Poa annua winter kill

As we head for spring, the Grounds crew is working hard to clean up from winter. We are clearing debris that we created from tree trimming, as well as debris caused by winter weather and wind. We are also working to fix some damage that was caused to the Poa annua, or annual bluegrass, in the green surrounds. Over the next couple of weeks as the soil warms and dries out, we will do some spot seeding of these areas.

This is the view from behind #9 green where golfers walk towards #10 tee

Damaged areas are straw colored

Annual bluegrass is not an inherently strong grass, especially when it comes to extreme temperatures. Everything it lacks in tolerance, though, it makes up for in adaptability. No turf grass can change itself faster or become more suitable to a changing environment than Poa. A great example of the adaptability is by how easily poa can be spread in the rough. Looking at the pictures, it is clear which plants are damaged and which are not. But what is also clear is where the greatest amount of damage is located: the exact area where everyone walks off the green towards the next tee. This is not a coincidence. Tiny poa plants as well as seeds, stick to the spikes of golf shoes, are carried on our mowers, or blown and end up moving from the green to the rough. The taller rough grass captures these plants and seeds from whatever carrier they are on, they fall into the rough, and some of them survive and begin to grow. In the case of the poa in the rough, it didn’t adapt fast enough and the lack of snow cover coupled with cold temperatures exacerbated by wind, has damaged the plant. It is not completely dead, and many of the spots have already begun to recover, but it won’t fully recover. This is a good thing, however, because it allows us to reseed these areas with the species of turf grass that we want instead.

This picture was taken 1 month later. You can see the healing that has already taken place.

With our over-seeder, we will check every green surround and seed into the areas that are most affected. We will use tall fescue seed, which is a species with much more tolerance for warm and cold temperatures. The temperature tolerance helps the tall fescue survive the warm summers and more importantly in this case, survive the cold winters as well. Tall fescue is also the same grass as the sod we lay in the rough for all of the Master Plan construction work, which means that continuing to seed the same grass into the rough will help us keep consistency throughout all of the green surrounds.

We will not be able to eliminate Poa annua from the rough around the greens. First, it is a very opportunistic plant and will insert itself in almost any area. Second, because our greens are almost entirely composed of the same plant, we will forever have an excellent source for seed. The seed from the greens will continue to find its way out into the rough and begin to grow no matter how strong our defense is. However, by taking advantage of damage caused over the winter to the poa plants, and staying on top of the situation before the entire green surround is overtaken by poa, we save ourselves from having to make major renovations to the green surrounds.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Carts are to remain on cart paths only until the Bermuda grass resumes normal growth.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Spring preparation

As the calendar prepares to turn to March, the Grounds department prepares to head back outside from winter. We have painted and cleaned and prepped for the golf season and now it is just around the corner.

One of our current tasks is preparing our machines for aeration. Our aerator, a Toro Procore 648, will be serviced and outfitted with new aeration tines. Aeration is scheduled for March 21^st-23^rd but if the weather allows we will aerate at any point sooner than that. There are two main reasons for us wanting to start aeration as soon as we can. First, if the weather is conducive to allowing aeration then it will also be conducive to allow healing. By aerating sooner we will allow for more healing time and less impact on the start of the golf season. Second, by aerating early, we would be able to separate our aeration procedure from our seed head control program. You can read more about seed head control here or more about aeration healing and seed heads here. Bottom line is, if we aerate early enough, one practice won’t impact the other. One might wonder, then why we don’t just schedule aeration for an earlier time? We can’t count on the weather being favorable enough to plan aeration for too early. If it’s too wet or too cold and we miss our scheduled time, then we are stuck trying to fit it in around the early season golf. So we stick with our mid-March schedule and hope for earlier. This way, if we can’t do it early, but we are able to do it at our regularly scheduled time, the members are only impacted exactly as it was scheduled to happen and no worse.

