Friday, March 10, 2023

Thank You!

Hello and welcome to The Greenkeeper! Today is Friday, March 10, 2023 and much has transpired since my last post. Honestly, I don't even know where to begin. How did we get where we are today when weeks ago we were thankful to have the renovations and improvement projects in the rear-view and spring and the upcoming golf season on the horizon? 

I have always believed things happen for a reason and God works in mysterious ways, and after nearly 18 years the time has come for me to say goodbye to Carolina Golf Club. I have been witness to much change in that time, the least of which was the total transformation of the golf course in my first few years. Hopefully some of you have enjoyed a look back as I have been sharing old photos on Twitter recently. 

The other day I was reflecting with my superintendent peers at Charlotte CC, Quail Hollow, Myers Park, and Carmel only to realize I arrived in Charlotte before each of them. Sadly, two former superintendents at those clubs back when I arrived passed away in 2022, eighteen years is a long time.

It is long enough to watch your children grow up and leave for college. I've seen your swings get shorter and watched you move forward a set of tees, or even two. I've applauded your on course successes and grimaced with you when the putts didn't drop. I tried my best to help make the game more fun for all who played here.

These last few weeks I've been helping the team prepare the course for the coming season, and doing everything in my power to ensure their success. We wrapped up preemergent herbicide applications to all tees, fairways, and rough plus managed to cleanup some late arriving winter weeds with spot post emergent treatments. We started our annual mowing of the cool-season native areas and the team will follow up with preemergent herbicide treatments soon. 

The cart paths are being edged and soon fresh mulch will be installed in all landscape areas. And thankfully Mother Nature finally allowed the course to dry sufficiently to permit us to use the large 3-ton roller on Holes 2 and 8. I am thrilled we have those holes open for normal play once more. Thank you for your patience. 

In fact, thank you is all I can say. Thank you for taking a chance on a Virginia native with little knowledge of Donald Ross or golf course construction and grow-in prior to my arrival. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to learn on the job and to make mistakes. Thank you for your unwavering support during the good times and challenging ones. Thank you for preparing me for this next chapter in my life and career as a golf course superintendent.  

CGC will forever live inside my heart. I'm not the first person entrusted to care for Carolina Golf Club and I certainly will not be the last. But hopefully when folks look back on CGC's illustrious history they can point to my chapter and say he cared more.



Thank you,

Matthew Wharton, CGCS, MG

* I composed this message prior to last night's emotional sendoff. I cannot thank you all enough for such an amazing farewell. 


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Wednesday, February 1, 2023

January Recap!

Hello and welcome to The Greenkeeper! Today is Wednesday, February 1, 2023. With the first month of the year now behind us, thought I would take a moment to recap and look ahead. Since my last post we have received 2.70 inches (68.5mm) additional rain, and the longest consecutive stretch of dry days has been three.

Our total for January 2023 reached 5.73 inches (145.5mm) and was the 26th wettest of all-time. All I can say is thank goodness we didn't have a repeat of 1936!

Courtesy of Brad Panovich, WCNC
I've been looking back over our weather records and interestingly from 2006-2016 Carolina Golf Club averaged only 2.90 inches (73.6mm) rain in the month of January. But since 2017 that average has jumped by more than two inches to 4.93 (125.2mm). Also, four of the past seven years (2017,2019,2020, and 2023) saw greater than five inches fall on the golf course. 
Rainfall at CGC

I know, it's wet and we're all tired of it. I get asked frequently why I always share weather related info in the blog updates. Like I said at the Annual Meeting, Carolina Golf Club is not a simulator. We play golf outdoors year round, in all the elements. I know there are some of you that believe the weather is a convenient excuse, but I am merely sharing facts that explain why some things are the way they are at any given moment. Believe me, my team and I are more frustrated than you we can't do more on the course right now.

But enough about that, we did manage to wrap up the patching of all stump holes and made repairs to damaged turf along the cart path edges. For this we installed new TifTuf bermudagrass https://tiftufbermudagrass.com/. Born out of a quarter century of breeding at the University of Georgia, TifTuf is recognized as the most drought tolerant bermudagrass variety and by establishing it in multiple areas of the rough this gives us an opportunity to evaluate its performance in our environment over the coming year. 

