But the Greens Were Just Getting Good

Yes, It's that time of year again. We have so much fun aerifying and topdressing the greens that we decided to aerify them twice this spring. Both times with 5/8"tines. We call these "medium" size tines, as opposed to small, 3/8" tines or large 3/4" tines. We will be aerifying the putting green and greens 1-18 on Monday, April 7th. We will be aerifying and topdressing the Par-3 Course greens on Wednesday, the 9th. We do the same process again, starting on Monday, April 21st. It may sound  crazy to aerify only two weeks apart but the idea behind aerifying is to open up holes so we can get sand down into the greens. By getting all that sand (150 tons) into the greens in April, we won't need to do it again for the rest of the year. Time to make plans for that month long trip to Europe!

 

 

Aerifyer on the right and picking up the plugs on the left

Why Aerify The Greens Again?

Golfers are asking me why we are aerifying the greens again next Monday, May 13th. After all, we just aerified them last month. The answer is that the greens were too soft last year. Aerification and sand topdressing is one of my best tools for firming up the greens for the upcoming season. Firmer greens lead to greens that are smoother, healthier and more consistant than softer greens.
For more information on the advantages of greens aerification and topdressing, please click on the following link to the USGA web site: USGA VIDEO

Topdressing a Green With Sand

Click on Photo to Enlarge

Greens Aerification. One Week Later!

     It's been one week since we aerified the greens with 5/8" holes. Today we're mowing the greens for the first time. We're getting some sand in the baskets, but we will  mow daily, and should have all the excess sand picked up by Friday. Because we gave the greens extra fertilizer the past two weeks they are growing nicely and the holes are filling in quickly. Last week we actually verticut the greens twice. Once on Wednesday afternoon and again on Friday afternoon. This process pulled up some sand, but when the greens were dragged following the verticutting, the sand filled the holes up to the top.
 

Click Photo to Enlarge.

Course Closed for Greens Aerification

The 18-Hole Course will be closed Monday, April 22nd for aerification and topdressing of the greens . We will be making 5/8" holes and then topdressing with sand. We will do as many greens as possible on Monday. Any that we don't do will be done Wednesday, April 24th. Any greens that aren't completed when play gets to it on Wednesday will be played as a temporary green. The Par-3 Course will close at noon so the greens can be aerified and topdressed.
 

Click on Photo to Enlarge

Third annual 'Demo-Day' a Huge Success

A big thank you to everyone who came out to see our demonstration on verticutters and their effect on Stimpmeter readings.
 

Beto explaining how he takes a Stimpmeter reading.

Demo Day this Monday, March 18th

What is this machine doing and why is it making such a mess. Come to the putting green this Monday at 9:00 and find out what a Verticutter, Vertigroomer and Stimpmeter are..  

Anthracnose

The greens have been battling a fungus, Anthracnose, for several weeks. We applied four fungicides to the greens and  feel we have finally stopped it. The greens seem to be healing quickly and should be good as new very soon.
 
Happy Healthy Green

 

Green After Getting Hit With Anthracnose

Getting the Greens Back in Shape

The fungus that was attacking the greens is now a distant memory. Well, almost.  Now it's time to get the Verticutter out of moth balls and start removing all that excess thatch in the greens. Once a week we are verticutting the greens in two directions. We will continue verticutting until we get back to greens that are fast (11' to 12' on the Stimpmeter), smooth, firm and consistant.


Francisco on the  Verticutter

There's a Fungus Among Us

What happened to the greens?
Although we  love rain, the return of winter rains right after we aerified and topdressed the greens
caused a pretty big disease outbreak. The outbreak was caused by the sand topdressing which kept the grass nice and wet for a week. And these particular fungi love cold wet conditions.There are actually two diseases; Pink Snow Mold are the little spots that have a pinkish color on the outside of the diseased area. The other disease is called Waitea Patch. These are the larger yellow rings. A fungicide that treats both diseases was applied on April 16th. We will be applying another chemical that controls both diseases this coming Monday to ensure total control..



