This Day in History

 Florida

September 8th, 1565

 A Spanish expedition established the first permanent European settlement in North America at present-day St. Augustine, Florida

Maintenance Employee of the Month

 

AUGUST 2016

MAINTENANCE EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

Uriel Leon

 

It took Uriel until August to win the award for Employee of the Month, but his hard work throughout the season finally paid off.  Uriel was in the running just about every month. His attention to detail on the bunkers as well as volunteering to perform tasks that most people don't really want to do, really put Uriel out ahead of everyone else. His passion for the beauty of the golf courses has been unwavering all season long. Thanks to Uriel for all of his hard work and congratulations to him for winning the award.

 

Once again, there were many people who worked hard during the month of August but only one person can win the award per month.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JULY 2016

MAINTENANCE EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

Emilio Martinez

 

June is the hardest month to maintain here at the Wyndgate, however, July is the hardest month to work. The conditions are not favorable for the employees and attrition is certainly settling in. One employee did not let any of these factors interfere with his daily activities - in fact, he performed them without a hitch and to the highest level possible. Emilio has been here for a long time and I don't think we have ever heard him complain about anything. He does his job extremely well and has an unbelievable amount of pride in whatever he does. Phil, Wilson and myself were very proud to award Emilio as our July Employee of the Month!

 

Will Young and Uriel Leon were also considered for the award as they too performed their daily tasks at a high level. Several others who are not eligible for the award but put forth an effort worthy of winning it were - Charlie Early, JJ Leon, Chris Condeff, and Manuel Leon

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 2016

Maintenance Employee of the Month

Tyler Pattullio

 

 

 

 

The employee to don the month of June is none other than Tyler Pattullio.  Tyler is a new recruit for the 2016 growing season and has demonstrated over and over his understanding in both equipment care, use and attention to detail.  He has always wanted to work on different projects with out asking.  He is constantly the employee who finds myself or Ron to say that he would enjoy staying and mowing rough into the evenings to help.  He even stayed to mow tees until 11:30 at night during the Invitational to make sure all the tees, collars and approaches were finished for the next day.  His strong work ethic and great attitude are what make him a good man and a great asset to The Wyndgate.

 

 

Others who were in the running for the month of June were Big Will Young, J.J. Leon, Alec Mihm and Kyle Campbell.  Again all of our employees worked very hard this month with preparing the course for the Invitational.  Ron and I appreciate all of our employees for their continuous hard work through the growing season.  

 

 

                                                                                                                                               

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MAY 2016

MAINTENANCE EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

Justin Tignanelli

 

 

As many of you probably already know, the month of May at The Wyndgate is one of the more grueling months for the maintenance staff, due to our Men's Invitational preparation. To earn Employee of the Month during this period is hands down an achievement. Justin Tignanelli displayed a work ethic that was unmatched by anyone on our staff. He went above and beyond what he was asked to do, each and every day. Justin, on numerous occasions, volunteered to work extra hours, extra job assignments and even work extra days to keep us from getting behind on our tasks. We can't say enough how we appreciate not only the hard work but also the positive attitude that Justin brings with him everyday when he punches in. He truly earned this award and set the bar high for the month of June!

 

Like the previous months, most if not all, gave 100% of what they could. We are extremely grateful to have, not only Justin, but everyone in our maintenance department. Others who were in contention for May were: John Chambers, Will Young, Emilio Martinez, Arturo Hernandez, Alec Mihm, Tyler Pattullio, and Dalton Pecar. Employees who are exempt from winning the award because of department position or because they have already won, but deserve recognition are: JJ Leon, Manuel Leon, Martin Medrano, Charlie Early and Chris Condeff.

 

                                                                                                                                   

 

 

 

 

 

APRIL 2016

MAINTENANCE EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

Chris Condeff

 

 

Although there were many worthy candidates for this months Employee of the Month, one person really stood out and excelled in everything that was asked of him. Voting was cast by Phil Hopper, Ron Betz and Alex Wilson - all of which voted for Chris. He demonstrated a work ethic that most of his peers really noticed and began to emulate. Chris not only did what was asked but he, like Martin the month before, performed tasks that were not asked of him to do. He excelled in ALL jobs that he performed to the level of long-term veterans. We in the maintenance department would like to congratulate Chris on winning the Employee of the Month for April and that we appreciate all the hard work that he did during that time.

