Course Notes, 4/7/18

While the calendar says Spring, Mother Nature has had other plans for us at Elcona.  Although this weather has not been very conducive for golf, the staff and I have enjoyed working on other projects around the property so that when the weather turns for the better, we can turn our focus more onto the 2018 golf season.

When conditions have allowed, we have mowed and maintained on the golf course.  All fine playing surfaces have been mowed at least one time.  They just haven't had temperatures to grow since!  One of the ways we have maintained putting surfaces during these times of very low growth is by rolling. If you have ever wondered why we roll greens, the USGA has produced a nice short video on that very subject.  You may view it here. 

The picture on the right shows an area of desiccation injury on 18 that I am monitoring.  Desiccation is a drying out of leaf blades and occurs most often on open semi-dormant turf exposed to windy, low humidity conditions. Think of this as when we get chapped lips in the winter.  There is new green tissue coming from these plants, so I am fairly confident that the turf will grow through its injury (when warmer weather comes), but have pulled a couple of plugs to make sure my assessment is correct.  The right front of #9 has a bit of desiccation injury as well. 

The timing also came for our first seedhead suppression application.  As great as Poa annua is as a putting surface, one drawback is its annual seedhead production.  Poa annua is a winter annual, meaning it germinates in the fall, overwinters, and produces seeds in the spring for its next generation.  Think of Poa as backwards from an annual flower you would plant in your landscape.

Using a temperature based schedule, three total applications of growth regulator will be applied to suppress, not eliminate, these seedheads from impacting ball roll.  As the picture to the left shows, I left 6 areas on the course untreated, as a check plot, to assess the success of this year's applications. These plots are located on the large Practice Green, 1, 3, 10, 13, and 16 and marked with white dots.  I utilize these areas to gauge the effectiveness of this year's treatments and encourage you to keep an eye on them as well as you are out and about on the golf course. 

The bulk of our time has been spent on the poolside hardscaping project.  The terrain of the area has kept us on our toes thinking of the best way to store materials close while getting them down a 12 foot high embankment.  The key process to build a wall, as you can imagine, is installing and compacting a level base layer of stone utilizing a plate compactor.  Precise measurements are taken with some surveyor's tools to ensure the wall is at the correct depth compared to other features in the area.  After the base is installed, stone is laid one at a time and leveled and plumbed. 


Please enjoy some of the pictures I have taken throughout the process.  I will continue to keep you updated on its process.  If you have any questions, please email me at ryan@elconacc.com.  I am more than willing to answer or find more information for you.  Have a great day, wish for Spring to finally arrive, and I hope to see you out on the golf course!

Ryan

Grades are marked for stone layer

5th grade math at its finest!

Greg Stump compacting stone layer

Finished base layer

The process of laying the first course

The old staircase transformed

Tis the Season!

Golf shop entrance tulips

Spring finally sprung here in the last month, so apologies for the delay between blog posts.  The staff and I have been quite busy preparing beds, bunkers, and turf into the in-season shape that they are accustomed to.  Seeding and sodding of areas left from our winter tree work should be wrapped up next week.  One large item we accomplished is Elcona's renewal application to be one of 6 Certified Golf Course Sanctuaries in the state of Indiana.  I am quite proud of the club's accomplishments within the last two years, from helping care for the Seed to Feed garden, to planting wildflower areas for increased pollinator habitat, to being smarter users of water and inputs to maintain the golf course.  We should hear in July if Audubon International agrees with my sentiments, and I will keep you posted.

Harold Marner on 16 aerifying

Steve Ott in the snow on 16

 Our staff completed aerification earlier this month, in less than ideal Spring Break weather.  I tell people time and time again how lucky I have to have such dedicated staff members.  A special thank you to Steve Ott and Harold Marner for sitting on the tractors for a couple of quite testy days outside.

