Changes and Improvements

 I am sorry for my absence here on the bloggisphere, but I believe I have a lot of good information to cover in this edition.  Plus, equipment issues have raised my blood pressure to new heights over the last couple weeks so some time at the computer will do me well.  First off, after a very long two months, I have hired my new assistant.  His name is Ashton Box, and comes here from Brookridge Country Club.  He has jumped right in and is really taking a lot of weight off of my shoulders.  

So in my humble opinion, our golf course is outstanding right now and I have a lot of confidence moving forward that we will remain in good shape.  Now I could still write a novel about things I don't like or areas that need improvements, but that will always be my curse that comes with the job.  The following are some areas that I have made adjustments in and the results that we are seeing because of them.

Green's Fertility

Fertilizer and nutrients make the plant grow.  I know, mind blowing right?  That is great and all, but turf that is growing a lot is slow (talking green speed) and it is more prone to disease.  Nitrogen is the main nutrient that causes growth and green color.  It is also how turf managers quantify how much they are feeding their turf.  A typical rule of thumb is a tenth of a pound of Nitrogen per thousand square feet per week to keep a bentgrass plant in good health, without overdoing it.  My first year here I sprayed a tenth a pound every other week on greens in order to try and keep things lean.  It did alright.  Last year I played with some different and higher quality fertilizer on the every other week schedule, but only sprayed half a tenth of a pound of Nitrogen.  I saw better results due to the new fert having a combination of amino acids in the mix.  I won't go down that rabbit hole, but amino acids are good.  I still was not satisfied with the off week between applications.  This year I have been spraying the same half a tenth every week and I really like the results.  We are keeping the dark green color and I havn't seen any flushes of growth.  Now as far as the lower putting green goes, it is getting a lot more food than any other green.  This is so it can take all of the traffic that it receives.  It still gets the same sprays as the others, but I have applied monthly applications of a slow release granular fertilizer at the rate of 3 tenths of a pound of Nitrogen.  I havn't putted on it myself, but I imagine it is a bit slower than the others and for that I am sorry.  It is not a true representation of the greens on the course, but I really just want to keep it alive.  Everybody uses the lower green instead of the upper green and I completely understand.  I wouldn't use the top one either.  I feel like it is a sorry excuse for a practice green since it is nothing but a skinny hill of bentgrass.  

Tee Fertility

This is what I am most excited about.  We had a lot of grass to grow on our tees and I believe we are accomplishing that!  Like the greens, I have increased the quality of fertilizer for the tees and I am applying it more often.  1 big thing that is contributing to the goal is that I have stopped using a growth regulator on tees.  I mean, if I want to grow a lot of turf in an area, why in the world would I spray something that slows down growth.

I have thrown a lot more granular fertilizer on tees this year than in the past couple years and I will keep up that trend as long as I am here.  I have added a couple photos of a bare spots that are filling in and if you look close you can tell that the blades of grass are super fat and long as they are stretching over the bare spot.  This is due to the amount of fertility that I have in the turf and it is just proof that its working.  

 

I have also been topdressing tees regularly this year in order to start building a better rootzone for the plant and a better footing for the golfer.  By the looks of things I would say that it is working, but in reality I know that topdressing needs to be a routine in order to see the true benefits.  I believe I see proof of these improvements, but I see a much firmer tee surface coming in the future.  I will continue feeding the tees throughout the year, but through the heat of the summer I plan on using an organic fertilizer mixed into my topdressing sand.  Walk spreading tees is no fun at all so if I can take care of 2 things at once and be able to drive as well.....sign me up!  The organic fert will have no chance of burn in the heat so I feel pretty confident.  One other chemical that I plan on introducing to the tees is a silicon product that will act as "the little blue pill" for turf.  I tested it last year 1 time and it was pretty dern amazing.  I plan on spraying it every 2 weeks and it should really help with traffic tolerance throughout the heat of the summer.  Due to the fact that I am not using growth regulator on tees, I am needing to keep them mowed quite often.  I am trying to get them mowed 3 times a week and so far I am succeeding since I have found a handful of good employees this year.  I know in an earlier blog I had said that I wanted to mow fairways 3 times a week and tees twice.  Well I have flipped that around due to another change I made with growth regulators in fairways.  I'll go over that as well soon.  So far so good and the more I mow the tees, the more the turf will grow sideways and continue to fill in bare spots.  

