Course Update

      It has been awhile since my last post.  We have been very busy.  We have a number of project that have been completed.  One of the biggest accomplishments is our greens are almost healed up from the Nematode and Root Rot issues from July.  This was the hardest summer I have ever had in my 35 years as a Golf Course Superintendent. I am optimistic this will not happen again. I have a different approach for next year.  I am  build my soil biology up with biological products that will grow greater root mass in our greens and have a negative effect on Nematodes.  Some of these biological product are in fact natural Nematicides.  I have always used biologicals but not to this extreme.  Some of these products  like crab shell meal, soap box tree extract, compost, sesame seed oil all have some degree of control to Nematodes.  I am also using some forms of Bacteria and Fungi products that also have  control against Nematodes. I know I will not kill all of them but if I can keep numbers low enough to get our greens through July and August with minimal damage that is a win.

Here are the list of project we completed since  August.  

• #4 fairway bunker was rebuilt.
• #8 cart path from ditch in front of green up past merge from #17 was fixed.
•  #1 trees to north of green were removed to help with turf loss on right side of green below bunker. 
•  Aerified all greens.
•  DryJect all greens.
• Fixed cart path washouts on holes 6 and 12. 
• Sprayed second application of Bermuda grass control on fairways and tees.  
• Fix sink hole that developed at the front entrance from bad culverts.

     #4 fairway bunker was reshaped and bottom was raised about a foot.  New drain lines and sand installed.  This was a much needed improvement.  

Schaefer-Meyer edging bunker

#4 bunker finished

     #8 cart path was in bad shape.  We had about a 2 foot ditch running under the path.  We also put a culvert in at ditch crossing.  No more carts running through water.  Dobsch Construction did great work.

You can see the ditch running under path

Ready for concrete

Just finished second pour.

Sod going down.

     We removed some big trees to north of #1 green.  It is very hard to get any turf to grow near the cart path.  The large trees were taking all of the moisture.  This will help us to maintain better quality turf from the bunker to cart path turn behind #1 green.  We still have to remove the under brush and clean up the tree tops.

Before from back of green

Before front right of green

After from behind green

After from front right of green

     We aerified all of greens twice this fall.  In late September we punch holes with our ProCore.  This is the first time we were able to aerify, topdress, brush, apply fertility and water in one day.  We used 3/8 tines.  Most holes were filled in by the end of the week.

Picture taken after we brushed greens .

     October 5th we did a new process called DryJect.  DryJect takes water to create a void in profile of green and sand is sucked back into the hole.  I ordered some finely ground compost and we mixed it with our dry sand.  We used 80 lbs of compost to 2000 lbs of sand.  This makes roughly a 95% sand to 5% compost blend.  The compost will give our greens organic matter to help fight off Nematodes.  The compost product has shown some good success in Florida.  We will do this again next March before we core aerate.  DryJect is very labor intensive.  The DryJect crew brought 2 machines.  We needed 3 people per machine to keep our blended sand in machine as it went across green.  We used 24 tons of sand and it had to  be hand loaded into the hopper of the DryJect machine.

Loading DryJect machine

3''X3'' hole pattern

     The cart paths that cut across the fairways on holes 6 and 12 were repaired.  This is not the first time we have repaired these two areas.  Water uses the edge of path on 6 and it cuts out the sod.  Once water get a channel it keeps on eating it out.  #12 cart path is a different situation.  Before we put the catch basin in at the fence any big rain event we would get mud and silt would come down from the farm to the north of the golf course.  Just before you make the turn to go across the fairway we have about 1 foot of mud and silt that was washed down from the farm above us.  This changed the drainage pattern of the rough and fairway.  Water now sets along the cart path when it used to flow down the hill to the ditch.  We will see if our fix will work.  We might have to put a catch basin in at cart path if it comes back.

Cart path at 12 Fairway.

     The past 3 years we have been spraying the bermuda grass encroachment in our fairways and tees.  This is a slow process Bermuda grass is relentless.  Just like the Energizer bunny it just keeps going. We are making some progress.  I am using two different herbicides to take the Bermuda grass out of our Zoysia fairways.

The off color turf is Bermuda grass

Closeup of Bermuda grass injury from herbicides.

     Lastly we found a sink hole at the front entrance.  After some exploratory digging we found the problem.  We have 2 culverts that merge together at our driveway and Country Club Rd.  The old forms that were used to connect the two pipes into the concrete box culvert going under Country Club Drive rotted away and the gravel under the asphalt was washing into the box culvert.  Luckily we found this before a vehicle did.  We replace both rusted culvert pipes. We replaced them with ADS plastic pipe, concreted it back to the box culvert running under Country Club Rd.  We need a good rain so the rock fill can settle.  After fill has settled we will repair asphalt.

