Pins are being pulled and placed into temporary greens. Tee Markers are in front of all tee boxes. And greens are getting a winter blanket of sand. Please feel free to enjoy the short course.
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21 degrees this morning. I’m guessing the course won’t open until after 10am. Please check with the Pro Shop for updates.
It looks like we’re going to see a wintry mix on Saturday, followed by some cold temps. Tomorrow (Thursday) looks like a great day for some December golf, and Friday looks like a great day to get greens topdressed with a heavy winter blanket of sand. We began topdressing fairways yesterday and will do the same with tees this morning after the frost clears. We will plan on pulling pins from greens and moving them to temporary greens Friday morning, as well as moving tee markers in front of tee boxes, marking the end of the season for 2021. I believe this is about a week after the average closing date for the past 5 years.
With the club holiday party happening this weekend and parking at a premium, we will leave the gate to the Maintenance yard open. This should open another 5-8 spaces. Also, I would recommend not parking between the two burning bushes leading out to the 4th hole. I think there is room for another 2 or 3 cars on the gravel, leading to where the Pro Shop trailer was parked in the Spring.
There is significant frost this morning. I’d expect the course to open after 10, but please check with the Pro Shop to be sure.
As in years past, there is no firm date for the greens closing, but we are nearing the average closing date for the Winter. Looking ahead at the forecast, however, the weather is favorable for staying open. As we all know, the forecast in New England can change any moment. But with more than a few days above 50 and nights above 30 in the 7-day forecast, I can easily see the greens being in play for another week. Having said that, we still have a couple things to do on greens to prepare them for Winter. So once we see a couple consecutive days in the 30s and nights in the 20s, we’ll have to close greens in advance, so we can put them to bed before frost settles in for the season
First, the golf course is very wet. There will be no carts today, and possibly tomorrow. The rain is also slowing down leaf cleanup.
The rain is beneficial in one aspect, as we try to get caught up on our dormant feeding. Putting fertilizer out now, will help the turf push roots before soil temperatures drop too low heading into Winter as well as early Spring, and will lead to an earlier green up next year.
This morning we are deeptining greens. This will also encourage deeper rooting and will help keep water off the greens surfaces through the winter – reducing the risk of ice. The half inch diameter solid tines are reaching a depth of ~8 inches. This depth is about twice what we are able to reach during in season aerations. While we have successfully converted the top tier (1-4”) to a more sand based root zone through our cultural programs, deeptining helps us break through the second tier (4-8”) of heavier soils. Greens will be rolled prior to the first tee opening this morning.
This Fall, we took a year off green side bunker renovations to address the fairway bunkers on the first hole. The redesign was first conceived and discussed among the Greens Committee around this time last year. Pulling the bunkers closer to the fairway, they are now more visible from the tee, and more in play for the golfer trying to take their ball over the “corner”. No longer hidden from the tee by the few remaining trees on the hill. With the front edge of the sand in the left bunker ~215 yards and ~235 yards to carry the far edge of the sand, there is definitely an element of risk/reward. The expanded fairway in front and behind the bunkers allows for a well struck drive down the left edge of the fairway to be able to hold the fairway, rather than kicking all the way into the right rough. The far faces of the new bunkers are also softened compared to the previous bunkers. While still a very tough shot, the softened slopes will give the player a chance to get home from the sand. The bunkers may come into play for the longer hitters off the yellow tee markers on 1, but at just 100-110 yards from the green markers after the turn, and plenty of fairway to the right, probably won’t be much of a factor for the already difficult par 4, 10th.
I expect this area will be open for play in the Spring, but until then, please stay off the new sod and sand unless you need to retrieve your ball. Please do not play from the renovated area, and absolutely no carts.
On-Course knocked it out of the park once again.
Before there was Junior or Divot, some may remember Lacy. Lacy belonged to Kevin Newton. When I started at Norfolk, Kevin was my first hire as the Assistant Superintendent and was an important part of moving the course forward. We were lucky to have Kevin for 3 years, before he returned to his roots in Georgia, for an Assistant role in the Savannah area. Today Kevin let me know he’s soon starting his first Superintendent job at Crosswinds Golf Club in Savannah. Wishing him all the best. (Let the sleepless nights begin!)
After 5.18 inches of rain since yesterday afternoon, the golf course is closed until further notice. We’ll see how well the property drains through today and re-evaluate as needed, but I wouldn’t hang your plans for tomorrow on playing golf at Norfolk.
The last 24 hours have been about catching up on all our maintenance, with our small crew, and also trying to get ahead of more tropical downpours in the forecast for later today into tomorrow. Tropical downpours and high humidity have been the real constant this summer. Tropical storms have a tendency to bring grey leaf spot with them. The storms themselves bring the spores up from the south and dump them on the Northeast, with absolutely ideal conditions for the nasty fungus to thrive. We spray preventatively around mid to late July. As much as we can. It’s a turf disease that once you see it, it’s too late. Subsequent curative sprays may slow the progress, but usually the significant damage to the rye grass is done. That is what you are seeing in the rough scattered around the course. We managed to stay clean after the first tropical storm or depression. We dodged the second pretty well. The third tropical storm, was just too much. Henri delivered a blow to the roughs. We’ve been hit with grey leaf spot before. The difference this year over years past, is the rough has stayed lush well into the dog days of summer. Usually, by this time of year, with our limited rough irrigation and/or limited water availability, the rough has thinned out over the course of the season. This year, with the record amount of rain, the rough has stayed in a more Spring like state, for the entire summer. The areas that got whacked with GLS really jump out at you now. The green, lush rye grass provided the the perfect host and environment for the pathogen. We’ll begin seeding the thin areas next week with less susceptible grasses, and once Ida has moved out, the weather looks great for establishment.
