Drought etiquette

The City of Folsom in conjunction with the State of California has mandated a 32% water reduction for our potable water use and 25% reduction in our ground water use.

Please use caution by keeping golf carts out of any 'brown' areas in the rough. Red and white stakes mark the entry and exit points from the cart path to the fairway. After entering the fairway, please remain in the fairway until you reach the cart exit signs and exit at that point to the red and white stake and onto the cart path. Please remember, ALL PAR 3's are CART PATH ONLY as well as hole number 5 and 10.

Number 6



Number 3



Number 8


By reducing water in these "out of play" areas we will be able to meet our 32% water reduction and be part of the solution to reduce water consumption in large turf areas in California.

Thank you for your cooperation and enjoy these fast and firm conditions!

Rodney Muller,
Superintendent

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Bunker Project Resumes in 2015

Weather in December postponed our bunker project until recently. We will be working on hole number 14 green-side bunkers until completion.





Please treat any bunker under construction as "ground under repair" and please avoid walking in and around the construction area.

Thank you

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:E Natoma St,Folsom,United States

Water Well Improvements

The final stages of the additional well and electrical component upgrades are happening today. The next two weeks will consist of tuning the new system to operate efficiently for irrigation water production.
It's a much more sophisticated system than the old. The new well will be using a variable frequency drive (VFD) motor and a water level transducer to regulate water flow during low groundwater events. The original well will still use a motor saver that cuts power for a specified period of time under the same circumstance.
Both wells were fit with flow meters for monitoring well production.












This is a major improvement and will aid ERGC in reducing City water use during our peak irrigation season.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Bunker Renovation Progress

The ERGC maintenance crew is hard at work. 5,000 sqft of bunker renovation this week.









11 fairway left and 12 green-side.

When you see the maintenance staff on course, please tell them how much you appreciate their hard work.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Empire Ranch Golf Club

Much More Than "Adding A Little Sand"

We have started work on one of six more bunkers to be renovated. Here is a good photo of how much a bunker edge can change through regular maintenance and play.

This is number 10 green-side bunker. The original bunker lip was located by cutting back the sand/turf layer until the soil lip was found.



I marked on the photo to illustrate the the first step of our renovation- establish the original footprint of each bunker.

Again, each bunker will have Klingstone liquid spray-on liner, new drainage, sand and minor sod work.

Thank you

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Haddington Dr,Folsom,United States

Water Well Improvement

Over the past three weeks we have been working on a project to restore an old water well. The well will help supplement the existing well that fills our irrigation lake at the entrance of the golf course.
This week, the lake-fill line was located and tapped. A four inch line was installed from the tap over to the well head.





The disturbed areas will be back filled and graded for sod and seed.
I'll post more as the project nears completion.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Verti-cut clippings

Vertical mowing on greens helps remove much more material than regular mowing. It is more aggressive and is usually done bi-weekly during peak growing season.
How much more material is removed? This picture is material from 9 green, small putting green, 1 green and 2 green.  Generally, normal mowing produces 1-2 pounds of clippings per green.

Clippings from 4 greens

Verti-cut blade unit

The benefits?  Vertical mowing removes excessive leaf-tissue, thatch and reduces grain.  It promotes healthy turf and healthy turf needs fewer inputs like fertilizer and water.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Empire Ranch Golf Club

Home Landscape and Lawn Care Symposium is TODAY!

Follow this link to sign up.  Or just come on by.  Event starts at 6:00 pm and will continue until 7:30 pm.

http://professionalmaintenance.eventbrite.com/

Hamburgers, chips, drinks and beer will be provided.

Thank you,
Rodney Muller

Home Landscape and Lawn care Symposium

Empire Ranch Men's and Women's Golf Club Members:

Please join us for an evening of food, education and camaraderie. Ewing Irrigation and Acme Saw will be here with representatives demonstrating professional products and services.

Ewing Irrigation specializes in landscape products, landscape irrigation, golf and industrial products. Ewing will present their line of professional landscape lighting and outdoor audio products, fertilizer formulations for lawncare and irrigation management products and techniques.

