TURF TALK FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT
Dear Members,
The practice teeing area has switched to mats only with our last tournament and will continue until spring green up. This will allow us to maintain a much healthier grass area through winter. I will be replacing the rubber tees on several of the mats (test) with a larger rubber tee so when you hit drivers you won’t need to chase your tee. If they are successful, we will put them on all mats. Also, effective November 1, Maintenance will take over all trash container pick-up on the course as well as keeping water containers full throughout the seasons to come. We have already assumed range operations prior to season this year.
We were able to apply the winter pre-emerge herbicide application to fairways, tee tops and surrounds, rough and green surrounds in late October as opposed to early November to prevent winter/spring weeds from germination. Although it is not going to prevent all, it will provide 90%+ protection and minimize the post-emergent applications. We also treated the entirety of the golf course fairways, tees, and all surrounds with a growth regulator to assist us in maintaining the heights of the grass as to minimize mowing which saves on labor costs as well as fuel etc.
I will be spraying the greens on or around November 9th with the second of three pre-emergent herbicide applications to prevent Poa Annua from germination, however, Poa grows and germinates at different times due in part to the ground temperature, and that is why we plan three applications. Knock on wood, as of this writing we have not seen a single Poa plant emerge on the greens nor green surrounds.
November will be a shoulder month in respect to cutting back smaller trees, bushes, out of the way shrubs on the interior of the golf course that will impact the visual impact of the course as well as pond banks and stream banks. We have already started all these short-term projects as of this writing.
Additionally, we will be trimming back all irrigation heads (already performed on green surrounds) and in November we will have all irrigation heads trimmed back in fairways and tee boxes.
October 31st, we have a demo scheduled with a Walker zero turn with a high dump lift mechanism to test. The primary focus will be to mow/mulch/vacuum and contain pinecones/needles etc. for removal from the course. This is a major pet peeve of mine, and I am certain most golfers do not care for them either. I will follow up with y’all in the December newsletter to let you know what to expect from that demo.
What to look forward to in December: Suffice to say that I am very pleased with the results of the 2023 Agronomic plan and very optimistic about our future and the successes achieved. The newsletter next month will cover the agronomic snapshot of coursework, sand usage, verticutting/aerification processes, the major benefit of the newly purchased reel grinder and bed knife sharpener machines and how they have positively impacted our operations, and a general synopsis of the results of the 2023 agronomic plan, course projects planned through the winter and moving into spring, and what our plan will be for 2024 and moving forward.
P.S. Please place bunker rakes teeth down in the bunker when you are finished raking said bunkers and fill divots in the fairway. This is critical especially in the wintertime when the grass will not grow over the divot.
Fairways and greens
Mike,
