Superintendent News

July 15--The big news this week is the hailstorm that dumped piles of ping pong to golf ball size pellets w/ 60 mph winds last Saturday evening.  This is by far the worst hailstorm we have had on the course in 11 years.  Needless to say greens were scarred up with what looks like 20,000 ball marks.  We were able to topdress them on Monday which has helped smooth the surface, but it will take time for the grass to fill in those voids.  Same as a ball mark, these imperfections will take about 3 weeks to totally disappear.  These imperfections are mostly cosmetic as the greens are still rolling pretty well.  Maybe a bump or two here or there but putts seem to stay on line.  
Last weekend was the Member-Guest Tournament and the greens were in possibly the best condition ever, but Mother Nature decided to deal us with a new challenge.  The golf course is a dynamic place that never stands still-which keeps the work fresh and always challenging.  Here are some pics showing the hail damage.  
 



July 24--Greens continue to recover; slowly but surely the hail marks are disappearing.  Only the larger ones are noticeable now and should be healed up in a week. Otherwise the course is holding up pretty well in the heat and humidity. There has been a little disease pressure but has not affected us much.  The fairways are yellowing just a bit from the high soil temps, but that is expected as summer conditions start to stress the turf.  This is the time of year that gets tough on turf so we'll just see what the weather does in the next month.
 
Normally we would aerate fairways the second week of August, but we will already be losing some staff by then so we have decided to move fairway aeration up and will begin this week (July 27) and continue into the early part of next week.  We will aerate 1 or 2 fairways a day so disruption should be minimal and the turf should heal quickly.  Fairways here at Wild Horse get lots of traffic from carts and mowers since that is the only travel corridor so the turf will appreciate getting some fresh air especially as soil temperatures climb. 

Tee aeration was completed this week and green surrounds aeration is schedule for August 23 and August 25.

Stay cool and enjoy the heart of the golfing season.

July 28--Had a new experience today-2 badgers dug a hole in the front of #2 green.  Luckily it was dawn and our greensmower scared them off before they did any more damage.  It was a basketball sized hole that the two youngsters carved up.  Usually they confine their excavations to bunkers or out in the rough, but this was a first I've seen in the turf!

July 30--Pictured below is the aeration procedure on the fairways.  The first 2 pics show the plugs pulled out by the aerator.  Once they are all laid out, we drag (pic 3) twice with a steel drag mat to knock all the dirt out of the plug.  Then in pic 4 and 5 you see that we blow the duff out to the rough using a high powered blower.  We like to pull plugs rather than just poke holes because it removes some thatch as pictures 4 and 5 show.  Also the dirt acts as a good topdressing as we drag it back into the turf.  So it is a more time-consuming cleanup but pulling cores is one of the most beneficial agronomic practices we do on fairways, collars, and tees.



 




August 8--It has been hot and humid for sure, but luckily not as bad as eastern Nebraska.  We have caught a few cooler nights and that helps tremendously in turf's ability to cope with higher daytime temps.  When the nightly temperatures stay above 70 and the dewpoint reaches 70 then watch out for all kinds of disease and stress to turf.  Any damage we have now is self-induced from spraying poa trivialis in fairways (see June 21) or from trying to dry down green surrounds to promote playability.  All in all it looks pretty good for August.  Greens have almost fully recovered from the hail-you can still see a few marks if you look close but they are rolling as good as before.  Fairways are recovering nicely from the aeration and look good except for some chlorosis( yellowing) caused by high soil temps.  Just hoping to make it through this hot week so we can get a break from the heat.

August 10--Poor #2 green just can't catch a break.  1st the badgers and then last nites storm tumbled a sheet of plywood across it leaving several gouges along the way. 
The storm dumped 1.5" in short order. In wet years like we have had lately I hear often that the rain "sure is helping you this year".  That is true sometimes and I try never to complain about rain especially in our locale, but rainy years tend to make more work for us.  Cart paths are constantly eroding, drains need pumped, bunkers need raked and reshaped.  So rain is nice but it does create more work for us especially these gully washers of late.