Acme Saw sells and services commercial grade lawncare equipment. Acme will cover everything from spring tune-ups, blade sharpening and Winterization for your small engines. Everything from handheld blowers, power trimmers and self-propelled lawn mowers will be on display.

What? You hire a professional service to take care of your lawn. Well then all you have to do is educate yourself on the products your turf technician should be using so you get the most for your money.

Don’t miss this event. Empire Ranch Golf Club wants to let you in on our little secret and give you an alternative to shopping at a “big box” store.

Hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and drink will be provided. Brent Cohen and Victoria Bruss have also donated a KEG of beer for this event... and it's totally FREE!

The Event will be held in the Empire Ranch Maintenance Facility June 12th from 6pm - 7:30pm.

Please sign up for this event through Eventbrite so I can have a head count for food. Just follow the link below.

http://professionalmaintenance.eventbrite.com/
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Empire Ranch Golf Club

Bunker Project Update

We are down to the final bunker on hole #1.  The bottom of the bunker needs to be raised to drain properly.   During the process of excavating soil for the bunker our tractor lost reverse gear and needed to be taken to Sacramento Tractor for a major repair.

As soon as we get the tractor back to Empire Ranch we will complete our final bunker in the first phase of our bunker renovation.   Thank you.

More Course Improvements Coming

We will begin repairing and sealing the asphalt cart paths April 1st and 2nd.  We will have cart traffic regulated in areas throughout the course, so please use caution during this process.

Please use golf etiquette when approaching crews working on the course.  Before hitting a ball, get the attention of the worker by waiving and letting them know you are approaching them with your shot.  And as always, yell FORE!

Where did the term 'fore' originate?

FORE!

Aerification time

I can not think of a time when so many complements have been made about how great the greens are right now.  Trust me when I say, our staff does not get tired of hearing compliments on course conditions.  But....

Mark your calendars for our spring greens aerification.  April 2nd and 3rd.  April 2nd we will start at 12:00 PM on the front 9.  Wednesday April 3rd we will finish the back 9 starting at 5:00 AM.  Please, no back 9 play on Wednesday.

We will aerify and verticut greens to remove as much thatch as possible.  Fertility has been increased at this time and we should see greens returning to normal in 14-18 days if not sooner with excellent weather conditions.

Tee's have already been aerified, seeded, topdressed and fertilized and recovered nicely.

Here is a great communication article for golfers that is put out by the GCSAA.  Please read.

Aerification: Sometimes it's good to vent

Thank you.

Wood Duck Nest Box

I received a call last week from a father and son who wanted to install some Wood Duck boxes on the course.  They told me they had been golfing at Empire Ranch and saw Wood Ducks on the pond near 16 green.  After some discussion, I thought this was a good idea to install the boxes as it fits well with our Audubon Certification and creates outreach and education to youth- so I agreed to help them. This is also a class project for the son and he will be monitoring the boxes on a regular basis.

He brought us three Wood Duck boxes that he purchased online and assembled himself.  With the help of Seth Siebel, who mounted and located them on the course, we hit the prime nesting season for these water fowl.

The nesting boxes are located at the pond on hole 3, 9/10 and 16.  Please observe and report any Wood Duck sightings as they happen.  

Interested in learning more about the Audubon International ACSP for Golf Courses?  Try this link.

http://www.auduboninternational.org/acspgolf

Wood Duck pair

Wood Duck box at pond on 9/10 tee.

Bunker Update...

• Green-side bunkers on number 9 were finished the week of March 22nd.  
• Green-side bunker on number 7 will be completed by March 29th.
• Green-side bunkers on number 1 and 2 will be sprayed with Klingstone (bunker liner) on March 28th and will be completed by April 5th.

Santiago coring out the bunker sand.  Santiago works at Granite Bay CC and we were fortunate to have him excavating the bunkers.

Viliulfo is spraying the Klingstone bunker liner while Ildefonso, Rick and Eric apply a light coat of sand.

The sod goes down by Rick, Eric and Seth.  Jose and Saul add our new bunker sand and rake smooth.

The finished product.

New Range Targets and Yardage Poles

The new wedge targets proved to be very popular so we added a second set and built stands to mount the 4'X4' targets. I want to share with you the work that went into making the range upgrade, and acknowledge the maintenance staff for their hard work that made it possible.

