The best job in Golf.

The best job in golf...hint,,,I miss my dog....

http://www.turfnet.com/tv/randy.php

Golf Boys

You'll like this one if you like 'Rap'n it in the hole...'

Mess'n w/Sasquash....

Supts.  Humor.....Please click on link.

Why lawns turn Brown.

Please click on link below.

http://video.wpt2.org/video/2045500109

A Tale of Two Greens.

• Bull's Eye #16 green;  "I came out of winter looking like this."

#16 Green.



• Tri City #3 green;  "I came out of winter looking like this."

Tri City #3 green.



• I was cut seven days per week, rolled 3-4 times per week, topdressed regularly, sprayed biweekly on schedule, watered as needed.

#16 green.

 

• I was treated the same as #16. The only difference in routine maintenance is my mowing height of cut is .045 of an inch higher.

#3

• When things got tough this summer, I was watered by hand and cut using a walking mower with a solid roller to reduce the stress on me.

#16 green.

• I was cut with the same old tri plex and I don't even have a quick coupling valve needed for hand watering.

#3 green.

• I was seeded no less than eight times. Live sod plugs or sprigs were used at one time to try to help me fill in and I was fertilized biweekly to help me grow strong.

#16 green.

• 
  I wasn't seeded at all and the only fertilizer I received came with the sprayer at around a tenth of a pound of Nitrogen.
  

#3 green.

 #3;  Today, I look like this!

TC #3 Green.

#16;  And today I look and feel much worse than this.  Turf blankets cover my sores.
                   

BE #16 green.

• The only difference in our management programs of note looking back in time was I was aerified in September 2010.

TC #3 green.

• I wasn't aerified at all in 2010.

Some times you just scratch your head;  "Toss everything but the kitchen sink" at a problem OR is it "better to leave well enough alone?"  You decide.  _Mk



Nose Hairs

Just a close up of one of the open aerification hole or growth chamber as I call them showing prominently two seedlings emerging to fill in our thin putting green turf.  Proof that our inter-seeding can and does work when the time and conditions are right.  Plants like these survive better because their growing points are sub ground having protection from the mower blades and foot traffic.

Two individual bentgrass plants can be seen just south of the ball point pen tip.

You can see rows of inter-seeded grass appearing as straight lines in the aerification holes.

While this is progress there is still a long way for this plant to grow before it reaches maturity.  It is generally under stood that less than 5% of the seedlings survive inter-seeding dieing as a result of competition from surrounding plants such as Poa.  I like to think of it as 5% less Poa I have to worry about keeping alive in years like this. _Mk

Guarding our investment

Protective plant blanket.

What the "heck" is that?  "The heck" is a product called Seed Guard.  It is a cover or a turf blanket that manipulates the "local environment" underneath offering protection against the dessication effects of drying winds and provides cooling shade that keeps temperatures more uniform both day and night.  It also minimizes moisture loss as a result favoring seed germination and establishment.

Probably the greatest benefit of the blanket is that it keeps both men and machine away.  Golfers walk around it and mowers can't mow it.  Sweet.  You can both chip and put over it.  (It probably is less bumpy than trying the same over thin turf.)

The blankets will be moved once a week for inspection and to mow the turf below.  It will be several weeks before the blankets are lifted any where from two to six weeks.  That is a best guess on my part as my only experience with them are in the spring of the year when temperatures are a lot colder.  They will be lifted when I feel the young turf is capable of withstanding traffic.

I did take air temperature readings and as a precaution made a chemical application to prevent Pythium formation when I found the surface temperature 20 degrees above air temperature.

It has been only one week past aerification and I'm detecting the emergence of seedlings in aerification holes.  Now we need the weather to cooperate and this plant to establish itself and grow spreading out and filling in all weakened areas.

The seeded "ulcers" should be thought of as the same as a new greens construction.  In the "grow in" phase of a new golf course under construction or renovation a green seeded in August is seldom ready for play until June of next year.  Heeling takes time.