Check plot on #13

Close up of seed heads

 Finally, I am sure you have noticed that the "Seeding Season" is here for the Poa that composes the majority of turf on the greens. As great as Poa annua is as a putting surface, one drawback is its annual seedhead production.  Poa annua is a winter annual, meaning it germinates in the fall, overwinters, and produces seeds in the spring for its next generation.  Think of Poa as a backwards annual flower you would plant in your landscape. 

Poa seedhead production

Plywood used to create check plot on #1

Using a temperature based schedule, we have applied three applications of growth regulator to suppress, not eliminate, these seedheads from impacting ball roll.  As the first picture to the left shows, I left 5 areas on the course untreated, as a check plot, to assess the success of this year's applications.  All of the checkplots show we have had a reasonable amount of success in limiting the amount of seeds impacting play.  SInce the process is not perfect, we try to further reduce their impact with topdressing applications and additional rolling.

If you are interested, the check plots on located on the large practice green, #1, #10, and #13 green.  If you have any questions, please contact me at ryan@elconacc.com.  Thanks, and have a great week!

Ryan

The Winter That Won't Go Away..

#4 green during ice removal

     Greetings from what seems to be the frozen tundra of Northern Indiana.  It has been quite the roller coaster of a welcome for me here at Elcona.  It is truly an honor to be a part of a club with its traditions and great members and staff.  I come to Elcona after spending the last 7 years as the Golf Course Superintendent at Plymouth CC, about 50 minutes southwest from Elcona.  In 2005 and 2006, I was an assistant here at Elcona, so it is nice to have some familiarity with the staff, members, and golf course.  I am a graduate of Purdue University with a degree in Turf Science.  My wife and I have two children aged 4 and 2, and we are excited to become part of the community. 

     

Plug samples at various stages of thaw (clockwise from top left):
small PG, holes 5 and 14, hole #2, and a close up of #14

      From Greg's last post, you know that we have been busy clearing the ice layer that had formed on our greens, in an effort to prevent suffocation of the turf and some possible winterkill.  We also took a few samples from select greens and brought them inside for observations.  To the right, you see samples at various days of thaw.  The bottom right is a sample from hole #2 pulled on 2/21/14.  The rest of the samples were pulled on 2/28/14, and they are already showing signs of progress.   While we are not out of the woods yet and may have some repairs to do, we are not seeing widespread damage from the ice cover or exposing the turf to the frigid nights we had last week.  Seeing good signs in these plugs helps justify our actions in the time consuming clearing the staff and I performed the last two weeks.

   
     Our focus will shift now to ensuring any snow that melts during spring thaws is removed from the green surface so that it does not re-freeze.  This would create crown hydration injury, where the plant rapidly takes up water during a thawing day, and when the temperature drops below freezing at night, freezes internally to the point that the crowns crush themselves, killing the plant.  We have a plan in place to battle this, and any other scenarios that may come up.  Overall, I am optimistic on the health of the golf course.  Greg and his staff prepared the turf nicely ensuring it be the healthiest possible going into the bear that was our winter this year. 

     At this point, we will continue to monitor conditions day by day.  I am pleased with what I see so far, but as you all know, we still have some winter to go.  Think Spring!

Ryan

Product Testing: Results on a Smaller Scale

As many of you are aware, I love to do research on the golf course.  Whether it is a trial that I am approached with by a university, manufacturer or something as simple as me wanting to see how a new product performs, I am always trying to stay at the forefront of what is happening in the world of turf management.

The particular area (#17 fairway) depicted in the photo above was sprayed with a new active ingredient, amicarbazone, that is being developed to selectively remove Annual Bluegrass (Poa annua) from Creeping Bentgrass.  Two applications have been made, and by the looks of things, a third application will not be necessary.  The hope is that this new product will allow the Creeping Bentgrass to fill the voids that are left from the death of the Annual Bluegrass. 

Through increased fertility of this area, my intent is to see if the Creeping Bentgrass that is already present can fill in on its own without the need to overseed.  As is the case when using products such as this one, there is always more Annual Bluegrass than was originally thought.  More updates to come...