Ok, Ok, Ok! I know it has been awhile since I updated my Blog. Heck I almost forgot my password to sign in. But here is my promise: One post every three days for the next two weeks. I figure we have a lot of catching up to do.
Let's start with a quick assessment of the course and then over the next few weeks I will give a review of the items that we have accomplished this summer and then we can start talking about overseeding.
Greens: All things considered the greens have made it through the summer in relatively good condition. I would say the only thing not good about the greens is the ball marks. In the links column on the right hand side of this page is a link to the USGA website that contains informational videos on the proper way to repair ballmarks. The most important idea to remember when repairing a ballmark is that after all is said and done you should see very minimal amounts of soil. All that you are trying to accomplishing is pushing the grass back to it's original place. We did spike, verticut and topdress today. Like I have talked about in previous posts, topdressing is vital to providing quality putting surfaces.
As we start to see night temperatures drop in early to mid-September we should start to see green speeds increase.
Tees: Overall the tees have also held up fairly well the this summer. The only tee that has suffered turf loss was number 15. This is due to the trees that were removed last fall. #15 tee is, or maybe I should say was, highly populated with shade loving Poa annua. This summer's heat and humidity rose and the turf on that tee had no shade to hide under. At overseeding we will be spraying the remaining Poa annua in the tee and it's surround with a herbicide, then the newly seeded, sun loving Ryegrass, will establish and be much more tolerate to the sun and heat next summer.
Fairways: The Bermuda grass in fairways has come back exceptionally well. The increase in humidity this summer has help the bermudagrass to flourish. Unfortunately, the humidity has hindered the ryegrass. Ryegrass being classified as a cool season grass is under a lot of climatic stress during the summer in Valencia. Having higher than normal humidity makes the stress ryegrass more susceptible to opportunistic pathogens. Needless to say our areas in the fairways that are predominately Ryegrass are struggling and thin. If you happen to be on the course in the morning hours take a look at shade patterns. In areas where we have prolonged morning shade the bermudagrass struggles to establish. This is becuase bermudagrass loves the sun, and the more of it the better. Anything less then a full day of sun makes the bermuda struggle to establish and overtake the Ryegrass.
Roughs: This is where we struggle year in and year out and there is no easy fix. The root of the problem in the rough is trees. Here is the vicious cycle. The trees create shade. So in the winter and spring the cool season grasses, in particular Poa annua, get well established. Then as the sun heads into the northern Hemisphere, the shade patterns shift, and now the shade loving grasses that established themselves are in full sun. These grasses that don't like sun decide to pack their bags and head south. In technical terms, they produce a seed or two and then die, only to have those seeds germinate next fall and start the cycle again. In the rough, like the fairways, you can tell where you get more hours of sunlight in a day by looking at where you have the most amount of Bermuda grass.
The other problem with trees is they block irrigation. Sprinklers are designed for head to head coverage. Meaning each head is suppose to throw its stream of water to the next head. Problem is trees block this stream which actually creates two problems. First, the water does not get to where it is supposed to go there by creating a dry spots in the areas deficient in water. Second, the water that hits the branches and trunks of the trees drops straight down, thereby creating a wet spot. Every summer we try to address this issue by adding drainage and supplemental irrigation. In the blog updates to come I will be talking more in length about this problem and what we have been doing to help remedy the problem areas.
Ok, time to start preparing my next post. Remember, if you have specific questions about the course and it's maintenance please e-mail me. I can post the answer on the blog for everyone to read.
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