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.
Cultural Practices
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 past weekend greens finally got a little firmer and a little faster for the two day Summer Member/Member. Surprising to some was the sight of us doing some watering over the past few days. July is usually a time we see roots shrink. It seems that has been amplified this season with the heat waves in June, followed by record rainfall to start this month. All closely mowed turf that isn’t still slow to drain, requires a little extra TLC under certain conditions. It doesn’t take long for the grass to wilt on a 75° day with low humidity.
This morning we made a long overdue greens application of wetting agents, insecticide, fungicide and nutrients to be washed into the soil. The wetting agents will help us manage the moisture and water usage. The insecticide is targeting nematodes (microscopic worms), which recent testing showed were at or near threshold, and also Annual Bluegrass Weevil. The fungicide will combat any soil borne pathogens that may attack roots. And the nutrients will feed the soil and be readily available for uptake by the plants. This application requires a fair amount of water to reach the target, so greens may seem a little slower. Another benefit of this rinse in spray is the heads also water the greens surrounds and bunkers. Because of our irrigation system, the only way to water surrounds with sprinklers, means also watering the greens – Something we generally try to do with hose alone whenever possible. So this application results in a good deep watering for the rough around greens and bunker faces, as well as compacts the sand in bunkers. We usually use this bunker watering to spend the day in bunkers, checking depths and moving sand. The wet sand is easier to shape than when it’s dry and a little fluffy. Ideally we would have made this application about a week to ten days ago but conditions were just never conducive. It was either raining overnight, making it to wet to water in the morning. Or if it was raining in the day, it was accompanied by high winds. And if neither was happening, everything was already too wet to add more water. But today, on this Maintenance Monday we took advantage of being closed for the morning, and conditions being just right following a busy weekend of play and gave the greens a bit of a spa day. The wetting agents should activate quickly and by mid week, greens should be firming back up and ball roll will improve daily as the weather for golf for the end of July and early August looks almost too good to believe.
The wettest of areas on the course are rapidly improving and shrinking almost by the minute. This spot on 1 fairway that we are maintaining with a smaller, lighter mower, is about 1/5th the size it was last week. And this morning we were able to mow the lower portion of 5 fairway with the fairway mower for the first time in a long while. These spots are being zeroed in on for some additional off season drainage.
First morning of the 3-Day Memorial Day Round Robin, we came into 2 inches of rain having already fallen, and no end in sight for the weekend. Just under 4 inches fell in total over the three days.
We spent more time moving water, than mowing grass over the weekend, but all told, the course handled it well and the tournament went off with little interruption…. to the dismay of most playing.
The day after the tournament, fairways were punched and we verticut greens in two directions.
We pulled a lot of material from greens after verticutting alone.
Greens were mowed immediately after verticutting and cleanup.
The following day we pulled cores, cleaned, topdressed, and brushed greens.
This is the current state of greens, after being fertilized yesterday and rolled this morning. We beat greens up this week, but they’ll be better for it once healed. A nice shower will go a long way in speeding up healing ahead of the incoming heat. Greens probably won’t be mowed again until early next week.
We also beat up the crew this week. I’m grateful they were willing to work over the holiday weekend, and put in some extra time and effort, to get aeration out of the way.
With Monday being a holiday, this week’s Maintenance Monday will happen on Tuesday. The first tee will open at 7 on Monday and 10:30 on Tuesday. Originally I had planned to pull small cores on greens on Tuesday, as fairways were being deep-tined. But because of the change to the Four Ball qualifying, I am going to push greens off until June 1st (weather dependent), following the last day of qualifying play. These cores on greens will be approximately half the size of what we would typically do after the Memorial Day Round Robin. With some decent weather this should have little impact on play once cleaned up. The plan had been to get the greens done prior to reopening, but the cold weather was not conducive to healing and the verticut lines and deep-tine holes were too slow to heal.
Tuesday’s fairway deep-tine will be done with solid tines, so there will be no cleanup involved. We’ll roll the fairways immediately after punching them, and should have no problem staying ahead of play. You may want to roll the ball over in fairways for a day or two afterwards.
We received 1.3″ of rain between yesterday evening and over night. Although it will keep carts off the course this morning, the rain was beneficial.
I know I’ve said this before, but it doesn’t matter how good the irrigation system is, there’s just no duplicating rain. Last night’s rain washed in the light topdressing we applied the other day, and helped rinse in yesterday’s plant health and wetting agent spray on greens. I believe it will go a long way toward aeration recovery, which is already proceeding on schedule.
My hope for today is to let greens dry a little, and get mowers and possibly a roller out later this morning. And I expect carts will be available by mid to late morning with relatively few restrictions. For now the course will open on time for walkers.
Yesterday morning, as I was chasing the fairway spreader around with water, I thought to myself, this has already been a very successful week and it’s just Thursday.
We managed to get greens, approaches and fairways aerated. We’ve mowed around 90% of the natural areas down. Greens were fertilized Wednesday, seeded on Thursday and fairways were done yesterday morning. We had already rolled greens a couple of times. And then this morning, a couple days ahead of schedule, we put our first post-aeration cut on greens. The height of cut today was slightly higher than normal but the plan is to mow and roll again tomorrow, closer to our usual in-season height. Looking at the weather ahead and the progress of the greens after just 4 days, I feel very good about where we stand heading into the final week of August.
