Least Than Month & Transition is Progressing Well

When we started the transition on 6-15-11 during the first aerficaition we knew that with the cooler weather than transition this year was going to be an ugly one.  As with other golf courses around the Valley that are lucky enough to have common bermudagrass instead of those easier transitioning turfs such as 328, Tifsport and 419 Tifway transition is always for us at first an ugly process.  But as with the other bermudagrasses we will and do catch back up to their level in about a month ... and we are here too.

                                           6-10-11 (5's Fairway Before Transition)

At first due to the weather being cooler the fairways that were chemically treated looked quite ugly and appeared to only have 40% turfgrass coverage (See picture 6-20-11) but this is not the reality ...

                                           6-20-11 (5's Fairway Just Starting Transition)

the ryegree starts to die giving the fairways a "browning" color and then the bermudagrass which is under the ryegrass is given a chance to grow back though ... but this doesn't happen overnight and for two weeks actually becomes worst looking until all the ryegrass finally dies.

                                                  6-30-11 (Finish Ryegrass Death)
Once that happens the bermudagrass fills back in (such as what we are seeing right now) and is given a chance to grow for the 100 days required to to continue to have healthier turf for the rest of the

                                          7-4-11 (5's Fairway Filling in with Bermudagrass)
summer and for the future.  Currently, 19 days into this transition process we on average have 75%+ recovery of our fairways and 95% recovery of our greens.  Once we get through next week's drill and fill of the greens we will start the process of speeding them back up for the remainder of the summer.  All of this is in just over ONE month ... not the entire summer.