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April 9th 2010

I apologize for the delay in updates. One thing that I need to say is that we are running a crew much smaller than in the past. Most of this is due to budget cuts and a general tightening of the belt. So what does that mean? It means I spend a little less time behind the computer and a little more time getting the course ready for opening (Yes we are open). So lets get on with the updates.

Greens: All greens are open with the exception of the 7th green. The 7th has a pretty fair amount of crown hydration damage mostly in the center and right hand portions of the green. We have seeded this green with our proseeder and verticut units two directions apiece. The green has been covered and will remain covered until the nights are warmer. I hope to have it ready for the Allied if everything goes well. The other greens are in reasonable shape. Some are in really good shape, while a few are thin in areas. Some of the poa struggled greatly coming out of winter, but it looks to be generating new growth from the crowns. Im confident these areas will fill in given time and better growing conditions. Greens that fit this description include the 9th, 10th, 13th, 16th and 18th. Interesting to note these greens all were exposed in January after the big rain event.

Tees and Fairways: Most tees and fairways are in good shape. There are some areas in fairways where water accumulated this winter and caused damage. We will be seeding these spots as well.

Bunkers: As of yet we havent gotten into our bunker work. Its important for us not to just go out and rake them, but to actually go through each bunker one at a time and check sand depth, remove debris and add sand if needed. This is a very time consuming and labor intensive task. We will begin that work today and when a bunker is complete we will put the rakes out by it. Bunkers without rakes are the ones we havent got to yet.

Course Supplies: Most of the course supplies are out. Hopefully we can get the drinking water flowing by next week as well. Next week we will also be getting the irrigation system fired up. This is a big early season project.

Cleanup: The course is playable, but our cleanup is far from done. We usually push everything off the greens, tees and fairways. We hand rake many of the bad areas. We also mulch the majority of the stuff when we begin mowing rough. Also when your playing take a look up at the pines, the pine cones this year are going to be a battle.

If anyone ever has any questions please contact me at jstackwcc@netzero.net . I'll be happy to answer anything you have questions about.

March 26th, 2010

Most of, if not all of the snow is gone from the course, with the exception of a little bit up around the 15th, the right side of 12 and the 4th tee. We were fairly wet and flooded at the start of the week and we dried out nicely in the last few days. The weather looks rather cold for the next few days. At last Monday's green and board meetings I gave a full report on the condition of the golf course. For the most part we faired much better this year than last in regards to winter damage. The worst green as of right now is the 7th with a fairly sizeable portion of ice damage in the middle of this green. As of right now I think this will be our one temperoary green to start the year as we recover this damage. There are a few other greens on the course with some small pockets of damage that I think we can work around. We also have several greens with some very off color poa. Much of the leaf tissue has lost its color, but almost all of these areas have started to show regeneration of growth coming from the crown of the plant. Some of these greens have greened up considerably in the last week (3 and 9). Overnight temperatures tonight look to get down close to single digits so the threat for damage remains. I have left most greens covered at this point and we will begin removing covers next week. We have been cleaning up the course as well and hope to have a good amount of this completed next week as well. I hope by the end of next week ill be able to make a determination with our greens chairs about the proper time to open the course for play.

March 8th, 2010

We have been outside on a regular basis. With the warmer weather I began removing snow and ice on greens. The idea is to help push the melting process along. The less freeze/ thaw cycles we go through the better. We have also been working on brush clearing behind the 17th green. This will offer a very cool view back up through the clubhouse side of the river. The pictures below illustrate what we are seeing.

February 23, 2010

Its probably a good to time to start updating this page again as we inch closer to the start of a new season at Wahconah. Our main focus this winter was the tree work we conducted along the right side of the 5th hole. With the removal of the rows of pines we opened up a spectacular angle of play into this green. We still have a good amount of clean up to do this spring in this area, but when complete it really is going to add greatly to this wonderful golf hole. We have also begun some brush work around the grove of trees to the left of the 10th green or directly behind the 17th green. This work is about the same as the work we have done around the 7th tee and 13th tee areas< where we remove the underbrush and expose the more mature stand of trees.

Greens

Its been a strange winter with very little in the way of snowfall. We have had a pretty large amount of ice accumulation in some areas of the course, while other areas have had no ice or snow coverage. Yesterday we removed snow on the 10th, 13th and 16th greens. These were three of the greens that gave us problems last spring. Once the snow was removed the black enkamat was exposed and that combined with the stronger sun melted a good portion of the ice layer. This week it looks like things will get covered back up again, but for the most part the turf I have seen looks ok. We are now entering the most critical time of the year, where we enter days and nights of repeated freeze-thaw cycles. The best case scenario is a very quick melt down and a quick spring.

5th hole right side with trees removed

November 4th, 2009

We are heading into the portion of our year where we are preparing the course for the winter. Leaf cleanup is almost complete, though we are a little behind due to our tractor mounted blower throwing a pin and bearing and the availability of parts being a minor issue. The drinking water and irrigation systems need to be winterized. The proper plant protectants and dormant fertilizers need to be applied. We use our brush hog to trim back tall grass and overgrown brush areas. We have some bunker sand we would like to get out to a few of the more needy bunkers. We have purposely let some of our closely maintained turf areas grow out longer this fall. This allows for some deeper rooting and hopefully a better chance for winter survival.

Greens Closing: We plan to keep a watchful eye on closing the greens this year. Typically we have begun covering our greens after the 15th of November. This is really a weather related call. We usually let the remainder of our seasonal staff go at Thanksgiving so we like to have our winter prep done by this time. If the week of the 16th is nice, then you can probably plan for a few more days of golf.

Covers: We will be using impermeable ice sheilds on the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 15th greens this year. The 2nd and 6th will be new additions. The other greens have used these covers with sucess for a number of years. The black enkamat will be used on the 3rd, 5th, 9th, 10th, 13th, 14th and 16th greens. Hopefully all the steps we take this fall will help the turf survive the ice and freeze thaw cycles of our winters. Below is a USGA update on covers.

2009 Northeast News Update

By Jim Skorulski, senior agronomist, Northeast Region Green Section
October 9, 2009
The cooler temperatures and forecasts for snow showers quickly bring the reality of winter preparations to mind. One of those preparations for many northern golf courses involves covering greens to protect the annual bluegrass from crown hydration and cold temperature injury. The cover systems usually consist of an impermeable cover placed over the green complex either with or without insulation. The concept behind the use of covers is to try to prevent plant hydration during winter and early spring, and to maintain a fairly constant temperature at or just below freezing. In a perfect world, the covers are placed over the greens in late fall after the final topdressing and fungicide applications are complete and the ground is partially or near frozen. We then keep our fingers crossed for a layer of snow and some seasonably cold temperatures through winter.
The need to add insulation under the covers is a question we often receive. The insulation may be in the form of a foam material or rigid plastic mesh that provides some air space to buffer the more severe temperature swings. Straw and bubble tarps are used for insulation on more northern golf courses where temperatures can drop well below freezing. A heavy insulation layer is probably not necessary if you are in an area where a deep snow pack is dependable or winter temperatures are more moderate. A thin insulating material that creates an air space will be helpful where snow cover is less dependable and low temperatures are not so severe. The thicker layers of insulation are a good idea in areas where permanent snow cover is questionable and below zero temperatures are likely.
The color of a cover also impacts the temperatures at the surface of the greens. White-colored covers have grown in popularity in areas where the greens are likely to be exposed. They reflect the sun and help to keep temperatures below the covers more stable. This is less of a concern further north where the snow is more dependable and a heavier insulation layer is in place.
The use of covers does not always guarantee success! Water can still find its way under the covers and hydrate plants leaving them vulnerable to injury. Under the right conditions, turf can suffocate under impermeable cover systems. This usually occurs on more poorly drained greens, but also is a concern when heavy layers of snow and ice lie for extended periods above covers on unfrozen ground.
Covering systems need to be monitored and managed from the point of installation until they are removed in spring. That includes monitoring temperatures below the covers, checking for anoxic conditions (lack of oxygen), and having the ability to remove the impermeable cover and or vent greens when necessary. Only cover the amount of area that you can manage! Winter staffing needs to be available to do that effectively.
Cover systems for greens have evolved and do work to protect annual bluegrass and bentgrass from our ever challenging winter weather. The protection systems are not an exact science and have to be tailored for specific site conditions. When used properly, they provide a management tool that can make the difference between winter success or failure. Feel free to contact your Green Section office if you have any questions or concerns regarding the selection, installation, and management of winter covers.
Contact Dave Oatis, Director doatis@usga.org ; Adam Moeller, Agronomist amoeller@usga.org ; or Jim Skorulski, Senior Agronomist jskorulski@usga.org for a Turf Advisory Service visit this season.

October 1st, 2009

Where did the season go? After a rotten summer, I thought the month of September was spectacular and dry. Hopefully we pick up some nice bonus weather in October to help extend the golfing season. The greens have recovered nicely from the aerification. We will try and get another seeding into them soon. This is also the month that we try and let them grow out a little as we prepare them for winter. The board approved the purchase of some more ice shields, which I intend to put on the 2nd and 6th greens. This will give me some enkamat to use on the 13th and 16th greens. While non of this is full proof, I always feel we are trying as much as possible to help keep our greens healthy through the winter.

One other big complaint recently has been the bunker sand. I will be trying to fit a load of sand in here this fall under this years budget. And we can use this to add to some of the thinner bunkers. If I need to order more next year I will. If you know of any really thin lies in the bunkers please let me know so we can address this for you.

We have also started aerifying fairways. Our goals are to go as far with this as weather allows us. Hopefully we get at least a full nine done if not even more. The third ladies tee has been sodded and is starting to root. Once rooted we will smooth the surface with topdress and then decide if we will be able to open it this fall or early next season. I think we should be able to address some of the other smaller tees as well in the next few seasons. At this point it would be the 5th, 12th and 14th.

September 17th, 2009

Well I guess I haven't been as diligent this year writing updates on the golf course. But what more can I say than it rained all the time. We made it through the summer and the torrential rains relatively unscathed. We have a few pockets in some fairways were the turf couldnt handle being submerged under water. The 8th and 10th holes come to mind. At the end of August we did aerify, topdress and overseed these areas. New seedlings have emerged and we hope to have as much coverage going into winter as possible. The total damage is probably a 1,000 sq/ft at most. We aerified tees in late August and we just completed greens aerification about a week ago. The greens will need another week or so before they start to putt closer to normal. The aerification went very well and they are healing right on schedule.

We have also begun to enlarge the 3rd red/gold tee. We have easily more than doubled the size of this tee and we should be sodding it next week. We will also begin to start some fairway aerification, hopefully completing as many holes as possible before the weather doesn't allow us to do anymore.

Dollar spot has been a pretty big disease this year. We have done a pretty good job in fairways working with a limited budget keeping it in check. Our final spray was a few weeks ago, but we just put out our final feritlity spread and hope that this will help carry us through the rest of the season. Tees have also gotten hit with dollar spot fairly hard, but I cant continue to treat with fungicides so I am trying to combat it with some nitrogen. In any event it has been a challenging year with all the rain, from mowing, to spraying to managing the people and trying to limit mechanical damage.

On the green committee level we have been discussing issues surrounding drainage. We are looking at options for the 10th hole to replace the lost willow. We are also talking about some selective tree management strategies throughout the golf course. Obviously everything we discuss does involve some financial commitments. We are very aware of these impacts and while we have several ideas, sometimes the reality of our situation dictates what we can and can't accomplish. Having said all that I do think we have had a very productive year on the course and I hope everyone has had a chance to enjoy themselves this summer. If you have any questions drop me a line.

Willow #10

July 3rd, 2009

Hopefully with a new month comes a change in the weather pattern. The persistant rain of the last three weeks has just caused a mess on the golf course. We have done the best we can to keep up with the mowing when and where we can. Consistent growth has started to occur and that has led to the greens filling in nicely. The fairways look better as well. Hopefully with some drier weather we can get the golf course to play as we hope. Firmer and quicker.

June 19, 2009

This was a very difficult week on the golf course. The persistent rain of the last 10 days has made managing the golf course a challenge. With about 6.5" recieved. Just trying to get things mowed is a huge challenge. One thing you may have noticed is I have been a little more lax in letting carts out on the course after large rain events. Certainly a number of factors go into this decision, but lately the overriding factor for me is the revenue and is the revenue recieved from carts more significant than possible damage? During a weekend like the fourball or during a busy leaugue night the answer is probably yes.

The greens are starting to round into decent shape. I think that the majority of the greens where we had minor damage have healed pretty well, I'm thinking of greens like 1, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12 and 17. Greens like 2, 10, 13 and 16 are doing well, but not perfect. Repeated seeding, topdressing, grooming and a little extra fertility are the things we continue to do. Its been a poor growing spring here in the Berkshires and that has slowed recovery considerably.

We have started edging and trimming bunkers. We do this a few times over the course of a summer and it really makes the course look good, while providing the neccessary definition of the hazard. We have also during dry periods begun spraying weeds. Clover seems to be the big weed for us in our rough this year and we hope to get our rough cleaned up pretty good. We have sprayed about 10 acres of rough so far this year, with plenty more to go.

June 5, 2009

We had a very good agronomic week here at the golf course. The greens continue to improve on a daily basis. The greens that were partially damaged have filled in very nicely while the more heavily damaged greens have significant coverage and are not too far behind. All that seed and fertilizer we pumped into them throughout May is finally starting to grab hold. We did a light verticut and sand topdressing on Tuesday that has improved the ball roll significantly. This is the most important activity that we can do now to help fill in the remaining voids, smooth the greens and also firm up the greens. As the greens heal we are also lowering height of cut closer to our target height for the summer.

Also this week we sliced more seed into any thin fairway areas and followed that up with the first fertilization of the season. We were also able to complete the aerification of our tee boxes, which included an overseeding. All in all a good week and the golf course is starting to take shape. I appreciate everyones patience throughout the spring as it will certainly pay off in a more enjoyable golf course this summer.

May 27th, 2009

I guess its been awhile since I have updated. The best news is that we have opened all the greens for play. Of course some are still thin in areas and I hope as you play you can tread lightly in these thin areas. Our focus now is to work the height of the damaged greens back in line with the other greens. Once we accomplish this we will be trying to begin gaining a quicker and smoother putting surface as we continue to fill in the voids. It has been a somewhat slow spring with growth, but I am happy with the coverage we have obtained and feel pretty good about getting the greens to fill in the rest of the way. Spiking, topdressing, higher rates of liquid fertility and hand seeding will be a common occurance the next few weeks. This will all be in an effort to provide the better putting surface you expect.

One thing we have had very good success with over the years to combat ice damge is the impermeable covers we have used on the 4th, 7th, and 15th greens. These three greens are all heavily shaded, have high populations of poa and were, even in the easiest of winters, a problem. I feel comfortable using these covers in these locations because there is very little temperature flucuation during the winter. We have discussed at the green comittee level about expanding the use of these covers. Two locations that fit my criteria for use are the 2nd and 6th greens. These two greens accumulate ice, have high poa populations and are fairly well shaded in the winter. I think the impermeable covers would be succesful in these spots. The 13th and 16th greens then could be fully covered with enkamat. With so much science behind turf grass managment these days, preventing winter damage to turf is one problem that still hasn't been completely solved.

