flood nearly sinks course

disaster spawns new fairway recovery method

June 28, 1999 is a day that superintendent Chauncey Nicholson and assistant superintendent Zack Ogles will never forget. It was the day their golf course nearly died before it was even born.

Auburn University Club, Auburn, Alabama, was sprigged in late May. By that fateful day the ground was already saturated from several days of heavy rain when the area was hit by what locals called "a 100-year flood." In one hour, more than 4-1/2 inches of rain drenched the course. The dam holding back the 30-acre irrigation pond burst, sending most of the water from the 30-foot-deep lake into a stream that runs through the course.

Dam burst damage

The results were disastrous. When the ground finally dried out enough to inspect the damage, the fairways were slashed with thousands of what Nicholson calls “finger washes.” In areas where older sprigs had taken hold, the dirt around them washed out, leaving small bumps. Most of the work done by the shapers was also destroyed.

The general contractor had 55 workers and extra equipment at the site the next day, but it still took more than a month just to clean up. A golf course management company representative who had built more than 70 courses said he’d never seen damage that bad. The course was scheduled to open in September, but that was delayed until November.

Construction of Auburn University Club was started in the summer of 1998. The course is the dream of Dr. Cecil Yarbrough, a local veterinarian and property owner who wanted to do something positive for the university’s golf teams. He teamed with three Auburn alumni to build the course, which includes a swimming pool complex and planned residential development. The club has 1,100 members nationwide and plays host to 17,000 rounds a year.

Nicholson arrived in March of 1999, with construction and grow-in experience. Ogles started a few months later. He wanted to work on a golf course while finishing his turf management degree.

Search for solutions while play continued

The course lived with the effects of the flood for two seasons, but at the end of last year it was clear something had to be done. The bumpy fairways were tough on equipment and golf cars, and aggravating to golfers because of occasional odd lies and bounces. Over the winter, the owners, maintenance staff and course designer pondered what to do.

“Our choices were to make the best of what we’ve got, totally smooth everything out, reprep the fairways and sprig, or find another way,” Nicholson says. “Core aerification was not an option because with our rocky soil we couldn’t go 15 yards without breaking every tine on the machine. We had to find a way to flatten the fairways out enough so water just didn’t flow to low areas. Rollers used in the turf industry aren’t strong enough, so we came up with the idea of trying an asphalt paving roller.”

At first, the staff thought the best time to use the roller was after a heavy rain or irrigation. However, when it was in the vibrating mode, it couldn’t climb hills. So, the experiment was delayed until late this spring when the weather was drier and growing conditions improved.

Removing the undulations

Here’s how they fixed it: A slow-turning, solid-tine vibrating aerator goes over a fairway three or four times at a depth of about 4 inches. Then the turf is top-dressed with between 1/2 to 3/4 inch of sand. Following this, the asphalt paver rolls over the fairway in four to five different directions. As the sand dries, a utility vehicle pulling a drag mat moves the sand from peaks to the dips the roller doesn’t quite get out. Then the turf is heavily fertilized. The grass is cut as soon as possible with an older fairway mower to avoid damage to reels on new mowers.

Only nine of the holes must be completely redone; portions of the remaining holes will be reworked. The project is on a pace of one hole a week. The hole is closed Monday through Thursday and back open Friday to Sunday. The results have been an unqualified success.

“We started on one of the most badly damaged holes,” Nicholson says, “and when we finished, it was one of the best. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d say we’ll have this course up to a 9 by the time we’re finished.”

Ogles adds, “The project takes a lot of sand. We put 115 tons on one hole and about 160 tons on another.”

Affordable fix

The cost of the project has been very reasonable, estimated to be about $35,000. The staff concentrates only on fairways and uses the university’s 4-yard topdresser. It takes five people to work on one hole. Deeper washes require two to three people working with shovels and brooms.

“The alternative,” Nicholson says, " was to spray the fairways with Roundup, till, pickup material, reprep and sod. We couldn't afford to shut down to sprig. We estimated sodding would cost $6,000 to $7,000 an acre, and we're looking at 25 acres. That's $150,000 if we use the low estimate. Plus, we would have had to close the course and contract the work."

Jacobsen LF-4677 Solves Maintenance Challenges

Superintendent Chauncey Nicholson and his staff maintained the Auburn University Club course for two seasons under what could only be described as challenging conditions. Wash areas made the course bumpy, and to achieve the best quality cut possible, mowing speed on five-gang units was reduced to 3.5 mph.

“It took all day to mow fairways,” he says, “where it should have taken half that time. The ride was too rough for the operators and we didn’t want to knock the mowers out of adjustment.”

This year the club purchased two seven-gang Jacobsen LF-4677 Turbo fairway mowers.

“At first we thought they were too big for what we needed,” Nicholson says, “but then we saw we were getting the job done faster and golfers couldn’t catch up to us. We were using seven-blade reels on older mowers, and with the 11-blade reels on the LF-4677 the mowers handle the bumps better. With wider mowers we finish up in about four hours. During the growing season we mow four times a week, but earlier in the week when it’s slow we may only send out one mower and still finish by early afternoon.”

Another advantage of the new mowers is transport speed.

“Our older mowers didn’t have a transport speed,” assistant superintendent Zack Ogles says. “With the new Jacobsen mowers we switch from four-wheel to two-wheel-drive and get to the next fairway much faster. It saves us at least an hour and a half a day.”

Quality cut is another Jacobsen trademark.

“We demo’d the LF-4677 against other mowers and Jacobsen had the superior quality cut,” Nicholson says. “Other vendors were there and they recognized this, too. Also, these Jacobsen mowers have more power, which is important because we’re on hilly property.”

With all the projects scheduled for this year, the maintenance staff needs maximum productivity. To be as efficient as possible on slopes and for trimming, older 72-inch triplex mowers were traded in for 84-inch-wide Jacobsen Tri-King 1900Ds.

“Now we’re really knocking out the work and can shift our staff to other jobs,” Ogles says.

Two Greens King IVs are used on tees. Two more units equipped with the patented Jacobsen turf groomer are used on greens.

“We used to walk mow,” Nicholson says, “but again, we chose the triplexes for productivity. We mow every day and use the turf groomers four times a week. They’re very easy to set up and allow us to lower our cutting heights. Jacobsen definitely has the best turf groomer and everyone knows that.”

Every Greens King IV is equipped with an 11-blade reel.

“Besides a better quality cut,” Ogles says, “standardizing on one reel lets us swap them out on other pieces of equipment if we get in a bind.”