Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to FCCC membership and co workers.

Frost Delays

   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 or hot chocolate 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.

New Equipment

     If you have been out playing golf you might of seen some new equipment maintaining our golf course.  We have a new seeder, topdresser, leaf collection system for our Ventrac and 2 new used utility carts.  Also in early 2019 we will be getting two new fans for greens 10 and 11.

     The  new seeder will helps keep our roughs in top condition.  The only seeder we had did not slit seed.  It was a aerator and dropped seed in aerification holes on 4''x5''  centers.  We now can lay seed in rows 1.5'' apart.  With all the new sod from the bunker construction and the new sod we are laying around our green perimeters this seeder will help keep our rough in top condition.

     Our old topdresser was 20 years old and very unreliable.  We must topdress greens to have good greens.  This machine is state of the art.  You program it to put down a certain amount of sand and no matter how fast or slow you go it puts out the amount you calibrated for. You get consistent topdressing from green to green.

     The leaf collection system is a great tool to help us eliminate leaves.  In the past we blew the leaves and mulched them.  Now we can pick them up and remove them.

    Last we purchase 2 used Utility carts.  Dan and I have been using 2 old golf carts to work out of.  Golf carts are not made to work out of.  They are made to play golf.

     The 2 new fans will be here in February/March.  These fans will help # 10 and 11 greens.  These two greens lack air movement.  Air movement is what helps turfgrass cool itself in the summer time.  In the summer the prevailing wind is from the southwest.  10 and 11 greens have no air movement when the wind blows from the southwest.  The new fans will be mounted on a pole and will oscillate to cover the entire green.  We had some portable fans we used on #10 green in the past.  These fans were not big enough and did not oscillate.  We need a minimum of 3 mph air movement over the entire green.  You will see a noticeable difference in these greens next summer.
   

Im Back

     It has been a while since my last post.  We have had some technical difficulties with At&t.  Our phone and internet was  broken for 2 months.  The last month we have been very busy on the course and now I finally have some breathing room to starting blogging again.
     Lots of things have happened since my last post.  # 10 green we had to sod, plug and over seed a big portion of the greens.  As you can see from the picture we lost a lot of grass that runs through the middle of the green.  The reason the turf died was because of a broken drain line.  We received a 2 inch rain June 30th.  All of the water leak out of the broken drain line into the green profile.  This over saturated the green profile and cause rapid root suffocation. You can see a perfect line on either side of the dead area.  This is in the swale of the green.  We repaired the drain line and that took care of the problem.  The green will be back to normal next spring as we wait for the sod, plugs and seed to fill in.

     We did get 3 tee's Laser Leveled this past summer.  # 7 gold/red, #10 white and # 13 white and front of 13 blue.  We will continue to level more tee's each year.

 Schaefer-Meyer leveling tee # 7 red/gold

 Installing sod # 10 white

  Tim ready to water #10

     One of the last big projects we are working on is sodding our green perimeters with Turf Type Tall Fescue.  We have sodded a 9 ft. swath around 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and Putting green.  This is very labor intensive.  We are doing this project completely in house.  Cutting and removing the old sod and installing the new.  We plan to sod all 18 greens.  We are about 1/3 of the way done.

 Picking up old sod

 Installing new sod

 Almost done

# 5 completed

     Sorry for the long delay in posting.  I will try to keep you better informed in the future.  

Blog update

     I have been little behind with my blog post.  Not by choice.  We have been without phone and Internet for 2 months here at Maintenance facility.  Ameren put a new pole on Hwy A across from the shop entrance.  They bore right through our phone line.  We have to have a new line installed from across Hwy A to shop.  It seems AT&T is having trouble getting permits from Highway Department.  We have had 5 scheduled completion dates come and go.  Our next scheduled date is 9/11/18.  Hopefully we will be fixed next week.  I will catch you up with course activities once we are fixed.  Thanks for reading my blog.

