Post Plug

Aerification Update

Greens aerification was completed Monday and Tuesday and they're on the mend.

good density

The greens have been fertilized and topdressed and the plan is to let them grow a bit before we start cutting them back down. This recuperation is necessary to battle the sins of the summer that we create as we chase green speed and perfect rolls.

low spots tend to drain slow and thin out

Two weeks is the normal span of time it takes for the greens to get back in shape. After a summer like this one, it's a needed rest. Enjoy the beautiful lush slowness of healthy greens!

beautiful and healthy

Fairway Mayhem
If you're at all conscious, you'll have noticed that something ugly is afoot on a few fairways. Two weeks ago we had a spike in heat and humidity that was the coupe de grâce for a handful of susceptible fairways that were just barely hanging on through a punishing season.

diseases move fast

When we see risky weather conditions heading our way our standard operating procedure is to apply a protective fungicide ahead of that weather.  We do this to areas that have shown weakness before as they're a good indicator of disease pressure, and we did that. Those treated fairways went unscathed. What we didn't expect was to see an outbreak of strong diseases in fairways, 1,3,8, and 15. These are  healthy fairways that see low incidence of infection.  This time, it would be different.
The the weakest grass species (poa) was severely injured. Similar damage was seen by many in our region that don't (or can't afford to) treat all their fairways and tees.  In fact, we fared better than most from reports we're getting in on how courses made it during that last hot spell.  It was a tipping point for many.   Courses that choose to apply on all fairways at regular intervals saw little to no problems.

The damage was done in just 3 days and the diseases responsible were Pythium and Anthracnose. The species of grass that was most affected was Annual Bluegrass or "poa" that makes up about 40% of the fairways.. Fairways at Tuscarora are composed of a mixture of ryegrass and "poa". Poa tends to be susceptible to every disease as well as heat stress, but is especially damaged by Anthracnose outbreaks.

outbreaks were random - 9 fairway: not a mark

Things are already improving and we have germination where we've aerified, and slit seeded.   Affected areas were fertilized and curatively sprayed with fungicide. Unfortunately the damage is done and what we have now is a "grow-in" situation where we're starting from scratch in the barest of areas. On a positive note, it's a good opportunity to introduce the tougher ryegrass species.

Going forward, we're looking at how to upgrade our fungicide program so that it treats all of our fairways equally to guard against future outbreaks. It's something that's due.  This season's extreme weather has shed a new light on the risk of not being covered versus trying to get by with the bare minimum.  What we'll see going forward with a comprehensive spray program is a marked increase in overall quality of the fairways through the entire summer.

More next week when we discuss upcoming fall projects.

The Equinox Approaches

Aerification
September 12th will be the start of fall greens aerification. This will be our third of four aerifications for the year. Following the greens will be tee and a few fairway aerifications.  Course will be closed to play on September 13th to complete this work and will re-open on the 14th.

Readying the fleet

The Rest of The Story
While the course conditions for the Labor Day Classic were near perfect, 7 green was going through a challenge due to a mainline break just days before the tournament. This created a water deficit on the green in spite of our watering by hand.  The fix won't be quick or simple as the line broke directly underneath a mature Sycamore tree near the green. It will call for abandoning the line.
Over the day, the heat and dryness won out and the green became unreceptive to even the greatest of our Tuscarora players.

Worst spot for a break

  The irrigation line will have to be re-routed as we weigh future course plans in the area.  We regret the hardness that was experienced there, it wasn't on purpose and we did know about it. The green is in fine condition in spite of it.  
On the whole, the condition of the course was great.  It was a good challenge and nobody lost a limb in the end. As scores indicated, as they always do, the best shotmakers who adapted to conditions won the day. 

Disease
Of the many nice things about Tuscarora is how well it drains. It's a boon for the property in rainy times, though, this summer showed how much of a bane it can be as well. The grasses in the fairways are a selection of coarse species. We have a little bit of everything that I call a "Heinz 57" mix.  In comparison, courses like Bellevue, Turning Stone, or Lakeshore have a smoother mix composed of creeping bentgrass. We consider bentgrass a weed at Tuscarora by virtue of having nearly none of it in the fairways. It sticks out and looks like it doesn't belong.  
Within our Heinz 57 mix are several types of weaker grass that succumb to disease pressure, as we saw over the last two weeks on parts of 3 fairway and 8 fairway. These worn out areas will be overseeded in the coming week. 

untreated 3 Fairway on the mend

untreated 17 fairway not a scratch 

We do treat our wettest fairways with fungicides based on their history of disease susceptibility, but never have budgeted a complete program that covers all fairways as the majority are tough enough to make it through our summer without a problem. 
This is changing. 
We're seeing a higher incidence of disease outbreaks over the last 10 years. We'll be revisiting establishing a fairway fungicide program to address future warming weather trends.  This keeps the course moving forward and help the fairways stay in top condition all year.  This will also help protect against mounting stresses from increased rounds and cart traffic.  Beyond that, it will increase overall quality and aesthetics of our fairways which compliments  the condition of the rest of the course.  We're also be looking at reinstituting our annual overseeding program that was such a success from years ago. We're pricing seeders and will have a better idea what direction we'll head on that by 2017.

Out of Range
The USGA recommends a range tee size of 1 acre (43,560 square feet) for an average 18 hole golf club in the Northeast. Tees smaller than this need to reduce usage by using mats.

Cartpaths are for other people

Our range tee is 8,000 square feet - that's small for what's being asked of it.  We hit off grass 4 days of the week and overseed the worn areas twice a week.  We'll be looking at how to improve the speed of recovery this fall.   It may come to resodding the whole tee to a more resilient species like we see with the success of the new 18th tee.  That tee was sodded to a very hardy dwarf Kentucky Bluegrass that seems to recover very quickly. Two other clubs currently do this now - Lakeshore and Calvary. It's expensive, but it's a solution.  
Here's a blurb on tees from the USGA. Nothing we don't know, but good info on everything except how to acquire cheap land near the club.
http://gsrpdf.lib.msu.edu/ticpdf.py?file=/2000s/2005/050712.pdf