Over the past weekend I noticed a pattern shape on several greens of over regulation. After looking at it I noticed that the pattern was the same on every green that had it but I could not determine what was the cause. Yesterday, Bob Dobek from JC Resorts looked at the areas with me and noticed that each of the patterns were near old cup setting but at the time niether of us could figure the root cause of the pattern. After thinking about it all day I recalled that the same team member who setups the golf course also is the same team member who has been spraying Round Up on the weeds ... then it dawned on me that the pattern was from the setup bag itself and this morning I confirmed that fact.
The bag was set in the cart after he finished spraying for the day and soaked up some of the Round Up in the bed of the cart. Everytime he later set this bag on a green that had dew, the dew activated the Round Up thus in such low quanities led to growth regulation of the spot. The good news is that it is a very small quanity and we are treating all the affected areas today with charcoal. Full recovery should be soon.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Greens
After the topdressing and the heavy rolling the green speed jump right back up. We would have topdressed them again today; however, this morning the frost raised its ugly head once again and we were forced to wait until another day. We did spray them this morning with a growth regulator which will help them maintain speed as the temperature rises next week.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Green Speed
As I stated nine days ago in my blog we were trying to slow down the green speed and improve the wear areas caused by the lower soil temperatures from the past three weeks ... well we have been successful ... the green speeds are back to a 9 on the stimpmeter (taken this morning). You may asked "why did they slow over night?" ... well they didn't, between increased irrigation due to record setting high temperatures and applications to improve the overall health of the turf the greens are currently not as firm as they were a week ago. As I cut back on the water this weekend they will speed right back up.
As the greens recover thanks to the increased temperatures we will start the rolling and topdressing of the greens. Yesterday, we lightly topdressed them and we have plans (depending if the weather trend continues) to lightly topdress them again on Friday. Rolling of the greens along with regular topdressings are slated to start next week. And by the Founder's next week they will be rolling quite nicely.
As the greens recover thanks to the increased temperatures we will start the rolling and topdressing of the greens. Yesterday, we lightly topdressed them and we have plans (depending if the weather trend continues) to lightly topdress them again on Friday. Rolling of the greens along with regular topdressings are slated to start next week. And by the Founder's next week they will be rolling quite nicely.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Green Speed & Wear
Lately with the cooler weather the green speed has been creeping up past 11 and sometimes higher. For the small postage stamp greens such as at Avondale these speeds are too quick and we have been working hard to slow them down. Today, we will be fertilizing them again even after just fertilizing them on Sunday to promote some much needed growth.
Speaking of growth ... with higher green speeds we are forced to use mainly center positions to make them fun for the members of Avondale. But this has an extreme cost ... we are experiencing heavy wear in the center region of several greens (i.e. 12, 5, etc.). The only way to combat this wear until the soil temperatures increase is to use outlying positions ... which are much hated by the membership as a whole. Last Saturday (zone C) we had to do exactly that so we could preserve the center regions somewhat for the upcoming two day ladies event the Eclectic which always requests that we use the same zone for both days.
So what does this mean ... well this means that the zones in general will be switched about to allow this (see the Pro Shop for what the daily position will be over the upcoming week) wear to be evened out. In addition, this means that on the 16th of January (the next time zone C will be used) the most difficult pin positions will be selected. I should note the general there will be some difficult positions here and there selected to preserve the turf until the soil temperatures rise again.
Speaking of growth ... with higher green speeds we are forced to use mainly center positions to make them fun for the members of Avondale. But this has an extreme cost ... we are experiencing heavy wear in the center region of several greens (i.e. 12, 5, etc.). The only way to combat this wear until the soil temperatures increase is to use outlying positions ... which are much hated by the membership as a whole. Last Saturday (zone C) we had to do exactly that so we could preserve the center regions somewhat for the upcoming two day ladies event the Eclectic which always requests that we use the same zone for both days.
So what does this mean ... well this means that the zones in general will be switched about to allow this (see the Pro Shop for what the daily position will be over the upcoming week) wear to be evened out. In addition, this means that on the 16th of January (the next time zone C will be used) the most difficult pin positions will be selected. I should note the general there will be some difficult positions here and there selected to preserve the turf until the soil temperatures rise again.
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