Old culvert running into box culvert.

  

Installing new culvert pipe.

Concreting pipes into box culvert.

     

     

Bermuda eradication

     The past 3 years we have treated our fairways and tees to stop the spread of Bermuda grass.  We have Bermuda grass all over the golf course.  Our fairways and tees were sodded in Zoysia grass back in the mid 90's.  Bermuda has encroached into the fairways and tees.  In some places it has out competed the Zoysia.  I am using a combination of  herbicides to knock back the Bermuda.  This is a slow process.  We need to treat fairways 3 times one month apart.  The Bermuda will turn brown but will begin to grow out of the effects of the herbicides in about 3-4 weeks that is why we need multiple apps per year.  We can see up to an 80% reduction in a year.  While your playing you will see some brown grass in areas.  That is the Bermuda grass.  Below are a few pictures

Dan spraying Herbicide to #4 fairway

Bermuda control in #6 fairway.  Bermuda is brown while Zoysia stays green.

Bermuda control in the perimeter cut beginning #18 fairway

Update on Greens

     I would like to update everyone on the greens.  I will be the first to say I am not happy at all with what has happened to the greens. This is very disheartening.  My staff and I work very hard to give the membership the best playing conditions possible.  For this to happen has been a punch in the gut .  I can tell you this,  we are working very hard so this does not happen again. 

     Most of you know we have been battling Nematodes in our greens for the past 6 years.  Dr. Miller from the University of Missouri found them examining a plug I sent him from a bad spot on #5 green back in 2014. I am certain we have had problems with Nematodes in our greens for many years.  Nematodes attack the root system of turfgrass.  Greens are extremely susceptible to damage because of the low mowing heights of the grass. Nematodes live in the soil most feed on roots from the outside and a few burrow into the root and feed from the inside.  The ones that go inside the roots are the hardest to control.  Anytime you have a pest that pierces or burrows into roots you can have problems with root infecting diseases also.   I have been treating our greens with nematicides this entire season.  I have been trying to kill one species of Nematode, Lance.  The past few years Lance has been our biggest problem.  Lance is the only nematode that does not have a good control option available.  We can kill all other Nematodes that attack turfgrass easily. There is one nematicide that is labeled to kill Lance it is called Divanem.  The problem with Divanem is it gets tied up in the thatch and organic matter of the soil so it only goes down to about one inch into the soil.  One inch is not deep enough to reach Lance nematode.  My thinking was if I aerate the greens to create a channel down into the soil profile I could get the nematicide down to where the Lance nematodes live.  That did not work.  Dr. Crow from the University of Florida told me that it will go down in the aerifying hole but will not move laterally.  He also told me if I was using nematicides to control Lance I would not get very good control of Lance but  would kill other nematodes.  Without competition,  Lance numbers will grow higher.  With the higher number of Lance, the damage to the turf is greater.

      I started to spot symptom near the end of June.  I sent  two samples off to University of Florida after July 4th weekend.  By that time, the greens were starting to show problems.  Both samples came back over the threshold for Lance nematodes. One week later I sent a third sample off and it came back  Lance above the threshold.  At that time, I was still spraying nematicides trying to kill Lance.  Greens 1,4-6, 9 -12, and 14 were progressively getting worse.  The week of July 13 the University of Missouri opened up their labs.  They had been closed because of Covid.  I sent a fourth sample to Dr. Miller to check for disease.  He told me the sample I sent was full of Pythium root rot.  That same green also had high levels of Lance nematodes.  Root rot is a very serious root fungus.   Over the years,  I have sent many samples to the lab and this was the first time any disease was found.  I was shocked because  I have been on a preventive  Pythium fungicide applications all season.  The next day, we went out with a curative application for Pythium root rot.  Since that time, greens have responded to the treatments.  The cooler temperatures have also helped tremendously. 

      I decided to close #11 green last week because the front portion was so severely damaged. I believe by the end of the month we can have the green back open. We have been very busy seeding the greens that are hurt the most. 1, 9, 10 - 12 and 14.  Bentgrass seed has already germinated on 10 - 12 and 14.  We will continue to spot seed any area that does not take. We will also pull plugs out of our nursery to help fill in bigger areas.  We will overseed  the remaining 13 greens.  I do this annually by mid August.  We will be applying soil and foliar  treatments weekly to get the greens back.  We have raised the height of cut on all greens.  Greens 1-9, 13, 15-18 are being mowed at .150.  Greens 10-12 and 14 are being walk mowed at .180.  We will continue mowing at this height through August. 

