The saga of the 16th green

One of my favorite greens here at WGCC is the 16th green.  A beautiful surface that has great character.  Normally a green we we love with its bountiful sunshine, great air movement and abundent drainage, but this year it has proved a struggle.

You may have seen me at various times, poking and prodding at the green, several times with pathologists, superintednents and others walking the surface.   It's had it's share of samples taken from it and sent to labs all over the area.  I began to notice small irregular patches of dysfunticonal turf in several areas at the start of summer.  At the time it was diagnosed as a variety of poa annua that was not adapting to the climate at the time.

I had some samples sent off to look at chemical and physical composition of the soil and for any lingering disease.  All came back normal and the green bounced back.  As it started again, I sent more samples off looking at physical structure to determine if the sands we have been topdressing with had been causing any layering issues or dry down irregularities.  Again nothing found,  so I sent off some pictures to another friend of mine, a former turf professor now working as an advisor to a chemical company.  He wondered if we had tested for nematodes.

Now nematods are a small microscopic worm that inhabits all root systems and can cause injury.  Normally found in sandy soils in the south and problematic in the hot summer time, these worms feast off the roots structure weaking them when the plant is under stress.  Our 16th green is in a great growing environment, not under any undue stress and not a sandy soil.  Well as you can tell by now the samples I sent off to Virginia Tech came back with a high count of nematodes.

The soil aways contains nematodes, there are at least 25,000 species, and only certain ones cause issues, so trying to define how many and what type in any one location is difficult.

The chemistries to eradicate the worm is no longer on the market due to EPA issues.  So we are left to using a variety of methods re: "witches brews", to fight these parasites.  Anyway, everything seemed to be moving the right direction, to where most people never noticed any issues.

Well with this weekends high temperatures, the picture below show the damage in those stressed areas from the nematode presence.

We have applied more of the various brews to the soil (all natural) in the hopes of stemming the impact and will be researching all known practices this fall to work up a plan for next year.   We have tested several greens and recieved various counts, which even with todays science cannot define if we will have a problem or not down the road.  So when you see me kneeling down on the green with my knife in my hand, I'm not going crazy, just trying to stay ahead of whatever nature has tossed our way.

A beautiful start, then watch out for the downhill!

It was a glorious start to the day.  It is a wonderful place to be early in the morning as the sun rises over the 2nd green

As the sun rose we began to notice a few things that I want to alert you to as you play the course.  As I mentioned the downhill in the title is the one on the 8th hole.  When we make decisions as to determining the cart path rule, many assume it is just the very lowest areas that are affected.  Well recently we have seen a large increase in cart damage to the 8th hole.

As you can see above and below, long skids have torn the turf from the ground.  This not only impacts all the players, but is very difficult to remedy.  Bentgrass must be stripped and sodded, this results in mowing issues and playability issues.  Staked areas are then in play, carts continue to travel over the sod and in general it makes the aesthetics and playability poor overall.

We may have to resort to staking off the hill to all cart traffic if we cannot control this abuse.  Please exercise caution when starting down the hill, avoid sharp turns and lightly tap the brakes.  Use just as much caution when trying to climb the hill.  Many times you may not notice the tires spinning as you try to gain traction in your attempt to get back to your partners ball.  I recommend travelling down the rough until you are at the bottom of the hill then crossing the fairway at a 90 degree angle over to your ball.

Fall Projects

Well it seems like summer just started and now we are talking about fall projects.  I will be adding some updates on things you may have noticed playing this summer, but for now I want to focus on what we are looking at for this fall.

The biggest change will be a renovation of the 2nd tee.  The supporting timber wall has been deteriorating for awhile.  Many designs have been evaluated in solving the problem, and been discussed by the appropriate committees.  The option moving forward is to remove the timber walls entirely, lower the back tee by a few feet and place it closer to the fence which allows a cart path to be placed between the tee and green for easier access to the first green.

This eliminates a long term issue for both the wall and stairs in this area.  In addition the middle tee will be lowered slightly, which will also create enough fill to increase the size of a new forward tee.  Even with lowering the tees, they will still be above the green height, and the expanded space and leveling will make all the tee area useable.

The new cart path will be done in concrete as a test for future cart path construction for the entire course.   In addition a cart path of a new material will be constructed to the left of the pine trees near the green to help with safety from the tee shots on 18.  This path will be out of play for 2, and will blend into the pine straw bed so as to not detract from the scenic nature of the hole.

The drawing below is a design sketch of the new tees.  Work will commence the first week of November.  We will have to shut down the tees during construction, but we are making plans to have a temporary set in several locations to allow the green to stay open.  Once the tees are finished we will evaluate the use of a mat on the new teeing areas while the sod knits in for an anticipated Spring opening.

We also are planning for drainage projects on the 3rd, 4th, 8th and 12th holes.  The largest of these projects will be on the 4th hole, as both the side toward the tee and the side toward the green will get new drainage to handle the abundant water that flows down this hole.

The tee side will have a large underground pipe connecting to several catch basins to remove surface water the emanates from the homes along the left side down into the storm basin at the beginning of the fairway.  These basins will be surface mounted so as to not collect shots into swales.

The green side will have a series of "french style" drains to capture water from both sides and move it down into the drains nearer the green.  In addition some work will be performed around the cross bunker to move water around it so we do not lose all the sand every time we receive a large downpour.

This work will commence shortly after the 2nd tee, and will require some alternate tee placements while the work is in progress.  This area will be back in play as soon as the project is complete and crews off site.