First Frost

Today we were greeted with a heavy frost in the rough areas around the entire course. The temperature bottomed out at 36 degrees this morning. Clear skies allow cooler temperatures to settle at the ground level to form frost.

The day time temperatures are fantastic and the course couldn't be in better condition right now.

Roughing It

We have received almost three inches of moisture over the past ten days and the grass is certainly green around here. We are drying out fairly well for a golf course located in the flood plain. We have three rough mowers going each day to keep up with the surge of growth around here. The daily rainfalls do help with all of the new seed that is in the ground. Frost is around the corner so getting the see to pop is a priority. We plan to finish seeding next week.

Fine Tuning

Are you noticing some dry spots on the golf course, maybe more than normal? Wondering if that new system is working properly? Well, it is working as it should, we are just getting through the system to do some fine tuning.
We have almost doubled our number of irrigation heads throughout the property and it takes longer to go through every individual head to make sure they are working properly. Irrigation auditing is a continuous job especially through the "getting to know" period. There are close to 3,000 heads on the course and by the season's end I expect to know almost everything about 1,500 of them.
First of all, the system was designed and installed to irrigate properly, or at the very least, how turf grass should be irrigated. For years this golf course lacked uniform irrigated, so we are expereincing areas of turf that have been overwatered for years, which are now getting what the plant should receive. Now that stress periods have set in, the turf is struggling in spots.
Wetting agents are being used to help alleviate some of the stresses and provide consistency. Spiking helps irrigation water penetrate harder surfaces and into the rootzone. Handwatering occurs in the highest stress areas.
Now that all of the heads on the course have been reviewed for communication and arcs of throw, the next step is to adjust nozzles. This can be a 2-3 year process. All of the heads that came from the factory are set to throw a 60' radius. Due to some slopes and tight areas around the greens some of these throws need to be adjusted so we target exactly what is necessary. Factors other than the radius include, pressure, gallons per minute and evaporation rates. We plan to acomplish all greens and surrounds this season. With the snowcover in the winter, we'll have to focus on the tees, roughs and fairways next season. I would guess that 15-20% of the sprinkler heads need to be adjusted in some fashion from the original install.

Native Care

Over the last few weeks we have been mowing our native areas throughout the course. The red stakes are not marking a lateral hazard, they are just temporarily marking our drip lines for the new spruce trees planted. The mowers going through some of these areas can damage those lines.

Mowing the natives each year is a good practice, not only for finding golf balls, but it gives us the opportunity to manage our weeds and provide cleaner rough areas for play. Once they are mowed, the staff will rake out the remaining grass and leave it less congested of organic material. It allows for better plant growth and healthier roots.

Pebble

Recently, I have been getting questions about the greens at Pebble Beach during the US Open. I am getting the questions because Pebble Beach and Vail have the same turfgrass on their greens, poa annua.

The USGA's makes decisions on most golf course maintenance decisions for their championships, especially the greens. The USGA demands that Superintendents perform different practices than normal during and prior to the tournament to meet their goals. Usually the watering is reduced, mowing heights adjusted and color has almost no meaning to officials. One common non-practice with poa annua (annual bluegrass) greens they request from Superintendents is to prohibit the use of plant growth regulators (PGR's). Growth regulators help provide a more consistent putting surface and reduce mowing frequency throughout the day. We use them in Vail to keep the greens as consistent as possible throughout the day. The downside with them and the reason the USGA does not allow them is because they prevent the ability to change green speeds if conditions warrant them to change. In a nutshell, PGR's lock you into a certain height of cut and ultimately one speed.

Historically the USGA would like to see the winner of their Open Championship to shoot par over 4 days of golf. So frequently they may need to change the speed of the greens to reach their goal.

Understanding poa annua can be difficult, to some this plant is a weed, to others it provides a great putting surface. It is considered a weed because it is very invasive and is extremely difficult to keep out of a bentgrass or bermudagrass green in some environments. Poa is labeled as a winter annual, and does very well in cool climates such as Monterey Bay or Vail. There are hundreds if not thousands of varieties of poa and they all react differently to their environment. Some of these differences are color and growth. This what we saw so well on TV last week.

Turfgrasses are among the fastest growing plants on the planet. During the daytime, light photosynthesis occurs and the plant responds with growth, especially when temperatures are right. Last week at Pebble there were some cool, long days which are perfect conditions for the poa plants to grow. The new growth can disrupt a smooth surface. All that traffic doesn't help either.

Television is another factor to consider. Anytime, any network can view golf as close to prime time as possible, they are going to do so. I think the last tee time was around 3.30pm on the West Coast. That is prime growth time for poa.

(The picture is from golf architect Kevin Atkinson, who attended Pebble Beach before the tournament this year for the US Open Challenge charity event)

We Have an App For That

Today, prior to our 1 pm shotgun tournament we were able to apply our second fertilizer application for the season. This granular application will continue our healthy look into mid July. The product applies a sufficient amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and iron to the plants to help them along the stressful parts of the golf season. The fertilizer is applied to only maintained turf areas on the course with the exception of the putting surfaces. The greens fertilizer is applied in mostly a liquid form through a boom sprayer.

Also, today we took advantage of the slow morning and applied our only fungicide application for the season. The greens here in Vail have a widely-known mycelium in the soil commonly known as fairy ring. This particular strain is rare and nothing I have ever seen before. It was diagnosed by a Colorado State University pathologist 3 seasons ago. Normally fairy ring looks like a ring. The mycelium gives off an excessive amount of nitrogen in the soil and sometimes produces mushrooms. Typically the ring has a deep green color, which makes it stand out. The ring is not aesthetically pleasing, but can be harmless. Unfortunately in Vail we have been experiencing some turf loss. The mycelium gives off more nitrogen than the plant can handle. Instead of a ring, it is more like a patch, about the size of a golf hole and it kills off the turf.

