Update on Our Greens Profile

Want to recap everyone on our greens profile and the tremendous progress we have made over the past 60 days.  As you are all aware it was decided to have 2 fall aerifications this year to help boost our recovery to firm, well drained greens with deep roots and an abundance of oxygen.  With this we removed close to 20% of the profile and roughly 160 tons of materal between the two aerifications this fall and an additional 6% from the springs aerification.  Here are two photos of what our greens had before, and what we have right now after the aerification, make note that our watering practices and getting our water percentage to the desired ratio have not changed.

July 2015

October 2015

In these two photos you can see the major differences in overall appearance and health.  Additionally in the top 1/3" you can see the progress we have made this year from our regular topdressing programs and aerifications that limit thatch build up and produce a sandy firm surface absent of organic layerings.  We have made great strides, still have a long ways to go to fully disperse the underlying organic matter but as most will agree our greens have been dramatically better in the past few weeks.  Many thanks for your understanding as we progress through these hidden challenges.

Native Areas

Good afternoon readers, as most of you have noticed we have begun our native trimming here at Canyon Farms.  Two weeks ago we purchased a very robust and heavy duty brush hog for the property and we have gotten a majority of our areas completed.  We still have a few smaller areas that are too small or not safe for the tractor and brush hog that we will be string trimming.  As cooler weather approaches our lovely Zoysia grass will be going dormant and we will be able to fully clean these areas out, put out our fall weed control herbicides and start cleaning out our lower lying creek banks.

Please refrain from driving your golf cars through these areas as they are riddled with thorns, low areas and can be dangerous to drive through.

We have several other fall projects we will be doing and addressing areas of concern and improvement going into our 2016 golf season.

Soft Greens - Watering Practices

As we reach the end of the summer calendar we have been receiving some comments on our greens here at Canyon Farms about their softness and them seemingly being too wet.  One of the many challenges that we are facing is within our Root-Zone and Greens Profile.  Below and to the right is a photo of what a healthy Greens Profile should look like, take close look at the uniformity and especially the top inch with very limited thatch buildup:

To the bottom left is what our current profile looks like, you can easily see the differences with the overall appearance.  Within this photo you can observe several noticeable differences, first the top ½ inch where a lot of organic material has been built up over the years and a considerable black layer underneath.  This is a result of the organic material creating a perched water table starving the soil for air.  Black layer is the result of an anaerobic zone absent of adequate oxygen and proper drainage.  These two layers inhibit root growth, water infiltration rates, oxygen levels, but in turn massively affect our ability to drive water down into the 12” root-zone resulting in a firm putting surface.  You may ask what is different about 2015 and why might we be seeing this have an effect this year.  Organic material does not built up over night, but it is the accumulation from the past 8 years and then magnified by the never ending rainstorms and events we've experiences this year.

Some of the changes we have made is within our water management and cultural practices.  Would like all of you to watch this video from TPC of Sawgrass and how they manage their greens that best illustrates our process with water management here at Canyon Farms:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYgl6xPxVJk

As most of you have witnessed in the past, you will see my assistants and myself out in the morning measuring the greens moisture and dragging hoses where we tend to these areas just like in the video.  With our root-zone there are times in the afternoon that our water content drops to 13-15% on our mounds that require more water to keep them alive and healthy, even when the lower areas of the greens are still reading high from rains.  This is a very delicate balance, as seen with our heavy and consistent rains the mounds tend to shed the water causing it to pool in the lower regions resulting in 25+ percentage in lower spots and still 15% on the mounds and slopes.  We do our absolute best to not use overheads unless required either by our weekly topdressings or pesticide applications.  This week we have also incorporated the best water driving agents and an acid based substance to help push water and in theory help dry out the surface of the green.  Additionally we have been treating only the mounds and slopes of the greens that dry out quickly with a water holding agent several times. This will hopefully aid us in limiting our watering in the afternoon and making the greens consistent from the front to the back of the green.

Moving forward we will be taking a look and changing some of our cultural practices to better drive water through the greens profile, providing roots with proper drainage and oxygen for a healthy firm putting surface, these practices do not happen overnight and we ask for your patience as we work through the “root” of the issue here at Canyon Farms.  As always we strive and demand for perfection giving you a place to be proud of to play and enjoy a round of golf.

July Storms

Have had a few questions today and last week on on bunkers and course conditions following some of these massive storms.  In the past 15 days Canyon Farms has been hit with 4 major storms bringing a total of just under 10" of rain.  One of these storms brought a small micro burst producing 2.5" in less than 30 minutes, knocking several trees down on holes 13 & 14 and even completely bending the flagstick and cup IN the green from the strong wind, seen here to the left.

