Mowing Frequency

Bentgrass management is one topic that I discuss on this blog frequently.  I do this because it is important to the short and long-term goals of our greens and grounds department.  As stated many times before, there are many facets that go into managing for bentgrass.  Mowing less frequently is one of the many programs that help us reach our goals as a greens and grounds department.

Mowing frequency on our fine turf areas is one practice that varies greatly with that of other courses.  Typically in the past we mowed 6-7 times a week on greens, 3-4 times on tees, and 3-4 times on fairway turf.  Also we rolled greens 2-4 times a week in addition to our mowing regimen.  In 2012, we utilized a different approach by mowing greens ONLY 4 times a week and rolling them 7 days a week.  We will continue to use this model in the future and adding this practice to tees, fairways and approaches.

 

 

Why this change? 

The main reason for this change has to do with enhancing bentgrass over Poa annua.  Mowing is a very injurious process to bentgrass, whereas, Poa thrives under situations where constant mowing is the norm.  By reducing the amount we mow we decrease the probability of bentgrass injury.  Having healthy bentgrass is critical to winning the battle over Poa annua.   

Another byproduct of mowing less and rolling more is being more sustainable.  Mowing requires more people and more man hours to complete.  Rolling requires just one person and can be done for 1/3 the cost when swapped for mowing.  Reduction in man hours and the amount of gas used means savings for the maintenance of the golf course.  

Does less mowing impact the speed of our putting surfaces?

No, last season we were able to maintain the speed of the greens between 10-12 on the stimpmeter consistently.  In 2012 during some weeks of the peak season we mowed less than 4 days a week because the green speed was over 11 and we did not want to make some greens unfair.  Rolling is a great tool that we use to preserve plant health, increase bentgrass populations and keep our greens consistent on a daily basis.

 

Decreased mowing frequency has many benefits as I have stated above and in 2013, we look to continue this practice on greens while adding it to fairways, tees, and approaches.  So far it is one of many changes that have greatly improved the quality of Ridgeway’s fine turf areas.  

We are anxiously waiting for the start of 2013 season.  With the golf season closing in, this blog will be updated more frequently to keep you informed on golf course conditions …. Stay tuned!

Spring??

Winter is hanging around longer than anticipated this year compared with 2012.  The average start date at Ridgeway is usually around the first or second week of April.  Unless the weather makes a dramatic change it does not look like that will be a reality in 2013.  We will keep you up to date on golf course conditions both on this blog and with emails from the proshop.

Harsh winters can cause problems to golf turf.  This year’s culprit so far is ice.  The greens and fairways have been covered in ice since January 27^th leaving 2-3 sometimes 4” of ice in spots.  Ice is a problem if it persists for periods of more than 60 days on Poa annua and 90-100 days on bentgrass.  Gas gets trapped under the ice and forms a toxic cocktail wherein the plant suffocates from lack of oxygen.  This phenomenon is called anoxia.   
 
This past Friday and Saturday we took it upon ourselves to remove the snow from our putting surfaces, which exposed ice to the sun.  In order to speed up the melting process we applied a blue dye to darken surface of the ice.   Friday was sunny and 9 of the greens became ice free.  Saturday the sun did not appear like it was forecasted, so none of ice melted on the remaining 9 greens.   Those remaining greens have had the snow removed and painted with blue dye.  It is a matter of warmth and sun, that will determine how fast these greens melt ice.  The long range forecast looks favorable for that to take place at the end of this week.  
 
One of the tell tale signs of anoxia is a rotten egg or sulfur smell once the greens have melted.  A number of golf course superintendents in Wisconsin have reported this smell on their greens in the past couple of weeks.  On Saturday I did not detect any foul smell on the greens that were ice free.   At this point it is too early to be certain if any turf loss has occurred.  If turf loss has occurred you can bet that Poa annua is the species that will be affected.   This is why our management strategy is aimed at reducing the amount of Poa annua on our golf course.  That being said, we have made great strides in the area of Poa reduction and that will help this spring as opposed to past years where the dominant species was Poa annua. 

