Course update! How is the course surviving the wet summer

I wanted to send out a quick update on how the course is doing with the unusually wet weather this summer . There has been over 10” of rain since June 1st; 6” of which has fallen since July 1st. The heat and humidity has varied but with stretches where it has been very stressful for turf. 

Disease has been difficult to control with early breakthrough even having used very good fungicides. This has been frustrating, but overall damage has not been too bad other than some scars on a few fairways - which will grow out in due course. We do not regularly spray the roughs due to cost, so it too has seen attacks of dollar spot in particular, but again it is superficial and will grow out in time. All the areas have been sprayed so all the disease is in check, which coupled with the cooler forecast should result in no more issues. 

Dollar spot in fairway

As for the greens, they are all performing exceptionally well – including the pocketed greens that have caused issues over the last few years. The work that has been done to create better growing environments has paid off resulting in excellent rooting and as a result they are very healthy. With only four weeks until fall aeration they are better than they ever have been at this time of the year. While natural rainfall usually helps turf, the excessive amounts seen this summer would normally be detrimental to the "bad" greens as they have a difficult time drying out; so to have them in as good health as they are considering the wet weather is exceptional. The one benefit of the wet weather is there is no reliance on the poor irrigation water.  

Hydrojecting with Dryject machine

The greens have been stimping in excess of 12ft all summer but they need rest from time to time. On Tuesday they were hydrojected (using a Dryject machine) which injects water at high pressure to create aeration holes. This is a very non-evasive procedure and also helps move organic material lower into the profile. The operation on Tuesday worked perfectly and coupled with resting the greens for a day means that they should have no problem staying healthy and playing at full speed right up to fall aeration. It does mean that they temporarily lost speed but is worthwhile when the result is having perfect surfaces the remainder of the summer. 

Hydroject hole (crack) in green profile

One little issue on Tuesday was one of the machines had a hydraulic leak on 16 & 18 greens before it was noticed. The oil is very hot so scorches the turf. Usually that is the extent of the damage. We did spray some products on the turf to help move any oil off the plants which will also help recovery. It is too early to say how the turf will look but worst case will be brown lines on the greens for a period. The surfaces will putt fine other than the discoloration and any work to try and make it better will result in poor surfaces. With the fall aeration only a month away, the lines will slowly heal until then and the aeration will help heal the rest. 

 Hydraulic leak lines on 18 green

So overall The Rock has made it thought the summer in great shape and while there is another month to go to fall aeration, the entire course is further ahead of where it normally is, which puts it in a great position to play exceptionally well for the rest of the summer. 

  

As always if you have any questions, please let me know: alan@ledgerockgolf.com

2017 to Date!

I was scrolling through my blog last week and noticed that it’s been over 6 months since my last post. I can't believe how quickly the year has passed and that the blog has been neglected for so long. Luckily there has been a lot going on at the Rock in 2017 so there will be no worries about writers block for a while!

So far, 2017 has been off to a busy start. The last of the projects were recently finished up (just in time for the first heat wave of the year!). Since my last post, these projects were completed:

• The barn work was finished along with the new chemical/fertilizer mix tank. 
• Over 100 trees removed and those area were sodded. 
• Three bunkers were rebuilt and some of the fairway lines were adjusted. 
• Steps were added to the cart barn entrance.
• The decking on some of the bridges has been replaced.

No update is complete without discussing the weather! Mother Nature has thrown us a curve ball this year with a lot of abnormal weather.

Overall, January through the middle of March was unseasonably warm. The course remained open so there was more play than normal. Since the turf isn't growing over the winter, play can cause damage to the course as the turf can't recover; however there was minimal damage. The plan was to start work in earnest on the projects once the maintenance staff started back, only for the course to get hit with an end-of-season snow storm. Luckily there wasn't as much snow as expected, but the foot that did fall delayed work on the course. This backed up the project schedule, which then snowballed with rain and play related delays. The goal was to have everything done by June 1, so even considering the delays they were only a few days late getting finished up.

There was a spell of nice weather right around the time the course was aerated. Over the last few years the opposite happened and the greens took a long time to recover. This year they initially recovered quickly but, when the colder than normal weather returned, they just sat for a period until the soil temperatures recovered to sustain growth. The benefit of the grass not growing was that it didn't need to be mowed, which in turn freed up staff to help get the projects finished up! Once the soil temps rose, the greens quickly finished healing. With the weather (mostly) cooperating, the spring aeration went really well with quicker recovery than was observed the last few years.

Rooting in the greens was ahead of schedule with the warm spring weather. Unfortunately, the cooler, wet weather (which bentgrass doesn't like) in the later spring saw some of the roots retract. The growth over the last month has seen them recover once again and they are really healthy going into the summer.

The TurfGuard sensor graphs above and below show the four-week period after aeration throughout the 2016 and 2017 springs. In 2017 (above) there were more days with soil temps above 65F, which shows how much the weather has control over healing time. It also shows the period where recovery slowed when the soil temperatures dropped for a period. 

The Driving Range tee also fell foul of the cooler temps. The grow-in of the tee rebuilding project went well as the tees were covered over the winter. This resulted in good germination and growth. Once the temperatures rose in April the covers were removed as the temperature and humidity under them increased, which, in turn, would damage the grass. When the temps dropped again the turf growth slowed and the tee didn't grow much until the soil temps rose again. It was also a cloudy period overall, which bentgrass doesn't like. Just like with the aeration recovery, once the soil temperatures rose back to optimum levels and the sunshine returned the tee filled in and was opened for play on the 14th.

The range tee after the covers were removed. 

The germination under the covers over the winter provided a good head start for the spring. The removal of the covers so the tees could be consistently maintained coincided with the period when temperatures decreased. This slowed the grow-in down. The Learning Center was being painted during this time, which prevented the driving range tees from being irrigated for a week and slowed the grow-in down a little.

The new tees. 

The surfaces are a lot firmer since there is no thatch, which was an issue with the old ones. The two tees are now connected with a contoured area to better replicate uneven lies and the new practice bunker (to the right of the tee in the pic above) was designed to provide different shot types.

Over the next few weeks, I will cover more of the work that was done in the recent months. As always, if you have any questions, please let me know: alan@ledgerockgolf.com. I hope to see you soon!