May 8th, 2009

With the moisture and the warmer night time temperatures this week, the golf course is starting to grow at a more consistent rate. We aerified greens on Monday, racing against the threat of rain to get the greens plugged and cleaned up in one day. The downside to this is that we didn't have enough time or manpower to get the topdressing out. Most likely we will do this very early next week. All the greens are starting to really improve. You can see the damaged areas shrinking on a daily bases. Once we get the greens filled in we will then begin to lower our height of cut to promote a better putting surface. The covered greens are also making significant progress. We hope to begin getting these greens ready for play very shortly. We just need to make sure that the young plants are mature enough to handle the traffic. We would hate to lose all the progress we have made on them.

We will probably be aerifying tees next week. We will also continue to seed any damaged areas in the fairways. We have done some spiking of these areas with seed, but we may need to also slice in some seed as well.

Overall the course is improving on a daily basis. Progress should come on a much quicker rate as the weather continues to improve. Our goals are to have as fine a golf course as possible for the start of our tournament season. Thank for your patience this spring as the golf course recovers.

April 24, 2009

Just a quick update before the weekend. Things are starting to progress out on the course now. Even during a poor growing week (cold and frosty) we were able to get some germination in many of the damaged areas. Everything has been fertilized and we have the irrigation system fully charged. With some heat this weekend I expect that we will really start to make some progress. I have noticed improvement in all the greens in the last few days and this should continue on a steady basis until we have everything open for play.
We have all the course supplies out and we have gone through all the bunkers. The course has been mowed a few times so things are starting to shape up. We appreciate everyone's patience this spring while we deal with the damage left over from the winter.

April 16, 2009

Here is the latest update from the USGA regarding winter damage and recovery.
Winter Damage: Location, Location, Location…

By Jim Skorulski, Senior Agronomist Northeast Region Green Section
April 15, 2009

Just another New England spring: Twenty degrees above normal one day, and twenty degrees below normal the next. The widely fluctuating temperatures create many challenges for superintendents who are attempting to nurse back annual bluegrass from a long, cold winter. Timing of applications for annual bluegrass seed heads and annual bluegrass weevil also is made tougher with the temperature swings. The Web site http://www.nrcc.cornell.edu/grass/degreedays/dd_weekly.html provides growing degree day information for the Northeast, and many Mid-Atlantic states to help with those management decisions.

Winter Damage

Reports have been coming in regarding annual bluegrass winter damage. Cold temperature and crown hydration injury has left its mark across many golf courses in the Berkshire Region, eastern New York, and more northern portions of New England and Canada. Reports indicate that the damage was not selective as both bentgrass and annual bluegrass have winter injury.

A "perfect storm" event in December may have been responsible for the severe damage; heavy rain turned snow into slush, which quickly turned to ice as temperatures rapidly fell far below freezing. In the past, severe weather events like this also have damaged the more tolerant bentgrass and Kentucky bluegrass. The ice at many golf courses remained in place under a good snow pack well into March. The encased plants were then subjected to anoxic conditions (low oxygen).

Sporadic winter injury has occurred elsewhere as well with more isolated reports of late winter and spring desiccation. Fortunately, at least some of the injury in the southern portions of the region appears to be more superficial as annual bluegrass is responding favorably to what little warm weather we have received.

Recovery Prognosis

Recovery for severely damaged golf courses will be a long and painful process that is dependent on the spring weather and a superintendent’s ability to warm soil temperatures. Clear permeable covers can elevate soil temperatures on sunny days and help prevent heat loss at night. Working with covers is never easy, especially if damage is wide spread. The covers will have to be manipulated during warm, sunny days later in the spring to avoid over heating the seedling plants. They also will need to be replaced at night when freezing temperatures are predicted. Also, topdressing with black sand can elevate soil temperatures to speed seed germination and recovery.

Those who are working with damage exceeding fifty percent of the green’s surface or where primary cupping areas are injured should utilize temporary greens if a full recovery is to be expected to occur by early to mid-summer. Not closing the greens is perhaps the biggest mistake we see and a primary reason for a failed recovery and very disgruntled golfers later in the season. The stigma with temporary greens is very real, but not nearly as bad as that associated with poor putting surfaces in July!

Severe winter injury is never easy to deal with, and superintendents and staff will be working very long and hard hours to recover the damaged areas and nurse the juvenile turf through the summer. The need for patience through the recovery process can not be emphasized enough! Golfers will hopefully understand that, in most cases, there is no immediate action that can be taken to prevent winter damage when the perfect weather conditions happen to occur.

Once again, this winter season proved that it’s all about location when it comes to winter storms and cold temperature injury. Let us know how your golf course fared this winter and give us a call if we can help formulate a recovery strategy, develop a winter protection strategy, and provide additional support to work with the golfers.

April 15, 2009

We are about a week into our season and things are starting to progress on the course. The earlier start is a good sign. Some of the weaker areas on the greens are starting to show signs of life and positive recovery. We will be doing all we can to ensure that this continues. This week we started seeding the damaged areas using our proseeder, and also slice seeding . The only negative so far has been the constant morning frost, this really slows down growth. As we remove the covers and mow these greens for the first time I hope to give some time table on when they will be ready for play.

Our biggest task so far is getting the bunkers in play. They have been heavily washed out from the winter and we are taking our time in getting them ready. Our small crew can usually get about 5 bunkers done correctly in a day. Yesterday we took a time out from this and put the first mowing on the course. Fairways, approaches, collars and tees were all mowed for the first time. This really helps clean things up, defines the edges and makes it look like a golf course.

Today we are beginning to get our irrigation system charged. We start by renting a compressor to help blow out our irrigation pit. This takes us all day before we feel comfortable setting our intake up to begin charging the system. So over the next few days there may be some irrigation heads running and if you see any leaks please let us know. With seed in the ground, water is an important part of our recovery.

One quick observation is that this year I'm trying to work with a smaller staff. Last year at this time we were working with about 350 man hours. This year we are at 250 man hours. So we opened earlier and we are working with 100 less man hours per week. This means it may take us a little longer to get all of our spring duties done, so please be patient.

April 10, 2009

With the golf course open we are starting in on the bunkers today. This may take us several days of work to get through them all. Essentially the sand is all over the place and we need to make sure that we distribute it properly in each bunker before we rake them. We mowed greens yesterday and will probably mow them again early next week. As you play you will notice several weak areas in our greens. Most of these spots are the result of the constant freeze/ thaw cycle that occured in March. I put the pins in these greens with the expectation that we can improve these greens even while they handle play. I am pretty confident that there is enough plant material in these greens that will fill in once we begin to grow. Greens 2, 10, 13 and 16 have slightly more damage, with 2 and 10 the worst. These will require a little more tlc in order to get them ready for the season.

We will also be working to get course supplies out, get the drinking water on, fixing cart paths, continue cleanup, charge the irrigation system and also mow the course over the next few weeks.

Please drive carts with care as there are still several wet areas and even a little snow on the 4th tee and not all the cart paths are in good condition yet. Please try and avoid the injured areas on greens as much as possible. There may be some pretty interesting hole locations out there, until the greens are stronger. Don't forget to check in from time to time on course updates and I look forward to seeing you out there.

April 3rd, 2009

Brief update before the weekend. I had a walk thru of the golf course with one of my two greens chairpersons this week. We do this in order for everybody to have some input regarding the correct time to open the course. The front nine is very close to being ready. A few of the greens are a bit soggy and with the rain on Wednesday and Friday we made the determination to hold off until later next week. The back nine in general is very wet. The 12th, 13th, 14th,16th and 18th holes are very soft. Hopefully things will dry out and set up next week and we can be playing golf the week of the Masters.

15th Hole, still a little snow left.

April 1, 2009

Things are progressing slowly out on the golf course. We still have snow and ice remaining on the 4th tee, the right side of 4, the 5th tee, the right of 12 and also the whole left side of 15. Some greens are starting to set up and green up while others are still wet and spongy. Some are even still frozen. So these leads to the question When are we going to open? I am having a walk thru this morning with my Green Chairpersons and we will most likely make a determination on a projected opening.

Sorry about no pictures my camera bit the dust. I will try and get a new one.

March 27th, 2009

Here is another update before the weekend. We are still hanging onto snow around the 4th, 12th and especially the 15th holes. I am hoping with some warm temperatures today and rain over the weekend we can start in on Monday with a snow and frost free golf course. I'll try and remember to take my camera with me today and post some photos later. We have spent the week burning wood and brush, cleaning up any large debris, removing covers, and salvaging what cart path material we can from the flooding. Today I plan to remove the ice shields from the the 4th and 7th greens at least. With temps on the rise I don't want things to heat up too quickly under these nonpermeable covers, I also need to get some granular snowmold control down on these greens as the covers certainly elevate disease pressure.

My plan for next week is to begin a more detailed and full scale cleanup of the course. I will have more people in to help with this. We will see what the weather brings and if we can then make a determination of an opening date. Right now we need the ground to firm up (frost free), the greens to show some signs of life (i.e. green up) and maybe mow them or roll them a couple times before we allow play.

March 23, 2009

We are about 80 - 90% melted down, with only the 4th, 12th and 15th holes having a lot of snow and ice left. Even though we are getting an early meltdown, this winter was very long and difficult. We are working outside now, burning brush and picking up and removing any down trees and limbs. If the weather holds and we can stay outside we will probably be in full scale cleanup mode by next week and then trying to pin down an opening date. The ground today is really frozen and the frost heaves in some of the greens and fairways are very impressive, so we have a ways to go. We also have several washed out bunkers and washed out paths along the rivers and streams to add to our list of springtime chores, due to the flooding in december. Hopefully the weather cooperates and we don't get hit with anymore unexpected snows or heavy rains.

March Roars In!

By David A. Oatis, Director
March 17, 2009

Plenty of snow, extended and periodic ice cover, and plenty of cold temperatures characterize the winter weather that has been experienced in many areas of the Northeast Region. It was certainly good for skiers, but the weather has caused some turf injury on golf courses. Several courses in the New York metropolitan area now are reporting localized cases of suffocation and crown hydration injury, and while the damage does not yet appear to be extensive, it will necessitate some courses keeping greens closed for a while this spring. Damage is likely to be more extensive in northern parts of the region where an ice layer has been in place since early winter. Reports of damage also are coming in from southern Canada. If you have any doubt as to whether your turf sustained injury, be sure to bring cores in and incubate them so you can gauge the extent of the damage.

Listed below are links to articles on promoting rapid recovery from winter injury. However, the first step in fostering a rapid recovery is to keep the affected greens closed for a few weeks in the spring. Impatient golfers often are reluctant to close greens, but failure to do so retards the recovery process. It also guarantees a weaker recovery as more annual bluegrass will be reestablished rather than the more desirable creeping bentgrass. A little patience now will pay big dividends later in the season.

March 17th, 2009

The snow and ice are melting fast, however it is refreezing at night. This constant freeze/ thaw we are going through is not always good for the turf. I'll keep you posted as we continue to melt about the condition of the course. I am also posting a picture of some work we are doing outside near the 13th tee.

Brush Work right of 13th Tee

The 15th Hole March 16th

The 4th Hole March 16th

March 9th, 2009

Looks like its time for me to come out of hibernation and update on a more regular basis. This past weekend saw us loose a majority of our snow only to reveal a pretty significant ice layer. The only greens that are clear are the 3rd and 9th, though both were very wet and had standing water on top. We took a sample out of the 9th green 10 days ago and it grew out well, so that is a positive sign. I did take out samples from the 13th and 16th greens today and we will see how they respond. There is just a hint of aneorbic conditions starting to develop, not overpowering, but it is there. It has been a long tough winter and this past weekends big warmup didn't do us any favors. There is plenty of water out there now that will refreeze, which can lead to problems further down the road. I'll keep posting pics as spring gets closer.

Back of the 16th Green 3-9-09

Back of the 3rd Green 3-9-09

Recent Wahconah CC Overview

Article on putting green maintenance and speed. It is a must read for those with questions.

December 2nd, 2008

Here is the latest update from the USGA. This article focuses on the economy of course maintenace. The main point is how courses are going to cut costs. The difficult part for us is that we have always been a course that has focused on producing good conditions while keeping costs in check. Many of the items listed below are things we already do or have been doing for a number of years. The one thing that I truly believe is that we can not skip out on our labor (people) and our overall growing environment. Reducing aeration practices, topdressing and tree managment is a quick way to poor conditions.

Budget Crunch

By David A. Oatis, Director
December 1, 2008

The 2008 season is just about in the books, and it has been a very unusual one. From the weather standpoint, July was the toughest month of the season as extreme temperatures and wildly fluctuating humidity produced tremendous stress for the turf. In direct contrast, August was one of the mildest Augusts. However, the recent downturn in the economy has produced financial stress on budgets that will likely dwarf the environmental stress on the turf. This is not to say that turf problems did not exist this year, but the recent budgetary problems have been far more significant at many courses. Options for cutting costs are routinely discussed during Turf Advisory Service visits and some courses are having to make major sacrifices just to keep the doors open.

So, where can dollars be cut from the budget? Perhaps the more important question is "where can corners NOT be cut"? A key in working through your budget dilemma is to go back to basics.

Managing the above and below ground growing environments is essential for a successful turf management system. Thus, continue to invest in tree work and your aeration and topdressing programs. Turf grown in a poor growing environment is less reliable and more expensive to maintain. The same is true of turf that is grown in unfavorable soil environments. Cost cutting here will result in poor turf performance and much bigger costs down the road.
The biggest part of just about every maintenance budget is labor costs, and reducing frequency of some of the more maintenance-intensive practices certainly is worth consideration. However, be sure to protect key personnel. The average golfer looks at golf course maintenance workers as just that, workers. However, it takes a significant amount of time, effort, and cost to thoroughly train an individual to do all the tasks involved in golf course maintenance. A well-trained individual, particularly a motivated one, is a tremendous resource and one that should be protected. Well-trained and reliable employees are worth far more than their salaries might indicate. In dire circumstances, you may be better off reducing hours if that will allow you to keep more of your better employees working.
Reducing bunker maintenance by reducing the frequency of raking is a good option for many courses to save a few dollars.
Eliminating ornamental planters out on your course and increased use of perennials in the beds around the clubhouse both are good ways to reduce costs. Similarly, reconsider use of hedges on the course because of the labor they require to maintain.
Use of naturalized rough areas (no-mow areas) represents an opportunity for reducing mowing costs. However, with the level of maintenance some golfers expect in naturalized rough areas, it may actually be cheaper just to mow them as normal rough. Natural areas only reduce costs if they are minimally treated (periodic weed control and an annual mowing or two).
Green Speed - Greens obviously are the most important area of the course in terms of playability, but dialing back green speed requirements is another option to save a few dollars.
Depending on fuel costs, increased use of growth regulators to reduce mowing frequency in large areas (bunker banks and/or fairways) is an option worth considering. In some cases, application of growth regulator combinations will provide longer term suppression and perhaps even some slight disease control.
Fertilization – going back to the basics in terms of fertilization can save some courses hundreds, and perhaps even thousands, of dollars a year. Try using less expensive fertilizers and eliminating the use of products sold based on testimonials rather than solid scientific research.
Reevaluate proposed course improvement projects and reassess their impact on maintenance costs. For instance, large, dramatic, and elaborate bunker designs may have a terrific visual effect, but they also will be much more expensive to maintain. It may be time to consider whether simple mounding can accomplish the desired playability effect as opposed to more expensive and elaborate bunker designs.

