Waitea circinata is a cool season turfgrass pathogen that has recently increased in occurrence in the western, mid western and northeastern U.S. On putting greens the disease appears in the form of yellow rings that range in size from several inches to a foot in diameter. As the disease progresses, the rings can turn from yellow to light brown and even reddish brown. After the turf has been infected the recovery tends to be slow, so it is important to closely monitor the disease activity and decide weather a fungicide application is necessary.
Controlling the disease is the hardest part at this point, due to the disease being relatively new and people are still trying to understand it. Both University and field testing are taking place to evaluate the efficacies of various fungicides against this new pathogen.
We applied a fungicide application several days ago, to get the disease under control before any significant damage occurs. Chemical applications are always my last choice of attack, but since the disease has been present for several weeks with little improvement something had to be done before any secondary infections occur.
In efforts to help with awareness of proper golf course care, the staff uniform shirts have become walking billboards. We have taken the opportunity to design shirt logos that will help remind you about the importance of your responsibilities while playing golf. Do your part and help make the course a better place for all to enjoy. 
The golf course industry is feeling the pain with the rising cost of energy affecting the bottom line of fertilizer budgets. Average prices that are being paid for major fertilizer nutrients have reached the highest level on record in April 2008, 228% higher than the same time eight years ago.
Natural gas is a feedstock in the production of ammonia, which is the building block for all nitrogen fertilizers. The cost natural gas accounts for 70 to 90 percent of the production cost of ammonia.
Fertilizer technology has improved just like everything else around us. Today many of the fertilizer producers have spent a tremendous amount of time and money developing highly predicable fertilizer products. Previously slow release products relied on sulfur coatings that were applied around the fertilizer particle to control the release. These products were touted as having a controlled releases of anywhere between 8 and 12 weeks. Unfortunately this was not always what happened in the field due to failures in the coatings.
Now days the coatings that are applied to the fertilizer are made from hi-tech polymers that are not subject to the same failures as previous coatings. These newer coatings will now allow release times of up to 12 to 16 weeks of nutrient supply. This has now allowed for more predicable releases of fertilizer products that help Golf Course Superintendent’s better manage their fertility.
Several of the fertilizer producers now make available software that can be used to show the projected releases of the individual products. This has been extremely useful in allowing the end user to better schedule fertilizer application timings, so that excessive growth is not produced.
We have begun posting signs on the golf course stressing the importance of course care. The latest is about the three R’s, but these are different than what you think.
• Repair Ballmarks
• Replace Divots
• Respect The Course
Learning these three R’s will help improve the conditions found on the golf course for everyone to enjoy and be proud of. Do your part; learn the new Three R’s.
The Ladies Member Guest had their practice round yesterday and they were surprised with a new look to the golf course. They were greeted with the flags on the greens in hot pink with the clubs logo on them. These flags will be used for special occasions such as the Member Guest and The Rally For The Cure.
While playing golf it is your responsibility to leave as light a footprint as possible during your round of golf. This is done by properly caring for the course by, repairing your ball marks, raking bunkers and replacing your divots.
I am often asked do we fill fairway divots with sand and seed or replace the divot. The answer is sometimes both, because it depends on how large the divot is. There are many times that a divot is complete shrapnel or to thin and small to replace, when this occurs used sand and seed. With Bentgrass fairways the divots tend to be large and when a sizable divot is taken it should be replaced. There are also times that a divot should be replaced and sand and seed used to fill in around the edges. Unfortunately there is not a black and white answer on how to repair your divots, but with the above information you will now know how to properly repair your divots.
A properly Replaced Fairway Divot
A Replaced Divot With Sand Filling In Shrapnel
Improperly Filled Divot With Sand and Seed Mix
The irrigation system is the heart of the golf course and without it functioning properly everything else suffers. The system is 23 years old and in a rapid state of failure that many of you have seen first hand. We have spent the last year and a half working on the details of a new system design to be installed.
Two weeks ago, only the most highly qualified contractors were invited to bid on our project and we are now analyzing the numbers that have come in.
Most people have no concept of how involved the various irrigation system components are such as pipe, power wire, communication cable, pump stations, valves and sprinkler heads. Of the entire irrigation system nearly 90% of it is underground and out of sight.
To give you an idea of the scale and complexity of the irrigation system, many of the components can be measured in miles.
