October 12, 2012

I am often asked what I think the coming winter will be like, and to be honest, I really don’t know. That at least leaves me on par with the local tv weather guys and gals. Difference is I just admit I don’t know.

Believe it or not, I once was a geeky meteorology major at Penn State, if only for a few semesters. I found though, that I enjoyed looking down a lot better than looking up, and that atmospheric physics and algorithms just weren’t my thing.  So came turf school....

If I were forced to guess what this winter will be like, I would have to say that I think it will be a bit more “wintry” than what we are used to. I say this because the leaves are falling a lot earlier this year. The signs of turf shutting down are also earlier this year than in past years. The woolly caterpillar has a longer red middle than its combined black sections. And the goats have winter coats already.  Tomorrow we might have frost....

But honestly, I really don’t know right now. I do know that if you ask me next March I will have a better answer. Just like Al.

October 2, 2012

A few updates:

Silvio Villalba has been accepted to the Rutgers Professional Turf Management Program beginning  January  2013. Rutgers is the same school that our assistant, Rick Shetler graduated from. Silvio has been working here at Greate Bay for seven years now doing every type of job there is on a golf course. I hope that you will join me in wishing him the best of luck!

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For the remainder of the season, we have moved to mats only on the driving range tee. Being a warm season grass, the bermuda grass is going dormant with the cooler temperatures and shortened fall days. It has stopped growth and no longer has the ability to heal. Any divots now will not heal until late next spring – with the amount of use it could receive between now and late spring, there probably would be little grass left, providing a huge opportunity for weeds to reestablish and the quality of the hitting surface compromised well into summer

We overseeded the bermuda with ryegrass (GLS resistant ryegrass) this week to help protect it and to provide colour through the winter months. We also applied a fungicide to protect the roots, which if infected, cause the bermuda grass to die off in patches during the winter. This phenomenon is referred to as Spring Dead Spot.

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Plenty of bentgrass seedlings are pushing up where we have overseeded the fairways. Thanks to everyone for avoiding these areas with cart traffic. It is really paying off. The more bent we establish in the fairways the better they will be. Also, bluegrass seedlings are just coming up in the rough. 

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We have finished aerating and deep verticutting tees. We also overseeded them with bentgrass. Through the next week or so we will be taking the gradens to the approaches to reduce the thatch that has developed in these areas. I hope to post pictures of the operation in the very near future.

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I am always asked about the goats and if they are “union”, since I give them a few days off each week... Its hard to eat poison ivy every day so I give ‘em a break and put them on hay to change up and balance their diet. This keeps them from getting bored, fat, and/or under nourished. Also, back at the farm, I observe them for health reasons and we trim their hooves and do a bit of training so that they are easier to manage. While they are back at the farm, we take the opportunity to move their pen to a different area on the course. So it’s not like they are lazy, sleeping, or having a beer while watching Jerry Springer go at it with Dr. Phil, although I have to readily admit that they are a bit more spoiled than most other goats.

September 22, 2012

Area thinned by Grey Leaf Spot

These past few weeks we have been challenged in some fairway areas and rough with a turf disease known as grey leaf spot. Grey leaf spot, or gls, primarily attacks perennial ryegrasses and tall fescue. It’s a fast acting disease, spreads easily, and can blight large areas of turf in a matter of a day or two from the time of the first infection. It is a hard disease to detect, and is usually only recognized after the damage is done. The telltale sign that it is or was gls are dead rye grass leaves twisted up like a corkscrew.

During the three days that we aerated the fairways the weather was wet with rains and showers from the remnants of hurricane Issac. The turf never got too many chances to dry out, and I believe that was when we were initially affected. I think that the drag matts and blowers helped spread the disease. Underneath the plugs and debris on the fairways, and with all the activity of the staff running in all directions focusing not on just the fairway aeration, but also on the greens aeration, we never saw it. Only when we got the fairways cleaned up, we were able to see areas that had collapsed.

