Golf Course Update

A tremendous amount of things are happening all at once on the golf course. Soil temperatures have started to warm up and have caused grass to start growing rapidly.  While trying to keep up on mowing roughs and other areas, our main focus is still on greens recovery.  It is very tough sometimes to judge progression when you are looking at the same green everyday trying to pick out the positive advancements.  We have been taking periodic pictures of the greens better monitor this.  Shown below are pictures of #2 and #13 greens, with the first photos from April 7th, and last on May 23rd.  Our recovery is very much related to the damage that a particular green has received. There are additional factors such as moisture management, percent of seed germination, algae and fertility that also playing  a role in recovery. We are addressing these hurdles as we run into them.  The greens are moving along, but are not perfect, that will come in time.  We are looking at introducing some greens in play at the start of June and progressively be playing others as the turf canopy becomes dense enough to support daily play.  Although these putting surfaces will be played, expect to have slower greens speeds, and some bumpy ball rolls at first.  As the surface matures and we are able to put into effect more maintenance stresses the greens will consistently  improve.

2 Green April 7, 2014

2 Green April 31,2014

2 Green May 12,2014

2 Green May 23,2014

13 Green April 7,2014

13 Green April 31,2014

13 Green May 12,2014

13 Green May 23,2014

Golf Course Update

We are going to hit 30 days after seeding our greens this coming weekend (May 16,17 and 18th to be factual).  Even though we have encountered some frustrating cool weather, we have been able to make some significant progress especially from the warm rains over the past 7 days.  All of the greens are showing significant recovery but will remain out of play at the moment.  At this point we have a very mixed bag of greens in our recovery process, which range from looking very fairly close to being put back in play to a handful of greens that it is too early to make that determination.  This is too be expected, where in general, the greens that are closer to play had less winter damage and grass that survived, where the greens with excess of 80% winter kill will be recovering from almost all seed.

Pictures of a couple examples from both ends of the spectrum.

#9 Green - Approximately 1/3 of this green appeared alive in mid April.  Also there were signs of other grass in a dormant state making a recovery.

9 Green Mid April

9 Green Mid May

#18 Green - 90% of this green suffered winter kill.  There has been a small portion of this green that was dormant and trying to rebound, but a large part of this greens recovery is relying on new seedlings.

18 Green Mid April

18 Green Mid May

As the pictures show, 9 green will be ready for play earlier then 18 green.  Not to be discouraged.  As we have started to mow all of the greens, we continue to see positive improvements, where the seedlings are becoming dense and starting to fill in the voids between them.  

As we look at these pictures of the greens on weekly and monthly comparisons we notice very positive results. We will continue to show progress pictures of the greens weekly.  

 

Greens Update

It has been 3 weeks since we have seeded the greens to aid in recovery of our playing surfaces.   We have definitely seen some significant advancements in the greens despite having cooler temperatures for the first 14 days after seeding.  By covering the greens with tarps we were able to slightly increase the the temperatures, and were effective in keeping the seed bed moist.  We have achieved germination in most of  the greens by doing this. Along side existing turf that survived the winter we have quite a bit of grass to work with.

This past week we warmer spring temperatures arrived!  We have removed all of the covers until the next cool days, to allow the seedlings to have 100% sunlight.  This also gave us the ability to put our first mow on all of the greens that have germinated.  Some of the greens that are further along in recovery were mowed multiple times.  The covers will be moved on and off the greens as needed during the recovery process, as we move through the variable weather cycles of spring. 

#4 Green April 30th

#4 Green May 9th

#4 Green from 150 yards May 9th

The visible differences are very positive and encouraging as in the above pictures of #4 Green.  Our greens that have incurred more damage are slightly behind in growth.  From afar our greens appear restored as new seedlings and existing turf give off a green hue.  We have a lot of work ahead of us still, as we wait for the new seedlings to mature and start spreading laterally.  Mowing, watering and fertilizer applications will be done frequently over the next weeks to encourage a denser surface.

New Bent grass seedlings on #7 greens

Greens Update

Despite temperatures sitting in the mid 50s for most of the last 2 weeks since we seeded our greens, we are starting to see some results.  With the last couple days of increased temperatures we have been very satisfied to see growth throughout most of our greens canopies

As we move through the next few weeks I will be providing before and after pictures to show progression.  Some progression is noticeable from a far but a lot of our progression becomes visual as you are closer to the greens surface.

First example is #9 Green.  We expected to see some recovery from existing turf that was weakened by the winter, but looked like it may have chance of survival.  One of the success's we have had in this situation is there was more surviving grass then expected, and that grass has grown vigorously and laterally to start filling voids in the greens canopy.

#9 Green April 7th

#9 Green April 30th

Second Example is #2 Green.  This is a green where we new we had an uphill battle where the green appeared 90-100% dead.  We were very surprised to see many positives on April 30th.  The first being existing turf rebounding in some areas, but more significantly was the new POA and bent grass plants starting to emerge.  The picture from afar encapsulating the whole green does not do justice.  But if you lay down beside the green you really can see progression.  Although we are a long way from playing on the surfaces, getting seed to germinate was a critical part of the process

#2 Green April 7th

#2 Green April 30th

#2 Green (Picture taken from the superintendent "Push Up " position)

A couple of pictures that are definitely interesting to show seed bed preparation and achieving results.