Waitea Patch

Pink Snow Mold

2011 in Review

Measuring Green Speed With a Stimpmeter

     During the summer of 2010 it became obvious that we needed to make some  changes to our greens management practices here at The Villages. The greens had become soft and puffy with unacceptable putting quality. After talking to the USGA, fellow Golf Course Superintendents and several suppliers, I came up with a game plan on how to make the greens smoother, faster, firmer and more consistent.  Here is a list of the changes we implemented during the summer of 2011:

1. The biggest change we made was in how we verticut the greens. We set the verticutter blades much deeper into the green than ever before. (7/32” below the green’s surface) We verticut the greens twice a week for a total of 16 times. We were planning to apply light sand topdressings after the verticutting, but found that the verticutting brought sufficient sand up to the green’s surface that we were able to blow off the thatch and drag the sand back into the green’s surface for a nice light topdressing.
2. We lowered the green’s ‘height of cut’ by 1/100”. We also started mowing the greens with hand greens mowers five days a week, instead of only once.
3. We changed our green’s small tine aerifications from hollow to solid tines. It isn’t possible to get sand into a small aerification holes. I made this change because I felt that removing a plug and not filling the hole with sand was contributing to softer greens.
4. In 2010 we switched from Unipar to the smaller  #30 topdressing sand for all light topdressings. We will continue to use Unipar to fill the holes with the large tine aerification in April.
5. This past summer we also began working with a new vendor who specializes in greens maintenance products. We began using several of his products, including fertilizers, growth regulators and a soil wetting agent. I feel that this change has helped keep our greens healthier than in past years while maintaining good turf color and reduced excessive turf growth.

Fortunately, all the changes seem to have paid off. I think the consensus of the golfers this year has been very positive. Stimpmeter readings for the months of August and September have gone from an average of 10’ in 2009 to 10’6” in 2010 to 11’7” in 2011.

           

     

     

      

What Is A Stimpmeter Reading?

The Stimpmeter is a simple, accurate device manufactured by the USGA (United States Golf Association) that allows one to make a standard measurement of -- and place a numerical figure on -- the speed of a putting green. It has proven to be an invaluable asset to the game of golf and a helpful   management tool for the golf course superintendent.                                                                       

 The Stimpmeter is an extruded aluminum bar, 36 inches long, with a V-shaped groove extending along its entire length. It has a precisely milled ball-release notch 30" from the tapered end (the end that rests on the ground). The underside of the tapered end is milled away to reduce bounce as a rolling ball makes contact with the green.

The ball-release notch is designed so that a ball will always be released and start to roll when the Stimpmeter is raised to an angle of approximately 20 degrees. This feature ensures that the velocity of the ball will always be the same when it reaches the tapered end.

The ball is put the in the notch and the bar is slowly raised until the ball starts to roll down the groove.

Repeat the same procedure with two more balls, keeping the tapered end on the same spot. After three balls have been rolled, the process is repeated in the opposite direction.  This is done in case there is any slope in the green that may affect the results.

The distance the six balls (Three in each direction) roll from the Stimpmeter is measured. An average of all six is calculated and this distance is called the "Stimpmeter reading".  Stimpmeter readings are always given in feet and inches.

Meet the Team

Francisco

Francisco  has been on the golf course maintenance team since 1993. Although he can operate all the equipment on the golf course, he is most often seen during the summer spot watering the front-9 fairways. Here he is operating the 'verticutter' on the 18th green.

Smooth Greens

Verticutting the 13th Green

It's been a little over two weeks since the greens were aerified and heavily topdressed. (250,000 pounds!)The greens have pretty well healed, so it's now time to start getting them smoothed out. Today we verticut them. We will verticut them again this Friday, next Monday and next Friday. The greens should get progressively smoother and faster with each verticutting.

USGA Report on the Greens, Part 7

                   

                        Aerifying Holes in Green

      This week we look at part 7 of USGA agronomist, Pat Gross’ December 2010 report on the greens at the Villages. This week Pat's report addresses the possible future rebuilding of the greens. 

DO THE GREENS NEED TO BE REBUILT? The greens are sustainable and appear to perform at an acceptable level throughout the year as long as conservative management programs for mowing, disease control, and the use of potable water for irrigation are implemented. Although the greens cannot be managed intensively to produce fast green speeds on a regular basis, the existing architecture and moderate green speed appear to be acceptable for most golfers. From an agronomic perspective, the greens are sustainable but not built for performance. As part of your long-range planning efforts, some consideration should be given to carefully evaluating the status of the subsurface drains in the greens and the potential that recycled water could someday be used for irrigating greens.

Firming up the Greens

Removing Thatch from the Putting Green with a 'Graden' Verticutter

Thanks to everyone who came out to our second demonstration of the year. The 'Graden' heavy duty verticutter is a relatively new piece of equipment on the market. The machine slices 1" to 1 1/2" deep, removing a tremendous amount of thatch (old dead roots) from the green. At the same time, the machine fills these slits with sand. High levels of thatch contribute to soft, spongy greens. Removing this thatch and replacing it with sand greatly increases the firmness of the greens. 