We had finally finished all of our bunker cleanup and were rocked once again yesterday with 3.25" in just over 1.5 hours.  I want to reiterate that during and after events such as these our course will not be at its best, especially our bunkers.  Please be patient as we rebuild them back by shoveling out silt, mud and then shovel all the sand back up the faces.  This is such a backbreaking duty, and with a crew of 7 it takes us some time.  If you happen to find yourself in a bunker that we have not gotten to please follow USGA rules and rake a spot and place your golf ball, or play it as a lateral hazard.

Here are some of the photos during these events:

Its HOT out there...

Well the long wait from the spring rains to full on summer heat is upon us this week and foreseeable future.  Some key reminders as you are out there playing:
- Always have extra water bottles, fill up at all chances
- Dont play by yourself
- If you feel overheated seek shade, call proshop and drink water

Additionally things you will notice for maintenance of the golf course, as soil temps reach upper 80's and 90's our cool season turf will be in massive stress mode and we will be taking some different tactics with watering, cooling greens in the afternoon and running blowers in our drains to supply our rootzone with oxygen.  We are in survival mode for the next 45 days, please remember to always fix your ball marks as they take longer to heal in days like this.

We here at Canyon Farms are a dedicated group, all the way to our lovely golf course dog Gonzo.  Some of you have seen him running or even gotten the chance to meet him, he is one of the nicest and personable dogs I have ever been around.  Gonzo is a rescue dog who is 2.5 years old and is a hybrid Border Collie / lab mix, in short he has an abundance of energy, perfect for his course.  I call it his course because if you see him running in the morning, chasing off pesky geese, rabbits, or this morning our neighboring Hawk population he defends this place with every bit of energy he has.  Typically Gonzo will run all 18 holes, take a swim in our ponds to cool off and will spend the rest of the day sleeping after his 7-10 mile run. 

One of the best advantages we see to owning a course dog here at Canyon is with our reduced geese population.  Since bringing him onto the property in early February we have drastically reduced geese not only flying here, but nesting and creating massive havoc with their lovely droppings all over the course and being a territorial nuisance to you.  We will really notice Gonzo’s impact later this fall and through the winter months as the geese migrate through the area, I think I can speak for all of our golfers and neighbors this is a huge bonus.

So next time you see him running around stop and say hello, he will be more than likely try to get you to pet him as he gives you kisses.

Happy golfing and remember to always repair ball marks and divots.

Sink hole #13

Well as most of you have already noticed or have seen on the news we had an interesting Fathers Day weekend here at Canyon Farms.

At roughly 9am on Friday morning an isolated sink hole appeared east of Hole 13 on the Canyon Farms Golf Course in Lenexa, Kansas. Portions of the golf course are constructed over a non-operating limestone mine. The area where the sink hole appeared had subsurface conditions inferior to the rest of the mine. A safe perimeter has been secured around the site. The majority of the mine is considered stable according to various geotechnical studies. Excessive groundwater from the wet spring is believed to have contributed to stress on the mine roof at that location. The mine is being evaluated and a course of action to stabilize this portion of the mine will be determined shortly.

We are still open for play, currently with #13 played as a par 3 from the lower section until a full evaluation and restoration of the sink hole, we ask all golfers and guests to please respect the signs and closed off area.

So much rain...

Well another day started with heavy rains here at Canyon Farms, currently at .8" with more on the way later today.  I know most of you have been frustrated with the current course conditions, mowing frequency, cart path rule and overall course appearance the last 3 weeks.  You are are not alone.  In the past 23 days we have received just under 12" of rain, some being extremely heavy downpours.  One positive is our water supply in the ponds is at full capacity and we should be good going into this season.

Here are some photos I took this morning showcasing just what we see after such a heavy thunderstorm and why we will be cart path only today and more than likely through the weekend.

As always as soon as we can get out and start mowing and maintaining our beautiful golf course we will be doing so, as you can clearly see today is a lost cause for mowing and we will be focusing on some more of our never ending detail work.

Thank you for your patience as Mother Nature has not been kind to us this spring.

Meet Our New Equipment

Good morning readers!  Today we will be discussing our amazing new state of the art equipment here at the Canyon Farms Maintenance Department.  A huge thanks to our owner Mr. Klausman and our Great Life Management team on getting these pristine machines for our fleet.  As always we spare no expense on having the highest quality of cut and appearance for our many members and guests.

