Reading Material

Dustin Riley, the golf course superintendent at Oconomowoc Country Club, wrote this article recently in Golf Course Industry Magazine discussing the importance and reliance of venting, particularly in stressful times of the year. As many of you know it is a practice that we routinely utilize to "help out" our turfgrass plants in the heat of the summer. For those who do not understand the practice of venting and its benefits can read this article to find out more information.


http://www.golfcourseindustry.com/gie-111-cover-story-dustins-inferno.aspx

Frost delays

In the spring and fall of the year in Northeast Wisconsin, frost early in the morning is a common phenomenon. Golfers are oftentimes delayed from playing due to frost. Delays are very inconvenient for the golfer, but it is important for the health of the golf course to respect these delays.

Why is it important for the superintendent to suspend play until the frost is gone?

Grass plants are made up of mostly water, this water turns into very fragile crystals of ice. Simply walking on turf with frost can cause damage, particularly on a green where the height of cut is around 1/8". Walking on a grass plant with frost is like breaking glass or cracking an egg.

Why not just throw the sprinklers on to get rid of the frost?

This method can work however many factors must be considered before turning on overhead irrigation. What is the air temperature? . . . What is the soil temperature? . . . What temperature is the irrigation water? . . . How heavy is the frost that is covering the grass? I have seen where turning on overhead irrigation cause more frost and in turn makes the delay much longer !!

As a maintenance staff we try to keep the proshop as informed as possible regarding the length of the delay. Keep in mind this is only a guess, and hourly updates usually keep the membership/proshop up to date as to the length of the delay. Usually foretees has the frost delay on it so people who are at home are aware that there tee time may be moved back till they get the "all clear."

Thank you and your cooperation in adhering to these policies is greatly appreciated !!

Here is a informational link to frost delays:

www.gcsaa.org/solutions/facts/frost.aspx

What are the white lines?

Many people have been inquiring about the white lines that are present around many of the greens and approaches. These lines are marking where either the approach is being bumped out, or where the green is being enlarged. Why do this?? Overtime many of the mowing lines have been altered by daily maintenance practices. Essentially the greens and approaches have shrunk overtime. This is very common on older golf courses because the operator(s) who is mowing cheats a little bit so that he/she doesn't scalp the edge of the green or approach. Consistently doing this results in the shrinkage of greens and other fine turf areas.

There are several different ways to enlarge and restore lost areas that have shrunk. You can sod the areas to bring them back to there original location, which has it pluses and minuses. Sodding can be done very effectively, especially if the remaining turf species is not either Poa annua or Bentgrass. By sodding, the unwanted turf species are eliminated and a mixture of Bent/Poa is present. Sodding, however, is very labor intensive and usually good nursery stock is needed to expand these areas. Cost being an important factor and the limited amount of quality nursery sod, make this option less viable for us in this transition. The other solution to restore lost playing surfaces is to slowly lower the height of cut over the period of several weeks then match it to the existing height. This is very effective particularly in areas that are still predominantly Bentgrass or Poa annua. Many of the areas targeted for enlargement are still predominantly Bent/Poa mixture. This allows us to slowly lower the height and make a gradual transition over the period of a few months.

With both methods problems can arise! When sodding areas turf does not always take to the transplant. Its much like a human getting an organ transplant, sometimes your body rejects the newly transplanted organ. Turfgrasses are really no different and some areas of sod take better than others. Pitfalls also arise when "mowing down" areas; the turf make not like the lower height and may thin out or die in spots. By starting now we give the turf better conditions to help make this transition/transplant easier and less stressful on the plant. Also coming out of winter we can prepare these areas to make it through the coming summer. Continually topdressing and aerating these "mow downs" will also help make these areas blend in better overtime. Topdressing will smooth these areas and aerating will help remove any thatch/organic matter that may potentially make the transition fail.

By bringing back the original location of our greens, approaches, and fairways the golf course plays the way it was intended too. Another reason to move are greens back to there original size it to give us more options with hole locations. The greens at Ridgeway are fairly small averaging 4,200 square feet a green. Restoring more putting surface will allow for more flexibility with course set-up in the future and less wear on turfgrass plants.

Ballmarks

Pythium Blight

While playing in the past week and half you may have noticed #6, #15, and #16 tees have a fair amount of bare spots on the teeing surface. This was caused by an aggressive turfgrass disease called Pythium Blight. Sunday July 18th we received about 1.4" of rain followed by a warm day and a night that saw temperatures around 70 degrees. In order for Pythium to be active it needs warm temperatures (high night time lows or hot daytime temps.) and rain/high humidity. The fact that very little if any air movement is present in this part of the golf course made it a perfect breeding ground to get the disease. The saturated tees became a perfect breeding ground for this pathogen. The next couple of mornings Pythium blight was seen in the rough in many areas particularly on south faced bunker slopes. This can be concerning considering the fact that mowers and people can move the disease from place to place. It just so happened the course was closed and staff was directed away from the affected areas.



The greens at Ridgeway are sprayed on a preventative basis for Pythium Blight, however due to the high cost of spraying other areas (i.e. tees and fairways) they may only be sprayed if absolutely necessary. Because the night time lows continued to stay rather hot we did decide to spray low/wet spots on fairways and other tees that would present problems (tees with either poor drainage or air circulation). We have skipped mowing these tees a couple of times and will continue to over seed the areas to get them back into shape. Because these tees were so saturated with water we deep-tined these tees to get water to move off of the surface of the plants and down into the profile.



Ridgeway has a number of areas that present many challenges due to:



1. Poor drainage

2. Lack of air movement because of the number of trees that only provide a breeding ground for turfgrass diseases, numerous weeds (crabgrass, clover etc.), and make it difficult to dry turf off after heavy rain and high humidity.

3. High number of rounds that put a lot of stress on saturated turfgrass plants. In fact Pythium was the most severe in areas of high foot traffic between the tee markers.

4. Numerous trees that suck sunlight from turfgrass plants which make them weaker and increase the need for fertilizer, water, and pesticides.

5. Trees whose roots suck nutrients and water from turfgrass plants requiring more TLC and $ to make these surfaces "decent."

6. Heavy clay soil which holds water and has numerous problems in of itself: poor playing surface (too firm, too soft), poor drainage, make it difficult to mow in wet conditions, clay is a poor rooting medium for turfgrasses, whereas lighter soil (sand) is a much better rooting medium.

7. The combination of heavy soil, numerous trees, large number or rounds, and the recent weather make a great cocktail for diseases, weeds, less than favorable playing conditions, and anaerobic soil conditions (see earlier posts).





The weather is the one factor that is uncontrollable, however selective tree cutting, soil modification (sand topdressing), and good sound maintenance practices (i.e. aerification, verticutting, intelligent use of water, etc.) will help provide healthier and more playable playing surfaces. Years like this become a good litmus test for identifying all the challenges a golf course and its environment presents, we now have an excellent opportunity to rectify some of these challenges to help make Ridgeway better!

Bug Spray kills grass!

With all of the rain lately the mosquitoes are out in full force. The picture to the left is of someone who sprayed themselves in #2 approach. Bug spray kills turf and we would like members to spray themselves either on a cart path or by the pro shop before they tee off. Thanks.

Vandalism

This morning we had some vandalism to #11 green which came from sometime last night. These areas were rather large and deep!! They decided to use the green as a range tee. Pictures of the damage are above. They also broke the 150 pole on 11 and ripped out one the flagsticks on the range. The green was repaired with some plugs and sand before any groups got to the hole.