Wednesday, June 05, 2013
Last week, summer weather arrived in Richmond. This is great for the Green Surrounds, Tees, Fairways, and Roughs as well as recovery from Spring Dead Spot. The highs were near 93 but overall conditions were dry and pleasant. As we get into higher temps and higher humidity, things won't be so comfortable. The course has really been taking shape over the last few weeks and our team has been busy with a few projects such as sodding behind #18 green and installing irrigation and sod along the entrance road to the club. Two things that I am seeing on the course are Spring Dead Spot and great rooting on our putting greens. Both are challenges that we are always working to improve.
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| The failure of the tree behind 18 green was a terrible loss but did open up the clubhouse putting green to full sun exposure in the critical morning hours. This practice putting green has never looked so good. Please utilize this green for putting, chipping, and pitching. |
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| Our team is finishing the sod installation behind 18 green today. The mulch bed and fescue under the large Willow Oak have now been replaced with TifSport bermudagrass. |
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| Some people may have noticed the fox family around 10, 11 and 13 greens. Please do not feed or disturb these animals. We are lucky to work and play in such a natural environment. I see heron, eagles, osprey, ducks, turtle, deer, fox, and squirrel on a daily basis. |
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| The front entrance road has needed a facelift for some time. Our team installed irrigation and sod along the west side of the road. More improvements in the form of plantings will be made this fall. |
The occurrence of Spring Dead Spot has been high this year. Cooler weather has slowed recovery especially on the teeing grounds at #17 and the approach to #16 green. This area, in my opinion, is the worst on the golf course. Fertility applications and cultural practices are ongoing to speed recovery. In the past, our fungicide options have been limited due to cost. This year, we will be making a split application of a fungicide to prevent the occurrence of spring dead spot next year. We should still see these areas in the first year but recovery should be much faster and by the second year of applications, the affects of spring dead spot should be limited by 60-85%. Last year, we used the front half of #16 fairway as a test plot and sprayed three different applications of fungicide in the fall when the disease is active. We have seen a great reduction of spring dead spot and very fast recovery on this area. We also learned a lot about application timing, rates, and method.
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| Spring Dead Spot on 17 tee |
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| You can still see the presence of spring dead spot in #16 fairway where we sprayed fungicides. These areas are fewer and further apart and are recovering very quickly compared to untreated areas. Another round of applications this fall should come close to eliminating the issue. This was by far our worst area last year. |
We are also changing one of our fertility applications this year to an organic product that should have long term benefits for the soil to help ward off disease. When we apply the fungicides, we will also apply a wetting agent to help maintain soil moisture throughout the fall. One observation that we have made and talked to the USGA about is the occurrence of spring dead spot on high areas and our sand based tees. These areas are obviously drier. From talking to researchers and the USGA, no real research has been done about why this is so, but my hope is that maintaining soil moisture will help reduce the occurrence of Spring Dead Spot. We will have check plots without wetting agent to test this theory. These practices, performed over multiple seasons, should help eliminate spring dead spot.
Rooting on our putting greens has been much improved since last year due to an aggressive drill and fill and DryJect program. Fans around greens as well as proper management practices have helped promote dense, healthy rooting and push the roots deeper. Getting more sand into the rootzone at different depths has given the roots somewhere to grow. We will be expanding our cultural practices over the next year to incorporate more sand and at different depths. The evidence has been astounding, especially in drill and fill holes. Our methods are obviously working and deeper roots will lead to healthier turf.
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| Darin Brevard, our new USGA Agronomist noted the great rooting in the greens during his Spring visit. |
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| These roots came out of the first green when we installed a new TurfGuard soil sensor. |
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| These roots were pouring out of a cup cutter on #11 green. This is obviously where we have a drill and fill hole. These roots are dense and healthy down to a depth of about 9 inches. |
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| Another example of great rooting in a drill and fill hole on #16. We will perform more drill and fill as well as deep tine aeration moving forward. We will not be drill and filling greens in the fall due to the disruption to the putting surface that this process creates. We will be DryJecting and core aerating the greens with minimal disruption. |
Have a great weekend,
Jordan Booth
jbooth@willowoakscc.org
