Going for a Spin.

 

Some of you may not be aware that we had a car drive down the 13th fairway across the green and then return to the tee.  Fortunately, the damage was not too severe and we were able to fix the green fairly quickly.  I think the fact that it has been so dry the last few weeks helped.  The green still has some blemishes on the left front of the green but for the most part it hasn't affected playability.

 

Fairway aerification



Fairway aerification using a walking aerator.



We have been very fortunate to have the long stretch of dry weather the past few weeks.  This allowed us to complete fairway aerification before the remainder of our crew was done for the year.  It was very important for us to get that completed as we were not able to this past spring due to weather and the golf calendar.  Aeration is a practice that is done a number of reasons but for us the most important reason on our fairways is to remove organic matter.  This allows for gas exchange and for water to get into the soil.  Organic matter is the dead grass blades and roots that have not decomposed.  They can create a barrier to water and air movement.  Our Bentgrass also loves to grow horizontally and aeration helps decrease grain (the laying over of turf) by severing the leave/stem tissue.

Dragging the fairway to move the soil back into the turf canopy.

   This year our process started with aerifiying the fairway.  Most of this was done with a roller type aerifier (similar to the ones used on home lawns, only much larger) but we did use a walking unit for some smaller fairways.  After that was completed we vertical mowed the fairway.  This was done for two reasons: the first was to help break up the plug or break the soil off the thatch and second to again sever the leave/stem tissue.  Our plan is to ramp up this practice in spring and fall when the stress to the turf from heat and humidity are not present. We hope to see if we can impact the graininess of the playing surface.  We follow this with a dragging using a large piece of fence, which removes any remaining soil from the thatch.  We finish the process by blowing the thatch into the center of the fairway and cleaning it up.  









Things not as the seem.

   Although I am not thoroughly convinced that skunks were not involved in the damage that took place this Fall, there were definitely others that were.  I spent a couple unproductive nights and a few early mornings doing some scouting for what was to blame for the ravaged turf.  In the end our live trap produced 3 Raccoons and 1 Oppossum.  For now it appears the damage has stopped.  I am not sure if that is because we have gotten rid of the offenders or if the food source (grubs) has moved down in the soil to over-winter.  Next year we will be dealing with the problem through preventative insecticide applications to get rid of the grubs. 

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.