Sprinkler Heads 3500
Wire 343 miles
HDPE pipe 36 miles
Valves 758
The additional fertility that has been applied to the greens is helping with ball mark recovery. If you look closely at the ball marks that were actually repaired, you will se new growth forming and beginning the fill the mark back in. Additionally other un-repaired ball marks are beginning to fill in as well, from the fertility and use of PGR’s.
The plant growth regulators help the turf by increasing plant density and production of additional tillers. This additional growth is mostly in the form of lateral movement which helps grow over and into old ball marks. This type of lateral spreading is the normal growth habit of the Pencross Bentgrass, but this movement is enhanced with the use of PGR’s.
Close Up Of a Recovering Ball Mark
Monday is my favorite day to work on the golf course because, no golf is being played, the course has a chance to rest and we get an incredible amount of work done.
Maintenance Monday goes a long way around here allowing us to perform highly disruptive to play agronomic practices. After a weekend of play with over 500 rounds pushing through, the golf course looks and is tired. It is on days like today that we can help the golf course recover from the abuse that it is subjected to from the sheer volume of play.
Today alone, we did more work on the course than most people will do in several days. The highlights of today’s activities would be the following; topdressing greens, spraying fairways, spraying tees and fertilizing both rough and greens.
The greens were topdressed with nearly seven tons of sand, which was drug in and will be virtually invisible to the eye.
The fairways were sprayed with a tank mix of liquid fertilizer and plant growth regulators for Poa Annua suppression.
The tees were sprayed with an insecticide, wetting agent and a sodium mitigation product.
The rough was fertilized to stimulate growth and recovery from heavy cart traffic and general wear and tear from play.
This list is only a portion of what actually took place today, because most of the tasks were normal maintenance items that take place every day.
Since we have not had any significant rainfall and the summer heat is beginning to kick in many localized hot spots or hydrophobic areas are stating to appear. Preparations have been made weeks ago anticipating these weather conditions and wetting agents were applied to minimize this problem.
Wetting agents, work by lowering the cohesive and/or adhesive surface water tension. This reduction of surface tension allows the water to spread out more evenly and allow for better penetration into the soils, especially soils that are hydrophobic. The infiltration of water into these soils can often be improved by applying a wetting agent. Wetting agents are detergent-like substances that reduce the surface tension of water, allowing it to penetrate and wet the soil more easily.
Hydrophobic soils exhibit the inability to absorb water to the point of repellency. This situation is made more problematic when soil also contains high levels of sodium and chlorides. Combine these three factors and the soil turns cement like and produces poor conditions for turfgrass to perform well. Play areas such as greens and tees are treated every month with wetting agents to prevent hydrophobic conditions from developing. Areas such as fairways and rough are spot treated as they appear.
The picture below demonstrates how wetting agents lower surface tension and help remove dew from the leaf blade of the grass.
Another tool that we are using to combat hydrophobic soil conditions is the use of a Seair ozone diffusion water treatment system. Laboratory testing has shown that this diffusion system actually lowers the surface tension of the water, allowing for better water penetration.
With all of the moisture we have received this spring and early summer the native grass areas are doing well.
Native Grasses Doing Well
Each year the quality of the native is solely dependent on the amount of natural precipitation we receive. Without this early season moisture the quality of native grasses we are seeing now would not be possible. One negative associated with the abundant moisture would be that the weeds have thrived as well. We have sprayed all of these areas once already and have begun going around a second time. In certain areas it would appear that nothing has been treated, but that is not the case.
The blog continues to receive an increased level of hits per week and appears to be turning into a regular stop for a lot of people.
When the blog was first started I wanted it to become a conduit for presenting information about what is taking place on the golf course. I believe it has served that purpose well and has provided a lot of people, members and non-members alike a lot of quality information. For the blog to reach the first 1000 hits it took over ten weeks, to reach the second 1000 hits it took only four weeks.
Thank you all for faithfully visiting and I hope that I can continue to produce material that holds your interest.
As the summer heat begins to kick in the rough is finally showing signs of slowing down. The early fertility that was applied to the rough in the spring to promote active growth and recovery from winter damage worked well, a little too well.
Now that the excess fertilizer has been exhausted from the soil, the over active grow is subsiding. The additional factors of higher daytime temperatures and low humidity have also worked to help slow down the growth of the rough. The rough is still very thick, but it now has become easier to find your ball as well as hit from it.
Additional fertilizer will still be applied to the rough as the summer progresses mainly to allow the grass to have a chance to repair itself from the beating it takes on daily basis with heavy cart traffic.
