Spots on the Edges of the Greens

As a few of you may have noticed there are "spots" on the edges of several greens. Since we want the fastest green speed that we can obtain we barely foliar feed the green's turf to keep it slightly growing for ball mark repair but very hungry in general. During the recent fertilizing of the green surrounds our team member accidentally threw a few fertilizer prills onto the greens -- thus leading to the green spots that you see on the edges. The good news is that over time these will blend back into the green.

Now as for the "white spots" on the greens, this is caused by Poa Annua that is starting to seed head. Luckily, these spots are on yet fewer greens and we are working on plugging them out as fast as we can. Sadly, the chemicals that kill this type of Poa also kill the Poa Triv.

Joint Lunch With Desert Falls

On Wed. one of the vendor's of both Desert Falls and of Avondale GC hosted a joint hamburger cookout for lunch. It was the first time that the two teams which on several occasions have helped each other gotten together to meet. Team building such as this not other improves our team's morale during these troubling economic times but shows them that other golf courses are facing the same issues that they are facing here.

Upcoming Events

Starting next week we will be prepping for the Avondale Classic. This prep we are planning will include lowering the HOC (height of cut) of the greens, topdressing and heavy rolling to build the green speed as high as we can while keeping them playable. Starting in April we will have to start the verticutting of the greens along with spiking to improve the health and compaction that occurs over the season. At first these processes will be disruptive but quickly there after most will not even notice we are doing it.

CV Vector Control

Coachella Valley Vector control (CVVC) was on property today installed the eye gnat traps around the golf course. Here at Avondale we were for years involved with the eye gnat program but due to budget cuts on the State level over the past two years we haven't been involved. The traps have been place as of this morning and will be filled with bait in the next couple of days. You will see these traps wired to the trees and I would encourage you not to touch them since the are filled with rotten egg mix.

Speaking of CVVC they will be coming out to address the fire ants and other ant species on May 2nd. This usually is quite a big process involving up to 10 of their people baiting and treating the golf course. I would strongly encourage that you inform others that you know whom walk their dogs on the golf course or release their cats at night not to do so during that time. The baits are placed all around the golf course using meats as the attractants. If our pets eat these baits they may become sick.

Upcoming Timelines

Upcoming Week:

a) Mar 14th foliar spraying the greens including Primo.
b) Mar 15th spraying the greens with Cascade, X-Solis & Acelepryn
c) Mar 17th lightly topdressing the greens.

In Near Future:

a) Mar 22nd lightly topdressing the greens.
e) Mar 23rd heavy rolling the greens.
f) Mar 24th heavy rolling the greens.
g) Mar 25th either heavy or lightly rolling the greens.
h) Mar 26th light rolling the greens.
i) Mar 28th foliar spraying the greens including Primo.
j) Apr 4th granular fertilizing the greens.
k) Apr 5th light topdressing the greens.
l) Apr 7th heavy rolling the greens.
m) Apr 11th foliar spraying greens including Primo.
n) Apr 12th light topdressing the greens.
o) Apr 16th heavy rolling the greens.
p) Apr 18th foliar spraying greens including Primo
q) Apr 19th either heavy rolling or lightly topdressing the greens.
r) Apr 21st heavy rolling the greens.
s) Apr 25th foliar spraying the greens 12-0-0, Primo & Roots.

Note: Primo is a turfgrass growth regulator

Green Speed

As the weather finally warms up and the bermudagrass base of the greens starts to grow over the upcoming week we will experience a slowing of the green's speed. We will address this slowing down with rolling, the addition of growth regulators, topdressing and coming soon light verticutting to remove the grain of the turf.

The good news is that the greens are still rolling very nicely and the speed is still about 10 on the stimpmeter.

Maintenance Building Painting

As many of you know the maintenance building has been painted thus removing the staining that was such an eyesore when you were on 4's green. The first coat of paint was a bright blue for which numerous complaints came to the Board, GM and myself ... but I believe that most are pleased with the final coats of paint.

What many of you do not know is that all of the costs of the painting of the building were not paid by Avondale Golf Club, instead were paid by the generosity of two members -- Mr. Howard & Mr. Mercier. So I want to extend our thanks to the both of them for stepping up to the plate and getting this done for the Club.