Rain

     Rain has been the norm lately.  Since October of 2018 I have recorded 33'' of moisture on the golf course.  8'' was recorded in April alone.  The golf course is extremely wet.  If you have played you have seen some Zoysia struggling to green up or fill in.  We have some dead Zoysia in our fairways.  Most of it is in areas that stay wet longer.  We will have to do some sodding in some fairways and a few tee's.  This is not isolated to FCCC.  Courses all over the state are experiencing the same problem.  We are struggling trying to get projects done and just mowing the golf course. Rough might get little hairy at times until we can get out and cut.  We will try to keep course open as much as possible.  In the case it is just too wet course will be closed for the safety of members and the golf course.  When course is open please stay on the cart path.  Driving your cart around a cart can cause damage.  Please only take 2 carts per foursome.  We have some groups that take 3 or 4 carts per foursome.  If you drive around your partners that is double the damage.  Below is some damage from too much moisture.

Low area front of 2 green

                                                               Forward tee #13 dead.                                                                            

Dr. Miller from University of Missouri posted this article last week talking about the lack of Zoysia Green up.  We are not alone.

Waiting for Zoysia Greenup: Panic or Patience?

 

Conspicuous Zoysia Issues

1. The first symptoms of large patch evident late last week.
2. Concerns of zoysia winter kill abound in the region.

Several reports in the last week have expressed extreme concern over the lack of zoysia greenup, and the potential for large amounts of winterkill on some golf courses and home lawns. As mentioned previously, the 2019 winter was the wettest since 1984-85, and the 5th wettest on record. Low lying areas, those in shade and on northern facing slopes are the most impacted presumably due to prolonged ice buildup and anoxic conditions. Some of these areas have "the smell of death" associated with sulfur and methane production of anaerobic bacteria. Perhaps not as important (!), we have also observed our first hint of large patch infection at the research farm on untreated plots.

Although some minor attrition of 'Meyer' zoysiagrass has occurred in low lying areas since 2010, for the most part the variety has endured many a hard Missouri winter. The polar vortex of 2013-14 severely impacted much of our warm-season NTEP trial (https://turfpath.missouri.edu/reports/2014/update05_08_14.cfm), but 'Meyer' was one of the few varieties that persisted.

There is still time for zoysiagrass greenup and recovery, and most of the reports are from mid-Missouri and St. Louis where wet soils still predominate. These wet soils are colder soils, (compare St. Louis and Kansas City in the Threshold Charts) since soils with water-filled pore space hold temperature much more tightly than air. In some instances, perhaps a little time and dry down will let zoysia recuperate.

Since this is uncharted territory for us, we are conducting a quick field experiment to investigate methods of recovery, or at least assess if the stand is dead.

Current suggestions include:

• An application of darker topdressing sand, or a pigment, to warm areas more quickly and allow for a better gauge of winterkill severity.
• Rake, drag, or conduct a very, very shallow verticut to break up the tight layer of interweaved brown stolons and allow for further soil warming.
• If winterkill is feared at your facility or lawn, pot and place a sample indoors by a window to warmup and hopefully greenup. Give it 7-10 days to perk up prior to making the call for replacement.

Green Perimeters Sodded

     We had enough dry time to get 3 more green perimeters sodded last week.  Holes 8, 15 and 17 were sodded with Turf Type Tall Fescue (TTTF).  I would like to thank my staff for working there butts off.  We need to finish before Thursday night because forecast was calling  for rain.  We ended up not getting hardly any rain.  We stripped 9 feet around each green.  All old sod had to be removed by hand.  We need 650 yds of sod to get these 3 greens completed.  The sod from Keeven Brothers was wetter than normal.  It made it harder to get sod into place.  We used 16-30 yard Big rolls and 170 yards of smaller slabs.  I would like to get holes 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, and 16 done before summer.  Hopefully we will get more dry time to get these holes completed.

 Cutting out old sod.

 Some of the old sod had to be removed by shovels

 This sod could be removed in slabs.

 # 15 cleaned ready for sod

 My staff pulling big roll sod into place

 The use of garden rakes helps pull sod in place

# 15 completed 

Greens Aerification

       Our spring Green aerification has come and gone.  This is one of the most important cultural practices we do. With out aerification our greens would slowly deteriorate.  Greens would become spongy, would not hold golf shot, and ball roll would be very inconsistent.  On the maintenance side of things isolated dry spots would increase, disease and insect damage would rise in severity.  That means more money spraying chemicals to control all all the problems that wold arise from not aerating.
     Green aerification does a number of things.  1. It improves the exchange of air and water between the atmosphere and soil.  The exchange involves the downward movement of oxygen and water into the soil and the upward movement of carbon dioxide and other toxic gases out of the soil.  The Bentgrass absorb oxygen through the root system.  Roots need oxygen and aerating is the best way to give them oxygen.  2. It aids the green in moving water through the soil profile.  A dry green is a happy green.  3. Thatch removal, Bentgrass is a big thatch producer.  Too much thatch causes greens to become spongy, hydrophobic, disease and insect damage would rise.  Spongy greens will not accept a properly hit golf shot and  ball roll would be very inconsistent.   So it is very important that we manage thatch with aeration.
     We use 2 different aerators.  1. Floyd McCay deep drill machine.  The Floyd McCay machine drills a 3/4'' hole 10'' deep on a 5''x5'' spacing.  Roots will find these 10'' channels and chase them to the bottom. We find them when we cut cups.  We will have roots coming out the bottom of our cup cutter.

