Winter Weed Prevention

Over the past few days, we applied a product to the entire course called Specticle. This is a liquid pre-emergent that is very effective against most common cool season annual weeds, especially poa annua, or annual bluegrass. We used this product for the first time last season, and saw great success in suppressing not only the winter weeds, but many of the weeds that we expected to see an emergence of in the spring and summer months. This product works by creating a barrier atop the soil surface, so you will notice that we will be running some water around the course behind the application. Last season we were only able to use this product on our well established roughs since our re-surfaced tees and fairways didn't have enough time to establish. Because this product works by suppressing new plant growth, our short grass needed more than a year to develop and grow. This year we will be applying this product to the entire course except for the greens. Not only will this process provide us with a significant reduction in weed emergence, it will also give us the opportunity to focus our daily tasks on more detailed touch up work in other areas of the course.

Watering in the product on hole #2

Divot Patterns

  As we enter the busy golf season, our practice facilities will see much more action than in the summer season. Since the turf is slower to recover in the colder months, it is important to understand which divot patterns will result in the quickest turf recovery. This will help insure that there is minimal time needed to re-grow these areas in-between range station rotations and will promote smoother and more consistent practice surfaces. Please take a few minutes to read this article from the USGA which explains this in more detail.

http://www.usga.org/course_care/regional_updates/regional_reports/midcontinent/Does-Your-Divot-Pattern-Help-Or-Hurt-The-Golf-Course----September-2014/

Summer Recap

 As the summer season begins to slow down, we have completed the majority of our summer cultivation work and are starting to focus on details. It is now time to prepare for the fall transition and insure that the course will sustain the winter months. All of our work over the summer is primarily geared toward helping us achieve this, and I would like to briefly recap what we have done during the growing season.

Aerification:
 We aerified three times this year and our greens are continuing to fill in nicely since the most recent aerification. Again, this process serves many vital purposes to the overall health of our greens. It helps to remove the excess thatch layer and build a stronger, deeper, and more dense root structure. Although we will not be doing any more heavy sand applications, we still need to continue to topdress the greens periodically. These applications will be very light and will not greatly affect play.

Curfew:
 In July we made a Curfew application to the greens, which is very beneficial in controlling our nematode population. Nematodes are microscopic root feeders and can be very difficult to control. This application was made to all of our greens and to the most problematic areas on tees and fairways. The product is applied as a liquid that is injected several inches into the soil profile. As it makes contact with moisture, it volatilizes into a gas, escaping to the surface and killing nematodes on contact.

This is the tractor unit used to apply the Curfew to the greens.

A look at the discs that cut the slits for the product injection.

DryJect:
 DryJect is a process that provides many of the same benefits of core aerification without the need to remove material from the greens profile. The DryJect machines used high pressure to inject large amounts of sand into the greens to help amend the soil and improve water movement and root density.

The end result is a large amount of sand in the profile without removing any material.

Our crew worked with the machine operators to fill them with sand as they went.

As we move forward, we will focus on detail work and preparing to transition. Now that the aggressive cultivation work is done, we can begin to dial in our mowing heights around the course and work to maintain smooth and consistent playing surfaces. As always, we will continue monitoring for weeds and insects and will treat the course accordingly. Our fertilizer and pesticide applications will also be adjusted to compensate for the changing seasons. As I said, all of our efforts throughout the summer months have been geared toward sustaining the upcoming months. It has been a very productive summer and we are looking forward to the busy golfing season!

Time to Focus on Weed Control

Now that our major cultivation work is out of the way for a while, we can switch gears to focus on detail work and weed control. This week we finished applying a product called Ronstar. Ronstar is a preventive herbicide that works by preventing weed seeds from germinating and reaching the surface. It is blended with a fertilizer so it will also provide a green up effect and assist our turf with filling in after aerification. This application was made to the entire course to help with weed control in our roughs and other surrounding areas. Since different annual weeds germinate with different seasons, we do this application every few months. We will also continue to address spraying of weeds that have already established around the course and in bed areas. With continued applications of preventive herbicides and constant monitoring of weed activity, we can continue to maintain manageable weed populations.

The application was done "wall to wall" with a tractor spreader unit.

Smaller areas that were difficult to get to with the tractor were done with push spreaders.

