Polka Dots

I am not sure which is more difficult, the winter weather or the wildlife damage to the course each year. It seems as if every year we cannot escape winter without some sort of damage.  This year with the winter weather being more mild than usual the course is beginning to come out of dormancy  in good condition.  The exception being the areas that were damaged by the Elk and Deer.

With a lack of snow cover for most of the winter the turf was exposed to the resident wildlife and they had a ball out on the course.  Our biggest issues out on the course are the numerous areas of urine burn from the Deer and Elk. The areas in the fairways have already been seeded with Bentgrass and the areas on greens will have to be plugged out. The plugging on greens will not take place until after aerification due to the fact that the repaired areas might pull up from being aerified.  This process will take several days to complete and then a couple of weeks for the repaired areas to blend in on the greens.

The hoove marks on the greens appear worse than they are, the damage that was caused is on the surface above the crown of the plant. The plant will regenerate new tissue and repair itself from this damage as soon as active turf growth begins to take place. During aerification additional seed will be applied to these areas to help with recovery.

Urine Burn on #10 Fairway

Urine Burn and Hoove marks on #7 Green

The Final Push

Today is the final day of aerification and we are well on our way to the finish line.  Over the past two days we were able to complete the aerfication and topdressing of all  the greens and tees. The fairways will be completed today as far as aerification goes, but the slow process of sand topdressing them will take another two days to complete. Unfortunately the final fairways will be topdressed through play which will add to the time to complete the task. Your patience durring this process will be greatly appreciated. 

Once  we reopen for play tomorrow I think the members will be pleasantly surprised with how playable the golf course is.

Changing It Up

Next week the golf course will be closed for three days to aerify greens, tees and fairways.  This year we are going to be changing up some of our techniques to help deal with the later than normal timing of aerification in addition to some key agronomic changes for the future.

We will be using 1/4" hollow tines on tees and fairways and 1/4" solid tines on greens.  These smaller tine sizes will help speed the recovery to the turf by reducing the size of area that needs to re-grow. This is critical due to the time of the year we are in as the turf begins to slow down and prepare itself for the upcoming winter.

The biggest change to our aerification approach will come in the way of topdressing fairways with sand instead of compost.  For the last eight years we have been applying compost to the fairways to help with our Bentgrass conversion in addition to restoring biological activity in the soil. The compost has done its job really well by restoring life to the soil and has created an environment in which the thatch is in an active state of degradation.  This process has left the surface a little softer than I would like so we will be embarking on a long term sand fairway topdressing program to help restore some surface firmness. Another key benefit will come in the form of improved surface drainage that will allow for more ball roll off the tee shots.

Combining the compost rich aeration cores that come up in the fairways with the sand will create a nicely blended material that will be mutually beneficial  and provide the best of both worlds for the fairways.

We will be applying more than 1000 tons of sand to the fairways which is a huge task in itself. Our biggest challenge will be getting the material around the golf course in an efficient manor and the only way this can be done will be utilizing the development roads. The sand topdressing process will unfortunately spill over the three days that we will be closed and carry into the following week to ultimately complete the process.

What Is The Yellow Grass In The Fairways?

Throughout the fairways there are many areas that are off color and under stress, this is an intended effect from the use of herbicide that targets Poa Annua.

The fairways have received successive applications of Velocity to help control the Poa populations and this is what has caused the visible signs of turf injury. Currently the Poa is not dead, but it is under severe stress and the plant is in shut down mode which will help the desired Bentgrass to out compete it for space in the fairways.

We will be backing down the future applications so that unacceptable turf discoloration does not persist into the upcoming Member/Guest tournament in a few weeks.

A good Two Weeks Behind

We are now in the third week of May and just now is the Scrub Oak pushing out leafs.  Typically by the middle of May the Oak is fully leafed out, but not this year.  This year spring does not seem to want to consistently stay and this has caused the delay in not only deciduous tree leaf production but has also significantly delayed germination of seed.