Once we had the targets cut and painted, we built a stand to elevate and angle them so they could easily be seen. The stand also makes them portable for weekly mowing and maintenance.

After the raw steel was ordered and delivered, we used our chop saw to uniformly cut each portion of the stand by clamping a block to the desired length of cut. By using a block, it allows for each piece to be consistent in length with the next piece. We then pre-drilled the mounting holes for each piece of flat steel used for the top mount.


Next, we made a template to reproduce each base (14) and top mount (14). We tac welded each joint to avoid distorting the angles from the heat of the finish weld.


Base being made



Top mount being made



Welding



To join the base and top mount, we used 5/8 .065 wall tubing. Magnetic angles held and aligned each piece. Three inch legs in the front and twelve inch legs at the back gave us a good visual angle from the tee.


We painted each metal base using an industrial grade finish to protect the raw steel from rust and to provide a better finished product. Each base was centered on a target, marked, drilled and securely fastened with galvanized hardware. Notice the bent piece of steel in front of the target. This is the attachment point to move the targets for mowing and maintenance. A long T-handle with a hook at the end is all that is needed to move them.


Fabricators were: Jose and Ildefonso-cutting and preparing the metal and final assembly. Seth-painted the target stands. Saul, Viliulfo and Liborio-cut and painted the targets. Rodney-welded target stands.

Range Pole Construction


Prep and cap welding


Painting


3 of 6 painted

Thanks for looking
Rodney Muller

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wildlife sightings this fall

Some of the wildlife sightings this past week have been our River Otter, Deer, Coyote, Hawk, Heron, Egret, Duck and even a Mountain Lion. One sighting I have not witnessed in the past week are the 50-60 Turkey that have been roaming the course early in the morning. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!




















- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Brae Ct,Folsom,United States

Pond maintenance is a never-ending battle and more often than not, it’s a losing battle.  Naturally, ponds want to "grow up" to be meadows.  Left on their own, they will continue to become grassland and wildflowers and then eventually woody plants and forest, a process that would take hundreds of years.

Our ponds are man-made.  Each one has a specific purpose either to the golf course or to the Empire Ranch housing community surrounding the course.  Ponds, on holes 3, 9 and 16 were constructed to be both water hazards and design elements of the golf hole. Other ponds, such as those on holes 6, 13, 14 and 18 were constructed for flood control from the surrounding neighborhoods and to function as a bio-filter for water exiting the golf course.  These "filter" ponds have seasonal flow and fluctuate in depth throughout the year.

 During rain events, urban runoff has been directed from the surrounding hills, streets and rooftops into our ponds. Water is "slowed" in these collection ponds and gradually released from the property to local surface waters.

One of Empire Ranch's most challenging water-bodies was the pond on number 18.  Specifically, seasonal water flow was stagnating because of the abundant "cattails."  In early January and February we had a chance to clear much of the cattail from the collection pond by manually removing them. We used a shrub/clump grubber (see picture below) wrapped around the cattail clump and then attached by chain to the backhoe.  The backhoe pulled the clump to the ponds edge and then it was picked up and placed into a Toro Workman by the backhoe. Each clump weighed 500-700 lbs.  As you can see in the before and after photos the pond has improved water quality and made number 18 a more attractive finishing hole.

Over time, the pond on 18 will increasingly grow more cattails because of an endless supply of seed coming from upstream. Our maintenance team however, now has a successful plan in place for maintaining our most challenging body of water.

Before

After

After  (looking from 18 bridge)

Stump/Clump Grubber                         

What is a Stimpmeter?

The Stimpmeter made its official debut into golf in 1936, but began its official use by the USGA in 1978.  It has been an invaluable tool to superintendents, but what do golfers really know about the Stimpmeter?