TifTuf
We have always evaluated new bermudagrass varieties when the opportunity permits. In addition to our original Tifway 419 we also have Celebration bermudagrass and Latitude 36 bermudagrass growing on select parts of the golf course. Celebration was chosen for its greater shade tolerance and Lat 36 was selected for its greater cold tolerance. We test these new varieties should the need to reestablish ever arise allowing us to make an informed selection. 

I also referenced potholes during my last post, and we have procured the material necessary for patching. But unfortunately we cannot effectively patch holes filled with water. Until Mother Nature plays nice we are on standby waiting for our opportunity.

In the meantime I have been enjoying the new book The Golf Architecture of Donald Ross written by Donald Ross Society President, Bradford A. Becken, Jr. The book is full of photographs, drawings and field notes sewn together by Mr. Becken's recall of having played every golf course Donald Ross has designed still in existence.

One thing I really enjoyed was Appendix A, titled An Ideal Routing. This is actually an excerpt from a previous publication, Golf's Grand Design: The evolution of golf architecture in America co-authored by Ron Whitten and the late golf course architect Bob Cupp. It is a back-and-forth conversation on the routing of Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Florida. And I was struck by their reverent description of the par 4 sixth hole and could not help but recognize its similarity to our par 4 seventeenth. 

No. 6
No. 17














Okay, there are vast differences in appearances considering the open sandy waste areas at Seminole compared to the maintained rough at CGC, but the strategy of these holes is the same. One needs to challenge the left side fairway bunker(s) in order to provide the proper angle to play up the diagonal green guarded by a long diagonal bunker. Other similarities not depicted by the 2D overhead image is both holes play uphill from their respective teeing grounds and the landing areas both slope to the player's right leaving a shot slightly below your feet. Although that lie helps promote a fade for the right-handed player, hitting a fade from the middle or right side of the fairway can make safely carrying the long, diagonal bunker and reaching the putting surface extremely difficult. 

So there you have it, a little weather and golf course architecture to start your February. Tomorrow is Groundhog Day and rain is in the forecast. Of course it is!


See you on the course,

Matthew Wharton, CGCS, MG

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Thursday, January 19, 2023

Holes 1 and 2 Reopen for Play!

Hello and welcome to The Greenkeeper! Today is Thursday, January 19, 2023 and I want to take a moment to answer some questions I know have been floating around the past couple days. First allow me to apologize, I did spend the past two days in a training session as we are upgrading our irrigation control software this season. The timing of the class falling on the heels of a holiday and the completion of our winter course improvement projects I'm certain contributed to folks noticing no work was taking place on a couple of holes closed for play. 

By now most of you should have received and hopefully read the winter edition of the Ross Report. If so, then you know Golf Course Services completed our Capillary Bunker renovation last Thursday. The project which began back on October 3, 2022 utilized over 445 cubic yards of capillary concrete and nearly 1250 tons of new G-Angle bunker sand. GCS also installed just over one acre of new sod as years of sand splash buildup was removed and all the bunkers restored back to their original shape and contour.

I will be sharing more on this project and the others at next week's Annual Meeting. I look forward to sharing with you greater details along with our tips for you to help us maintain these bunkers to your high standards each day. 

As for our drainage project, the update in the Ross Report touched more on Hole 8. You may recall Turf Drainage Company took a holiday break as was mentioned here (Christmas Break) and returned on January 6. Also, my most recent post from January 5 (Nature's Wrath) talked about the major rain event (1.87 inches) that fell just two days before they resumed work. Needless to say, Mother Nature has been anything but cooperative as it relates to our drainage work.

Despite the challenges and setbacks we encountered, the work was completed this past Sunday, January 15. And I am happy to report this morning we reopened Holes 1 and 2 for play. Hole 1 does contain a large swath of Ground Under Repair across the fairway. This "crosswalk" area was utilized to haul soil into the wooded area on the far side of the hole for storage until used at a later date. Hole 2 opened for the time being as a shortened par 3.

