GREENS

Mid Summer Update

Usually by the time the end of July approaches the fairways look stressed and the rough is brown and trampled down. But a crazy combination of heat and regular rain falls and the rough is thicker than I ever remember in any summer! Believe it or not we have two rough units cutting rough 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and we still can't keep up with it. Only 6 years ago the rough was one of the biggest complaints by members. Add in the double row irrigation system and the fertilization program and we have Canadian Open rough...........almost! The only thought of change is to buy a 3rd mower!

Back in May we cut a ten sq ft patch at the 150 yard marker in the 5th fairway. This area was seeded with a dwarf bluegrass. Our goal was to grow in a new type of turf that could be grown on all our fairways in the future. The benefit to considering this change from the Bent grass is mainly due to the dwarf blue grass' ability to remain healthy without the need for fungicides. It would save the club money over the long run if we were to change this turf over. And possibly more importantly, we may lose the fungicides due to government restrictions in the future. Without the available use of fungicides, the quality of the bent grass would be unacceptable to members. This test plot has taken longer to grow in that we would have liked, but it is getting there. Once we get into the month of September we will encourage golfers to hit off it and provide us with feed back on it's potential playability as a fairway turf.

Slightly further down on 5 we all know about the poor condition of the collar at the front of 5 green. Back in March after all the ice and snow had finally left us, we had significant part of this area completely dead. In this photo of the same spot at 5 collar, not only can you see the straw brown turf which is the dead poa, but you can clearly see where bent sod had been installed in the past.

We stripped the dead turf and sodded it with bent in late early May. Sod will normally do relatively well when laid this time of year, but early heat and drought put the sod under stress, and with heavy tight soils below the sod, rooting was minimal. Even though some of the sod died out it remained relatively level and smooth allowing normal play to continue. But our program of over seeding with an aerifier trying to get grass back into this area did more damage than good, leaving us with chunks of dirt and uneven ground. The real solution is to remove the heavy tight soil with an excavator this fall when the stress of summer is behind us, back filling with lighter soil and seeding. Unfortunately that is still about 2 and a half months away. In the mean time we will try and keep it flat and level to reduce interfering with play and have painted it GUR (ground under repair) in case your ball comes to rest within the area.


Another change most members have noticed is that we have been cutting down some spots in our naturalized areas. Some people refer to these areas as fescue and although there is fescue grass in these areas, they are actually naturalized as we do not water, fertilize or weed spray in them. Our original goal when we began sending in the mower was to knock down weeds before they became too large and before they went to seed in an attempt to reduce the weeds from over running these areas. The only real problem was it looks terrible cutting some spots and not others in the same area. The challenge is we don't have the man power to cut them all completely without neglecting another part of the golf course. We will be continuing to mow out the worst of the weeds as the summer progresses. There has also been a number of areas identified as contributing to slow play as members are spending too much time walking through them looking for a lost ball. We will be cutting a couple of these areas back on about an every 3 week schedule to see if this will rectify the issue. At the same time we will identify all the areas this might benefit the pace of play and calculate what cost would be involved to make this a regular mow route in future seasons. this will allow us to budget for the extra cost of labour, fuel and equipment maintenance for future seasons.

Naturalized area on the left side of #2 has been cut down to help pace of play.

And finally, the 12th green is doing very well. Roots are beginning to establish into the root zone. We have begun mowing it, and we have sent out sample of the grass we mowed off for nutrient analysis. Just as you or I might get blood work done at the Doctors, we have a lab which will test the clippings and tell us if we are lacking in and nutrient which might slow the optimum growth and establishment of the sod.



12 green taken July 28th