A Success Story

In the past, golf courses were portrayed as having a negative impact on the environment.  Fortunately, a good deal of time, effort, and scientific research have been spent to debunk this myth.  Given the abundance of flora and fauna, it certainly would be challenging for anyone who frequented Laurel Creek to believe this fallacy.

In contrast to what we see today, prior to the construction of the golf course, much of the property was being mined for clay and gravel, and had a post-apocalyptic appearance:

Following a recent site visit by an Audubon International staff member, we received our recertification as an Audubon International Certified Cooperative Sanctuary.  Laurel Creek has maintained this status since 2002--additional evidence that golf and environmental stewardship can coexist.

Tips and Tricks

It is always interesting to see how other courses deal with common issues that arise in golf course maintenance.  A while back, we saw this trick on Turfnet for dealing with high plugs on the green, and finally had a chance to try it ourselves:

Basically this is an aerification tine mounted to a metal handle.  By removing a core from a high plug, you can kneed the area together and get it flush with the surrounding putting surface.  Our Equipment Technician, Don Robel, fabricated this beauty:

While we don't expect to be wearing out the aerification tine on the end anytime soon, Don built this tool so that it can be equipped with a variety of tine sizes:

This tool checks all of the boxes--it is both simple and very effective.

A First, and the Worst...

#14 green was in good shape when we left last Tuesday afternoon, but things changed dramatically between then and Wednesday morning, when we were greeted by a large area of turf that had clearly died very quickly.  While nobody ever wants to see this, with our Member-Guest event starting the next day, the timing couldn't have been worse.

After a few minutes of head-shaking, the grass-growers' instincts kicked in, and we wanted to start surgery on the damaged turf immediately.  However, some patience was required.  While it may look pretty darned bad, the potential impact on ball roll is likely to be greater with an area that has been repaired through plugging and seeding than with the dead grass.  Therefore, the decision was made to hold off on repairs until this week.  

The next thought was trying to determine what was the source of the liquid that killed so quickly.  Could this have been caused by a piece of maintenance equipment?  While anything is possible, some clues lead us to believe that this was not the cause:

• Not in a straight line, so not a mower, roller or sprayer
• Completely dry with no oily residue, so not motor oil or hydraulic oil
• No odor, so probably not two cycle gasoline
• The pattern doesn't match the splatter of someone walking with a backpack blower, and... 
• Unlike a backpack blower with no gas cap, this had a distinct start and stop point on the green with nothing trailing off the green

To be honest, the pattern looks as if someone was walking with a cup and either poured or spilled the contents on the green.  Whether it was done purposefully or accidentally, we may never know.  

The Grounds team works hard day in and day out, and takes pride in providing great putting surfaces for our members and their guests.  To say this was disheartening is an understatement.  This was a first for us, but will hopefully also be the last time we ever have to deal with such a situation.

Time for Take-All

There are currently patches of discolored Bentgrass on some of the fairways.  So, does that mean the soil is dry?  While off-color turf certainly may be dry, there are several other possible causes as well.  This would include dormancy, insect damage, or a turf disease. 

This last option is the cause of what we're presently seeing on the Bentgrass.  Specifically, this is a root-borne pathogen called Take-All Patch.  While we've had this disease show up to some extent each spring, this year there appears to be a larger area affected than in the past.  As with most turf diseases, Take-All Patch thrives in a relatively narrow temperature range--when it's really cold or really hot, you typically won't see any damage.   

It's a little frustrating to see this disease show up, since we have made preventative fungicide applications in the fall the last few years.  The good news is that while Take-All Patch may temporarily discolor the turf, it rarely lives up to its name.  Most years, the symptoms are gone by July 4.


Fine Fescue

In late April we treated over 28 acres of Fescue for a number of uninvited guests.  This included products to control grassy weeds, broadleaf weeds, insect pests, as well as a plant growth regulator to limit the plant density.

Several years ago, it was believed that golf courses could reduce costs by adding additional acres of these "low maintenance" areas.  Perhaps this is true if it is a truly out of play area allowed to go through the stages of ecological succession.  

However, if the goal is to keep these areas playable (allowing a ball to be found and advanced), and relatively weed free, it is now being stated that they actually require greater resources than mowing them once or twice per week as we do in the primary rough.  The time and expense of our latest multi-product application certainly helps to confirm this view.

So would removing all of the Fescue be a good idea?  Probably not, since it provides wildlife habitat and slows runoff.  Additionally, for a links style course, these areas are important aesthetically, as they help to frame the hole.  

The bottom line is that you can call this eye-catching turf outer rough, native areas, naturalized areas, or the Fescue area, just please do not refer to it as a low maintenance area... 

I should have made a left at Albuquerque...