 

We also would like to thank all of the employees for their hard work and dedication to the golf course. Other persons who were in the running were - Justin Tignanelli, Manuel Leon, John Chambers, Don Tencza and Uriel Leon.

 

                                                                                                                                    

 

 

 

 

MARCH 2016

MAINTENANCE EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

Martin Medrano

 

 

 

Phil and I wanted to reward the hard work of our employees by incorporating an "employee of the month" award. This is the first year that we have tried it, but we think it will be beneficial to us and our staff.

Martin Medrano is our first recipient of the award and probably won't be his last. Martin showed great initiative and leadership for the day's that he worked. He did everything that was asked of him and even performed tasks that were not asked, which saved us time and ultimately money. His strong work ethic is nothing new to Phil and I, which makes it nice to see him as our first Employee of the Month.

 

Congratulations Martin!

They said what?

"It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it."

 

Ben Franklin

 

Turf Talk

As we begin the process of winding down another golf season, let us remember all that the month of July has to offer. Fruit crops are starting to present, what is sure to be a pleasant and bountiful harvest, as well as a full and algae free irrigation pond that seems to provide an endless amount of fresh water for irrigation - okay, maybe not the last part but at least we won't starve. One thing that we can count on during a typical growing season are the many stresses associated with golf course maintenance. These stresses have many different causes however, some can come from typical, everyday practices, making it ever more important to perform our tasks with a high level of detail.

Let's start with one of the more common causes of stress - localized dry spot. Dry spot is exactly that, an area of turf that does have an adequate amount of water.  Broken sprinkler heads, power loss, no communication to the irrigation computer, human error, not enough run time, too much thatch are all causes of dry spot. Aside from unwanted brown spots on your greens, tees or fairways, these stresses are an eyesore and can turn into a bigger problem.  Another stress that can be harmful is cutting turf at a shorter height than it's normally cut. When this happens, it's creating a stress on the plant that is untimely and unwanted. Over watering, too much traffic in an area or not having a good fertility and pesticide program in place are also some common misfortunes when it comes to turf stress. There are certainly many other forms of stress that can occur on the golf course but these are the ones that can happen on a daily basis.

When you factor in all of these plus the inconsistencies of the mid summer weather patterns - such as heat, excessive rain, lack of rain, etc. - you have the ingredients for something far worse - turf grass disease. For a turf grass disease to occur, three things need to happen simultaneously: a host, a pathogen and favorable environmental conditions. The host is the plant that is affected by the pathogen during high stress periods. Certain types of turf react differently to pathogens and environmental conditions. That is why disease patterns are very inconsistent and not in a straight line.

Since we probably will never be able to rid ourselves from any type of man made stress on golf course, it's imperative for us to help the plant stay strong by implementing an aggressive and proper nutrition program as well as a pesticide program that suits the particular turf grasses on our golf course. We can't control the weather but we can maintain a healthy plant at all phases of the growing season.

"If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else."

 

-Yogi Berra-

                                                                                         




The month of June at The Wyndgate is arguably the most difficult time of the growing season for the maintenance department. I say difficult only because of all the preparation that leads us into the Men's Invitational (The Patriot). There's a lot of hard work and detail that goes into making the tournament a success but there is also the job of maintaining the golf course consistently so that the membership isn't blindsided by any sudden change in conditions, such as green speeds. We do this in steps that start in May - these steps include, lowering the height of cut a little bit at a time, topdressing and verti-cutting lightly on a bi-weekly basis, adjusting our fertility to correspond with the need for fast greens, and keeping the rough cut at an acceptable height without leaving a mess - remember that ALL of fertilizing is done in May so it tends to grow quite a bit during this time.

This is also the time that the irrigation system is in full operation and there needs to be caution on a nightly basis. We certainly don't want to irrigate too much and have everything soft and damp all the time, only to turn off all irrigation so that everything hardens up. We do the latter part of that anyway once the tournament begins, so again, it's something that we need to ease into. Too hard of a surface is a sign of compaction, which promotes shallow roots and potential disease problems. If the surface is too wet, diseases may also appear and in this scenario, become quite devastating.

