Spring conditions

Spring conditions:

Three winter melts has left us with minimal snow pack and it will not take long (after the temperatures rise) for the course to be completely exposed.  I expect us to have an early opener this year.  

From what I can see Turf conditions are outstanding!  Every fall fungicide application has seemed to work very well.   

Several different products and combinations were used on the fairways and we are excited to see the complete results soon. 

 

The spray lines are very evident right after spring melt.  

Treated on left ---- untreated on right

 

14 green Heritage has never been drier in the spring.  The combination of the drains that we installed several years ago on the approach and an aggressive 3/4" core aeriation (back filling the holes with sand) has made a huge improvements.  

A look down 9 fairway Heritage shows excellent turf quality on the treated fairway and poor quality on the untreated rough.  I can not stress enough the importance of these fall spray applications.  The turf has a huge advantage in the spring when it comes out of winter disease free.  Overall Course quality increases dramatically as the turf is fuller thicker and has less weed encroachment.  

7 green on the Heritage is usually one of our last areas to melt off in the spring.  It will not take as long this year with the limited snow pack.  

 

Another Classic picture on number 2 Greywalls.  The ring around the green shows Fungal control that was near 100% 

Individual rings of snowmold are hard to even find in the spring on untreated turf because all of the plants seem to be infected with the disease.  

Putting Surfaces:

 

Putting green quality is also excellent from what we can see so far.  We will know more after all of the surfaces are exposed.  

Pictured above is a great example of poa annua suppression on the Greywalls greens.  We use a plant growth regulator call trimmit on the Greywalls greens: with the active ingredient paclobutrazol.  This PGR suppresses the poa plant more than the our desired bentgrass plants thus giving a competitive advantage to the bentgrass.  

 

Solid tine holes still visible from the fall.  Before our last mowing of the season we solid tine the greens to leave open channel that aid in water movement.  We do not want standing water on our putting surfaces that could freeze and create issues.  

 

The turf on 15 green Heritage is definitely survived the winter better than this deer.   

 

Close up view of the turf on 11 green Heritage.  Nothing but pure health coming out of winter.  

I am very proud of our turf management programs here at MGC; we continue to evolve and get better.