Course Update

This week the golf course is enjoying a much needed break from the dog days of summer. The cooler weather gives our maintenance team the opportunity to undertake a few different cultural activities including: verticutting and topdressing greens, aerating and fertilizing disease/dry spots on fairways and tees, as well as overseeding what remains of the weak areas.

Willow Tree on the 1st hole.

Baby birds, nesting in the willow trunk

Over the last month we have had quite a bit to deal with. At the end of June we had a damaging windstorm which downed many large tree limbs on the course, as well as completely knocking over the old willow on the right side of the 1^st green. We had to bring in an arborist to remove the fallen tree while we dealt with the damage to the rest of the course. Upon removing the trunk of the willow the arborist discovered a number of surviving bird nests. We decided to wait until the birds are old enough to fly away from the nest before continuing with the rest of the removal.

We are still having problems with irrigation water quality; debris in the water clogs the filters in the sprinkler heads, causing them to underperform. The result is dry areas that become weak and susceptible to disease. Currently many of these areas are infected with a disease called anthracnose. 

The good news is that bentgrass is very resistant to this disease; the bad news, poa annua is not. Most of our fairways are poa, and fairways are a very large area. To do a blanket application of fungicide to completely control the disease is in the neighborhood of $12,000. Obviously this is not in the realm of budget, so to do spot applications we are looking between $2000-3,000; however, thankfully, the cool weather reduces the severity of the disease, giving us the opportunity to try and bring these areas back to health with fertilizer. Healthy turf resists disease, so if we can get these areas healthy without the use of fungicides, we can save a lot of money. Last week we purchased $150 of an agricultural grade of Urea fertilizer. We melted this down and added it to water to be sprayed directly on these areas. The benefit of this is that it supplies instant nitrogen to the turf. Hopefully we will see these areas recovering this week, but if we continue to see the anthracnose spreading, we will have to consider purchasing fungicide for spot applications.  

Anthracnose, 1st fairway.

     

Clogged sprinkler head, dry spot, 4th tee

As I mentioned, the underlying issue here is the effluent water. If our sprinkler heads were working properly the turf would be healthy and we wouldn’t have a disease issue. Last week Sam and I spent about 30 hours combined unclogging sprinkler heads, only to have ones we fixed at the beginning of the week clogged again. Very frustrating. I am looking into the costs of different filters and screens we can put right on our effluent mainline. So far the cheapest option is a “basket strainer” which is a cost of $3000, plus installation. 

 

Clogged sprinkler head in action. Dry spot surrounding.

I have talked to the City about the quality of the water, and they have basically told me there are a number of different reasons there could be debris in the water. There is a new farm on the effluent line and the other farms are have been using a lot of water through the heat, as have we. The constant pumping of effluent causes debris and sediment in the system to become agitated into the water and then into our system. Hopefully once the farms begin cutting their hay and stop watering, the demand on the system will be reduced and the water quality will return to normal. In my opinion, the water quality is the biggest issue currently facing our golf course. We do not have the staff to manually clean out each head every week, and Sam and I simply cannot be consumed by doing it ourselves.

 

The 12th Green, June 2015

Despite all these issues, the golf course is still in quite good shape, especially considering we just went through about 20 consecutive days above 30 degrees, many of those days in the high 30’s. We have had many compliments from members and the public lately, which has helped us keep a positive outlook as we head into the rest of the season.