Clemson Universty Herbicide Trials

For the past five years Clemson University has conducted herbicide trials on the golf course. In previous years number eight hillside was used as a preemergence trial and left of number ten tees was used as a postemergence trial. This year they will be doing a combination of pre and postemergence trials at the tees at ten. The focus on these trials is to research a weed called Doveweed. Doveweed was beginning to become a problem on our course and throughout the southeast, so Clemson jumped at the opportunity to conduct trials at a new location. Being able to watch the trials and see which chemicals are and are not working has been very educational. On the plus side we have found new ways to prevent and control Doveweed.

                                           

New Golf Carts

Around this time every year we receive a new fleet of golf carts. We lease our carts rather than buy them. During the year the carts take on a lot of wear and tear. We feel that it is more cost efficient to lease the carts rather than purchasing them. By doing this we eliminate having to do any type of major repairs in future years.

Early Season Fertilization

The bermuda on the golf course looks like and is growing like it is the middle of June. Because of this we decided to fertilize the fairways, tees and low-cut yesterday and today. With the decision to skip overseeding and try tinting which we started in January, the bermuda has responded extremely well and it has allowed us to fertilize sooner than we normally would have. There are many different types of nitrogen to fertilize with. For this application we chose a combination of two types of fertilizer. We decided to go with 50% quick release and 50% controlled release nitrogen. What this means is that the bermuda will get 50% of the nitrogen now allowing for a surge in growth. The controlled released nitrogen is coated with sulfur. The sulfur is used as a barrier and will slowly release the nitrogen into the bermdua as the temperature rises. By adding a controlled released nitrogen to our application we will allow the bermuda to steadily grow over the next few months.

Fire Ant Control

This time of year fire ants become active on the golf course. We use two different types of products. One product is a granular and it goes out with a rotary spreader at a very low rate around greens, tees and bunkers. The ant is supposed to take this product back to its mound and give it to the colony and it kills them from within. The other product is a powder and we apply it over existing mounds and it will kill the mound within a day or two.

Masters week

The golf course could not have chosen a better time to peak. The fairways, tees and low-cut look like it is mid June. The greens look great and are playing great as well. The azaleas are blooming at just the right time and there are golfers everywhere. Hopefully you have had a chance to make it out onto the course this week. If you have missed out on the great golfing conditions and weather here are some pictures to get you threw until your next round.

Prepping the course during Masters week

Getting the course ready for golfers during Masters week is always a fun experience. With golfers going off the first tee as early as 7:30 it can be pretty challenging to get the course ready. Now don't get me wrong, I would not trade places with anyone when we are out there in the dark, getting the course ready and being able to see the sun come up over the horizon, it's perfect. The entire crew steps up for this very busy week by coming in earlier than normal and we take even more pride in our jobs, knowing that Augusta Country Club is being visited by golfers from all over the world. In one of the pictures below you see the clubhouse lit up in the background, you can also make out two small lights in the middle of number one fairway. These are our fairway mowers getting an early start on mowing fairways.

First cut on Bermudagrass

Over the last three days we have mowed the low-cut around greens, tees and fairways. Hopefully most of you have been on the course over the last four months and seen the tinting experiment we have tried on all the low-cut bermudagrass. We are really happy with the results and hopefully you are too. In a previous blog post I talked about the tinting process, here is a quick recap. The product does not harm or help the plant in anyway, but it does increase the soil temperature in the turf canopy by three to four degrees. By increasing the soil temperature it allows the bermuda to never fully go dormant and has allowed us to start mowing earlier than normal. On non overseeded years we would have mowed all the bermudagrass at about the same time as we have done this week, but there is a major difference in turf quality. We are also mowing at heights of cut that we normally do not mow at until around June. By tinting the bermudagrass we have encouraged early green-up and overall better playing conditions at a much earlier time than we are accustomed to. 

Improvement to number six tee complex

Some of you might have noticed a ditch behind the ladies tee on number six. We dug this ditch to see how much ground water would settle into it from the pinestraw hillside between the seniors and ladies tee boxes. After observing the ditch for a week and after a one inch plus rainfall we did not see the amount of water in the ditch we thought we would have seen. We then decided to take up all the pinestraw on the hillside and the top two inches of organic matter that had accumulated over the years from the pinestraw and mulch. After this process was completed we waited a few days to see how much the hillside would dry up. The hillside dried up enough where we felt that drainage would not be necessary on the hillside, but we did install some at the bottom behind the ladies tee box. The hillside was sodded on Wednesday evening. Here are some pictures of the entire process.

Fairy Ring control

Yesterday we applied our first application of Fairy Ring control. This process takes two applications to complete and they occur one month apart. Fairy Ring shows up during the summer months on Bentgrass, but we must apply a fungicide preventively now in order to get optimal control during the summer months. Timing is everything in trying to control Fairy Ring. We must monitor soil temperatures in early spring to see when they consistently average temperatures ranging from 55-65 degrees over a five day period. Once we feel that this has occurred we apply the first application and water it into the soil, where the fungus will be active during the summer months.