And So It Begins

It is once again that time of year when the wildlife namely the Elk and Deer have a negative effect on the golf course. These animals have been back for a while but until recently their damage was minimal. It seems as if each morning we are finding more and more damage to the turf throughout the golf course.

This year the Board has funded a greens protection program in which protective fencing will be installed at most of the greens that have had historical damage to them. The timing for fencing will be around the 1st of December which is our traditional date for closing the greens and utilizing temporaries throughout the winter months. The timing could change for our more trafficed greens by days or even weeks. We will begin installing the support post in the next several weeks before the ground becomes frozen and we are no longer to get them in the ground. These post will be there long before any of the fencing goes up and will add some additional challenges for the golfers around the greens complexes.

This protection will go a long way in helping to protect our greens from avoidable damage in the winter months. It will be a welcomed change in the spring to not have to spend the first several months repairing the damage to the greens. Thousands of plugs and and countless man hours will be spared and will be more effectively utilized elsewhere. 

Urine Burn

Hoofing It Up

Turf Mystery Solved

The other day while driving around I noticed a couple areas on the golf course that distinctive rectangular areas of turf damaged. At first I though it was odd and was not sure what caused the damage but upon further investigation the mystery was solved.

It turned out the day before on a warm day with temperatures in the 80's my irrigation tech was working on some of the bunker pop up zones.  These zones are controlled by an electric valve contained in a valve box that had the lids removed during the servicing. The warm temperatures and intense sunlight heated up the plastic lid that was laying on the grass and burnt the turf underneath.


Fortunately only the leaf tips were damaged and the turf is already growing its way out of the injury. It goes to show you that the turf can be damaged in many different ways several of which are not expected.