The month of December has brought with it mild weather but cold temperatures. The freezing overnight temperatures caused us to close the Greens for the remainder of the season on December 1st. Closing Greens is a practice used by many courses. It is a decision made this time of year to protect the Greens and the roots from winter damage. Once the Greens have frozen the roots become vulnerable to weight on the surface of the Greens, ie-walking, mowers, equipment. This weight on top of the frozen roots can cause the roots to break, meaning our root systems could be severed to a few inches. We want to make sure our Greens are protected through these winter months and give ourselves the best possible jump start in the spring. For winter golf at Beverly, we have the course set up in its traditional winter Reverse Set-Up for any walkers that would like to get exercise when the weather permits.
While golf at the club has been slowed due to weather and the closing of the Greens, the work continues for the Grounds Department at Beverly! We have continued to complete drainage work throughout the golf course, fixed erosion of the pond at #12 and aerified the rough.
During the restoration project we have been adding drainage throughout the course. We have continued that work this past season in areas throughout the course that have continued to flood during rains. This past month we have completed drainage to the area between #3 Green and #4 Tee. This has been a wet area for most of last season due to the reconfiguration of the tee box at 4 and the re-routing of the irrigation in the area. We took the opportunity to not only drain this area but run lines and add catch basins to encompass the far back left of #3 Green and areas around the Nursery that continue to sit wet well after rains have finished.
Drainage is beneficial in so many ways to a golf course. I remember a phrase told to me by Joe Noppenberger, Superintendent at Wedgewood G&CC, he said "Dry will scare the hell out of you but wet will kill you!" That statement still rings true after all these years! Areas sitting wet and submerged in water will generally not be as healthy as well drained areas where the turf has the ability to dry out. Members also see the benefits from drainage after rain storms. The added drainage gives us the ability to get carts back out on the course as quickly as possible. We will continue to add drainage in areas throughout the golf course this winter as weather permits. We have a lot of areas that would benefit from this work!
We had a few heavy rains over the season that forced the pond at #12 to flood which created erosion issues along the banks of the pond as the water receded down. We took some time this past month to fix these minor erosion spots around the pond. We took soil from the drain lines we were cutting from our drainage projects and filled in those erosion holes. We compacted those spots and covered with fresh bluegrass sod. Normal weather will help settle these areas and pack them in naturally, this will help stabilize the pond bank for future storms.
Over the past few years we have been doing major projects on the golf course- tree work, restoration, etc... and due to the heavy workload we were unable to aerify the rough as we had for many years prior. This season we got back to aerifying the rough! Aerification of the rough brings the same benefits as aerication of Greens Tees or Fairways. It gives a chance for air to get to the roots, helps to combat heavy compaction in the rough from cart or equipment traffic and helps with drainage throughout the rough after rains. It is a week long process to aerify the 85 acres of rough. You'll notice the plugs are scattered throughout the rough, however, those plugs will freeze, thaw and dry out as the winter progresses and will break up after our first mow in the spring.
Even with the closure of the Greens there is still a lot of work to be done on the golf course. We generally keep on a staff of 8 employees throughout the winter. We continue to work hard in the off season to make improvements to the course that will give the membership a better golf course the following season. Happy Holidays from all us at the Grounds Department!
