State of the Bermuda grass

It is time for the annual state of the Bermuda grass post. After a winter unlike any we have had in the last several years, it looks as though the Bermuda grass was able to survive relatively unscathed both from direct winter kill and Spring dead spot (SDS).

Despite some very warm days recently, it is still early in the green up process, and soil temperatures are still working to fully warm up, so there is still more information to gather. Once the soil stops the constant roller coaster up and down swings in temperatures that it has been going through, the Bermuda grass will get some consistent good growing conditions. However, so far, much of the Bermuda grass looks very healthy across tees and fairways.

However, we will not escape the winter completely unmarked. There do appear to be some areas just off the fronts of greens where the Bermuda grass is struggling from winter kill. Again, it is early, and we need some good warm overnight temperatures to really kick start the Bermuda grass, but these are some areas of concern that we will monitor closely.

Most of the areas are known trouble spots. There are a variety of factors that cause the Bermuda grass to decline repeatedly in these areas including: shade, physical orientation, saturation, poor drainage, poor soil, traffic, and more. Some of these causes we have addressed and will continue to work on, but others are out of our control- for example the Bermuda grass that is nearest #14 green is severely angled to the north and gets very little spring sunshine, and we can’t physically change how that grass is situated. We have more plans in place for this season to continue to improve all these areas, but it takes time and meanwhile the Bermuda grass continues to struggle.

In the short term, our next step is to be patient. Daytime temperatures, and especially overnight and soil temperatures will continue to rise, and the Bermuda grass will begin to grow more vigorously. After a prolonged stretch of beneficial growing conditions, we can then assess what areas will recover naturally and which areas need to be replaced. We expect to do some sod work and have started to gather some amendments to add into the soil so we are ready when it is time and the healing process can go as quickly as possible.

The trouble areas so far all seem to be from winter kill. But what there does not appear to be much if any damage from is Spring dead spot (SDS). We have been working diligently on our prevention program, and it is paying off tremendously. SDS is not a disease that you can eliminate, but we have reached a point where it is very much under control, and the turf is healthy enough to sustain any infections and come out of winter strongly. We won’t back off the things that have proven helpful in the last several years and we will continue to improve the turf health so that we can stay on top of the disease.

Growing Bermuda grass in our region is stretching the grass to its limits of winter hardiness. There will be some bumps and bruises each spring no matter what, especially coming out of an intense winter. So, making some repairs is expected and we will be ready when the time comes.

 

 

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please keep carts on cart paths for the entirety of par 3 holes.

Also, as part of a Golf Committee initiative to improve course etiquette, we have included links to videos teaching proper on course etiquette. Please take a moment to watch:

Ball Marks - How to properly repair

Golf Cart tips

 

 

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org