Time for Primo

The summer season is upon us and our maintenance program is changing to adapt to the conditions. One of the things we will be doing following aerification and verticutting is applying a product called Primo. Primo works by slowing down the vertical growth of our grasses and encouraging lateral growth at the same time. In other words, it helps to reduce mowing frequency and increase the turf density. It will assist our fertilizers in helping to strengthen and fill in our tees, fairways, and approaches following aerification. One possible drawback to this application is that we may see slight bronzing, which is only temporary and will not damage any turf. As our grasses are entering the peak of the growing season, we begin to see an increase in grass clippings around the course. Primo will help to reduce these clippings, leaving cleaner playing surfaces and less cleanup work as we progress through the summer season.

Spraying 7 fairway

Tees and fairways were sprayed with the spray rig. The approaches will be sprayed by hand with a spray hawk for a more accurate application.

Round 2...

Our second wave of greens aerification is complete and we are still continuing the Graden and aerification process on our fairways. We also aerified the tees and approaches this time as opposed to only verticutting as we did last time. As I said earlier, these processes are a critical part of alleviating traffic stress and maintaining a proper thatch layer on our playing surfaces. Our greens are already healing over faster this time for a few different reasons. We were able to get a sufficient fertilizer application down following aerification while avoiding heavy flushing rains afterward.

Here is a look at the process...
First, the greens are verticut and the clippings are blown off before they are topdressed

Once the topdressing is applied, the greens are then aerified

After aerification, the cores are dragged, blown off and picked up. Each green is then brushed to incorporate the sand into the profile, rolled, fertilized, and watered. 

The approaches were also aerified, cleaned off, topdressed, and dragged

Here is a look at 2 fairway following the Graden process

We will be doing more verticutting and a few other cultural practices during this summer season to insure that our playing surfaces are stronger and will be ready for next upcoming season. However, none will be to the extent of the Graden process.

Summer Work Has Begun

As you all have noticed, we have begun the first phase of our aerification and verticutting processes around the course. Although they are disruptive to the quality of our playing surfaces, it is important to realize that these cultural practices are essential to the health and sustainability of our grasses. Aerification is a process that relieves the compaction from the traffic of our busy season and helps eliminate the thatch layer that has built up over the fall and winter months. Verticutting also removes thatch build up and promotes new growth that results in a smoother, more consistent playing surface. On the greens, we follow up with a layer of topdressing sand to fill the aerification holes with fresh sand. We then apply fertilizer to stimulate quick recovery and new plant growth. Our overall process on the greens this year was different than years past. After monitoring the greens following aerification, our next aerification will be fine tuned for quicker recovery. We will repeat these processes throughout the summer to establish a strong foundation for the busy season, and information on the dates when we will be doing this work will be made available through the pro shop.

The driving range tees are in the process of recovering from the spring transition. The reason we saw struggling surfaces was partly because of overseed transition and partly because of heavy damage from divots. Ideally, new grasses require about a year of growth and development before they are strong enough to grow with the competition of the winter grasses. However, due to the fact that the practice areas take on significantly more divots than fairways, we needed to insure that we had a full stand of turf in these areas. Now that all the overseed has died out, we have increased our fertilizer applications to the practice areas and are beginning to see strong recovery.

The verti-cut lines on fairways are nearly healed from the first verti-cut.

Aerification holes on greens are fully sealed and ready for round 2.

How To Stay Green In The Winter

We have been very pleased with our new grasses on the course throughout the winter so far, as they have maintained color and resiliency even through the coldest stretch of the season. One of the factors we took into consideration when selecting new turf for the renovation was their cold weather tolerance. Most warm season grasses shut down and enter dormancy during this time of year. There are many reasons why selected the Celebration and Champion varieties, one of them being their ability to retain color and recuperative ability. We also incorporated several different strategies to help our turf sustain, and to ensure that we did not lose any of our playing surfaces. Our weekly foliar sprays were adjusted to provide the greens with a more appropriate nutrient package necessary to survive cold stress and enhance a darker color to retain higher temperatures. We also used a black topdressing sand as another way to retain heat. You may have noticed since last weekend that the greens went through a substantial color change and growth flush after only a few days of temperatures near the 80's. This rapid natural response is not only a sign that the greens are strong and active, but also a sign that we can look forward to a quick and easy transition into the active growing stages of spring and summer.

Good color for early February!

Only isolated rough areas saw any effects of frost

From 4 green- lush, healthy leaves!

# 3 Continues to Improve

Since the re-opening of the course in October, our approach to maintaining hole #3 has been slightly different than the rest of the course. You may recall some areas being slower to fill in and develop than others, mainly just beyond the tees and a few areas in the fairway. We ultimately determined that the largest contributing factor to this issue was a slight buildup of toxicity in the soil profile that was holding back plant development. We initially applied a wide variety of fertilizers to encourage the sprigs to fill in all the way, but after seeing a less than desirable response, we applied charcoal to test the possibility that there may be an issue of toxicity. Charcoal works by neutralizing these toxic materials within the soil profile, and in our case showed a vast improvement in our problem areas. We will continue to monitor these areas and make both charcoal and fertilizer applications as necessary to promote growth and development in the future.