Clearly, there are lots of other options for reducing costs at golf courses, and this is not intended to be an all-inclusive list by any means. For additional ideas, read "Maintenance on a Shoestring" by Pat O’Brien. http://turf.lib.msu.edu/1990s/1995/950701.pdf Cutting back on continuing education is not a good idea. The science of managing golf courses is constantly changing, and staying up-to-date on the latest research and ideas can save money in the long run.

Source: Northeast Region Green Section- Dave Oatis, Directo doatis@usga.org

November 25, 2008

Yesterday we completed the covering of greens. This is the first time I can remember installing covers on frozen ground. The last two covers we put out (#7 and #15) required the use of hammers and drills to get the staples into the ground. With the frozen ground we took all the greens out of play for the year. There are temp. greens out there for those who wish to knock it around.

Our cover breakdown goes like this: The 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 9th and 10th all are fully covered with enkamat. The 4th, 7th and 15th are covered with impermeable ice shields. We tried something a little different on 16 this year. Typically the 16th recieves winter damage in the rear and along the left and right sides of the green. We covered the green in a "V" shaped pattern with the rear of the green having the enkamat overlapped. I am really curious to see if the doubling up of the enkamat in the rear of the green will do the trick. After this we were able to take a few extra rolls of enkamat and use it on the 13th green. We covered a portion of the green from front right to back left. This was where the majority of the damage from last year was. This is the first time the 13th has had any enkamat on it. The 14th also gets enkamat along the right side. Other than roping off of greens we are pretty much put to bed for the winter. I'll try and get pictures up soon.

The following is a short release on my GCSAA status. GCSAA stand for Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. We are required to maintain certain levels of education to maintain our Class A status.

Dalton, Massachusetts golf course superintendent renews GCSAA Class A membership status

Jeremy Stachowicz, GCSAA Class A golf course superintendent at Wahconah Country Club, Dalton, Massachusetts, has completed the renewal process for maintaining Class A status with the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA).

Jeremy Stachowicz has been at Wahconah Country Club since November 20, 1998 initially achieving Class A membership in 2002.

GCSAA Class A membership is awarded to members who are currently employed as a golf course superintendent and have met specific requirements in the following categories; formal education, a minimum of 20 hours of continuing education and at least three years of experience as a golf course superintendent. To demonstrate environmental stewardship, Class A members have either provided proof of a valid pesticide application license or have passed the GCSAA Integrated Pest Management examination.

To renew Class A membership, the member is required to obtain a total of 50 hours of professional development with in a five-year renewal period. Hours are earned from a combination of education and service- with a minimum of 20 hours being education. The candidate must also maintain a current pesticide application license or pass the GCSAA Integrated Pest Management exam.

GCSAA Class A status is the preferred membership class of the association, and is a standard for the golf course management profession. Golf facilities employ GCSAA members because of their focus on overall facility success. This is because they understand what constitutes an enjoyable experience for the golfer and what it takes to make a facility financially successful.

GCSAA is a leading golf organization and has as its focus golf course management. Since 1926, GCSAA has been the top professional association for the men and women who manage golf courses in the United States and worldwide. From its headquarters in Lawrence, Kan., the association provides education, information and representation to more than 21,000 members in more than 72 countries. GCSAA’s mission is to serve its members, advance their profession and enhance the enjoyment, growth and vitality of the game of golf. Visit GCSAA at www.gcsaa.org. For more information, contact Jeremy Stachowicz at 413-684-0069 or jstackwcc@netzero.net.

Dalton, Massachusetts golf course superintendent renews GCSAA Class A membership status

Jeremy Stachowicz has been at Wahconah Country Club since November 20, 1998 initially achieving Class A membership in 2002.

November 7th, 2008

Reminder that today we will be doing a deep tine aerification of greens. This form of aerification pentrates to a depth of 10". It will help with internal drainage of greens and most likely will be visible into next spring.

Yesterday we winterized the irrigation system, blowing any remaining water out of the lines. We hope for a deep snow cover to help protect the system from frost. As our sytem continues to age the expectation is for more failures to develop each spring, we ceratinly hope that this is not the case.

Our other goals are to try and get the course as leaf free as possible before the first lasting snowfall, this makes spring cleanup a little easier to deal with. Our leaf removal equipment consists of two blowers that we use to move leaves a great distance into the surrounding woods. In some areas it would be good to have a giant vac. to pick up piles. Most of our course supplies have been brought in, this helps to eliminate theft at the end of the year.

A couple of house cleaning items for the end of the year. We will be spraying fairways for snowmold most of next week, so if we are out while your playing we apologize in advance. We will begin covering greens on November 17th. As we cover them they will be taken out of play for the season. We may try a few different covering strategies this year on some of the greens we had difficulties with this past spring, other than that most will be the same as in years past.

I probably won't write too many updates from here on out. My plan will be to write an end of the year review sometime during the end of this month. I will also write a look into 2009 in December, for I feel there is some significant changes coming.

October 22, 2008

Here is the latest update from the USGA. This one is about winter acclimation of turf.

Winter Acclimation

By Jim Skorulski, Senior Agronomist Northeast Region Green Section
October 20, 2008

The sun is shining bright on the peak fall foliage as I sit down to write this News Update. The warm sunshine makes it easy to block out the upcoming winter and all the challenges it can bring to a turf manager in the Northeast. The grass is taking advantage of the sunny day to produce and store the carbohydrates that will enable it to survive the cold temperatures and the freeze/ thaw cycles that lie ahead. A prolonged stretch of this sunny, cool, and dry weather will be ideal for the acclimation process. The natural process of cold temperature acclimation is well underway by this point.

Management priorities at this time should focus on maximizing photosynthesis that produces the energy and simple sugars the plant stores in the root and crown tissues. This energy will be used as a means to regulate the freezing point of water within the plant during the winter months. Common sense tells us that turfgrass requires direct sunlight and an adequate amount of chlorophyll-containing leaf tissue to absorb the sun’s energy and maximize photosynthesis. It makes sense then that shaded grass plants produce fewer carbohydrates and have a more difficult time surviving extreme winter weather. Grass that is maintained at a very low height of cut also struggles to absorb sufficient light energy to gain cold temperature hardiness. Yes, there are other factors that impact the plant’s ability to undergo photosynthesis and acclimate to the cold, but none are greater than the sun and the ability to absorb the light energy it produces.

So what can you do in the few weeks that remain to promote cold temperature acclimation?

Sharpen up the chain saws and start cutting trees to gain at least eight full hours of sun for the turf. It’s never too late!
Raise the height of cut if you have not already done so, at least above 0.125, and/ or reduce the mowing frequency now that the shoot growth has slowed. This point is especially important on partially shaded sites where sunlight already is limited.
Avoid fertilizing with higher rates of soluble nitrogen sources. A growth surge is not helpful at this point. High rates of potassium should also be avoided. Instead, spoon-feed with both nitrogen (N) and potassium (K), if necessary, and save the heavier N applications after shoot growth ends later in October or November, depending on your location.
Maintain the turf on the drier side if Mother Nature allows. Reducing moisture content in the cells is part of the winter acclimation process. Any steps to reduce succulent tissue growth will be beneficial.

The degree of cold temperature hardiness obtained by the grass is ultimately a weather dependent process. So it is our job to put the grass in a position where it can perform during those periods when weather conditions are favorable. Successful winter acclimation alone does not guarantee survival, but poor or incomplete acclimation is a guarantee for many sleepless winter nights.

Northeast Region Green Section- Dave Oatis, Director doatis@usga.org; Adam Moeller, Agronomist amoeller@usga.org; Jim Skorulski, Senior Agronomist jskorulski@usga.org.

Winter Acclimation

By Jim Skorulski, Senior Agronomist Northeast Region Green Section
October 20, 2008

So what can you do in the few weeks that remain to promote cold temperature acclimation?

Sharpen up the chain saws and start cutting trees to gain at least eight full hours of sun for the turf. It’s never too late!
Raise the height of cut if you have not already done so, at least above 0.125, and/ or reduce the mowing frequency now that the shoot growth has slowed. This point is especially important on partially shaded sites where sunlight already is limited.
Avoid fertilizing with higher rates of soluble nitrogen sources. A growth surge is not helpful at this point. High rates of potassium should also be avoided. Instead, spoon-feed with both nitrogen (N) and potassium (K), if necessary, and save the heavier N applications after shoot growth ends later in October or November, depending on your location.
Maintain the turf on the drier side if Mother Nature allows. Reducing moisture content in the cells is part of the winter acclimation process. Any steps to reduce succulent tissue growth will be beneficial.

Northeast Region Green Section- Dave Oatis, Director doatis@usga.org; Adam Moeller, Agronomist amoeller@usga.org; Jim Skorulski, Senior Agronomist jskorulski@usga.org.

October 17th, 2008

The weather for this fall has been very good. Columbus day weekend was as good as I can remember for that weekend. We are currently down to our winter staff, we have been this was for about two weeks. With such a small crew we have reduced or limited our mowing. Essentially we are done mowing fairways, approaches and tees for the season. We do this to allow them the time to grow out slightly as well as harden off properly heading into winter. This has worked well for us over the last few winters with pretty good spring conditions for our fairways. We are mowing greens about every three days or so and rolling in between. We will probably stop mowing greens shortely and just continue to roll them throughout the remainder of the season. Our main focus has been in leaf removal and fairway slicing. We have most of the back nine done and will start on the front next week. The leaf removal is a constant battle for a couple of weeks. Our main focus is getting the course as clean as possible for play, sometimes that means we drive our blowers into the bunkers leaving some tracks behind. While some don't like the tracks, it is better than a bunker full of leaves. During the week we have enough people to rake bunkers, but it very difficult to do this on a weekend with a small staff.

Recently we had a one day walk through of our course with Golf Course Architects Mark Fine and Scott Witter. I invited the entire board and green committee to attend. We had a little representation from both. The following is the write up they presented to us after their visit. It is really just a teaser of sorts for a possible Master Plan. I have been a strong advocate of producing a master plan for Wahconah for some time. It really would give us a strong vision of what improvements we could make to this already outstanding facility.

Recent Wahconah CC Overview

September 22, 2008

The weather has been terrific. The golf course is in really nice shape and playing very well. The greens have enough speed in them and we are as dry as we have been all year. In fact I played my first full round here last week and was very happy with the course. I didn't play much during the start of the year due to my achilles rupture and I have been playing elsewhere closer to home, but last week I played in the EMMA tournament and had a great time (we won). If you don't take advantage of playing golf this time of year then you don't know what your missing.

We finished up our tee aerification between tournaments. We also had our fist two frosts last week. This will slow down the growth and signifies the closing of the growing season. There is some late season dollar spot working in some fairways, but I elected not to treat for it this late in the year saving some money. The frost will also slow down the dollar spot. I hope to start slicing some fairways this week. We last did this two falls ago and think this is a good way for us to attack some thatch. We will also be losing some of our seasonal staff this week and next, so our mowing schedule will be reduced. Blowing leaves and the fairway slicing become our prime projects for the next month.

September 15th, 2008

We are slightly less than two weeks removed from greens aerification and we are pretty much healed. The holes are still visible, but essentialy closed over. The regular mowers are back on the greens and we will be trying to get our speed back up for this weeks events. The growth rate in general over the entire course is as pronounced as it has been all season. We are doing all we can to keep up with it at this point. Cooler, drier weather is in store so that should help slow things down some. I would think that the next few weeks will be the best time to play golf all season. The weather will be good and the course will be in fine shape.

We were able to squeeze in some tee aerification last week and I hope to finish that off this week between tournaments. We should also be starting some fairway cultivation soon. I'm leaning towards slicing the fairways in two directions, attacking the thatch and slicing some runners. This is a good way to promote even more bent in the fairways.

September 5th, 2008

The latest from the USGA, with an emphasis on aerification.

USGA Green Section Northeast Regional Update

By Jim Skorulski, Senior Agronomist
September 05, 2008

Finally, the late summer weather has arrived and not a day too early for golf course managers and golfers alike who have had just about enough of the heavy rain and oppressive humidity that has impacted much of the region this summer. The moderate temperatures and lower humidity have cooled and dried the soil profiles and created ideal conditions for new root development and the recovery of some very tired turf. Yes, it is dry, but night time temperatures in the 50’s are tough to beat. Those fortunate ones who are core aerating were especially pleased with the September like conditions in the mid to late August. Many more will be core cultivating in the very near future,and we can only hope the weather remains as favorable.

Core cultivation practices are or will soon be underway on many Northeastern golf courses and is a sign that the worst of the season is behind us.
Core cultivation practices are never popular with golfers. The practice is grudgingly accepted, but its need and importance are questioned and we are always in search of alternative methods that will get the job done more quickly and with less disruption. Can we do it with smaller tines, can we schedule it later in fall, can it be replaced with sand injection or some other forms of cultivation are common questions we hear. The majority of golf courses that I visit can not yet afford to scale back their core cultivation practices and nothing illustrates that better than the impacts of extended wet weather.

There is no better way to modify older soil-based greens, reduce the impacts of layering, stimulate new root growth and create the firm surface conditions that are required to maintain the ball roll that is demanded on a day to day basis. Arguments for skipping hollow tine core cultivation or moving to other less invasive forms of cultivation will continue and some of those strategies will seemingly work fine for awhile. Ultimately, a price will be paid for compromising on cultivation and topdressing and usually that occurs in a wet summer like this one. As the old adage goes; You can pay me now or pay me later.

September 5th, 2008

The latest from the USGA, with an emphasis on aerification.

USGA Green Section Northeast Regional Update

By Jim Skorulski, Senior Agronomist
September 05, 2008

September 4th, 2008

We have entered my favorite time of the year. The nights are cooler, the turf is rejuvinated, my staff is smaller, we are aerifying and football starts tonight.

Greens aerification almost went off without a hitch. Tuesday we completed the back nine greens without any problem. We are using 1/2" tines on standard 2" spacing. Wednesday we didn't get very far on the front nine greens until we experienced a breakdown with our turf sweeper. After about 3 hours of shop time and some creative engineering on our part we were back up and running before noon. We elected to complete 7 of the 10 greens we needed to do and finish the remaining greens this morning. Back to the turf sweeper, it amazes that in this day and age something can be so poorly designed. I'm not the brightest guy in the world, but no question in my mind what we had to fix was a product of a poor or cheap design, the fix we came up with is significantly better.

I'm expecting about 2 to 3 weeks of recovery on the greens. We put out our fertilizer prior to aerfication, so they are already actively growing. Hopefully we can continue to push them to fill in as fast as possible. I know golfers detest aerification, but it greatly improves our greens health for the future.

Starting next week we will start tackling our tee aerification and then begin fairways with some aerification or slicing or even both. Again this does put a slight damper on playing conditions, but we can not skip out on the necessary cultivation for our turf.

