Greens aerification and rough managment

A rainy day gives me a chance to write up a new post since it has been awhile.  The course is looking pretty good and should really jump next week with some sunshine. 

Next week (May 2 and 3) we will be aerating greens similarly to last fall.  We use a 3/8 tine but go slowly to poke a lot of holes.  Our goal with the numerous holes is to impact a large amount of surface area and give roots lots of growing spaces.  The smaller hole though should be able to fill faster than a larger 1/2" or 5/8" hole like we use in the fairways.  We want to minimize the healing time but still get the agronomic benefits of aeration. 
We went several years without aeration or very small needle tine aeration.  We felt like we were able to manage thatch adequately with topdressing, but our greens were starting to become slightly compacted and the root structure was declining so we have implemented this new regime of spring and fall greens aeration.  We know you all hate having to putt bumpy greens but we are confident that our greens will be better off because of this practice.  In fact we are already seeing improved rooting due to last falls' aerification. 
Everyone wants to know how long until greens will return to "normal" after an aerification.   That is always tricky and depends quite a bit on the weather.  Soil temperatures are still a bit cool which can hamper recovery but we are hopeful for a warm week following the process which would improve recovery.   Usually within a week putting quality is pretty good and within 14 days the greens are pretty much healed.  We make every attempt to heal them by timing fertilizer applications to promote accelerated growth right after the process.  Also we may skip a mowing or two to help them maximize their growth potential.  This can lead to slower greens for a few days but the "back to normal" will be realized sooner.

I apologize for not having a picture of the next topic discussion but it is pretty easy to see if you have been out here.  I am referring to the brown strip around the edge of first cut of rough.   Late last fall we applied roundup to kill the unwanted bluegrass that was dominating this interface between rough and fairway.  By spraying late in the season the native warm season grasses that we want are not harmed and only the cool season bluegrass and bromes are killed.   It may look like it is all dead in that strip but there will be some warm season grasses come back in there as the season progresses.  Unfortunately there are some areas that were nearly 100% bluegrass that will be pretty bare for awhile but over time natives will reestablish.   The other problem with having open ground is the potential for weeds but we will try to keep them under control through the season.  

You can read more about our rough management philosophy in a previous post but our goal with this process is to avoid the rough becoming too thick along the edge of the fairways.   It may take a few years to get to the composition of grasses we want in that area but in the meantime it should make for easier ball spotting and playability.

Course Update

Usually March is a hurry up and wait kind of a month for our maintenance practices.  You want to get going with mowing, fertilizing, aerification, and such but the turf really isn't ready for it due to the normal March schizophrenic weather.   This year has been a bit different though with several nice days to get some projects done.  As usual this time of year we have been doing some touchups on bunkers and cart paths, but we have also been able to get some minor sodwork done around the edges of some greens to replace some weak turf and eliminate some ridging along the green/collar interface.   Also we reshaped a couple of areas to eliminate runoff into bunkers most noticeably along the left edge of #1 green.   New tees on #15 and 17 have been shaped and await seed once the time arrives for that.  Yesterday we pulled off our prescribed burn and blackened a good majority of the course.  And we have even got a jumpstart on fairway aerification due to the early spring.   So I am quite pleased with all we have accomplished this month which usually isn't all that productive.

We have mowed greens three times now, but are still waiting to mow fairways and tees.   They tend to green up and then sit there and don't do much until soil temps climb into the 50s.  All is looking good and we should start mowing consistently in a couple of weeks.

Leopard Greens

There has been a couple questions asking about the yellow spots on the greens.  Those spots are poa annua that we dabbed Roundup on to get rid of.  Early in the season the poa gets a head start on the bentgrass making it easier to pick out the clusters of poa to target with nonselective herbicides.  We have worked hard to keep our greens relatively free of poa through our cultural practices and this is another way to keep poa populations to a minimum.   As you may have noticed some greens have more poa than others and there may seem like lots of spots because they are so noticeable, but the overall population of poa is under 1%.  As the course ages, poa will continue to invade but we will always be trying to keep it out to maintain high quality pure bentgrass greens.  These spots are much like ball marks and will fill in with bentgrass when the turf starts actively growing.