The right side beyond the ladies tee showing improvement

Root structure overall continues to gain strength and density

An area where charcoal was applied is filling in nicely

Everyone Plays an Important Role in Our Success!

As we progress further into the busy season here at Avila, there are a few important things I would like to touch on. We are very pleased with the way our new Champion greens have withstood what colder weather we've had so far, but must remember that we are still in the season of slower growth and recovery. Our greens have certainly held up to their reputation of being more tolerant of the elements, but we ask that everyone do their part to help them remain true and healthy by repairing ball marks. Besides potentially disrupting putts, ball marks that go unrepaired will take significantly longer to fully heal, especially during the cooler seasons, as well as leave damaged and unsightly spots. This goes for filling divots as well, as our non overseeded turf is already experiencing slower recovery times. Properly filling divots helps the turf recover more quickly and evenly.

An un-repaired ball mark: Damaged turf and an uneven surface

A properly repaired ball mark is almost unnoticeable  2 days later

So far this season we have been fortunate in the fact that we have not had any severe frost or extended cold snaps, combined with rather warmer temperatures than usual, which has helped our new grasses continue to develop and remain strong. It will be important to remember that the coldest weather is still ahead, so continuing to practice good habits of filling divots and repairing ball marks will benefit everyone.

Greens Management During a Challenging Time of Year

Since November 15th, Avila has received over an inch of rain in combination with shorter days and cooler temperatures, which are all Mother Nature's way of working against faster greens speeds. Our nighttime temperatures, however, have been relatively warm, and our Champion greens have been elongating their leaf blades in an effort to reach out for more of the sun's energy. The reason that we are not able to aggressively lower our mowing heights to compensate for this is because the recovery rate of the turf is significantly slower at this time of year than during the summer season, and will only continue to slow down as the winter season progresses. At this point in time, our primary focus is to dial in the lowest possible mowing height that will allow us to keep the greens as fast as we can without compensating the quality and overall health of the plant. We will also roll the greens as much as possible to increase speeds and provide a true roll. However, this process is also somewhat of a turf stress, and can only be performed in moderation in order to maintain a healthy turf. Finally, we will be constantly monitoring the greens for the presence of any fungi or diseases, as the shorter days and less intense sunlight provide optimal conditions for their growth. At this time, we have adjusted our fungicide applications to provide preventive control in order to deter the emergence of any diseases, and we will remain vigilant in our efforts to control these diseases before they have a chance to thrive.

Mowing heights on greens were slightly raised this week to reduce stress

Applying a preventive fungicide spray to fight off disease and fungus

No Seed?

Typically, this is the time of year in which golf courses in our region of the state apply overseed for the coming winter months. This year will be a little different for us than years past because of the fact that we have new grasses on all of the playing surfaces. The benefit of overseed is that it provides color and helps to fill in bare areas that go dormant during winter months, however, it also introduces competition with the bermudagrass foundation. Because our grasses will not fully go dormant throughout the winter, they will still be growing and developing root systems, but at a much slower pace than during the summer months. The Celebration bermuda is a very high quality cultivar, and although the growth rates will slow down, its excellent cold tolerance will help to retain color and deter cold stress. Because our playing surfaces are all new, they will need the full benefits of the water and nutrients they will receive through fertilizer to continue to properly develop and to avoid thinning out because of competition from the seeded grasses as they move into the transitional period in the coming Spring. We will be doing a minimal amount of seeding to certain areas including the range tees, short range tee, par 3 tees, and chipping green area because of the fact that those areas take on more traffic and divots. So although the course may not have as much color as it would if we had seeded, the overall health and strength of our bermudagrass foundation will doubly benefit.

Topdressing the seed on 5 tee to insure good soil contact

Seeding 5 tee

Prevention is Key for Control of Annual Winter Weeds

We are quickly approaching that time of year when the climate change becomes optimal for the germination and emergence of winter weeds, especially annual bluegrass. You may have noticed that the fairways last week were a little softer than usual. This was due to the fact that we applied a pre-emergent herbicide to prevent seeds of any annual winter weeds from germinating. This herbicide works by creating a preventive barrier or film at the soil surface which stops these weed seeds from reaching maturity. The product is most effective if it is thoroughly and evenly dispersed along the soil surface, hence the need for extra irrigation cycles. This process will also take place in the coming weeks as we make the applications in the roughs to achieve effective weed control throughout the entire golf course.

