It works!

Since the course was built 30 years ago, we have worked hard to keep the fairways "Poa-less."  The primary tool we used is a selective herbicide which is applied in the late fall.  However, over the past few years, this material seems to be losing its punch in taking out the Poa.

Recently we have tried some other tricks, such as making an additional pre-emergent herbicide application in the late summer, in order to prevent Poa from germinating.

Despite these measures, we are seeing a small uptick in the percentage of Poa in the fairways.  Fortunately, a new product recently received registration for use: PoaCure

The protocol for this product is two spring applications, and two fall applications.  We have completed the two spring apps, and the great news is that this product really lives up to its name.

The Poa on #10 fairway is slowly melting away.

The challenge now, as we enter the heat of the summer, is to try and encourage the Bentgrass to fill any voids left by the declining Poa.

Over the years, people have asked if it is possible to keep Poa from eventually taking over a Bentgrass putting green.  The answer is that, to date, few people have been successful in achieving this goal.  However, with PoaCure now in the tool box, it certainly looks like it might be much easier to ward off Poa encroachment.

It could have been worse...

Working on a golf course always has its challenges--when the weather isn't beating us down, we love to push the turf to its limits, in order to  provide great playing conditions.  The team rises to the occasion for whatever is thrown at them, but as we approach the halfway point of 2020, it feels as if  the mantra of "It could have been worse..." has been uttered way too many times already this year.

Clearly we need to include the pandemic in this year's curve balls we have faced.  Staggered start times for employees, along with some staffing issues, definitely made things interesting.  Fortunately, none of our employees had to personally deal with the virus, so it definitely could have been worse.

Another surprise came at us two weeks ago, when we arrived on Friday morning to find water flowing from under #9 Medal tee.  With three different irrigation lines in that area, one might assume that was the source of the problem.  Unfortunately, there is also a municipal water line, and a sanitary sewer line which run under that tee...

Yes, Moorestown Public Works spent the day on this repair, and were as careful as possible, given the size of the hole required.

So to take a glass half full perspective on this excitement:

• We didn't have an irrigation break to repair.
• It's sure better to be a tee than a green.
• There's still plenty of usable teeing ground available, until we are able to strip and regrade the tee in late summer.
• It was a Friday morning, not a Sunday afternoon when the problem occurred.

Only a few days later, we got hammered by one of the fastest, hardest hitting storms we've ever seen.  This left quite a mess to be cleaned up around both the Clubhouse and golf course, and knocked the power out for days.

The "it could have been worse" outlook from this experience:

• First and foremost, none of us got hurt or killed (which unfortunately, wasn't the case for others during this storm).
• We were able to reopen the course the following morning.
• Most of the large trees that came down, landed in out of play areas.
• There was no need to irrigate with the rainfall.

So as we head into the heat of the summer, we are trying to keep a positive attitude.  However, given some of the challenges that we have seen thus far in 2020, we are wondering if a plague of locusts might not be in the offing!