NOAA Weather Report

NOAA Weather Report for Colorado March-May

• La Niña continues to weaken in the Pacific Ocean. Surface and sub-surface water

temperature anomalies in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean have decreased and will

likely continue to do so in the coming months.

• The recent decline in La Niña may be linked to large scale oceanic and atmospheric

circulations and anomalous warming produced by a moderate to strong Madden-Julian

Oscillation (MJO) that propagated eastward across the tropical Pacific Ocean in late January

and early February.

• The movement of the MJO across the eastern Pacific Ocean may account for the relatively

sudden shift from unseasonably warm and dry conditions across Colorado and the western

U.S. in December and early January, to the unseasonably cool and moist (snowy) conditions

across the southwest and central Rocky Mountain regions of the U.S. from late January to

mid-February. Conditions normally attributed to La Niña were replaced with those commonly

associated with El Niño.

• With the MJO weakening as it moves east across northern Africa and over the Indian

Ocean, the jet stream and weather patterns across the western U.S. should return to

those commonly associated with a La Niña. However, as this La Niña weakens, so

will its influence on weather patterns affecting the U.S.

• The outlook for Colorado issued by the Climate Prediction Center for the March-May

climate season is calling for at least a one-in-three chance of above average temperatures

and below average precipitation across the entire state.

Pinery Live Camera

We just recently added a new tool to the course and our blog a live camera feed of #2 mountain. This camera will give us real time video of course conditions and weather conditions from any where in the world. You can even access the video from your smart phone.

The link for the camera is located on the right hand side of this blog under Real Time Camera.

The addition of this live camera sets our Pinery Blog apart from any that I have visited. I'm sure our snow bird members will love the live cam so they can monitor the snow melting, timing their return to the Pinery.

February 27th 2012

Lots of snow hanging on

Link to camera, http://75.105.53.34:8090/videostream.cgi

User Name :1 Password :1

Supported Browsers, Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox

What's a Purr-wick Golf Green?

What actually is a Purr-wick golf green and how are they constructed?

The Purr-wick golf green design was first conceived in 1966 at Purdue University by Dr William H. Daniel. The design was attempting to create capillary action from coarse sand to fine sand. Basically a water pool/table on the bottom of the green created by a plastic barrier. This water will be absorbed by capillary action to the finer sand above. In theory you can change the level of the water in the green by adding or reducing risers that are located at the drainage exit. This water table is created by separate tiers on golf greens with contours. So a high area on a green is one tier and a low area is another. Most greens at the Pinery have 3-4 tiers as far as we can tell, since we have locate most of the outgoing drains. The ability to manage the water table on Purr-wick golf greens gives the design an advantage to manage water in extreme weather conditions.

The Purr-wick design was originally constructed for water conservation on sports turf and eventually found its way to the golf industry. There are still many examples of Purr-wick greens construction mostly in the mid west. As far as I know we have the largest examples of Purr-wick construction in the country with 27 golf greens.

#8 green lake course

Note the plastic liner and the separate tiers.

You can see the pipe on right of the green that exits to the right.

Profile View of Purr-wick golf green

Cross section drawing of drainage and riser system

Notice the water table and capillary action to the sand above

Time Lapse

A short test video on time lapse snow removal off of #8 green mountain. This was filmed back in January and filmed with a GoPro Hero. A picture was taken every 5 seconds. It took us over an hour to remove most of the snow and ice off the green. But now we can watch it in just over 2 minutes.

Record Snow

The last week we saw record snow fall in Colorado. This major winter storm started on Groundhog Day February 2nd late in the afternoon and kept snowing through Saturday the 4th. There were snow totals in Pinecliffe Colorado located in the foothills around 51 inches and totals here at the Pinery of 24 inches. What a storm, some areas had snow rates over 2 inches per hour. As of now most of Colorado is covered in a white blanket of fresh snow.

No Golf Today

Audubon Certification

This Morning when I was checking my e-mail I noticed one from Audubon International. We received our Audubon Certification on January 27th 2012 after joining the organization in March of 2010. The last few years were filled with new challenges accompanied with educational opportunities and fun times. We all learned how to protect the environment just a little better and education others of the importance of environmental stewardship. It is a proud day at the Pinery since we are the 38th golf course in Colorado and the 957th in the world to be recognized as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. We are all deeply honored for this distinction.

Below is a press release

Pinery Country Club Recognized for Environmental Excellence

PARKER, CO – Pinery Country Club has achieved designation as a "Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary" through the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses, an Audubon International program. Steve Whiting, Course Superintendent, has led the effort to obtain sanctuary status on this course and is being recognized for Environmental Stewardship by Audubon International. Pinery Country Club is the 38^thcourse in Colorado and the 957^th in the world to receive the honor.

"Pinery Country Club has shown a strong commitment to its environmental program. They are to be commended for their efforts to provide a sanctuary for wildlife on the golf course property," said Jim Sluiter, Staff Ecologist for the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Programs.

"To reach certification, a course must demonstrate that they are maintaining a high degree of environmental quality in a number of areas," explained Sluiter. These categories include: Environmental Planning, Wildlife & Habitat Management, Outreach and Education, Chemical Use Reduction and Safety, Water Conservation, and Water Quality Management.