The spray hawk was used on approaches around greens to get into tighter spaces

Spraying and watering #3

Watering in spray on #14

Future Success Through Sustainability

Things on the golf course are back to normal, and we hope everyone is enjoying the improved course thus far. One of the main goals of the renovation process was to make sure that we would be able to maintain our improved playing surfaces in the coming months and well into the future. We are very pleased with the outcome of our new greens, but must take this opportunity to remind everyone that they are still at a very young stage and still need to develop and mature. It is imperative to overall plant health as well as to the smoothness of the putting surface that we continue certain cultural practices in the future. We will continue the star tine process, as well as topdressing, which will work out the small imperfections as the greens continue to mature. We will be performing these tasks on Mondays so that we can avoid disrupting play throughout the week and on the weekends especially. We will do everything possible to make sure that the work we perform in order to protect and strengthen our greens is of minimal disturbance to the playing surface.
Again, we hope you are all enjoying our newly improved course and hope that you are looking forward to a great upcoming season.

 

 

Light topdressing on putting green at clubhouse

 

 

Thankfully, the past two days have been mostly rain free and the course is beginning to slowly dry out.  The maintenance crew has been working overtime to make up for time lost due to weather over the past week and will continue throughout the weekend.  Pond levels are slowly receding with the help of additional trash pumps, and should vacate the fairways over the weekend allowing us to complete the first cut on every surface by Monday.

  While the course is getting drier, it is important to remember that while we are able to begin mowing most of the surfaces, the mowing heights had to be raised significantly to avoid causing a decline in plant health that would be felt throughout the winter months.  The standard rule of mowing heights is that removing any more than 1/3 of the leaf tissue at one time will significantly reduce the health of the plant.  With the height of all short grass surfaces being below 1/2 an inch when the golf course is open, missing multiple mows means we have had to raise the heights significantly and will need to work them back down one day at a time.

  The greens are mowed seven days a week to achieve acceptable green speeds, with the fairways, tees and approaches being mowed a minimum of three times a week to avoid removing too much leaf tissue at one time.  In order to account for the missed cuts we will be increasing the number of times each surface is mowed over the next week allowing us to work the mowing heights down incrementally without shocking the plants.

  Another point to remember is that each surface, with the exception of the rough, is only 90 days old, and it takes a year for the plants to fully mature.  While it would be possible to simply scalp down all of the playing surfaces in order to open sooner than next Friday, doing so would be a disservice to the entire membership as the shock to young plants would cause a slow decline of plant health throughout the cooler months and likely result in less satisfying playing conditions.  Both the pro shop and golf maintenance staff are just as disappointed by the unavoidable delay as the membership is, but to disregard the conditions of the golf course for the entire season in order to gain one week would be unforgivable.  We ask that you bear with us for one more week and allow us the opportunity to provide you with a golf experience worthy of your patience over the past four months.

The greens were fertilized on Thursday to replace nutrients flushed through the soil profile by the excessive rain.

A close up view showing the difference between our target height of cut and the current height.

View from the cart path to #4 green.  The pond is nearly halfway across the fairway, but is receding quickly.

The tee and approach mowers filled their carts with clippings after only 5 holes.

This shot from the afternoon shows how far the water has retreated thanks to the addition of a second pump.

The water feature at the fourth tee will recede as the level of the pond it drains to drops.

We were able to mow a number of the fairways at the increased height of cut this afternoon.

Despite the increase in mowing height, the fairway mowers still removed a lot of grass.

Opening Delayed Due to Flooding

Over the past several days, Avila has received substantial rainfall in excess of 6 inches. Unfortunately, this has delayed our opening date for the golf course which was previously set for September 27th. Our maintenance staff was eager to share the results of our summer renovation with everyone, but the substantial rainfall has delayed us for several reasons.

Nearly the entire property is at field capacity, and our soils simply cannot hold any more water, creating runoff and puddling that will take several days to drain. In addition to final touch ups prior to opening, the rains have added additional work to our schedule including bunker repairs, pumping water bodies down to normal levels, and repairing mulch and pine straw washouts throughout the course. Our staff will continue with final preparations and course repairs with a new target opening date of October 4th though an earlier opening is plausible. Please feel free to check in with the pro shop in the coming days for more information regarding an opening date.

View from #1 Tee

Right of the white tee on #3

#4 Tee

#4 Fairway

Pumping down pond levels

#7 pond

Canal overflow at #11 green

#14 Fairway

#15 at the green

Fairway bunker flooding on #16