State of the Turf

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, also known as grease spot and cottony blight, can be a highly destructive turfgrass disease, especially on bentgrasses and ryegrasses. Severe outbreaks can completely destroy the turfgrass within a few days if weather conditions favor disease development.

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*

Another area of the golf course I am concerned about and I have heard some concern from the membership as well, are the collars and approaches around greens. These are the same areas I have been fighting since I arrived at WCC. I have been diagnosing this issue for some time trying to figure out what is going on. Is it the greens mowers turning on the collars? Why are the spots predominantly bentgrass while the ryegrass is doing great? Is there too much sand from topdressing around the plants crown heating up? Why is there a straight line of turf decline on the edge of the green, but the green is unaffected? 

What I have concluded is the bentgrass, which has a creeping type of growth, has just formed a “mat”. Ideally you are looking for more vertical growth and over the years, we have developed more lateral growth which has formed this "mat". The plan is to get into an aggressive aerification and verticutting program. I plan to aerify with 3/4" hollow tines on a 1/2" spacing, removing as much thatch and "mat" as possible. Followed by an aggressive verticut and seed ryegrass into the holes filled with screened topsoil. I feel, over the next few years, we will have resolved this issue in our collars and approaches. For the time being, we will be on a strict wetting agent program, which will allow for water to penetrate these areas and allow a more readily available source of water.

 

#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