This winter has certainly been challenging with the
amount of rain and cloud cover. Bunkers
have washed out several times, clogged drains have become normal, weed pressure
is high, and greens have been slower than you’re accustomed. That being said, the golf course is in a good
spot to have a wonderful 2020.
I’ve been at Timarron for 6 months and
have brought some new ideas. The ideas I
present have worked well at my previous properties and will continue to work in the future. Prior to making any major decisions,
discussions are had amongst the Timarron Golf Committee members. Last August a golf course maintenance blog
was created to help with the communication process and we have had 4000 page
views since inception.
Greens
The first 6 weeks of 2020 the course received 100%
more rain than average. With heavy rains
comes high disease pressure that can kill grass. December through February is the worst possible
time to lose any grass on our putting surfaces because recovery will not begin
until the temperatures begin to warm up.
A conservative mindset was taken during this period and the speed of the
greens reflected that. Not adapting our
putting green maintenance practices to the weather significantly increases the
chances of patchy, dead turf, that needs to be replaced with sod.
Our putting surfaces are where they
need to be this time of year. They are
healthy, growing, and look great. Over
the last 2 weeks we have increased our aggressiveness of putting green
management. We have been double mowing,
rolling, and lowing the mowing heights.
We will begin to verticut, sand topdress, and apply growth regulators
soon. March to October is the best time
to be aggressive with the putting surfaces because the grass is growing
vigorously and can recover from stress.
The goal for Timarron is to have a
daily Stimpmeter reading of 10.5 to 11 feet, 365 days a year. At this speed we can achieve consistent ball
roll and turf health on a long-term basis.
Over the last week we have begun to fall into that range. As a reference, a PGA tour event will stimp
at a minimum of 12 feet. Bermuda grass
loves the sun so when we get into a weather pattern of extended cloud cover and
rain we must adjust accordingly.
Driving Range
Tee
We've been keeping the members on the left half of the
DR tee for the last 3 months on Friday, Saturday, Sunday when the grass is
being used. In March, we will switch to the right half of
the DR tee. At that time, the plan is to aerify and aggressively
fertilize the left half of the tee box to encourage bermuda grass growth and
recovery.
Once the turfgrass on left half of the tee is fully
recovered, we will switch back and do the same process to the right half of the
tee. This will allow members to have
good driving range turf on a consistent basis.
In order for this to be successful, members are encouraged to utilize
the small driving range at the far end of the range especially for practice
versus pre-round warm up. It has received very little use this
winter and the turf quality is terrific.
Chipping Green
The decision was made not to overseed the chipper approach
this winter. The reason for this was to
help control the winter weed poa annua.
Poa is a huge problem weed that will take over putting greens. Poa is a prolific seed producer and
adapter. Many herbicides that have
worked in the past are now ineffective.
Poa cannot be removed from overseed. Any herbicides that are applied in an attempt
to kill the poa will also kill the overseed.
So, the overseed acts as a safe haven for the poa. The poa seeds then get tracked onto the
green.
We have hand picked thousands of poa
plants out of our greens this winter.
The chipping green has been by far the worst. By not overseeding the chipper approach in
the future, we have some pre and post emergent herbicide options that will help
contain the spread of poa.
Thanks for your
continued support,
Aaron Clary
Timarron Golf
Course Superintendent