Brian Vinchesi

When you research the type of water supplies being used for golf course irrigation, there are many different sources of water being used. These include potable water, treated wastewater, groundwater, pond or lake water, stream, creek or river water, canals and desalted water. The GCSAA‘s Golf Course Environmental Profile Series, Volume II: Water Use and Conservation Practices on U.S. Golf Courses, published in 2009 outlines the percentages of golf courses that use each different source of irrigation water. The GCSAA data shows the following:

Many of the golf courses surveyed used a combination of sources such as pond-fed system backed up by a well or potable water, which is fairly typical for golf course irrigation. The type use also varied significantly by region and that data is also available in the report. If you want more information, the entire report is downloadable, free of charge from the GCSAA website.

As shown above, 14 percent of U.S. golf courses use potable (municipal) water to irrigate. As potable water prices continue to increase – as much as 300 percent over the last 10 years in some major U.S. cities – golf courses are under pressure to look at less expensive sources of water to save money and to be more sustainable. Additionally, the large use of water by golf courses is very visible and in times of drought under scrutiny by both the general public and regulating authorities.

How can you wean your golf course from a primary or back up potable water source and be self-sufficient? Groundwater wells are certainly an option, but at most golf courses wells have already been explored and if there is groundwater available they are already using it, unless they do not have the water right or permit to do so. When there are not any options and your Owner, Board or Commission is tired of paying more and more for water potable, then it’s time to look at increasing storage as a solution.

Increasing storage is usually accomplished by adding additional ponds on the golf course.

There are two ways to do this, a pond that is out of play and preferably out of view that you can pump lots of water out of and you don’t care about what it looks like or a pond that is in play or visible that you can only take so much water out of to maintain an acceptable appearance.

In play storage will require golf course architect input as it may affect play. If you are trying to catch storm water then you would prefer a pond that is out of play, keeping the water level low so you can take advantage of significant rain events. If you have wells that you want to take advantage of by pumping either all day long or at the beginning of the year when the wells are performing at full capacity. You really don’t want to fill a pond with potable water unless it’s absolutely necessary. It’s inefficient and a percentage of this water will evaporate. It’s also more expensive than using the potable water directly into your irrigation system, cross-connections aside.

The size and depth of the pond will dictate how much water you can store. You need to figure out how much water you need in a year. You can do this hopefully by looking at old use records.

Remember if you do not measure your use you cannot manage it. Calculate your available storage and take into account any make up water sources.

A couple of things to keep in mind: a pond should be a minimum of five feet deep so the pond turns over. If it turns over it will be easier to manage with less algae, etc. At five feet the sunlight will not penetrate all the way down to the bottom. You also cannot get all the water out of the pond which will require it to be even larger. Depending on the type of pump intake or pond overflow system you’re using, only 60-70 percent of the stored water will be retrievable. Additionally, there will be evaporative losses from the pond surface that need to be taken into effect.

To calculate the pond storage the conversions to keep in mind are that there are 27,154 gallons per acre inch and 325, 848 gallons per acre-foot. For example, a 1.5 acre pond that has an average eight foot depth would store approximately 3.9 million gallons. To have an eight foot average depth, the pond would be closer to 12 feet deep as it is not a box and the configuration of the side slopes needs to be considered. Of the 3.9 million gallons, if you could get 70 percent of that out, then the useable storage would be just over 2.7 million gallons. Another way to look at it would be to determine how much additional storage you would need to get you through the year, say 4.5 million gallons. If 65 percent was available you would need a total of 6.92 million gallons, 21.24 acre-feet (254.8 acre-inches) of storage total.

The table below shows various storage amounts per acre based on an eight-foot depth, the usable storage and what the drawdown would be on a 350,000 gallon (12.89 acre-inches) irrigation cycle and no make-up water.
 

As you can see, the larger the pond surface area the less drawdown, so if the pond is in play and you are worried about aesthetics a larger surface area is needed.

A pond out of play can be smaller and deeper since you don’t care what it looks like. The table shows total acreage. You do not need to accomplish the total storage with one pond and could do it with several ponds if need be as long as you come up with the total acreage/storage needed. However, there will be some inefficiency in a number of smaller ponds and of course the costs will be higher to construct.

The goals and benefits in increasing storage are multiple; to make you less dependent on make-up water sources, to put you in control of your water supply, to save money long term and to make your irrigation system water supply self-sufficient. The days of using potable water for irrigation are limited and you need to be thinking long term. Adding storage is one solution.

Brian Vinchesi, the 2009 EPA WaterSense Irrigation Partner of the Year, is president of Irrigation Consulting Inc., a golf course irrigation design and consulting firm headquartered in Pepperell, Mass., that designs irrigation systems throughout the world. He can be reached at bvinchesi@irrigationconsulting.com or 978/433-8972.