Check in weekly for more updates on golf course conditions. 

Snow Removal

January gave us snow, rain, thunderstorms, seasonably warm and brutally cold weather.  Toward the end of the month ice started to build up on Ridgeway's putting surfaces leaving anywhere from no ice to 1/2" covering the playing surfaces.  However, since the end of January we have had more rain, snow, warm and cold weather.  This has added to the thickness of our ice to 3" in some areas. Earlier this week we made the decision to remove snow from our putting surfaces to minimize ice buildup. This will allow what ice that is currently there to melt much quicker once it starts to warm-up.  It’s hard to imagine but spring is just around the corner. . .

Some of you may ask, "What damage has the ice caused to the greens?"  Answer: Little if any at this point because the ice cover has not been present long enough. The snow removal was done to stop or slow the buildup of more ice making it easier to melt off completely.  2012 saw a large influx in the amount of bentgrass and that will help greatly. Bentgrass is a heartier turf than Poa annua and can withstand winter conditions better with little worry of any damage.  This is why our management strategy has been to promote bentgrass so that we can rely on good hearty turf from the start of the golf year right to the end!

We look forward to an early spring in 2013. Cheers!

Course Closure

Ridgeway Country Club will be closing for carts this Wednesday November 21^st and open for the last day to walking only on Thanksgiving November 22^nd.   Friday and Saturday of this week look colder, with a big cold front with possible snow on Wednesday of next week.

In order to prepare the course for winter we still need to deep tine, spray for snow mold diseases and topdress the putting surfaces with sand.  We do these procedures once the course has closed for the season.  If all goes well it takes about 4-5 days to complete.  Deep-tining at the end of the season is done to keep excess water from sitting on top of the putting surfaces over winter, the side benefit is aerating the greens down 10-12” which allows for deeper roots and relief of compaction in spring.  After deep-tining we put a light to moderate amount of topdressing sand to protect the crown from desiccation.  We will be busy trying to button up these important maintenance practices before it gets cold next Wednesday.

We have been busy the last couple of weeks spraying all of the fairways and tees for snow mold.  We have also winterized the irrigation system and Prindle’s Pub for the season.  The approaches have been deep-tined and we are currently in the process of topdressing them with sand. 

Ridgeway opened for play on March 17th and will close on November 22nd  which will make it the longest golf season on record.  Although no projects are planned this winter we will be busy as there is always work to be done.  Keep following the blog for more updates and information in the coming weeks and months.  Thanks and we hope for an early spring in 2013!

Sustainable Golf Course Maintenance

Over the next few weeks, The Golf Channel will be covering several Australian professional golf tournaments.  This is noteworthy because many of the maintenance practices that we have implemented here at Ridgeway have been used on Australian and British Isles courses for decades. 

Specifically, by emphasizing the better grasses (i.e., bentgrasses and fescues), we can achieve our goal of sustainable maintenance practices which yield healthy turf and optimum playing conditions.  In this post, I will describe what our Australian friends have in common with us, plus share the benefits we have already noticed in the last year at Ridgeway.  Keep in mind, this is only a synopsis of what is detailed in our Best Practiced Plan, and the goal here is to highlight some of the major components and successes of our maintenance program.

I.                    Money Savings

Our philosophy is predicated on growing hearty, robust turf that is not overly reliant on water, fertilizer and pesticides.  This is achieved by implementing programs that benefit bentgrass over Poa annua.  We focus on growing roots not shoots.  We embrace solutions that focus on long-term problems and don't rely on treating short-term symptoms.  Unlike agriculture that focuses on yield as its primary objective, we focus on surface preparation.  The continuous use of water, fertilizer, and pesticides enhances Poa annua encroachment, which is fine if you can live with the cost of applying theses amendments on a regular basis.  To date, we have made significant savings in both pesticide and fertilizer usage at Ridgeway.  Both are down about 30-40% from previous years. 