     So how do we keep  this from happening again.   Until a better nematicide comes out that can effectively kill Lance nematode, I will not be spraying for this pest.  Florida deals with nematodes year round and some good work has come out  using compost to naturally control nematodes.  There is a fungus in the compost that attack nematodes.  It is not a cure I just need to get our greens through the two hottest month of summer.  There is a process where you can mix the compost with sand and it can be injected into the green profile.  It is called DryJect.  I will be scheduling them to come this fall. I have also found some sprayable organic soil products, we will be using to help build up our soil biology to better defend against nematode damage.  Dr. Crow has a new Lance nematode trial going on now.  If there is a successful product, it won't be out for 2 or 3 years.  This will not help us in the short term.  We will work very hard to get the greens back. I am sorry for any inconvenience this has caused the membership.  

Thanks,

Ed

Lance nematodes inside a root.  

      

Greens update

     Greens have struggled since July 1.  High heat, humidity and Nematodes have some of our greens hurting to say the least.  I have been applying nematicides to our greens to control nematodes the past 3 months.  I am killing some nematodes but not all especially Lance.  There is no nematicide on the market today that can effectively kill Lance nematode.  By killing the competition the Lance nematode have exploded in numbers.  I have tested #5, #6 and #9 greens and all 3 have come back positive for Lance nematode over the threshold.  No other nematode species was hardly found.  This is very disturbing.   After talking with Dr. Crow from University of  Florida yesterday all options for Lance nematode control are poor.  What our greens need is cooler temperatures so they can outgrow this pest.  At this time greens 1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 14 are hurting.  All of these greens have tested positive with Lance nematode this season and in past years. This is a problem we will be dealing with until a new nematicide comes out that controls Lance.

     So where do we go from here.  As you probably know we have raised the mowing height.  Our normal mowing height is .125 or 1/8''.  We have raised it to .140 or 9/64''.  That is 1/64'' higher.  Our 4 worst  greens 10 ,11, 12, 14 we are walk mowing at .180 that is just under 3/16''.  We will continue this until we get a significant break in the weather and we get some recovery.  #11 green is the most impacted green.  Nematodes are not the only problem with this green.  Sunlight is a big factor.  This green is not clear of shade until about 9:30 a.m. The trees that impact this green the most are on our neighbors property.  I have 2 trees on our side of the fence I will be removing this fall or winter  they impact the front of the green which is the weakest area.  Morning sunlight is very important to good healthy bentgrass greens.  We will also be clearing out all of the underbrush all the way back to #12 black tee to help with add air flow.  In the next 2 weeks we will be overseeding the greens with a newer variety of bentgrass.  The newer bentgrasses are not tolerant of nematodes but they are more drought and disease tolerant.  Nematodes are feeding on the root system making them shorter and more prone to wilt. The newer bentgrass will give us more time before wilt sets in.   I have been overseeding greens the past 4 years.  We are slowly converting our greens over to newer bentgrasses.

     This is very hard.  Losing grass is never fun.  I have worked on 3 other golf courses and never had to deal with nematodes at any of them.  What makes it  so bad is you are dealing with a nematode you can not kill.  By trying to kill it I have made it worse.  I ask to please be patience.  Cooler temps are coming and we will get through this.

#11 green shaded at 8:00am.

Up close look at Nematode damage #9 green.

  

     

Update

     It has been few weeks since my last post.  We have been busy.  We installed drainage on 14 and 17 greens.  Now if you hit your ball long on these two holes you will be able to find your ball.  It should not plug.  We also fixed a drain below 14 green.  Roots clogged up  the drain and it was running down into 13 fairway.  #13 forward tee has been sodded with Bluegrass.  This tee stays too wet and does not get enough sunlight to grow Zoysia grass.  It was a little late to be sodding cool season grass but it should be ok.  Getting it open for play will take a little longer than if it was sodded in the spring or fall.  I hope we can have it open by next week.  We were able to sod the green surround on #10.  We ordered some Zoysia grass and fixed some areas in fairways that was thinning or dead.  We fixed aras on 15, 17 and 18 fairways.  While we had the Track hoe we went down to 12 rough and dug out our catch basin that were full of silt.  Below are a few pictures of some of the work we completed.  These projects took 3 long days to complete.  My staff did an outstanding job.

 Cutting in trench #14

 Trench finished #14

Installing pipe and pea gravel

 Capping pea gravel  with sand

Sodding Fescue on top.

Emerald Ash Borer

     We have been busy treating and removing Ash trees throughout the golf course.  Emerald Ash Borer has done considerable damage to all Ash species. It has been in Missouri for about 4-5 years now.  It is widespread throughout the state.  We are treating our healthy trees with a insecticide injected directly into the tree. That gives our trees  3 years control.   Any Ash tree with 40% or more of canopy loss is being removed.  We have removed 11 trees so far and we have at least 6 more to take out.

This is the adult Emerald Ash Borer.  They bore into the Ash tree and lay eggs.  The larvae hatch and feed just under the bark killing the tree.

