Merry Christmas

The entire staff of Franklin County Country Club would like to wish all of our Members A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Weather

     Warm and Dry in December is very hard on the golf course.  We winterized the Irrigation system in November.  On Monday we had to start it back up and water our turf.  This is the first time in 32 years in this business I had to do this.  We have recorded .81 inches of rain since October 23rd.  So far in December we recorded .28 inches of rain and that was on December 5th.  It has been so dry In the rough between 9 and 18 you can see dormant cool season turf under the drip line of the Sweet Gum trees. This shows it has been so warm the trees are still using water.  If we did  not have Irrigation mainlines that come out of the ground on holes 3 and 7 we could keep the system up longer.  When the temperatures get down below freezing the exposed mainlines could freeze and break.  We will Winterize the system a second time on Thursday before the extreme cold weather set in.  I watered the entire golf course for 3 days to help get moisture to our greens, greens surrounds and cool season roughs.  The Zoysia grass fairways and tee's are dormant they can withstand the drought.  Cool season turf on the other hand is not dormant and it can be damaged or killed by the dry weather.  When the crown of the plant dries out this can kill the turf.  I hope this is the last time until next spring we will have to do this.  This has been one crazy year.  The warm weather in February caused me to start up the Irrigation system one month ahead of schedule.  Now the  warm and dry weather in November and December had me restart the system.  There is never a dull moment on the golf course.

 Ring around Sweet Gum tree.  Brown turf is dormant

 

  Watering 18 green December 20th.  This is the latest I have ever watered turf.

 

Course update

     It has been a while since my last post.  We have been very busy.  Leaf removal has taken up most of our time.  We can finally catch our breath.  We have blown, mulched, and blown some more over the past 6 weeks.  Seems like this tasks is starting later and going further in December each year.  I can remember years past we would be done with leaves by Thanksgiving.  My staff did an outstanding job.  At times it looked hopeless with the swirling winds.  We are looking at trying to get a vacuum to help with leaf removal next season.
     The weather has been unseasonably warm.  The golf course has been very busy.  We have been mowing our greens 2 to 3 times per week.  We have also topdressed our greens 4 times since we aerated in September.  Late season topdressing helps our greens get through  the winter.  It  protects the crown of the Bentgrass plant from the elements.
     Thanks to Boone Valley Golf Club we were able to edge all of our cart paths and flower beds.  They have an edger attachment that fits on our Ventrac.  They were kind enough to let us borrow it.  Cart paths have a clean cut edge know.

 

     Not sure if you know it but the Club is getting a recycle dumpster.  We will now recycle all of our cardboard, paper, plastic, aluminum and glass.  This will enable us to  have our trash hauled once a week during the golfing season instead of twice per week.  We are going to be getting recycle trash receptacles put on the golf course.  So get ready to recycle.  We had to cut a few trees and some underbrush so we could make a pad for the new dumpster here at the Maintenance Department. 

     We will be working on the last of the fallen trees from the storms in the spring.  The tree in the fence to the east of 10 green is cleaned up.  The tree behind 5 green will be worked on next.  Then we have a dead tree at the end of the driving range that has to be cut down and cleaned up.
     It has been a warm and dry fall.  We only received .5 inches of rain the entire month of November.  We winterized our Irrigation system on 11/28/17.  I have been watering our greens up until  we winterized.  Weather has turned cold finally.  We are closing the Halfway house today.  We will be installing a Port a potty near the Halfway house for anyone needing it.

Carts

     Recently I have seen more groups using too many carts.  We have twosome using 2 carts, threesome using 3 carts, foursome using 3 and 4 carts and yes fivesome using 5 carts.  When we play with more carts than is needed per group that is adding addition stress on the golf course.  The waste of gasoline and wear and tear on carts is another issue that can be discussed some other time. My biggest concern this time of year is turfgrass health.  Turfgrass wear and soil compaction are the 2 biggest issues we face with  cart use.
     Turfgrass wear by carts is influenced by speed of travel and the amount of stopping, starting, and turning.  Wear symptoms include leaf tissue matting and a subsequent exposure of underlying thatch.  With additional traffic leaf blades are bruised.  Ruptured cells eventually give turf a dark, water soaked appearance.  Wilt sets in as water is lost from the leaves causing death.
     Soil Compaction caused by carts reduces shoot growth and the recuperative potential of turfgrass.  Compaction reduces air and water porosity within the soil as well as water movement through the soil profile.  Soil compaction can impact turf growth for several weeks or months, resulting in total loss of turf cover and chronic problems with poor drainage and a invasion of weeds.
     The Maintenance staff aerates and over seeds every years to help reduce and eliminate wear and compaction.  We can't do this alone we need your help.  The membership can  help the golf course fight these problems by following the guidelines below to help reduce golf cart traffic on the golf course.  I am partial to item # 6 this is a big one and we can do better.

