Just days away until March is finished and up until today the weather has been very nice but the long range forecast is looking like the weather will be closer to "normal" for this area. On the course, all the snow has melted with most disappearing at the beginning of last week. With the snow gone the soil started to warm and turf began to green up last Sunday. It looks like I will have to bring staff in early since everything is starting to need attention and one guy cannot do it all. It's March and already my wage budget is on very shaky ground.
Based on the religious undertones of the title of this post you'd think I was a church going guy but really its more a reflection of the struggle I've been having on the course this spring. As I suggested in early posts, ice was not issue anywhere on the course. Ice is that dark nemesis that is overwhelming and hard to control especially when there is unseasonably warm temperatures or rain in the middle of winter. Too many times I've attempted to "manage" ice by physically removing it as it appears during the winter (Go
HERE) or manipulating conditions to limit its formation:
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| Left Side was Tarped, Right Side was not. |
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but in the past the only real success I've had is waiting until the sun is high enough and days are long enough to get a strong melt. This year disease was a problem; particularly pink snow mould:
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| #7 Green |
This is our #1 disease and is a problem pretty much all year long but during the golf season I refer to it as Fusarium (the different names came about because of how and when the disease appears on the turf but a taxonomic trait that relates to the types of spores the fungus forms and how they grow means, despite the different appearance, the disease is caused by the same fungus. Sometimes in an effort to lessen the confusion in areas of the world that don't get snow the disease can be called Microdochium patch). I know you've all seen it and may not have know what is was. Generally, all cool season turf is susceptible to this disease but bentgrass has levels of resistance bred into it, especially the newer varieties made popular over the past decade or so. By now you know, because of our age, the predominant species of turf at KGC is poa which, again for those with a short memory, is an opportunistic weed and has no resistance to any disease bred into it. In areas where I didn't apply a plant protectant (i.e. a fungicide which, BTW, is a pesticide) you get this:
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| #2 Fwy, Double Whammy Shade and No Spray |
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| #12 Fwy at 200 yards |
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| #14 Fwy @ 300 yards |
Unlike the damage caused by ice, the only good thing about most diseases is I can manage them by implementing certain cultural methods (increasing the HOC, limiting irrigation, increasing sun exposure, increasing air movement, applying certain fertilizers, etc., etc.) to lessen the severity. Also, I can spray preventative and, sometimes, curative plant protectants (fungicides/pesticides) that are very effective at controlling the diseases they are labeled for. If you look back at the previous pictures you'll notice the green, healthy looking turf. Those are areas I sprayed to prevent damage from snow mould. I can say that the level of control demonstrated on fairway and tees as a result of last falls snow mould treatments are equal to other years which means those areas are looking pretty good. However, the level of control on the greens was the worst I seen in years and I'm having a real struggle coming up with a reason why. I can also say with some degree of confidence that it is not due to one thing. That would be an over simplification of a complex interaction of numerous variables that all impact the health of turf on any one of the greens at KGC.
That's enough for now. I am looking at the possible reasons for the problems experienced so far this spring but I won't have a single, definitive cause; it doesn't work that way.