Fairway Applications

I made another adjustment when it comes to chem/fert in fairways as well.  Less fertilizer and a combo of 2 different growth regulators.  In the past we have used a high rate of just 1 growth regulator and it had worked ok until last September when it failed miserably.  The regulator that we had been using needed to be watered in before the plant would take it in and start to use it.  This could take up to 3 extra days before the plant would slow its roll.  Not good enough for me, especially when the stars don't always align for me on what I want to do on certain days.  So I have cut the rate of that same chemical in half and I have added another regulator to the mix.  The new addition gets absorbed by the leaf tissue immediately so I know it starts working the day I spray it.  So far it has worked very well and we are not having many clippings left in the fairways.  Only time will tell me if it is going to last once the summer rolls through and the plant starts processing the chemicals quicker.  I have also cut down on the amount of Nitrogen I am spraying on fairways in order to lessen the chance of disease.  So far color has been good, but I am planning on adding a few new nutrients to the mix that will aid in keeping it green with no additional Nitrogen.  

Now that we are starting to get into some normal summertime heat, we are hand watering greens each morning and will continue to do so until November probably.  Nothing is changing with the way we perform this task, but I want to let you all know what it is exactly we are doing.  We use moisture meters each morning to pin point each dry area on each green.  Since they are all different from one another we can't just turn the sprinklers on and expect to have consistency.  These meters give us a percentage of moisture at a depth of 3 inches.  Since this will be my third year watering these greens, I now know exactly where to go on each green when scouting for dry spots.  Ashton is still picking this up, but it will only take a handful of hot days in order for him to gain the same knowledge.  On average, we will take a reading at 35 - 50 spots for each green.  Slopes dry out fast so naturally, Staley greens take a few more stabs with the meter than most.  Below is a picture of the screen on my meter.

If I really wanted to dive into the weeds with this technology, my meter can read salinity levels and you can bluetooth it to your phone to build maps of each green and a lot of other really cool stuff as well.  Ain't nobody got time for that.  So we read 1 number and that is the 18.5 you see there.  So that is telling me that the spot I am in is 18.5 percent water and that is actually the number I shoot for in the mornings.  If it is below 18 then I take more readings around that spot and build a map in my head of how big of an area I am going to need to water and how much water I want to try to put there.  If we can get the green to an 18 percent in the morning then it will last all day even if it gets into the high 90s.  

As I type this it is June 10th and I am happy to announce that the range tee grass will open up tomorrow morning.  Its a little later in the year than I had hoped for, but the wet and cloudy spring we had kinda held me back a little.  I'm very pleased with how much the new grass has taken off in the last couple weeks and it has me very optimistic about our ability to have it open for an entire golf season in the future.  I do ask 1 thing from you all while hitting balls up there.  Please try to create lines of divots instead of excavating a big hole.  This will help with the regrowth of each area and our ability to come back to that spot down the road.  If I am left with giant pot holes then the grass will not regrow and we will have to rely on a fully seeded recovery which will add a lot of time before we can use that spot again.  Below are examples of divot rows versus divot craters or a divot shotgun blast.  

 

Our plan is to use the grass tee every week from Tuesday through Sunday and to use the mats every Monday.  All outside tournaments and events will use the mats.  One new rule we are going to put in place is that anytime it reaches 95 degrees or hotter then we will move to mats only.  This will help keep stress from foot twisting off of the grass in the extreme heat.  Hopefully we won't ever have to use that....ha.  

OK, I think that is it for now.  The heat is here and hoses are out.  Please remember, humidity rules all.  It determines how much water we need to put out and it determines green speed for the most part.  The more humid, the slower and tackier the greens will be.  Hit em straight and continue to stop me on the course with questions.  

On the lighter side of things, proud Dad moment.  For those of you that don't know, my Dad is a PGA Pro down at Fayetteville Country Club and my wife is taking my 4 yr old next week to his Jr. Golf program.  I don't know if he will get into the sport, but it sure seems my 1 yr old is getting interested.