Why Run Sprinklers?

If you live on the golf course and look out your window, there may be times when you see sprinklers running--and you're left wondering why.  So, what's the reason?

Suffice it to say that we are planning ahead--way ahead.  This time of year, we make two preventive fungicide applications for Take-All Patch disease.  If you're not thinking about this malady of turf right at the moment, it's likely because the damage from Take-All doesn't appear until  May--seven months from now.

Take-All is a soil-borne root pathogen, so we need to get the fungicides off the leaf and below the surface, where they can do some good.

Take-All Patch on #12 fairway

Hmm, with all of the rain we've had recently, why can't we just let Mother Nature take care of the watering-in for us?  There are a couple of reasons.  

Number one is that we can't always trust the forecast--even the hourly that you see on your phone is far from perfect.  If we spray and the rain passes us by, that's no good and potentially a wasted application.

Two screenshots of forecasts taken at the same time from different apps are wildly different!

The fungicides we apply can be absorbed both by the plant's foliage or its roots.  We can't wait for a shower that may or may not come along, as the material will have already been taken up by the leaves.

The second reason is that giving the sprinklers a couple of spins allows us to put down a much more precise amount of water than rolling the dice with a rain event.  If we try to use rain, we could end up getting much less or much more water than we need, again resulting in a wasted application, and poor control of the disease.  

We only get one chance to get this right, so we need to control what we can.  The efficacy of the treatment won't be seen for over half a year, so it's not as if we can monitor results, then come back in a couple of weeks and reapply, if needed.

Lack O' Light

The Grounds team starts as early as possible at all times of the year.  Preparing the golf course ahead of play is critical for both member satisfaction as well as our productivity--once we have to wait for a group to play through, things spiral down rapidly.

With daylight arriving later each day, it is definitely tricky this time of year, and we must push back our start time accordingly.  The team members' safety is our number one priority, and even with lights, operating equipment in the dark is less than ideal.

We often dot pin placements a day ahead of time, since a headlamp really doesn't allow you to thoroughly evaluate what will be a good location or not. 

And then we have those times when it's dark out, you think you are following the contour of the green with your mower, and suddenly realize that you're in the approach...

By the time we get to Halloween this year, sunrise will be at 7:28 A.M. and the end of Daylight Saving Time (that night) will be appreciated.

Watering--really?

They say that a picture is worth 1,000 words.  However, sometimes a few words may be needed to help put a picture into context.  For example, if you saw a crew member watering a fairway on Sunday morning, you might question why this was taking place.

Let's look at what is actually happening here and some reasons behind it:

• First of all, this is a hose being used--not sprinklers.  This allows for targeting selected areas.  
• Hand watering is labor-intensive, but purposefully used in order to have minimal impact on playing conditions.
• The topography of #8 obviously doesn't lead to soil conditions drying down evenly.  The Sun, wind and traffic on the slopes all affect moisture loss.  
• This is the most heavily divoted fairway on the golf course.  Allowing it to dry out can seriously inhibit divot recovery.
• In all areas of the golf course, we practice deficit irrigation.  That is, we only apply a fraction of the moisture lost each day.  The graph below illustrates how fairways were allowed to dry during the past week. 

Why might you see us running sprinklers when you wouldn't think any irrigation was needed?  We typically make a wash-in plant protectant spray monthly which needs to be watered in immediately.  We also may run heads (for six minutes) following a topdressing application to knock the sand off the upper leaf blades and down into the turf canopy.  

Interestingly, a longtime member and resident commented just last week that #8 fairway was in the best condition they had ever seen.

To mow or not to mow...

 ...that is the question.  Given all of the recent rainfall, it is often challenging to determine whether it is better to try and mow the course as scheduled, or to hold off and wait for dryer conditions.

While mowing soaked turf is definitely less than ideal, we also have to consider the "1/3 rule" in turf management, which says that you never want to remove more than one third of the leaf with a single mowing.  So if you decide to delay mowing, the options may be to either break the rule and risk scalping the turf, or raise the height of cut to stay within the one third guidelines.

The other factor which complicates matters, is the unpredictability of summer storms.  If you skip mowing a day, believing that conditions will be better the next, but another round of storms adds additional moisture, then you may be pushing back mowing by two or three days.

Mechanical damage on soaked turf.

On the bright side, with the greens being sand-based and having internal drainage, there are few times that they get a day off from the mowers.

A heavy subject

Weather is often part of these blog posts, as its impact on the Grounds Department's operation can't be overstated.  If you are hoping for something different this week, you may be disappointed...

August has delivered rain--a lot of rain.  Through August 30 we received 7.80" of rain at the golf course.  Most of us understand that an inch of rain is a pretty good storm, but if you dig deeper into the math, the numbers can be staggering.

The irrigation pond is at capacity.

An acre inch of rain is 27,154 gallons.  So if we multiply 27,154 by the 7.80" of rain in August, you find that every acre of the golf course was hit with 211,801 gallons of water.  With a gallon of water weighing 8.34 pounds, that is 1,766,422 pounds of water per acre during the month.  #9 fairway alone had close to eight million pounds of water land on it!

Divots

We've discussed divots in the past, however it may be worth a quick refresher--especially given this month's weather.  In general, we recommend that if your divot stays together, replace it, do not use divot mix.  

As you can see below,  a replaced divot provides a much better surface than a filled divot.    

Credit to Scott Bordner of Union League for conducting this trial.

No doubt there is variability of divot survival rate based on several factors.  For example, a divot taken from the top of a fairway mound may have a more challenging time healing as opposed to one taken 20' away in a fairway swale.  Available moisture is obviously impactful in determining if a divot will recover or not.  This is where timing can come into play.  

While Laurel Creek's Creeping Bentgrass fairways may not love August weather, with 7.5" of rain from August 1-August 23, there has been no lack of moisture.  A divot replaced this month definitely stands a good chance of recovering!

Farming Time

While turf growers could always be considered farmers by a strict definition, it is during mid-August that we truly feel like it.  This is the one time each year that we core aerify the fairways, often during intense heat, drenched in sweat and eating a lot of dust.

Golfers look at the number of holes we make (about 43 per square foot on fairways) and believe we tilled the whole surface.  In reality, most traditional crop farmers would shake their heads at what little we are able to do.  They may till their fields multiple times per year between harvests and plantings, whereas we only disturb around 8% of the surface area--then have thousands of carts pack this surface back down.

As usual, the Pro Shop staff joined us, to help with the cleanup process.  The guys did a great job, and the assistance is greatly appreciated!