Dodging Bullets

In more way than one, this week has been full of near misses.  Although the weather has been dreary and not very conducive for golfing, we've actually lucked out with the rain.  On Tuesday, many parts of Madison were hit hard by the south-to-north moving thunderstorms, and the National Weather Service's official rainfall total was 1.36" for that day.  At the golf course, we only received 0.25".  So, while it certainly is wet out there, our normal maintenance has been largely unaffected, and the course is doing quite well.  It's spells like these that we're especially grateful to have well-drained soils, rolling topography, and cultural practices (especially the dreaded annual aerification) that keep the course surprisingly playable in times of wet weather.

Last night, we also apparently dodged another bullet when someone pulled a u-turn near the 16th green.  Had they decided to travel another 15 yards to the north, we would've had one ripped-up green on our hands.  With the course sitting between two heavily-travelled corridors of vehicle and pedestrian traffic, vandalism is an ever-present threat that we simply hope will never happen on a large scale.

In between dodging (the word of the post) rain drops, we were also able to complete a few small projects on the course, and I'll let the following pictures do the talking for these...

The perennial garden by the putting green has really filled-in over the last two years.  Yesterday, it was decluttered so that there is now some semblance of organization to the plantings.  Also, we added a bird bath, and I have to say that the birds will have quite the view when they're getting cleaned-up. 

The overgrown junipers that lined the left side of number 1 forward tee were removed this week.  Beneath them, we found a very nice rock wall (and a few golf balls from errant tee shots).  When we get an order of sod, we'll complete the transformation.



Course Happenings

With the arrival of our complete summer crew (who were profiled in the last Divot), the action has really been picking up on the golf course.  We've begun and finished several projects over the past couple of weeks, and if you've been on the course recently, I'm sure that you've noticed some of them.

The most striking change has been the transformation of the small wooded area between 9 green and 1 tee.  Over the years, the oaks, along with a black locust, that dominate the upper canopy of this area had become lost amongst a tangle of mulberries, honeysuckles, and buckthorns.  With the exception of a large mulberry that remains, we cleared the invasive understory plants, and I believe that it's a dramatic improvement. 

The before and after pictures really illustrate the changes between 9 green and 1 tee. 

Along with the invasive species removal, we've also stopped mowing the hillside and sprayed the weeds growing on it.  Over time, it should be a great looking native area, and we hope that you also like the change.

Last week, nine trees were planted around the course.  Shagbark hickories, red maples, and crabapples were the selected species for this planting.  Of special note is the shagbark hickory that was planted between 12 and 13 fairways (near 12 green).  This tree was donated by the Tilsen family in memory of Mr. Tilsen's father, Cy.  We certainly appreciate the donation and are sure that Cy's tree will be knocking down many errant shots in the years to come.

Our resident tree expert, Howard Kulke (on the left) and Angel Ramirez in the midst of planting the Tilsen memorial tree.

Yesterday, the repainting of one of our cold storage buildings and the bathroom by 2 green began.  The first step in the process was to waterblast the loose paint and debris from the surfaces, and if you're near the bathroom, you'll see that there was a lot of loose paint.  For the meantime, the bathroom looks even worse than normal and only one side is open.  Next week, it will be repainted (weather permitting) and fully opened.  The job has been contracted out to a company that specializes in painting metal buildings, which is why we aren't painting it immediately.  When it's done, it will look a whole lot better than the green paint that had seen much better days.

Finally, if you've been on the range lately, you may have noticed that the chipping green is covered in white dots.  These dots separate the different treatments of a trial that's being conducted by Dr. Jim Kerns (turfgrass pathologist) and Paul Koch (doctoral student and turfgrass diagnostician) of UW-Madison.  Once they share more details of the project, I'll be sure to pass them along.  Nearly every year, we host a UW-Madison turfgrass research trial, and the partnership that we have with the university is most definitely mutually beneficial.

First Week of June

 It certainly was a busy week on the golf course.  Although Memorial Day offered the golf course maintenance staff an afternoon free of work, the lost time made the remainder of the week a little crazy.  Besides the normal weekly mowing and course upkeep, we were also able to get some special projects completed this week.  As many of you have noticed, all of the annual flowers were installed on Tuesday through Thursday.  As I had alluded to in the May Divot, the flower beds will most definitely have a different look this year, and we believe that the much more intricate designs will be well-received.

On Tuesday, five pallets of sod also arrived, and we used it to improve a number of areas on the course.  Most of the sod was laid where a large silver maple was removed on the left side of 10 green.  This tree, and the extensive amount of cart traffic that traveled on both of its sides, made it impossible to maintain a stand of turf that would allow for fair shots.  Last week, on the same day that the aforementioned silver maple was removed, a large poplar that was between 11 and 12 was also taken down.  The poplar had a very large crack that made the tree a tremendous safety concern.  Getting back to the sod, we also spruced up the cart path surrounds by 13 green, 17 tee, and 18 tee, and in my opinion, this work has made the paths look almost like new.

As part of our Audubon environmental initiative, we've also recently created a few no-mow areas on the course.  These areas are located to the right of 3 forward tee, on either side of the cart path by 9 green, and on the left side of 16.  These areas were sprayed with a herbicide to kill the unsightly weeds, and we expect them to evolved over time.  The area by 9 green will take a new look when we remove the invasive buckthorn, honeysuckle, and box elder plants that have taken over the wooded areas on both sides of the cart path.  We removed some of the invasives a few weeks ago, but a broken chipper prevented us from getting very far.  In time, it is our hope that this area will take on the look of an oak savanna.

