We are half way through August and
it has started to settle down a little bit. July was a crazy month—it is on
record as the hottest and wettest month. Not good for turf, my friends. Well, I
wanted to post this blog in regards to the golf course overall and what we have
had going on. I am sure there are many questions that have been asked about
many areas of the golf course that appear to be struggling even with the
installation of our new irrigation system.
For starters, some of you know about our Pythium
outbreak we have encountered twice on our fairways and some of our tees.
 |
| Mycelium of Active Pythium |
Pythium blight may develop when night temperatures exceed 65°F and
leaves are continually wet for 12 to 14 hours for several consecutive nights. For
this reason, severe Pythium blight epidemics are commonly observed the
morning after a late afternoon or early evening thunderstorm in the summer.
Daytime temperatures above 85°F also encourage Pythium blight
development, possibly due to increased stress on the turf. Excessive soil moisture
and succulent foliar growth also favor disease development.
 |
| #1 Fairway, Pythium damage |
In the fairways, the majority of our
damage is in our low lying areas that stay wet longer and don't drain well. For
example: swale #1 fairway short of the fairway bunker, down the middle of #3,
swale #9 just short of the green, end of #16 fairway, and up the left side of
#18 are just some of the areas, but numerous other areas were affected as well.
We made two curative sprays on the fairways and have the disease under control.
We will continue to make preventative sprays as planned; just sometimes Mother
Nature is too much to handle, unfortunately. The affected spots are slowly
recovering and might need some extra attention as far as roughing up and
re-seeding which will be as soon as the weather calms down and I feel
comfortable we are in a good stretch for seed to germinate. Now for the spots
in #15 fairway—this is another issue. We have continuously tried to reseed
these areas and have not had much success, although this year (with the use of
growth covers) we had a lot of seed germinate and fill in these areas.
Unfortunately, these areas declined as usual. I feel that the soil in these
areas is extremely poor and possibly rocky. Our next move is to dig out 6"
of soil and replace it with topsoil and seed.
 |
| Straight line of turf decline #9 Green/Collar *No issue on Green* |
 |
| #16 Tee Box that has settled causing puddling after rain and turf loss |
 |
| #1 Forward Tee turf stress due to wilt |
Some of our tee boxes have taken a
hit as well this year and there are a couple of reasons for this. First off,
some areas are just wilt/drying out caused by poor soil structure. We will just
need to get on an aggressive wetting agent program which we can now promote
with the new irrigation system and the product can be hand watered in. Other
tee boxes such as the second box down from the back on #16, where the tee has
settled in the middle and holds water after a big storm and drowns the plants.
Especially during the hot summer months where water will lay and the sun
reflects through the puddle scorching the turf. This tee box will need to be re-graded
in the near future. Other areas on the golf course similar to these tees are
low lying fairway and rough areas such as: Front #10 fairway, Front #11
Fairway, End of #13 Fairway before creek, and Short Left of #13 greens, and the
End of #16 Fairway. All of these areas need drastic drainage installed whether
that is installing drain tile or just re-grading these areas.
As some of you may have noticed, we
have a considerable amount of crabgrass in our rough.Crabgrass seeds are
always present in the soil and need to be treated with one to two applications
of a pre-emergent in early spring. The pre-emergent needs to watered into the
soil to form a residual barrier that will not allow germinated seedlings to
break through this barrier and eliminating it for the season. We have had two
issues in the past that did not allow me to treat for crabgrass. One, being the
ability to water in the product effectively throughout the rough, which has
been solved with the wall to wall coverage of the new irrigation system. The
second issue being budgetary restraints on purchasing product and if we did, it
would’ve been a risky purchase due to the fact that we would have to rely on
rain to water-in this product and the application might not have been effective
due to the precise timing needed to control crabgrass. I am currently working
on my budget for next season which includes plan for the control of crabgrass
in the rough. I am hoping it all gets approved and we can resolve this issue
for years to come.
Just a reminder, on September 17th
and 18th, we will be aerifying greens. It’s the same process as in the past and
on the 24th of September our contractors will be arriving to aerify fairways.
This concludes my State of the Turf
Address. Please remember that if you have any questions or concerns you can
call, email, or catch me on the course and would be happy to help. Looking
forward to a good rest of the season and will see everyone on the links. Fairways
and Greens!!!
Scott Cornwell
Golf Course Superintendent