As soon as we realized that the damage was from gls, we applied a fungicide to stop it from spreading any further, and began overseeding damaged areas. Our primary overseeding of the fairway areas was with bentgrass and the roughs with a low cut bluegrass. For the most part, we are finishing this up, but I am sure that there will be areas that don’t fully take and will need to be seeded again – nothing is perfect which is why God gave us patience.

Not that I am whining, but it is very challenging to seed and germinate grass seed in the best of conditions, but under the heavy cart traffic, which is the norm here, it will be an even harder thing to do. Spouts just dont take traffic!

So I am asking that everyone as much as possible avoid driving in any areas that look thin, and don’t knock down the ropes where we have put them up to protect some of the sensitive areas. Please drive carefully and don’t “nascar” the cart or go doing doughnuts or sharp turning when looking for your ball. Those tires are a gun to the head of sprouts and young plants. The other option, which I am ready to take if I don’t see cooperation, is to close off areas and entire holes to carts, making it cartpath only. I can put the seed in the ground, but after that, its up to all of us to get a good stand of turf.

September 12, 2012

After aeration, many members have told me that I must be happy that things are slowing down and that I can rest...

I wish!

Things never slow down! Although we were able to finish the green and fairway aeration last week, we still have a lot to do! Our season and work is far from over!

This week we began tee aeration, which we do “in play”, by doing just a few tee boxes at a time on each hole, shifting the tee markers back and forth to the ones we are not working on. This method is time and labor consuming, and will take us a few weeks to finish.

Meanwhile, we are re-seeding the rough areas that thinned over the summer, and overseeding the fairways with bentgrass. This too, is a slow, but methodical process. When we finish these we will overseed the tees with bentgrass.

We are beginning “spring” weed control! Most weeds are best controlled in the fall so that they won’t become a problem the next coming spring. We have started to spray out broadleaf weeds such as clover, plantains, dandelion, etc. We have to coordinate these sprays with seeding because the herbicide will also kill any new seedlings that we have seeded, so there is a lot of planning and timing involved.

When these are finished it will be time to aerate the rough – a job that takes 3-4 weeks.

We also plan to lime the fairways to bring our calcuim levels up.  This will be a huge job – spreading about 3 tons lime per acre!

Slow down? Rest? We probably won’t until there is six inches of snow on the ground!

September 1, 2012

It’s that time of the year again! Over the next few weeks, we will begin performing our necessary cultural practices to help maintain healthy turf. We started this week by verti-cutting the new Bermuda grass tees on #7, and the driving range tee.

Adan operating the Graden

Cleaning up the clippings

Justin breaking up the clippings

Max mowing the tee

Isidro topdressing the tee

Justin dragging in the sand

Ryan applying fertilizer

Watering in the sand and fertilizer

Next week, on September 4th and 5th, we will aerate the greens and fairways.

August 17, 2012

Now you see it....

...now you don't!

Its amazing what three little goats can do in a few days!

August 10, 2012

In this weeks paper the weather made the front page – 2012 is so far the warmest/ hottest year on record. I don’t know if the weather service reports humidity records, but if I had my guess, it also has to be the most humid. At least it seems that way.

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We made the 2012 Best of the Press – GOLD for the BEST golf course! This is the third year in a row that we have been given the BEST golf course award!

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Soon we will be installing laser reflectors on the top of the pins. These will work with any laser rangefinder. If you are not currently using a rangefinder, Mark Parson can help find the right one for you!

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The goats are doing what we thought they would do – eating up the lower brush and the poison ivy on the left wood side of the 7^th hole. They made the news in Philadelphia this week – WIP94 sports radio personalities Angelo Cataldi and Al Morganti talked about our goats on Wednesday morning and then again, with Steve Coates, on the  Friday morning show.

Maybe next year we will use chickens for insect control !!!!! Just kidding.....

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Ryan, our intern, has been bringing in his dog, Claude, for goose control. Claude has chased away the flock that hung out in and around the pond on 18, and is keeping tabs on the rest of the course for any “newbies” that might land.