Answers to your rough questions

Last week I was asked the following question by a member: “Why are all the lawns in Country Club Hills green and healthy, but the grass on our course is not?”  Answering this seemly basic and innocent question has multiple benefits to the membership; 1) it is a fair question and no doubt on the memberships’ mind; and 2) it brings to light one of the long term issues we have with the course. I hope the following provides both an answer to the question, as well as what we are doing to address it.  

There are a couple of major differences between the course and a private lawn:

1)  The majority of the private lawns do not have the multiple strains of grass that our course has as well as the height tolerances we cut them. Though there are no doubt multiple grass types in private lawns, it is not to the extent and variety that has been introduced to our course over the decades. In addition, our grasses are exposed to a lot more treatments and growth regulators than are "domestic" lawns, thus the plants are under a higher level of stress.

2)  Compaction: Soil compaction is by far our largest enemy in the fairways and rough throughout the course. Our course has very little topsoil which lies on top of a clay foundation. During the summer we get heavy rains followed by severe heat, since the roots of our plants are very shallow due to soil depth, they are basically “boiled” and put under a great deal of stress. This leads to a plant that dies, or is very weak and susceptible to disease. 

       a)  As you can surmise, as the topsoil layer is compacted into the clay level we are left with a very shallow growing area for the roots of our plants. Lawns do not deal with the constant compaction of the soil and thus the restriction/depth of the root base. Believe it or not, golf carts cause more soil compaction then the mowers. The mowers have very large tires that spread out the weight, much like a snow shoe. Further the mowers do not run over the same areas over and over again as they are scheduled to cut multiple patterns.

b)  Another part of the compaction issue is the small footprint of our property. The carts are all funneled to the same areas and as you can see the stress on the course is very prevalent on hillsides that are near cart paths. The vectors of the golf carts and gravity put a lot of stress on the grass (e.g. #3). Further, areas where people drive constantly have compacted the soil to such an extent that grass is unable to grow (e.g. exiting 6 fairway to the 7^th tee area next to the cart path). 

c)  Due to the topography of our course, balls funnel to the same areas (e.g. #3, #4, etc.); therefore cart and walker traffic funnels to the same areas focusing compaction as well.

There is some good news in dealing with the above issues:

1)  The previous sprinkler system’s piping was in many cases only 4 to 8 inches below the surface; therefore we were limited to but a few inches to aerify the fairways and rough in order not to hit the irrigation piping. The value of aerification is two fold: a) it brings much needed air down to the roots which promotes growth; and 2) we are able to introduce sand deeper into the ground which assists in expanding a better growing environment for the roots. This coupled with topdressing builds up and expands the area where the roots of our plants can grow, thus producing a stronger plant.

2)  When we installed the new irrigation system the piping was set at 18 inches below the surface. In addition, last year we purchased a deep tine aerifier that could go down as far as 10 inches. That is the good news. The bad news is that we simply can't start pounding the ground downing to 10 inches to reduce the compaction, increase the root growth area and the air circulation, thus promoting deep root growth in one season...we have 30 to 50 years of serious compaction. Therefore, we go a little deeper every season and introduce more and more sand in order to build up the base, it is a slow and arduous process.   

3)  A very important part of the Master Plan is to strip the sod, loosen up the soil, reduce the compaction that will enable the root growth to push deeper and reduce the issue of heavy rains followed by severe heat boiling our shallow roots. The ability to loosen up the surface soil and in the coming years focus on deep tine aerification will help a great deal in the expansion of growing areas for our plants. We will always have the challenge of our clay based soil, but by loosen the soil, top dressing, using the deep tine aerifier, and focusing on one type of grass for the fairways and one type of grass for the rough we will form a stronger agronomic basis for the foreseeable future.

This is not a sprint, it is not even a marathon; it is a constant battle. One of the largest benefits of the Master Plan is freeing up the compaction that is the supporting structure of the entire course. A tree may have the ability to grow in Brooklyn...but you can't grow grass on concrete: compacted soil produces shallow roots...shallow roots produce weak plants....weak plants are very susceptible to disease and severe weather changes.  Just like our greens, the foundation of the course is tired. There is no doubt excitement about Tom Doak and the possibility of new "greens," but one of the greatest benefits of the Master Plan is refreshing the base and the compaction reduction of the course throughout....it isn’t exciting....but neither is the foundation of your house.

If we choose not to go forward with the Master Plan we will continue the process of deep tine aerification, top dressing, and attempting to alternate cart traffic throughout the course to reduce focused compaction. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me.

And Here We Go!

Well July was some month and August is starting off with more of the same.  The only good thing is the night time temperatures usually start to relax mid month and we can start to get aggressive with programs to kick start some of the problem areas.

To recap the last 30 days I refer to the stress index compiled by PACE turf laboratories for our location.  The left colored column is a composite of the stress on cool season grasses from air and soil temperatures.  As you can see only red days with a few scattered yellows in the last month.  Conversely those same days were excellent growing weather for Bermuda (warm season grass)

As we try to survive the last of the summer heat, I want to stress the impact carts have on the turf.  We try to avoid being both too wet and too dry which is difficult on this greatly sloping and multi environment course.  But sometimes we are trying to overcome the damage carts impart to the turfgrass.  The first example is just taking a very tight turn.  We often see this in an attempt to identify a ball or sometimes just get closer.  Please pull up to the correct side to play and take the time to get out and look at the identification.  This type of damage now requires us to overwater to avoid this area becoming what we see in the following picture.

Below is the 4th fairway landing area.  A section that can be too wet on occasion, but when left to dry down, excessive cart traffic scars the turf and creates a situation where we will again have to overwater to ensure the turf survives the heat of the late day.

Well enough of the woes of summer heat.  I want to touch on divots and the healing process.  Many always ask what to do when taking a divot and why there is not seed in the mixture.  Simply put bent grass seed in a fairway divot works best in the cool spring on our course.  

At that time of year the seeds stays moist enough to germinate without excessive water, and with no leaves to blow, stays in place until it matures.  In the summer unless the divot is sufficiently large and deep it is best to fill with sand and level off with your foot.

This makes the surface smooth and won't dull the mowers that pass over the sand.  The example below show someone who replaced the divot properly, but due to us trying to dry down fairways the divot died due to low moisture.  This is a difficult balancing act.

A sand filled divot below shows how the bent grass will creep over the scar and fill smoothly on its own if properly filled.  This will not create a depression and will become a smooth playable surface again.  Again using seed in the summer usually only creates another expense, rarely germinates to become viable turf.  Better results happen on tees, which are level and receive more water to continually germinate seeds, and the wetter conditions do not affect play.

In the fall we still rarely use seed since blowers trying to clear leaves, blow the seed in to the rough which creates another type of rough grass to deal with.  Bent grass makes a terrible playing surface when mowed at anything over 3/4" inch, and even worse when mowed at normal rough height of 2 1/4".  

We will begin seeding into rough in the next week or two to re establish the grass that disease and heat took out in the month of June and July.  In most areas the only grass left (hole3) is tall Fescue and Bermuda.  We will be using improved Tall Fescue varieties in this process.  But that discussion of grass types for rough is for next time.

A shout out to my friend Scott Furlong at Robert Trent Jones, who did a magnificent job combating all the early rain to present a tournament course in great shape during a very stressful summer period.  Congratulations to him and his staff for a job well done.  Not sure anyone saw a 61 coming at RTJ especially those who have played the course.  They make it seem like a different game.