Fall 2017

I'm not going to dwell on it but obviously I've not posted anything since April. Time constraints, work load, personal commitments, and (to be honest) boredom all had a hand in preventing updates. I've always wanted to keep things fresh but the last few years we've been in such a monotonous holding pattern that I found myself with very few interesting topics to cover so let's start anew with this post!

First a rehash of the 2017 season. The greens had another winter of snow mould damage which was a big disappointment but looking back I guess not that surprising when reviewing the weather (go HERE and HERE). My confidence level as it relates to the impact moisture has on chemical efficacy is on very shakey ground but I think blaming all our issues on weather/chemistry may be a bit disingenuous. I have whined about the pressure to maintain conditions later into the year but that is just the way it is now and the approach I decided to take this year was to stack the deck in my favour and that involved some different maintenance strategies but also killing trees; not a lot of trees but definitely some big ones....and, FYI, I'm not done but I wanted to break it to you gently.

Nuisance Trees on South side 2G Going Down

It's tiresome to constantly defend tree removal around greens which is why I've haven't pushed it but I need to continue to educate and stress the negative impact trees growing close to greens have on light quality, air movement, and moisture stress and how that impact creates poor health and, by extension, poor playing conditions.

The rest of the summer could pretty much be summarized by the acronym SSDD (Same Sh*t Different Day) however it's worth noting that we didn't lose a single day to rain during peak season and despite the dry and heat the course pretty much held on.  The fall, up to this point, was more typical than most weather wise and we only lost a few days to rain.  I started preparing the greens for winter early this year by applying full rate overwintering applications mid September and continued to treat those greens with a recent history of bad snow mould on a 10 to 14 day cycle depending on weather. The final greens application was at the end of October before the big snow in early November.

The snow isn't a surprise but the fact that it really hasn't melted is. No surface on the course is frozen which is good for rain events but not so good for snow mould control. I removed the snow from 15 green (the only green we tarp) in an effort to get that ground to freeze. Generally speaking with tarps the more the ground is frozen the less opportunity there is for problems as it relates to disease and,IMO, anoxia.

The snow did prevent us from duplicating last falls aeration of the rough which is unfortunate since I believe that is part of the reason the roughs weren't impacted to severely by the dry summer. My hope is we will get to it in the spring. I had planned for a late season work bee and was going to knock down some weedy trees but again the snow has limited mobility on the course so only a few trees were cut down.

Ugly Poplar Behind 17 Green Finally Gone

Next time out I'll try to explain the in-house renovation on the 13th and 14th tees but until that time consider yourself up to date.

Not so Good News or Maybe Good News, Depends....

That was a really big wind last week! How big? Check it out:

7 foot Root Ball

That is the tree on the right #6 fairway that got in the way of a few drives.  Now when you stand on the tee you see this:

Tree is Gone..Take a Rip at it!

It's still a three shot hole, at least for me, but with that tree gone I'll be able to widen the fairway and make it a nice landing zone for the short hitters with the potential opportunity for a bit of roll.  From a selfish standpoint I am somewhat happy since that particular spot is one of the many nuisance spots on the front nine that I struggle to keep green.  That tree negatively impacted the throw of the nearby irrigation heads and because of its location it had a tendency to funnel traffic through one spot.  Poor irrigation coverage and lots of traffic are the perfect ingredients for wiping out turf and leaving bare ground.

Except for a small tree next to the maintenance shop no other trees seemed to have been knocked down by the wind.  The course is litter with branches and other detritus that will need to be removed before opening.  Keep your early April open since I'll be asking for help to get ready for the golf season.

Getting "Schooled", Again!...Follow KGCtweets

Holy, I am still learning about Twitter.  You may be sick of how daft I am when it comes to this topic but this should be the last change.  A third party pointed out something with respect to Twitter and audiences.  I dare say none of you care about the minutia of growing grass and some other grass geeks most likely aren't interested in frost delays, aerating and top dressing days, or whatever I post as it relates to KGC.  Using the hashtag #KGC to identify posts particular to the golf course works but the tweets seems out of place when I post using my original username so I made a new one: KGCtweets.  Again, if you use Twitter you know what to do.  If you text all you need to do is send a text to 21212 and type Follow KGCtweets in the message body of your text to receive real time updates about the golf course.

Now, what's happening out on the course?  There are18 holes opening on Good Friday.  As usual, we won't be ready but any play in April is all about working out the kinks and renewing friendships.  All greens wintered well with no real problems and all will be in play.  The past couple years we've attempted a pre-opening aeration and top dressing and 2014 will be no different.  The biggest hurdle is completing the task while trying to clean up from winter.  Truthfully, we won't be done and you'll have to deal with the process until we are done.  Sorry.  As predicted, start up of the irrigation is a struggle.  We only just started the back on Tuesday this week and still the hydraulic lines on the driving range, hole 17, hole 15, hole 13, and hole 14 are frozen.  Without the control from the hydraulic lines to keep the sprinklers down we cannot pressure the pipes on these holes so, obviously, we are unable to water.  It may seem early, but with no real moisture this spring the greens have dried out and appear stressed.  It should be easy to get them back but we are at the mercy of our irrigation system.  Tank watering could be an option but without available equipment or staff it won't be happening this year.