One of the best weather events that a Superintendent can have is when "Mother Nature" gives us an all day rain. Nothing violent or so heavy that you need to spend a couple day's repairing bunkers, just a good soaker to wash some of the salts down through the soil profile. These salts can and do, affect the rate at which the water gets down into the soil, and as I mentioned earlier, we are trying to establish consistent putting green speeds and if we have water trapped in the upper portion of the root zone, things can get a little too soft. Fortunately for us, we have tendency to receive more rain in June as opposed to say, July or August, and because of this we can apply wetting agents to allow for that water to travel down into the lower levels of the greens profile. If we can accomplish this throughout the season, we will have less "dry spots" and the draw from our irrigation pond is a little less because we are staying ahead instead of playing catch-up. We want to establish a healthy plant during the early months of the season so when the weather turns hot and humid, the plant has a better chance at maintaining its healthy status.

I could bend your ear about all of the things that relate to turf health and the relationship between the importance of using wetting agents, but I would be here forever and you would last about 1 more paragraph before you fell asleep. Just as there is never one or two things to maintain a good, healthy body, there are many steps to proper turf health but you don't won't to go from "step A" to "step Z" without doing anything in between.

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together"

 

-Vincent Van Gogh-

                                                                                                                                           






As the month of May approaches and the dust settles on a topsy turvy April, we are all reminded that the weather in Michigan can vacillate all too often. With that being said, the cultural practices we do on the golf course also go with how the weather patterns itself. For instance, spraying dandelion's when the forecast calls for rain, doesn't make much sense - but the dandelions don't seem to apply that logic to their growing cycle. Fertilizing the golf course with a granular product however, makes all the sense in the world - just as long as the soil temps are adequate enough for the plant to take in the nutrients...are you with me?

 

 Figuring out the best time for applications without disrupting golf is our first step after determining the what action is needed. Making sure that the host pest is being taking care of with minimal damage to the plant, and/or applying a product to prevent any turf injury are things that we deal with on a daily basis. All of these things are calculated to ensure that the plant is at the healthiest level possible. The transition from April to May is probably the most difficult to adjust to because everything that Superintendents fight, are starting to wake up; dandelion's, broadleaf weeds, grubs, and let's not forget that the one thing that we are trying to establish (grow), is not quite ready to jump up out of bed and begin it's growing cycle. As Phil talked about in "Phil's - osphy, photosynthesis is what the "wake up" factor is all about. The longer the day's, the more sunlight that is taken in, and the whole process of the plant life begins. We aid its growth and recovery with nutrients and water through irrigation when not enough is supplied from the sky.

 

Wilson touched up on white grubs and the ill effects they have on the turf. As he stated, the grubs feed on the roots at a time when the plant is trying to come to life for the season. Treating any pest in a timely manner, whether we are talking about weeds, grubs or disease, is crucial to the health of the plant later on in the season. Any stress caused during the spring, can be problematic during the hot summer months.

 

This post isn't a complaint about what our profession consists of, it's a challenge that we face every day, and it's a challenge that we gladly accept. We are blessed with having our office on a beautiful piece of property, with the sun on our shoulders, and eating lunch before a lot of people are even out of bed. 

 

 

 

 

"In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision."

- Dalai Lama-

                                                                                                                                                                    

Aerification is that dreaded word no golfer or Golf Pro likes to hear. To be truthful, we as Superintendents don't really like the idea of going out and punching holes in our greens, especially since we have spent countless hours just keeping them playable. The problem is though, the greens wouldn't be in very good shape without those unwanted practices. We'll talk more about the benefits later on even though you've probably heard them a million times.

I think the biggest problem, aside from the holes, is the timing of the aerification. I mean, at a private club, Monday's are the best time for us to do it, however, the holes are still there on Tuesday - even after a heavy topdress. During the golf season we will be using smaller tines, nevertheless, the recovery will still take a few day's. Anyone who golfs during that time will probably not be too thrilled about the putting surface, regardless of the hole size. The truth is, no matter what day of the week that we choose to do it, someone is going to be affected.