Just when you think you've seen it all on a golf course, you're greeted by something jaw-dropping. Such was the case when the team arrived at 5:00 on Sunday morning and discovered a vehicle--with the driver still inside--in one of the greenside bunkers on #8.

In looking at our security cameras, we found that the car arrived shortly before 1:00 a.m., so you can only speculate as to whether or not a festive Saturday night led to some incredibly poor navigating skills.  

Fortunately the driver was unharmed, and there was no damage to the course.  We may never know the exact reason why the individual thought they were on a road, but perhaps some additional signage might be helpful:

  

The finishing touch

We always appreciate member feedback on how we may possibly improve the golf experience at the Club.  A good example of this was when someone had seen logoed cups at another venue and asked if we might be able to do the same.

After a quick check, we had the answer:  Yes we can.  

What made this idea even better was that it was inexpensive and very easy to implement.

The Importance of Check Plots

Spring is when we find Poa producing seeds like crazy, potentially making the greens bumpy.  In order to reduce the seeds' impact on ball roll, multiple applications of two plant growth regulators are made on the greens.  So how do we know if these preventative treatments really worked?  

With many plant protectant applications, we try to leave an untreated check plot, which serves a couple of purposes.  First, it allows us to see how effective our treatments were.  In this case, if there is little difference from a treated to an untreated area, perhaps we need to revisit our plan for controlling Poa seeds.  

Secondly, it shows us if the specific inputs to the turf are really needed.  For example, if we are spraying preventatively for Take-All Patch on fairways, a check plot (which may be an acre of untreated fairway) helps us to know if we need to continue making these applications, or not.  That is, if both the treated and untreated areas don't have Take-All, then is there really a need to continue making treatments in the future?

Having the greens covered throughout the winter and into March adds another variable which we need to account for when timing these Poa seed applications.  Obviously the tarps capture heat and create a much different growing environment than a green without a cover is experiencing.  This will change the timing of Poa seed production.  While far from perfect, it does look like our treatments have worked fairly well this year.

Welcome back!

This is the third year that we have participated in the H-2B Visa program.  With  a limited number of visas available each year, a lottery system is used to determine what group you fall into.  We were extremely fortunate to receive a "Group C" assignment this year, allowing the guys to get here much earlier than the prior two years.

What this means is now having the manpower to hand mow greens every day, knock out projects such as tee aerification without missing a beat, and devote additional resources to bunker maintenance.

Javier and his twin brother, Gabriel.

Our six employees for 2025 are the same great guys who were all here last year, so when they landed, they were prepared to hit the ground running.  Arriving late Saturday afternoon, they were ready to work on Sunday morning.

Progress protecting property

While the golf course maintenance facility is still far better than a barn, after 30 years our operation has outgrown it, and the structure is now undersized.  One of the consequences of this has been the need to store equipment outside.  

We are always mindful of protecting the Club's assets, and with a rough mower costing $100,000, having equipment exposed to the elements year round is definitely not ideal.  In order to limit the potential damage, we recently installed a carport.

Nobody enjoys climbing onto a tractor in the morning and sitting on a soaked seat.  The carport isn't 100% weather-proof, but it definitely is an improvement.

Play it as it lies?

 As most players know, geese on a golf course are not a great combination.  With 16 ponds and 40 acres of wetlands at Laurel Creek, it is an ongoing battle to prevent the goose population from exploding.  

If you do happen to get near one of their nests, you will find the geese acting like most parents, actively protecting their offspring--or potential offspring.  Interestingly, in some cases not everything that they are honking and flapping their wings about is likely to produce goslings:

Yes, not one, but two of the current nests on the course contain golf balls (along with a duck egg in one of them).  While not quite a fried-egg lie, it is undoubtedly a birds-nest lie, and the winged spectators won't approve of playing the ball as it lies here.  Should you find yourself in this situation, your best option may be to reference Rule 16.1b and take free relief.

Patchwork or prudent use of resources?

We are slowly making our way around the course, repairing and replacing cart paths, based on need.  While some paths have significant issues throughout, many of them only have a few cracks that make your clubs rattle when you drive over them.

As a trial, on #5 tee path, instead of resurfacing the entire run, we had the contractor mill and repave only the bad cracks.  We chose #5 tee, since it had a large number of areas to address within a short distance of each other--thus this is something of an extreme example when compared to other cart paths needing repair.    

This work was done for a fraction of what repaving the entire path costs.  However, aesthetically it certainly doesn't have the uniform look of a new cart path.  

So as you play the course, does this jump out at you?  Please feel free to share your thoughts with the Green Committee members.

Worth the wait?

Due to the harsh winter, we delayed greens cover removal by six days this year (when compared to 2024).  With little growth during the entire winter, you might not expect that an extra week would make much of a difference.  

