Skunks

Some of you may have noticed lately that something has been tearing up rough areas as well as the edges of a fairway.  At this point the damage has been near the fairway bunker on #4, behind the green on #5, behind and to the left of #13 green, some on #17, and the fairway and bunker edge on #18.  As best as I can tell this is being perpetrated by skunks.  They typically pull chunks of turf out and root around to find grubs that are under the turf.  As you might imagine this problem poses a few challenges.

These grubs are Japanese Beetle larvae that were laid back at the beginning of August.  We have seen an increase in the number of mature beetles on the golf course over the last two seasons.  Long-term we will have to look at making preventative insecticide applications if we are going to avoid turf damage from the grubs and from predators.  We have made some insecticide applications to get rid of the grubs but dealing with the skunks is a problem we will have to address delicately.  Stay tuned! 

Greens recovery

The greens are recoverying and we have returned to walk mowing and are starting to lower our height of cut back down now that most of the sand is gone.  We have also fertilized greens which will help the greens to recover completely by the end of the weekend.  The down side of this is that with the rapid recover we will continue to have slower green speeds through the weekend.  We are very close to our normal height of cut but the fertilizer and hot, humid weather this weekend will really push growth especially in the afternoon.  This morning the speed was just bearly 10' after rolling.  We will continue to roll but I do not expect it to get our speeds back into our ideal speed of between 10' and 11' on the stimp until next week. 

What is that stuff?

This is Dollar Spot (turf fungus) that is been growing rapidly in rough areas.  This is the tee bank along the 16th tee box.

 

This is what Dollar Spot looks like on a fairway.  We have seen some severe disease pressure and fungicide efficacy has been shortened.

This is a picture of Brown Patch.  A number of these diseases we have seen very little of in the past few years.  This is primarily because of the quantity of pressure and the severity shortening our spraying windows/schedule.

Why are covering that green with soil?

That is a green that has been topdressed with a layer of sand and is in the process of being cored.  After the green is cored we drag the sand and cores to fill the holes in the greens back up.

These are pictures of #7 and #12 right after we received that 1.5" rainfall.

Enough with the Heat

   We have been able to complete greens aerification in spite of the 1.5" of rain we received Sunday night. We were delayed but finished up the remaining greens Monday. The 4th and 6th green were very saturated and have not cleaned up well.
   We have completed some of the tees but feel it is best if we wait to complete those until after this bad spell of weather ends. We are in the midst of a bad weather week. Temperatures are staying between 85-90 degrees, the humidity if very high and we have continued to receive additional rainfall all week.  So far the golf course is doing alright and we do have preventative fungicide applications down but with disease pressure this high the fungicides efficacy will be reduced. We have been scouting for signs of break through and have made spot applications to help us through this intense pressure.  The good news is there is a break in the weather pattern coming Sunday. 
  Unfortunately golf is played on a playing surface that is constantly changing and the weather plays a key role in that. We are going to do our best to keep it in the most playable condition we can.  That is why we have closed the course for cart use a couple of times this week.  We did not want to stress the turf out more and invite pathogens to infect the turf.  We are hopeful green speeds will return to normal next week as the greens dry out and begin to heal.

New Tee

Wednesday we undertook a small project that the Green Committee requested.  We removed sod from the right half of the Blue tee on #11 and created a second tee above and further back.  We were able to finish up the project this afternoon.

 The first phase was to remove the existing rough height Bluegrass from the sight of the new tee.  This step is not necessary if you are creating an elevated tee but is a good practice for a shallow tee.  It ensures that the underlying turf does not grow through the soil mix into the new Bentgrass sod.

  

 The next step a sand/peat soil mixture is added to create a level surface teeing surface.  This will also give the tee some added drainage.

Following this the sod is laid down making sure to stagger the seams of the sod to aid in moisture retention.

The final step is to add the sand/peat mixture to the seams, trim the edges to create a smooth perimeter, sod the perimeter with Kentucky Bluegrass, fertilize with a starter fertilizer, heavily saturate the tee and rope off.  If all goes well the tee will be opened in three to four weeks.

Native Areas

You may have noticed that we have been cutting down some of the tall areas around ponds, in native areas, and in wildflower areas.  We are doing this because of the movement of Canada Thistle into these areas.

This is a evasive perennial weed that is characterized by it's prickly foliage and violet colored flowers that produces tons of seed. 

The largest area is the area effected is the areas between #8 and #11.  Due to the droughty conditions last spring the thistle got a jump on the native species that were planted.  The plan is to keep the Thistle from going to seed and exacerbate the problem.  Than in late fall we can make a herbicide application that should be taken down to the root and kill the Thistle.

   The aerification of greens and tees was completed as scheduled and the golf course is now back to normal playing conditions.  The process that was used to aerify greens was not our usual technique.  We used solid tines that pierce a hole in the turf but do not remove any material.  This creates channels for the exchange of gases and allows air to get down to the roots.  In addition, it allows for rapid growth of roots into these spaces.  All of this helps the green to better withstand the stresses that the hot summer and traffic bring. 

   Once we had finished aerating we topdressed lightly and rolled the greens.  Normally, we would pull a core of material out a put a heavier topdressing down and brush the sand into the holes.  This helps with drainage and to dilute any buildup of organic material.  We were not able to use this method this spring due to the golf schedule but will return to this next aerification in August following the Club Championship. 

   This last week we have not done any fairway aerification due to the rainy weather.  We have received 3" of rain in the last 12 days with more on the way today.  This has also not allowed us to finish a number of projects including sodding or seeding stump removals.  It's tough working with soil when it's saturated.  Hopefully we will get a break in the weather this week so we can complete those.

  

   This rainfall has also impacted green speed and ball roll.  We typically use the greens roller to help compensate when speeds dip below our ideal range.  This is not prudent when the soils are saturated.  Damage can occur to the turf when the roller loses traction and spins causing damage to the surface.  Damage occurs to the roots when you put excessive pressure on an unstable soil.  The side pressure that happens when you roll can cause a shift in the soil that will shear roots and create a bumpy surface. This same thing happens when you drive a cart in the fairway or rough when it is overly saturated.