We also have purchased some new equipment to help get this season off to a good start as well. A new greens roller, a new tractor, as well as some smaller tools have all been added to our fleet. The roller is similar to our current machine, but the newest model. The tractor will be used with our over-seeder that was purchased last year. The tractor is bigger and more powerful than our other tractors and will manage the heavy seeding machine with ease. Because the seeder is heavy it put unnecessary stress on the smaller tractors and we would only use the seeder when it was absolutely needed to avoid the wear on our tractor. Now we will have a tractor that has more than enough strength to manage the seeder. These purchases will be tremendous upgrades and will help us to provide better conditions and continue to raise the bar for playability of the course.

All this talk of aeration, golf, and spring can get everyone excited, even us. However, let’s not assume that Mother Nature is finished with winter just yet. Meteorological winter runs through the end of February, but astronomical winter extends until the third week of March, the 20^th this year. Temperatures will start to change and averages have been climbing for some time now. But we may have a snow storm or two to get through and we will still have plenty of frost delays with which to deal!

Also, starting in March we will be going back to weekly posts for the season.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please don’t play on greens that are partially or completely covered in snow.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Winter projects

Dogwoods blossoming on #11

Daffodils have emerged, trees are blossoming, and the Bermuda grass has not gone completely dormant yet. Without a doubt, late fall and early winter have gotten off to a mild start. Warmer than normal temperatures and the absence of snow have also allowed the Grounds department to maximize our time outside, and have put us ahead of schedule on our winter projects.

Bermuda grass divot recovering

Following up on a previous post, the seeding we did in the rough could not have had better weather to establish. You can read the original post here. This fall helped the seedlings take hold and really encroach on the Bermuda grass that has escaped into the rough. We have seen solid germination in all the areas we treated, and the late warmth allowed more growth heading into the heart of winter than we expected. We are excited about this going forward and expect to increase the square footage seeded next fall.

Seed lines in the rough

The warm end to the fall permitted us to continue our bunker edge re-sodding project much later into the year than we had anticipated. We were able to finish the bunkers on holes 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 all by the second week of December. Now, we only have #8 left to complete in the spring and we will be done with all of the holes that were renovated many years ago.

We also mowed down all of the tall grass native areas on the property. This is a regular maintenance strategy to help with weed control as well as the overall health of the native area. This past season we tried several different strategies to minimize weeds and maintain more aesthetically pleasing native areas, but we were not as successful as we had hoped. This year we again have several strategies in mind and hope to show more progress.

Cart path edge before work began

We were also able to adjust the throw and replace the nozzles of all of the sprinklers that water around the greens. This was another step in our effort to manage, minimize, and eventually end the turf loss that occurs around the greens. The adjustments we made will ensure that all areas will get water, and the new nozzles will help to deliver that water more accurately and efficiently.

We completed our course-wide cart path edging project at the end of December. We have a specialized edger that is designed for asphalt and we spent two weeks working our way around the facility. Edging was the easy part. What was time consuming was the cleanup. In some areas we cut the over-grown sod back 6 inches or more. This amounted to a lot of material that needed to be picked up. Once, we were finished, though, the clean-cut look was worth the effort.

After edging, prior to cleanup

Prior to cleanup

After cleanup

After cleanup; notice the dirt-stained asphalt indicating where sod previously extended

Final product

Continuing last year’s tree trimming efforts, which completed the clubhouse parking lot and holes 1-9, we trimmed from River Road to the clubhouse, and holes 10-18. The cutting portion of the project was finished up last week and cleanup is about ¼ finished. Similar to last year, this work was done to improve turf conditions, improve playability around trees, improve our ability to mow under trees, improve the aesthetics of the trees, and improve tree health by removing dead limbs.

Trees down the right side of #18 prior to trimming. The pines in front of the tee have only 4-5' clearance above the ground

Now there is 10-12' clearance 

Both the cart path edging and tree trimming were winter-long goals. Having one project complete and the other nearing completion, will allow us to tackle even more this winter. As we do every year, we will repaint and repair our ball washers, tee markers, and other course supplies. We will also spend a significant amount of time cleaning around our shop and disposing of any unnecessary items.

There is never a shortage of things to do on our list, so it is great when we get the opportunity to finish some things earlier than expected; it makes it possible to get to some things that are further down the list! And Mother Nature probably still has snow removal to add to our list before winter is over!