During aerification the fairways were overseeded with Bentgrass which has just sat without even thinking of germinating.  Finally 35 days later I am beginning to see germination in the fairways as well as on some of the greens that had additional seed applied to them. Typically Bentgrass will germinate after 14 days in the spring with normal weather conditions.

This spring has gotten off to a slow start which hasn't help the overall recovery from the late season winter damage. Let's hope we start consistently warming up and get things actively growing so the golf course can be once again at its best.

Divot Patterns

Over the last several weeks I have begun to notice divot patterns changing in the fairways and even in the first cut of rough. This is largely due to the fact that the fairways are now playing firmer with more ball roll off the tee shot.

We are now seeing the benefits of the new irrigation system which allows us to keep the rough green with out over watering the fairways. The end result has been numerous balls running through the fairways into the first cut and even into hazards that were not in play before.

Over the last six weeks of consistent irrigation I have been closely tracking our water usage and the numbers are confirming what i have been saying all along. Bentgrass has gotten a bad rap for a lot of years that it is a heavy water user, when in fact it uses less water than the surrounding Bluegrass rough. Statistically for the last six weeks the fairways have received 33% less water than what has been applied to the rough. Keep in mind these numbers are being realized during the "fine tuning " process and i believe there will be additional reductions in the future once i have a better grasp on what the new system can and cannot do.

Hard Lining

As the new irrigations system is becoming a reality so to will the ability to better manage the overall water usage on the golf course. One of the key components to the new irrigation system design is a true separation of watering areas. All of the four main areas of play will now have the ability to be watered independently of each other.

The biggest change from conventional irrigation design is the fact that two heads are used in place of one. Rather than one full circle head, there are now two part circle heads allowing for a complete separation of watering areas. One of the heads is set to water the fairway only while the other is set to water the rough.

Click on picture to enlarge

This concept of “hard line” watering has been commonly used on greens for years, but is now being commonly used in situations where Bentgrass fairways exist. For years Bentgrass fairways have caught a bad rap for being heavy water users, when in all actuality they used far less than the surrounding rough areas. They have appeared wet and overwatered due to the fact that Bluegrass has a higher water requirement.

Fairway Enlargement Complete

The fairway expansion on the seventh hole is now complete. The bunker has been removed and the entire area was re-graded, so that it will appear as if there was never a bunker there at all.

The new fairway sod will be roped off for the rest of the season so that it can become established before winter sets in.

This new fairway cut will greatly improve the overall playability of the hole for golfers of all abilities.

Fairway Expansion

Now that the bunker has been removed from the landing area on the seventh hole, the area is now being prepped for a conversion to fairway.

We have begun to remove the existing Bluegrass sod from the area wich the fairway will be expanded into. Great care has been taken to have the new fairway contours flow in and around the mounding found on the left side of the hole.

The fairway expansion will greatly improve the overall playability of the hole, by eliminating the overly penal fairway bunker. We will have added nearly 6000 Sqft of fairway area, which will now give the player more options off the tee greatly improving the golf hole.

Fairway Expansion

We have begun the process of enlarging the fairway landing area on hole #7. The first part of the expansion involves removing the fairway bunker that is closest to the tee, so that this area can once again become fairway.

This restored fairway area will be re-graded so that there is a similar look to the rest of the contouring found on the fairway. Once the grading has been completed, the area will be re-sodded with Bentgrass so that the grass types match up.

Aerification Update Day 2

After a slow start on Monday because of the weather, yesterday we made up some of the lost time. Greens and tees have been completed; the only area that is still lagging a little behind is the fairways.

The Graden (de-thatching) has been done on all of the fairways, but the cleanup is still taking place on the back nine fairways at this point. In addition to the cleanup the fairways will be overseeded with Bentgrass and need to have compost applied.

The compost acts as a cover for the seed, as well as providing the necessary nutrients for growth of existing turf as well as the new seedlings once they emerge. The compost applications make up more than 80% of my total fertility applied to the fairways in a given growing season.

