Dillard Road News

Some unfortunate news:  the NC DOT tried a number of ways to fix the washout on Dillard Road. None were successful and that means the road bed and drainage will need to be replaced. This means Dillard Road will be shut down indefinitely starting this Saturday morning at 7:00am. This will impact deliveries coming to Highlands as well as fall tourism traffic.  Please plan accordingly for the upcoming road closing of Dillard Road.  While they won’t say how long the road will be closed, it will more than likely be several weeks. 

Cart Path Edging

Just because it’s 30*F and we have a heavy frost, we don’t stop, rather we change gears on cold mornings.  We have list of projects known as frost jobs, or projects that can be worked on that don’t involve walking on frosted turf. One such project is cart path edging. This will keep us busy on cold mornings for the next couple weeks. 

7-Day Forecast

 

Ross' Pinehurst Greens

Below is an excerpt from an old interview between Pete Dye and Peter Kessler that I saw on Golf Club Atlas:

According to Pete Dye, in an interview for the August edition of GOLF Magazine with Peter Kessler, Ross told Dye that he wanted to cut off the crowns prior to his passing.

Kessler: How were the Greens in those days?

Dye:  "They were rough Bermuda grass, so they kept top-dressing them to make them smoother.  That's how the greens became crowned.  Over the years all that sand-based top dressing built up the middle of the greens.  Everybody thinks Mr. Ross intended to crown the greens, but he didn't.  Many times he told me he was going to cut the crowns off.  But he died before he could do it.  And the world has been copying the crowns he would have cut off had he lived."

This is another interesting factor that I should have included in my October 8th post titled, 'Would Donald Ross recognize Highlands CC.'  Even if the greens at Highlands CC were never reconstructed in 1998, Donald Ross most likely wouldn't recognize the greens he once built.  This is because over time, the process of aerification and topdressing can gradually make features more subtle until the green is nearly flat.  Or in the case of Pinehurst where sand was continually added to amend the soil, they become crowned.  Prior to the 1998 greens renovation at Highlands CC, the putting greens were very round (almost perfect circles) and relatively flat.  Compare those greens to his drawings hanging in the Tavern and you see his intentions were much different.    

Another thing that can happen with putting greens is a term called green creep.  This happens over extended periods if the person mowing a green isn't consistent with their cleanup pass.  Gradually, greens can shift directions, get smaller or even get larger depending on the habits of the mower.  I've seen a green edge change as much as 2-3 feet in 10 years.  Imagine what can happen over the period of 100 years or more!

First Frost of Autumn

Our first frost of autumn occurred this morning when the temperature got down to 32 degrees. According to the forecast, it looks like there will be a good chance of frost each day for the next week. Be sure to check in with the golf shop staff on any frost delays. 

Irrigation

On Tuesday, after topdressing greens, we set up an irrigation cycle to run for 6 minutes to irrigate the sand further into the turf canopy.  That cycle was set to begin at 4:00AM.  At 4:09AM, I received an email from our pumpstation (pretty cool technology so I know what's happening at all times) saying the pumps kicked off because of low pressure.  This basically means the pumpstation couldn't supply enough water for the amount of sprinkler heads we had running.  This feature is built into the pumpstation software because in the event of a major water main break, the pumps won't keep pumping water that is just being wasted.  The low pressure discharge alarm tells us that either the filter is clogged, or the intake is clogged or blocked.  

To solve the problem, I had divers from Charleston come up and go down and look at the intake in the lake.  The intake is an 18" pipe were water  enters the irrigation system, pumped from the lake into the irrigation pipes.  It turns out the culprit was aquatic weeks covering the intake, only allowing a small amount of water by.  This is good news.  It could have been much worse.  Sometimes during heavy storms like we just had, sediment can accumulate around the intake pipe, which is a much more complicated problem to deal with.  By manually removing the vegetation growing around the intake, we were able to get the pumpstation back up to pressure.

Roof Repair

During Hurricane Helene, a large Oak tree fell on the practice facility maintenance building.  A crane was brought in to get the tree off the building as well as an electrician to work to get our power back.  Now that the tree is gone, our contractor started this morning replacing the roof and repairing the broken trusses that were damaged by the tree.  James commented on how much he enjoys the new skylight!

Name that Dew Pattern?

On my morning walk today, I noticed an odd dew pattern off in the distance on the 3rd hole. When grass gets dry, lacking moisture content, it won’t develop dew on the grass blades like turf that has plenty of moisture. In fact, this is one way of telling if grass needs irrigation water. We call that a weak dew pattern. However, I never saw #3 fairway behave like that. Upon closer inspection, the footprints are those of 2 bears and the larger areas are where the bears were rolling around, playing in the early morning hours. 

