An incredible finish to the Masters. A golf course at the pinnacle of turf management. When I get to work Monday morning I'm going to see different landscape than the scenery at Augusta. All I can do is smile and get at it. As Eric, my assistant has so eloquently stated, "We have to put Humpty Dumpty back together again."
Work on the LREP will begin in a week or two. The heavy snow last Thursday still lingers and has delayed the drying process. We haven't ventured out on the course yet but I imagine there are some trees that fell and branches on the ground and many that are cracked and hanging. A large section of the driving range net tore down as well. I'll report on any damage from the storm later in the week. This blog will outline how the turf came through the winter. I ask you to keep in mind 2 important factors. The first being that considering the less than ideal snowfall cover the turf had to deal with we came through in pretty fair condition. The second point, being very important now and moving forward, is that our club is now a Poa/bentgrass mix on the greens, Poa/bentgrass mix on the tees and Poa/bluegrass mix on the fairways.
We have been keeping a close eye on the greens the last 2 weeks and I think I'm going nuts. The bentgrass on the greens is fine even though it was under ice in some spots. Most superintendents love it for that reason, myself included. Trying to assess the Poa annua when it isn't bright green (like it was last spring) is another matter. No matter how many years I have spent dealing with Poa I am loathe to say everything is fine until it is actively growing. That being said I think I can report now that most of the Poa on our greens, tees and fairways came through winter okay. Most of it. Some of it didn't. We found ice cover on a few greens and a shallow layer of snow cover in other spots resulted in poor insulation.
I was visiting with a good friend of mine over the weekend (also a course superintendent) and we both chuckled that damaged or dead turf on a green is almost like a blow to the ego. Especially when there is no disease damage (something we can control no matter the winter). Nature gives and nature takes I guess. I hate any damaged turf especially on greens. Waiting for recovery is problematic for grounds crew and golfer alike.
Starting with the practice greens there is some damage at the east side of the warmup green and some damaged Poa on the east side of the practice green. On the front nine the 6th green is weak on the right edge. The 7th green will not dry out as the internal drain lines are frozen and water is coming up onto the surface. There is a damaged section on the front (where the water is pooling) and Poa problems over the right half of the green. The 8th green is not looking good along the front behind the bunker and towards the right side. The back nine greens looked pretty good last week although #15 may be slow coming around in its cool, shaded location. Of course the front of #18 is still a mess from the retaining wall work last fall but we will be working on that shortly. It is my belief that each green will come around in due time but not necessarily all together. The course is a mixed bag of micro environments. A less than ideal winter reinforces the differences throughout the property. In fact each green can have several different types of Poa annua as well. Some will do better than others. I have already seen Poa patches look great while 12 inches away a different "poa sub species" (genotype is the actual term) looks very weak.
The next step is to make sure the greens do not dry out. Poa has a very shallow root system and it almost has to start from scratch in the spring. That top inch in the profile cannot dry out. A lot of Poa is lost in the spring if conditions are too dry. Tank watering is now the order of the day. You can probably guess we were pretty happy with the moisture we received last week. Rain is better but we can't be fussy right now.
In closing, our opening date of April 20th may have to be revised later on this week. Stay tuned. Call my cell (780-203-4211) or email me (wpeckham@mayfair.ca) if you would like to further discuss matters concerning the golf course. Note: this blog has not been proofed so please excuse any errors.
All for now,
Wade
No comments:
Post a Comment