There’s a reason they call this season “the fall.” It’s not the leaves – it’s often superintendents’ jobs. Summer is over, in many parts of the country the prime playing season is winding down, and members’/golfers’ frustrations are boiling over, and supers are taking the brunt of the criticism. Out with the old…

So there are many golf course superintendents losing jobs, seeking new opportunities, upgrading their current positions. Which is all well and good unless it’s at the expense of someone else’s misfortune. And this year is likely to be an especially busy game of musical chairs in employment thanks to the awful weather – hot, wet, or both – that blanketed the country almost coast to coast.

No surprise, my phone has been ringing off the hook with calls from supers who’ve been dismissed. Of course, without cause (or so they say). Right or wrong, the revolving door will be spinning faster than usual this year. If that door is hitting you in the rear end or offering you a chance to move up the ladder, a few words of wisdom and caution.

First, if you are actively searching for a new job, remember that your opportunity may be someone else’s misfortune. There’s nothing wrong with seeking out a new position, but before you get too deep into the hiring process, try to learn if the opening is because someone resigned, retired, or was let go. Just that little piece of information can tell you a great deal about the situation you’d be entering.

There’s nothing wrong with trying to improve your employment situation, and there are lots of perfectly good reasons: a new opportunity, a new place to live, upward mobility, family concerns, etc. But every job has its good points and its bad points. And every job will have its politics. Here are some factors I’m hearing far too much about, and which you should be careful of crossing:

Local hiring. I live in New Jersey. Say a job opens up in the “Garden State.” Is someone who studied at Rutgers University and worked at a Jersey golf course an “expert” at growing local turf grass? Possibly, yes. And with that local knowledge often comes a local network, local mentors, and local resources. But should that automatically preclude someone from another region applying for – and being seriously considered for – the position? Absolutely not. I don’t like seeing qualified people not getting due consideration because of geography. It’s wrong for local chapters to close ranks and try to shut out “outsiders.” (It’s true among club pros too, and is just as narrow-minded.) Courses and clubs should not only be more open-minded but remember that the main concern is who can do the best job. In fact, I can give you numerous examples when bringing in someone from “outside” was the smartest choice, not only for his talent but because the candidate was willing and able to bring new ideas with him.

Tap the Talent Pool. Just as misguided as blindly striving to stay local is when regional superintendent associations pressure a club to hire one of their own guys – someone involved in association politics or with “friends in high places”– rather than surveying the entire available talent pool. Again, going outside the easy and obvious buckets can be very good for a club, especially one that hasn’t been well served in the past by the easy choice.

Proper Protocol. It makes sense of superintendents to visit other clubs, talk to other supers, broaden their knowledge base and find friends and mentors in the business throughout the industry. However, sometimes these seemingly innocent visits are really opportunities to negatively review a fellow superintendent’s work and spread nasty rumors in an effort to tout one’s own knowledge, skills, and availability. Here’s a simple response to that: Do unto others…

Real References. Search committees and others involved in hiring a new superintendent (or evaluating the present one) should be wary when an outside vendor or salesperson calls to suggest or recommend an applicant, apply pressure, or call attention to a candidate who will be mutually beneficial to both entities. If you’re being considered for a new position, you’ll have the chance to give a list of references: Be careful who you get to speak on your behalf, especially if it’s someone who stands to benefit from you getting the job.

Promoting From Within. There’s nothing wrong with promoting the first assistant to the top job. Everyone needs that big break. But number one shouldn’t be replaced by number two simply to give a club bragging rights, or worse, simply to save money.

Something else many superintendents tend to forget: Sometimes a firing is justified. How do you know your job is in jeopardy? Members (and especially those who sit on committees) stop talking to you. Meetings are held without your knowledge and attendance. Outside consultants unexpectedly show up to evaluate your efforts. Other superintendents unexpectedly show up to “look around,” or play golf with the pro or members. (The professional thing to do is to call the superintendent and let him/her know that you’ve been invited over, even if it’s possibly for his job.) And sometimes it’s just a feeling that things aren’t right.

Can you turn around a bad situation? Probably not. And given the message that the club is sending, do you really want to? Maybe it’s time to take the initiative and go, before you can be pushed out. But if you do leave, and expect to get another job, remember how you felt when in that awkward situation, and don’t put a fellow member of your industry in that same situation.

Tim Moraghan, principal, ASPIRE Golf (tmoraghan@aspire-golf.com). Follow Tim’s blog, Golf Course Confidential at http://www.aspire-golf.com/buzz.html or on Twitter @TimMoraghan

For the past 20 years or so, when late July arrives and I can sense the tough days of summer on the golf course were rapidly diminishing, I started to think about Badger and Packer football, apples and pumpkin harvest, and an actual weekend off.