1. Spread cart traffic over a wider area and avoid turning and driving over the same area.
2. Vary the entrance and exit points to the fairways to spread wear out more evenly.
3. All vehicles should be 30 feet from greens and tees to avoid damaging sensitive turf areas.
4. Carts should never be taken across excessively wet areas.
5. Carts are suspended or restricted during times of excessive wet conditions.
6. Golfers should always share a cart.
7. Restrict carts to paths on all Par 3's
8. On holes where your ball lands close to the path do not exit the path. 
9. If time is not a factor and you are physically able stay on the path and walk to your ball.

     Most damage caused by golf carts can be minimized when you use common sense and observe proper course etiquette. 

5 carts 5 golfers

Fore The Golfer: Frost Delays and Turfgrass Health

    It is that time of year again we need to discuss frost delays.  When temperatures dip down  to freezing and below frost forms on the grass blades.  If you walk on the turf the frozen turf will break much like an ice cube.  This will cause damage to the turf.  Please wait until the Maintenance staff opens the course to play.  That includes the putting green.  I have had some people in the past think it was ok to practice putting when we have a frost delay.  Please go into the Clubhouse and have some coffee until the frost burns off.  The colder it is the longer it takes to burn frost off.  If we have cloudy skies it will delay the opening even longer.  Below is a video from the USGA on this topic. 

Course update

     A lot has happened since my last post.  We are in full over seeding mode.  All green surrounds have been aerated and seeded.  We are working on the rest of the roughs.  Last week I had Crew's Service Company in to grind stumps.  25 stumps were taken out.  We have filled them back in and will over seed them. All of the now mow areas have been mowed down with our new Rough Cut deck we purchased for our Ventrac.   This attachment has already proven to be a valuable tool.  We have mowed areas we have never been able to do with a tractor and brush hog.  We finally have had two hard freezes.  Leaves are starting to fall.  We will spend the next couple of weeks blowing and mulching leaves. 

Demo seeder for our Ventrac.  We used this around all green surrounds

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Over seeding 18 rough



Mowing no mow # 8



Grinding stump # 12

Driving Range

     The grass tee at the driving range is now closed.  Please use the mat to practice.  We have tee's so you can use your driver on the mat.  Please do not step down on the grass to practice hitting your driver.  Doing this wears out the turf in front of the mat.  Our grass tee is about 1/3 the size it should be.  So it make it real difficult to give you quality turf to practice on during the golfing season.  Using the mat will only give you a better tee next spring.

Nematode and Greens update

      If you have played golf in the past 10 day you might have noticed some strange things going on with our greens.  We have multiple double lines across greens and some yellowing and brown areas.  It took us about a week to figure out what was going on.  Our greens have been burned by the nematicide Nimitz.  On 9/11/17 I applied the 3rd and last application of Nimitz to all greens.   We used this product two times before this and had no problems.  I used same rate, same spreader and the same person applying. When the damage started showing up I thought the lines were damage made by our Vibratory Roller.  Then we saw some browning occurring between the lines.  When this started to happen I realized we had turf that was burned.  I immediately thought it was the last Nimitz application the week before.  The lines we were seeing was the wheel tracks from the fertilizer spreader used to put the product down.  After I realized we had burn I sprayed our greens with foliar fertilizer to help them recover.  After 4 days I realized it was not better.  The salesman I purchased the product from came out and took a look at the greens.  He put me in contact with the Territory Manager of ADAMA Mike Daugherty. ADAMA is the company that distributes Nimitz.  After talking to him this was not the first he has heard or seen the product burn.  That did not make me feel any better.  My question was will my greens recover.  In all cases he said greens did recover.  He passed all information I gave him to Gary Custis.  Gary is the Technical Service Manager for ADAMA.  Gary came out Tuesday 9/26/17 and looked at the damage.  He said he did not think it was due to operator error.  I told him this was the 3rd time we used the product and had no problems before.  I also told him we had 10 pails of product.  6 pails had 1 batch # and those came from local Turf supplier.  The other 4 pails had a different batch # and they came directly from the factory.  The last 4 pails are the ones we used for the 3rd application.  I told him I thought something was wrong with the last 4 pails.  He did take a sample of product with him to have it checked.  He told me he thought the greens would recover.  I told him I was worried about 5 greens that were hurt the most.  Greens 3, 10, 11, 12 and 14 have more severe burning.  He still thought they would come back.  I’m not convinced yet they will come back completely.   He also offered to pay for any extra fertility product or trade for other chemicals. We will wait for him to check out if the sample has something wrong with it.  So until we get the greens healed up we are raising height of cut and going to push our greens with fertility to get them back.  Bad news is greens will be much slower than what they should be.  Once greens get back we will lower height and regulate them to keep them growing more evenly and slowly.  I will stay in contact with ADAMA hopefully we can find out what exactly happened here.  I believe something is wrong with the last 4 pails of product we got from the factory.  Too much active ingredient or the product is contaminated.  I am not convinced the product is working on the lance Nematodes in our greens.  Thankfully the weather has cooled back off and we are going to have some good bentgrass growing weather for the next 2 weeks. This has been a real blow to me and my staff.  The greens were in good shape except for the spots we had from nematode damage.  We will recover from this.  Hopefully in couple weeks it will be distant memory.

