We also noticed the color not as vibrant as years past. This is due to the late snowfall and the green was able to go into dormancy. The benefit to dormancy is that the plants are better prepared for the fluctuations in temperatures that we are beginning to have in the valley.
The 15th green was cleared today and we have excellent results with this green as well.

Not Today

With snow flurries and cloudy weather today, conditions were not suitable for clearing greens. However with February gone, here are the weather totals for Vail Golf Club. The average high was 29 degrees and the average low was 6 degrees, with the lowest recorded temperature for the month was -10 degrees.
The golf course received 34.75 inches of snowfall which equated to 1.89 inches of moisture. The total snowfall for 2010 is 52.75inches.
Tuesday is looking good for seeing some grass around here.