Pinnacle Peak Country Club Agronomy

October 2023 G&G Blog

Welcome back to the 2023-2024 season. We hope everyone enjoyed their summer. We look forward to getting the course open for play and seeing everyone back at the club.

This past summer was a very hot and dry summer. We received 0.4 inches of rain from this year’s monsoon season versus 13 inches from the prior monsoon season. The greens did very well this summer with the drier conditions. However, the hot and dry weather presented some challenges to the water budget. We had a very good transition this past summer and did not need excess water for the Bermuda grass to recover. Through all the challenges we were able to maintain our water budget through the summer and expect to meet our annual allotment.

The lack of monsoon storms also provided a chance to catch up and work ahead on the desert maintenance leading up to overseed. We spent a good portion of August and September blowing and cleaning, raking debris, and removing random sprout plants from all of the deserts. We have started over on the deserts now trimming all plants however we did not finish all the trimming of the deserts. Holes 10-17, and 3-7 will continue trimming and cleaning over the next several weeks as the course opens.

As you may have noticed our overseed schedule changed this year. This year our closure for overseeding was 5 weeks in total. Fall greens aerification was pushed back 2 weeks and was combined with overseeding to create an extended period compared to the prior years. This was done for several reasons. The first reason was to aerate the greens in more favorable weather conditions for the health of the greens. Second, it removed the need for golfers to have to play on sandy aerified greens for 2 weeks leading up to overseed. Third, the G&G Department was able to make all necessary herbicide applications away from all play. Fourth it provided a built time for the restoration of the collars this year and for the future when the collars will have to be re-sodded to combat the Bermuda encroachment. Fifth it pushed back overseed 1 week and allowed the ryegrass to be grown in a slightly cooler period to establish with less pressure from the existing Bermuda grass. Our overall goal was to make one inclusive period to perform all necessary practices while removing any disruptions to the course that would affect play prior to overseeding and creating much healthier conditions for the golf course.

During the week of September 25^th, the greens were verticut and ariefied with ½ tines and top-dressed with 75 tons of sand. In addition, the outside 24” of the bentgrass collars were cut and dug out approximately 2-3” to remove all Bermuda encroachment. Approximately 50 tons of USGA green mix was backfilled and packed band in this area around every green. 14,000 sq feet of bentgrass sod was contract grown 10 months ago in northern California. 2 deliveries of sod were brought in on refrigerated trucks to re-sod the collars. This was a very large and labor-intensive practice, but a very necessary practice to protect Bermuda grass from encroaching into the interior of the greens. This practice can be expected to occur every 2-3 years pending weather conditions.

Overseed went very well this year. The weather conditions could not have been more perfect. The overseed was performed the same as it has been over the past 2 seasons. G&G used approximately 36,000 lbs. of perennial ryegrass seed to overseed this year. Very similar to what our overseeds have been for the past years.

G&G continues to clean and prepare the course of opening. An extensive amount of time has been spent in the bunkers checking depths and re-distributing the sand as needed. We have been cleaning more deserts, cleaning and polishing rakes, coolers, sand/seedboxes, trash cans, and tee markers. Multiple flower beds and pots have been added to the clubhouse area this year. We hope everyone will enjoy the added color.

The renovations to the G&G Department Building are moving forward but unfortunately at a very slow pace. All designs and plans have been submitted to the City of Scottsdale and are still pending review and permit. Several hurdles have been cleared but we are still waiting on the city to move forward. There are 3 contractors ready and waiting to finish competitive bids on the project pending the final permitted plans. Preliminary bids were received based on the non-permitted plans for budgetary purposes. Bids will be revised based on the city comments and stamped plans. There is no definitive timeline, but we are still hoping for the demo and construction to begin before the end of the year.

One large change that will be noticed at G&G will be the NW corner of the yard near the bathroom on #7 has been moved out and the 2 existing gates were combined into 1 gate to connect the east yard to the west yard. This will give some additional space to park equipment and cars and for the new portion of the building.

Another large change that will be noticed is the removal of the large oleanders along the golf course maintenance road / Cart Path 7→8. The oleanders were removed to open up the wash entrance for stormwater that comes down the #8 cart path. The oleanders were grown over the area where the water was supposed to run forcing the water to stay on the road and pushing the water into the golf course maintenance yard. It was decided to remove the oleanders to help direct the water away from the golf course maintenance building and protect the upcoming renovations to the building. Future replantings are being considered once the grading work has been completed.

We look forward to seeing everyone back at the club and look forward to providing an excellent experience for all members and guests. WELCOME BACK!!!!!

Verticut / Dethatch Greens

Close-up of dethatching

Close up of dethatching

Brushing in topdressing sand after aerification

Bermuda encroachment on collar

Bermuda encroachment on collars

Killing bermuda encroachment preparing to dig out and prep for new sod. Blue paint is the location of the trace wire underground used to locate the exact edge of greens cavity. Orange paint is the 24" that is being replaced.

Sod cutting collars

Collars being preppped

More collar prep

At the tip of the knife is a Bermuda stolen remaining after cutting out 2" of sod. Remaining stems had to be hand-picked out with knives in order to prevent the bemuda from re-growing under the new bentgrass collars

Hand packing sand to prep for the new sod. We made 3/4 tampers out of ply wood to match the sod at 3/4 of inch.

Fresh roll of bentgrass sod

Refrigerated truck arriving from northern California overnight with new bentgrass sod

New sod on collars

New Sod

new sod

#5 green with new collars. The moisture that can be seen is from the underground pop-up heads in the greens to water the collars. This underground system was installed when the greens were re-built in 2016 for use on the collars when these projects occur.

#17 with new collar

Pipe break right of #14 green.

Pipe glue failed and the pipe came out of the TEE

Staff walk seeding #15

Walk spreading #15

Mowing greens while overseed is watering. Staff must use boards on the greens to turn around to avoid damaging the green and eliminate mower traffic around the perimeter of the green.