We sodded and seeded the upper 7th tee. We elected to purchase a small amount of sod to stabilize the banks and surrounds. We seeded the the tee surface and remaining surrounds. I hope to get enough established going into winter and finish the remaining grow in next spring. All in all a neat addition done very cheaply. I hope next year we can look to improve or expand another women's tee.

August 26, 2008

Well for the first time in months the golf course is finally playing the way I had hoped it would. We are finally firm and fast after a season of wet and sloppy. The fairways are starting to "brown out" a little which is perfect. The greens are running at 10'9" this morning, plenty fast for everyone, though I have been getting complaints about the greens being to quick for some. The funny thing is we haven't really changed our approach to the daily care. They probably would have been closer to this speed all summer if we had this type of weather. I'll say it again, nothing robs speed more than moisture and humidity. Think about that when you are watching those PGA events and the announcers talk about how they are going to need to apply water to the greens or things will get out of control. They apply the water to slow them down, nature did it for us this year.

Reminder that we will be aerifying greens next week, starting September 2nd and 3rd. Nine holes will be done each day, with the other nine available for play. If it rains the process will be pushed back to the next day.

4th green Wahconah

5th Wahconah

August 19th, 2008

To get through the Brown Jug weekend without any significant rain was unbelievable in a summer like this. I was nervous because earlier in the week we couldn't have handled any more rain, but a week of dry weather was exactly what the golf course needed. In fact by Sunday morning I needed to water a few of the greens to keep them safe. I think all in all it was a good tournament, with good conditions and a fair yet challenging setup. The greens were running close to 11' (10' 8") on Saturday morning and pretty much were at 11' on Sunday. To get to this required a significant amount of rolling and mowing. We will have to back off on this, but we hope to maintain speeds into the 10' range going into the Wahconah Cup.

Reminder after Labor Day we begin course wide aerification, starting with the greens. We will transition to tees and finish up throughout the fall with fairways.

Wahconah #8

Wahconah #3

Wahconah #15

Wahconah #12

Wahconah #11

August 12th, 2008

Little Brown Jug Week:

The golf course is about as wet as it has been for some time. We had been dodging some large rain events the past few weeks, with it raining enough to keep things wet, but not saturated. After yesterday and last night that is no longer the case. Puddles have shown up all over the course. We have canceled carts for the day and have turned our attention towards getting the course prepared for the Jug.

Contrary to popular belief we don't do a heck of a lot more for the tournament than what we do on an everyday basis, but there are some differences. First is we try and time all of our applications (fertility, fungidices, topdressings etc.) to peak at this time of the year. Our bunker work and trim work also needs to peak at this time. We do try and speed the greens up for this event, if all goes well they will run about a foot quicker than normal. We do this early enough (last week) for most of our members to get a taste before the event. Now the heavy rain of the last few days slows them down, but when it dries out again the speed will come back. We also increase our mowing schedule by mowing almost everyday this week and throughout the tournament. Somehow I hope we can get through this weekend with some decent weather, but during this gloomy summer I'm not betting on it.

Article on putting green maintenance and speed. It is a must read for those with questions.

August 6th, 2008

After a very wet and difficult July, August has arrived and with it some of our biggest events including the Allied Championship, The Little Brown Jug and we finish it off with the very enjoyable Wahconah Cup.

At the end of last month we experienced a touch of Anthracnose on a few of our greens. This is a very common stress disease that will show up when the poa in the greens experience any significant stress periods. The remedy for the situation includes increased fertility and also increased moisture levels (no problem there). What this adds up to is slower than normal greens. We are past that period now and are moving forward towards making the rest of the season as enjoyable as possible.

A few notes on green speeds. We usually aim for a speed from 9.5' to 10' on a regular daily basis. With all the moisture this year we have really been closer to 9.5 most of the time. The 9.5' to 10' is a good range for everyday play for everyone. I'm sure the greens are not fast enough for the better players, but they may be challenging for higher handicaps. This speed lets us use the majority of our greens for cupping locations and also helps keep speed of play issues under control. For tournaments that warrant quicker greens we try and oblige by getting them to between 10' and 10.5'. The Club Championship was closer to 10.5 before a rain event knocked them back to 10'. For the record anything around or over 11' on these greens becomes a death march. We can only use the safest of hole locations and the time it takes people to play increases dramatically. I take my direction from the green chairmen and also the board. Working with a strict budget we try and keep things as enjoyable and challenging as possible without slowing play. Hopefully with disease issues under control and some good events coming up my goal is to get the greens closer to the 10' range for the next few weeks, if it ever stops raining we may get there. If anyone has any questions on this I would suggest you contact me or my green chair so we can set the record straight. Thanks to all and enjoy the dog days of August.

July 28th, 2008

The following is the latest USGA green section newsletter for the Northeast. It contains a ton of information on problems on that many turf managers are facing this season.

Worst Case Scenario

By David A. Oatis, Director & Jim Skorulski, Senior Agronomist
July 25, 2008

For most turf managers, the worst case scenario is when high temperatures are accompanied by prolonged rain events. Saturated soils heat up increasing turfgrass stress and elevating disease pressure to extraordinary levels. The next worst case scenario is a combination of high temperatures and very low humidity levels. While these make for comfortable conditions for human outdoor activity, these conditions can put tremendous stress on the turf.

For turf managers in the Northeast Region, 2008 is turning out to be a roller coaster ride full of steep climbs, sharp drops, and hairpin turns. Many courses in the New York Metropolitan and southern New England area are now struggling as a result of three days of above 90° temperatures and low levels of humidity. The combination of high air and soil temperatures combined with moisture stress has weakened annual bluegrass populations on greens throughout the region to a point where plenty are teetering on the edge. Under these conditions, the plants are transpiring water far more quickly than their impaired root systems absorb, resulting in large areas of wilt damage. Not surprisingly, Green Section phones have been ringing off the hook.


High soil and air temperatures experienced on greens over the weekend have created severe stress on annual bluegrass around the region.

A number of golf courses also are reporting extraordinarily high nematode populations. We have measured soil temperatures in the 85- 90°F range (upper profile) and heat indexes well above 100˚ in pocketed environments. Summer patch has become very active on greens and fairways. Throw in prolonged low mowing and poor grass growing environments, and the outcome is predictable: a significant number of annual bluegrass plants are close to meeting their maker.

So what can be done at this late date in the game? Here is a brief checklist of things to consider over the next few weeks:

Manage water as precisely as you can.
Make sure everyone thoroughly understands the difference between hand watering and syringing. Remember, syringing involves wetting the leaf tissue and not saturating the soil. The evaporation of water off the leaf provides the short term cooling. If the water cannot evaporate, there will be no cooling.
Raise the height of cut slightly, switch to smooth rollers or skip mowing altogether if soils are saturated and soft. It is better to be conservative to make it through these difficult weather periods.
The value of good grass growing environments will become very clear this season. Adequate sun and especially good air circulation produce healthier turf and reduce conditions favorable for summer disease. Ambient air temperatures in pocketed environments will be higher and the turf will struggle. Make note of all the problem areas and do not over look the value of fans to circulate the air if it is not occurring naturally.
While we have seen some bentgrass under stress in a few areas in the past couple of weeks, the ratio of stressed annual bluegrass to stressed creeping bentgrass is about 10,000 to 1. This is when having more bentgrass pays big dividends.
If the greens look bad but play fine, think twice before you cultivate them aggressively. There are times when doing less is best especially when the turf is already weak. Traditional spiking and venting with mini tines may be appropriate. Save the aggressive cultivation for the better days ahead.
Stay focused and go with the programs that you know work. This is not the time for testing exotic tank mixes.

The summer of 08 may be one of those talked about for years to come. Sometimes, you need a little luck to go along with good management to get through these difficult stretches, and do not hesitate to call us if we can be of assistance.

Source: David Oatis, doatis@usga.org, Jim Skorulski, jskorulski@usga.org, and Adam Moeller, amoeller@usga.org

Worst Case Scenario

By David A. Oatis, Director & Jim Skorulski, Senior Agronomist
July 25, 2008


High soil and air temperatures experienced on greens over the weekend have created severe stress on annual bluegrass around the region.

So what can be done at this late date in the game? Here is a brief checklist of things to consider over the next few weeks:

Manage water as precisely as you can.
Make sure everyone thoroughly understands the difference between hand watering and syringing. Remember, syringing involves wetting the leaf tissue and not saturating the soil. The evaporation of water off the leaf provides the short term cooling. If the water cannot evaporate, there will be no cooling.
Raise the height of cut slightly, switch to smooth rollers or skip mowing altogether if soils are saturated and soft. It is better to be conservative to make it through these difficult weather periods.
The value of good grass growing environments will become very clear this season. Adequate sun and especially good air circulation produce healthier turf and reduce conditions favorable for summer disease. Ambient air temperatures in pocketed environments will be higher and the turf will struggle. Make note of all the problem areas and do not over look the value of fans to circulate the air if it is not occurring naturally.
While we have seen some bentgrass under stress in a few areas in the past couple of weeks, the ratio of stressed annual bluegrass to stressed creeping bentgrass is about 10,000 to 1. This is when having more bentgrass pays big dividends.
If the greens look bad but play fine, think twice before you cultivate them aggressively. There are times when doing less is best especially when the turf is already weak. Traditional spiking and venting with mini tines may be appropriate. Save the aggressive cultivation for the better days ahead.
Stay focused and go with the programs that you know work. This is not the time for testing exotic tank mixes.

Source: David Oatis, doatis@usga.org, Jim Skorulski, jskorulski@usga.org, and Adam Moeller, amoeller@usga.org

July 25th, 2008

That was a wild week of weather. First we had the storms last Friday that wiped out the clubhouse power and also one of the trees I actually liked by the first tee. Then we get hammered mid week with torrential rain. In general we absorbed the blows fairly well. With a good day today we should be fairly dry by Saturday. With all that rain comes some changes on our part. Yesterday we skipped mowing greens for the first time since early May. At this point in the year the greens could really use a break. We were able to spike and topdress early in the week so that should help. We will also be backing off, for a few days, on the intensity of our greens management. By this I mean we probably will only single cut them for a few days. Typically we either cut and roll, double cut or double cut and roll everyday. This allows us to mow at a slightly healthier height of cut, yet gives us the speed we are looking for. With no tournaments for a few days, the greens absolutely drenched and the greens also showing signs of stress it is an ideal time for them to take a much needed breather. We will ramp back up once we head into the first week of August.

One of the things to note is that even with the heavy rains this week we were still very productive. Wednesday morning we got the whole course mowed prior to the rainfall. Then we were able to start and almost complete our course trim work. Then on Thursday we spent some more time in the pumphouse removing and cleaning our second pump and also fixing our flow meter. We finished up course trim and also we were able to do some much needed bunker edging (thanks Matt). I did send the crew home a little early on Thursday, but they had earned it. The point is even with bad weather there is plenty for us to do.

The picture below is of the 8th green showing the soil profile. I thought it would be interesting to share this picure because it shows some really good sand veins that are the direct result of aerification and topdressing. The more channels we have like this, the better the greens will be able to funnel water and air to the roots. The 8th is probably one of our better greens because it doesn't have much thatch and it has a pretty good overall profile. The top 4" or so of the profile is a fairly heavily modified sandy/ thatch soil. The bottom of the profile is the native heavy soil.

The 8th green soil profile

July 21st, 2008

We are starting to get the irrigation sytem issues back under control. Most of the problems have been with debris in the lines which leads to stuck heads. With a dry week last week I irrigated fairways for the first time. This led to some stuck heads, but also helped us flush more debris out of our lines.

We also spent some time last week working on the 7th tee. With drier conditions we transported some top soil to the tee area. We have another day of this left and then some fine grading before we order sod. Not sure when it will be ready, but hopefully sooner rather than later.

Green speeds have remained fairly constant at 9'6" to as high as 10'6". They were pushing the 10.6 for the Friday of the club championship. With rain and humidity creeping in they dropped a little as the weekend progressed. This is a still a good speed for us, as it allows us to use the maximum number of hole locations.

I had one comment from he past weekend that I want to address. A player remarked to me about a couple of lies he had that led to poor shots. One was in a divot near a green and the other was just on the outside of a bunker where there was some turf/heavy sand accumulation. I understood his poor fortune for landing in these spots, but there is something to be said for "the rub of the green." While we try to provide perfect condtions it just isn't ever going to be a reality. Assesing your lie and how your ball is going to react is a major part of the game.

July 14th, 2008

Sorry for the delay in updates, but with the 4th of July holiday and three tournaments last week there just wasn't much time for it. The golf course is doing well, as I think we are an fairly decent condition.

We have been working on some less visible projects, but important ones. I have been putting out our grub control, taking care to try and hit all the areas that we had damage last year. We have also put out our second fungicide application on fairways. I combined this with a growth regulator and some phosphite. I spray fairways based mostly on 1 month intervals, eventhough we usually only get three weeks of coverage out of a spray. Brown Patch and Dollar Spot started to show up during the 4th week. I stretch it this far only based on our budget, if we could purchase one more spray we could stay fairly clean throughout the year.

I have also been using some wetting agents in some fairways this season. These are designed to lessen the localized dry spots that can occur. Localized dry spots are the result of water resistant soils. An example this year would be the upper 8th fairway where we have several spots. The places I have used the wetting agents this year are the 1st fairway, 5th approach, 7th approach and some parts of the 11th fairway. The results to me are fairly impressive, and the potential need to carry this program further are evident, but again we are limted in our budget.

Our main focus the last few days has still been with the irrigation system. After we pulled the intake out of the river, there was a compromise in the screen, this allowed a bunch of debris to enter our lines. It also allowed some debris to accumulate around our pump impeller. With the showers today we were able to remove our pump and dislodge some debris. I knew it was in there because our pump would only pull at 200 gal/min versus the regular 400 gal/min. I'm still fighting stuck heads out on the course, but this will pass over time as we flush the system.

July 2, 2008

Two days in a row and no rain. As the soils dry you can almost see the grass blades thin out. As they thin out and the ground firms up the ball roll inceases. This is what we are after when we talk about firm and fast, but mother nature often has her own ideas. Yesterday we groomed, spiked, topdressed and brushed the greens. Usually for a day or two the greens slow down, but in the long run this will gain us some speed. The grooming is a super light verticut, the spiking is a mini aerification that helps increase air exchange, the topdressing is to firm the surface and improve ball roll and the brushing knocks the sand in while standing up the turf. We pretty much have been doing this every two weeks this year and I think it has really paid dividends. Our ball roll (not to be confused with speed) has improved and the ball marks (firmer surface) have also been lessened.

A couple of other things to mention. Last week we had a hydraulic leak in the first fairway. It happened to be me on the mower and the leak was directly behind me. Two things that will aid in recovery are 1) It was very early in the mowing so the oil wasn't that hot yet and 2) We use a biodegradable oil that breaks down much quicker aiding in recovery. We have aerified, topdressed and seeded the area.

Often times we also run our aerifier out with solid tines to open up holes in some compacted areas. These are usually high traffic areas around greens, tees and cart paths. We also solid tine aerify our collars every two weeks. This helps keep the water and air moving down to the roots.