     2.  Toro Procore aerator.  The Procore will punch a 3/8'' hole 3'' deep on 2''x2.5'' centers.
     

 Procore with core collector attached to back 

After we aerate greens we have to clean them up.  Thankfully we have a core collector that brings all the cores to the edge of the green.  We shovel the plugs into carts and haul away.  We then use our sweeper and blower to sweep any debris left behind off the green.

Removing cores

Our green sweeper in action.

Next step is to put down our sand.  We use 30 tons of sand to fill our aeration holes up.  We have a new Topdresser to help us get this job done.

After sand is applied we brush sand into holes.  We brush our greens in 4 different direction to move sand into holes.

Brushing green

Finished ready for water.

Last steps is to apply fertilizer, change the cup and water the green.  We will continue to brush greens to move sand.  We will also remove excess sand with our groomers before we mow them.  

      I know this is a inconvenience to your golf game but it is short lived.  after about a week greens start to heal up.  In two weeks they are almost healed and we are mowing them at normal height 1/8'' high. You will also see a new glow to our greens they will be rejuvenated.  A stronger, healthier green with smoother putting surface. Aerifying greens is very labor intensive. We used 12 people to get this done and we could have used couple more bodies.  Picking up aerifying plugs and carrying a back pack blower  all day is hard on your back. I would like to thank my staff for a job well done.  

Busy, Busy

     We have been very busy here at the golf course lately.  The weather has finally cooperated.  We finally went 10 days without some sort of moisture.  We were able to get our pre-emergent herbicide  down to all of our tee's and roughs. We sprayed our tee's with round up to remove any winter weeds. Irrigation system has been pressurized and so far no leaks.  Speaking of leaks we did have a problem with the water line at the Halfway house.  It took 3 1/2 days to fix that problem.

We had to dig up the water line and repair it

We had to replace plumbing in the wall of the Halfway house.                              

     

     We will be installing some small yellow markers in the fairways where the family tee's are located.  People that walk are having a hard time finding the tee's.  If you drive a cart we have markers on the path letting you know where they are.  Anyone that walks has a harder time.  We hope this will help find the family tee's.

We can mow right over this flexible stake. 

     Finally we will be doing our spring Green Aerification Monday April 1st and Tuesday April 2nd.

 We will have E@E here to deep drill all our greens.  We will then run our Procore behind them.  If everything goes as planed it should only take 2 days.  Front 9 will be closed on Monday and the Back 9 will be closed Tuesday. 

 Our Toro Procore. Punches a 3/8'' hole 3'' deep on 2''x 2 1/2'' spacing

Floyd McCay Deep Drill Machine.  Drills a 5/8'' hole 10'' deep on 5'' x 5'' spacing

Is Winter really gone

     What a winter we have had this year.  We seen it all.  Lots of snow (25''), some ice and quite a bit of rain.  We seen temperatures near 0 and highs near 70. Since November we have had 16'' of moisture on the golf course from snow, ice and rain. We have been getting some sort of precipitation every 7 to 10 days. It has been very difficult trying to get projects done this winter.  We have cut down quite a few trees. (see previous post)  Last week we fell two more big White Oaks that died.  One was north of #1 greens just across the cart path in edge of woods.  The second one was in woods behind our gas tanks at shop.  I had to call a expert to get these two big trees on the ground.  We did not want to destroy the cart path on #1 and I was worried about our gas tanks with the second tree.  We caught a break last week and was able to spray our fairways with our pre-emergent herbicide.  I was beginning to get worried if we were  going to be able to get the spray rig out on the wet golf course.  Just so happen we had 2 days of high winds and then it turned cold and froze the ground.  The spray rig had no trouble. We finished just before the last weeks snow.  The high winds did give us a huge mess with limbs that fell but it was worth the mess to get our fairways sprayed.  Looks like warmer temperatures are in the future but rain is also in the forecast.  We desperately need some dry time.  Below are some video's of the tree's we cut down and spraying fairways.

Spraying pre-emergent herbicide on 18 fairway.

Cutting down White Oak #1

White Oak behind gas tanks at Maintenance Building.

Course update

     Golf Course will open today at 12 p.m.  Golf course is thawing out and it could get slippery out there so be very careful walking to your ball and driving your carts.  The driving range will remain closed it is very soggy in the range and ball will plug.

New Rule Changes

     The USGA has posted a collection of Video's to help you understand the new rule changes.  Here is the link in case you need help interrupting the new rules.  I believe you will find it very helpful.  

http://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/rules-hub/rules-modernization/major-changes/major-changes.html