Our Rough

Hitting your ball out of the rough can be very challenging here at Kenmure.  Our rough is a mixture of Creeping Bentgrass, Annual Bluegrass, and Tall Fescue.  The dominant species is Creeping Bentgrass and it makes up 80% of the Rough that immediately surrounds the greens, tees, and fairways. Creeping Bentgrass can be very thick due to its growth habit, and when it gets 3 inches deep it can be very challenging.

The mowers are set to cut the grass at a height of 2.25 inches.  We attempt to mow the rough two times per week during the growing season.  Weather conditions (Rainfall)  always changes the mowing schedule.  Having Monday available to mow the rough is critical to completing two mowing cycles in one week.  Having the course available to mow while it is closed allows us to move quickly through the golf course uninterrupted.

We always start Monday morning being behind schedule on the rough, this is due to the fact that we do not operate the rough mowing units on the weekend.  This makes Monday a very critical day, we attempt to mow as much of the rough on Monday as possible.  Sometimes we cannot mow on Monday due to rainfall during the day or from the previous night.  This means we will start on Tuesday, and the rough has been growing for 3 days without being cut at all!  At certain points during the year the grass will grow one inch or more during these three days. This seems to happen many times a year here.

The only way to keep up during rain events is to work plenty of overtime on the days when conditions are favorable to mow, sometimes leading us to mow rough until near dark on some nights.  If the rough is very deep we must wait to mow until the dew is gone, or the grass clippings will clump very badly and leave a mess.  This means we also lose a couple more hours in the morning.  This is not a problem for us in the Summer when the daylight lasts until 9:30 pm.  Having dedicated staff willing to work long hours during the mid-season is critical to providing the conditions that we have here at Kenmure.

During the months of October and November before the hard freeze, the grass is still growing vigorously and we do not have the luxury of 3-4 extra hours of daylight to make up lost time from rainfall.  When we have wet conditions during this time of year we can sometimes struggle to get all the rough cut in a timely fashion, getting behind and not catching up with all the grass until Thursday or Friday.  This would mean that you might have encountered some difficult shots out of some areas on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Take for example this picture I took this morning (Nov 11, 2017).  This clearly illustrates how drastic the difference between cut and un-cut grass in the Rough can sometimes be:

Trying to keep on schedule with mowing, while minimizing clippings is something that is on my mind constantly during the growing season.  Every single week of every year always brings different challenges to this schedule, we adapt and restructure constantly to try and stay caught up with whatever the current climate conditions bring us.

Are you missing out on Kenmure Golf Maintenance news?

Did you know the Kenmure Golf Maintenance Dept. has a facebook page that we maintain?

Did you know that since the start of 2017 we have updated this facebook page 73 times?

If you have never visited our facebook page before please know that you are missing out many pictures, videos, and interesting articles about Kenmure Golf Club and the work that we do here.

Please follow this link to visit and view some of the many sights and sounds of our maintenance operation here at Kenmure Country Club:

https://www.facebook.com/kenmuregolf/

I would encourage everyone to go and check out this link.  Please note that you do not need to create an account with Facebook to view these pictures, video, and information.  Please bookmark the site and check it often.

Cart Path Only

Please consider these facts about allowing cart traffic on the turf:


1.  We strive to have as many "off path" days as possible here a Kenmure.

2.  The weather is the major factor in making the decision to allow carts on the fairways.

3.  Twice a year the fairways are closed to cart traffic following fertilizer applications.

4.  Having "Cart Path Only" days protects our large investment in time and money in the golf course.


It is the sincere wish of the golf maintenance staff to provide our membership with high quality playing surfaces.  Restricting cart traffic at the proper times is an important management tool that can contribute greatly to the overall condition of the turf as the season progresses.  Thank you for understanding the choices that we must make.


A very recent article published by the USGA.

http://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/course-care/forethegolfer/2017/why-are-carts-occasionally-restricted-to-cart-paths.html

Greens Aerification Video

I edited together some videos of the aerification process.

Pond Dredging on Hole #5

The upper end of the pond on #5 has been slowly filling with sediment from silt contamination that has washed down the stream and into our pond.  This is a slow process but it has really come to the surface in the last number of years.  The pictures below illustrate the problem and what we did to remove the silt.

Pictures from 2014

Even a small stream like this can carry tons of silt.

A closer view of the silt washing in after a rainstorm.

Cumulative effects in our miniature "Delta" region. 

Look at the silt flowing out.

Over the next couple years this area becomes very shallow.

Pictures from 2017

The pond has been drained to start the project.

This end had become completely contaminated and was no longer part of the pond.

A view of the rest of the pond.

The muddy work has begun.

The excavator is sitting on a platform to keep from sinking.

He moved these platform sections all around the pond to do the work.

Concrete was placed in many sections of the spillway to reinforce.

Getting close to finishing.

Deep in the mud,.

Pits were dug to hold the silt and let it dry.  Once these pits dry out they will be covered up.

A look a the new upper section of the pond.

Loading up the platforms at the end of the job.

Video from the pond dredging on Hole #5

Bunker renovations on #6

The bunker in front of the green on hole #6 has been redesigned.  We took away the steep slope of sand and shaved off the top of the mound so the green can be visible from inside the bunker and the approach.  I think everyone will enjoy the changes we have made to this bunker.

Digging into the slope revealed mostly sand.

We brought in 10 workman loads of topsoil to rebuild the slope.

The new slope is much less severe with gentle contours.

The top of the slope is much flatter providing a clearer view of the front of the green.

Rough sod is being replaced and stapled in place.

The new edge is cut into the bunker.

A view from the opposite side.

We reused all the original sand.

The end result.

Just another sinkhole repair.

A very small sinkhole is always a tell tale sign of a failing culvert.  We have fixed many of these in the past all over the golf course.  We use double walled pvc pipe that will last much longer, long enough we will never have to worry about replacing them again.

First step is to dig in the location of the sinkhole and find the pipe.

A bad section has been removed and we will connect to this steel culvert here.

Most of the bottom half of this culvert has deteriorated and is gone.

We always replace with double wall pvc drain. In this instance the pipe is 18 inch.

Connected the plastic to the steel with a poly seal coupler.

We are replacing the old steel culvert all the way to the catch basin.

We were able to slip the new pipe underneath the existing irrigation line.

Old culvert is taken to scrap yard and recycled.

Plywood sheets help us keep the fairway safe from damage during the project.

A view of the finished work.

We fixed another small sinkhole on the outlet side as well.

#15 White/Gold Tee Renovation

This very long and narrow tee lost much of its tee space due to sloping off on both sides.  This was a common occurrence on many of the tee boxes we have changed in this project.  This tee remains much the same but will be wider, flatter, and easier to maintain.

#13 White/Gold Tee Renovation

This tee on #13 was crowned off on both sides making it narrow.  The surface also needed leveling badly!

#10 Red/White Tee Renovation

On the third week we turned onto the back nine.  This tee on #10 was an other narrow, two tiered tee that needed some help.