We topdressed greens today which we do every 2 weeks.  I can see people's disappointment as they arrive at the course seeing the sand on the greens.  But by the time we drag it twice with a metal mat and a carpet mat, mow again, and irrigate the greens surface is as smooth as ever.  Any ballmarks or inconsistencies are leveled which is part of the reason we topdress.  The other reason is to manage thatch levels.  By adding sand consistently you dilute the thatch with sand thereby creating  a more hospitable environment for microbes to break down dead roots, stolons, leaves, etc.  Thatch is to turfgrass as Big Macs are to the human body.  A lttle bit is all right but too much will lead to health issues in the long run.  So by topdressing regularly we smooth the surface and create a healthy environment for the plant.  Here's a couple of pics of our topdressing procedure. 


August 21--Summer rolls on with not much new to report.  The native grasses are going to be brilliant this fall with some reaching over my head.  All the rain has helped them but it also has created a bumper crop of sandburrs.  We will be trying to mow down as many patches as we can in the next couple of weeks, but watch your step when you enter the rough. 
We will be aerating collars on the 23rrd and 24th of August followed up by some overseeding of collars the rest of the week.  The overseeding will cause some grooves in the turf that may disrupt play for a couple of weeks but as I will explain in more detail in the next blog, you will see why we feel it is necessary for the long term good of Wild Horse.

September 1--Heres the long story on our greens surrounds management and how it has evolved from day 1 and the goal of our overseeding program.  Our surrounds were originally planted to fine fescues after much consternation.  The goal was to provide a nearly green-like surface that allowed putting and bump and run from off the green.  Unfortunately, bentgrass seed from the greens contaminated the approaches and over several years has become the predominant grass on the collars.  Bentgrass naturally plays softer than fescue or even bluegrass/ryegrass (fairways).  So in order to make the bent play well, it really needs to be dry, and lean on fertility.  This sometimes can cause the collars to look "a bit haggard" and not as "pretty" as the fairways.  Some people care about playability; some more for looks so in order to please everyone including myself we are overseeding with ryegrasss and bluegrass (same as our fairways).  Most everyone loves our  fairways and in hindsight we should have probably planted that around the greens, but at that time I was not convinced that the bluegrass could be managed to play firm and fast enough.   It would not have eliminated the bentgrass contamination but we would be closer to our goal.  The overseeding program is a long term conversion to a stand of more favorable turf (blue/rye).  In order for this to be most effective, it is necessary to abuse the bentgrass in order to give the blue/rye a competitive advantage.  So that means dryness to the point of losing some grass (as seen on #1 and 17 approaches) and constant growth regulation which can give an off color to the greens surrounds (especially during heat spells)  Pictured below is a bentgrass patch that is succumbing to drought, but you can see the sprigs of ryegrass that are surviving and thriving.  The conversion process may take several years but each year we hope to get more and more blue/ryegrass in the surrounds. Once this happens, we can become more aggressive chemically in removing the bentgrass.  So what does all this mean to you?  Most days you will not notice anything, but there will be times that the collars will be off color or even a bit thin, but as the years go by we will get more of the grass we want there and gradually they will look and play better.



September 2-- The grass has been stressed by drought, grubs, high soil temps, and a bit of fungus the past couple of weeks but for the most part is hanging in there.

  
Pictured above is grub damage by #12 green.  Since we are on sand the egg laying beetles will seek out the wettest areas.  I therefore treat only specific areas that traditionally harbor grubs.  In this instance I treated just to the left of this spot in the low sump area, but believe with the wet weather, the masked chafers found more soil to their liking this year.  As you can see, grubs can be pretty devastating.  Most of our grub control is done preventatively so you treat before you actually see the little buggers.  In this case I missed by about 10 yards.  I did spray curatively once I noticed the turf wilting but the damage had been done.  This area wiill be reseeded and resodded. Pictured below is some grub damage on #14 fairway but to a much lesser extent. 

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As you can see from the picture below many ailments look similar, but this damage is obviously traffic stress as evidenced by the white line.  This area gets pounded with carts and can get a little weak in the summer.


I feel kinda bad showing off all my bad spots, but fortunately they make up probably 2% of the total area we maintain.  But they are noticeable and we are always striving for the never achievable perfection.  Cooler weather is on the way and will be a welcome relief for the turf.  September is always the prettiest month to play Wild Horse!





Feel free to contact me at jmahar@cozadtel.net or 308-537-4430 with questions/comments.

Josh Mahar
Certified Golf Course Superintendent