Heavy rains, sodden fairways and drains.

After not having rain for months we received 5.5" of rain in one week which, on its own is bad, but when you couple that with extremely high humidity, clouds and no wind you have a recipe for a very wet course because it never has a chance to dry out. Because of this we fell behind on mowing fairways and rough last week, but caught up as of today. You may notice yellowing of fairways in some spots that have had standing water for a few days. Grass, like any living organism, needs to breathe, and if it is sitting under water it is unable to do that. Furthermore, the warmer the water and the more intense the light, the quicker the turf decline. So between the heavy rain, high humidity and high temps, we've had a perfect environment for fairway turf decline. Once we dry out, which it looks like we should early next week, we'll determine the areas with the most decline and start slit seeding into the soil to begin healing. The good news is, we're entering the best time of year to seed so these areas should heal quickly.

Flooding of turf from MSU

Wet, yellowing turf.

Staying with the theme of water, we've also been working on installing more large storm drains to keep water from getting to the course. We installed large catch basins at the property lines on #11 and #2 to catch water as its coming onto the course. In the past when it has rained enough, large quantities of water would overwhelm the old drains and pour onto the fairways. By re-grading these areas and putting in larger drains, we should be able to get all of that water into the drain lines before it runs down the middle of our fairways.

New drain and grading at #11.

New drain and grading at #2. In this, and the drain on #11, the grading will act as a backstop to catch any overflow until the drain can catch up.

Enjoy the Wine Classic this weekend!
Ian

Venting greens, Ground Shieldz and pump house problems.

The last two Mondays at Barrington were very productive for us because the course was closed. One thing we like to do when we have an opportunity like this is to vent the greens using the PlanetAir. As I've touched on before, venting the greens increases air exchange and water flow, resulting in a happier plant. This is a very non-invasive procedure that is very beneficial to the greens,while barely disrupting play; in fact, it actually increases green speed.

Slits for breathing and drinking. 

In case you were wondering, the white boards, called Ground Shieldz, at the practice green and driving range tee were a turf protection product we were trying out. These boards are used to protect playing surfaces when stadiums are hosing concerts or anything else that may damage turf. The idea for us was to let the boards sit in one spot for six days and see how the turf underneath looked after. The turf looked longer because we couldn't mow it but, besides that it looked great. We were impressed with how well the grass did underneath and will likely be getting some to use here for the many events that happen around the putting green. 

Boards. 

Grass after six days of cover. 

Finally, we had some issues at our pump house over the weekend which meant we went all weekend without watering at night. Evening watering is the best time to ensure that the plant takes up and efficiently utilizes as much water as possible, so when we miss nights that we want to water it's not ideal. We have the issue sorted out now, but we had a few less than fun days of watering this weekend. We fell behind in some spots on water but we'll catch up soon. I don't know what the opposite of the saying "when it rains it pours" is, but that's what we dealt with this weekend. 

Ian 

Hot weather and disease control.

The heat and humidity that we've been dealing with for the past few weeks has meant that we have very high disease pressure to deal with. Turf diseases need three things; host, environment and a pathogen present. We always have the host and the pathogens present, disease pathogens lay inactive in the soil or thatch waiting for optimal conditions to grow. What we try to control (usually in vain, because it's mother nature) is the environment. The biggest thing we do (there are other things like topdressing and aerification) is limit the amount of water we put on the course because diseases need moisture to thrive, so we do our best to eliminate it. However, when it is as hot and humid as it's been recently, it is difficult to eliminate moisture. While we haven't received a lot of rain, what we have had is very heavy dew in the morning that doesn't burn off until around noon most days. This is a long time for the plant to be wet, allowing pathogens plenty of opportunity to grow. When we mow or drag we eliminate the dew and shorten the time that the plant is wet. However, with the exception of greens, we don't mow everyday, so we're not always removing dew. This is where fungicides come in to play.

In addition to reducing disease pressure as much as we can, we also have some very nice fungicides that help us control all of the diseases that we deal with throughout the year. We stay on a regular spray schedule to keep the course disease free and it really is paying off. Preventive spraying is not only far more effective, it is also far less expensive because spray rates are lower for preventive applications. So far, we've stayed pretty clean on the greens, tees and fairways but, if you look in the rough you'll see some untreated spots where dollar spot is thriving. 

Extremely impressive dollar spot mycelium. Imagine if we didn't treat the course at all! 

Soon enough this disease pressure will back off. In the mean time we'll continue doing our best to keep the course clean.

Ian

Hot weather and poa control.