First is our two state of the art brand new Greens Mowers.  These Hybrid Toro 3320's deliver walk mower quality with a reduction of over 50% labor.  This enables us to have the highest quality of cut, appearance and ball roll with labor savings used to better detail this great facility.   Another great feature is with the Hybrid technology and 14-blade reels, this gives us the ability to have the highest clip rate (times the mower cuts the crass per square inch) in the market.  Here is one of our most experience crew members Juan mowing number 5 green on this lovely morning.

Second is our brand new Salsco Greens Roller, this side to side machine gives a 5 psi on each pass, this gives the most consistent ball roll and smooths out any imperfections from foot traffic, improper ball mark repairs and leaves a glassy appearance when finished.  This industry leading roller will be used 2 to 3 times per week to give you a consistent and better ball roll than Canyon has ever had in the past.  To the right you can see Rene rolling #2 green and leaving a pristine and tournament style ball roll.

Lastly is our two new rough units, the Toro 4700 Grounds-Masters. These machines have 7 single decks that have a solid back roller giving us a striped appearance of 12 feet. Given our acreage of the golf course when both are in operation we can give you the highest quality of cut, striped appearance with zero scalping in just under 4 hours for the entire property.  With this extremely efficient mower not only can we accomplish our rough mowing faster than ever before but we can mow the golf course 3 times per week giving everyone Monday - Sunday a consistent playable rough.  Here you can seeing one of my Assistants, Mr. Duane Davied mowing #4 Green Bank in 20% less time than it took before.

Many thanks to our owners and managers for finding and purchasing these amazing pieces that complete our fleet here at Canyon Farms Golf Club.  I hope all of you are enjoying our more consistent and playable golf course.  As always thank you for reading this blog and taking part in learning more about our Maintenance Department and our many processes that go along with maintaining a golf course.

Greens Aerification

Wanted to get in touch with all of you that have had many questions on our greens healing from our Spring Aerification program.  To start off, I can insure you that I am far from happy on their healing and it has bugged us here immensely, there is no one more upset than myself and my staff.  I want to go through why we aerify, why we aerify when we do and the lasting impact it has on our greens.  Lastly I will discuss reasons why they have not healed in an adequate time frame.

Any facility will core aerify (pulling material) several times per year, this maintains our underground composition.  To maintain our greens health it is required to remove 15-20% of material each growing season from practices such as this.  Over each year we get buildup of organic matter (dead tissue, root decay etc) from having A-4/A-1 Bent-grass mix, these are some of the best bent-grasses courses can have on their greens but they are heavy producers of organic matter.  With the buildup greens can get puffy, soft, have inadequate drainage, poor air quality in the root-zone and disease infestations.  These issues have massive lasting consequences if they are not controlled, up to and including a complete rebuild of the greens, core aerifying each month, drill and fill slicing, higher pesticide usage, each causing a huge impact on play far beyond our current practices.  We chose the size tine and spacing we used to best pull that 15-20% over 2 yearly aerifications based on our ISTRC testing (spring and fall) to keep our greens healthy not only for this coming summer but for 5-10 years down the line.  A mistake, skipped aerification or an improper tine size has lasting consequences.

Each golf course is different, even having the same A-4/A-1 Bent-grass mix as most of our neighbors does not entail that we have the same root-zone, yearly fertility levels, same microbial population but most importantly we all have different growing environments.  We chose here at Canyon to aerify in mid to late April, this is a typical “best” time to aerify without massively disrupting your playing ability.  The earlier you go in the year, not only have you not had adequate time from the previous falls aerification to get the best bang, but you can see very slow recovery times as seen in 2009, 2013 and 2014. 

To the questions on our greens this year, since we aerified on April 21^th we have seen horrendous night temperatures that have slowed the growth of not only our greens but the rest of our golf course.  Keep in mind that an A-4 / A-1 mix desires sunlight and soil temps of at least 60-70 degrees for adequate growth.  During our time since April 21^th we have had lows drop to 33 (April 22) 40-45 (April 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, May 1, 11, 12) causing a stunting reaction to our greens and slowing their vertical and horizontal growth.  As much as I wish I could snap my fingers and have grass grow we require some help from Mother-Nature.  We have supplied the greens with well above average fertility since my arrival and have kept them at the best water to air ratio for growing grass.  The only item left is Mother-Nature to turn on the sunlight and warming soil temperatures.

I have contacted many other courses and fellow Superintendents in the city that aerified the same day that we did, all… and I repeat that ALL have struggled to get their greens to heal up in the normal window of time.  We are not in the minority and in some cases have healed up “faster” than they have.

