Over the last few season's the greens at my home course have become a major issue. The greens used to be what made the course so special, tough to read with lots of breaks, lots of double breaks, and they mooooved. Fast forward to present day and the health had began to erode, and the speed began to slow down drastically, prompting us to find a new Super. Our previous Super, had been at the club since '86. Our new Super came from just down the road, and has been a great blessing. He is knowledgeable, communicates well to the members, and has begun great semi long term plans, to address the health of the turf, not just on the greens, but in the fairways, tees, and bunker faces.
His most recent e-mail, an overall review of the course, gave a very detailed, and easy-to-understand, outline of the problems our turf faces. He addresses the greens, and the fairways primarily, as well as various different aspects of our course. Here are some cut and paste sections of the e-mail, outlining the green health, and fairway health.
If anyone has any experience with these turf problems, and would like to share some insight, I would greatly appreciate it. It was very difficult maintaining a positive attitude the past few years, due to our greens. They were terrible. It was painful to see the course suffer so greatly from where it once was. The greens have really started to turn with our new Super, but he has made it clear, there is no overnight cure for our greens, it will take time for them to regain their health.
Let me know what you think!
Greens: Fortunately, there was a considerable amount of information about the physical attributes of the soil from analyses performed annually since 2006. Soil provides the foundation for the health of the greens and its characteristics dictate the nature of the cultural practices that need to be employed. When not properly managed, the performance of the soil eventually degrades, resulting in an adverse effect to the turf to the point of collapse, which is the situation that we were confronted with last year.
To create the optimal base for healthy greens turf, the soil must have a well-defined composition of sand, silt, clay and organic matter in the regions into which grass roots penetrate (i.e., the root zone). The importance of a correct particle size distribution in the soil cannot be understated because it creates the pores and channels through which air and water penetrate the root zone. Simply stated, the soil in the root zone of our greens contained too much organic matter from decomposing grass (i.e., thatch), too much fine particulate matter (i.e., silt and clay), and not enough sand with a sufficiently large particle size. Consequently, the soil became excessively compacted, with pores that were too small to enable water to effectively percolate through it and to allow enough air to penetrate into the root zone. This essentially created a situation where the turf was being drowned and suffocated at the same time.
To correct these problems, we implemented an aggressive aerification program that will modify the soil profile by removing thatch and incorporating a higher percentage of sand. The major components and time course of this program are as follows. Core aerification in May using a large tine (i.e., 1/2-5/8 inch diameter) to a depth of 3-4 inches, followed by top-dressing to fill the holes with sand, seeding, and fertilizing. This is typically a two day process with a healing time of about 10-14 days. In August, the greens will be aggressively dethatched using a process know as verti-cutting, followed by applying seed, topdressing and fertilizer. The recovery time for this procedure is only about 1 week and it will be postponed or even cancelled if the prevailing temperature is too high. Finally, in the mid to late fall, the Drill & Fill procedure is performed followed by a Verti-drain aerification. The Drill & Fill promotes overall drainage of the greens by removing soil to a depth of one foot and directly filling the hole with sand. The Verti-drain creates deep, small-diameter holes in the greens without removing soil and the holes are not filled. It helps to prepare the greens for winterization by allowing surface water to drain from the green surface into the holes, preventing ice from forming in water puddles. This procedure helped our greens escape much of the damage experienced by many area clubs this past spring, even those that covered their greens with tarps. This program has been extremely effective, resulting in a dramatic improvement in the overall condition of the greens during the course of the season, and it will be continued for the next three to five years.
The poor soil profile is also largely responsible for the difficulties experienced in achieving a desirable green speed during the past several years. The soil held water very tightly, making it extremely difficult for the greens to properly drain. It is a common misunderstanding that height of cut is the major factor that controls green speed, when in fact it is moisture. Speed is never an issue on greens that drain well and become sufficiently dry. The speed of the greens will remain between 9 and 10 on the Stimpmeter until the soil profile in the root zone has been modified with enough sand to change the water holding characteristics. Rolling greens that are too moist is not beneficial. The desired increase in speed and consistency will not be achieved and the increased compaction from rolling on a continuous basis will exacerbate the existing lack of oxygen, resulting in a quick decline in health and potentially collapse of a green. This is precisely the situation that existed last season.
After studying the reports about the physical properties of the soil, one thing became obvious: there was no information on the nutritional analysis of the greens soil. During my interview process, I took the liberty of taking some soil samples and sending them for chemical analysis. Several significant problems stood out in the results and corrective measures were immediately implemented upon beginning my tenure last fall. In particular, there were severe deficiencies in several elements that are critical for turf health coupled with elevated levels of salts that were detrimental to turf health. These nutritional imbalances were largely responsible for the tendency of the grass on the greens to lay-over and grow laterally during the past several seasons. Although it will take several seasons to fully correct all of the existing nutritional problems, the benefits of the corrective program became evident this season, evidenced by elimination of the lateral growth. Improving the available nutrients introduced in the soil has been a major factor contributing to the improvement in the greens this season.
Fairways: The fairways are also in need of serious attention during the next several seasons. A two-inch layer of dense thatch has accumulated throughout the fairways, to the point of prohibiting the growth of healthy turf, as a consequence of many years of inadequate cultivation practices. Turf growing in the presence of excessive hatch does not tolerate high temperatures and dry conditions very well, as we saw this summer, and it is very susceptible to a host of pathogens, both disease and insects. Beginning this summer, an aggressive thatch removal program was started that needs to be followed for several years to correct this problem. In addition, as mentioned above for the greens, the nutritional status of the fairway soil also needs to be corrected.