Conditions
People have been telling me that the course is in as best shape as they have ever seen it. I must agree, it has been a banner year for green conditions and overall playability. Unfortunately all is going to change as we begin our fall aerification today. Yet only a temporary set back, I expect them to heal nicely.
The weather looks like it is going to hold out for the day but will turn for the worst later this evening. (Good timing!) It looks like we will be out of the 80's for some time, perhaps a good nine months.
Greens
As we punch today we are following up with a Nature Safe fertilizer application as well as a lime application. It will be good to get both products down near the roots where it can have a good effect.
It has been over four weeks since we have applied nitrogen which is a testament to the fertilizer program that we are on. The greens are starting to wane a little but that is what we expected to see. It was good to see where they were in terms of nutrition. The Nature Safe should add a nice slow release component to complement what we are already doing.
Tees
The tees continue to heal from the aerification. We overseeded them and are continuing to fill the divots with sand and seed. We have seen some bad areas which look like anthracnose. It makes sense now that they are mostly Poa.They are still looking pretty good. We plugged and seeded the lower driving range tee last week and the teeing area is back on top. This week we will be mowing the tee box on Tuesday and Friday due to our busy day today.
Fairways
Staab sprayed Primo last week which has saved us in terms of fairway quality already. With the recent fertilizer application and the cooler nights the grass was beginning to jump out of the ground. This Primo application is the last of the season and should hold back the excessive growth until our first frost which will pretty much signal the grass to slow down naturally. We have been trying to spend as much time as possible filling divots in the landing areas which seems to be helping. If the PA's have time that could be a good job for them as well.
Rough
In terms of fertility we are going to hold off fertilizing until we see where the rough actually needs it most. If we do fertilize, it will be a spot application to save money.
We are spraying weeds today in the tall grass areas during aerification. I really don't like to make blanket spray application during play so we felt this was a good time to do it without disturbing the golfers.
Equipment
The new greens mowers are working great and Steve is especially liking them because we can use the old ones for munching the sand after we aerate and not have to worry about grinding them right away. We are planning on switching the old greens tractors for the tees because the steering is much easier on them and then we will use the old tee tractors to run the sand reels and the verticutters. The trailer was not finished like I had hoped but am confident it will be completed this week.
My Up Coming Schedule
I will be attending the Annual Northwest Turfgrass Conference next week in Central Oregon. October 5th and 6th. The following are the speakers this year:
Dr. Brian Horgan
University of Minnesota
Water Conservation: Technologies That Can Save You Money
Mark Esoda, CGCS
Atlanta Country Club
What if They Turn the Water Off?
Tod Blankenship, CGCS
Oregon State University
How Thirsty Is Your Turf?
Dr. Bill Johnston
Washington State University—Pullman
City of Spokane Golf Course Water Reuse Pilot Study
Dr. Brian Horgan
University of Minnesota
Soil Testing to Predict Available N
Dr. Eric Miltner
Washington State University—Puyallup
Organic Fertilizer Effects on Turfgrass and Soil Systems
Dr. Robert Golembiewski
Oregon State University
Mowing, Rolling, Primo and Green Speeds
Larry Gilhuly
USGA
2009 in the Rearview Mirror
I will return home on the 6th and then I will be taking the rest of the week off to go to Memphis on to shoot some environmental vignettes for the Golf Channel at Justin Timberlake's Miramichi Golf Course. I will be back at the golf course on Saturday.
I may not have time or the means to do my weekly report but I will resume on the 12th.
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