Would Donald Ross Recognize Highlands CC?

Highlands CC is nearing 100 years old!  That is a long span of time for change to occur.  Member priorities change, the economy influences resources allocated to the golf course, trees grow, architects are brought in and technology has improved, all of which play a role in how the golf course has evolved over time.  If Donald Ross showed back up today, how much of Highlands CC would he recognize?  How much of the golf course resembles his vision and which aspects of the course is he actually responsible for?  The answers to these questions might surprise you.

First and foremost, turfgrass technology is light years where it once was.  Greens that used to be mowed at a 1/4" and above are now mowed well under 1/8".  Think about this... in Ross' day, the putting greens had the same texture as our approaches (the fairways in front of the greens).  In addition, the art of mowing stripes on fairways, for example, was unheard of in those days.  Donald Ross never could have imagined the lightweight fairways mowers available today that can turn on a dime.  In those days, it was a team of horses pulling a gang reel mower.  I'm sure it was common for your golf ball to land in a deep footprint of a horse.  So the presentation of the golf course would be very unfamiliar to him compared to what he experienced and expected in the 1920's.

Units like these, pulled by horses or a very early tractor, were responsible for mowing the fairways and roughs on a golf course in the early 1900's.  There was no ability to "stripe" fairway grass.

How about the putting greens?  Since 1986, Highlands CC has worked with an architect of record of some agreement.  Numerous golf course architects have been involved.  Brian Silva, Ron Pritchard, Billy Fuller, Tom Marzolf, Beau Welling and Ron Forse all had some form of influence in how the course appears today.  Ron Pritchard, who was responsible for the 1996 master plan and ultimately the 1998 greens renovation, had more influence than any other of the names mentioned.  Ron was selected by the Club because he is a student of Ross architecture and at the time (and still is to a degree although retired) was known for being one of the leading authorities on Donald Ross.  When architects do restorations, they rely on old photographs, the architects original drawings (at HCC, we only have the back nine holes) as well as any other resources they can get their hands on. Using that information, they’ll try to replace what the original architect might have done when the course was constructed.  They have to account for grasses mowed lower than ever before. Historically, greens could have more movement on them because the ball rolled so slow. Things are much different now. So would Ross recognize the current putting surfaces and take claim to them? Probably not. He would however, probably recognize a subtle feature in some of the greens that he may have written on his design notes. 

What about the fairways?  Like I said before, mower technology has come a long way. Until sometime in the late 1970’s, Highlands Country Club had no fairways. The whole golf course was mowed at one height of cut- probably somewhere between 1” and 2”. Since the 1940’s, Highlands CC relied on a Willys Jeep that pulled a gang mower around the property once or twice a week.  The Jeep replaced the horses!  Once lightweight fairway mowers came to be, HCC made the investment and instructed the superintendent at the time, to mow defined fairways at a lower height of cut, probably about 3/4".  There was no architect involved; the Superintendent used his best judgement to create areas of turf that were mowed closer than the Jeep ever could.  Since that day in the late 1970's, Highlands CC now had lower cut fairways! The current fairway lines have evolved overtime and have been tweaked slightly by different architects but are not anyway tied to the design work done by Ross in the 1920’s. 

What about bunkers?  Bunkers are always an interesting topic because even if a bunker is shown on a plan, in-field adjustments are often made if the proposed location doesn’t work. For example, Ross planned for a bunker on the left side of #16 green (imagine that bunker shot!). However, it was never added. Over time, bunkers, like the 1st one on hole #1 were added for aesthetic reasons; specifically to “balance” a hole. Ross never intended for #1 to have a fairway bunker but now, it’s hard to imagine if it wasn’t there. On #5, the first fairway bunker on the right was built originally but then removed sometime later before being restored again in 2022. What is consistent about the bunkers and Ross at HCC, is the construction method and design. Ross usually preferred grass faces like we have here as opposed to steep flashes of sand like you would see at Augusta National or Peachtree GC.  During restorations, architects tend to use the same style of bunkers that were commonly used by the original architect.  With the game of golf constantly evolving and players hitting the ball farther, architects often use bunkers as a way to make a hole play more challenging.  It's also fair to assume that if Donald Ross were still alive, he would more than likely tweak his own work by adding or altering features to stay current with the game.  People often forget this and in my opinion, it is why we must always keep an open mind about changes on the golf course.  Simply put, some changes are welcome and very positive. 

What Ross would recognize are the landforms and property as a whole. While the greens aren’t his design and neither are the fairways, they are all in the same place since HCC opened in the summer of 1928. The golf course remains unchanged since those early days and that’s what’s most impressive and special about HCC. It’s not been lengthened, nor shortened.  The location of the various playing surfaces you see today, remain unchanged. 

