Course Update 7.28.15

WTGA State Women's Amateur Championship

Sign at entrance to RCC welcoming players to the course

Annika Clark celebrates the win. Photo Credit: Mark Button, WTGA

Ms. Clark playing into the par 4 5th. (RCC 14)
Photo Credit: Mark Button, TGA

Congratulations to Annika Clark the 94th Champion of the Women's State Amateur Championship. We were honored to host this great event and hope that all the participants enjoyed the course. The best female golfers traveled from across Texas to compete for the title. This is the 5th time that RCC has hosted this tournament (1956,1966,1980,2009,2015) and a huge thank you goes out to our membership for allowing the competition to take place here once again. RCC members Nannette Wheelis and Kem Barrett competed well in the event with Mrs. Wheelis making it to the final round of 4th Flight match play. The WTGA was a pleasure to work with, and our staff at RCC did a great job all week. For more information and tournament results check out Mark Button's article on the WTGA website by clicking here: WTGA Results.

Golfers prepare to play the 3rd hole (RCC #12) on Friday morning. It is no surprise that this hole played the toughest for the entire field all week. 

The RCC Golf Maintenance Crew poses for a photo with the Spring Lake Cup trophy. The crew did a great job all week.

Ms. Clark Posing the Spring Lake Cup on 15 Green
Photo: Mark Button, TGA

The trophy claimed by Ms. Clark also has some interesting history in Waco. The Spring Lake Cup dates has roots back to the early 1900s with Waco's first golf course, The Huaco Club (1912), and to the old Spring Lake Country Club (1917) in Lacy Lakeview. I am currently doing some research on the history of golf in Waco. If you have any information about the history of Ridgewood or other courses in town please end me an email.

Driving Range Project

All major work on the driving range has been completed. Plans for the improvements were provided by Colligan Golf Design and work was completed by Jeff Johnson Golf in conjuction with RCC Golf Course Maintenance.The sod was planted on Friday the 17th of July and is doing great. We have already started mowing the tee box and look forward to getting it open for play as soon as possible. The next step will be aggressively aerating, topdressing, vertical mowing, fertilizing, and rolling. All of these cultural practices combined will help get the grass looking great, and the teeing surface as smooth as possible. At this point, we are shooting for an expected opening date of September 1. Check out the video above and pictures below. For pictures and video showing the project from start to finish please click here: 2015 RCC Driving Range Improvements

We created a new map of the irrigation system for entire driving range. Currently we are reprogramming the irrigation so that we can keep the range in better condition year round. 

#1 Green

View of #1 1 Green on 7.19.15

We opened #1 Green for the WTGA State Women’s Amateur Championship. The green handled the traffic fairly well and putted smooth enough to keep it in play as a regulation green for the duration of the 5 day event. As planned, this green is now open for  member play - if you so choose. It is obviously not in great condition, however it putts much better than it looks (and certainly putts better than a temporary green). The ball actually rolls pretty well, especially in the morning. The putting surface is pretty much a combination of live bentgrass (young plants established from seed after the flood), dead bentgrass (from the flood), and sand (to help the ball roll smooth). The lack of a dense

Close up of #1 Green showing bentgrass planted after the flood

stand of turfgrass results in reduced tolerance to traffic. As such, by mid to late afternoon footprints and ballmarks will be more likely to impede ball roll. Please limit traffic and do your best to smooth your ball marks. Currently we are using a combination of brushing, rolling, and mowing to help keep the green putting as smooth as possible. Our plan is keep #1 green open until mid-September. At this time temperatures should be cool enough to establish bentgrass from seed. The green will be closed for 6 to 10 weeks while we complete this process. The green will putt much better by late Fall, and should be the same as the rest of the greens by Spring of 2016.

In summary, we will do our best to keep #1 putting as smooth as possible, and members will have the option of playing #1 Green until mid-September when cooler temperatures return. At this time the green will close again and so that we can reseed the green. After the seed is established (6 to 8 weeks after planting) we will reopen the green for play. I have been getting a ton of questions from golfers about #1 Green. Please take a moment to read the information below:

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT #1 GREEN

Why not just plant it to bermudagrass?

There are several reasons why this would not be a wise decision. The simplest is that bermudagrass greens are established from sprigs and require 8 to 12 weeks to grow in. By the time a bermudagrass green would be ready to play on, it would be cool enough to reseed to bentgrass.

Why not sod the green to bentgrass?

Bentgrass sod is expensive, difficult to find, and would take several weeks before it would be smooth enough to putt on. In addition, sodding has the potential to create layers in the soil profile resulting in poor drainage and air movement. It is also too hot to plant bentgrass sod this time of year. Sodding is an option but RCC is much better off waiting to reseed the green than attempting to sod. Reseeding is a fairly simple process, similar to overseeding a bermudagrass green. The contours will remain the same and no major construction will need to take place.

Do we have to rebuild the whole green?

No. The infrastructure on the green is fine. We only need to replant the green not rebuild it. Rebuilding the green would be a much more expensive and time consuming process that would likely result in #1 green being closed until late next spring.  

Can we move #1 Green to higher ground?

Yes. However, this would likely require a major construction project. The green goes under water when the lake rises to 470ft (about 8ft above normal). In recent years we have seen lake levels as high as 488ft (1991), 486ft (2007), and 479ft (2015). In order to keep #1 Green from going under water we would have to raise it substantially. The question then becomes how high is high enough. Damage to the green is much more likely when it goes under water for extended periods of time during the summer months. Over the last 15 years this has only happened twice: 2007 and 2015.

Are we hurting the green by opening it?

No. There is not enough viable plants remaining on the green for it to recover without replanting. Basically, we will have to replant either way. The goal was to get enough seed established that the surface would hold together enough to tolerate moderate amounts of traffic. As the long as the surface of the green remains stable enough for play we will keep the green open until September. If we determine that it simply cannot take traffic, then we will close the green earlier or reduce play to only a few days a week.

Are there any positives about #1 Green?

Yes! One bright side to #1 Green is that we have an excellent opportunity to eliminate weeds within the green. This is especially true for controlling bermudagrass contamination. Currently we are spraying glyphosate (Round Up) on the green to eliminate any bermudagrass. The Round Up will also kill any bentgrass that it comes in contact with, however since we are replanting the bentgrass this is not an issue. In addition to weed control, we are going to thoroughly inspect the subsurface drainage within the green. If we discover any major problems, we have an excellent opportunity to fix them before replanting.

Weather 

Click the photo to enlarge and see our weather data for the last 6 weeks

It has been almost six weeks since my last post, and how the weather has changed. The Dog Days of summer appear to have finally set in with temperatures hitting close to 100 degrees everyday and no rainfall since June 21st. Fortunately, thanks to the wet start to the year, Lake Waco is at normal elevation of 462ft and we are still looking good on our irrigation budget. The longer we go without rainfall, obviously the more dependent we are on our irrigation system. Our irrigation system is over ten years old now, but it is still in good condition overall. Randy, Duane, and our irrigation technicians - Jaime Guerra and Jacob Nava have done a great job over the last year making adjustments, repairs, and minor modifications. As a result, the overall efficiency of the system has improved greatly. However, even the best irrigation system in the country is not good enough to replace rainfall - only supplement it. The longer that we go without rain, the more the imperfections in the system will show up - resulting in wet spots and dry spots on the course. The good news is that we are getting closer to fall. In addition to the start of football and dove season - shorter days and cooler nights are only a couple of months away. As the weather changes, so will our maintenance practices on greens. We will slowly shift from focusing on surviving the heat to promoting recovery and performance. In short, as the seasons change - so will putting quality as we return to faster and firmer greens.