As mentioned earlier, the size of the tine that we will use during the summer is quite a bit smaller in diameter than what we use at the end of the year. The pros for that is, well it's a smaller hole and less disruption. It is easy to clean up and roll afterwards. The visual is not as shocking as the bigger tines are in the fall. We still get most of the benefits for the turf health as if we do with the bigger tines - the difference is that we are NOT taking out as much organic matter with the smaller tines. The biggest advantage for doing this during the growing season is that we are allowing the greens to breathe and stretch their legs a little bit while not disturbing the playing surface for a great length of time. Other advantages are infiltration, which allows water, either by rain or irrigation, to travel down to the root zone and beyond and thus keeping water off of the canopy. Infiltration rates are important for establishing a healthy turf plant. As you can see, small tine aerifying during the summer months have a great amount of advantages, although the benefits are not just limited to the ones that were mentioned - we figured that boredom has already set in so there was no reason to list them.

Because we are bias towards this process, our list of disadvantages may not reflect the ones that you see or feel as a bother. When we talked earlier in the blog, we said that the #1 reason for the dislike is probably the holes on the greens in relation to timing. We feel that we can rid some of the discord by hurrying up the healing process. There are a couple ways to do this but they obviously require plant growth, and plant growth equals slower greens.  Achieving the aesthetic value of the greens is step 1 in the process - the holes are no longer visible. Step 2 is getting the green speeds back to the favorable level that the membership desires. After both of these are achieved, then the advantages really start to take effect and that really is our ultimate goal.

We hope that this gives you a better understanding of the principals involved here and that we are in no way out to get back at the golfers, remember that we enjoy golfing as well. If you ever have any questions about what we do or if you have comments about anything, feel free to contact us.

Today's Weather

August 17th, 2016

2" of rain yesterday

Wednesday08/1786 | 67 °F

WednesdayWed 40% Precip. / 0.04 in Partly cloudy with afternoon showers or thunderstorms. High 86F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.

WednesdayWed Night 20% Precip. / 0 in A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 67F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.

 

The Open 2016

 

 

http://www.theopen.com/Leaderboard#!/traditional

The Wyndgate Plant and Wildlife Sanctuary

It's Berry Season!
 

Like the calendar seasons of spring, summer, fall and winter, Golf Course Superintendents have their seasons as well. After being cooped up most of the winter, we have a tendency to get "cabin fever" and we become rearing to go, especially when the days are starting to get longer and Mother Nature gives us a brief look into the upcoming season with some kind of unseasonable warm up. However, before you know it, you are fully staffed with your regular employees and you even take on a few fresh faces from the local colleges. Summer is in full swing and the heat continues to increase with each passing day. The "dog days" are upon us and the once eager and energetic crew are now just trying to make it to the end of the growing season!

 

Speaking of making it - August is here and your pumps seem to be getting louder and louder and your irrigation pond is showing parts of its shoreline that you haven't seen in, well since this time last year. Ahh, fall is here and things are starting to quiet down -  oh wait, you have a frost delay and there is an 8:00am shotgun. You don't have enough "skeletons" for the weekend "skeleton crew" and you're hearing complaints from golfers about ballmarks on greens. Aerification holes are by now filled and grown over and next on the list is your snow mold application. Mid-week lunches with your favorite salesman are taking place while you discuss tweaking your programs for next year. The conferences have now all concluded and the new season is about to begin with fresh ideas and new faces.

 

Lost in all of the hustle during a typical growing season at The Wyndgate is the annual renewing of the bountiful wildberries and raspberries that are found all throughout the property. There's plenty here for everyone to enjoy, as you can hardly drive along side a section of woods without seeing the tasty fruit. Mid-July seems to be the peak time for maturity and it's also one of mine and Phil's favorite time of the year - along with apple season!

 

So as our day's continue with the same monotony as raking leaves in a maple grove, remember the other seasons that take place on the golf course. Sure, not every golf course has edible fruits or a healthy variety of animals at our exposure but all of us have something that nature gives us and its important to keep those things healthy and vibrant. It's nature's beauty that keeps our minds from scrambling to the point of no return, whether we are responsible for maintaining it or not, we should still try and be good stewards for the environment.

 

 Remember that mid-July brings us one step closer to the end of a successful growing season, remember it brings us to Berry Season!

