Course Update

Wow!  We have had some absolutely beautiful weather lately!  I hope you have been able to come and enjoy it with us!

The little rain shower we had last week really proved how all the hard work that the crew has put in this winter has paid off.  After the rain, I drove the golf course and noticed very little standing water, but instead there was water in the small swales and ditches running into our ponds.  We were able to accomodate carts on 90 degree restrictions on more holes than we would have normally after that type of rainfall.

The greens are starting to grow and I am happy with the progress.  Over the last two weeks we have really picked up our intensity on the greens conditioning.  First, we started with a 0.25" hollow tine aeration.  Our goal with this was to remove a little bit of organic material and open the greens for ventilation and water infiltration.  We had started to notice that the water was puddling and sheeting off the surface during rain events.  After the aeration, we fertilized with a high Calcium fertilizer as well as a Potassium, Manganese, Iron fertilizer.  The Calcium is critical with the paspalum as it promotes cell wall strength much like the bones in our bodies.  The Potassium and Iron help the plant to initiate growth and reduce stress in this transitional weather time.  The Manganese is a great soil fertilizer to antagonize one of the more serious diseases at this time of the year, Take All Patch.

The next week, we sprayed greens with more fertilizers and some plant protectants as well as applied a granular fertilizer.  The two critical fertilizers that we applied were Phosphorus and a combo product called Pro-Max.  We needed to apply the Phosphorus because paspalum does not initiate leaf growth until the roots are at a satisfactory level of depth and quantity.  Phosphorus and the Pro-max help to initiate root growth in the plant.  The difficult part of this application is that Phosphorus is not very usable in the soil, by the plant, until soil temperatures are above 55 degrees.  We are just now getting to those temperatures which puts us about 3 to 4 weeks behind last year.

This week was followed with more Pro-Max and liquid Iron.  If we use the analogy of a cup slowly filling and only when the level hits a certain mark growth will occur, then we are simply helping the cup fill a little quicker and hit that certain mark a little sooner as well as building reserves to continue growth.

On top of the fertility program, we are also doing a few different mowing techniques.  We have groomers on the greens mower that help to remove a little extra material and get the surface evened out while stimulating new growth.  This will help to alleviate some of the bumpiness that happens in the spring as the paspalum does not want to grow evenly like it would in the summer.

Unfortunately, we had a setback on two greens this past weekend.  We had a hydraulic line break on a greensmower on the back of #4.  After the repair, the new line broke on #14.  You will see a stripe going across those two greens.  However, the fast actions of the crew will help to alleviate major damage on those two greens as they worked very hard to wash the oil off the plant and stop permanent damage.

#6 green and those greens that were in winter shade this year are coming out slower than others, but there is growth occurring.  We are making extra applications of product and giving some extra TLC to those areas to get recovery this spring.  A plan is in the works to prevent the severity of damage again.

Course conditions and update

It's warming up again and we are getting ready for the marathon of spring, summer, and fall growing months ahead of us.  Beside the capital improvement projects that we have been highlighting we have a lot going on and getting ready to take place on course.

We began the first of our pre-emergent applications this past week.  This year we are making a split application of an excellent goosegrass prevention herbicide to tee complexes and greens complexes.  The shear cost of the product made us choose the high impact areas only.  In fairways and some roughs, we will be spraying a pre-emergent application that is excellent on crabgrass and hope to make a second application in April with another chemistry that will give us good control for the other summer annual weeds.  The next application to tees and greens complexes is planned for April also.  Due to the unpredictability of the types of rainfall we will receive this spring and the need to have the products watered in, we will be running sprinklers at night to get the chemical to the weed seeds.  There will be some wet fairways some mornings due to this, but we feel that the temporary inconvenience will save us greatly come summer time.

Onto the greens:  we are starting to see the color return to the Paspalum.  We are also seeing the Paspalum thin out a little.  This is expected because the nature of the grass will be to put all of it's energy into root development first and then when it's happy with the root mass it will begin putting up new leaves.  We have several steps planned to help the turf along.  First, we are doing a mini-tine aeration this week that will involve removing a small amount of turf.  The aeration will allow the fresh air into the root zone and allow the built up carbon dioxide and other gases to escape.  The aeration holes will also help us get necessary fertilizers and plant protectants down to the roots where they will be far more effective.  We aerified the putting green this past Friday to demonstrate the results and were very pleased with ball roll and quality.

Putting Green post-aeration

In addition to the aeration, fertility and spray applications, we will be using some of our new equipment to help the greens grow and smooth.  We purchased groomer blades and brushes last year that attach to our greens mowers.  Using these two products will help us to stand the turf up and thin out the old material.  This will in turf help sunlight to warm the soil and encourage the plant to begin new leaf generation and growth.  As our soil temperatures get into the 60s we will see a great new flush of growth from the plant.  I fully expect areas that were damaged from the freezing temperatures and winter shade to be healthy and green come summer time.  They will be a little slower, but we have developed plans to encourage new tissue and plans to hopefully prevent the occurance again. 

Innovation and Creativity:

In the past, when we would get large storms that would leave organic material all over the fairways, we rake the stuff loose and then blow it off.  This was a very time intensive process and could take two full days depending on the severity of the storm.  We built an attachment for our bunker rake that we are excited to try out and use this year.  Instead of having to manually rake the material loose, we will be able to drag the areas with the attachment and blow right behind it.  We will be making a tedious task efficient and speed up the recovery process for golfers and maintenance alike!

Course and Clubhouse Landscaping

Many of you have noticed a change to the front of the golf shop over the past weeks.  We have begun our capital project to renovate the landscaping at the golf course and have started with the clubhouse.  The staff removed the existing bushes and placed them throughout the golf course in pine straw beds around tees, by the driving range and at the front entrance sign.  The "new" plants have really spruced up the areas and they look great!

We have the plan set to install new Sabal palms along with a few Sago palms.  Interlaced in the beds will be some ornamental grasses, daylilys, and society garlic.  You should see the new palms by the end of this week if the weather holds.  We will also be installing some nice Magnolia trees in select locations to break up some of the larger low maintenance areas.  I'm really excited to see the result and pleased with the looks thus far.

As you see the staff members on the course please be sure to stop them and tell them thanks for their hard work.  It's been an interesting winter and they have really worked hard to deal with all the rain, cold and frustrating conditions to make the course better and more enjoyable for all.

I've included a few before and during pictures and will update with afters soon!
Before                                                  During

The new look to the front entrance sign!

Short Update

It's been a little while since I've updated our blog. The trend of cool and wet has continued through February. The positive spin to this is that we have identified lots of areas that have been holding water in fairways and have been grading in some small drainage swales to help this water drain off the fairways and into the roughs or holding ponds.

We fertilized the greens with a high iron and manganese fertilizer to promote color and antagonize some winter pathogens. We also sprayed the greens this past weekend to take advantage of what appears to be a warming trend. We're trying not to get too anxious to push the greens too quickly as the night time temps really need to be up in the 40s and 50s for growth.

Paspalum is a very different beast from Bermudagrass as it will put all resources into the roots before growing new leaves. To encourage the plant to grow new leaves, we will be spraying and fertilizing heavily with products that enhance root growth. In addition we will be some practices to open up the turf canopy to get light and heat to the soil.

I am out of town this week at the Services Agency for an Air Force superintendents training seminar. Some of the topics covered will be fertility management, water resources, and soil chemistries. With our hope to eventually utilize the water re-use plant on base this trip will be very informative and useful.

We'll see you out on the links this week!
Justin Wheeler, GCS. Gator Lakes Golf Course. (850) 200-7054