 Notice this tree hardly has any leaves.  It was removed

  

Staff cleaning up.

Injecting insecticide directly into Ash Tree.  It is a tree IV.  This will give 3 years control of Emerald Ash Borer. 

COVID-19

     This has been a year to remember.  I hope everyone is doing ok.  My staff has been working very hard to get the golf course ready for the season.  With the State of Missouri stay at home order my seasonal staff is still at home.  I have 5 men that are ready  to go when the order is lifted. I have also been staggering my full time employees start times so everyone is not in the shop at the same time.   It has been very challenging to maintain this property with 6 people.  It just does not look right out on the course with no flags and pins in the greens.  Cups upside down who would of ever believed this.

      We suspended all projects that would put my employees closer than 6 feet.  We have been basically maintaining and mowing the golf course.  We had some great weather to get some of our projects checked off our list the past month.  Drainage on 14 green and 17 green are too big ones.  Trimming limbs throughout the golf course and removing a number of dead and damaged trees is next.  We have been hammered with lots of rain.  We get the stay at home order and it turns dry go figure.  We have a big list of projects that seems to get bigger every year.

      Hopefully we are starting to turn the corner and we can  get back closer to normal.  Please stay safe. It won't be long and we can all enjoy golf the way it is supposed to be played.

Spring Aerification

We just finished our Spring aerification.  We deep drilled 5/8'' holes 10'' deep on 5''x 5'' centers.  after that we came behind with our Toro Procore 648 and punch 3/8'' holes 3'' deep on 1.5''x 1.5'' centers.  Here is a little trivia for you.  We have a total of 2 acres of greens.  We drilled a total of 792,000 holes with the deep drill machines.  We aerified a total of 5,632,000 holes with our Procore.  A grand total of 6,424,000 aerifying holes in our greens.
     Aerification is used for gas exchange in the root zone.  O2 needs to get down to the root zone and CO2 needs to get out of the root zone.  The aerification holes gives the gases a channel to get in and escape.  We also aerify to eliminate thatch.  Thatch can cause multiple problems.  Soft spongy greens to increase disease and insect pressure.  Aerification is a very important cultural practice to have nice playing greens.
     You will notice the holes are much smaller than in past years.  We used smaller tines but punched twice as many holes.  Below are a few pictures of the process.  My staff did an outstanding job.  We aerified all 19 greens plus 9 white tee in one day.

We verticut in 2 different direction before we aerified

Deep drill machine

 Look at the holes.  You can see the bigger deep drill hole below the keys.

 We used 35 tons of sand.

Dragging the sand into holes

Finished

10 Bridge completed

     It took about 1 month but 10 bridge is new and improved.  We added some much need support under the decking of the bridge.  You will notice when you drive across no more clatter.  It took a little longer than we thought.  The weather did not help out.  My staff did an outstanding job.

#10 Bridge

     We have been busy working on #10 bridge.  It has been too wet to get any work done on the golf course so we are fixing up the bridge.  This has been on our to do list since last summer.  We are replacing the rails, decking and beefing up some of the sub flooring.  I hope we will take out a lot of the clattering when you drive over the bridge.  We are also going to stain the entire bridge Forest green.  This will give it a much longer life and it will look much better.  We have another week of work before we get the bridge back open.  Sorry for any inconvenience.  Below are a few pictures of our progress.

 tearing down the old railing and flooring

 Staining our post

 Post going up

Railing finished.

Wet, Wet Wet

     Wet is the word.  Our 2019 season total for moisture is 58.48 inches.  We broke a record for the wettest May on record and we had the second wettest May through December of 2019.  Our average rainfall for a year is 43'' to 45''.  Since December 14, 2019 we have received 11.61'' of moisture from rain, snow and sleet.  Most course work is at a stand still.  We have been able to cut down several trees that are close to the cart paths or parking lot.  We had 3 days with no rain the beginning of February and we got all of our fairways sprayed.  We applied our post and pre emergent herbicides to control our winter weeds as well as crabgrass and goosegrass.  We also got half of our tees sprayed for Poa control.  Not only has it been wet but we have had spring like temperatures mixed in with some cold weather.  Our coldest day of winter will happen tomorrow morning when it is expected to get down to 7 degrees.  2 days later we are back to 50 degrees.  It looks like we will have some dry time next week.  I still have some drainage work I need to get done on holes 14 and 17 greens.  After that we have lots of tree trimming to do.  With all the rain we received a lot of painting got done.  We painted our in and out post, all ball washers were cleaned and painted and we put out newly painted tee blocks.  Spring is right around the corner.  Spring Green Aerification will take place 3/30/2020 and 3/31/2020. 

 Starting to spray 4 fairway

 Poa annua, this is one of the weeds we want to eliminate.

 Busy painting in and out post.