Hydraulic leak #1, just after seeding and topdressing

Aerifying traffic area around 18 tee

July 1st, 2008

I am hoping with a new month we get some half way decent golf weather. My rain gauge took a beating and weather.com has Dalton for 11" of rain for the month. I'm not sure if this is true, but it sure felt like it. While the rain makes the grass grow it also makes it difficult to manage. I have had people say to me "anyone can grow grass with weather like this", which is true, but how many people can manage it? Try mowing 75 acres of it and prepare it for play. Try getting the rate of growth on greens to slow down enough to get reasonable green speeds. How about getting out all the appropriate plant protectants? Some need to be watered in and some need 24-48 hours to dry. I don't want to sound as if complaining because we really did need a good dose of growing weather to fill in but the amount of rain was an overkill.

We have taken advantage of the wet weather to do some much needed work in the pumphouse. Our pump station is 16 years old and is starting to show its age. I call the pumphouse my sattelite office. I spend quit a bit of time down there massaging the pumps to make sure they run properly. It's a little bit of a love/hate relationship, it is one of the things that can keep me up at night. So with all the rain our wet well has accumulated a good deal of silt and debris. We have spent the last two days cleaning out the pit. In the spring we were really under the gun in getting our system going so we didn't do a great job cleaning out the well. I knew all along that we would be doing it again and with all the rain it seemed like the right time. I'm hoping we get everything running well for the remainder of the season.

June 26, 2008

After one nice day the rain has returned. Weather.com has Dalton for over 8" of rain in June. It makes it difficult for us to keep up with our mowing schedules. Instead of mowing by the days of the week, we mow when we can or when it is dry enough. We also tend to double cut more since we don't know if and when we will be able to get out there again. It also puts a damper on any project work (ie 7th tee). It is tough to transport material when the course is this wet.

The greens have started to gain speed, but everytime I get somewhere with them it rains. The heavy moisture robs us of our speed. If it where dry I think we would be in a comfortable 10' range. Typically this is what I shoot for, 9 1/2' or 10'. I'm sure by the end of July I will be praying for rain, but not now.

June 20th, 2008

With the wonderful weather the grass has really taken off. The greens are evening out nicely and the ball roll is much improved. The greens have a decent amount of fertility in them and this has caused the very green response and slower putting conditions. We are working on that, in fact we double cut the greens this morning for the first time this year. It takes 5 people 3 hours to double cut greens by hand. Walking an average of 3 miles per hour these operators are walking probably beween 6 and 8 miles in a morning.

I have begun shaping the addition to the upper 7th tee. A little history is in order here. For those that remember, the original tee up here was tucked back right and ran along the spine of the ridge. It used to be a three level tee, yet very small. It was used only as a blue tee, with the white tee down below on a tee added in 1960 by Rowland Armacost. I proposed in 2001 that we build two upper tees on the top of the hill. I thought the view was better, the tee shot better and the thought of playing it as Wayne Stiles built it was the way to go. The green cmt, liked the idea, but suggested I only build one tee, which we did. I however always wanted to build a second tee, that kept the spirit of the original tee intact. Built into my budget is about $1,000 to do some tee work like this each year. We have done some small tees like this, the 14th blue tee, the 10th ladies, the addition to the front left 4th tee, the leveling of the 16th tee have all been done using these built in funds. This year we are targeting the 7th tee, next year we will focus on another forward tee.

View from behind 7th tee.

June 17th, 2008

We measured a little over 3/4" of rain last night. The course is a little wet, but has handled it well. Carts are out. The most significant part of the storm was the leading winds. We had several down limbs and branches. We will be cleaning these up throughout the day. We were able to topdress greens lightly this morning. Along with this we also spiked and brushed. The brushing will help stand up the runners, which will then be clipped off in future mowings. All of this is designed to help us get closer to our summer speed. We have been lowering the heights in response to the increased growth rate and paying more attention to providing a firmer, smoother surface.

We also fertilized fairways this morning. This will perk them up a little, but I hope not so much that we are bailing hay. This should carry us for about six weeks or so when we will schedule another application. All in all things are starting to come together.

Storm cleanup

June 13, 2008

Well you guys finally wore me down. I put out hole location flags on the 2nd, 5th and 14th holes. The higher the small flag is on the pole the deeper the hole location.

A mid to front pin on #5

June 11, 2008

The heat and humidity have pushed out and some drier, yet still warm air is in place. Normally I'm not a big fan of that soupy weather, but this time it did alot of good to the golf course. Essentially our turf needed the heat to begin actively growing. We have been pulling off a much higher clipping yield than at any other time this year. In fact we have grown more grass in three days than probably the last three weeks combined. As the greens continue to fill in and improve we will be adjusting our mowing heights accordingly and zeroing in our target heights and speed for the summer. We are also putting out our first fungicide application in fairways this morning. This is mostly targeted at doller spot. Traditionally mid June is the time I usually start to see it here, so we are hoping to catch it ahead of time if possible. We have a budget which can handle three such applications in a season, yet four to five would most likely keep our fairways disease free.

Yesterday Jay and I had a chance to visit with some Jacobsen reps. at Stockbridge Golf Club. Stockbridge is hosting the Mass Open next week and they are using Jacobsen's new greens mowers. It was a very imppressive display and a good educational look at some of the new technology. By the way if your looking for something to do, head down to Stockbridge early next week and watch some of the action. The course looks great and there will be some local guys to root for. Even with only 29 bunkers the course is an excellent test. The fairways are tight, the greens are small and the rough is absolutely nasty. As we drove around I said to Jay there is absolutely no place to miss, you must be accurate. By the way Stockbridge is where I got my start in this business.

The last thing I want to share is a couple of links from other Superintendent web pages that I read from time to time. These guys write some pretty good stuff and much of what they say can be applied to us here. One of the pages is my brother's and he puts mine to shame.

Dedham Golf and Polo - Mike Stachowicz

Castle Pines - Sean Mccue

Northland - Chris Tritabaugh

June 9,2008
2008 Northeast News Update

By Jim Skorulski, Senior Agronomist Northeast Region Green Section
June 6, 2008

Nothing can beat a few mild nights and a warm rain to remedy impatient golfers and superintendents alike. The warmer conditions spell the end of cool season diseases, speed surface recovery, and promote more consistent fertilizer response and growth rates. Mother Nature is finally making hay and let her proceed without interruption. All the clever little tricks we try to accelerate the process help, but there is nothing like the real thing.

The cooler, dry spring weather has not been all bad. In fact, the root development I have observed has been vigorous, and reports from around the New England generally support those observations.

June 7, 2008

What a crew! So yesterday we get hit with 1.75" of rain in the morning. With this much water on the course our hands are tied as far as getting all of our mowing done. After speaking with the staff they all came in today and we were able to get all of our mowing completed. Makes me feel good to know these guys and gal would give up some of their weekend to come in and make the course look good for the tournament.

After a day, the course has handled the rain as well as could be expected. Of course we had no Carts yesterday. This leads to some complaints, yet it is important for us to keep the course in as good a shape as possible. If I don't feel comfortable sending out our trained staff on mowers in those conditions, I certainly don't feel comfortable letting carts out. Jim Underdown and I often have to make unpopular decsions, but we do it with the best interest of the golf course in mind.

June 4th, 2008

I received this email yesterday from our Club President Peter Blake. I don't think there is anything earth shattering in it so I thought that I would share it here and respond.

Good afternoon Jeremy

I had the opportunity to play this weekend. I can see that the course is making some progress. I can also see that the 13th was pretty bad. I commend you for bringing it back to where it can be played. I think that the 13th was in a condition far worse than what we see now. If I was you I would have been losing sleep.

I have noticed that for some reason the greens are very firm. I keep looking for a ball mark and can't find one. The fairways seem to be firm and when I take a divot there isn't much to replace. Now this may be what we should expect this year due to what you have told us about cutting back on fertilizer, or maybe because of colder than usual temperatures or maybe because of a late Spring. I have no idea. I have also heard some of the members discussing this phenonenon. If I am seeing this and I am hearing folks speak to it then I have a suggestion. Could you please take some time and speak to this on your web page and educate the membership. You are telling us a lot on the web but I would urge you to discuss this topic. I know that you have a game plan pertaining to the greens and fairways and I suspect that you have benchmark dates as to when you expect to see changes depending upon the weather. Please let me know what you think.

Enjoy your day

For the most part Peter answered his own questions in regards to the firmness of the golf course. The bottom line is the weather has a greater effect on the playing conditions than anything else. We have measured about ½" of rain in the last 14 days. It has been very windy and also humidity levels have been low. This all adds up to firm, dry conditions. During this time I watered the greens once, with a possible syringe cycle or two mixed in. I have yet to water fairways or even considered watering fairways. The reason? During the spring when soil temperatures are low we are trying as hard as possible to develop a strong root system. When we can get away with it we try and force the plant to search for its water by extending its roots downward. If we were to apply water this early in the season the plant becomes "lazy". I really don't want any lazy plants lying around when the heat of summer arrives. Once humidity arrives and soil temperatures increase we will most likely enter into a regular watering pattern. The greens will soften some, but I hope to maintain a firmer surface than we have had in the past.

The second part Peter touched upon was the idea of cutting back on inputs (fertilizer, plant protectants and water). It is no secret that we are all under the gun when it comes to maintaining a budget. My job is not only to provide good conditions, but also to do it within the confines of a specific budget. The money I work with now doesn't go nearly as far as it did 5 years ago. Fertilizers themselves have increased in cost by at least 30% or more. We used to apply as many as 4 fertilizer applications to fairways in a single year (spring, 2 summer and one dormant). We are now down to just two. This is a good thing. We are saving money, the fairways are firmer and the ball rolls further, however they are not as green, lush or pretty. We also plan to continue to cut back on water usage. It is better for the environment and the plant is still getting the essentials that it needs. The following paragraph is from Golf Digest and sums it up perfectly.

"Experts tell us a smart first step for any golf course is to cut back on water usage. Drier turf is usually healthier, less susceptible to diseases and provides more roll to tee shots and smoother surfaces for putting. Less water means lower electric bills for high-volume pumps and less fuel for mowers used less often. Granted, the shade of turfgrass might be less intense." GolfDigest May 2008

GolfDigest Article

"As water becomes scarcer, as organic-management practices increase, as environmentalism and environmental legislation start to bite more than they have, as the economy struggles, and as we come to appreciate the aesthetics of golf courses in all their many natural, beautiful hues, the way the game looks will change. And the way it plays will change too, with firmer and faster turf demanding a return to shotmaking, creativity, the bump-and-run. It's starting to happen already: The hot courses are not dutiful apostles of Augusta; they are unique, wild and woolly-looking layouts like Bandon Dunes, Sand Hills, Chambers Bay. Americans increasingly love to visit the rugged, natural links of the British Isles, where the game began. That's where we're headed: back to the future." GolfDigest May 2008 "How Green is Golf"

The bottom line we are doing the best we can within our means. As I told Mr. Blake the golf season is a marathon and not a sprint. I prefer to focus on the whole race and not just the start. As always questions and comments can be sent to me at jstackwcc@netzero.net.

June 2nd, 2008

Well we are finally up to an 18 hole golf course again. I appreciate everyone's patience in getting the course back to this point. I tried to communicate through this forum as much as possible about the status of our greens. I think it helped everyone stay informed and lowered the number of questions I needed to answer. We still have some filling in to do on some of these greens, but I'm confident that we can still go forward with these greens while handling play. We will continue to scratch in some seed and topdress these greens when needed. Overall considering the winter and the amount of ice present on the course I'm not that dissapointed with how we came through. I am a little dissapointed with the spring and cold weather, I think that contributed to a slower than expected recovery.

We will be finishing up our bunker work this week. June and her crew do a great job on the bunkers, they know exactly what I want when it comes to bunker maintenance. It really sharpens the overall look of the golf hole. We have some more cart path work to finish up around 4,5,6 and 7. After this we hope to begin some work on the upper 7th tee. I'd like to have this done by the end of the month.

13th Green in April

13th in early April - Severely damaged

13th Green with the Pin in.

May 29th, 2008

We have started to work on edging, weeding bunkers and checking sand depths. This takes us roughly two weeks to do all the bunkers working around our other duties. In fact we probably spend more man hours on bunker maintenace than anything other than greens. We repeat this process 2 more times during the summer. Bunkers are probably one of the biggest complaints of golfers. "They are either too firm, too soft, the sand is no good, the lip is too high etc." Rest assured we spend a great deal of time trying to perfect the bunkers for you eventhough they are a hazard. If your bunker play is suffering we have built a nice practice bunker down by the second tee where you can practice or even take a lesson from James Underdown.

The 13th green will open for this weekend. This took way longer than I expected, mostly due to the slow growth rate this cold May. In fact as I write this there is a scattered frost on the course this morning and our second one this week. The 13th is still very thin, and will be a little bumpy until we get it to heal in completely.

3rd Bunker Before

3rd Bunker After

Weed wacker on the bunker face

Practice Bunker

13th green May 28th

May 27th, 2008

Memorial day already, and so it begins. We groomed, spiked and topdressed greens this morning. This is something that in the last few years I have gotten away from, but I am making it a regular part of our maintenance schedule this year. The grooming is a light verticutting that does a good job cutting runners, standing up the turf and also promoting speed. The spiking keeps the surface open allowing postive air/gas exchange. The light frequent topdressing is a good way to promote smoothness, filling in imperfections, improving ball roll and dilluting thatch.

Light Topdress on the 3rd, with one pass swept in.

Drag Brush

May 23rd, 2008

Here is a picture of the 15th green from the rear. If you look close enough you can see a purpulish/ brownish color to it. Many of our greens have this color, especially in the spring and fall. Some would say it is a leafspot, others have called it a phosphorous defeciency, however this is really a response from our greens to the cold weather we have experienced. The older bents in our greens respond to the cold weather by turning a dark shade of purple. I love to see this in the fall when growth has stopped and greens are preparing for the winter, but I'm not so fond of it in the spring when we are trying to even out the growth of the different grasses and fill in any left over winter damage. By far one of the slowest months of growth for a May I can remember. The 13th is really starting to fill in, we topdressed it again this week and it is getting stronger. It will be open very soon, I want to thank the membership for your understanding. It has been a few years since we have had to deal with winter damage, and this has been a challenging spring to grow grass.

15th Green May 23rd

May 22nd, 2008

Our tournament season is underway. The following are a few pictures of us getting the course ready for a shotgun event. With a good experienced staff we get everything done, even with a 1 hour frost delay.

May 20th 2008

The following is my report to the Board of Directors for the month of May. It quickly touches on all areas of the golf course, what we have done and where we are headed.

Greens Report

May 19, 2008

a) Tees – Have all been aerified, fertilized and overseeded. We try and get this done twice per year. Some of the damaged areas will see more attention (4/5 Tees)

b) Fairways – We have been overseeding any damaged areas, most of this work is done by hand. The drainage lines on #16 are really becoming a major concern of mine. These failing pipes need replacement in order to level off the many sunken areas. We have been applying our early season products that include crabgrass control, wetting agents and poa growth regulation. I will be applying a liquid fertilizer to start, followed by two granular fertilization for the year. That is half of what we used to apply.

c) Greens – Very slow in growth so far. Soil temperatures today are in the high 40’s. The 13^th green under cover was 55 degrees. Significant growth does not occur until temps reach the low 60’s. I am not confident that this green will be ready for this week’s tournaments, however I am happy with the overall seeding and catch. I am confident it is improving and just needs a little more time and weather.