Today, we replaced some of the damaged turf areas near the center of 7 green with plugs from the back right perimeter of the green.  Hopefully, these will be the last of the plugs.  Although they are unsightly and occasionally slightly bumpy, the plugs that we installed in 7, 8, and 14 green have greatly enhanced recovery during the chilly spring (more on that later).  Due to the number of plugs that we knew would have to be done, we took the majority of them from the chipping green.  Unfortunately, the many different colors and compositions of creeping bentgrass and Poa annua that populate our greens make these plugs stand out, but they will blend in over time.  If you look at the ugly plugs that line much of the chipping green, we hope that you'll agree that the mismatched plugs on 7, 8, and 14 look a whole lot better than the alternative.

Returning to talk of the frigid spring (ironically on a 90+ degree day), Chad and I received an email from Dr. Doug Soldat, who's a Soil Science professor at UW-Madison.  His email contained the graphs that I've copied below, and the data that was collected at the Arlington, WI agricultural research station really illustrates the the growing degree day lag that's been discussed in prior posts.  Of course, after today's heat, I'm just about ready for some cooler weather...

Please note that the graphs will only show up when using the Firefox browser, and they'll be a red "x" in Internet Explorer.  Sorry for the inconvenience, but I'm not tech savvy enough to correct the problem.

Although they may be difficult to read, these graphs show the normal growing degree units (the solid blue line), along with years that have had significant deviations (both high and low) over the past 30 years.  2011 is represented by the black dashed line.

The Greens Blues

As has been the case for much of the spring, it was another chilly morning on the golf course.  Luckily, we didn’t get any frost, but several rooftops on my drive to work were frosty.  Thus far in May, the average nighttime temperature has been 44 degrees, and compared to last year, we are nearly two weeks behind in the growing degree days (GDDs) that I’d discussed in an earlier (May 4) post.  Clearly, it’s been a miserable spring to play golf and to recover from winter injury.  Considering the weather, we are satisfied with our recovery to this point, but we recognize that the greens still have a ways to go before they’re up to everyone’s standards.  It’s been a frustrating spring for all involved, and despite doing everything in our power to get them healed, we still don’t have any say in the most-determining factor: the weather.

Many of the previous posts have chronicled our efforts to promote germination and recovery, so I won’t go into too much detail about that.  However, to-date, we have applied 2.0 pounds of nitrogen per 1000 square feet, and as a reference, we applied 2.4 pounds over the course of the entire 2010 season.  So, the nutrients are available for whenever it is that the weather decides to warm up.  Also, we have yet to apply our growth regulator to the greens, and last year, we made this application on May 15.  We’ve also spent a significant amount of time replacing damaged turf on the affected greens with healthy plugs from the chipping green.  All told, 200 plugs have been patched in to 7, 8, and 14 green.  Essentially, we just need some warm temperatures.

The main reason why the greens haven’t yet fully recovered is because the Poa annua simply isn’t germinating.  Recently, the living Poa has begun to produce seeds, and the whitish seeds are very visible on the fairways and on some of the greens.  These seeds will lie dormant in the soil for years and will germinate when they are presented with the proper conditions.  And, because of the large amount of Poa that we have on our greens, there are a lot of seeds waiting for some warm temperatures.  A study by Dr. Calhoun at Michigan State University found that the ideal soil temperature range for Poa seed germination is 68-72 degrees and that germination drops significantly once the soil temperature drops below 58 degrees.  At 8:30 this morning, the soil temperature on 8 green was 46 degrees, and this is why the greens are recovering more slowly than anyone would prefer.

The recovery that we’ve seen thus far has been due to creeping bentgrass encroaching in the damaged areas, and the increased bentgrass population has been the one sliver of good news.  As opposed to Poa, existing bentgrass plants are able to spread laterally through above-ground runners called stolons, which is why it’s called creeping bentgrass.

We’re certainly optimistic that the 10-day forecast holds true and that Mother Nature  will provide us with a little bit of assistance.  We hope that you have a great Memorial Day weekend and that these warm temperatures will make this spring nothing but a bad, slow, and bumpy memory.

Green Speed and Range Tees

Yes, we’re aware that the greens have been less than fast so far this year, but we’ve had to keep the height up to allow for recovery.  And, although they aren’t 100% healed in, the progress that they’ve made to this point means that it’s time to get them rolling a little more quickly.

This week, we’ve already begun gradually lowering the height-of-cut (HOC), and we’ll continue to do so until we’re able to attain green speeds of 10’ with a combination of mowing and rolling.  As you can imagine, it’s not possible to simply lower the HOC to get this speed tomorrow; doing so would be quite the shock to the plants’ systems.  But, by dropping the HOC daily, we’ll be at the desired height shortly.

After a brief stretch of warm weather, the temperatures over the past few days have once again been below normal, and today’s frost was an unwelcome sight.  This has slowed recovery, but the damaged areas are slowly but surely filling in.  At this point, we’ve done everything that we can, and it’ll take some nice weather to get the plants growing and germinating.  Hopefully, they’ll be almost completely healed come Memorial Day.

Although 6 green hasn't completely recovered from the winter injury, it sure looks a whole lot better than it used to.

Speaking of Memorial Day and recovery, the grass range tees have been healing nicely, and we’re on track to have them open next week.  It’s always our goal to have them open by Memorial Day, as we’re aware that most don’t enjoy hitting off of the artificial mats for longer than that.  By keeping the grass tees closed in spring, we’re able to keep them in as good of shape as possible during the heart of the golf season.

Last week, the crabapples and redbuds finally began blossoming, and it's about time...