Golf Course Condition

As we enter our 8 weeks of Duluth summer I wanted to give everyone an update on the condition of the golf course. As everyone is certainly aware we are in the midst of an exceptionally dry period of weather. The spring was very dry and it has now been followed by a very dry beginning to the summer. Since the beginning of May we are nearly 4.5 inches behind average rainfall. When we get to the months of July and August and we are forced to rely on the irrigation system as the sole method of moisture the course does begin to show the effects. The month of July last season was just about perfect with good amounts of rain exactly when we needed it. In fact I was only forced to use the irrigation system a handful of times last July. In the first eight days of this July we have already doubled the amount of watered applied to the course the entire month of July 2008.

In May of 2008 I posted an agronomic report, which had been presented by myself and the green committee to the Board of Directors. This post can be found by searching the archives in the right hand margin of the page. The following is a month by month account of what the membership can expect of the course as we go through a typical season.

Month by Month

• Seasonal playability and visual appearance.

o May: Course will be recovering or nearly recovered from winter. The course will be very green and growing quite rapidly.

o June: We will begin regulating the growth on most of the golf course using growth regulators. Turf will be tighter and will begin playing faster. Color should still be fairly green.

o July: Most of the moisture the golf course receives during this month will be from irrigation. If the weather is wet the course will be greener, if the weather is dry we will start to see some brown around the edges and in the fairways and tees.

o August: Much the same as July but at the end of the month the weather will start to become cooler and any browning will begin to green up.

o September: Course will return to a greener color as the short summer stress period ends. Course should play much the same as it did in June. This will be a month of recovery for the golf course. Root growth takes places and seed that germinated in August will begin to mature.

o October: Will start out similar to September and progress towards the end of the season.

It is important that golfers understand that the presence of brown is not an indication of poor conditions. In our case the presence of brown around the course is the natural and healthy reaction of the turf to dry conditions. Our turf is healthy and the return of natural moisture will allow the course to green up once again.

Fairways:
I do want to make a comment on the conditions a few of the fairways. New to our program this spring was a fairway aerification. In the previous two seasons we have struggled with the completion of fairway aerification in the fall. This season it was moved to the spring to look at providing better conditions for healing and completetion of the task. Most of the fairways have healed quite well from this aerification. There are however a couple of exceptions: #6, 13 and 14 were particularly beat up during the aerification. Dry conditions during the process and since have slowed the healing but we are working on this problem. Today those fairways were given an extra fertility application, which will begin to promote further healing.

As always I welcome any question you might have. My email can be found in the right hand margin of this page. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

What's this?

Many of you who have played the past couple of days are probably wondering why areas of the greens on 2 and 7 look somewhat black. Over the past couple of seasons we have been working to eliminate moss from the putting surfaces. While I do not have direct knowledge of what the moss situation was like before my time at Northland I have been told the moss was far more prevalent prior to my time here. While cultural practices the past 2+ seasons have greatly limited the amount of moss present there are a few places where the moss continues to persist.

The photo of the 7th green, shown below, was taken this morning. Yesterday I made an application of iron sulfate to the green. In simple terms iron sulfate is mixture of iron and sulfur, which through a couple of different methods creates a growing situation favoring bentgrass over moss.

The above photo was taken today on the 2nd hole. In the photo you can see dry iron sulfate that was applied directly to a patch of moss. One of the reasons moss is so difficult to control is that the moss can lose up to 80% of its moisture content and still survive. Even in the driest of conditions you can see how moss can persist. One of the actions of the iron sulfate is to work as a desiccating or drying agent. If you click on the above photo you can see the granules of iron sulfate are moist. This is moisture that has been pulled out of the moss over the course of about 30 minutes.

In this photo taken on the 7th green you can see how the underlying moss has already begin to turn black. In the world of horticulture black typically means dead. By continuing these applications we hope to eventually eliminate the moss allowing the bentgrass to fill the voids.