Aerification went very well and the holes are mostly filled in. All greens have been fertilized and overseeded.

d) Bunkers – We have not done a ton of bunker work except for raking 3 times a week. We installed a drain on the left bunker on #8 and it seems to be doing its job. We also sodded some damaged areas from grubs as well as seeded the face of the middle bunker on 18. We will start edging and weeding bunkers next week. Bunker surrounds have been sprayed for crabgrass and also broadleaf/clover weed control.

e) Cart Paths – Paths in general are passable. We resurfaced the paths on 4,5 and 6. We will finish this in the coming weeks. The 7^th path will also get new blue stone up to the tee.

f) Roughs – The rough is about the only consistent early season grower. We have been spot treating weeds and crabgrass in the rough.

g) Staff – My college help is in. We are at almost peak staff. I have two new staff members, the rest are all veterans.

h) Green Cmt – We have held one on course meeting and we will continue with this throughout the summer months. We have been revisiting the tree issues that we have discussed at the board level and a recommendation will be forthcoming. We have also discussed land usage for the area adjacent (right of) to the 7^th and 8^th holes.

i) Irrigation – The system is in good running order. The new hydro tank is doing its job and I have rebuilt the pressure relief valve and it is doing its job for the first time in years. (I don’t think it ever worked) I did have a software glich that erased my data, but with our current gsp(global service plan) with Rain Bird this was corrected very quickly.

j) Trees – Please be aware that there are several Blue Spruce and Douglas Firs which are declining. I have some ideas why, but will share when I get conclusive evidence. (Cooley Spruce Gall Adelgid)

Greens Report

May 19, 2008

a) Tees – Have all been aerified, fertilized and overseeded. We try and get this done twice per year. Some of the damaged areas will see more attention (4/5 Tees)

Aerification went very well and the holes are mostly filled in. All greens have been fertilized and overseeded.

e) Cart Paths – Paths in general are passable. We resurfaced the paths on 4,5 and 6. We will finish this in the coming weeks. The 7^th path will also get new blue stone up to the tee.

f) Roughs – The rough is about the only consistent early season grower. We have been spot treating weeds and crabgrass in the rough.

g) Staff – My college help is in. We are at almost peak staff. I have two new staff members, the rest are all veterans.

13th in Mid April

13th Green on May 20th: Pretty good coverage

49.9 Soil Temps on May19th

May 19th, 2008

If you haven't noticed we have been having some issues with the website. After spending some time on it this weekend I think I have it running again and back at its original wahconahcountryclub.com location.

The golf course is improving daily. It has been a somewhat slow spring as far as growth goes. The 16th green is open, yet still sparse. The 13th green is still further away. I'm fairly happy with the seeding and the catch, but the growth rate has been slow. They all have been heavily fertilized, yet it hasn't really done much yet. Both these greens have seen multiple light topdressings of sand, and will continue to see more. In the meantime we have been workin on a few other areas of the course. We aerified tees last week. This includes a light overseeding and some fertilization. We have been spraying the course with our crabgrass prevention. We don't spray everything, but rely on spraying the susceptable areas and the areas we have seen crabgrass before. This includes bunker banks and the lawns around the clubhouse. We have also been spraying the rough for weeds. Last week I sprayed about 10.5 acres of rough. This again should be considered spot treatment, as we maintain about 50-60 acres of rough. We have also done some cart path work on hole 4,5 and 6. I'll be ordering more material to finish up these locations in the near future.

We held our first on course Green Cmt. meeting this past Monday. It is always good to get these folks out on the course and looking at different things. These are the people that give me the permission to carry out certain actions, for instance the removal of certain dead, diseased or dying trees. We talk about everything when we visit the course, including drainage issues, tree issues, future tree plantings and bunker rebuilds. We also look at our tees, their placement, possible expansion and potential rebuilds.

Pear Tree #8

Crab #3

Shadblow #13

May 8th, 2008

With greens aerification behind us, we turn our attention to other details. Since we still are not really growing that much we have some time between mow days in order to fix up a few bad area. In particular was the left bunker on the 8th hole. Ever since the flooding of 2003 and also the fall of 2005 this bunker has held more and more water. I'm not sure if it is from silt accumulation sealing it off or what, but we finally had a day to address the issue. I knew there was a drain line that ran close by, so all we wanted to do was run some drainage from the bunker into the nearby drain. We installed drain tile, stone and ran into the existing nearby line. Within minutes the bunker drained.

8th bunker drain tile

8th Bunker with drain installed

May 6th, 2008

We aerified half the greens yesterday and we will do the other half today. It works well for us to split the process into two days. I remember in years past we tried to get it all done in one day, which was ok, but after working 12 - 14 hours on it, usually a mistake would be made. Guys would get tired or rush at the end and something would happen. This way we all stay fresh and focused on what we are doing. Here are a few pics.

May 6th, 2008

May 2nd, 2008

We were able to get a light verticutting on greens yesterday. I mention light, because our verticut units are very old, and really not the ideal setup I'm looking for, however you make due with what you have. I would prefer a much deeper cut, that digs in and pulls out truckloads of thatch. Just getting some thatch out and cutting some runners is a good thing. We also aerified the Practice green and the nursery green. Doing this a few days early allows us to get two greens out of the way and also makes sure all of our equipment is working properly as we head into Monday and Tuesday. If it rains any of those days you can expect that aerification will also include Wednesday.

Today we will be putting out an acidic based fertilizer. This is one of my favorite products that helps aid in a quick recovery from aerification. The acidic base also helps lower soil ph's and is good for some patch type disease suppression. Even though it is lightly raining we will still be running the irrigation to water the product in. This happens a lot. We put out several different products that need to be watered in, so if you see the irrigation running while it is raining out, there is almost always a very good reason.

We removed the covers on 13 and 16 to mow and fertilize those greens. 16 is getting very close, I would say within a week. The covers will go back on for the weekend and we will check them again in a few days.

May 2nd, 2008

Verticutting the 7th

May 1st, 2008

Good heavy frost this morning. This is one of the reasons we keep later tee times in the spring. Yesterday we repaired the exit point for the clubhouse roof drain. It was severly compromised by the nearby tree roots. We are also going to be doing some verticutting on greens today. It will be good to get some thatch out, couple this with next weeks aerification and topdressing and we will put a good dent in our thatch layer. Tomorrow we will be fertlizing greens in preperation for next week. Hopefully we begin growing sometime soon. We usually come in one day and things just sort of blow up. All of sudden greens and fairways are jumping, we just haven't reached that point yet. The rain this week was nice, as the greens have been recovering nicely. 13 and 16 have a lot going for them now, it is just a matter of getting them to fill in enough to handle traffic.

May 1st, 2008

Tree Roots Breaking the Pipe

Roof Drain into Lower Lot

Heavy Frost

April 29th, 2008

I want to share a link with everyone that takes you to our associations monthly newsletter. There is an excellent article about the Essex County Club and the work they have conducted to get ready for the 2010 Curtis Cup. Included in that work is the removal of some 600 trees, the pictures of the famous 11th hole are stunning.

http://www.gcsane.org/golf/images/newsletter/2008NL/gcsane-newsletter-apr08.pdf

April 28th, 2008

The rain has finally come. After two plus weeks of dry summer like weather, the rain has come. We were able to get out early this morning and mow the entire course. It is pretty miserable sitting on a mower in 40 degree, rainy weather, but we like to get the course mowed before the ground gets too saturated. With the rain things are already starting to perk up. The greens looked much better this morning.

Reminder that next week we will be conducting a standard core aerification on greens. Followed by a heavy topdressing and overseeding the greens will be setup nicely for the year. I have gotten away from a spring aerification in the past few years, after reevaluating my program over the winter I came to some conclusions. One of which is that we need to do as much as possible culturally to promote as strong of a stand of grass as possible. One of the ways to set us up for a good season is to have some solid work done in the spring while the grass is growing its roots. Just look at the spots that didn't succomb to last weeks dry conditions, most of it was in last seasons aerifiction holes. The 13th and 16th greens continue to come along, yet I do not have a date in mind yet to have them open.

April 24th, 2008

Most of the week has been spent getting the irrigation system up and running. After a long day on Monday we got water out to the 13th and 16th greens. By the end of the day Tuesday we had water throughout the entire course and we gave most greens a good drink. Yesterday we fine tuned the stuck heads or problem areas. With a little rain last night and a cooler wetter forecast on the horizon the greens will start to rebound. During periods like this with no water you realize a few things. How much stronger Bent Grass is, how much Poa we actually have and how long grass can actually go without water. I have had a number of comments about the early season conditions and how much fun it is to play with the firm dry ground. It is something I have bee trending towards the last few years and something the industry on a whole as been trending towards. And by the way the 13th and 16th both have germinated seed, so they are headed in the right direction.

Click Here for Latest USGA Report

Watering the snow on 15

A look inside our pumphouse

Slow Play?

April 21st, 2008

Ok where did spring go? We went from winter right in to summer. The course is open and we are off and running into our 78th season of golf at Wahconah. The dry conditions make for some good early season golf, but have us scrambling to get our irrigation system up and running. With our system, that is no easy chore. Once we get the sensitive components installed in the pumphouse, we need to clean out our wet well. After a winter with a lot off rain, the wet well is filled up with silt and debris. The only good way to get it out has been to blow the well out with compressed air. This alone takes about a day. Once this is done we reinstall the pipe into the river and begin to fire up the pump station. The key then is to slowly fill the lines checking for leaks and breaks as we go. Meanwhile some of the weaker poas on the shallow rooted greens have begun to wilt even tough soils that are deeper in the profile are still moist and cool. My theory here is that grass that is going to check out in April is probably grass we don't want on our course in August.

The 13th and 16th greens are coming along. We have seeded these greens twice, using two different methods. With seed in the ground it becomes even more crucial for us to get water to them. Once the water is flying we can force the issue with applying fertilizers etc.

The two pictures below are the methods we use to seed. The first is regular verticut units that we use to chop in the bent grass seed in two directions. The second picture is our Proseeder that spikes seed into tiny holes. I like using two methods of seeding, hoping one of them works really well.

Seeding 16 green With Verticutters

Massey Tractor w/ Proseeder Spike Seeder

April 16th, 2008

With the course opening tomorrow I am posting a few updates on conditions. First as you know 13 and 16 will be temp greens. The 2nd, 3rd and 9th are also thin, but will be playable the other greens are all very good. We have been concentrating on cleaning up this week and we mowed greens yesterday. Most likely we will mow greens again before the weekend. We will also look to mow a few other areas, like tees and fairways. Not that they need it, but it helps clean them up and provide definition. Most likely the bunkers will not be done for this weekend. Several have some washouts, so I would suggest a drop if you end up in one. We will get into the bunkers next week, moving sand around, fixing washouts and getting them playable. Course supplies will also find their way out on the course over the next week, be patient. Carts will be ok for the front nine starting Thursday. The back is a little wet in spots, but we should have it ready for carts by the weekend. We need a day to fix up some of the paths like 14, 16 and 17. The best place to drive carts right now is down the middle of the fairways and on cart paths. Places near the woods, rivers, streams, ponds, out of bounds etc. are the places where you will get stuck. Have fun out there, remember it is early April and things change rapidly when we begin to grow.

Mowing the 11th Green

9th Green April 15th

April 15th, 2008

I have been asked about doing these updates etc. and what it entails. With the new format for the website it is very simple. I have made it a habit of carrying my camera with me at all times. I have missed to many great shots by not having it with me. So in the morning I download my photos, write a 5 minute blurb and post it to the site. The whole thing takes me 5 minutes, spelling mistakes and all.

This morning we have a heavy frost. So the guys are folding the covers and getting them stored away until next fall. The other picture is of the fence on #5/6. Walt and Ed did a nice job here, all it needs is a coat of stain. We will be mowing greens today for the first time. There are a few that need it, but several that don't. We will mow them all anyway to clean them up and smooth them out.

Staying Busy in the Frost

5th and 6th Fence

April 14th, 2008

We finished the bridge last Friday. It took a little longer than expected, mostly because I wouldn't let them work on it if it was raining/ snowing or if the river was real high. With a frost this morning we are getting our equipment organized, range mats out and raking out the parking lot banks. After I get a chance to view the course I'll update you on our plan for opening and what type of conditions you can expect.

Update II: Course Opening

After having a chance to view the course this morning we are gearing up to open on Thursday April 17th. We will have two greens that will be out of play (the 13th and 16th). These two have experienced a fair amount of winter damage. We will be seeding them today. Typically when we have had damage on these greens the recovery has been fairly quick. The 2nd, 3rd and 9th greens have also experienced some damage. These greens will be put into play to start the season. They are not the greatest, but I'm confident that we can have play on them and still recover the damaged areas. If it stays dry we will probably have carts at least on the front.

Finishing Touches on the 2nd Bridge

Last of the Snow April 14th

April 11th, 2008

Yesterday we removed the final impermeable (ice shield) cover from the 15th green. Well not totally, as the left side of the green has a good amount of ice/snow still. We pulled the cover over into the left bunker, exposing 90% of the green. This area is probably the single hardest area to grow turf on the entire course. The green itself drains well, but is very shady. Ice is not a huge concern of mine and this green does not have a significant history of damage, but if the green were to have damage, it would be very difficult to recover. That is why I continue to use the ice sheild in this location. The second bridge will be completed today. We will be coming in Monday looking to get the course ready for late in the week. Hopefully we don't get too much rain and the ground remains firm and the rivers stay within their banks.

15th Green - Only a little snow left (April 10th)

6th Green - View from the 7th mens tee

April 10th, 2008

As you can see in the following pictures we still have some pretty good pockets of snow on the course. The good news is that we really are not dealing with much frost, so the ground is really starting to set up nicely. We will be cleaning off greens today and possibly rolling or mowing them soon. My plan right now is to shoot for an opening later next week. This certainly is weather dependent more than anything.

15th Hole April 9th

5th Hole April 9th

Installing Railings on #2 Bridge

6th Fence Construction

6th Green April 9th

April 9th, 2008

We were able to remove the covers from the 4th and 7th greens yesterday. Those that have been following along know that I have been nervous about these greens and the large amount of ice they had on them all winter. Starting around Dec. 11th until April 7th, these greens were under almost a foot of ice. That's 4 solid months. Dating as far back in club history as I can go, these greens were almost always severally damaged in the Spring. Not only that, but with the limited sun exposure they also usually took until at least Memorial Day or later to recover. The club was at the point of considering rebuilding these greens. When I started as Superintendent I took a chance on using impermeable covers to try and help minimize the damage. I even remember some in the industry telling me it was a bad idea, but I thought since they died every year anyway what risk was I taking? Impermeable covers are basically a large sheet of clear plastic that doesn't allow water to penetrate. In one of the most difficult winter's I have ever experienced the following pictures shows this years results.

