Ballmarks and Beers - January 23rd @ 2:00

As your golf course superintendent I invite you to join me this coming Thursday, January 23rd at 2:00 for "Ballmarks and Beers." We will meet by the practice putting green at 2:00 and proceed to the first green in golf carts. I will demonstrate the proper technique for repairing ballmarks on our greens. Following the demonstration we will proceed throughout the golf course repairing ballmarks and making our golf course better. There will be refreshments served and I promise we will have fun! The more volunteers we have, the faster the work will go. There is a sign up sheet in the golf shop to help facilitate planning.

See you Thursday!
Kevin Sunderman
Isla Del Sol Golf Course Superintendent

How to Properly Repair Ballmarks and Divots

Every winter we notice an increased number of ballmarks on the putting greens and divots in the fairways. There are a few reasons for why this is. First, we have an increased number of players. We are much busier in the winter months. More rounds = more wear and tear on the golf course including ballmarks and divots. 

Secondly, the grass grows much slower in the winter than summer. In summer, the grass is growing so quickly that even unrepaired ballmarks can recover within a few days! In the winter it can take a month or longer.

While it is important to repair ballmarks, it is equally important to do it correctly and right away. So often golfers use their repair tools to "Pop" the soil up when repairing the ballmark. This is incorrect. The popping motion just brings soil to the surface as opposed actually repairing the ballmark. Instead, the grass surrounding the ballmark needs to be gently pulled or twisted back over the depression left by the ball impacting the green. 

Not only is it important to repair a ballmark correctly, it is also vital to make the repair as soon as possible. A promptly repaired ballmark will be unnoticeable within a few days. A ballmark left unrepaired for even just a few hours can take 30 days or more to disappear. 

In the following video I explain the desired method for repairing ballmarks and filling divots. The video can be found by clicking this link.  www.youtube/IslaBallmarkRepair.com

 Stay tuned for upcoming messages including:

• Ballmarks and Beers event scheduled for January 23rd!
• NEW!!! Adopt-a-hole program
• Explanations of cart traffic control
• Proper bunker etiquette 

For additional information and videos regarding proper techniques for ballmark repair, you can visit here: https://www.usga.org/repairing-ball-marks

#6 Drainage Project

Beginning on Tuesday, December 17th, the Grounds Department will be working on a drainage project for #6 fairway. The landing zone at approximately 150 yards has been a perennial wet spot for some time. The installation of a new 4" perforated pipe and gravel is expected to make a big impact in this area.

While under construction, #6 will be played as a par 3 in order to create a safe environment for the workers, the golfers and to allow for the most efficient use of our labor. We expect the work to take 1-3 days.

The new drainage is intended to correct the waterlogged landing zone in #6 fairway

Golf Course Update - November 11

IMPORTANT - Before providing the update, it is important to note an upcoming scheduled fertilizer application for Monday, November 18. We will have an 8:00 Shotgun in the morning for all wishing to play that day. The golf course will be closed in the afternoon to allow work to be completed.

It's been quite some time since our last blog update. Since then, we have seen many familiar faces return from time spent up north. Whether coming from year-round or snowbird members, we have received many positive comments about the golf course and renovations performed this past summer. Your feedback is appreciated and complements are passed along to the men in the grounds department who worked so hard to complete the project.

#13 Tee

#16 Approach

On Tuesday, November 12, we will be transitioning our tee markers from the old granite stones designating Blue/White/Green/Gold/Red/Bronze Tees to our new system of Roman numerals I-VI. This change has been discussed a number of times in the Spotlight as well as in previous blog posts. While we are still waiting for the final ratings from the Florida State Golf Association, it has been decided to make the change now. It is recommended that you play the new tee that most closely correlates to your current tee. (Blue/I, White/II, Green/III, Gold/IV, Red/V, Bronze/VI) You will also post to the correlating colored tee until the new Roman numeral tees are added to the GHIN system.

New Cast Aluminum Tee Marker for Tee I

Last week the grounds department broke ground on yet another project. Over the next several weeks we will be working to construct a new fence along the first hole to provide privacy from the shopping center parking lot. The plan is to continue the fence that was built last fall by the practice putting green and first tee. Once completed, we will then install new palm trees and natural landscaping.

Clearing Has Begun Along the Shopping Center Parking Lot

The New Fence Will and Landscaping Will Be a Continuation of the Work Done in 2018

In 2006 we constructed a nursery green next to the 10th tee. This green was intended to provide sod or repair plugs if needed for any blemishes on the golf course greens. Since the need for repair is uncommon, we decided to install practice holes on this green a few years ago to allow the green to serve as both a practice green and nursery green. By the end of this summer, it had become necessary to give this green a break and encourage it to grow back into a 100% healthy and consistent putting surface. Part of this process included significantly increasing the height of cut and eliminating the practice holes. It will be several months until this green is maintained at a putting green standard. Until further notice, all practice should be directed to the practice putting green by #1 tee and the chipping green.

Nursery Green in Need of Some R&R

It has been discussed in previous blog posts that as part of the 2018-19 renovations, many of the green surfaces are being expanded to recover square footage lost over the past 20+ years. For the holes constructed in 2018 (4, 5, 6, 13, 14 and 15) these expansions are complete. The surfaces are down to regular green height and should be played as greens. For the holes renovated in 2019 (2, 7 ,9 and 16) these expansions will be maintained at a "fringe" height and should not be played as greens. For the past two months we were mowing these expansions shorter, causing confusion as to where the green perimeters were located. In order to avoid confusion, we have raised the height of cut on these "fringe" areas to make the green perimeter more distinguishable.

