That's a lot of holes...

We have just finished seeding all the fairways.  Hole 4 will undergo another round, but to date we have poked over 65 million 1/2" sized holes in the ground and spread about 300 lbs of bent grass seed.   Now all we need is some rain and a little better weather than 10 degrees above normal.  It's sure to come, just when is the problem.

We will slowly relax the carts in the rough to again transiting the fairways.  We ask that you use the fairway when you need to, but try to use the rough or path as much as possible.  New seedlings are prone to damage from us mowing, as well as other traffic.  The strong will survive but we hope to have as many be part of the recovery as possible.

We will begin aeration and seeding of the roughs next.  The heavy traffic around the fairways has started to decline that turf in the past few weeks of hot weather.  With cool weather the fertilizer will come out of hiding in the barn and we can begin the long slow climb back to normal.  Thank you again for your patience.


Well if the weather turns colder then we start to see the foxes at their worst.  We always have several dens on the property that move occasionally, but when its cooler they get frisky.  The picture below shows the latest damage from one that continues to dig in the 12th fairway.  It's hard to deter them when we never know where they will strike next.

The picture below is just another example of what to look forward to as our rough grass in the future.  This area right of 13 fairway is something we sodded three years ago to tall fescue when we were doing a winter drainage project.  Notice the distinctive line of new grass.  Both the color and density are terrific and so far even after this miserable year, little to no disease in the stand!

The Ugliest Grass, and some light at the end of the tunnel.

You may have seen us recently put a larger push to eliminating the uglies of weeds on the planet ( in my opinion) ;Goosegrass.

This weed is invasive throughout the property.  The seeds stay active in the soil for 30-50 years, so we have been accumulating these for quite some time.  It is a summer annual, similar to crabgrass, but unlike that weed, the herbicides we use to prevent its germination are very weak on goosegrass.  In fact there is no good pre-emergent control for this weed on cool season grass.  Normally we apply preventatives to control crabgrass in the spring and then use post emergent herbicides during the summer to minimize, but never completely eradicate goosegrass during the summer.  At first frost it all dies and we begin the cycle again.

It mainly shows up during the late June time frame when the summer heat comes on, and readily establishes itself when there is an opening in the turf canopy or around very compacted areas like cart path edges and drive on and drive offs.  The product we use to minimize its spread is very harmful to bentgrass at rates that are needed for control.  With all the stress the fairways have been under we eliminated its use to reduce further damage to already tender turf.  Our recent attempts to overseed have created more spots for it to germinate.  With all the time spent trying to manage the rest of the course, the heat has increased the speed of goosegrass development and its appearance is just plain ugly.  

It needs to be noted that we are trying to reduce the amount of all herbicides, not only pre-emergents due to their persistence in the soil.  We are looking at a large scale sod project when the renovation starts and any herbicides with activity in the soil may hinder development of the new grass.  I had this same situation occur when I was at Congressional, so we need to be careful on what products are applied in the next 12-18 months.  We may have some weed break thru now and then, but better that than a slow establishment when we need it most.

We are making a large effort now that we have gotten a little more favorable weather, to manually cut out all the goosegrass from the fairways.  We hope to have them cleaned up by the end of next week so as the recovery begins we have a more appealing look to the fairways.

 Speaking of that, we are starting to see some germination of bent grass in some of the aeration holes on 16 fairway and some testing we did on 4 fairway.  

Those little plants in front of the black knife handle are new tender bent grass shoots!

We will begin more large scale seeding of fairways immediately in the worst areas.  Others will receive topdressing to fill in weaker spots.  I want to point out that we are a creeping bent grass fairway golf course.  Most of all the recovery is from creeping, not the seeding.  Many areas will fill naturally over the winter and next spring.  If you look at how young and small the seedlings are it is a stretch to think they will all withstand mowers, carts traffic and winter.  They will begin to help fill in more open areas, but casualty is high when traffic is applied, no matter the type.  When new fairways are seeded it is often 12-20 weeks before they see any traffic.

In our case we need to work hard and fast to get this project done, not only do we need to get established seedlings before winter, but soon the sun will barely rise over the trees meaning little to no growth for new seedlings and then the leaves start to fall which means we will be blowing on a daily basis.  The bent grass seeds are extremely small ( approx 6-7 million seeds per pound! ) so a tractor blowing leaves could spread those everywhere into the wind, maybe even the neighbors yards.  We hope to see a return to more normal fairways in a short time and I look forward to sharing more information about all the developments on the new design.