Ice shield on #7 in late November

Water flooding #7 green in Jan 08

#7 Green ice - Hammer is 14" long

#7 Green April 8th

4th Green April 8th

Other than some slight snow mold and what looks like some snow scald, both these greens are in good shape. I'm absolutely thrilled. These covers were on for almost 150 days. Why do these covers work so well here? I really think it is the environment we put them in. I know that these green locations stay pretty locked in all winter. There is very little sunlight and thus very little temperature movement under the covers. I would be very hesitant to use this type of cover on say our 13th or 16th greens, since the temperatures here can be so variable. Most people think that all you do is grow poa under the covers. When we pull the covers off the bent grass is significantly further along than the poa. The end result is the club no longer considers rebuilding these Greens, that is about a $100,000 savings.

April 8th, 2008

We are marching on, getting ready for the season. Here a few pics of this mornings action.

Skiing Anyone?

Looking Back To 15th Tee April 8th

6th Fence

2nd Bridge

April 7th, 2008

We are still holding onto some snow and ice in the shady locations. The right of #2, 4th tee, 4th green, 5th tee, 11th tee, 12th hole right side, and 15. I'm assuming that most of it should be gone by the end of the week. I have 5 part time guys in this week and we have started to remove covers, clean up, finish the bridge on #2 and rebuild the fence on #6. As far as an opening I wouldn't expect anything this week, but I would hold out hope for later next week.

4th Hole April 7th

April 3rd, 2008

Here is a link to an article on Tom Toski, former Wahconah golf professional.

Tom-Toski on Masslive.com then click on Toski Still Going Strong at 82.

4th and 5th April 3rd

April 2nd, 2008

We certainly lost a good amount of our snow and ice yesterday. We are down to about 5 greens that are still largely covered, the 4th, 7th, 13th, 15th and 16th. Yesterday's warm weather also perked up several fairways. The golf course looked much better today, but with record cold temps expected tonight things can change in a hurry. The following are pictures I took this morning.

4th Green April 2nd

1st Green April 2nd

April 1st, 2008

Here are a couple of pictures I took this morning of the course as well as a picture of the bridge on #2. Very wet out there, but at least it was above freezing last night. Plenty of snow in some locations.

14th Hole April 1st

15th Hole April 1st

2nd Bridge Construction April 1st

March 28th, 2008

We had a fairly productive week outside. We cleaned up around the clubhouse including in front of the Pro Shop, patio and walkway areas. We have been out on the 7th tee area burning brush and we have also removed a few dead trees or trees that had some winter damage. I removed the enkamat from the second green yesterday. It gives me a chance to evaluate its condition. I then recovered the green with a permeable cover, designed to stimulate some gowth. Next week we will begin the 2nd bridge and course cleanup.

The following link is from Golf Digest. It is an excellent article about how they are evaluating conditioning on courses. It falls very much in line with what I mentioned in my Board Report about managing the golf course for playability and not so much for color.

Golf Digest

The 6th Hole March 27th, 2008

15th March 27th, 2008

March 26th, 2008

The following is my most recent report to the Board. I usually submit a report each month at the meetings.

March 25^th 2008

Green Report

1) Course Conditions –

· We are roughly 50% clear of snow and ice, with only the PG, 2^nd, 3^rd, 5^th, 8^th, 9^th and 18^th greens clear enough to judge their condition.

· I have no idea about the other greens. Way too much snow and ice to have any real clue. Samples I have brought in have behaved well.

· The fairways I have seen look ok with the biggest damage being from gray snow mold. That really is not a concern. We still have some low spots in fairways to thaw before I declare them clean. Our transition from poa to bent in the fairways is paying dividends with a winter such as this. Ten or 15 years ago this place would have been severely damaged.

· We are outside full time- finishing our work on #6 and #7. The wood for the 2^nd bridge has been delivered and we will begin that project shortly. Once the snow is gone I will bring some more help to begin cleanup.

· FYI: Fertilizers have increased in general by 30%. Potash costs have doubled. This with expected fuel costs soaring has made budgeting a nightmare. I have reduced fertilizer inputs to the course by 30% to help make up the difference. I am strongly promoting that we adopt a policy of firmer, drier and somewhat off color conditions. It is one way to ease costs, yet maintain optimum playability.

2) River Bank Project- I have received some updated plans from SK design. The NHESP has signed off on a portion of the project going forward. SK is waiting for our approval of the plans before going forward and applying for a permit. Please advise.

3) I have with me some brochures from Golf Course Architects Scott Witter and Mark Fine. We have had some minor discussions about visiting Wahconah in regards to future consideration of producing a Master Plan. I have talked at length in years past to the Green Cmt. and Board about the importance of producing a Master Plan going forward. The first visit entails a walkthrough and presentation. The cost for such a visit is $1,500.00.

4) Finally I brought with me the recent book on Wayne Stiles. It is very well done and makes a great addition to any library. We are featured on pages 173 –175. Ted Stevens (WCC’s first Superintendent) is mentioned glowingly in the foreword by Geoffrey Cornish. I am acknowledged on page 284. Other courses featured include Taconic, Pittsfield, Cranwell and Pontoosuc.

March 19th, 2008

I'm going to post a few more pictures I took yesterday. Not much to comment on, just updating everyone on the amount of snow still present on the course. The other pictures are of the work we have been doing around the 7th tee. We have been cutting the underbrush in this area. It really provides a neater, cleaner apperance. You can also catch a look at players on the 4th, 5th and 6th holes from the 7th tee. This will also allow a little more wind and sun to circulate in this area. The back of the 7th tee is buried in the shade, and we have had some disease pressure in this spot, so any increase in sun and wind will help. We have also cleared enough to properly build a second upper tee. It will be a little further back and to the right of the current tee. We build these tees to add interest, keep our entire course yardage elastic and increase our usuable tee space for the entire membership.

14th March 18th

5th hole March 18th

7th Tee December 2007

7th Tee on March 18, 2008

7th Tee march 18th

This picture taken from the the 7th tee area gives you a good indication of the location where we will build the new upper tee. from this spot you get a great view of the fairway. For those that remember the old three level tee that was here, this is about where that back level used to be.

The next picture is a quick blurb on the first hole in one in Wahconah history. Henry found this in the clubhouse and I thought it was pretty cool. Dorothy Cambell Hurd is a member of the Canadian and World Golf Hall of Fames. She won numerous amateur competitions including the US womens Am and British ladies titles.

1932 Bruce Crane Hole in One

March 18th, 2008

So far only a few greens have melted down enough so that I have been able to get a good read on the condition of them. The 3rd, 5th, 8th and 9th greens all look good. No greens on the back nine have been exposed. This time of year is truly like Christmas for Golf Course Superintendents. Each day that a green becomes exposed is like opening a new present, you just hope you get what you wish for.

Here is a picture from the back of the 9th green taken yesterday. The black enkamat does a great job this time of year melting the ice and snow. After today this green will be completely clear. The 3rd, 5th and 8th greens look about like this. For those interested look at the picture of the 9th green that is hanging in the clubhouse. It's the one from 1959 with the Toski brothers. They are playing a late spring match and the 9th green is pretty much dead, so I'm always grateful when this green looks good in the spring.

These two pictures are of the 2nd green. I decided it was time to help the melting process on this green so I removed the snow yesterday. The snow here was about a foot deep. The ice layer in the middle of the green is about 6" thick and about 1" thick along the edges. Normally I would let nature takes its course and let this green melt down by itself. However of all the greens I have been checking, this one did give a hint of starting to be anerobic, meaning there is a buildup of gasses under the ice. Again the dark nature of the enkamat will help grab the sunlight and speed up the melting. I hope that with today's sun and some rain later we get a good chunk of this ice sheet melted.

March 17th, 2008

Just another quick update. It looks like another slow week of melting. Some sun early this week followed by some storminess later. I'm going to attempt to remove ice and snow this week, starting with the 2nd green. I brought a sample from #2 in late last week, and it responded and grew, however when I removed the sample there was the definite smell of an anerobic condition. Not overpowering, but enough to tell me that we need to get some oxygen to the plant. The hard part is the snow is like concrete, hopefully it will soften enough to move it.

Here is a picture I took on Friday of the 8th approach. The thing I want to point out is the evidence of grey snow mold. We spray fairways in the fall for pink and grey snow mold. Pink is more devestating than grey. The grey in this picture will quickly grow out of this condition in the early spring. This year I used a very cheap method of control only using one product. My reason was I already had budget concerns and needed to be conservative. As a result we certainly had some breakthrough of some grey snowmold. Last year I used two products in combination that was more expensive (about $1,500 more) and had very little disease at all. It goes to show you that you get what you pay for. Don't worry about the disease lesson, that is not the point. Like I mentioned the snow mold will quickly dissapear. The point is that I am looking at ways to maintain a budget and keep course conditions from slipping. This will be by far my biggest challenge for the next few years.

March 14th, 2008

I was able to tour a little more of the golf course yesterday. My first stop was the first green. I was looking to take a sample, but when I started to dig this is what I encountered.

There was no ice. I was a little surprised, so I dug two other holes and found only a very minimal amount of ice. I think what happens is the deep snow pack is such a good insulator, that it tends to draw the ice out. That's the good news. My next visit was to the 7th green.

This picture shows an ice layer over the 7th green that has to be at least 12" thick. It took me a good twenty minutes to chip my way down to the cover. From what I can tell there isn't any ice under the cover. Other than that I can't really tell anything. We may try and melt some of the ice next week if we get some sun.

The rest of my tour included samples I took in from the 16th and 10th greens. They have also responded well. The ice on these greens was around an 1" thick, but it was cloudy and brittle and pretty much detached itself from the plant very quickly. I'm still a little nervous, and I would very much like to see some signifciant melting. I'll check in again next week if I find out anything more.

3rd Green March 14th, 2008

March 13th, 2008

We have brought some more turf samples in this week from the 9th and 18th greens. They have both responded favorably, but don't look as good as the ones I brought in during February. The 9th green is almost clear of ice and snow. I would suspect with some sunshine the next few days it should be close to clear. The 3rd and 5th greens are starting to show some turf as well. I'll be trying to get some more samples in today from some other locations, maybe 1,2 and 10. The ice layer is really thick, but mostly cloudy and brittle. This tells me that there are some pretty good air pockets in the ice and that has allowed for some gas exchange to take place. The bottom line is now is the most critcle time. The plants are at their weakest stage of the winter, meaning by now they have lost most of their winter hardiness. The freezing and thawing of March is often the time when damage can occur. As the plants come out of dormancy they begin to take in water, which can then quickly freeze at night causing the cell walls to rupture.

Next week we hope to begin replanking the bridge on #2. I'll post pictures as we go along. Most of our shop work is complete. We are down to staining benches and refurbishing ball washers. In the afternoons we have been outside cutting and burning brush. Its getting close.

March 11th, 2008

This is a link to an article from Brad Klein on the eight signs of a dysfunctional club. The key points for me are the over watering of courses and the abundance of course accesories/ yardage markers and colored flags etc. Anyway a quick and entertaining read.

http://newenglandgreenkeeper.com/Documents/Brad%20Klein%208%20signs%20of%20disfunctional%20club.PDF

March 9th, 2008

Another interesting link from the MGA site. This is a blog from the executive director. This link refers to his thoughts on the yearly regional turf conference held in Providence. It is a fine explanation of the event. With my injury it was the first conference I missed in over 12 years.

http://massachusettsgolfassociation.blogspot.com/2008/03/visit-to-ne-regional-turfgrass.html

March 8th, 2008

The following link leads to a discussion on the golf courses of Wayne Stiles; of which Wahconah is one. This discussion group is made up of some of the most knowledgable and influential people in golf. Read about half way down, there is some nice mention of Wahconah and its place among Stiles' courses.

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,33618.0.html

The book on Wayne Stiles can be purchased here.

http://www.waynestilessociety.com/book

March 4th, 2008

Here is another timely update from the USGA explaining in great detail the current weather situation and its effect on the golf course. Even with the large amount of snowfall, the rain and ice has been persistent all winter.
An Icy Situation

By Jim Skorulski, Senior Agronomist
February 25, 2008

I write this update with growing trepidation as the winter months unfold. We should have sensed this winter was going to be different when early snow storms impacted fall fungicide programs and other winter preparation work farther north. Golf courses throughout the region have since been slammed with snow, widely fluctuating temperatures, heavy rains, ice storms, wind, and even unseasonably warm temperatures farther south. Several inches of rain saturated much of the region in the last week alone.

Fast moving weather systems and coastal storms have created weather extremes around the region. Wet snow, slush and rain following last week’s storm created a particularly dangerous situation for annual bluegrass.
The reports from the field thus far have generally been positive, but the phone calls and inquiries increase as more recent rain has washed away the snow and left behind ice pockets or saturated surfaces. The impact of a thaw or rain event on the turfgrass depends on interactions between temperature, rainfall, and snow depth. Winter protection covers also can influence the impact of warm temperatures and rain. The weather conditions immediately following the period of thaw are most important with regards to turfgrass survival. A rapid temperature drop into the teens or single digits usually spells trouble. Those fortunate enough to be located where the snow and ice layers completely melt are probably ok as long as the surfaces are able to dry prior to very cold temperatures. Golf courses where the snow pack is deeper and better able to absorb the rain and buffer the warmer temperatures usually survive a thawing period as well. Those located somewhere in between, where there is an incomplete snow or ice melt, have the most to worry about and turf survival at those locations often depends on the severity of temperatures immediately following the melting process. Fortunately, the temperatures immediately following the thaw and rain events fell to just below freezing in more exposed areas and we can only hope they were not lethal. It would be a good idea at this point to pull a plug or two from a susceptible green if you have any worries.

There is plenty of winter left so questions and difficult management decisions will likely arise. Hopefully, the weather patterns will become more consistent with near normal temperatures and some timely snowfall. Keep a few basic winter survival skills in mind as we move to the last half of winter.

The first and perhaps most important is to try to maintain open paths for drainage on greens. This is especially important prior to warmer weather or rain events.
Ice sheets that have been in place for over thirty to forty days on heavy soil greens or above covered greens now warrant frequent monitoring, to make sure the turf canopy is not becoming anoxic.
Removing snow and ice and exposing turf in mid winter can be risky and should only be done if a problem is anticipated and the immediate weather forecast is favorable to accelerate melting.
The objective should continue to be to maintain consistent canopy temperatures close to the freezing mark, and to keep the surfaces from becoming saturated. How you succeed in this effort will have a big impact on turf performance in the spring.
The warmer weather and open conditions are always inviting to golfers to look those conditions as a bonus to the normal golfing season. Unfortunately, allowing traffic on partially thawed or wet greens in winter is a recipe for problems both above and below the surface. Often those problems will not be immediately noticeable but can come back to haunt the golf course later in the summer season. We realize the temptation to play the regular greens is great, so if you are going to do so, leave the decision as to when the greens are to be open to the professional you have entrusted to make decisions that are best for the long term maintenance and conditioning of the golf course!

Upcoming Events:

USGA Regional Meeting at the New England Regional Turfgrass Conference and Show in Providence, RI on March 4;

Topics ranging from golf course economics and equipment financing, renovation projects, digital photography, communication, the rules of golf, and more will be covered.

