A week in Review

So much has happened in the last week its hard to remember where we started. We went from looking like we might not accomplish anything to seeding our first hole. Monday began as a total wash as we received an inch and a half of rain. Unfortunately the unproductivety spilled over into Tuesday as the course was a muddy mess that morning. By early afternoon it had begun to dry up enough to start the finish work on the 6th Fairway and laying sod around the 6th green.

Wednesday came with sunshine and much to be accomplished. Abe worked on finishing the seed bed prep on the 6th hole, we began ripping, disking and raking the 8th hole and prepping the green surround for sod. We had 3 truck loads of sod delivered on Thursday and Friday which finished off the 7th and 6th green surrounds and wrapped the fairway bunkers on the 6th hole.

We also spent Thursday and Friday doing final seedbed prep for 6 Rough and Fairway. It felt really good to see everything come together. As if all that wasn't enough we also began pouring cart paths this week and cleaning up the weeds on holes 9 and 10 to get them ready to rip.

By Saturday we were finally ready to seed the 6th hole. It was very exciting and was a huge step. After calibrating the spreaders and one or two hiccups seed was down and ready for water. It was a dusty mess but after spinning the heads a few times everything tightened up and we were able to build up soil moisture. Now its just time to wait and let the seed do its job.

Beginning the Sod on 6 Green Surround 

Lightly tilling 9 to clean up dead grass 

Sod around 7 Green Surround 

6 Green surround and Bunker being wrapped 

Bunker Complex with a bonus pot bunker sitting on top

Good looking Par 5 

Ripping 8 Fairway 

Cleaning up rocks on 8 

Cart paths going in 

Seed going down 

Let the water fly 

Independence update

Happy 4th of July!

Good Evening! As Independence day winds down I finally have time to sit down and catch up on some writing. Its been 31 days since the Sprigs were spread and crimped and there growing very well. We put a reel mower on them for the first time this morning cutting at .850 (roughly 7/8ths of an inch). This came after cutting them all last week with our intermediate rough mower set to 1.5 inches to trim up some of the larger clumps.

 5 Fairway, June 24th 

5 Fairway, June 27th

We put 4.5 pounds of nitrogen down over a 2 week span while reducing watering to encourage the roots to establish and grow.  As it was a holiday and the course was full of happy golfers playing the Par 3 course we have set up we were only able to cut 2 of the fairways this morning before it became impractical to continue. If the rain there calling for misses us by some chance we will finish cutting the fairways tomorrow, if not we will have to wait till it dries out some to finish. Were planing to fertilize again after all the fairways have been mowed, we'd also like to get a foliar nutrient feed on them after they have been cut but        that will depend on how much time we have with the short work week.

We would like to open the fairways some time next week depending on how they look after they have been cut. There's many factors that determine whether or not we can open them but we're all working hard to achieve that goal. Once there open we will probably need to instate a temporary "pick and place" rule as we currently only have between 65% and 75% coverage. 8-10 days may change that but we'll just have to wait and see.

First cut with the intermediate mower at 1.5"

 As you drive around every single day its sometimes hard to recognize any change in the fairways because your seeing them every minute of every day. However in the last week I've been able to see the growth change almost every morning, luckily i got some pictures from almost the same location on a couple of the fairways which shows the amount they grew in just 3 or 4 days. We're going to keep pushing them with nitrogen and mowing and get them to start moving sideways more. If you scroll down there are some comparison photos from 5 and 17 Fairways.

I hope everyone has a good and restful Independence Day and can get out to play a round of golf at some point.

Peter Danaher 

Assistant Superintendent 

Talbot CC 

5 Fairway June 24th 

5 Fairway June 27th 

17 Fairway June 29th 

17 Fairway July 2nd 

Fungi, Fungi, Fungi

Mycelium in root zone 

The rain the past few weeks gave us a good look at just how susceptible our turf grass is when not protected. Conditions were perfect for a host of diseases and it seemed like we saw all of them. The first and most curious were spots that showed up on our bent grass, sand based, tees. They presented similarly to Dollar Spot but there was an absence of Mycelium around the edges. After investigating further I found mycelium in the root zone, no idea if it has direct correlation but it was really interesting to find.

The next best guess was pythium root disfunction, which makes a lot of sense after seeing the extensive layering and thatch and mat layers. To back up my theory there were black spots visible with a hand lens on the roots, rhizomes, and lower stems suggesting that they might be oospores. The fungal spots were maybe 2-4" in diameter and while they did not appear to grow in size they did seem to pop up in new areas.