Current state of healing, on 4th day after aeration
July is, on average, our hottest month. So far, this July has been no exception, with more days above average than not. And there’s very little relief in sight.
Yesterday we vented greens. This opens up the surfaces, allowing the turf to breath. Getting air into the soil is one of the most important things we can do this time of year to promote good plant health. Venting provides great benefit with very little to no disruption to play.
I looked back at previous July posts on this blog and found this one from 2015. It’s as fitting today as it was then:
“To some extent, the weather always dictates how we manage the course, at least a little. But when Mother Nature drops this on us, it’s a little more forceful. A heatwave in May or even early June is relatively easy to get through. But the end of July? The turf has already been through a lot. Water is usually in short supply (although we’re in better shape this year than years past), the nights are generally warmer leaving less time for recovery, and roots are in their annual summer decline. Most days in the summer, especially after extended periods without, we beg for an afternoon storm to popup. With this weather, its really not ideal. Too hot, too much humidity. Rather than rain, this week we’re happy with clouds for a bit of a respite.
We consider Mondays to be rest days for the greens. We use that day to vent, topdress, spray, or all of the above. You may or may not have noticed, that we almost never mow or roll greens on Mondays. Other than aeration, that’s about as slow as greens get during the season. This week, as the heat and humidity dictate, and as we assess the stress levels of the greens daily, we may do any combination of mowing, rolling, raising height of cut, or giving them a break. Sometimes during these stretches greens get a little puffy, mostly due to humidity. They can scalp easy when they are mowed, and slow as the day goes on, as the plants fatten up from the moisture in the air. My point being, there may be days this week when the greens roll like a Monday. This is a short term condition for the long term health of the putting surfaces. Additionally, you may see quite a few guys out there with hoses around the greens. We’re even more conscious than usual during this weather, of the amount of water we put out. Partly because the water tends to stay on the top of the profile and can present a mushy surface, which leads to scalping/gouging with equipment and creates an ideal environment for disease. The hose work takes just a minute or two, cooling things off and not necessarily watering. Also, because we don’t have separate irrigation for the rough around greens or bunker faces, and don’t want to water greens, we will send out guys to hand water these areas.”
A recent update from the USGA regarding summer conditions can be found here.
Drainage on 6 green was completed yesterday. All materials have been removed, the green was rolled, and is open for play this morning. The crew has moved onto #7. We have placed a temporary pin in the fairway on 7, as that green is now closed until done. The hope is to have all greens open no later than Sunday morning.
Following 0.52″ of rain last night, I’m happy to report the 6th green feels firm under foot, and ball roll is near perfect. Some time next week we will be aerating between the drainage lines on 6 & 7.
Wednesday at 2, greens were opened following aeration. There hasn’t been a lot of play since then. At the risk of beating a dead horse, if one didn’t know any better, it would appear not a single ball mark was repaired. I happened to have flags in my cart from aeration, and they help drive home the point. Each flag in the pictures below represents an unrepaired ball mark on the 3rd and 8th greens, just in the last day and a half, with relatively light play. This is an ongoing issue that is having a direct impact on playability and quality, but is easily remedied.
Following significant rain, for what felt like all of last week, the course is starting to dry out. However, it looks like we might see the remnants of Florence, Monday night into Tuesday. If we receive the rain they are predicting, expect cart and possible course limitations Tuesday and maybe into Wednesday.
Since aeration, we have been seeding (with great success) all areas on playing surfaces that suffered through what will be remembered as a historically tough year for turf managers. While we fared better than some others, we were not without our share of bumps and bruises. Experiencing one of the hotter summers on record, we also managed to survive one the hottest Augusts, the hottest start to September, the most nights with overnight lows in the 70s, the most hours with a dewpoint of 70 or higher, and our fair share of tropical downpours. Additionally the weed and insect pressure this year was higher than I can remember. If I never have to go through a summer like 2018 again as a Superintendent, it will be too soon!
With the course drying out, today was the day to start getting back into our routine with mowing and rolling greens. This time of year, due to staffing limitations on weekends, we resort to “triplexing” greens rather than walk mowing. Triplexing allows us to commit just one person to mowing greens instead of the two required to walk mow. Using a triplex is not inferior in terms of quality but the reason we would prefer walk mowing over triplexing whenever possible is, the triplex is a heavier machine and can easily lend itself to wear on the greens. This morning, one of the three cutting units on the triplex had a critical failure and we had to abandon mowing. By the time the triplex was back in the shop, it was already too late to get the walkmowers out on the course and be able to stay ahead of play. Unfortunately we were only able to roll greens. Typically this would not be such a big deal, but with the current temperatures and last weeks rains, the grass is practically exploding out of the ground. As a result greens will be significantly slower today than you might expect.
With an eye towards the rain over the next couple days, Monday will be an extremely busy day, not only catching up on things following rain from last week, but trying to get ahead on maintenance and make all the proper and necessary applications.
Something that strikes me every time I cut cups is the difference our cultural practices (topdressing, aeration, verticutting, etc.) have made on the greens. The greens in 2013 (on the right) had serious thatch and layering issues. The greens now have become more uniform throughout the root zone and we’ve even started to make changes to the second tier, below the top 4 inches. I used to use the green layer you can see near the top of the profile in the 2013 photo to monitor progress. You can see in the 2018 photo (on the left), that green layer has been moved so far down and become so diluted, I don’t think it will recognizable next season.