I ask for your patience, as I stated before we are doing, will do and have been doing everything in our ability to get our greens as healthy as possible for you and your playing partners.  To the questions of our “open holes” needing more sand is not what they need right now.  Applying sand, dragging it in is an abrasive process and it causes tremendous amounts of friction and can stunt growth of filling for another 4-5 days as the grass heals from the added sand, we still end up in the same predicament we are in today as the grass tries to grow and fill between the open areas.  Right now the greens are at the cusp of healing, as the old saying goes “It is always darkest before dawn” greens after aerification will always be the bumpiest and hardest to putt right before they fully heal.

Thanks for your patience and remember, we are here to make Canyon Farms one of the premiere courses in the Kansas City area, we have made changes from previous management to the benefit and health of our great Club.

Mark Newton, CGCS
Certified Class A Superintendent

What do we do when the course is to wet?

Some days just don't go as originally planned.  We have received a great deal of rain the past few days and that has made the course a soggy mess.  One of the many "benefits" that come with these days when they happen is our many many many on course projects.



Since my arrival #14 teebox area has bugged me greatly, with extremely limited irrigation to adequately grow a healthy stand of grass.  To the left you will recognize this horrendous area, from what I have gathered it has looked like this for quite some time.

Below you will see our finished product in just one day.  This incorporated hauling lots of stone, digging out some of the grass that was there and then planting some very rugged perennial flowers that love full sun and poor soils and irrigation.

Hope all of you enjoy the many changes and improvements!  Happy golfing!

Zoysia Seedheads

As you all have most likely noticed over the past two weeks our lovely Zoysia-grass has started to seed out.  These can be seen as a rich dark purple / black look to our fairways and tee boxes.

These seedheads, unfortunately carry a non-viable seed but cause massive chaos to our mowers.  They have close to a wire for a seed-stock that easily dull reels in seconds.  You will see us out many times mowing these with a rotary style mower that is normally used on our roughs to knock and cut these horrendous seed-heads.  Even though these last for a relatively short time (roughly 2-4 weeks) we know that summer is right around the corner and soon our fairways will once again be striped out and prestine looking.

Please be patient with us as these next few weeks our fairways wont look the best but we are in the same boat as every other golf course in the area with Zoysia-grass.

New Tee Markers - Touch Points

Has been a while since our last post, but wanted to showcase our new tee markers.  We made these ourselves over the past couple of months, each one individually had to be cast, painted and two thin coats of concrete sealant painted on.

One of mine along with Great Life's initiatives is our touch points, you can see this in our new golf carts, flags, flag-sticks and now our custom made tee markers.  These provide a unique look and set us apart from other facilities.  We chose a design and coloring that brings in our other natural landscaping here at Canyon Farms that is extremely unique for the area.  I hope you all have enjoyed our changes here in the first few months of our management and I hope we can exceed all of your expectations here at Canyon to have a course you can be proud of once again.

New Items for 2015

Here are three items that will really stand out for this upcoming year!

First, we will be switching to a Red, White, Blue pin location on the greens with a a pristine championship style flag with our Canyon Farms Logo.  Second, we will be going to home built stone tee markers, and lastly new rope posts to better direct cart traffic while maintaining a professional course appearance.

I hope you all enjoy the new touch points for this upcoming season and if you are interested in purchasing a tee marker to have at your home or office they will be on sale in the proshop later this spring.

Much Needed Rain

For the first time in a long time we are receiving a decent amount of precipitation.  As many of you have seen in the past 2 weeks we have been going around with a water tank and hitting our high knobs and dry areas of the greens.  This mornings radar is a much needed event for the health of our golf course come spring time!

Unusual January Weather

As most of you will be out on the course these next few days, we are reaching record highs for the month of January and golf is good!  With that this morning we are changing pins, mowing greens and raking bunkers for your enjoyment.  Even though those brutal temps just a few short weeks ago took most of all color out of the greens they are still holding on great even with the dormant look.

Here is to you all getting away from work and enjoying these great days of golf ahead!

Changes on #8

Good morning Canyon Farms,

As some of you have noticed over the past few weeks we have been doing some tree work to enhanced your golfing experience here at Canyon Farms.  One of these very noticeable changes is on Hole #8.

When I first stepped on the course here, this was a hole that needed some drastic work in its overall appearance, playability and in short design from the tee box.  As this picture illustrates, the lead up to the fairway had been completely overgrown shrub trees and cedars and there was no longer a "runway" to the fairway to showcase to the golfer where to place his tee shot.

In the second photo you can see our current progress and just how much it changes the hole for the positive.  You now can see your ball flight, see the fairway bunkers on the left side and be able to pick an applicable club to tee off on this beautiful hole.

I hope all of you are able to get out this week and enjoy this amazing January weather and be able to see our slight changes to better your golf experience here at Canyon Farms.  Happy Golfing!