April 26th

Another theory and possibly a better one was Pink Snow Mold. With day time temperatures in the mid 50's and constant moisture on the leaf tissue its probably a really good bet. Its just so hard to believe the weather we are having, the picture on the right was taken April 26th, it was 48 and raining. We had better weather in December this year than we have had in April and May so far. If this continues they may need to find a new name for the pathogen.

May 4th 

The picture to the left was taken a week after the picture above. You can see how the pathogen has spread over the tee box and even though the spots haven't enlarged they have become more numerous. That week was a little hairy for us because there wasn't a single day we could get the sprayer out. It was either raining or the wind was blowing too hard, and if we got any break at all there was always someone waiting to tee off. We monitored the tees closely to make sure we weren't taking to much damage until we got the sprayer on them. Once we could, we loaded them up with a combo that would ensure coverage regardless of what was cooking. It was nice to finally get around the course and make sure we were covered. I was really glad I did too cause as I rode around I caught sight of a few more pathogens. Once the fungicides were out we quickly started seeing regeneration on  the tee boxes.

Tourney, Banol, 26GT

I give a lot of credit to my boss, he has been in the industry longer than I have been alive and knows more about fungicides than I could dream of knowing. He was able to put our application together pretty much off the top of his head and with very little effort. I'm enjoying learning from him so far and being part of the operation.

Pythium? 

Brown Patch? 

We found some kind of ring active on our bent grass approaches. While I'm not entirely sure what it is it got sprayed and went away. I texted the picture to a few friend and the top answers were either pythium, or anthracnose. I might not ever know but it was still cool to look at.

The other clear as day ring that showed up was on our Perennial Ryegrass range tee. I'm pretty positive it was Brown Patch even though the weather wasn't perfect for it the smoke ring is almost too perfect.

Red Thread? Pink Snow Mold? 

Finally the Rough. While I'm not positive as I have never seen it in the field, the picture to the left I believe to be Red Thread. Which made me really excited since its pretty much a non damaging disease and is just fun to look at. Then again it could be Pink Snow Mold which would be a little more discouraging but not really terrible either. Regardless, Fescue seed costs less than Fungicides everyday of the week so were not to worried.

Grey Snow Mold? 

Of course this patch was close to the patch above. A little less pink/red looking and more... Grey. No idea for sure of course, could be anything but really did look like Grey Snow Mold. Regardless we'll monitor but there's no plan to remove it as of now.

 And finally, the picture below, clear as day read thread. I'm Happy.

Red Thread!

Until Next Time,

Peter Danaher
Peter.danaher88@gmail.com

Rainy Weather and All it Brings

The last 12 days have been miserable. Rain and tempatures barely getting to 50. With our fairway renovation fast approaching theres a whole list of projects that need to be completed, however most of these require dry weather. Despite the conditions we pressed on and I'm very proud of the work we completed the past week. Friday we did end up going home at lunch after cleaning the shop but we also got 1.55 inches of rain. 

There was several fungi present due to the weather conditions and our inability to get around the course with a Sprayer until nearly a week of rain. Nothing seemed too serious or we were able to catch it just in time. We got really lucky in that regard. The day we sprayed we saw a few more rings show up on our driving range, approaches and rough. With the wet weather it felt like almost everything was active, I was glad to be sitting on a sprayer at the time. 

The rain and clouds finally broke Saturday morning bringing sunshine and a warm breeze. Despite this the course was still underwater. The sunshine brought false hope for many of the golfers including myself. The fairways were flooded as was most of the rough. Luckily our new drain lines performed well but that was only a small portion of the course that was playable. The sunshine did provide some spectacular sites around the course. The Azaleas are all in full bloom and providing excellent color around the course, enhanced by the sunshine. The course is beautiful right now and I wish we had more sunlight to really bring out the color and textures of the course.

This week has been all about the clean up after the last weeks rain. Without the ability to get our rough units around the course much of our turf got out of hand. I give props to the crew on there hard work so far this week, push mowing and weed wacking areas that were to wet to be cut with the big mowers and doing out of the normal jobs to keep the golf course playable. While were far from being done its nice to be able to breath a little easier knowing that we are at least close to being caught up with the mowing. With rain predicted nearly every day next week we'll take whatever sun we can get and enjoy the views around the course.

Back of 7 green as seen from the causeway