Update

     What a summer we are having.  Despite all of the negatives Mother Nature has thrown at us the golf course is holding up.  We do have some battle scars. We hope to keep anymore damage to a minimum.  My staff and I are trying to keep the course in the best shape possible.  My earlier post I told you how we were taking care of our greens.  We will continue alternating mowing and rolling through the month of August.  We will be over seeding all of our greens in the middle of August.  We are trying to incorporate as much of the newer bentgrass varieties into our older greens. This is the third year we have done this.  The newer bentgrass is a much better variety than the older bentgrass the greens were seeded with 30 years ago.  The newer bentgrass is more heat tolerant, disease resistant, and finer leafed which gives you a better ball roll.  Over time our greens will have more newer bentgrass than old.  This has been a very hard year for all golf courses in the Midwest. Dr. Lee Miller our Extension Turfgrass Pathologist from the University of Missouri sent out the letter below to all golf courses in the Mississippi Valley.   This explains the difficulty our turfgrass is going through.  He explains it very well.  Again, thanks for reading my blog.  I hope you find it useful and informative.

This Season Unprecedentedly Sucks

In many cases, a diagnostic analysis and microscopic scan can’t absolve the weather cards this region has been dealt… seven-two off suit and in for the big blind. Likewise, magical elixirs from sprayer boom nozzles don’t alter the growing environment or provide instant recovery. The fact of the matter is that European born bentgrass prefers 55 – 75 F, which was nowhere to be found in spring 2018. The second coldest April, followed by the warmest May on record is one of the biggest anomalies on record in Missouri, with the last one in back to back months occurring in a cold December 1989 and warm January 1990. Those growing grass then, did you care? Probably not, since you probably didn’t even need to mow it. June did what June does, providing another blow and ringing in as 6^th warmest on record.

Spring, not winter, is the time to put money in the bank with bentgrass root growth and structure to get through the summer marathon. Also, recall last fall. The lack of rainfall had many recharging irrigation systems to get through Thanksgiving and supply bentgrass roots with enough water to get past old, dry, and cold man winter. Bentgrass putting green root systems, the fibrous source of quality golf in Missouri, have not had consistently good growing conditions since spring 2017.

If misery loves company, know that 59 samples have been submitted to MU since June 1. For perspective, 4-6 samples on average are processed per week, meaning twice that have been submitted in the last six weeks. Other than physiological decline, lance nematodes, Pythium root rot, and black layer are most often observed this year as being the primary or contributing factor to bentgrass decline. Prevent root diseases, manage water in the root zone precisely, and don’t get rough with the surface (no verticutting, smooth rollers, roll instead of mowing if possible, etc.).

“Survive and Advance” is an ESPN “30 for 30” production about the magical run of Jim Valvano’s NC State Wolfpack team. I graduated from NC State so hold that team and its underdog nature in the highest of regards.  While Coach Valvano is perhaps best known for his bravery and selflessness in the face of cancer, he also led that 1983 team of young men through nine elimination games in a row, seven of which they were losing in the last minute (hence the moniker “Cardiac Pack”). Not to be overly dramatic, but the individual bentgrass plants on your putting greens are that team this year.  Weather in this upper transition zone is always challenging, but this year it’s like playing against Phi Slama Jama.

Let me know if I can help. Hang in there. Support each other.

Lee Miller, Ph.D.

Extension Turfgrass Pathologist

Course update

     What a summer we are having.  The heat and humidity are full throttle.  It does not take hardly any activity to be drenched in sweat.  The turf has the same problem we have it cannot cool itself when the humidity is extremely high.  With the added pressure of high temperatures this can be very hard on our cool season turfgrass.  Greens are the most susceptible to problems.  We are taking precautions to help our greens make it through this rough time.  On Monday we vented our greens with 1/4'' holes.  This helps the root zone of our greens get much needed oxygen.  It also helps keep our root zone drier.  What happens when you have a wet area like your shower at home that stays wet or moist?  You get mold and mildew.  We do not want our root zone to get mold.  That could be devastating.  We are also alternating mowing and rolling our greens.  Mowing is very stressful on our bentgrass greens.  We want to minimize as much stress as we can.  You will see a little slow down of ball roll.  This will be temporary until we get cooler temperatures.  When night time temperatures get below 70 degrees our bentgrass greens can recuperate.  They get no rest when night time temperatures are in the high 70's or above.  We cool down a little next week.  I know I can't wait. 

 Nick venting greens.  It takes 6 hours to vent all greens.

 Holes are 1/4'' on 2.5''X2.5" centers

Tim rolling our greens.