 

overlap burn

close up of burn

Tire marks

 

 

 

Driving Range

It is getting close to that time of year we need to be thinking about closing the grass tee and moving to our mat on the Driving Range.  Here is a great video from the USGA on this topic.  It also talks about the proper way to take divots from our practice tee.

Fall Aerification

     We  completed our fall greens aerification yesterday.  I would like to thank my staff for a job well done.  It took 12 people counting myself 2 days to get this important cultural practice done.  I have a very good crew that works very hard.  So here we go in alphabetical order Thank You, Connor, Dan, Duane, Kaley, Ken, Kyle, Larry, Mike, Nick, Rob, and Tim.
     Aerating greens is a very labor intensive task that must be done if you want good greens.  We are removing thatch and allowing Oxygen to get into the root zone and CO2 to escape the root zone.  It also allows water to flow freely into the root zone.  I can talk about the health benefits of aeration  which I have done many times before.  Lets talk numbers.  You already have one number 12, 12 people to get this job done.  Our Toro Pro Core aerator punched 81 holes per sq. ft. That converts to 81,000 holes per 1000 ft. sq.  We have 88,000 sq. ft. of greens.  That means we punch a grand total of 7,128,000 holes.  My operator that ran the aerifier walked over 5 miles.  We used 80,000 lbs. of sand to fill up the holes left by the aerator. We applied 500 lbs. of Organic fertilizer to our greens.  I could keep going put I think I gave you enough info.  We punched a lot of holes and it takes 9 people to clean up the greens after they have been punched one person to apply the sand to the greens 1 person to brush sand into the holes and one person (myself) to apply fertilizer change cup and make sure everything is running as smoothly as it can.
     Our greens love aerification.  All the aeration holes we made will be gone in about 1 week.  The root system of the greens will seek out the aeration holes.  This makes our greens healthy and stronger.  It is a win win for the greens and the golfer.  Greens will not be mowed until next week.  We will be brushing and rolling greens.  By the end of next week greens will be back.  Sorry for your inconvenience at this time.

 We double verticut before aeration

After verticut

Aerating green

Cleaning up cores

Blowing off greens after picking up cores

  

Applying sand

 

 Dragging sand into open holes

Finished

 

Bermuda grass eradication update

 

Brown area is the Bermuda grass being hurt by herbicide.  Dark green area is the
Zoysia grass.

 

 

 

 

 

Nematode update

     I was hoping I had good new concerning the nematode problem we have been dealing with the last few years.  I have been using a newer nematicide called Nimitz to control the Lance nematodes we have in our greens.  After 2 applications we still have damage from the nematode.  I ran a test on one of the thin areas and Lance nematodes were 5 times over the threshold.  Dr. Miller from University of Missouri said he has not seen any samples that high.  So it looks like the new product is not working.  The good news is days are getting shorter and temperatures are not as hot.  We should get through the rest of the season with minimal damage.  We have 10 greens with some sort of damage.  The round patches dying is where the nematode counts are the most severe.  I do have one more application of Nimitz to apply.  I can only hope we get some sort of control from it.  We will put it down after we aerate greens in 2 week.  The greens I applied Nemacur to are doing much better than the greens that did not get any.  Greens 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, all got Nemacur, with holes 4, 5, and 11 getting two apps of Nemacur.  Nemacur is no longer available and I do not have anymore.  Going forward we will be using a product called Nortica this fall and next spring.  Nortica is a Bacteria that protects the roots from Nematodes. It does not kill the nematode It keeps them from feeding on the roots.  All trials have been very good from the University of Florida.  Dr. Crow said it does work.  It is a preventative control and has to be applied before you have problems.  Dr. Crow also has a new trial out on Lance nematode control.  Hopefully we get a new nematicide out the trial that will control this pest.

