Course Notes, 11/21/17

Our 2017 course winterization is now in full stride.  The pesky leaves are finally falling at a faster clip and each day brings us one day closer to having that time consuming process finished for the year. 

The irrigation system was successfully blown out and put to bed last week.  This process utilizes an industrial sized air compressor that fill the pipes with a high volume air flow at a lower pressure to flush out as much water from all piping and rotors as possible.  This process takes us about 2.5 days to complete and is one that I am happy to finish with no major issues!

Plant protectants have been applied to greens, tees, and the practice facility to help guard against snow mold infection.  Fairways and green surrounds will receive their application later this week or early next week, depending on the weather conditions. 

Finally, this coming Monday we will be applying our final topdressing to the putting surfaces.  This last application is a much heavier application than normal, and is not normally broomed in.  This is to maximize the protection and insulation the sand provides the Poa annua that is predominant on the greens at Elcona.  The above picture of 1 green shows what last year's application looked like after a rain event washed the sand further into the canopy.  The close up view with a microscope shows how the sand tightly protects the crowns of the plant from winter desiccation and cold temperatures. 

In our industry, we liken this final heavy application to putting a blanket on the greens and "tucking them in for the winter".  Bob Vavrek of the USGA has written a great article further explaining this application that you can access here. 

I hope that everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving, as we all have so much to be thankful for.  Be safe in your holiday travels, and I hope to see you out at Elcona soon! 

Ryan

Course Update, 1/11/2016

3 Pond in its Winter State

Winter has finally arrived, and some of the coldest air of the season has invaded our area.  I wanted to take a minute and share some of my observations over the last 4 weeks.

18 green receiving a mow on 12/9/15

Mowing fairways on December 22. Quite shaggy!

Clipping yield from 18 green, 12/9/15

December brought record warmth to our area.  The green and fairway turf was mowed and plant protectants were reapplied in those areas.  The decision to do this is not a easy, cut and dry one to make, but one that was necessary IMO for the long term health of the turf.  Growth regulators were included in the reapplication to minimize growth in case the warm weather continued, which it did for a bit, albeit not the 60's we saw earlier in the month.  As of this morning, all areas are clean of disease.

Topdressing 18 green

1 green after sand was applied

The warm December allowed us to continue adding topdressing to greens to continue to protect the crowns from any cold injury due to exposure.  It also kept the soil from freezing, which was key for any rain events we received over the course of the month.  A great example is over this past weekend, when the course received 1.75" of rain Friday and Saturday.  Thanks in part to the unfrozen soil, open holes from our November deep tine aerification, and a late season wetting agent application that aids in moving water away from the soil surface, all surfaces were dry before the temperatures dropped and any standing water could freeze.  Remembering our ice adventures from a couple of years ago, I was quite happy to see that!   The dangers of ice to Poa annua greens and our experiences are explained here and here to refresh your memory.  

#5 after this past weekend's weather event

No ice, just a dusting of snow on green surfaces

17 Green

With temperatures now forecasted to be below normal, additional snow cover would be highly beneficial to further insulate the crowns of the plants.  Poa annua is resilient, but susceptible to deep cold injury.  While it is "so far, so good" in regards to turf survival over the winter, the situation is one that will be continuously monitored and sampled.

If you have any questions, contact me at ryan@elconacc.com.  Stay warm!

Ryan

18 Green: What now?

Seams filled with topdressing, starting to heal in!

As I have mentioned in a previous post, there is much work to do on 18 green before the snow starts flying.  What we do this fall has a profound impact on how early the green can open next spring.  We have rolled and top-dressed regularly to smooth the putting surface and fill in the seams.  Depending on growth rates and how successful we are at smoothing the surface, we may mow the turf at a much higher height than normal to keep the plant growth from getting out of hand.  Fertilizer and other soil amendments were added before laying the sod to give it the nutrients it needs to root into the profile and heal in the seams.  An couple additional applications will be necessary to further help the plants maximize their carbohydrate reserves going into the winter.  Finally, I would like to have a deep tine aerifier poke holes 12" below the surface to further smooth the surface and create additional channels for new root growth this fall and next spring.  My goal is to have the sod rooted down by November 3rd, when all other greens are deep tined.  All in all, the green is healing and smoothing on schedule currently, and will only get better with time.  I will have more later on this winter on what we will need to do in the Spring to get the green open for business!

