Date: Fri 28-Jul-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: TOMW

Illustration: I

Quick Words:

Golf-Course-Maintenance

Full Text:

Golf Course Maintenance

Rock Ridge/Newtown CC

B Y K IM J. H ARMON

If the average homeowner wanted to be fanatical about keeping his lawn green,

he could spend seven days a week watering, seeding, mowing, trimming and

weeding, but that would be obsessive and few homeowners are that fanatical

about their lawns.

For a golf course maintenance crew, though, it's not a question of fanaticism

or obsession. Working seven days a week watering, seeding, mowing, trimming

and weeding - not to mention countless other tasks like raking sand traps and

planting and re-planting trees - is part of the week-to-week battle of keeping

a golf course healthy.

Along with the lack of rainfall and the recent heat wave that pushed the

temperature up towards 105 degrees, Bob Welch of Rock Ridge Country Club off

Route 302 and Joe Kocet of the Newtown Country Club on South Main Street have

had a lot of things to deal with this summer on top of their normal, almost

unvarying routine.

l  Heat - When the temperature seethes around 104, the grass simply stops

growing. Welch said, " Heat is funny. Heat with humidity isn't a problem, per

se. You don't lose moisture. Heat, humidity, and a 20 mile-an-hour wind

changes the complexity of the situation . . . which is what we had that week.

That really does dry the plant out. You got a high sky with no humidity and

the wind blowing, 87 or 90 degrees is worse than 104 or 105. It's just

straight burn. "

l  Ugh, the humidity - Consistently high humidity has Kocet concerned about

fungal growth across Newtown Country Club, so this week he was prepared to

apply some fungicide. Kocet said, " I don't have to water as much, but, I

don't know, I wonder if I'd rather be watering or spending my money on the

fungicide. It's sort of a catch-22 situation. "

l  Sand trap reconstruction - An on-going project at Rock Ridge this summer,

fitting in between the routines and the tournaments, is the reconstruction of

the sand traps across the course.

l  Wildlife - Foxes have become a nuisance at Rock Ridge, leaving their dinner

carcasses on the course, while at NCC a large animal - possibly a coyote -

took down a baby deer, which frequent both courses.

The daily list of things to worry about can get quite long for Welch and

Kocet, but it's all part of the job they have in bringing the golf courses

through the harsh tests of summer.

A Mild Winter

The golf courses got started on good footing for the 1995 season after a mild

winter. " We got things going earlier than we thought we would, " said Kocet.

" All the lawns and turf came through it pretty good. There really wasn't much

winter kill at all. It gave everybody a jump on things. "

Welch agreed. " It's been a really good year. We had the easy winter and went

right into a dry spring. Two years ago, when we had the ice damage, we were

out here in the winter removing snow and ice from the greens just to let some

air in. Most species of grass can't survive 120 days under solid ice. "

With an excessive amount of rain or snow, the grass won't develop a solid root

system, and plants like that have a harder time surviving the heat. But

because the winter was mild and the spring dry, the grass was able to develop

the root system.

But the maintenance crews got off to a good start, able to ease into their

routines without a lot of major prep work prior to the start of the 1995

season. Those routines, though, remain as busy as ever when it comes to

maintaining some 20 acres of real estate.

In a normal week fairways would be mowed three times a week (Monday,

Wednesday, Friday), while greens would be mowed six days a week (Monday or

Tuesday would be an off day). Tees, aprons and approaches would be mowed every

other day.

In the spring and the fall, though, the growing season, mowing the rough is a

five-day a week job. Raking the sand traps, all year long, is a three- or

four-day a week job. And then there is weed whipping, which is done about

every two or three weeks.

Throughout this entire routine, too, is the almost constant watering. Rock

Ridge, with its automatic system, uses around 40,000 gallons of water a day

and could use as much as 80,000 gallons a day, according to Welch, if it had

access to that much.

" Money is an object, " he said. " These are local, working class people and

there is a budget to adhere to. They give me a number to start with and its my

job to work within that number. "

The routine was a bit more frenzied for the Rock Ridge crew recently, which

was getting ready for the club's big member-guest tournament just as the heat

wave was seeping its way into the state.

Taking care of the nine greens was, perhaps, the hardest part of the effort.

After double verti-cutting the greens and double mowing, each had to be

covered with a thin coat of top dressing (80% sand, 10% peat, 10% soil) before

being matted and watered. A day later, the greens were mowed dry to remove any

particles left behind.

On top of mowing the greens every day, the crew had to mow the fairways on

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, while spraying fungicide on the tees, whipping

and raking the sand traps, trimming the hedges, weed-whipping everything,

taking down a tree, sanding and painting cups, putting out new flags, cleaning

up the curbs and cart paths, and picking up sticks and branches and other

detritus throughout the week.

" There wasn't anything we did differently, " Welch said, " but heading into a

tournament, whatever you do you do more often. "

Rock Ridge got through the tournament and both courses made it through the

blistering heat remarkably well.

" We came through it pretty good, " said Kocet. " We were watering up until

then and actually it was pretty surprising, because the course didn't suffer

that much.

" But we did use a lot of water, " he added.

Dealing With Wildlife

Squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, geese, turkeys, bats, rodents, deer - are

these golf courses or zoos?

Dealing with wildlife is part of the weekly chore of taking care of a golf

course - dealing, mostly, with damage some might inflict upon trees or

shrubbery or dealing with the mess others leave behind.

Kocet said wildlife has not really caused a problem at NCC, although he found

the remains of a baby deer that could have been taken down by a coyote.

Welch has had his problems with foxes, which have used Rock Ridge as a dumping

ground for their dinners and late-night snacks.

" It's a real nuisance, " he said. " Every morning its a major cleanup because

they leave their carcasses all over the place Á you name it, squirrels,

chipmunks, raccoons, geese, cats, maybe even a turkey or two.

" There is a lot of wildlife up here, " he added. " An awful lot. There were

even some turkey vultures out the other night picking on a carcass that a fox

had left. "

Affecting Play

As much work as the maintenance crews do from day to day on a course, little

is actually done, though, that makes the course play any differently from one

round to the next.

Sure, cup placement is one way. From the perspective of the tee, a cup placed

behind a bunker is a lot more difficult to hit at than a cup placed in front

of runway leading up to the green.

But little else is done in that respect. Rock Ridge, however, has planted a

lot of trees across the course which, in a decade or so, will have golfers

playing the course a bit differently than they are right now.

The End Of The Season

When the golfing stops, the work does not.

After the country club closes in the late fall, the crews are still busy - not

only maintaining the equipment, but getting the course ready for the winter

and whatever onslaught may be in store.

" I strive for two things, " said Welch. " I try to set the plant off as

healthy as it could be so it could survive the winter. And once it comes out

of the winter, I look to build it up so it would survive the heat and make it

through August. "

At Rock Ridge, Welch will have his crew digging drainage into December . . .

or as long as weather with allow. There will also be tree work to do and, when

and if the snow falls, possible snow removal.

" We stay busy, " said Kocet, " that's for sure. "

And for all that effort, golfers get summer-rule lies on the fairway (no

turning the ball over), smooth greens to putt on, and an enjoyable golfing

experience.