"State of the Golf Course Report"

I intended on writing this post a week ago but the over seeding process was very time consuming and ate up most of my time.

It is pretty obvious at this point that our fairways have suffered extensive damage this winter. My best guess is that 60%-70% of the ryegrass has succumbed to cold temperature injury and/or desiccation. I still have some hope that we will see a little more green up, but most likely not much. Because of this, we initiated and completed a complete over seeding process this past week. With the help of three contracted seeders and one of our own, we were able to seed all 60 acres of fairways, tees, and collars in two directions in three days. This is, of course, the most important thing we could have done in the recovery process, but the work is far from over.



We are essentially performing a complete grow-in very similar to what we have done during the recent renovations. There are a number of challenges that make this spring grow-in particularly difficult however. The most difficult of which is that we are open for play. Our goal is to impede your golf experience as little as possible and this limits our ability to perform light and frequent watering cycles, as well as limit traffic. These plants will be juveniles for awhile and timely watering will be critical. Fitting these water cycles in on days that we have 300+ golfers will be very difficult. As for traffic stress, we may have cart restrictions at the onset of germination but we fully understand that long standing cart restrictions during the year are not an option. We will probably be forced to allow carts on these fairways before the plant is fully mature.

Disease pressure and the threat of drought stress will be extremely high this summer. A fall grow-in allows the grass to germinate and mature before the disease pressure and heat the of oncoming summer. A spring grow-in however sends a juvenile plant into the stresses of summer. Ryegrass, even when mature, faces the threat of many diseases, but two in particular, pythium and grey leaf spot, are very concerning and expensive to treat. Unfortunately a juvenile plant is significantly more susceptible to these specific diseases. We always have a preventative program in place to fight these diseases but this year our control may start earlier and run longer. In regards to drought stress, it goes without saying that a juvenile plant is less capable of handling it than a mature plant. Spring is time for the plant to put down roots and prepare its carbohydrate reserve for the coming summer. In our case, the plant is throwing it's energy into growing and maturing from a seed. This energy drain produces a plant that has "less in the tank" to fight of the heat of the summer. This may force light and frequent syringing into our daily routine.



 



Slit seeders hard at work.

The million dollar question that I have been repeatedly asked but unable to answer is "how long before we are back to 100%?" I wish I had the answer but there are too many variables that affect this process. Right now we need soil temperatures to continue to rise, timely rains, and to avoid heavy frost/freezes. If we can get through the next 3-4 week period with those three factors favoring us, we will be on our way. We are fully prepared to make another seed application in a month from now if we feel the need, but once we get past the first week of May, widespread seeding would probably be futile due to the lack of time needed for the plant to mature before summer.

I would be lying if I said there aren't times when we feel a little down when looking at what has happened to the course over the winter. It's daunting to think about how good things were last year and what we now face this year. What lifts our spirits is knowing there aren't many people as experienced as we are at growing in golf courses. We have successfully grown in three golf courses over the past four years and we know what we are doing. We have the knowledge and dedication, our ownership provides us with the resources, and we know a few tricks about the process. We are "pros" at this and I expect we will eventually be back to where we expect to be. Thank you all for your patience.