 

 



 # 16 green

 

# 14 green

Busy Busy Busy

     August came in and the temperatures dropped. My staff and our greens were very glad to see the cooler temps. Before the cooler weather arrived we solid tine all of our greens.  This helps our greens get through hot and wet summer stress periods.  We started using our Aerway to aerate our fairways.  The Aerway cuts a 7 inch deep slit.  We have 3 holes left to get done.  Rain the last week has slowed down our progress. Next week we will be over seeding all of our greens with Pure Distinction bentgrass.  This is the newest generation of bentgrass seed.  We over seeded last year 3 times.  I hope to over seed this year 2 times.  We are also gearing up to start over seeding our roughs.  This takes about 2 months to complete.  We will be over seeding turf type tall fescue and bluegrass into all of our roughs.  We have started to work on the big oak tree that fell across the fence on hole # 12.  I hope to have it cleaned up by the end of next week.   Lastly we will be doing fall green aerification the Tuesday and Wednesday after Labor day,  9/5/17 and 9/6/17. I will have a little more on aerification later.  The golf course is in good shape I hope you can come on out and enjoy the course.

Nick using aerator to solid tine greens

 

 



 This is our Aerway

Fairway after Aerway.

 

Tee Leveling update

     All laser leveled tees are open. 1 white, 4 red/gold, 7 white, 7 blue/black, 10 red/gold, 14 black, and 15 white.  They have turned out great.  We now have a lot more square footage of teeing area to hit from.  We still need to do a lot of topdressing to smooth them out.  They will be a little uneven for a few months.  By next season they should be just like the other tees.

The first group to hit off new level black tee # 7

4 more tees leveled

     We have been busy this week.  We leveled 4 more tees.  We were suppose to do 3 tees but the sod company gave us too much sod so we add one more tee.  We did save a little money.  So 1 white, 7 white 14 black and 15 white have been leveled.  # 1 white is big enough to hold the white and gold tees. This is a very labor intensive job.  It takes almost the entire crew to get this job done.  We have to clean all the old sod off the tees with scoop shovels.  Then we have to lay new sod.  It seems every time we lay sod it is hot.  I guess that is pour planning by the boss.  I would like to thank my staff for a great job.  In about 2 to 3 weeks the new tees will be open.   Here are some pictures of the progress.

 Cutting off old sod

 Picking up old sod

 Schaefer-Meyer tilling up tee

 Laserturf machine grading proper pitch into tee.

 Level tee

Sodded and level tee.

 

Tee aerifaction

     We have been busy trying to get our tee's aerified.  We actually started last week but had a break down and had to stop for 3 days until we could get the parts to fix our aerifier.  We have 6 holes left to complete.  We will finish them on Monday.  We use a 1/2 inch tine on 2.5 inch centers.  This pulls up quite a bit of material to be removed.  I would like to thank my staff for there hard work getting this important cultural practice completed.  It takes 8 people to aerify and clean up the tees.

 Nick aerifying tee.

 

 Cleaning off tee

Finished

Bermuda grass eradication update

     These are the holes we are spraying to kill bermuda grass this season. Fairways, 7, 8, 18,  Tees 1- 4,  Green surrounds and collars 3, 7, 8.  We might expand this to other areas we will let you know if any extra areas are treated.   Remember this will kill only the bermuda grass our zoysia and fescue will not be killed.  The zoysia, bentgrass and fescue will turn slightly yellow but will be ok.  We need 3 treatments this year and 3 more treatments next year.  At the moment you can see a little injury to the Bermuda grass on 7, 8, and 18 fairways.  So far only # 1 tees have been sprayed. The remaining tees will be sprayed this week.  We will be spraying Green surrounds and collars in late August early September.

 

Notice the brown is bermuda.  Foreground has not been sprayed.  You can see some discoloring of the zoysia.  Zoysia will grow out of the herbicide damage.

Divot pattern

  The right and wrong way to practice on our Driving Range tee.  Please use the linear method.  If you see someone not using the linear method please educate them on the proper way to take a divot off our practice tee. 

WRONG DIVOT PATTERN 

THE RIGHT WAY BEAUTIFUL PATTERN

 This picture was taken on 6/26/17

 Same spot 7/19/17.  3 weeks almost completely healed

Golf Course Update

     We had a very busy week.  On Monday all greens were Hydrojected.  Hydrojecting is aerification using high pressure water to create a hole.  This method is very easy on the greens.  It makes a small hole on 3 inch by 3 inch centers.  Aerification is very important for gas exchange during hot wet weather.  Remember our greens need oxygen and they get it through the roots system.