 

 

* I am NOT a "tree hugger" and I am an avid hunter but this blog was created to help alleviate some of the pressure that is put on golf courses, just because they are golf courses.

                                                                                                                                                  

The job of a Golf Course Superintendent is a gratifying profession to have. We have the luxury of seeing the sun rise on a daily basis and it's on our shoulders throughout our workday most of the time during the summer. Most Superintendents are lucky enough to experience all 4 seasons and be able to take on all that they have to offer - recreationally or as a profession. Like every profession though, there are day's or situations that being a Superintendent is not the greatest job to have, but rather just the opposite.

Golf courses throughout the years have been given a "bad rap" for NOT being environmentally friendly - this narrative has really picked up steam over the last decade or so - the thought being that because we apply chemicals and pump water for irrigation, we must be bad stewards to our profession and out of touch with the environment. That statement couldn't be any more ludicrous and is completely based on assumption. Clearly our job isn't to just kill everything that moves, and the majority don't do things that way, but rather it's to create a healthy environment that starts with turf grass and also covers trees, flowers, shrubs and ponds. The role we play chemically is to keep the balance between a healthy vascular plant and to rid our established and maintained areas of unwanted pests or pathogens. We say balance because eliminating one particular pest can also eliminate something that is beneficial to the environment - that's why we use terms like threshold, because we don't always need to eliminate.

 If people were to look around while they are golfing and take in all that is around them, they would be shocked. As you can see in the pictures, we have a wide variety of animals, reptiles, birds, insects, flowers fish and even weeds - all of these pictures were taken while driving around checking on the golf course.



Velvet buck in June

 Early summer buck and doe

 Young hawk that was born this spring

 

 

 A pair of sand hill cranes that had 2 offspring this year

 

 

 Jakes and Tom's

 

 

 A nice Tom looking for a hen

 

 

 

A mating pair of ducks

 

 

Early- June fawn born on the property

 

 

 Honey bee gathering pollen

Turtle looking for a bunker to lay eggs.



 

Phil's-osophy

PHIL’S – OSOPHY

Heat, Humidity and Turf

With the on going stretch of this hot and humid weather pattern I feel its time to learn how this type of weather affects turf.
When dealing with daytime temps. over the 90 degree mark and night time temps. not retreating from the 70's the ability of a Superintendent to better control soil moisture is removed.  Especially if this weather is combined with the rain that falls under these conditions.  High humidity by day and night slows the ability of the plant and the soil to rid of excess moisture.  This ability is called evapotranspiration.  This atmosphere rots the root systems in turf with decreased air pores now filled with water.  It keeps turf from absorbing nutrients, and if there is no food produced within the plant photosynthesis is also slowed.  If a plant is full of water and it has nowhere to go it can't eat, and if it can't eat death is soon to follow.  Fortunately for us here is Michigan there are a few cooler nights mixed in with a prolonged heat spell.  This is why you don't see as much dead turf during this type of weather. 
 Unfortunately this type of weather makes it very difficult for Superintendents to produce a constant green speed and this is why.  Bentgrass and Poa, Two types of cool season grasses found on putting greens like to live and thrive in temps. between 60-75 degrees F. The best soil temps for the same grasses are roughly ten degrees cooler.  In the weather we have currently everything slows within the plant as mentioned above.  The absents of cool nights does not give cool season grasses the temperatures needed to recover by being within its best growing temperatures for survival. 
Under these hot conditions Superintendents use maintenance practices to save turf and try increasing plant health.  Some of these practices are;

- Increase mowing height
- Decrease or stop rolling greens
- Aerification to increase to amount of air in the soil
- Hand watering greens to only apply moisture where it is needed

I know what you're thinking.  These are all maintenance practices that compromise greens speed, but they are the practices used to make sure there is still turf once this hot, humid weather breaks.


















Localized Dry Spot


Many of you are asking about the condition of some of the tees on the Eastwynd and I have all the answers.  First on holes 4 and 17 there were problems with the satellite boxes on the course that control the sprinklers on those tees.  Repairs were made immediately, but with the temps we have had it does not take long for things to go south.  A second problem with these two areas are sprinkler heads being used.  As you can see in the picture below the water is hitting the center of the tee and nothing else.    

