Fighting Fountain Grass

One of the prettier ornamental grasses on the golf course is Fountain Grass.  These plants look beautiful when in seed, with the dew glistening off them in the early morning.

However, in many areas, they have become more of a weed, than a desirable plant, and have taken over areas.  We made another loop through the naturalized areas this fall with two selective herbicides to control Fountain Grass.

There's a saying that the best tool for weed control is a mower.  Most every plant has a limit as to how low it can be mowed and survive.  One of the challenges with Fountain Grass is that it can handle a wide variety of heights.  You can see in the picture below that Fountain Grass can persist even when cut as low as our primary rough, with a couple of plants next to a sprinkler.

The vast majority of the herbicide use on the golf course is in the naturalized areas.  These include selective herbicides for broad leaf weeds, sedges, undesirable grasses, etc.  While we only mow these areas a couple of times each year, referring to them as "low maintenance" is just not right. 

The deer are everywhere!

While we see deer year round on the golf course, fall is definitely the time when they are most active, and show little fear of humans.  Few would argue that the 237 acres of golf course space can make a pretty great home for deer.

However, there are a couple of potential issues with these guys and girls roaming the region.  Their hooves can do some pretty good damage to the fine turf, which can be challenging to repair.  We cut the greens at 1/10", and any imperfection in the putting surface has the potential to throw the ball off-line.

Looks like somebody needs a manicure--or would it be a pedicure?

Thankfully, this group followed the 90 degree rule, avoiding the green.

Another big concern with deer activity, is when they decide to share the road with us.  The abundance of preserved open space in Moorestown often has the deer roaming across the streets to get from one area to another.  Over the past few years, several Club employees have had "run-ins" with deer while on their way to work.

The wildlife manager (and Shepherd) is unhappy that he's not permitted to herd the herd he heard.

So, as we enter the deer's mating season, it's particularly important to keep your eyes and ears open.  Remember, safety is no accident!

Summer goes down swinging!

While it finally looks like we can turn the page on summer, September was way warm and dry.  For the entire month we were four degrees above average each day.  To put this into perspective, for any day that was actually at the average temperature, there was an offsetting day that was eight degrees above average.

While the temperatures were well above normal, rainfall was 50% below average in September.  The last significant rain was on September 12--a quick shower which ran off.  This left us relying on irrigation, which is never as uniform as what falls from the sky, and can lead to inconsistent conditions on the course.

So wet, then so dry...

The impact of this weather pattern has been significant to golf course operations.  Instead of focusing on some fall projects, we've been hand watering, addressing irrigation issues, and mowing grass like it's the middle of May.  The warmer weather has also kept us on our toes as far as turf pest management.  Even as September ended, we were seeing Annual Bluegrass Weevil injury on collars, and were forced to apply a plant protectant.

While the Bent is unscathed, weevils continue to pit the Poa in collars

We think of meteorological summer as being June-August, however in 2019 the end of summer seemed to be much more in alignment with the astronomical summer season.  Fall often provides some of the best playing conditions of the year, and nobody will be complaining if this pattern continued and we get into late December before winter weather is upon us.