Green Greens Already!

Here's a picture of our first greensmowing of the year-- Looking pretty good.  This took place on March 3 easily the earliest we have ever mowed.  Most years our first mowing occurs around the 20-25th of March.  Last year with the severe winter and cold spring was the latest first mowing and that occurred on April 5.   Definitely ahead of schedule this year and turf looking good.


Below is a picture of a covered knob on #7 green.  It looks worse than the rest of the green which is not usually the case for covered turf but it can and has happened a couple of other years.   This is one reason we are not gung-ho on covering all our greens.  During warmer winters the turf can stay too active under the covers and continue to use soil moisture leading to dessication.  Or the still active turf can get hit by a cold snap that it hasn't prepared itself for.   So while covers are often beneficial  they do not guarantee turf survival in all winters.   The damage you see below is pretty superficial but recovery will take some time.   A couple more days under that cover without water though and that turf would have been toast.

Aerification Schedule

Wow, spring has sprung which means aerification is just around the corner.  Here are some dates we plan on poking holes to help you schedule your golfing days to avoid our "mess".

April 5-6 Greens surrounds (one nine per day)

April 7-15  Fairways (couple of holes per day)

May 2-3  Greens  (one nine per day/ other nine will be closed)  3/8" holes should be healed in about a week


We do our very best to get this done as quickly as possible and recover the turf so play disruption is minimal.  Aeration is the cornerstone to building a great turf so we appreciate your patience and understanding when we perform this necessary task.

Opening Day

Wild Horse will be opening on schedule March 1 with carts allowed.  Each opening day brings anticipation from you the golfer but we as a maintenance  staff are always anxious to get back in the swing of things too.  Here are some reasons we are excited to begin another great season of golf at Wild Horse.

1)  The turf is looking great!  Winter has been much more kind to us this year so greens and fairways should be coming into spring in fine shape.

2)  New greensmowers!  We just received a new model of greensmower that we are anxious to use this season.  While there will be some minor differences to adjust to for us, this new mower style should provide an even better quality of cut resulting in a smoother putting surface.  With the recent weather we might get to use them earlier than ever!

3)  A bolstered fairway mowing fleet.  We purchased a used fairway mower to give us more reliability and flexibility in our fairway mowers.  Our fairway area of 54 acres is nearly double that of most other courses.  We spend around 800 hours mowing fairways in a season so having dependable equipment is crucial.  

4)  A completed transition to bluegrass/ryegrass greens surrounds.   We have talked about this often in other posts and we are thrilled with how well this transition has went.  While it might not seem like too big a deal to many of you, switching turf species with relatively little disruption is tricky but will pay dividends long term in how we manage that turf and how it affects playability around the greens.

5)  Better looking bunkers.  This is a subtle nuance that you will probably not notice.  However a before and after picture would clearly detail the last fall's renovation of some of the bunkers to a more rugged look.   Over time bunker edges had become too "smooth"  so we tried to return them to the blowout styled edges that were originally conceived by the designers.

6)  An intact staff.  I am very lucky to have a great group of guys that really like coming to work and take pride in providing a great product for you to enjoy.   Many have been with me for a few years and I am happy to say they all return for 2016.

7)  Last but most exciting for our facility is that the lodging cabins are nearly complete and ready for your stay.  This is a whole new venture for Wild Horse that we think will add to your experience here.

Blizzard

It's been several years since we have had a snowstorm like we had last week.  I forgot how much snow can pile up in certain places as seen in the picture just above.  It took us an hour to get this far on the cart path from the parking lot to #1 tee.   We will continue to clear out some cart paths so that we can start to get around the course and possibly be ready for carts on March 1.  That is still a long ways off so we will see what Mother Nature deals us in the weeks to come.

The top picture shows #1.  As you can see all is white except the fairway and green.   The second picture shows #9 green completely void of snow.  The wind whipped all 10" of snow off the turf and deposited it in the rough or beyond.   So all the benefit of a good snow was unfortunately negated by the strong winds.  The turf only has 25% coverage and greens even less than that with 10% covered.  That being said the turf still looks pretty good at this point of the winter.  We are looking forward to getting back out on the course and starting up the golf season.