Deep Verti-cutting  April 16th

Slices in turf canopy

Germination of Bent grass and some POA in the slices April 30th

Greens Update

This winter was definitely not kind to our putting surfaces and we have a encountered a severe amount of damage on all 19 greens.  The primary cause, was a layer of ice that had developed on top of them starting in early January and lasted for 55 to 85 days.  Coupled with the tremendously cold winter and significant snowfall, many South East Michigan courses are suffering winter damage.

Last week we started on our journey to recovery.  We have decided our best approach is to regrow our playing surfaces from grass that survived the winter, Annual Bluegrass (POA) seed that exists in the soil, and incorporating a newer variety of Bent grass seed.  There are many steps to our recovery, with the foundation of it being time and patience to achieve positive results.   Our first step in our process at Forest Lake, was incorporating the Bent grass seed into the existing green.  Below is start to finish of seeding the greens;

Verti-cutting double direction to create channels for bent grass seed to fall into

Depth of first verti-cut slice

Cleaning up thatch and debris from verti-cutting

Several cartloads of material were collected through this pocress

Spiking the greens 3 different directions to allow more slits for seed to fall into

Drop spreading seed in 2 different directions

Bent Grass Seed

Topdressing to cover seed and to help for good seed/soil contact

Applying starter fertilizer to boost nutrition to provide food during seed germination

Rolling to also help with seed/soil contact

Water, Water, Water.  Very important to keep seeds and young plants moist during establishment

Covering all of the greens to increase temperature and humidity during germination

We are hoping to see our first results of germination after 7 days.  We have already seen some positive results in new active growth from the existing turf.

Course Update

Spring is officially here!  Even though at times the weather still has that end of winter chill.  We are definitely going to have a late spring warm up, which will slow greening of the turf.  This severe winter has offered many challenges on grass wide spread through Michigan. Rough grass areas and bunker faces are matted down and snow mold is apparent in many areas.  The extended period of snow cover, creating slow cool and wet melting conditions all played major factors.  Most of these areas are very resilient and will bounce back after some raking and the first few mows this spring.

Receding snow bank on #18 Right side bunker

Some of the bigger challenges at the start of this golf season is "Winter Kill" damage we did suffer on shorter mowed areas.  Tees and fairways that have winter scars on the golf course, will rebound fairly quickly with some spiking and warm weather. Our main focus over the next several weeks will be inter seeding our putting greens to help stimulate growth in thin areas and areas of turf loss.  Covers will be used on our greens to help raise the temperatures and to create a "greenhouse" effect to accelerate the recovery process during cooler temperatures.

Covering the putting green

#8 green

Finally it would not be spring without cleanup.  Special thank you to the maintenance crew in working very hard at cleaning up branches, leaves and sticks wide spread across the golf course. 

Typical scattered sticks coming out of the winter

Cleaning up the corners of the course

 

Greens Committee Winter Damage Report

Winter Damage to Turf in South East Michigan

There have been many reports and news stories about the severity of the winter Michigan residents lived through in 2013/14.  It has been labeled the “worst winter in modern times”.  Record totals for snow fall as well as sub freezing temperatures were amongst many records that are close to being broken.  Temperatures ranged an average of 6-10F colder for the most of this winter.

As many area golf courses and their superintendent’s look to open up the doors to the 2014 season, there are still many hurdles in their way.  Snow banks are apparent on north facing slopes and in shaded areas by trees.  The deep frost layer is still trying to make its way out of the ground providing moist soft conditions.  The playing surfaces have a very inconsistent look from tan to lush green.

On April 1^st, Forest Lake sent 5 representatives to an educational session at Oakland Hills C.C. regarding winter damage.  This event was attended by over 200 people from club board of directors, greens committees, superintendents and golf industry representatives.  The panel of speakers consisted of Dr. Jeffrey Andresen (climate specialist) MSU, Dr. Kevin Frank (Turf grass specialist) MSU, Dr. Trey Rogers (Turf grass professor) MSU, Robert Vavrek (Agronomist) USGA, and Steve Cook CGCS (Director of Agronomy) Oakland Hills C.C. All of the attendants shared 1 thing in common, their concerns of winter impact on their golf courses.  The seminar outlined; how winter damage happens, where we stand as a region and some solutions on how to recover from potential damages.

Ice layer accumulations started developing at Forest Lake early January ranging from ½” to 3” on our putting surfaces, with snow 18” to 30” on top of that.  What does all of this mean?  The winter hardiness of Annual Bluegrass “POA” which make up our greens, tees and fairways at Forest Lake can start declining at 45 days under ice.  With the brutal temperatures and no melt conditions our ice layers remained on our greens for 65-75 days, despite the efforts of our greens crew removing snow and trying to accelerate melt.

Due to very cool temperatures in late March, and similar temperatures forecasted through late April, traditional spring green will be delayed up for 2-3 weeks.  Our biggest fear is the potential for some “winter kill “damage, where the grass fails to grow after warming conditions.   If we do experience some damage, it is the extent and where the location of the damage occurs, that will dictate how we get the course in playable shape.

Our first goal is to assess any problems that may of occurred this winter, and figure out the best management practices to re-establish grass where needed, and to open our course for members.  Proactive steps we take to grow grass in the spring will lead to healthy turf and great playing conditions.    Using ropes to direct cart traffic, painted ground under repair areas, and provisional greens may be solutions if we encounter areas that have turf loss. 

Information will be available daily at the First Tee and Pro shop regarding rules of conduct on the golf course this spring during recovery.

Greens committee