Ryan

The view outside of the green fence

Course Closed!

Today (Monday 6/3) the golf course was closed, but for a good reason.  We, the Grounds Department, have been given a day to ourselves to perform many necessary tasks that are much more easily accomplished when we do not have to worry about play on the golf course.  We receive very few of these throughout the golfing season, so we need to take advantage of them. Below is a list of tasks that were accomplished today:

Venting of the greens 1/4" hole, 6" deep

• Usual Monday mowing schedule completed
• Greens
• Topdressed with sand
• Vented
• Sand drug in
• Rolled to smooth surface
• Sprayed a soil directed fertilizer and wetting agent application
• Watered greens to move spray application into the rootzone and wash in sand
• Approaches
• Topdressed with sand
• Sand drug in
• All fairway divots filled on the Front 9 and holes #10 and #18
• All divots on Practice Tee filled
• All sprinkler heads edged on holes #1-4 and half of #5 (approximately 300 heads)
• Practice Tee fertilized
• Practice Tee, Target Greens, Practice Fairway and Short Game Fairway sprayed with fungicide and foliar fertilizer
• All rough around the greens sprayed to prevent grub damage
• All rough around fairways and fairway bunkers sprayed to prevent grub damage
• Trim around trees and signs along CR21
• 1 blog post written

Normally this schedule would have taken days to complete if we were to attempt it during play due to the need for my staff to stop what they are doing and get out of the way to allow play to come through.  I cannot emphasize enough how important and beneficial days like this are during the season. As I look at the golf calendar, our next closed day does not arrive until July 22nd. We will anxiously be awaiting this day as we hope to accomplish as much, if not more than today. Many thanks to my staff for a great day of work!

What's the Plan?

Before I get too many questions about the new #18 green, I thought I would make an attempt to answer some of them ahead of time.

Current health of #18 green

The mild winter and early arrival of spring has been a blessing for the maturation of the green.  I couldn't be happier with the health of the green at this point.  Roots are actively growing and the sod seams are slowly beginning to disappear, but there is still a lot of room for improvement prior to the fence coming down.  Unfortunately, the green cannot be opened based solely on maturation.  There is area in particular that must be improved before the green is opened and that is the actual playability of the putting surface.

First mowing on the new green

Because we stripped and re-laid the sod from the original #18 green to keep the putting surface consistent with the other 17 greens on the golf course, there is a lot of unevenness to the playing surface that needs to be corrected before opening.  Many frequent aerifications and topdressings will be done over the next several weeks to correct this problem.  During this process, the green will be unplayable, so there is no point in opening it for play at this point.





I realize that everyone is "chomping at the bit' to get out an play on the new green, but the maturity and playablility indicate that it just isn't ready yet. Your patience will be well rewarded on May 5th when we plan to open the green.  As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions.

The first topdressing last fall. This has been done several times
and will continue to be done many more times.

Anthracnose: A Closer Look

Unlike Dollar Spot, Foliar Anthracnose (fungal pathogen Colletotrichum cereale) is not as easlily identified.  In order to poperly diagnose this disease, it takes a little investigation and some time crawling around on the greens with a hand lens and camera.  This not our first bout with this disease.  As many of you will recall, we dealt with Anthracnose about this same time last year and were able to recover after some necessary applications of fungicides.



The initial yellowing of the turf caused by Foliar Anthracnose

 Typical symptoms of Foliar Anthracnose are a yellowing of the leaves starting at the tip and decaying downward as well as the presence of black acervuli on the leaf blade.  Damage can occur on both Annual Bluegrass and Creeping Bentgrass. If left untreated, large areas of turf can be affected with the end result being a very inconsistent and undesirable putting surface. Acervuli and the associated bristlelike setae can be seen in the picture below that I took with my camera through a magnification lens. To see a larger version, please click on the picture.


Acervuli (black spots) and setae (bristles coming out of black spots) can be seen on the infected leaves

Other than preventative applications of fungicides, recent studies have shown that a regular topdressing program as well as proper fertility can help to prevent this disease. Nobody likes to deal with the greens being topdressed regularly or the increase in fertility levels which can lead to slightly slower green speeds, but a common ground can certainly be achieved while meeting realistic expectations. The fact that these two measures can help to prevent this disease speaks volumes of the importance of our management practices.