USGA Regional Meeting at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, NY on March 13

The NYSTA Adirondack Regional Meeting at Lake Placid Resort in Lake Placid, NY on March 25

MGA/USGA Green Chairman Education Seminar at Wheatly Hills Country Club in East Williston, NY on March 27

Northeast Region Green Section- Dave Oatis, Director doatis@usga.org; Jim Skorulski, Senior Agronomist jskorulski@usga.org

March 3rd, 2008

This is just something to pass the time. Try it out. It is a little grass humor from my side of things.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1435509758

If you enjoy this, then there are several at this site. Look for the Randy Wilson ones.

http://www.turfnet.com/tv_fun.php

February 23rd, 2008

With the recent snowfall it seems as if spring is as far off as ever. I thought I would write a different update this time. Including myself we have 5 full time employees in the Greens Department. I'd like to quickly introduce these people to you.

Mark Reardon is a long time employee here at Wahconah. Serving well over twenty years, Mark is in charge of our equipment fleet. He does an outstanding job keeping our aging fleet running strong each year. In his spare time Mark is a talented musician who plays guitar in three different bands. Mark is married with two children.

Jay Meehan has been the Assistant here at Wahconah for 9 seasons. He has a turf certificate from Umass/ Stockbridge. He interupted this tenure at Wahconah to serve as the Superintendent at North Adams Country Club for a season before I was able to beg him to come back. His duties include the handling of our crew and their daily assignments. In his spare time Jay is a football official at both the college and high school levels. He also does games for the Arena league. In the winter he is the Boys Basketball coach at Mt. Greylock. Jay is married and has two children.

June Blake has been with us for three seasons as a full time employee. Previous to this she worked for us during her high school and college days. June graduated from Western New England College with a degree in Business. Her primary duties include employee training, fertilizer applications, bunker maintenance and special projects. She is very talented and experienced in all facets of golf course maintenance. In her spare time she is the JV girls Basketball coach at Wahconah and the JV girls Softball coach at Mt. Greylock.

Mark Kaley is starting his second year with us. His primary jobs include course setup, cart maintenace and fertilizer applications. Mark has a degree from MCLA and also recently completed the 8 week turf certificate program at Umass/Stockbridge. In his spare time Mark officiates high school soccer and softball. He also is a long time assistant to the Wahconah girls basketball team. Mark is married with a young son.

Myself? Well I'm starting my 15th year at Wahconah and this is my 10th as the Superintendent. I have a Bachelors degree from Johnson State in Vermont and a turf certificate from Umass/ Stockbridge. I coached high school basketball for 7 years giving it up when my daughter was born. My wife and I have been married for fourteen years and live in Worthington. In my spare time I enjoy riding my snowmobile, playing golf and hanging out with my family and friends. I'm currently recovering from a ruptured achilles tendon that has me laid up for the next few weeks and writing updates from home.

February 8th, 2008

As I mentioned below I took some samples in from the golf course earlier this week. The samples were from the non covered first green and the enkamat covered ninth green. The reason I take samples in is too determine the overall health as they are exposed to growing temperatures. The ice buildup has pretty much been in place since mid December. The samples I pulled in had about 1/2" of clear ice on them. The first thing I noticed is that the samples smelled healthy. There was no sign of any gas buildup at this point. Once the samples melted down they began to grow. So at this point we are still good. From here on out remains to be seen. The heavy rain this month has only added to the ice buildup. After this week we will have several inches of ice on greens and fairway low spots to deal with. I will continue to monitor samples throughout the rest of the winter and put a good deal of faith in the covering strategies that we use.

This is the ice encased sample from the 9th green

Here it is a day later. After this it began to grow.

This is where I removed a sample from the 1st green. There was about a 1/2" of ice, but there was also about 3" of water sitting on top of it. This will freeze increasing the ice layer significantly.

Here I am standing behind the left green side bunker on #7. The 8th tee is in the top left of the picture. The bunker has filled with water and it is traveling across the middle of the 7th green and exiting the front right of the green. As far as I can tell it looks like the water and ice accumulation is on top of our impermeable cover and not under it. Situations like this are what make our jobs very interesting this time of the year heading into the spring. We are not always sure what the outcome of something like this will be.

February 5th, 2008

Here are a couple of photos from our shop. The first picture is of a freshly reconditioned set of reels ready to get put back on a machine. We tear down, sharpen all the reels and bednives on each mower. We also replace bearings in the reels and rollers of each unit. The second picture is of a few machines pulled up getting their winter service work done. They all get the proper oil changes, fuel filters, hydraulic oil filters and lubrication etc. Any problem areas from last summer are also revisited. While this program takes us a good chunk of our winter time it ensures that we have reliable equipment each and every day all summer. We really can't afford any significant down time on equipment in the summer. This program also allows us to get maximum life out of our equipment. We are not the type of club that invests hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment, but does just enough to get by. Most of our fleet of machines rate from a couple of years old to 15 to 20 years old. I have just started my 15th season here at Wahconah and I'm starting to think about turning over pieces of equipment that were purchased when I first arrived. I'll have another update ready later in the week on the current weather conditions and its effect on the turf. I brought a few samples in and I'm waiting to see how they respond.

January 25th, 2008

I received this question the other day and thought I would share it here.

Jeremy,

Thanks for keeping the membership posted on the condition of the course and all of the great work your team does. It helps me to appreciate even more everything that goes on behind the scenes to keep our course in such fine shape.

Since you're soliciting questions, I have a general one. Perhaps you could expand our knowledge of turf grass. What types of grasses do we have on greens, tees, fairways, rough, etc.? What are their qualities? What makes them suitable for our course? How do they handle the heat and cold? How do they compare with other local courses, or even other parts of the country? Do we "grow our own", or do we get sod or seed from outside sources? What can we golfers do to help maintain high-quality tees, greens, fairways, etc.? I'd appreciate your thoughts these or anything else.

Thanks.

Ralph Nightingale

This question at first glance seems very simple and harmless, but it actually is the type of question that opens a whole can of worms. I’ll start simple; we are predominantly made up of a combination of grasses. Greens are mostly creeping bent grass and poa annua. Of these there are several different mutations and varities that exist, our greens contain several varieties. Remember each superintendent probably at one time tried to establish some new varieties. The Fairways are now mostly Bent grass and Poa, however there still exists some pockets of Rye, Blue and even fescues. The tees are Bent, Poa, Rye and Fescue. Our rough again has some areas of fescue, Bluegrass and way too much Bent grass. In general our grasses are very close to other older courses in the northern US.

Greens

According to records I have the front nine greens were planted with 75#’s per acre of Bent grass. Early records indicate a high percentage of velvet bent grass. The back nine greens were planted by stolons with Arlington and Congressional bent. There may be a few patches of velvet bent left in the greens, but for the most part they have given way to verities of creeping bent, perennial poa and poa annua. The desired species would be the creeping bent. It is more disease, heat and stress tolerant than poa. Poa is not a bad surface and some of the perennial poa’s we have in some of our greens are outstanding. They handle traffic well, they like to be cut short and they are very dense. These are the grasses that don’t really seed like the annual types of Poa. They also seem to handle the ice better. A good percentage of our greens are made up of poa annua. This requires more fungicide, fertility, and water to promote a good surface. They also are not very winter hardy. When we lose grass due to ice, it is usually the poa annua. The one advantage that poa annua has is that it is a prolific seed producer. Our soils have a huge amount of poa seeds ready to sprout new plants. One tool we just started to use is a product called Chipco Proxy, when timed right we can seriously reduce the amount of seeds produced by the plant. When we overseed greens we use a special blend of bentgrass that closely matches the older south german bents in our greens. Here is the list Alister colonial bent, Greenwich Velvet bent, Imperial creeping, Putter creeping and Southshore creeping. We mow greens at less than 1/8” most of the year. Greens are mown 7-10 times a week.

Fairways

I would call our fairways mostly creeping bentgrass with pockets of poa annua, ryegrass, and even some blue and fescues. This is one area I have been concentrating on since I started here. Ten years ago the fairways were predominantly poa. Too much water, and too much fertility led too higher percentages of poa. We have been collecting clippings, reducing water and fertility allowing the bents to take over. Fairway slicing (which wasn’t well received) reduced thatch levels as well as stimulated bent grass growth and expansion. The drier and hungrier we can keep our fairways the more bent grass we will have. We have also begun to use products that inhibit poa growth allowing the bent grass to seize control. When I overseed fairways, I usually purchase whatever bent grass I can get cheap. If we sod, I try and steal sod from our nursery area, which matches our fairways very closely. Fairways are mown at 6/10”. We have been below ½” before, but the membership seems to enjoy a slightly higher cut and the grasses in our fairways seem to respond to this height better. Fairways are mown 3 to 4 times per week.

Tees

The tees contain all the above-mentioned grasses. We are a golf course that sees its fair share of play. I usually try and grow grass on tees as fast as possible in order to keep as much coverage as possible. They receive higher concentrations of fertility in order to fill in the high amount of traffic they see. We also use a three-way combination in our divot mix. It contains creeping bent, chewings fescue and rye grass. Rye grass is extremely quick to germinate, but isn’t as strong and hardy as the Bent or fescues in the long run. Tees are mown at ½”. Tees are mown 3-4 times per week.

Roughs

The thing we need to remember here is that our fairways used to be 40 to 50 yards wide. Once irrigation and tree planting came into vogue the fairways began to shrink to half their original size. The roughs are pretty much a higher cut of our fairway grasses. For example some of the tougher rough is to the right of #3 to the right of #8 and to the right of #12. That is mostly bent grass at 2 inches. Nasty stuff. If I had my way, we would look into over-seeding some more suitable and desirable grasses in these areas, while trying to remove as much of the undesirable grasses as possible. The cool thing about our rough is that we can very quickly alter our fairways and collars to any dimension we like by mowing down our existing rough to fairway height. I used to mow rough at 2.5” when we had pull gang units, we have since lowered this height to 1 ¾” around greens and 2” with the main rough. I normally don’t alter this height all season. Sometimes the rough is more actively growing dependent on temperature, moisture and fertility levels. Rough is mown 5 days a week and it usually can be done a total of twice per week.

What Can Golfers Do?

I guess the only thing I can offer here is for the golfer to respect the playing field. Remember that this is a dynamic living breathing organism. It is not always going to be perfect. Also remember that it is necessary for the maintenance staff to conduct regular aerification, slicing and overseedings etc. in order to nurture these grasses to full health. Trust me, we are not trying to ruin anybody’s round of golf; we are only trying to cultivate a better playing surface.

January 18th, 2008

Here is a picture I took late last week of the 7th green from the rear. You can make out the collection of ice that has accumulated on the front of the green. The ice ranges close to 6 inches thick. Notice the shadows that are very prevelant on the green even during midday. This was about how far we melted down last week, while I noticed several other area courses lost all of their ice and snow. The microclimate we experience here at Wahconah is an entirely different animal.

This is a picture looking over to the 2nd green. Only the high mounds were starting to show grass, while the green itself remained locked in.

January 9th, 2008

This is from the USGA green section website. They do a pretty good job of giving regional updates that are usually updated once a month. Here is the latest update with information on the current conditions we are experiencing. Needless to say I'm very concerned about the current ice situation.

Climate Change Or Just Another Weird Year?

By David A. Oatis, Director
January 8, 2008

Prior to Christmas, winter storms produced a blanket of ice in some areas of the region and had superintendents worried. In fact, the duration of ice cover prompted some to remove or consider removal techniques in hopes of avoiding turf injury. With current temperatures nearing the 60° F mark in some areas, it is hard to believe winter weather is much of an issue in the Northeast. However, wide fluctuations in temperatures can wreak havoc with the turf. Annual bluegrass that is subjected to 45-50° temperatures, combined with free moisture for 2-3 days, can lose 50% of its winter hardening, and this can leave it vulnerable to direct low temperature kill, desiccation, and crown hydration injury. One sharp drop in temperature (or multiple less-severe drops) can kill it. Unfortunately, there is little turf managers can do to help the situation at this point. Winter injury can be very frustrating and perplexing for turf managers and golfers alike. Lots of second guessing usually follows the occurrence of winter injury.

Some of the most common questions are:

Could it have been prevented?
Was it something the superintendent did?
Why was the course across the street spared?
What can we do differently next time?

The truth is, there are times when there just isn’t a solution. If the weather is bad enough, damage will occur regardless of what the turf manager does or doesn’t do. There are times when removing layers of snow and ice help prevent or promote damage. There also are times when removal can exacerbate the damage. Perhaps the most confusing aspect of winter injury is that it is very difficult to tell when the damage actually occurred. It is not uncommon to have turf that is severely damaged early in the winter appear normal as the thaw occurs (frozen plants don’t decompose quickly), only to quickly decline following the spring melt. Removing plugs of turf from the greens on a regular basis throughout the winter and incubating them (bringing them indoors to start growing) can help to identify if and when damage has occurred. It is a fair amount of work to remove plugs from frozen ground, and space is needed to incubate them. More importantly, a nursery is needed to replace them in the spring. However, doing so can help answer some questions in the spring if your greens have sustained damage.

January 2nd, 2008

I'm looking for ideas for the next few months in regards to what some of you might like to see posted in this space. If you have ever had a question in regards to the care of the golf course now is a good time to ask it. Check my e-mail address on the bottom of this page and ask away. I'll answer all questions either privately or in this space. If your question is posted in this space I'll pass along a used Wahconah Flag for your trouble.

December 14th,2007

I have been often asked how we get ice on the greens. This past weeks weather is an excellent example. We had about 3-4" of snow on the ground, followed by above freezing temps and some rain. The rain saturates the snow, but can't actually soak into the frozen ground. This mixture quickly refreezes and we are left with a pretty good early ice layer. The hope is that there is enough air pockets in the ice or cloudy versus black clear ice.

Here is a picutre of the ice buildup on the 9th green. You can see a small piece of the black enkamat showing through. Not a very good sign this early in the winter, and not much we can do about it at this time. I will monitor the depths for the next few weeks.

Snow removal in the parking lot. I posted this because not everyone knows we take take care of these duties as well. A storm like this last one (9") took two employees about 6 hours to get the area clean.

I also wanted to thank all those that visit this page. It has consistently been the most visited page on our web site by a large margin.

December 6th, 2007

Just thought I would post a few pics of the ice shields on the 4th and 7th holes (we also use one on the 15th). These were taken just prior to the recent snowfall. These type of non breathable covers seem to work well in these locations as they see very little sunlight during the winter months. Usually once snow and ice accumulate in these locations they stay that way until the spring. They have worked well for us for the last 8 years or so. I would be hesitant to use these type of covers where sunlight could really fluctuate the temperatures under the covers. In these locations temperatures seem to stay fairly steady.

November 30th,2007

We have finished covering the greens. The 2nd,3rd,5th,6th,9th,10th,14th and16th all are covered with enkamat. The 4th,7th and 15th are covered with ice shields. We put a regular cover on the 13th to help give that green a jump start in the spring. Greens have been roped off to deter traffic on them in the winter. We will remain outside as much as possible working on clearing underbrush and removing dead or hazardous trees. We also still have some leaf cleanup to complete. I'll update as much as I can in the winter, plus share a few pics from the summer. Thanks again for a great year.

Enka Mat on #2