Golf Architect, Ron Prichard Makes His First Visit

Last Tuesday and Wednesday Golf Architect, Ron Prichard made his first site visit to Northland. Prior to his visit, Mr. Prichard had been working to complete a base map from a combination of contour maps and aerial photography. With base map in hand Mr. Prichard spent two days walking the course. Most of his time on the course during this first visit was spent adding detail to the base map and taking notes, which will eventually form the basis of his master plan.

On Tuesday evening the Northland Restoration Committee was able to meet Mr. Prichard. During the meeting Mr. Prichard spoke on general terms of golf course restoration and its history. Mr. Prichard is the first golf architect to devote his career to the restoration of classic golf courses; those designed and built before WWII. One of the more interesting moments of the meeting was when Mr. Prichard told the committee that he set out, in the beginning of his career, to disprove the work of Donald Ross. Rather than being able to disprove Ross' work he found that Ross was in fact a brilliant golf course architect and in the opinion of Mr. Prichard, the greatest golf architect ever.

Through out the meeting it was very clear to the committee that Mr. Prichard is a man who is truely passionate about his work. The modern world of golf architecture often finds architects using their associates to do much of the leg work. Mr. Prichard works pretty much on his own and does all of the field work and information gathering himself. He has a passionate and unique way of working that has been a real asset to all of his clients. While Mr. Prichard has not spent enough time on the course to comment on specific features he did say that he believes Northland belongs is the very top percentage of Donald Ross designs. Considering Ross is credited with over 400 golf course designs this is quite a statement.

Mr. Prichard also has a Duluth connection. He went to Middlebury College in Vermont with Jerry, Bob and Dates Fryberger. In fact Dates and Mr. Prichard were best friends in their college days. Needless to say Mr. Prichard is quite happy to have an opportunity to catch up with old friends.

Mr. Prichard plans to make his next visit to Northland in roughly 2-3 weeks time. During upcoming visits he will begin to formulate his vision for the course, ultimately resulting in a preliminary master plan. If you happen to see Ron on the course during one of his visits, please take the time to introduce yourself and make him feel welcome at Northland.

Fighting Poa on the Greens

If you have played golf the past week or so you have probably noticed certain areas of the greens looking at though they are in tough shape. On a number of occasions, over the past two + seasons, I have written about the desire to promote bentgrass on our playing surfaces. Over the past two seasons we have worked, through various cultural practices, to increase the population of bentgrass in our greens, tees and fairways. If I were going to personify bentgrass and Poa annua I would refer to Poa as a quitter. When the going gets tough Poa quits. Too dry, too cold, too much ice and Poa mails it in. Bent on the other hand is like that employee we all wish we had 100 of. You can throw anything at bentgrass and it just keeps coming back for more. Dry conditions, bring it on, traffic, more please, cold, ice, no problem. Its easy to see why bent is the desired species. This season we have tweaked our fertility program on the greens to promote the bentgrass and essentially work to push the Poa out of the greens.

The photo of the 14th green below was taken this morning. In the photo you can see how the green has taken on a splotchy, sickly look.


If this wasn't the result of what we are doing there might be some cause for concern. However, when measured against the results we are hoping to gain, I deem this early success. The photo below is a close-up of version of what you see above. In this photo you can see the bentgrass plants doing very well, while the Poa, which used to fill the voids is either stuggling mightily or dead completely. Again, if this was not what we were trying to do I would be concerned. However, with the fertility, growth regulators and organics we are using the bentgrass will soon fill the voids left by the dying or weakened Poa.


Depending on what green you are looking at this process may be more or less noticeable. Greens such as the front of #3 or the back 2/3rds of 14 tend to dry out quicker than other areas, therefore the Poa has taken a bigger hit. Other greens through out the course also have areas such as this. While the appearance of these areas could be deemed ugly, there is little to no affect on ball roll. Continued topdressing, brooming and rolling will keep these areas putting just fine. All the while the bentgrass continues doing its work, dramatically increasing its populations.

Video follow up on the #2 irrigation break.

What's up with the rough between 2 & 16? Check out the video.

Irrigation break on #2: The Video