Grass Type

Continuing on today with the series on what makes greens great, I thought I would touch a bit on grass types. They can make a huge difference in the quality of a green, from how well they roll, to how well they stand up to temperature extremes. How we maintain our greens via cultural practices (topdressing, verticutting, water, ect ) also plays a big role in what species of grass wins out. The two main species we deal with here in Atlantic Canada are creeping bentgrass and poa annua (fescue is also a consideration, but there is only one course seeded out to fescue at this point, so we will see how it goes).
 Most of the older courses you would play around the Maritimes (older than 20 yrs) are predominantly poa surfaces. Over time many people in the industry think that poa dominance is inevitable and they maintain for it. The courses that were built over the past 10 years or so would still have majority bentgrass surfaces, although many would be on the slow road to poa.  These courses would have been seeded out to a newer strain of bentgrass and depending on the cultural practices employed, they would have varying amounts of poa vs bentgrass in their greens.
 People ask me a lot what the difference is between the two species of turf. Well the best way to answer that is to feature each one, give some pros and cons, and let you decide. Most who know me know which one I prefer, but that by no means makes it right. So let's start with Poa...

Poa Annua

• What it likes...
    - lot's of water (frequent small amounts)
    - lot's of fertilizer
    - to be disturbed (via cultivation like verticutting)
    - openings or voids in the turf stand. Poa is a very opportunistic grass that will fill in any void it can.

• Positives
   - it makes a fine putting surface if you can control the seed head development
   - it recovers really quickly because of prolific seed head production
   - it will fill in bare areas of turf (if you want it to)

• What it dislikes...
    - lack of water
    - lack of fertilizer
    - the winter...especially ice cover.
    - the heat of the summer
    - to much traffic
• Negatives
  - susceptible to winter kill (although it can bounce back...by July)

 
   - seed head production makes for bumpy surfaces for putting

   - they have very shallow root systems that make it tough to maintain in the summer.

 So poa has some positives and some negatives for sure. That said, a lot of the best courses in the world (Pebble Beach, Oakmont) have poa surfaces. They also have lots of money to maintain them.

Creeping Bentgrass

• What it likes...
   -  deep and infrequent amounts of water
   - small amounts of fertilizer
   - to be left alone
   - low mowing heights

• Positives
   - deep roots

                                                             That's from #7 green today
 
     - will stand up to disease better than poa if maintained properly
     - makes for a wonderful putting surface
     - holds up well to traffic
     - it generally holds up to winter and deals with ice cover better than poa (but when it dies it does not    come back!)

• What it doesn't like...
    - to much water
    - to much fertilizer (both cause to much thatch production)
    - to be disturbed (if done at the wrong time it allows poa invasion)
   
 • Negatives
  - it can be a prolific thatch producer and becomes very prone to certain diseases if maintained incorrectly.
  - can be slow to wake up in the spring
 

 So there you go, an abridged version of the two main species of turf we use on our greens. Like I said, both can be great putting surfaces, but in the end I will always chose bentgrass. There is a slow movement away from poa in the industry at this time (there are even chemicals that will eradicate poa but not harm the bentgrass) and even a new way of looking at bentgrass maintenance that will allow it to become an even more sustainable species of choice.


PS     The other turf one could choose  is a fescue mixture. Many of the older links course in the UK have predominantly fescue surfaces and they work just fine. Fescue is probably the most sustainable choice for greens, as it requires little in the amount of water, fertilizer, or fungicides. It does not, however, stand up well to any amount traffic (read, no golf carts). The the course I mentioned earlier is the soon to be opened Cabot Links, located in Inverness NS. It will be interesting to see how these surfaces hold up to the rigors of Maritime winters and the inevitable traffic form a full golf season...stay tuned.

  Thanks for reading
paul m

What makes greens great?

I have been mulling over this post for a couple of weeks now, fine tuning what I wanted it to look like over many quiet mornings changing holes (this morning was stunning). 

