Welcome to Barrington's first Blogspot!!

Thanks for checking out Barrington's golf course maintenance blog!  We have started this blog to help keep our members and their guests updated about what is happening from a maintenance standpoint on the course.  We will try to keep this blog updated often, and include information on projects, repairs, and other timely grounds related topics.

This is my first experience as a "Blogger", so my assistant, Ian Gallagher, has gotten it rolling with several posts over the winter.  Ian will be doing a lot of the posts, but I will be jumping in once in a while.  It looks like this is going to be a great way to answer questions about the course before they are even asked.

So.....when will the golf course be open for play this spring?  That's a tough question to answer at this point.  It will definitely not be this weekend, March 29 and 30, however, the weather does look promising for next week, so I am very hopeful that we might be ready sometime next week.  The main issue at this point is the frozen ground.  Currently, there is a layer of frost at the surface that will melt quickly,  but there is also a layer deeper under surface that may take a little longer.  Believe me, no one wants to get things going more than the grounds department!  Keep checking this blog for more course opening updates.

Mark

Goose harassment and low ponds

It has been a bit of a back and forth this spring because of the snow coming and going, but it seems that we are on the course for good this time and we have been busy finishing up tree work and course clean up. Another thing we've been doing is harassing the geese on the course.

Right now, geese are in the process of pairing up and finding a nice place to raise a family. Some of them think that Barrington is a great place for child rearing, so we are trying to convince them that it isn't. If you live in the neighborhood, you may have seen me driving around later in the day shooting pyrotechnics at the geese to scare them away. We have been using Bird Bangers and Siren Screamers to scare them off and so far these have been very effective. However, we're also using a green laser early in the morning to scare them off. For some reason they don't like green lasers, and for very obvious reasons our neighbors wouldn't like us shooting off bangers or screamers first thing in the morning, so the laser is a great solution. Combining these harassment techniques should help to minimize the number of geese that are here throughout the summer. Below are the tools of the trade. 

However, if some geese decide that they want to lay eggs in Barrington, we will be able to get an egg shaking permit that will allow us to destroy the eggs before they hatch. We have been working with the Department of Wildlife since last July in an effort to control our goose populations, and if we have any nests on the property we will be issued an egg shaking permit. If all goes well, we should see a lot less geese this summer. 

About a week ago we noticed that the water levels in the ponds at #5 tee looked a little low. Since then, the levels have continued to go down. It seems that with the heavy ice this year, the overflow drain in the large pond left of the ladies tee was knocked off its base just enough to let some water flow through about four feet lower than the overflow is set at. This has resulted in the water draining out of the pond down to the level of the crack. We dealt with this issue last year in the pond next to #5 beverage station, so we know what to do and will be able to fix it, however we must wait for the ice to melt so that we  are able to work on it. 

Here you can see how low the water level is. The other two ponds that feed into this one are drained almost to the bottom. 

This is a picture from the top of the overflow. Once the ice melts, we will fill the crack with hydraulic cement which will stop the leak and allow the pond to fill up to its desired level. 

So, that's what we've been up to. Hopefully next week warms up like the forecast is calling for and we can start to really get the course into nice shape for you guys. 

Ian 

Scouting for Annual Bluegrass Weevils

A new pest (new to us that is, but very common on the East coast) that is moving west into the Cleveland area is the annual bluegrass weevil (ABW). As the name indicates, it prefers to feed on annual bluegrass however, if it has no other choice it will feed on bentgrass. Last year we found a bit of ABW damage around the chipping greens and in some spots on the course, but it was very limited. A few other courses in the area had more extensive damage though, so it behooves us to keep an eye out for them. Besides just scouting suspected damage areas you can set traps to catch ABW as they exit their overwintering spots.

To help protect themselves from the cold, annual bluegrass weevil adults spend their winters in the leaf litter from trees. After they wake up for the season, they walk from the wooded area toward the shorter grass, where they prefer feeding. To monitor their activity levels we have set out Richmond linear pitfall traps, which catch the overwintering adults (if we have any) as they exit the wooded areas and let us know when populations are increasing and decreasing. Today I put out three traps in areas next to the woods and will check them three times a week. Below is a picture of one of the traps that is on the right side of #15.

As you can see it is a very simple trap, made out of a 2" piece of PVC pipe and a two liter bottle of Coke. We cut a slit into the top of the pipe and sloped it slightly toward the bottle, which has a bit of water in the bottom of it to keep the ABW in the trap. I will then pour the water through a colander and count the adults that are in the trap. By checking the traps a few times a week, we will be able to get a good idea of what the population levels are. When we feel the levels have reached their peak, we will spray an insecticide to eliminate the maximum number of adults and disrupt the life cycle.  

It is important to kill the adults because if we don't, then they will mate and lay eggs. ABW lay their eggs in the leaves of the turf plant, and when the larvae hatch, they eat their way down through the crown toward the thatch layer. Once the crown of a plant is damaged, the plant is dead. Therefore, to effectively control ABW, you need to kill the adults. There are also options to kill the larvae if we don't get great control from the application targeting the adults, but the ABW also has multiple generations a year (2-3 per year) so it is vital that the initial population is knocked down to avoid exponential growth. 

As stated in an earlier post, cold winters like we just had tend to kill off a lot of overwintering adults, so hopefully the ABW populations will be low this spring, but if they did survive, we will know as soon as they start exiting the woods. 

Ian 

Putt for dough?

This article may be something to keep in mind when you're working on your game this spring. Playing your short irons well may be the difference in the Bear this year.

Research Debunks Golf Myths by John Paul Newport