This is caused by sprinkler heads that do not have the correct nozzle or are missing a nozzle.  The effect is dry areas that quickly become hydrophobic or they do not allow water to pass through the soil profile.  Once again when speaking of the Eastwynd tees thatch is the main culprit for areas like these to appear.
The solutions we have implemented to solve the tee problem on the course are;
1. Core aerify - remove thatch and replace with sand.
2. Replace obsolete irrigation heads ( if necessary ) to new sprinklers with uniform sray patterns.
3. Hand water hot spots to increase hydration where needed.
4. Apply a wetting agent. ( These are adjuvants that break the soil bonds that create Hydrophobic soils and allow water to better enter the soil.)
5. Pray for natural rain.  Nothing helps better than a good storm.

One thru Four are already completed. Number 5 is out of our control.

Till next time,
Phil Hopper

" Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry."

- T. Jefferson -



Practice and Perfection


As we approach the week of The Patriot lets focus on what we are trying to accomplish during this time of year.  Perfection.  We are working hard to keep greens free of ball marks, bunkers without deer and footprints in them, and fairways with little to no divots.  As we played this morning we came to this area on # 4 fairway. 

Areas like this should never exist on a fairway when a practice facility exists.  We are attempting to provide the best conditions possible.  Please refrain from using the course to practice the short game and use the practice chipper and driving range to hone specific shots.  Thank you.








Fun turf facts for you


1.  Grass plants are 75 to 80% water by weight.
2.  90% of the weight of a turf plant is in its roots.
3.  A 50 by 50 foot lawn, or 2,500 square feet, releases enough oxygen four a family of four per day.
4.  An acre of turf can produce enough oxygen for 64 people per day.
5.  Grass is the third most important source of oxygen behind trees and algae.
6.  The net carbon intake of a well managed turf is 5 to 7 times higher than the carbon output to mow it.
7.  Eight average size lawns provide the cooling effect equal to a 70 pound air conditioning unit.

                                                                                            * provided by the lawn institute.*


" Our obligation to our country never cease but with our lives."

                                      John Adams

Mowing Directions

 

There has been some questions as to why we mow the grass different directions every time we mow.  It is not just because it looks nice to pattern the grass in the checker board effect.  It is to keep the grass from laying over by mowing it the same direction all the time.  If a blade of grass is constantly cut the same direction it will have a tendency to lie down and grow in that direction.  If the blades of grass are lying down they are not being cut on a regular basis or at all.  This contributes to topics we have spoken of before. Verti-cutting and increased thatch come to mind.  Mowing in different directions helps keep the blades of grass remaining up right.  A flat turf is a slower, softer turf.  It also increases the runoff of water and nutrients unlike a turf standing upright which has increased surface area around it to accept water and nutrients making an vertical blade of grass healthier.  

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."

                       John Quincy Adams.


 

This is what we are after

 

 

 

 

All Superintendents and others in our field are out to accomplish the same thing.  Quality, healthy turf. It's the name of our game.  Its what make you on the course happy.  It is what keeps us employed.  We all learn in Earth Science way back when about things like photosynthesis and the nitrogen cycle.  These are our starting blocks in the day to day operation and what we create out fertilizer programs around.  If you understand the life cycle a turf plant follows and adheres to it becomes more apparent to the eye what the plant needs at certain times with in the growing season.

 

Photosynthesis is the process in which a plant takes in sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to create and give off nitrogen.  Its amazing how we are taught in elementary school something that daily, is responsible for all living plants on the planet. 

  

 

It is when this process has started and turf green up and growth has begun that we begin our fertility program.  It is also when we begin to take care of the never ending weeds with in the turf.  We can reduce the amount of weeds by continuously doing two things all the time.  Keep the fertility active all season,  Think of fertilizer as the turfs vitamin, and keep the turf cut at a little higher cutting height.  The golf course rough is maintained at two - and - a - half inches.  It is by no means a cure all for weeds, but if you can keep weeds seeds from germinating by eliminating sunlight from reaching them, you're in the front row.  A dense healthy turf stand will always have less weeds.  Fertilizer does multiple things with in the plant.  We all know it feeds the plant by giving it the minerals it needs to continue photosynthesis and the nitrogen cycle.  It strengthens the cell walls of the plant to help ward off disease and to retain needed moisture during dry times of year. Once again, fertilizer to turf is no different than a daily vitamin to us.