Basically what I have been batting around in my head, is what makes one green better than another? How is it that one set of greens are great and another set just so so. I realized after thinking about it for a while, there are many factors that come in to play. From design right through to how we topdress, a lot of people have input into how a set of greens behaves. So this post will deal with the nuts and bolts of constructing and maintaining a great green. We will start at the beginning and work our way through all of the different factors that can make or break a green. The outline will be:
1. Design & Construction
2. Grass Type
3. Topdressing, Aerating, & Verticutting
4. Irrigation Practices & Drainage
5. Fertilizer & Chemical
6. Mowing,  Rolling, & Grooming

 I will try to cover one topic per week for the next while, keeping in mind that because of the nature of my job, that may not happen...


1. Design and Construction
    Well you can't talk about a great set of greens without starting at the beginning. If a set of greens are not designed well, or not constructed with due diligence, there is not much point even starting the conversation. I have seen lots of talented Superintendents manage average surfaces very well, but there is a big difference between a well maintained green and a great all around set of greens.
    We can all remember the first time we set foot on a green that made us pause and take it all in. The one that made you smile because of the fun you had trying to navigate your way to the hole location. Many of these surfaces were built by the renowned "Golden Age Architects", back in the early part of the 19th century with nothing more than a pan and a horse. The best local examples of such greens around the Maritimes  reside mostly at the Stanley Thompson designed courses . Places like Highlands Links in Cape Breton or Old Ashburn located in Halifax are blessed with greens that are bold and full of contour and style.  The original greens at Thompson's only course on PEI, Green Gables,  are still some of the best designed greens I have ever worked with. I will never forget the chuckle I had the first day I was able to cut a pin on the 16th hole at Gables.

    Still the best green I have ever set foot on...

  A well designed set of greens must be fun and full of interesting rolls and bumps, but they also must be placed well within the framework of the architecture. The greens must fit the intended purpose of a hole, varying in size and shape depending on what the architect is trying to accomplish. All to often we play a hole to a green that just leaves us scratching our heads, because it doesn't seem to fit the strategy of the hole.
 Part of this placement a lot to do with the greens surroundings also. You can have a great set of greens, but if they are all set in low valleys and surrounded by trees, then they are never going to live up to there potential. Things like shade, air movement, and proper soil conditions all must be considered by the architect in order to make the greens functional. Even some of the best greens at Green Gables and Highlands Links had started to suffer before thoughtful renovations (by Tom McBroom and Ian Andrew respectively) opened up the green sites and allowed the greens to breath again.

The 4th hole at Anderson's Creek Golf Club is always hampered by to much shade and poor air movement.

The greens at the soon to open Cabot Links in Inverness, NS, appear to have all the pieces of the puzzle in place. Fun design, lots of humps & hollows, and lots of sun and air movement. (the double green on #11 & #13 are pictured above)

 Proper construction goes hand in hand with proper design. The choice of the structure of the green is not as important as the quality of the materials used or the attention to detail with the finish work. There are many different styles of greens to choose from, be it USGA, California style, modified USGA, or push up greens that use native materials such as local sand or good quality topsoil. The contractor must be able to not only adhere to the design principles laid out by the architect, but also must be able to make changes on the fly when necessary. Countless hours are spent by good contractors to get the contours just so, making the green not only fun to play, but functional as well. A great pin position can be rendered useless if the finish work does not allow water to exit the putting surface. Drainage of water both internally and off the surface is paramount to having a great surface to play on.
  The final point with regards to design has to do with how the Superintendent maintains the speed threshold. Many of the older greens that were originally built to accommodate slower green speeds, are being rendered unpinnable with today's quest for fast greens. A lot of the subtlety of a great green can be lost is everyone is four putting the green. Both Superintendents and greens committees must be aware of the ideal speed for the design of the green.  
  So we have built a great set of greens, with lots of internal contours, lots of sunshine and air movement, and the finish work was impeccable. What can possibly go wrong? Well, lots can and mismanagement can ruin a great putting green. The best designed greens in the world don't stay that way by accident. It takes a talented Superintendent, along with a dedicated crew to maintain greens at peak condition. Next week we will start going through some of the ins and outs of proper putting green maintenance.