History

It was designed by golfer Edward Stimpson, Sr. in 1935.^[1] The Massachusetts state amateur champion, Stimpson was a spectator at that year's U.S. Open at Oakmont. After watching a putt by a top professional (Gene Sarazen) roll off a green, Stimpson was convinced the greens were unreasonably fast, but wondered how he could prove it. He developed a device, now known as the Stimpmeter, which is an angled track that releases a ball at a known velocity so that the distance it rolls on a green's surface can be measured. Although the original device was made of wood, in 1976 it was redesigned from aluminum by Frank Thomas of the United States Golf Association(USGA). It was first used by the USGA during the 1976 U.S. Open at Atlanta and made available to golf course superintendents in 1978. The official USGA stimpmeter (painted green) is not sold to the public.^[1]

Description

The device is an extruded aluminum bar, 36 inches (91 cm) long and 1.75 inches (4.4 cm) wide, with a 145° V-shaped groove extending along its entire length, supporting the ball at two points, ¹⁄₂ in (1.3 cm) apart. It is tapered at one end by removing metal from its underside to reduce the bounce of the ball as it rolls onto the green. It has a notch at a right angle to the length of the bar 30 inches (76 cm) from the lower tapered end where the ball is placed. The notch may be a hole completely through the bar or just a depression in it. The ball is pulled out of the notch by gravity when the device is slowly raised to an angle of about 20°, rolling onto the green at a repeatable velocity of 6.00 ft/s (1.83 m/s).^[2] The distance travelled by the ball in feet is the 'speed' of the putting green. Six distances, three in each of two opposite directions, should be averaged on a flat section of the putting green. The three balls in each direction must be within 8 inches (20 cm) of each other for USGA validation of the test.^[3][4]

Sloped greens

One problem on modern greens is finding a near level surface as required in the USGA handbook. Many greens cannot be correctly measured as you cannot find an area where the measured distance or green speed in opposing directions is less than a foot, particularly when they are very fast requiring a very long level surface. A. Douglas Brede was able to devise a formula to solve that problem. His formula:

(where S↑ is speed up the slope and S↓ is speed down the slope) eliminates the effect of the slope and provides a true green speed even on severely sloped greens.^[5]

Recommendations

The USGA stimpmetered putting greens across the country to produce the following recommendations:^[1]

• Slow greens: 4.5 feet
• Medium greens: 6.5 feet
• Fast greens: 8.5 feet

For the U.S. Open, they recommend:^[1]

• Slow greens: 6.5 feet
• Medium greens: 8.5 feet
• Fast greens: 10.5 feet

The greens at Oakmont Country Club (where the device was conceived) are some of the fastest in the world, with readings of 13–15 feet.

References

1. ^ ^a b c d Frank Thomas (October, 2001). "Equipment Extra: Eddie Stimpson's slant on putting". Golf Digest.
2. ^ Brian W. Holmes, "Dialogue concerning the Stimpmeter", The Physics Teacher 24/7 (1986) 401–404.
3. ^ USGA Stimpmeter Instruction Booklet
4. ^ Stimpmeter — Measure putting green speed
5. ^ A. Douglas Brede, Measuring green speed on sloped putting greensPDF (675KB)
6. ^ "Oakmont: Rock & roll (& roll & roll & roll) nightmare". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 2007-06-10. Retrieved 2007-06-10.

External links

• How to build your own Stimpmeter
• The Stimpmeter by the Rambling Man (with a picture)
• Up with the Stimpmeter by Stanley J. ZontekPDF (566 KB)
• The Birth of the Stimpmeter
• The Stimpmeter – A management tool by Patrick M. O'BrienPDF (457 KB)
• Making a lasting impression: Stimpmeter's importance can't be overstated by David Shefter, USGA
• The Stimpmeter by Frank Thomas, USGA
• Stimpmeter instructions: Greens speed measurement toolPDF (185 KB)
• Green speed physics by Authur P. WeberPDF (901 KB)
• Utilizing the Stimpmeter for its intended use by Michael MorrisPDF (256 KB)
• Speed limits: Using the Stimpmeter to your advantage by Daniel BinnsPDF (476 KB)
• A Better Stimpmeter And Calculator

"Click" on the link below to watch the video Mythbusters-The Stimpmeter, What Do Golfers Know?.

http://www.gcsaa.tv/view.php?id=405

If you are interested in a "hands-on experience" with the Stimpmeter, please give me a call and we can set up a time to Stimp a few greens at ERGC.