This past Monday had the Annual Work Bee and as usual people really chipped in.  I would guess because of the day we picked, numbers were down a bit but those who showed up definitely did their part and I am grateful.  Pictures will be posted on the KGC website under the "Photo Gallery" tab so go check it out.

The only picture I want to show is this one:

Elk Tracks

For some strange reason the elk are still around.  They are a problem in the fall and are usually long gone by now but  #2 took a shellacking the other day.  The real interesting part is how the damage to the surface was the worst at the back left of the green and far less severe on the front right of the green.  Why?  Better root mass at the front is my theory.  That green doesn't have great roots to begin with but the front right of the green sees more sun and has somewhat more substance versus the left side which is weak looking and always shows disease stress first. That big fir and ponderosa are going, it just a case of when.

Storm Damage

Sunday afternoon a small storm blew through town and left a mess in it's wake.

Aside from the above pictures damage include a uprooted tree deep in the rough on left of hole #2, a top snapped off near 7 tee, an uprooted tree on the right side of 11 fairway, a snapped top on left rough on hole 16, another tree down left of 10, and copious branches, cones, etc. down through out the whole course.  An event like this is never very good news but this time out with all the other tasks and issues we are trying to cope with make this a real pain.  It will take a while to clean up.  Work Bee anyone?

Lynx (or Bobcat?) sighting

Lynx?

Earlier this week one morning some staff saw a lynx cruising the back nine. One staff member had a camera on his phone and took a picture. Just like a Loch Ness Monster or Sasquatch "sighting" the picture is sort of left open for interpretation but this sight was corroborated by two sane and sober (possibly) people so I am taking it to be a real event.

Most of this week was taken up with tree maintenance. We purchased 8 trees to replace some damaged and weak trees we've planted over past couple years. You have to know where to look to see where we've placed them so, in other words, the new trees are nothing too terribly exiciting.

One spot you will see, however, is the hole on the left of 5 fairway about 120 or so yards from the green. While digging out the trees we were replacing we also did some root pruning.

Digging out Roots

Roots had crept into the fairway and were becoming a problem when we mowed. The tree is large and, generally, if you are careful not to remove too much root mass there should be no serious harm to the tree.

Ponderosa Pine and Root
Excavation

One great picture that shows the benefits of root pruning goes back to when we added extra irrigation around 6 green a few years ago. I took the following picture late in fall long after the irrigation had been blown out. The picture clearly shows the dividing line of where we dug a trench for the new irrigation.

Visual Benefits of
Root Pruning Trees

During excavation we dug through numerous tree roots that were reaching out into 6 fairway. Once the tree roots were cut the turf no longer had to compete for water with the tree and grew to become a decent stand of grass. From the above picture you can obviously see that the turf on tree side of the trench still had the added stress of competing with the tree roots and, as a result, it entered dormancy sooner than the turf on the "root free" side of the trench. Every time I mow #2 or #6 fairways I always think about implementing a irrigation/root pruning program for those fairways since the roots are so prevalent on those holes.

Trees and Shadows

Last fall and this past spring have motivated me to pay closer attention to tree's surrounding certain greens and the impact their shadows have on turf growth. The benefits of adequate sun in the fall include the typical increased air circulation and faster drying of tissue surfaces to help limit disease development. Another very important aspect of fall sun relates to the storing of carbohydrates (CHO) within the plant needed for overwintering and growth in the spring. As mentioned before, the growth habit of turf in the fall changes because of cooler temperatures and shorter days. These changes signal the plant to slow vertical growth and direct energy toward roots and the creation and storage of CHO's. The more light/energy available to a plant during the fall the more CHO's it can make and store which will help in winter survival and spring start up.
Good sun exposure in the early spring obviously helps in speeding the melt of snow and ice from the previous winter as well as warming up the soil quicker to increase plant and microbial activity.
The shade created by trees has many other physiological impacts on turf grass (low density, spindly and succulent growth, and poor root density) not to mention the direct competition trees pose to available resources for plant growth (light, water, and nutrients). Take a look and the following before and afters and see how selective tree removal can significantly increase available light and, hopefully, increase the health and, therefore, the playability of these surfaces.

8 Green Before

8 Green After

7 Green
Before and After

4 Green
Before and After

Removing trees is not the only maintenance practice we do to control their interference with growing turf. I've talked about root pruning before (November 3rd post in 2009) as it relates to cart paths. We also root prune around greens to limit root encroachment under greens. Kinda a boring picture but here it is.

Root Pruning Trench on 8G