Project Updates

Well its been a really busy couple of weeks down at the Turf Department, with the guys working really hard to get a few more projects done. The first one is yet another tee leveled...

This is a picture of the white tee deck on #11. We again stripped the old sod, regraded the surface, and laid out new sod. We have been generating most of the sod we have been using for these tee projects in house. The sod for this job came from the very back deck on #18.

But when you take the sod off an existing tee deck, then you must replace it somehow. We decided to core aerify a few other decks, harvest the cores, and use them to regrow the back deck on 18. By using the cores, adding a bit of sand, seed, fertilizer, and water, the deck should regenerate fairly quickly.

This is the deck with the new cores laid out before the final finish work.


The second project we were working on yesterday was codenamed the "Dry Spot Protocol" (i thought it almost sounded like a good movie title). The idea behind this particular project was to reduce the severity of an issue we deal with throughout the summer called localized dry spot. LDS occurs when the higher spots of the greens dry out and become hydrophobic. That basically means these areas stress out and actually repel water. It leads to a lot of hand watering through the heat of the summer.
 The theory behind this project was if we could remove columns of hydrophobic sand and replace them with something that would hold moisture better, then we would not have to resort to hand watering as much. So here is what we did...

1. First we core aerified the affected area.  We used 5/8 tines on our 10 tine holders with the Procore 648.We then simply collected the cores. Luckily most of the areas in question fall to the perimeter of the putting surface, so disruption in play would be minimal.

2. This is a picture of Keith brooming in our special secret mix...(it's really a mix of topsoil, vermicompost, and a product called axis). It was a bit time consuming but we had to do it all by hand because of the small nature of the area disturbed.

3. After a quick shot of ammonium sulphate, Keith was on the hose to water in the mixture. Hopefully over the next while these areas will increase their water retention and thus reduce the amount of this.

This is what the final product looked like. We may have to go back and top up some of the holes next week if there is any significant settling in the holes. The greens we got to yesterday included, #6, #17, #16, and #18. We expect to continue with a few more next week. We will update the progress later.

Thanks for reading...

Listen to the plug...

This morning, courtesy of our first big tournament of the year, I ended up with one extra plug when out changing holes (#11 has two holes today). At first I never gave it much thought, but as I traveled around with the plug in my bucket I got to wondering about all the things we can learn from a simple plug...

 Well the first thing we are always looking for is strong, healthy, deep roots. These roots are diving down a solid 8-9" and that is great. Roots are the lifeblood of the turf, and they do a lot to sustain the plants throughout the stress of the summer. Roots absorb water and nutrients, and create a positive symbiotic relationship with all the living entities in the soil. This relationship is the backbone of maintaining healthy greens.

The second thing we tend to focus on is the thatch layer and how it is developing. We have been working hard over the past couple of seasons to reduce our thatch layer and if you look at the top of the plug you can see how the thatch and sand are really mixed together nicely. This occurs when topdressing keeps pace with growth. We are making headway in the battle with the thatch layer, but it will continue for a while yet.

Next we like to see columns of clean sand like the ones pointed out in the picture. These are the result of aerating the greens in the fall and filling the open holes with fresh sand. These channels allow better air and water movement into the green profile, and go a long way to diluting and mixing the thatch layer.

  The last thing that will catch our attention is throughout the column of soil there appears to be uniform moisture content. There is not to much (then the green would be to soft), and there is not to little (the green would be under tremendous stress)...no like Goldilocks, this plug has its moisture just right. This is as a result of a new product we are trying this year, called Revolution. It is a wetting agent, which helps distribute the water we (or mother nature) apply, and move any excess water though the profile efficiently. It seems to be working well so far...will keep you posted.

 So as you can see there are many things that warrant a second look out on a golf course. Most of what you see on the surface is just one piece of the puzzle we work hard at assembling each day. And when things are humming along its a fun puzzle to work on.

Thanks for reading
paul m