I also started dreaming about which steam and antique power shows I would attend, always hoping to make it to half a dozen.

These shows are a step back in time in American agriculture, often a reminder of the way we farmed in my youth. Binders and threshing machines, straw piles and stationary balers, and lots of old tractors are among the most popular exhibits at these antique power shows. And of the old tractors, the two-cylinder Johnny Poppers are about the favorite, a tough confession for a Ford and Oliver man like me.

At any show the thumping of these engines can be heard all over the park grounds.

John Deere created the start of quite an industrial empire more than 175 years ago when he put his blacksmithing skills to work and fashioned a self-scouring plow out of a broken saw blade. It was just what pioneer Midwest farmers needed to turn over the sticky prairie soils.

My interest in John and his life have taken me to Middlebury, Vermont where he had a blacksmith shop, and to Grand Detour, Illinois, on the shore of a big bend on the Rock River. He lived and worked there for a number of years before moving to Moline, Illinois, in the 1830s. He needed the Mississippi River to transport steel and coal in, and finished product out to markets.

University of Illinois archeologists unearthed much of the Grand Detour site in 1962, and it is an extremely interesting historical preservation. I have seen his big house in Moline and stood at the foot of his grave there as well.

A number of years ago I was invited to attend a two-day event at Deere headquarters planned for grass guys, including a large number of superintendents. It included a tour of the headquarters building and the museum.

Years later I managed a tour of the John Deere Horicon Works. That’s the Wisconsin factory that for the past 50 years has been building consumer products and grass machinery.

The plant is located on the edge of the Horicon Marsh, the largest freshwater cattail marsh in the U.S. It is well known to both bird watchers and hunters – 350 species of birds have been seen there, and huge flocks of Canada geese come and go each year.

The factory was built in the 1860s to build the Van Brunt grain drills. It was a successful line of Ag seeding machinery, and Deere & Co. bought it in 1911 and put their name on the seeders. It has operated continuously since then under Deere’s name.

In 1962 Deere execs saw the potential in the lawn mower/garden tractor market and designed one of their own. They called it the Model 110 and started production in 1963. It was a very successful mower, and many of the first year machines still run today. It featured a 7-horsepower Kohler engine (yes, that Kohler!) and a three-speed tranny with variable speed drive that made for fast mowing and slow tilling.

So, this year collectors and staff at the Horicon Works decided to celebrate John Deere’s 50th anniversary in the grass mowing business.

The three-day event was held at the Dodge County fairgrounds, a few miles from Horicon. Many of the early engineers, designers and production staff from 1963 returned. The event included factory tours (Gators and LGTs are made there now), Deere LGT collectors from all over the country, a tractor cavalcade each noon hour, and demonstrations. There was a swap meet, a flea market, and toy tractor and toy implement peddlers. The chatter all day long was about serial numbers, wiring harnesses, carburetors, and memories of days gone by.
 

I thought about how the Model 110 had influenced the career of a former employee at our golf course – Emily Buelow. Her father was an engineer at Horicon Works and worked on mowing equipment. Jerry Buelow passed away earlier this year, but he surely would have attended. Emily chose turfgrass science as her major at the University of Wisconsin – Madison based on how much her father enjoyed it.

Frank Rossi was her major professor in grad school and today she is a lecturer in the NC State two- year turfgrass science program, and the Associate Director of the Turfgrass Center.

I was surprised when I drove in, thinking it was early on the first day and figuring not that many people could be interested in old JD LGTs. But the fairgrounds was packed.

I spent the whole day in lectures, tours and fun. I had the pleasure of visiting for quite a spell with a man from Baltimore, a former JD branch employee, who had the Model 110 with the serial #1 – the first machine off the line and the first mower John Deere built. It still works fine, and the cost, including 3 percent sales tax, was $632.81! Only 1,000 Model 110s were built in 1963, and about 100 were there at the celebration. The five millionth mower came off the line in April 2010.

I had a great time, and a few questions came to mind. Will Jacobsen or Toro, each with such a rich history in our grass management business, host or sponsor such an event for collectors and customers?

Will John Deere plan a similar time for only golf turf machinery? For Deere & Co., it could even be planned as part of their sponsorship of the PGA tourney at Deere Run – wouldn’t that be great!

In the end, I enjoyed it so much because I loved the career I had for almost 50 years, and I love history. What could be fairer than that?