Greens Aerification April 11, 12 and 13.

Just a reminder that we will be aerifying the greens next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday, April 11th: Aerifying front-9 greens. Front-9 will be CLOSED. Tuesday, April 12th: Aerifying Back-9 greens. 18 hole course will be CLOSED. Wednesday, April 13th: Aerifying Par-3 Course. Par-3 Course will be CLOSED.

Aerifying greens

USGA Report on the Greens, Part 6

This week we look at part six of USGA agronomist, Pat Gross’ December 2010 report on the greens at the Villages. This week Pat's report addresses moisture management on the greens.                                                                                                                
     Moisture management - Given the fact that Poa annua does not respond well to drought stress, maintaining adequate moisture without overly saturating the greens is a difficult balancing act. Ongoing practices should continue to emphasis occasional deep watering of the greens throughout the summer to dilute soluble salts naturally contained in the water and flush these elements away from sensitive turf roots. It was further suggested to continue the current practice of applying soil wetting agents, which will help improve water penetration and reduce localized dry spots. The purchase of two portable moisture probes was highly recommended to monitor moisture levels in the greens, assist with daily programming the irrigation system, and training employees on proper water management techniques.

Greens Aerification April 11, 12 and 13.

It's that time of year again. Just when the greens are getting good, we go and mess them up again. As much as golfers hate it when we aerify the greens, golf course superintendents dread it just as much.
What exactly are we trying to accomplish with all this unwanted work? Two things: First, by filling the aerification holes with sand, we are increasing the amount of oxygen in the soil, and turfgrass roots need oxygen to survive. Second, the more sand there is in the soil, the firmer the greens will be. And firm greens make for a smoother and more consistant putting surface.


First the greens are drilled. The soil is cleaned up...

and the last remaining soil is blown off.

Next, we topdress with sand and aerify again.

The greens are rolled to smooth out the holes.

And the last step is to drag the greens to fill all the holes with sand.

USGA Report on the Greens, Part 5

This week we look at part four of USGA agronomist, Pat Gross’ December 2010 report on the greens at the Villages. This week Pat's report addresses sand topdressing.                 
     Sand topdressing - Routine applications of sand topdressing will be a critical aspect of your program to control thatch and organic matter and enhance the firmness of the greens. A demonstration of the current light sand topdressing procedure was done during the visit, and it was suggested to increase the rate of application and continue to apply topdressing at two-week intervals. Topdressing should be suspended when temperatures exceed 90° F. or after several days of heavy frost when there is very little growth evident on the greens. Light topdressing can be incorporated with practices such as vertical mowing, spiking, and venting of the greens to help incorporate the sand into the surface.

USGA Report on the Greens, Part Four

This week we look at part four of USGA agronomist, Pat Gross’ December 2010 report on the greens at the Villages. This week Pat's report starts getting to the real issue: Improving the firmness of the greens.

ENHANCING FIRMNESS

Cultivation - Core aeration and surface cultivation of the greens should be a primary focus of your ongoing management programs as a method to physically remove excess thatch and organic matter. The following recommendations were made during the visit regarding recommended cultivation programs for the coming year:

Continue with the current program of deep aeration during the month of April using ?-inch to ¾-inch diameter tines followed by sand topdressing to fill the holes completely to the surface.

As part of the April treatment, consider testing the Graden™ Sand Injection machine, which is a heavy-duty vertical mowing machine that removes thatch and injects sand directly into the grooves. You may wish to evaluate this treatment on a portion of the practice putting green and observe the impact on surface firmness and the time necessary for turf recovery. The combination of aeration and sand injection was completed in September at Torrey Pines Golf Course, and the protocol for this operation is attached to this report as a further reference.

Continue the current practice of venting the greens at monthly intervals from May through September. This can be done by using small diameter 1/4-inch solid tines, or a slicing machine, such as the PlanetAir™.

Although most courses schedule core aeration and sand topdressing in the fall, this practice has been suspended for many years at the Villages due to concerns regarding rapid blight disease. As an alternative, you may wish to evaluate the DryJect™ as an option for aerating the greens in late September. This is a contract service using a specialized machine that injects a slurry of sand and water into the greens under high pressure. Several superintendents in the San Francisco Bay area have reported good results with this procedure and slightly less time for turf recovery.