The last few days have been hot and humid and it looks like after the weekend cool down we'll be back to more of the same. While this weather is miserable to work in, it actually doesn't require us to water too much. We haven't run the irrigation overnight since Sunday and we are catching up in some of the areas where we've dried out the last few weeks. The wetting agent we've sprayed is helping a lot and we have two new guys (both named Mike and both with a lot of experience on golf courses) that have been doing a great job hand watering hot spots. Hand watering may sound pretty simple, but it's nice to have experienced guys doing it because grass turns brown for a lot of reasons, and if the guy watering doesn't know why it's chlorotic he may actually do more harm than good. One example is if grass is yellow or brown because it has disease (anthracnose is a disease that can like wilt) you do not want to water it because you'll just make the problem worse.

Another reason why some grass brown is because of the growth regulator we sprayed on fairways to reduce the amount of annual bluegrass (poa) in our fairways. The damage done to the poa won't kill it, simply stunt the growth to the point where the bentgrass can out compete it. As the poa adjusts the the growth regulator it will return to its normal color but not its normal growth habits. The bentgrass is already growing over the top of the poa because of this stunted growth; it's pretty exciting to see and will result in much better fairways.

Chlorotic poa as a result of paclobutrazol application.

Bentgrass (the lighter green, healthy grass) winning.

Ian

Dry weather, functional wells and a new nursery.

These last few weeks have been pretty dry and it looks like this has lead to great playing conditions for the course. We have been doing our best to keep the course as dry as possible while also keeping it green with some new approaches this year. First, instead of watering a little bit every night we are watering at one hundred percent and then taking a night or two off. This seems to be cutting down on the wet areas in the rough we were dealing with last year when we went through dry spells. Secondly, we've been using wetting agents more this year. We sprayed greens a few weeks ago and have seen great results; they're holding up to the heat a lot better and don't require as much water to get them to bounce back if they do wilt. We've also been using a new moisture meter that tells us exactly how much moisture is in the ground at that time. Where this is really effective is when the grass is green and not wilting yet but, may be close. If we check the areas that normally wilt and the moisture is starting to get into the low range (in our case around 20%) we will hand water but, if it's higher than that we can let it go. This allows us to keep things drier and more consistent.

Moisture meter.

The wells at the range have been fixed and running for a few weeks. The water is being pumped into the new pond left of number nine and when it goes into the overflow it dumps into the irrigation pond. We are actually getting a lot more water than we anticipated, which was a pleasant surprise. What's interesting is how the color of the water changed once we turned the wells on. I'm not sure if you've noticed but the water is a really light bluish green. Whatever color it is, I'm just glad to have the wells working to keep our irrigation pond full.

In working on all the golf course projects the last few years we used up all the sod at our nursery and it was time to start again. A few weeks ago we cleaned it up, added sand and seeded it. Some of the seed is starting to pop and it should be a fuzzy green area in a week or two. This seed won't be ready to be used as sod for a while but, it will be nice to again have a nursery from which we can pull sod when necessary. We currently have green height sod available there so, this new area will be kept at fairway height.

Seedlings coming in.

Happy 4th of July!

Ian

Adding sand to bunkers, fixing wells and Men's Invitational.

As part of the effort to keep bunkers playing consistently, we topped some of them off with sand. Between the wind blowing it out, the rain washing it away and rakes and shots taking it out, bunkers lose sand all year long. Usually, it's the same bunkers every year that need sand added, but we always check and add where necessary. This is a quick and easy way to improve consistency and appearance. Below is a picture of about how much sand we add to bunkers in need.

We are in the process of fixing the wells we have at the driving range. These wells need attention from time to time in order to keep them working. As you know, we cleared out the pond left of number 9 in order to have some extra irrigation water in case of a drought. The wells at the range actually feed that pond and would keep it full of water in case we ever had to transfer that water to the irrigation pond. In short, it's important that these wells work. We brought a well company in to work on them and they are in process. Once they are repaired we'll be well prepared for the upcoming heat of the summer.

Well pipe at range.

Finally, I hope everyone enjoyed the men's invitational this weekend. We did our best to get the course in great shape and it was playing firm and fast until the rain came Thursday night. Hopefully this didn't take away from the weekend! Congratulations to everyone who won and I hope that you all had fun.

Oh, and I hope you enjoyed the Cav's win. This is how we should start every summer.

Ian

Rain and firming up new bunkers.

We had some heavy rain this week, which we needed after a few very dry weeks at the end of May. We also wanted some heavy rain to see how the new bunkers would hold up and they did very well. As we complete more bunkers on the course there is less and less repair to do after heavy rains. Bunkers used to look like the ones below.

The pictures above are from June 23, 2015. I'm not sure how much rain fell on that day but, this was often the scene after a heavy rain. The picture below is from this Wednesday after we received about .7" of rain. I don't have a picture of #7 but it looks the same. The new bunkers are obviously working well.

The heavy also helped to firm up the bunkers enough to the point where we were able to get a power tamper in the new bunkers to firm them up so that they play like the rest of them. The difference is dramatic and they should help the course play more consistently.

We're going to keep plugging away at the course and try to get it in great shape for the Bear next week!

Ian