    Also on Monday we had 3 tee's laser leveled by Schaefer-Meyer.  We did # 4 Red/Gold, # 7 Black and # 10 Red/Gold.  On Tuesday we received 560 yards of Zoysia and sodded the new level tee's.  That was one hot day to be laying sod.  We did have a little bit of Zoysia left over and we cut out some Bermuda grass on the approaches on holes 4, 5, and 9.

 Schaefer-Meyer tilling up # 4 tee

 



 Laser leveling.  We enlarged this tee quite a bit

 Laying sod

Finished

    

Nematodes

    
     The Lance Nematode we had last season are back.  This is very frustrating to say the least.  I have tested 5 greens, # 4, # 5, # 9, # 15, and # 18.  The only green that did not have Lance nematode over the threshold was # 18.  In fact it hardly has any turf feeding nematodes at all.  We have treated all greens.  10 greens were treated with some older reliable chemistry and 9 greens were treated with a brand new Nematicide. 
     Lance Nematodes are the hardest species of turf feeding nematodes to control.  They live in the soil and inside of the plant roots.  This is why they are so hard to control.  If they are in the roots the only way to kill them is with a systemic Nematicide.  There is only one systemic Nematicide on the market today and the testing has been mixed.  Dr. Crow from the University of Florida has had some positive trails with it but has also had little control or no control. Dr. Miller from University of Missouri is doing some trials this year on the 3 Nematicides available.  Hopefully he has some good results.
     With the hot weather on its way next week.  We are in a fight to keep our greens in good shape.  We are alternating mowing and rolling greens.  We are also raising the height of cut on greens from .125 to .135. We will be spraying extra soil conditioner on our greens to help our root system recover from the damage the Nematodes have done.  I plan on testing a few more greens to see where Nematode levels are at.  Not all greens will have Lance nematode over the threshold but we have no way of telling without testing them.
     This is the 3rd year we have had problems with Nematodes.  Next season I plan on going on a nematode control program.  This will be an expensive program.  We will be using biological products along with Nematicides to protect our greens.  There has been some good results using the Biological products to protect the roots of the turfgrass plant.  The days of applying a product to kill nematodes is gone.   The new Nematicides have to be applied before you have problems and you need a minimum of 3 applications.  We will do our best to give you the best greens to play on.  Greens will be a bit slower as we try to get through the dog days of summer.

Nematode feeding on root.

Bermuda grass eradication

     With most old golf course multiple turf species is common place.  Franklin County Country Club was established in 1924.  Through the years before Irrigation systems many different species of turf grass were used on the golf course.  One species that was used was Bermuda grass.  Bermuda grass is a warm season turf that can go for long periods of time without water.  Back in the day if you had Bermuda grass in your fairways you had some turf to hit off of in the summer.  The problem with Bermuda grass is it is only good for about 3 months out of the year.  When it goes dormant in the winter it dies back to the ground.  That does not give you the best lie for playing golf in winter and spring.  When it greens up in the spring it is very slow to do so. 
     Back in the early to mid 90's the club spent a lot of money to sod our fairways to Meyer Zoysia grass.  Over the years the Bermuda grass has continued to contaminate the Zoysia Fairways.  Bermuda grass is  more aggressive than the Zoysia.  Zoysia grass is a much better turfgrass.  It is finer textured and the ball stands up on it.  In the winter the leaves turn brown but they do not die back to the ground.  You still have a nice lie in the winter.  Over the last 20 years we have lost some of our Zoysia to the Bermuda.  If you look close enough in the Fairways you can see the difference in color and texture.  You will even see some of the long stolens in the fairways.
     The fairways are not the only place we have Bermuda contamination.  Our tee's, some of our collars and some of our green surrounds are also contaminated.  There are some herbicides on the market that will selectively kill the Bermuda and not hurt the Zoysia and cool season turf.  We will be using some of these products on a few holes.  It will take 3 applications 1 month apart to kill the Bermuda grass.  We will do 2 or 3 fairways,  about 1 acre of tee's and 2 different green surrounds and collars. You will notice the Bermuda will turn brown or white depending which herbicides are used.  When we are finished in September we may need to buy some Zoysia sod to sod big voided areas.  In areas that are not as big the Zoysia will fill back in on it own.  So the next 3 month if you see something a little off to some of our fairways, tee, collars and green surrounds we are trying to eradicate the Bermuda grass.  This is the first phase.  The next few years we will expand on this program and do all of our fairways, tee's and green surrounds and collar that have contamination.

Top of picture is Zoysia.  Bottom part has Bermuda contamination

Here is Bermuda grass stolens