More than likely there will be some carry over into tomorrow morning with the final cleanup on #16 and #18 fairways. We will do our best to minimize the impact on play as we complete the cleanup process.

Signs of Injury

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we have been playing around with some experimental treatments to help eradicate the Perennial Ryegrass in our Bentgrass fairways.

The first visible signs of treatment began to show up after six days following the initial application. Symptoms of the treated areas began to show up as a chlorotic effect on the turfgrass.

Chlorotic Effect Shown of Fairway

Ten days after treatment another indicator that something was going also started to appear. Smaller patches of the Ryegrass are beginning to turn reddish and are giving the appearance of dying. Not all of the Ryegrass is showing the same effect, but several areas are reacting more effectively to the treatment.

Ryegrass Checking Out

First Cut

It has been two and a half weeks since germination occurred on our fairway nursery and it is now being regularly mowed. The first mowing occurred only 14 days after germination and is now being mowed three days a week at this point.

As a part of the grow in process the new seedlings are being fertilized every 7 days to encourage growth and tillering, that will help the new stand fill in laterally. We are currently mowing the nursery at .500” which is .100” higher than our normal fairway height of cut. The height will dropped down to regular fairway height over the next several weeks as the nursery matures.

As Hot As It Gets

After 17 straight days with temperatures in the 90’s, the forecast is not showing any signs of improvement. This year is currently the fourth driest on record and if weather patterns remain the same, this will go down as the driest year on record.

The previous record for consecutive days 90 or above is 18 days, which was set back in 1874. This record is likely to be passed by without blinking.

With all the talk of how hot and dry it is, the golf course continues to be in great playing condition. We picked a great year to allow for brown being an acceptable color on the golf course in efforts to improve playability. This year especially, the shortcomings of the irrigation system are on full display for all to see. The outer lying rough areas are under great stress while the core of the course remains green while not being overly wet.

The Bentgrass fairways have not been phased one bit by the heat and are actually thriving under these conditions. The fairways have been treated all season long with PGR’s for Poa Annua control and they are hands down out competing the Poa. As the Poa is weekend by the effects of chemical suppression and the heat, the Bentgrass is moving laterally and taking over in the fairways.

We Have Germination!

In an earlier post I mentioned that we were expanding our Bentgrass fairway nursery that is located at the far eastern end of the driving range. After several weeks of prep work that went into getting it ready for seed we are beginning to see the fruits of our labor.

The nursery area was seeded last Friday with Seaside II Bentgrass, which is the same variety that is found on the fairways. We achieved germination of the seed in only five days, which is pretty good for Bentgrass under the environmental conditions we have been experiencing.

Over the next several weeks we will begin to aggressively fertilize the seedlings once we are physically able to walk onto the area. At that time any areas that have not had good germination will be reseeded and encouraged to catch up with the rest of the new babies. Once the seedlings are tall enough, we will begin regular mowing and topdressing to help with a rapid establishment. Even though we are off to a fast start, actual sod will not be able to be cut until next spring.

Down With Brown

The warm weather has finally hit and it is beginning to show on the golf course. As mentioned earlier this year in both newsletters and blog postings, the color of brown will be more acceptable on the golf course.

The intent is to have the fairways to become firmer and allow for more ball roll off the tee shot, with the visual result being a more off colored golf course. The Bentgrass fairways require less water than the surrounding Bluegrass rough and as a result of this is the fairways receive too much water due to a lack of area separation of irrigation areas .

The new irrigation system design will allow for a separation of watering areas such as greens, tees, fairways and rough will all be controlled and irrigated separately. This will allow us more control over the water and keep it out of the fairways when they do not need it. Currently there is no separation of watering areas, so we have heads that water both fairway and rough areas together. The result of this is that for the rough to receive the proper amount of water the fairway then becomes too wet due to the overthrow. We will be letting the rough dry out and even turn brown, so that the fairway conditions do not become overly wet.

Outer Edges of Rough Drying Out
A higher Level of Drought Stress Taking Place