Knocking Down Nasty Natives, and Head-Scratching Supply Chain Issues

As you may notice when playing the course, we have begun the process of mowing down the Native areas.  This year's heavy spring rains, followed by a whole lot of summer heat led to a wonderful growing environment for weeds.  Our pre-emergent herbicide applications lost their efficacy more rapidly, and keeping up with the plethora of weeds was nearly impossible.  Coincidentally, the USGA just released an article that addresses this issue:  Why Are the Naturalized Areas So…Natural?

The native mound separating #6 and #13 has been cut down.

Unfortunately, due to lingering supply chain issues, we won't be able to get this mowing process completed quickly.  Our versatile Ventrac, which is used for mowing down the Natives has been forced to work double-duty this year.  For most of the week we have to use this machine with a different mowing deck for trimming around green and tee complexes.  Therefore, there is only a day or two that we can work on cutting down the high grass.

Why do we need to use the Ventrac around the tees and greens?  Well, we ordered a replacement trim mower for use in these areas on June 15, 2023.  Prior to ordering we asked about the lead time and were told, "You're looking at 8 to 10 months, that may change as supply chain issues ease..."  

Change it did, but not in the way we were hoping for.  Had that timeframe been accurate, our existing trim mower would have lasted until its replacement arrived.  However, that was off just a bit (sarcasm intended), as we are now at 27 months--three times the estimate--and still don't have that piece of equipment (in addition to another mower that was ordered at the same time).  The old trim mower's frame is broken in half, rendering it unusable, thus making the Ventrac the only option we have.    

Still waiting for your replacement...

Until that new trim mower arrives, we will continue picking away at the Native areas as time allows.

Bentgrass Bounce Back

If you recall, last week we were staring at some fairways that had gotten pretty banged-up from aerification.  As a reminder, here's what #5 looked like at the time:

While the irrigation system allows us to get by for a while, there is no substitute for the uniformity we got from the steady rain earlier in the week.  Additionally, going from high temperatures in the 90s, to the 70s makes a world of difference in turf recovery.  #5 fairway looks just a little different now than it did a week prior:

Looking ahead, there are no days forecast to be in the 90s.  This summer was just plain tough on the turf, so let's hope the weather prognosticators are correct!

This actually helps the turf?

In looking at the fairways immediately following this past week's aerification, it certainly doesn't appear that we were trying to improve course conditions and turf health.  By the time we got to #5 on Monday, the 90+ degree temperature and low humidity that day had things drying out extremely fast, causing turf to wilt.

You can see that the small skips between aerifier passes actually look much healthier than the surfaces where plugs were pulled.  So why do we put these low mow turf areas through such torture--you have to wonder, is the juice really worth the squeeze?

It's during times like this that you need to take a step back and keep in mind that aerification is like major surgery to a person.  The long-term benefits--in this case decreased organic matter and compaction, increased pore space and percolation rate--far outweigh the short-term stress that this procedure causes.

Would this aerification be advisable under all circumstances? Probably not, but fortunately Laurel Creek's 35 year old fairways are still virtually Poa annua free, and the Bentgrass will bounce back.  Had this been a stand of Poa, we very well may have been ordering a few bags of seed or pallets of sod to restore these areas.

Looking at the low...

While we are now back in the oven with temperatures in the 90s during heat wave number six, last week provided a welcomed respite from this tough summer weather.   Most of us focus on these daily high temperatures, however the nighttime lows can be equally important to the turf.  

Below is a chart showing the temperatures of #1 green at a 2" soil depth from the end of July through the first week of August.  Suffice it to say that when the "coolest" the rootzone gets is 80 degrees at night, there is pretty much zero chance of any recovery from the daytime heat.

In contrast to the end of July, the beginning of August actually had some daytime high soil temps peak at around 80 degrees, accompanied by much cooler nighttime low temperatures in the 60s.  This may have been just a quick break for the turf, but we will take it.

Lesson learned...

July is already the hottest month of the year, so when you have 21 days in that month that are above average, it shouldn't come as a surprise that our cool-season grass isn't going to be happy.  The green which has seen the most thinning turf over this stretch has been the practice green at #1 tee. 

For decades the USGA has said that building a new green without changing the environmental conditions is not a recipe for success.  In the case of the driving range putting green, not only have the growing conditions not improved, but they have actually taken a couple of steps backwards.  

As you may recall, we had a permanent fan for the old green, and with additional wetlands growth every year, there is even less air movement and morning sunlight than we used to have a few years ago.  In hindsight, it was probably naive to think that just constructing a larger green would lead to healthy turf without the benefits that its predecessor enjoyed. 

For now we are using our portable fan to provide air movement on the green, and have closed a portion of the green to help facilitate recovery.  In the long run we clearly need to install the dedicated fan for this green, as well as try to do some selective pruning. 

Divot Repair

There is often confusion as to when a divot should be replaced, and when the sand mix should be used.  In an effort to clear things up, let's keep it simple:

If your divot doesn't explode, and has some bit of soil with it, please replace it.

There are many variables that come into play in determining if the divot will live or not.  This obviously includes the weather, and the location (slope vs swale).  However, even in the summer, there's a decent chance that a replaced divot will survive.

Below you can see the divot on the right was replaced and has already knitted back in nicely.  In contrast, the divot on the left is, to be kind, a real head-scratcher.

So save that sand mix for the times when your divot can't be replaced. And please don't get too fancy--we've seen well intentioned players make a sandwich with a sprinkle of divot mix, the divot itself, and a bit more mix on top for good measure.  Remember, more isn't always better.

The heat is up and the speed is down...

We've mentioned the subject of green speed in mid-summer in the past, but with a notable recent example of some significant swings in weather (and speed), it warrants revisiting.  

If you can remember back to July 4, it was an unusually cool, crisp morning for this time of year.  In checking the green speed that particular day, the greens were over a foot faster than they had been on July 3.  

So, you may wonder what we changed in our daily preparation of the putting surfaces, and the answer is absolutely nothing.  We used the same mowers, set at the same height, and the same roller.  The only difference was going from a hot, humid day on the 3rd, to a (relatively) cool day on the 4th.

The bottom line is that when you're feeling sticky, so is the turf!