Pythium Blight has attacked some of our fairways and tees. #13 fairway, 4 tee box, and 11 fairway are the areas that have been hit the worst. I have changed our watering habits to water in the early morning in these areas to try to minimize the optimal conditions that we have experienced int he past few weeks. We have treated these areas with a fungicide to stop the fungus in it's tracks and allow the grass that remains to thrive and fill in the voids.
PYTHIUM FACTS:
Pythium blight may develop when night temperatures exceed 65°F and leaves are continually wet for 12 to 14 hours for several consecutive nights. For this reason, severe Pythium blight epidemics are commonly observed the morning after a late afternoon or early evening thunderstorm in the summer. Daytime temperatures above 85°F also encourage Pythium blight development, possibly due to increased stress on the turf. Excessive soil moisture and succulent foliar growth also favor disease development.
Perennial ryegrass and annual bluegrass are most prone to Pythium blight and can sustain significant damage in 2 to 3 days when conditions are favorable. Creeping bentgrass and tall fescue are more resistant to the disease, but can be severely affected if conditions are conducive for prolonged periods.
DRIVING RANGE TEE
The driving range tee is another area that has been hit hard with the heat and traffic. We have identified several irrigation issues on the tee box. We are working hard to repair these wiring and sprinkler head issues so we can recover the tee box as quickly as possible. We will seed next week and we will determine the best plan for member utilization of the turf tee box while promoting seed germination and recovery for our long fall season. We plan to close the turf tee for two weeks. The golf shop will communicate the opening date to you once we have determined the best plan for fall recovery.
GRUBS
We saw our first grub damage last week on the course. It is optimal time to see the grub damage as they are eating the roots of our turfgrass and we can see the brown areas from the turf starving for water. The most evident sign that you have grub problems is the racoons and skunks dig the ground up looking for the grubs to eat them. We treated our bentgrass fairways, greens, tees, and collars with a preventative insecticide. These areas will be fairly clean, but the roughs have not been treated and you may see areas that the little critters are chewing away at our grass. I will treat the higher profile areas that they are damaging such as the rough on the left side of 8 fairway. You may see a few areas in the bentgrass (3 and 5 approach) but we will treat these areas with an insecticide to manage any breakthrough from the preventative treatment.
If you see grubs at your house and want to treat them, you can purchase bayer grub killer plus. It is available at gardening stores. Apply it according to the label and make sure you water it in thoroughly.
YELLOW NUTSEDGE
This is a nasty little weed. You see it all over the golf course. It is a difficult weed to kill as it has a nut located in the ground that it stores nutrients in and when we kill the leaf blade it is able to regenerate from the nut at a later date. We have it everywhere and we are treating it as we can. It is very expensive to treat and we are focusing on the worst areas. The areas in the fairways and on the tees are not going to be treated until next week as I don't like to treat bentgrass with herbicides when it is as hot as it has been. We will focus on these areas next week and you should see improvement in the next ten days or so.
The weather will break this weekend and we should be able to recover quickly from the banged up turf areas we have right now. A little cool weather and a nice rain will help us more than anything. I will seed 13 fairway in the worst areas and I will seed all of 4 tee box. These areas should make a rapid recovery and we will have all fall to enjoy our Bentgrass as that is when it is at it's best.
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