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please do not let the flag drop on the green when removing it to putt. This can cause damage to the turf and/or the flagstick. Please lay the flag down gently on the turf.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Rough seeding

The rough grass is a mixture of grasses and can be seen with the slice lines from the seeder.

As we continue to look for ways to improve, one step we are taking is to begin seeding the rough. Bermuda grass is very aggressive and can begin to push outward from the fairways into the surrounding rough. When it goes dormant, the definition of green rough and brown fairways is mottled with brown spots of Bermuda grass that have moved into the rough. This creates an unattractive, undefined edge. So we seed tall fescue into these areas to help redefine the edge and create a crisp look.

Green lines of emerging seedlings can be seen in this picture and the photo below.    

We are in a difficult position because we do not have full irrigation of our rough outside of the fairways. The majority of our rough grass relies on water from the fairway sprinklers. Because Bermuda grass is a heat and drought tolerant turf grass, we are able to conserve water and keep our fairways drier than many. The downside of this fact is that when we hit a dry spell of rainfall and we do not need to water the fairways, our rough suffers. The rough can become thin in areas and the Bermuda grass will take the opportunity to move outward and fill in those areas. With a sharp edge of definition between the green rough and dormant fairways, the visual appeal can be striking. However, the Bermuda grass infiltrating the rough ruins the look and makes the edge look sloppy.

We seeded in mid-November. This is a good time to seed because we usually receive enough rainfall to help the seed germinate and grow. Also, the Bermuda grass is dormant so it is not competing with the new seed. With our new seeder purchased last year, we seeded at least 5 feet around every fairway. In most areas, this covered the extent to which the Bermuda grass had moved into the rough. In addition to redefining the edge, we also seeded in a more drought tolerant variety of turf grass to help with stress in low rainfall stretches. So far, the results have been terrific and we have grass growing everywhere we seeded.

Moving forward, we will continue to focus on the rough immediately outside the fairways first. Continual seeding will help shift the balance of grass back towards cool season rough grass instead of Bermuda grass. We will also expand to include more and more rough areas as we continue. We will seed into green surrounds, deeper rough, and the rough between tees and fairways.

Although many people dislike the look of the dormant Bermuda grass, if we maintain a clean, dormant fairway surface and we maintain clean rough, the contrast between the two will be very visually appealing.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please stay off all grass surfaces during a frost delay.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Deep tine aerating

This week we will be deep tine aerating the greens. Although it may seem like a strange time to aerate, using specialized tines at this time of year can lead to great benefits throughout the year.

Deep tine aerating uses long, skinny tines to push deep into the greens. The tines are about 10” long and 1/2” thick and solid, so there is no core produced. There are a couple of main benefits to this process. First, because of the length of these tines, they break through any potential layers that may have developed in the soil. Our normal aerating procedure only penetrates about 2.5 inches into the soil. Over time, a layer of semi-compacted soil can develop exactly at the depth of normal aeration. As this compacted layer continues to progress, the roots of the turf can stop growing any deeper than that layer. Deeper roots equal a stronger root system as well as an increased ability to contact water, oxygen, and nutrients. These channels will stay open deep in the soil long after the holes have disappeared from the surface. By pushing through the layer, the deep tines will open up avenues for water, oxygen, and roots to move deeper into the soil.

Allowing the water to move deeper into the soil is the second benefit of the process. Especially during the winter, excess water at the surface can be very detrimental. When the ground freezes, any water trapped at the surface freezes as well and can lead to winter kill of the turf grass. Creating the channels in the soil now, will give that excess water an opening to leave the surface and move further down in the soil profile throughout the winter.

The aerators are mounted on a tractor with special tires that allow it to drive directly across the greens while making minimal tracks. Once the aerator is finished, we will roll the green to smooth out the tire tracks and close up the holes. Once we have rolled, there will be little evidence that anything was even done at the surface, but the openings will remain deep in the soil.

We expect to incorporate deep tine aerating as an annual process. Similar to our regular aerating practices, creating a program and repeating it regularly is when the benefits are at their greatest. While performing the deep tine aeration once in a while would still be a benefit, continually breaking through any layers and opening the deeper sections of soil every year, is where the greatest rewards are found.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please be careful not to damage the lip of the cup when retrieving your ball after putting out.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org