Monroe Miller retired after 36 years as superintendent at Blackhawk CC in Madison, Wis. He is a recipient of the 2004 USGA Green Section Award, the 2009 GCSAA Col. John Morley DSA Award,  and is the only superintendent in the Wisconsin Golf Hall of Fame. Reach him at groots@charter.net.

It’s already September and, as always, the summer seems to fly by quicker and quicker each year. Despite an unusual low amount of pest activity reported on golf courses across the country, this summer was no exception.

As all golf course superintendents are aware (and most golfers and members forget), Mother Nature was again the star of the season and in total control. For those of us in the Mid-Atlantic, the spring started out very slow with moderately cool temperatures delaying the season.

While this was somewhat of a problem for getting the turf going in the spring, it was probably more of a problem for golf rounds across the country. I recall everyone’s excitement about rounds being up when we had an early spring in 2012. Speculation about hitting a “turning point” as it relates to the business of golf was being proclaimed by many. After the slow start this year, however, it appears that Mother Nature was likely to blame for the increase in rounds in 2012 and the decrease in 2013.

The relatively cooler temperatures continued into early summer and on top of that, June was marked with record setting rainfalls. Philadelphia received its highest recorded precipitation with over 10.5” of rain for the month. Many golfers remember this as it coincided with a little golf event called the U.S. Open. During the week, I recall thinking that there was more grass on the greens at Merion than I had seen at any other time…and this was during a major event.

So June came and went and again things didn’t seem to be changing much with regards to the moderate weather. Most golf courses had healthy stands of grass and probably more rough than they wanted or their members could handle. This was the case until July when one hot and wet weekend was followed by about three weeks of “hold on for dear life.”

During the month of July, disease outbreaks went from reports of moderate dollar spot to overnight outbreaks of Pythium. It was apparent that summer had finally arrived. I spoke with numerous superintendents during this period and saw my share of disease samples. Everyone was in panic mode and felt like things were finally getting back to what I consider a “normal” summer. However, as quickly as summer arrived it decided it would leave in the same manner.

During the month of August (at the time of writing this) the highest daily temperature (according to weather.com) in Philadelphia was 88F and occurred on a single date. Even better were the nighttime temperatures, which occasionally dropped into the 60’s. This year was definitely different and far from normal.

The unusually cooler summer wasn’t without its problems though, and turf loss was still evident in some locations. In the Northeast, annual bluegrass weevils again seemed to steal the show. According to reports in the Turfpath App, adult weevils first were observed in the Maryland region in mid-April and continue to wreak havoc now.

Overall disease activity seemed to be low to moderate. Dollar spot developed on a fairly typical schedule in most regions and was relatively severe early in the season. Pythium and algae dominated July as heavy precipitation occurred in conjunction with the three week stretch of high temperatures. On the other hand, reports of diseases like summer patch were lower than normal.

Despite what I would consider an easy year as far as temperatures and stresses were concerned in the mid-Atlantic region, other areas weren’t so lucky. Reports of unusually high temperatures in many locations throughout New England resulted in some considerable stress to annual bluegrass not acclimated to the heat.

While this report focused primarily on what I observed in the mid-Atlantic and Northeastern US, it should be pointed out that other parts of the country had experienced their own unusual summer. Much of the Western US had the warmest July on record, while other areas continued to experience drought conditions. In contrast, Florida’s July was among the wettest on record.

Although the season is far from over, many golf course superintendents took advantage of the weather and widespread reports of “it’s the earliest I’ve been able to aerify ever at our course” were seen throughout Twitter and Facebook. As we head into the fall, those courses that made it through the summer unscathed will likely have the healthiest turf heading into winter. For those courses that didn’t escape the damage, the relatively mild temperatures should afford the turf the ability to recover quickly.

Unusual seasons like this are always a little concerning for me. In year’s where death and destruction is widespread and the result of an angry Mother Nature, everyone seems to get a free pass. In relatively mild years like 2013 (for some regions), it seems that many clubs use any small decline in playing conditions to bring out the hatchet. In these cases, it’s usually not really about the grass.

Although I simplify the impact of Mother Nature to regional generalizations, I have to add a qualifier. Regional conditions can not only be variable from state to state and course to course, but also from hole to hole. We can’t forget the impact of microclimates that can result in poor growing conditions and continued decline in turf stands year after year. Correcting some of the fundamental agronomic issues – shade, air flow and drainage – is essential to growing healthy grass.

So with all of this in mind, I encourage you to assess where your problems were this year, get things healthy this fall, and fire up the chainsaws this winter. The season’s coming to an end and 2014 will be here before you know it.

John E. Kaminski, Ph.D. is an associate professor, Turfgrass Science, and director of the Golf Course Turfgrass Management Program at Penn State University. You can reach him at kaminski@psu.edu.