On Course

Spring Condition
Spring is here and after a tour of the north half of the golf course yesterday things appear in pretty good shape.  Most of the snow is gone and the turf overall looks like it weathered the winter.  The most noticeable things you find in a year when you have heavy snow cover are Vole damage and Snow Mold damage.  This year we have both in abundance.  Voles are small rodents that are basically field mice.  The Voles that we have are most likely Meadow Voles.

The Snow Mold I have found has been mostly isolated to rough areas that were not treated with a preventative fungicide application.  It tends to be superficial on longer grass but can kill especially when it attacks finer turfed areas like greens, tees, or fairways.  When I say superficial I mean the damage is on the leaf blades not down at the growing point (crown of the plant).  Once the plant becomes active it will push the damage out until the blades are long enough that the mowers can cut it off.  I have found some isolated areas in fairways where we have some Snow Mold but none on tees or greens.  The best thing is for these areas to dry out and then be raked or somehow disturbed to break up the matted material.  The same applies for your home lawns but make sure you wait until the turf and surface are dry. 

The photo on the left is of the 14th tee box and it shows you the difference between treated and untreated turf.  There are some years when no application may be needed due to little disease pressure.  This senario plays out when we have little snow cover and dry conditions well into the spring.  You really only get a small window of opportunity to make a decision that will need to last 5 months.  I have witnessed what happens to fine turfed areas when they are not protected and conditions are favorable for disease.  The below photos will give you some idea.

The frost seems to be hit or miss in the fairways which is typical for our peat.  In probing the greens what I have found so far is about 7 inches of thawed ground followed by 12-16 inches of frozen soil.  The quickest way for this frost to thaw is to get some good rains.  Once the frost has left the greens and the surface has firmed up we typically give the green light for golfers to play.  It is very important that the surface is stable so that we do not cause damage to the playing surface or potential damage to the root system.  Fairways typically take quite a bit longer to firm up as the peat tends to hold frost and excess moisture.  We allow for foot traffic on these areas as any damage to the surface is easily repaired.  Also the root systems tend to be larger and are not exposed to the same pressures that the greens are throughout the summer.  I will be touring the south half of the course this afternoon to see if the higher, heavier soiled fairways came through in similar condition.