Last Year's Expansion on #4 is in Play. The New Green Perimeter is Easily Distinguishable.

The Expansion Work Performed in 2019 Will Be Maintained as "Fringe" Over the Winter Until it Can be Successfully Adapted to Greens Mowing Height. We Recently Increased the Height of Cut to Make the Green Perimeters Easily Distinguishable.

Dodged a Bullet

A week ago we were stocking up on chainsaw chains, bars and oil. We were also ensuring all equipment was full of gas and getting our fuel storage tanks topped off. A brush chipper was reserved with Sunbelt Rental and we were prepared to institute our golf course and maintenance facility protocol for securing the property for a hurricane. Fortunately for Isla, Hurricane Dorian took a turn to the north and we were left with beautiful weather over the past week. It's extremely unfortunate for those in the Bahamas as well as those affected along the eastern coast of the United States. Having a friend who serves as the golf course superintendent at The Abaco Club, I know I will be watching this area and look for opportunities to assist.

The grounds department has spent much of the last week keeping up with mowing and working on details. There has also been a focus on weed control. This focus will continue over the next few weeks. We are also working to recover any weak areas on greens, including #13 where we had the irrigation malfunction last week. You may notice that some areas have been top dressed with sand. While the sand actually makes these areas look worse, it is there in order to protect the thin plants and encourage faster recovery. The majority of our trouble spots are located on greens where we expanded the putting surfaces with sod last year. When lowering the mowing height, we experienced thinning in some areas. The core greens continue to be in great condition and expect all of these areas to fill in completely with a little extra TLC.

#13 Green When Malfunction Occurred

#13 Green Today

Notice the sand topdressing behind the flag where the green was expanded

Since the last blog update, the new tees have continued to mature. We have had tee markers on most of the new tees for the past two weeks and the grass seems to be handling the traffic well. We still wait for sod to finish any of the most severe wash out areas but fortunately these spots do not impact play. We also began to work on completion of the lake bank left of #13 tee this week. A final geotube is being installed here before we grade and sod. Because this area is separate from the rest of the golf course, if necessary, we will use a different type of bermudagrass if our preferred type is not available.

#12 Tees

#9 Tees

#8 Tees

Ronnie and Arturo working on 13 lake bank

13 Green

Over the weekend there was an irrigation malfunction on 13 green. Because of this, the green is showing signs of wilt. We will alter our maintenance program on this green to encourage recovery.

Open For Business

The golf course has been closed for the past four days for scheduled maintenance. The original plan for this week was to aerify and verticut fairways and approaches as well as greens. However, following the significant amount of rainfall experienced the week prior, we were forced to change our plans. The mowing of the entire golf course was behind due to all the rain and much time was spent catching up with the mowing. With most areas being saturated, it wasn't possible to perform the aerification and verticutting on fairways. Because of this, we shifted our manpower efforts to other projects. We were able to aerify greens with small tines, work on weed control, remove grain from the old tees, spread wall-to-wall fertilizer, weedeat the entire golf course, edge all the bunkers and work to remove invasive vines from many of the hedge lines. We also had time to install new drains around #10 tee.

Pedro aerifying #2 green

A few days later the greens are ready for play!

New drain line on #10 ready for sod

Today marks the opening of our new tees. Please keep in mind that while the tees are playable, they are nowhere near the finished product. Similar to the development witnessed over the past several weeks, the tees will continue to mature more and more each week. Not only will the grass density continue to increase, we have treated the volunteer weeds which will soon wither and die.

We worked hard over the past few weeks around the weather to get the height of cut down to a playable level. This height reduction results in the tees being less green than how they appeared previously. As the grass adjusts to the new height of cut, it will return to a normal green color.

At this point, most of the new tees are mature enough to facilitate play. However, we will be conservative on where we place markers in order to avoid thinner areas. Because of this, you may find tee markers at yardages different from where they normally would be. I do ask that everyone refrains from driving golf carts on any of the new grass. Nothing wears out grass faster than cart traffic.

We are still waiting for another load of sod to help us complete some of the areas plagued by washouts with the substantial summer rains. Due to wet sod farms and high demand for grass, sod has been very difficult to obtain this summer. I am told that hopefully this week another load will be available.

#4 Tee ready for play

#10 Tee

While from a distance the tees have a brown tint to them, a closeup of the tee displays a significant amount of green leaf blades

While we had hoped to manage thatch across the entire golf course, the weather had other plans. We did manage to address our old tees by lowering the height and cutting into the grain. The end goal is to provide a tighter, better playing tee surface. While these tees currently appear to be scalped, they will quickly recover.

#9 Tee following thatch management

These new green shoots were visible the day after the thatch program was performed

Finally, we were able to spread our quarterly application of fertilizer and weed control to the entire golf course. This application was scheduled for late July but because we have had so much rain, we were just now able to get it applied. A contractor uses a spreader truck to apply the fertilizer. This results in tire tracks in some areas. These tracks will roll out and disappear over the next week.

Tire tracks on 3 fairway

With all the rain, Fernando got creative on how to stay dry!