However you need to remember that this wasn't an extra six days during January, it was in March.  The Sun's angle and warmer temperatures now are somewhat magnified compared to mid-winter, and the extra few days under cover made a tremendous difference in the greens' healing.

The greens looked appropriate for a St. Patrick's Day cover removal.

Some members have asked what would happen if we did a late season aerification but did not cover the greens.  A couple of  check plots were left uncovered throughout the winter to provide an answer to this question.  

The difference in recovery between the covered and uncovered sections is easily seen on the back of #2 green:  

So when you're on the course during the next couple of weeks, take a moment to check these side by side covered/uncovered areas and decide for yourself whether covering is worth it.

An Early Push

After a long, hot summer, fall is typically the time when the turf can start to recover.  However, the fall of 2024 did us no favors as far as turf health goes.  If you recall, we received less than one inch of rain in September, followed by a record-breaking 0" of rain in October.  Any area with less than perfect irrigation coverage saw no recovery at all during this time and went into winter in a weakened condition.

Currently, we are still on the line between a moderate and severe drought:

Because of this, we are entering the 2025 season with some thin, tired looking turf, particularly in the heavily trafficked primary rough.  The team has already been out, making a fertilizer application to try and jump start some spring growth.  

A dense healthy stand of turf provides the best defense against weed encroachment.  The goal is to get the grass growing and fill things in, prior to the emergence of Crabgrass and Goosegrass this spring. 

Trying to Catch Up

The winter of 2024-2025 wasn't the best for getting projects done on the course.  Among other things, the frozen soils prevented us from sodding.  This past week we were finally able to get out and work on releveling the Champion tee on #1.  The team did a fantastic job of stripping the tee, bringing in mix to raise the outside, grading, and reinstalling the sod.

Installing sod in early March doesn't provide much time for rooting prior to being pounded by play (particularly in any area that will be dealing with cart traffic).  The Champion tee will be shut down for a few weeks, but we hope to have it open at some point in April.

It's not always grass...

While the Grounds team doesn't specialize in construction projects, we are always willing to lend a hand.  Such was the case when a light pole needed to be replaced outside of the Clubhouse.

The guys poured a new concrete base with mounting bolts and conduit for the wire at our shop.  After removing the old pole and base, the new base was installed.

The replacement pole was was then mounted and leveled.  Not too bad for some grass-growers. 

An actual winter?

It's been a few years since we have had a memorable winter, but 2025 sure started off with some bone-chilling temperatures.  Keep in mind that January is already the coldest month, and this year we averaged almost four degrees below normal for the entire month.  

As you can see above, we only had 11 out of 31 days that were above average, and 20 that were below average.  However, despite the cold and some snow, we were actually well below normal in precipitation, with only 1/2" for the month.

You know it's cold when the local residents start showing up at the front door, looking for handouts:

While these conditions will likely have little long-term impact on the golf course, there are a number of projects we need to get working on.  Hopefully February will allow us to get caught up, and perhaps provide a few good days of golf!

Doing what can be done...

January's frigid temperatures have put a damper on our winter projects.  However we continue to work on whatever we can each day.  

Due to the challenging access, we knew that repaving of the cart path on the fairway side of #2 and #12 would require firm conditions to avoid significant turf damage.  Well, January definitely gave us some solid soil to travel across, so we took advantage of it. 

These cold conditions may be good in some ways, however they're definitely a double-edged sword for the paving contractor.  The hot new asphalt is brought to the street behind #12 green, then transferred to the "dumper" which hauls the material to the work area for installation by the paving machine and rolling.  The tricky part is getting this whole process completed before the asphalt cools off!  

Avoid "Two On and Two Off"

The USGA Green Section recently posted this tweet:

With Laurel Creek having nine foot wide cart paths, there should rarely be a need for pulling two wheels off the path.  As you can see below, the turf takes a real beating when carts pull off the paths, due to the starting and stopping in these areas.

For a bit more insight into this topic, you can check out a recent Golf Digest article:  This common golf-cart mistake is a ‘superintendent’s worst nightmare’

It's tempting, but...

For those who live on the golf course, a blanket of snow (and perhaps a day off from school) may have everyone eyeing up the mounds, anxious to pull the sleds out.  However, there are several reasons why we ask that you refrain from this activity.

Basically these fall into two categories, the things that may be hazardous to you, and the things that may be hazardous to the golf course.  On the personal safety side, sledding on the course can be dangerous due to the possibility of encountering sticks, stumps, rocks, bunker rakes, sod staples, and steep drop-offs. 

As far as the golf course goes, sledding can compact snow, leading to ice formation and uneven thawing, as well as erosion of slopes, and the possible tearing of expensive turf covers.

So while it may feel as if there is a piece of cake placed right in front of you that you aren't allowed to eat, we suggest heading to the restaurant right down the road, where sledding is permitted:  Stokes Hill in Moorestown.