DRYING OUT FROM THE WINTER STORMS

BY KURTIS WOLFORD GOLF COURSE SUPERINTENDENT

Mother Nature is still not giving us much of a break. Weather data provided from our onsite weather station shows from Oct 1, 2021-Mar 20, 2022, we had a total of 11.96” of rain. Oct 1, 2022Mar 20, 2023, we had 35.47”. Wow! We have had a really wet and cold winter. With the days getting longer and warmer, our soil temperatures are trending up, so all the dormant trees and turf are starting to wake up. The course is looking green again.

Our Spring maintenance closure was a challenge this year. Losing a full day due to wet conditions limited us on what we wanted to accomplish. We aerified the greens, tees, and collars. We changed our protocol this year and verticut the greens two consecutive days in an effort to incorporate more sand into the turf canopy. This greatly benefited and increased hole closure. I was very surprised by the positive affect it had and will add it into future aerifications.

We started to overseed the rough areas around the course— specifically greens surrounds and high-traffic areas — with more Rye grass and Blue grass to increase the rough density. Once we get caught up on mowing, we will start aerifying the rough, and focusing on areas that always get the most compaction from cart traffic. We will be trying to get in our regular mowing of rough and fairways after we get the major part of aerification completed.

We began whipping the greens back into shape a few weeks ago, as weather permitted. We will start the process of rolling and mowing once we get the sand worked down enough. We are spraying greens with fungicide because of all the leaf wetness pressure combined with temperatures. These conditions with new fresh growth are perfect conditions for some fungi. It is also time to get our insecticide out. White grubs are starting to wake up and do damage.

Spring is usually a time where we are doing as much mowing as possibly can to keep things cut down. With all the moisture we have had, everything is going to explode with growth. Our mowers are mowing seven days a week.

We need your help. With the greens being soft PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE repair your ball marks. Pick yours and one other as you are on the greens. This will be a tremendous help. Our section staff spends time (5-10 minutes) on greens every morning repairing ball marks.