The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses, endorsed by the United States Golf Association, provides information and guidance to help golf courses preserve and enhance wildlife habitat, and protect natural resources. Golf courses from the Africa, Australia, Canada, Central America, Europe, and Southeast Asia have also achieved certification in the program.

Snow Removal

Here is a short video on snow removal from 18 green

Greens Snow Removal

Well we have had snow cover on the course since the first week of December. Northern exposures had up to 18 inches of snow and the southern exposures have had snow cover off and on over the last month. With six weeks of snow cover on the greens it was time to start to pull the snow and ice off. Typicality Poa can go 45 days with continuous ice cover and bent 90 days plus. Most of our greens are bent with 5 to 10 percent Poa so we decided to stick with the 45 days. We have monitored the greens all winter and we did not see ice until a warm up after Christmas. We went from a foot of snow on the ground one day and temps in the upper 60's the next. So far the removal went great and the greens have melted off with some help from black sand and Humates. We used what ever we could to remove the snow by hand, snow blowers, tractor, modified sand pro with plow and even our truck and plow.

Below are some pictures of our snow removal.

15 green after snow removal and application of black sand and humates. On the afternoon of the17th Jan. One to two inches of ice present. Removed 8-10 inches of snow.

15 green the next day Jan 18th late afternoon

Black sand is working great. Had some good sunshine and temps in the 50's

15 green on the 19th of Jan, around noon little or no ice left

Fresh

The First few weeks of January brought some more cold and snow. So we took advantage and put a fresh coat of epoxy paint on the shop floor. The paint is a 2 part epoxy one part color and one part activator. We simply mix the two parts together and wait 1/2 hour for the paint to activate. Then start painting, you must have respirator on because of the fumes from the epoxy!! The paint holds up very well on our well traveled shop floor. This is about the 8th time the floor has received a coat of paint in the last 10 years. It really brightens up the shop.

Looking Sharp

Ready to get dirty

Blow off

Last year we blew off close to 40 sprinkler head tops at operation pressures of 50-60 psi during blow out. This was obviously unexceptionable and unexplained. These part circle heads should easily handle that pressure for blow. So this year we added a pressure regulator for blow out. The regulator handles temperatures up to 175 degrees and rated for pressures in the 150 psi range down to 5 psi. We set up the regulator so the pressure in the field was 30 psi. Well we had some luck we only blew 10 tops. But still why are the tops blowing off our part circle heads? We never had a problem when the new system went in 5 years ago. Possibly the plastic is photo degrading and the pressed in fitting are compromised. We are currently looking at a solution so next year we don't blow off any tops.

Regulator at 30 PSI

Want to Skate

What Happens when you mix water, cold weather and a sprinkler, ICE.

During our last watering last night a station stuck on and ran most of the evening in 25 degree temps. Of course we haven't had a sticker since September.

Break out the hockey skates

Let it Fly!

This is our last week having the irrigation system up. Later this week we start blowing out. In the meantime we are loading up southern exposures and getting one last watering in before we drain the system on Wednesday. Looks like we will have good weather for blow out, 50's and sunny. Hopefully it will be a while before we have to fire up the system again. But if we have to our frost free system will come in handy again. We have frost free coupler's to all of our greens most tees and select fairways. The frost free system sure came in handy last year with our dry winter, we were only down for a few weeks before we fired back up.

Loading up Southern exposures on #3 mountain course

Break it up!!

Late this fall we started to spot deep tine some LDS (localized dry spot) in our fairways and approaches. We set the deep tine up with 1/2 inch solid tines at a depth of 9 inches. Most areas we had full penetration of the tine but in the some of the LDS areas we were only able to penetrated 7 inches. A Long term cultural program with this deep tine will help the over all soil health, playability and drainage of our fairways. We plan on doing some more in the spring when the soil is saturated from our winter and spring snows.

Deep tine in action

Path Work

In the last few weeks we have started our cart path demo. Close to 4,000 sq ft of bad cart path has been removed and back filled with a recycled asphalt sub grade. Hopefully in the next few weeks we can get the areas paved. We will look at more areas that need replaced in the spring and fall of next year.

#17 By green

The dip on #16

Subsurface Irrigation

This spring we started some subsurface irrigation on some select bunkers. The installation
was fairly quick and easy. Once this project is completed it should eliminate hand watering on these problem bunker noses and edges, saving us labor and water dollars. The entire project for 300 foot of subsurface drip irrigation only took 16 man hours and a low cost of $200. The drip pipe is installed anywhere from 8 to 12 inches from the edge depending on the slope of the bunker and the spacing on the ladder of the bunker nose is 12 inches. This spacing can change however it depends on the GPH and PSI of the drip pipe. The pipe also averages 2-3 inch depth just below the sod cutter at its deepest setting. The drip pipe can also be installed just below the sod line or up to 4 inches deep.

Prep Bunker nose

Ladder for Large Bunker nose

2-3 inch depth

Sod cut perimeter of bunker place pipe under sod

Set sod cutter at maximum depth

Valve bank with filter, pressure regulator and pellet canister for wetting agents