USGA: Special Notice - July 2010

USGA: Special Notice - July 2010

USGA: ANNUAL Bluegrass - A Fitting Name, Unfortunately - July 2010

USGA: ANNUAL Bluegrass - A Fitting Name, Unfortunately - July 2010

Aerification

We are right in the middle of the two busiest weeks of the year. The Nolan Tournament was a success despite the rain that hung around throughout the tournament. The drainage that was installed last Fall in the Greens performed beautifully. We received an inch of rain on Sunday and we were playing golf within an hour of the rain subsiding. The hard work has begun this week. The July aerification is the most physically demanding week of the year for the Green Staff. We have finished aerifying and topdressing the greens, fairways, and are currently working on the approaches. This is a time consuming process that requires some disruption of play to the membership. We may have to close a hole periodically to complete this process. The sooner we are completed, the sooner we can return your golf course to you. The recovery time on the greens should be approximately 10-14 days. The greens will remain soft during the recovery period so please remember to repair your ball marks. We thank you for your understanding during this process and appreciate your cooperation.

Water Water and More Water

Anyone who has played this week may have noticed the amount of water being applied to the golf course. I have been asked many times this week. Why don't you just water at night? With the temperatures and humidity as high as they are applying a large amount of water to the golf course at night would cause a tremendous amount of disease throughout the golf course. Disease will kill a lot more grass that what a lack of water will. Our goal on days like this is to keep the turf cool. We are just trying to lower the temperature of the surface of the turf. The Poa Annua that is on our greens, tees, and fairways does not tolerate the heat. High temperatures over a long period of time would cause a significant decline in the quality of our turf. This is why when temperatures approach 90 degrees will are constantly trying to cool the grass blades down. There may be some disruption in play from time to time to allow us time to syringe but it is essential to the health of the golf course.

Solid Tine Aerification

Following many of our bigger events you may find us out there the next day solid tining the putting surfaces. During many of our events we mow and roll greens and a much higher frequency than normal. The mowing and extra rolling causes more stress and compaction. The solid tining (aka: venting) helps relieve some of that compaction and allows water and air to get to the root zone. This process causes very minimal disruption and within a day or two is not noticeable. We performed this procedure today on all 27 holes. The Greens held up very well during the Member/Member Tournament this weekend. Today's aerification will help reduce some of the stress that was put on them over the weekend.

USGA: Beauty In Eye Of Beholder

The following is an article from the USGA about the set-up for the US Open and the condition of the Greens.

USGA: Beauty In Eye Of Beholder

Heat and Humidity

The two most dreaded words for a Golf Course Superintendent. The recent weather pattern has brought us both heat and humidity. Turfgrass does not perform well under either of those conditions and when you combine the two it can become difficult to manage a golf course. Our greens are predominately made up of Poa Annua. Once temperatures hit the mid 80's Poa Annua shuts down. It's basically trying to die. Humidity brings in the stress of turfgrass diseases. Turf diseases flourish under high heat and humidity. While we experience these conditions you will see us out frequently syringing greens. You may see a decrease in Green Speed. We also have to be more aggressive with our fungicide program. As we prepare for the Member Member this weekend we will look at the weather closely to determine how far we push the greens. We don't want to push them to hard at this point in the season and risk their health for the remainder of the year.

I have received many question about the Greens at Pebble Beach during the US Open. Even though they never saw temperatures over 65 degrees during the Championship those greens experienced severe drought stress. The splotchy patches on the greens were a weak type of Poa Annua that was severely stressed due to lack of water and frequency of mowing and rolling. As several types of Poa Annua in their greens shut down other types of grasses were still growing. Thus causing a bumpy putting surface. If all the turf on a Green is not growing at the same rate it causes and uneven surface. This is the main reason our green are a little bumpy in the Spring. The different types of grass on our greens start growing in the Spring at different temperatures. Once soil temperatures become consistent our greens begin to become smoother and more consistent.