For the past three years we have been applying a product that does a wonderful job disbursing this mycelium before it becomes a problem on the surface.

Mixed with the fungicide is our first wetting agent application on greens this season. The wetting agent makes the fungicide more effective as well as keeping some of the moisture in the soil more available for the turf plants. The wetting agent allows us to irrigate less frequent and create a firmer putting surface.

The greens application is watered into the soil immediately after being applied. Like all of our fungicides we use, it has a very low toxicity rate. However it is always good practice to wash your hands after playing a round of golf.

Back on Track

The 7th and 8th holes are back in play as of tomorrow morning. Today the staff removed a lot of silt and debris around both holes. Conditions are still wet in areas but playable.

When conditions dry out enough we will brush these areas again to remove more silt. There is only so much we can get out at a time. Any damage that will occur may take weeks or months to surface. The silt can cover the crown of the plant and begin a slow death. Numerous attempts will be made to remove as much silt as possible. We have been fighting growth and wet soils to remove the material.

We will be keeping an eye on these areas as the season progresses. Aerification may be necessary in areas to penetrate the soil profile for new growth.

Clean Up

Clean up will begin Tuesday as the dry weather returns to the valley. We have a lot of mowing, raking, washing and removing other debris up and down the 7th and 8th holes. With the help of some volunteers and the staff we should be able to move quickly.
Most of the standing water has subsided, yet the surface is still water logged and makes it difficult for play.
I will have more to report on the results from the end of the day's work.

Wet Conditions

With almost two inches of rainfall over the last three days equals damp conditions at the golf course. The weather is looking great and fortunately things will clear up shortly. The next blog will focus on the flood clean up. This blog will discuss the funky stuff you may notice on some of the greens.

After almost 5 years of maintaining these greens and having numerous superintendents, consultants and plant pathologists view them we have come to the conclusion that they can resemble disease stricken after a rainy stretch.

Well, we have determined that it is not a disease at all, they just become anaerobic and the turf begins to wilt. The only practice we have determined that can fix these spots are opening the soil profile with a spike or an aerification hole. Creating a dry environment will allow the plants to breathe properly and bounce back quickly.

This usually happens once a year around this time when we get a stretch of wet weather over a period of a few days.

Today we spiked the greens with a new piece of equipment called the greens slicer. We can penetrate up to 2 inches and achieve good gas exchange in the soil profile. The surface can get a little bumpy, but we will follow this with sand and a roller to smooth out any imperfections.

Aerway

This is one of my favorite pieces of equipment. It is an aerway, which puts slits in the ground and opens up pore space in the soil. It allows water and oxygen to enter the soil profile and access to the root zone to promote healthy turf. It causes very little impact to playability, especially when a mower follows it's path. You will notice the bricks on top of the spikes, which weighs down the machine for optimal depth.

September is a busy month for maintenance. It is critical that the course is healthy prior to the stress of the long winter.

Topdressing Greens

This week we spiked greens and topdressed them with a fine grade sand. Following all of the wet weather recently, the putting surfaces were in desperate need of oxygen to the root systems. The past couple of days we spent opening up these holes and took advantage of the opportunity to also incorporate sand into the root zone. We schedule light topdressing to each green every two weeks throughout the season. Due to the late start and wet conditions this was our third application of the season. By this time last year we had five applications done.
There are many benefits to topdressing greens on a consistent basis. The most important is dilution of the thatch layer in the soil profile. With our cold temperatures our microbial activity does not break down the thatch fast enough.
Sand helps with smoothing out any blemishes and ballmarks, firms up the surface, allows water and nutrients to penetrate through the root zone more freely for maximum plant uptake. A sand profile also has the least amount of compaction which can be detrimental to any root system. These pictures show you how we spread the sand accurately to the surface and follow that by dragging with an old carpet. Following that we sometimes roll the greens and complete them with a heavy watering cycle that night to help wash the sand into the turf.

Seeding

It is that time of year to get as much seed out as possible throughout the course. Soil temperatures are getting into the 60 degree range for germination. The moisture has been great and we have been seeing some more sun. The top picture shows Tony going through areas of the course with solid tines aerifying, to open holes for a seed bed. Seed needs plenty of soil contact as well to begin growth. Below is Jacob (Iowa St. intern) spreading a high altitude mixture of Kentucky Bluegrasses. Bluegrass takes a little longer to germinate so I like to make sure we are in the clear with frost and into summer to get the most out of each application. Bluegrass has excellent winter and ice tolerance and also provides a great playing surface. We also use Perennial Ryegrass throughout areas for quick germination, predominately on tees and the driving range. It is not as winter hardy as bluegrass, but it can germinate in about 7-10 days and has a nice deep green color.

Opening the Range

Friday we will have the driving range and chipping green available for the public to use. Mats will be used for hitting balls on the range tee. You will notice the Nordic Track, or what we call the "Yellow Brick Road" still hasn't come our of dormancy. Typically it is anywhere from 10-14 days behind the rest of the turf on the course. Mats will be used at least until irrigation water is at the range. Due to the amount of traffic all year long on the range tee, it is critical that mats are used now, so the tee can return to healthy conditions as soon as possible.
The chipping green was aerified on Wednesday and will be open for putting, chipping and sand play. The putting green will be closed until further notice.