II.                  Less Environmental Impact

Promoting  bentgrass not only allows us to be more fiscally responsible, we are also promoting environmentally sustainable practices.   It is our duty to be environment stewards by using fewer pesticides and less water and fertilizer.  Also, our mowing schedule has been reduced because we roll our greens more frequently.  This results in less pollution overall.

III.                Increased Playability

On the playability front, we focus on more aeration not less.  But because we do not rely on core aeration as our only means of cultivation, we are able to have less downtime in the playability of our fine turf areas.  This past season, we did not core aerate our putting surfaces, and we hope to do the same next year.  We instead use long, narrow pencil tines which penetrate 6-12” in depth.   This allows for water infiltration, compaction relief, and long vigorous root structure. This process has little if any affect on playability.     10” roots on greens were pretty normal throughout the 2012 season as opposed to 1-3” roots in prior seasons, even though we used less water, fertilizer, and pesticides.  Because the root structure was good, we have enhanced stress tolerance and better turfgrass color.

If you watch the coverage on The Golf Channel this week and in the coming weeks, you will see what promoting for the better grasses does and how it will benefit our course.  You will likely hear the announcers discussing it.  Ridgeway’s maintenance philosophy (like many courses in the Australian sandbelt) has many great benefits which save money, protect the environment and improve the overall playability of the course.  These are ideals I feel we can all get behind . . .  we do all of this by simply promoting for the better grass and embracing solutions not problems! 

P.S. Extra credit goes to any member who reads Practical Greenkeeping, by Royal and Ancient agronomist Jim Arthur.

Fairway seeding and upcoming maintenance

Fairway Seeding

This summer was very hot and extremely dry; our fine turf areas did very well despite the weather.  However there are a couple of exceptions on some small areas of our fairways where some turf thinned out and died. This week we slit-seeded these areas with bentgrass, topdressed with sand, and used covers to quicken the germination process.   These areas are small and are found on #1, #6, #9, #14, and #18. The picture below shows the final product.  Please do not hit off of the covers, they are marked as ground under repair. Thanks.

#1 after it has been
seeded, fertilized, topdressed,
and covered.

Chipping Green

With the chipping green closed for the season we took the opportunity to aggressively verti-cut, seed, topdress, water, and cover the entire complex to allow for faster recovery.  We will keep these covers on all fall and most likely when we open next spring.


Range Tee

Next week we will be working on the range tee so it can be ready for next season. We close the range tee this time year to allow it to heal in for next year’s play.  If we continued to hit off of the tee, most of the divots generated in October and November would not recover until late next spring. 

Next week we will be deep-tining, heavily over seeding, fertilizing, topdresssing and covering the range tee so that it will be in good shape for next season.

#13

The large depressions behind and to the south of #13 will be filled in with soil and seeded in the upcoming weeks.  Since we have a shortage of soil on the property, we will use plugs from our fairway aerification.

Depression on #13
Filled with plugs from aerification.

Naturalized Areas

In the closing weeks of the 2012 golf season we will be mowing down the natural “fescue” areas found throughout the course.  By mowing these areas we keep out larger weeds, shrubs and trees from taking over the fescue grass that was planted.  These areas have come a long way and should be greatly improved next season.  Natural areas while not maintenance free, do cut down on rough mowing and add texture to the golfing landscape.

Natural Area on #12


 
Small Improvements



In the coming weeks we will be adding some more mulch to bare areas just at the end of cart paths.  So far this has worked well and looks much nicer than it did previously.  Also we will be adding some more rock barriers to the edges of our cart paths to keep traffic from trampling turf.  We have recieved some nice comments on the rocks and we hope to slowly incorporate more from now until next season.    











Fairway Aerification Update

So far tee and fairway aerfication has been great!  The nice dry weather has allowed us to get a lot accomplished. To date almost all of the fairways and tees are completed except #2 and all par 3 holes.  The holes that are completed look very clean and in most cases almost completely healed in already.  If the weather cooperates and our equipment continues to hold up we should get done by early next week.  



Taken from #3 fwy
day of aerification



#12 Fwy one week after aerification.