Course Conditions
I finally had a chance to play golf with the Men's club on Saturday in their US Open Tournament and had a terrific time. The conditions were magnificent which really left me with nothing to blame. I have had better days putting but I wouldn't want to be like Tiger and blame my poor performance on the greens and say they were "awful". I heard rave reviews from everyone.
I am a little concerned with some of the new patches that have begun to show up on the greens. At first glance I suspected Brown Patch or Yellow Patch. I would have never suspected Take-all-patch in that it usually runs its course in the first 5 years of play. People I have shared this picture with and those that have come out to take a look pretty much agree that it is Take-all-patch. Our next step will be to spray with Heritage. It seemed to have worked best 5 years ago when we dealt with this, it will probably work well this time too. It is highly unusual in that these greens are now 10 years old. If anyone has ever experienced this before I would sure love to hear about it.
Now at 10 years the Poa annua has really begun to fill in. This spring I have seen more seedheads than ever before. It is only a matter of time before these things are going to be taken over. It is sad for me to see the bentgrass loose the struggle in that we loose the disease and drought tolerance and will need to spend more money protecting them. There is an outstanding article by David Oatis titled "
The Evolution of a Putting Green" in the March/April 2010 USGA Green Section Publication. The article goes into the Poa invasion and describes the transition of a bentgrass green to a Poa blend. Once we get to a certain population of Poa we will be able to utilize the growth regulator Proxy to control the seed heads. Right now we still have a significant amount of bent and cannot risk the injury that we saw two years ago while trying to control the seeding.
Projects
Today (Monday) is going to be a busy day around the clubhouse. The landscaping will finally begin around the new Event Center as well as the painting of the clubhouse building. The new flag pole is going up as well. We have lots of shotguns on the schedule in the coming weeks which will make it tricky to topdress fairways. We may have to have a couple guys work afternoons to fling sand after the morning tournaments are over. That should make for dryer conditions as well.
I am a little concerned with some of the new patches that have begun to show up on the greens. At first glance I suspected Brown Patch or Yellow Patch. I would have never suspected Take-all-patch in that it usually runs its course in the first 5 years of play. People I have shared this picture with and those that have come out to take a look pretty much agree that it is Take-all-patch. Our next step will be to spray with Heritage. It seemed to have worked best 5 years ago when we dealt with this, it will probably work well this time too. It is highly unusual in that these greens are now 10 years old. If anyone has ever experienced this before I would sure love to hear about it.
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