"Crosswalk"
It has been my intention from the outset of this project to use a large multi-ton asphalt roller on both Holes 2 and 8 to smooth and firm the surface following project completion. We also want to topdress and then further protect the areas by restricting golf car traffic and give all the sod the best opportunity to survive the remainder of winter. 

Once we are able to perform these two operations the plan is to open the holes playing from the forward most teeing positions. This will allow most players to carry the ball over the impacted areas while still playing the holes as a par 4 or reachable par 5. 

Unfortunately the golf course has now received 11.60 inches rain (that's almost 300 mm) over the past eight weeks and more is in the immediate forecast. The soils on both holes were saturated from the outset of the project meaning despite the systems working to drain excess ground water and seepage water, dry weather is needed in order for us to catch up and access those areas with very heavy equipment. 

Today - Mon
Next Week













Until then, the holes will unfortunately need to remain shortened as much as possible. The agronomy team continues to focus on tidying up the golf course and repairing collateral damage from all projects. Cart path edges are being resodded where necessary and potholes will be addressed as soon as possible.  

Again, I will touch more on this topic and answer whatever questions you have at the Annual Meeting this coming Tuesday, January 24. 


See you on the course,

Matthew Wharton, CGCS, MG

 

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Thursday, January 5, 2023

Nature's Wrath!

Hello and welcome to The Greenkeeper! Today is Thursday, January 5, 2023 and let me start by wishing each of you a happy new year! I wish the first post for this year was a happy one, but unfortunately I need to share some course related news as it relates to the weather event experienced yesterday.

Yesterday the golf course encountered 1.87 inches of rainfall (47.5 mm). In fact, this was the fifth rain event of more than one inch since November 28th! The most recent was 1.75 inches (44.5 mm) on December 22nd and those of you that played in our Christmas Balls event the day prior probably saw me and members of my team working on Hole 8 to button up our drainage trenches with new sod.

Fortunately everything held together back on December 22, but yesterday's storm intensified between 9:00 and 9:30 am to an extreme rainfall rate shown on the U.S. Geological Survey's rain gauge located just down the street from us at Fire Station 10 on Wilkinson, Blvd. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/

In fact, it was at that same time lightning was detected near CGC and thunder shook the entire Turf Care Center. I quickly grabbed a screen shot of the radar in real time and posted to Twitter.

The line of red indicates the severity and rate of rainfall at that precise moment. When the storm finally passed and it was safe to patrol the course the gauges were emptied, SubAir activated, and several drain inlets cleared of debris. When I made my way down Hole 8 I encountered some displaced sod near the top of the hill and unfortunately one of those pieces blocked one of our newly installed surface inlets.

Sod Torn Away

Displaced Sod Blocking Inlet












Minor in the overall scheme of things and easily repaired, but by inhibiting surface flow to move under ground it allowed for greater surface flow down stream at the steepest part of the hill. The power of nature contained in moving water is hard to describe, but it is why meteorologists urge everyone to use caution during heavy rain and floods.



 











They say pictures are worth 1000 words and I know the two pictures above look horrifical. But I assure you the comeback will far exceed the setback. As play resumes today I wanted you to be aware in case you see it before repairs are completed. 

Sometimes I get asked is one inch of rain a lot. The answer is a resounding yes. Your home lawn can easily survive during the growing season on one inch of rain per week, so to receive one inch or more in a day or even just a few hours is extreme. One inch of rain spread across one acre contains roughly 27,000 gallons and weighs approximately 226,000 pounds. In other words, it is forceful.

In other news, our bunker renovation is in the final stretch. Holes 7-18 are completed and the greenside bunkers at 5 and 6 have the new Capillary bunker liner installed. Work has now commenced readying the greenside bunker on Hole 4 for liner installation. This leaves Hole 3 as the only hole on the golf course with unrenovated bunkers. 

Following the completion of the bunker project Golf Course Services will remain on site to construct a hillock on Hole 16 designed by our golf course architect Kris Spence and then dredge our storm water retention pond to the left of Hole 15 before they say goodbye.

See you on the course,

Matthew Wharton, CGCS, MG 


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