Seed has begun germinating in the fairway spots that failed due to saturation, scorching and mechanical damage. We’ll continue to baby these areas, and please try to keep away from the spots marked with cart signs if at all possible.
Seed has also germinated on greens following aeration. At the one week mark (lit by my headlamp this morning) we are 95-99% healed from aeration. Greens height of cut is still a little above our usual in season height and we’ve been keeping the surfaces a little on the wet side to encourage the healing and germination. Last week’s fertilizer application has kicked in and things look great right now on greens.
We usually plan on 10-14 days for full recovery after aeration on greens but as things are progressing slightly ahead of schedule, we’ll start turning our attention to playability over the next few days – working the height down and smoothing things out. We started that process today by making the first of several light topdressings with the rain moving in. Also I made two greens sprays this morning. The first, included some plant health products but more importantly, wetting agents. The wetting agents should help greens handle the inches of rain we’re expecting, keep things a little more on the firmer side and help us manage moisture for the next couple weeks. The second application following the mower included plant protectants and growth regulators. The regulators will also help smooth things out and as the name suggests, slow down growth, helping with green speeds also.
Day 2 of the Club Championship is well underway. And with the anticipated rain for tomorrow, the championship will be decided this afternoon. An inch of rain the day before the tournament and some uncomfortable dew points have left greens a little stickier than we had hoped. This morning, the dew was so heavy, it was as if it had rained overnight.
It seems with each update, the track of Hurricane Henri has moved to the west. As of now, greens aeration is scheduled for Monday. When, where and how hard the storm hits will determine how we proceed with aeration. This is a very fluid situation as we still sit well inside the cone of uncertainty. The storm may force us to move aeration to Tuesday, or we may pivot and change the style or size of aeration tines, or both. Provided the power stays on through tomorrow, I will update as needed.
Every year, a couple times a year, we get a call from the Pro Shop or members will flag us down to let us know a certain bunker(s) or an area in the fescue has a bees nest. And every year, I get the same puzzled look when I tell them they are harmless. Over the course of 20 years, I’ve probably been in and/or raked hundreds of bunkers with what looks like a swarm of bees or wasps. The bunkers and nests can be raked over, without any real threat of being stung. I understand it takes a little bit of a leap of faith to step into a bunker with a dozen or so “bees” circling around, but their main defense mechanism is looking like a bee that will sting. And in those 20 years and hundreds of bunkers, I haven’t been stung once.
And while those cicada-killer wasps can look and sound like a small Cessna cruising above the native areas, they have little interest in you, and will leave you alone, especially if you do the same. If you think these wasps are intimidating, wait until you see one flying by, carrying a cicada in its grasp. Again trust me, even though you might think you’re seeing now infamous murder hornets around your wayward shot it the tall stuff, you are safe.
Spraying either of these wasps is really not an option, because they are virtually harmless. but also because they have individual burrows.
Here’s what the USGA has to say about it:
NORTHEAST REGIONAL UPDATE
The Beasts in the Bunkers
August 06, 2021Elliott Dowling, agronomist, Northeast Region
These wasps look much more dangerous to humans than they are. They are harmless and nonaggressive. Leave them alone and they will do the same to you.
The season of sand wasps and cicada-killer wasps has returned. In the Northeast, these insects generally appear on golf courses from midsummer until early fall. The two wasps in question look menacing and some people cannot believe that they will not sting them. In the case of cicada-killer wasps, they look like they could pick up a rodent and fly away with it!
However, both cicada-killers and sand wasps are mild mannered and nonaggressive. They are focused on making underground burrows and filling them with as much food as possible. Why are they found in bunkers? These wasps target locations with loosely packed soils, in the sun, often under trees where their primary food source – cicadas – are found.
The principal question from golfers when these wasps emerge is “Can they hurt us?” While females have stingers which they use to paralyze their food, they are not aggressive and do not have nest protection instincts like honeybees. If they do not feel threatened, they will not attack. That is why you can play a bunker shot, or the maintenance team can rake bunkers, and the wasps will harmlessly fly around your ankles paying you no attention.
The other half of the population cannot harm us or anything else. Males do not have stingers. They might hover around your ankles out of curiosity, but they will not and cannot harm you. I know you probably won’t spend the time to identify whether a male or female is flying around your ankles, but I like the odds when 50% of a population cannot harm you and the other half doesn’t care about you.
Northeast Region Agronomists:
Adam Moeller, director, Green Section Education – amoeller@usga.org
Darin Bevard, director, Championship Agronomy – dbevard@usga.org
Elliott Dowling, agronomist – edowling@usga.org
John Daniels, agronomist – jdaniels@usga.org
Information on the USGA’s Course Consulting Service
Contact the Green Section Staff
USGA PARTNERS
Norfolk Greens - Jon Zolkowski, Supt. 