In conclusion, I want to make another point that I think is important when thinking about golf course restorations.  There are some who value restoring a property to the way it played in it's early years.  However, I can assure you, that if we went back to 1928, you would be sorely disappointed to play HCC, knowing what you know now.  This is a mountain area where materials were very expensive to ship to.  The sand that was available, was more than likely river sand off the bottom of the Cullasaja River, complete with rocks and all.  Labor was limited and technology was lacking, so mowing greens for example, did not happen daily.  The greens rolled a solid 3 or 4 on the stimpmeter, if that fast.  The only drainage the golf course had, was some minor surface flow from the little bit of shaping the original construction team did.  It also rained a lot back then so the course likely played slow and wet.  Imagine footprints from horses or even later, tire tracks from that Willys Jeep lining the fairways.  The history of golf course architecture is really fascinating to me but advances in the game of golf and turfgrass management have certainly made the game more enjoyable for most. 

7-Day Forecast

Storm Damage to Turf

There are obviously a few turf areas on the golf course that suffered damage from fallen trees due to the storm.  Areas like this, on #7, will remain ground under repair for the rest of the season.  Another unfortunate victim of the storm were sod farms in the region.  A lot of times, sod farms are located in flood plains and there are several farms we deal with that lost 100% of their turf.  This is going to make getting sod this winter a little more challenging and expensive. It will need to be brought in from other states who weren't impacted.  Due to lack of access to reasonably priced sod, we can't repair these areas at the present time.  However, when you return next April, you'll never know anything happened here.

#6 Fairway

Since Hurricane Helene dumped 20 plus inches of water on the golf course two weeks ago, the bottom of #6 fairway was very wet.  We left it for a few days because after that much rain, springs can surface but occasionally dry up on their own.  After accessing the situation yesterday morning, it was clear this wasn't stopping on its own anytime soon.  We knew it wasn't an irrigation leak because the pumpstation pressure had equalized and the pumps haven't run in days.  Still, we could see water bubbling to the surface.  

After digging the up the location where water was coming out of the ground, we found out the water was coming out of an old irrigation line!  When the new system was installed, the old irrigation system remained in the ground; obviously the old sprinkler heads are removed.  Since a new system is routed in its own unique way, it would be way too costly to remove all the pipes from the old system.  In fact, below the ground at Highlands CC, are 3 irrigation systems! The old swing joints where the sprinkler heads were removed, are then filled with either spray foam or concrete so ground water can't get into the old pipes or if there was a little bit of water in the old pipes, it stays trapped and can't come to the surface like this one did.

Apparently, somewhere farther up the hill, ground water is able to get into this 4" line.  The entire 4" pipe filled with water, creating enough pressure to push the concrete that was put it the old swing joint, when the old system was abandoned.  Since we'll never really know where the point is that water is getting in the pipe, we don't want to seal this hole off, otherwise the same thing will happen again in the future.  Therefore, we are running a 4" drain pipe to this location, collecting the water and directing it into an existing basin inlet a few yards away in the fairway.  After getting the water running in a channel (bottom photo), the entire area began to dry up.  This was an interesting issue and one that is new to me.

Upcoming Golf Course Maintenance Schedule Set

 Upcoming Golf Course Maintenance Schedule Set

It's that time of year when we need to start working on agronomic practices before the ground freezes and the golf course is put to bed for the winter.  That said, here are a few dates to keep in mind as you plan your fall golf schedule at the Club.

Tuesday, October 22nd: Tee aerification using 3/4" hollow tines.  Tee aeration is not a major deal for several reasons.  We will be withholding topdressing sand until after we close the golf course for the winter.

Wednesday October 30- Friday November 1st: Approach aerification using 3/4" hollow tines.  Sand will be withheld until after we close the golf course for the winter.  It is important that we get this completed prior to DryJect.  This is an easy task working around play on these three days.

Monday and Tuesday November 4th & 5th: We'll be bringing in our DryJect contractor to aerate the greens 2 directions and our approaches 1 direction. This is one of the most important programs of the year and it must be done before the greens freeze.  

We will be scheduling a croquet lawn aeration using 5/8" hollow tines sometime in late October or early November.  I will report those dates to you when they are finalized.  All the dates above are subject to change depending on the weather.  Thank you for your support!

USGA Green Section Record

CLICK HERE!

Something Different...Turf Printer

Pretty cool technology...next time you see a detailed image in the outfield of a baseball field, you'll know how it was created.  The stripes you see on a fairway, for example, is created by the way light reflects off the turf.  The lighter colored stripes are mowing passes where the grass is laying away from you while the darker stripes is where the grass is laying towards you.  By bending individual leave blades in different directions, an image can be ingrained into the turf.