 

Many people stop and ask why Lightning or a thunder storm seem to make their lawns green.  There are a couple reasons for this to take place.  The first is that our atmosphere is 78% nitrogen.  The bond a nitrogen molecule has a  very strong one and is not easily broken, but a bolt of lightning has the ability to break those bonds releasing a very easy form of nitrate for the turf to use quickly and help add color shortly after the storm is over.  The other reason grass looks so good after a good storm is by the rain itself.  The ground water used in this area has a higher PH than natural rain water.  It has a PH of 8.  Rain water will have a PH of 6.5-7.  This is within the best PH levels where grass prefers to be and grow.  It aids in breaking bonds within the soil making nutrients available to the plant that are bound together by using the higher PH irrigation water.

Small things like this.  Things  we have learned from the age of ten are important to us now.  Simple understanding of science can help create a turf that will green up in the spring and be healthy through the summer.  It will tend not to wilt and dry out during times of stress, and it is because you give the plant the fertilizer, water, air movement the plant needs to survive, and  a little help from mother nature will also play a big roll in the health of the plant in ways only nature can provide.  

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

 

                                  T. Edison        

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                     



 

Thatch

Over the next three weeks we are going to focus on Greens maintenance.  These practices are typically what make golfers upset with the turf managers.  They are disruptive at times but are necessary to maintain a healthy turf stand.  The first topic we will focus on is thatch.  What is it?  How do we manage it, and why a little thatch is a good thing.

Thatch is NOT what we make roofs out of.  In the world of turf it is the layer of dead and decaying blades of grass and their roots. This layer forms at the base of the plant and if not managed causes increased disease and insect pressure along with a surface that feels as if you are walking on an air mattress.  Turf with excessive thatch creates another issue.  The roots of plants will tend to remain in the thatch layer instead of growing down where they belong - in the soil. Roots will reside where they get what they need to survive.  Thatch acts as a sponge.  If the moisture and nutrients are in the thatch layer so are the roots.

Thatch is managed with monthly to by-weekly topdressings.  We all know these days on the course when you reach the first green and there is a thin layer of sand on them.  This is necessary maintenance.  The sand when applied and brushed in dilutes the thatch.  The sand and thatch are mixed firming the turf.  A smooth, firm surface maintains a true and faster putting surface. 

Verti-cutting the greens is also a good way to manage thatch and is sometimes combined with topdressing.  This is a practice in which we cut fine trenches into the greens surface.  This does multiple things to the greens.  It cuts surface tension allowing better infiltration of water and nutrients.  It also allows small avenues for the topdress sand to better penetrate the thatch.  This practice also initiates bent grass grow by cutting tillers forcing the creation of new plants.

The third way to manage thatch is with aerification.  This would be the second worse time to golf but is also an important maintenance practice. Punching holes and collecting cores removes thatch from the playing surface.  A golf green should have around twenty percent of the playing surface removed a year to maintain a proper layer of thatch. This means aerification should happen at least twice a growing season in spring and fall.

A half of an inch or more is considered excessive on well managed turf.  This is where a maintained thatch layer of a quarter to half inch is a good thing.  Roots will reside in the soil where they belong. The turf will except foot traffic and ball marks without damaging the crowns of the plants, and with the proper maintenance being done will produce a turf that is true to putt on and not crater when hit into.    

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                               

 

 

 

Well here we go.  Another Michigan Spring is unfolding into what is sure to be a great Michigan Summer.  We are in project mode here at the maintenance department as we are repairing cart paths, installing new landscaping on the south side of the Westwynd grille, and readying ourselves for the delivery of thirty crab apple trees.

All these things are steps we are taking to achieve our number one goal.  To give you an oasis to drive into, relax and play.  If you see Ron Betz or myself on the course and have questions please don’t hesitate to ask.  That is what we are here for, and we love to talk.

I look forward to future installments of Phil’s-osophy and can guarantee the following written works will be deeper than this one.

 

                                                                              Phil Hopper G.C.S.

 

 

“ In matters of fashion flow with the current.  In matters of principle, stand like a rock.”

                                                T. Jefferson