Wolpoff whips drought at Red Sky’s new Norman Course

WOLCOTT, Colo. - A snowy winter and wet spring were just what the doctor ordered for superintendent Michael Wolpoff as he worked with director of golf course maintenance Mike Valiant to grow in the Greg Norman Course at Red Sky Golf Club here. The course, which was built by Landscapes Unlimited, opened for play June 30.

“Things look very good this year. Most reservoirs are approaching 100 percent of capacity. But last summer the drought situation was top of mind,” said Wolpoff.

Cutting back on water was not easy because the course wound up being almost totally sodded. The greens are A4 bentgrass, the tees are Penncross, the approaches are Dominant Extreme bentgrass and the fairways and roughs are a mixture of NuGlade Award, Freedom II and Arcadia Kentucky bluegrass.

“We started sodding May 31 last year,” Wolpoff. “We watered them heavily until they were rooted and then we backed off as much as we could voluntarily.”

Wolpoff conserved water by concentrating more on handwatering the bluegrass fairways and rough areas, letting the native areas grow in on rainfall and keeping a close eye on the new irrigation system for any leaks.

“Pipe shavings can get caught in valves and the heads can leak. That can be 300 to 500 gallons a night,” he said.

The greens were dormant seeded this winter, but didn’t come out looking strong.

“On all the greens we had enough germinated seed for one green,” said Wolpoff. “The seed germinated this fall under snow and wound up dying over the winter. We made the decision this spring to go ahead and sod the greens.”

Aside from dealing with sodding the greens, Wolpoff has spent this spring working on drainage issues that have popped up.

“The past few years were light snow years and without a normal winter we were not prepared for it,” he said. “There was a lot of drainage we didn’t know about.”

LESSONS FROM FIRST GROW-IN

While Wolpoff has worked at many top clubs over his short career – The Country Club of the Rockies, Congressional CC, Riviera CC and Pebble Beach – this was his first grow-in experience.

“I got a small taste at Pebble Beach when we had the U.S. Open and the small 9-hole course got torn up for the main entrance and we had to rebuild it,” Wolpoff. “But this was my first construction experience. My assistant, Matt Lydens, has a tremendous amount of construction experience and having him was an asset. I would not have traded him for anything.”

Wolpoff’s main advice is simple: take notes.

“You see so much in a day, but if you don’t write it down, you don’t remember half of it. I have three notebooks going, which will help me with maintenance once the course opens,” he said.

For a young superintendent, the experience has been invaluable, Wolpoff added.

“These last couple years have opened my eyes. What I’ve learned is a tool that I can use throughout my career. I have not only seen a fairway get sodded, I have seen it go from native scrub to a lush, green golf course,” he said. “Now if a greens committee wants me to rebuild a green I would be comfortable with every phase of that process.”

With the punch list complete and the course open for play, Wolpoff’s attention is turning toward the maintenance complex.

“We have no shop yet. That will come later this year,” he said. “Right now we are using containers that are spread throughout the course.”

Wolpoff's Tools

Greens mowers:
6 Toro Flex 21

Tee mowers:
6 Toro GA 1000, 1 Toro Triplex

Approach mowers:
8 Toro GA 1000

Fairway mowers:
3 Toro 5400 D

Rough mowers:
1 Toro 4500, 1 Toro 3500 Sidewinder, 3 John Deere 2653

Riding bunker rake:
1 Toro Sand Pro

Turf utility vehicles:
3 John Deere Pro Gator, 10 E-Z-GO Workhorse, 6 Kawasaki Mules

Verti-cut reels:
1 set for Toro Triplex

Aerifiers:
1 John Deere Aercore, 2 Toro walkers, 2 Coremaster walkers

Topdressers:
1 Dakota 410, 1 TyCrop Quickpass, 1 TyCrop MH400

Reel grinder:
1 Express Dual 3000

Bedknife grinder:
1 Anglemaster 3000

Irrigation pump station:
Flowtronex, 2,900 gpm

Irrigation system:
Rain Bird Cirrus

Computer & Accessories:
Compaq

Primary herbicide:
None applied yet

Primary insecticide:
None applied yet

Primary fungicide:
PCNB

Primary slow-release fertilizer:
UMAXX

Cannot live without:
Dakota topdresser

Total square footage of maintenance building:
Currently working out of trailers