Monday, December 27, 2010

Managing for the Greatest Common Denominator

Over the last few years much of our turf management philosophy has focused on managing for the greatest common denominator. It’s a topic I have spent a lot of time discussing with a friend and fellow Golf Course Superintendent, Chris Tritabaugh of Northland Country Club in Duluth, Minnesota. During these discussions we have both concluded that many of us manage for the lowest common denominator. This is to say as superintendents our ultimate job is to maintain the golf course in such a manner that we never lose turf. No matter what the species, no matter what the cultivar, our job is to see that no turf is lost.

So what does that really mean? Basically there are two types of turf that Superintendents in the northern region of the country manage, creeping bentgrass and poa annua. We all know that creeping bentgrass is the stronger species of turf and poa annua is the weaker species. However, on average most Superintendents will manage for the weaker grass type, poa annua. Why? If poa annua is the weaker grass why do we manage it, support it and spend thousands of dollars keeping it alive when a stronger species is also present?

Many in the golf industry know that for the past 3 years we have been working with the consulting firm of Greenway Golf and have been implementing many ideas and concepts from Marc Logan, all in an attempt to promote and manage for, on our greens, tees and fairways, creeping bentgrass. Many of the concepts have been around for decades, Marc has just been able to incorporate some old concepts with new technology. The philosophy is based on cultural and nutritional concepts that encourage the promotion of the greatest common denominator, creeping bentgrass. Good, solid, practical greenkeeping.

It’s quite interesting if you really think about it. Superintendents go out of their way every day to make sure they don’t lose the weakest strand of turf on their fine turf areas. Extra water required to keep the plants alive during the heat of the summer, or additional fertility necessary to feed and maintain the weaker species and frequent fungicide applications insuring disease does not kill the less healthy plant.

Over 15 years ago I worked for a Superintendent by the name of Scott Austin. Scott had been the Super at Midland Hills Country Club in St. Paul, MN for 20 years. His greens were firm, fast and made up of a majority of creeping bentgrass. Greens were single cut with Toro 1000’s at .125”, never rolled and stimped around 10’ to 10.5’ daily. One thing we never did in the 4 years I worked for him was hand water greens. His theory…"if we start to syringe greens in the afternoon, that plant is then going to become conditioned to receiving this water and we don’t want that to happen.” Deep infrequent watering cycles was how he managed. Sure there was poa in his greens, but even the poa was conditioned and evolved to accept those conditions.

After my time at Midland Hills, I made the move to Minikahda, this was 15 years ago. The poa plants on our greens had been conditioned to the point if the sun was high and shining, you better have a hose in your hand or you were going to lose some turf. My goal in the first 5 years I was the Supt. here at Minikahda was to try and find a way to condition the poa to not be so weak. Find a way to reduce the dependence on daily hand watering and nightly water cycles. Find a way to reduce the dependence on high fertility inputs, namely nitrogen.

Now fast forward to the past 3 years. Out goal since hiring Greenway Golf is to slowly transition our greens to a predominately creeping bentgrass stand. How are we doing that? We are doing this by favoring the stronger grass species through cultural and nutritional practices; managing for the highest common denominator. Acid based fertilizers, deep infrequent watering cycles, and reducing surface disturbance to the finer turf playing surfaces are all a part of our philosophy.

This past summer through no one’s fault but my own, I got a little aggressive in trying to force the growth of the creeping bentgrass population. In the process we lost some poa annua. Did we lose it all, no, but we did lose bio-types of poa annua, which were typically the ones which we had to “baby” to make it through the summer. We lost the bio-types we always worked our butts off to keep alive. We lost the lowest common denominators.

As we progress through our journey to manage for the stronger species, I know there are many out there who are nay sayers, they shake their heads, they think to themselves, what we are doing can’t be done. You’re always going to have poa to deal with. I say fine, your right, poa annua will always be around to deal with. In fact we have some very strong and resilient bio-types of poa annua in our finer turf areas. Great, if they are the strongest type then they deserve to be here right along with our stronger bent varieties. In the meantime as we transition, there may be times when we may lose some poa annua. If by chance those bio-types can’t handle what we are doing, then they probably don’t belong to be in the mix with the greatest common denominators.

The evolution of turf species on a green can be quite interesting to watch. If the turf is over managed, meaning over-watered and over-fertilized, it’s my feeling that those plants then become dependent on those inputs to survive. Reduce or remove those inputs and those plants will struggle to survive under the same maintenance regime. If those same inputs are slowly weaned from the system those plants adjust and evolve to accept those changes and during the process, the greatest common denominator (creeping bentgrass) begins to become the dominant species as it requires less inputs than poa annua.

Our ultimate goal of a dominant stand of creeping bentgrass on our greens and fairways will take time. There is no magic formula, just persistence and patience. But in the long run through our change in philosophy we will continue to provide excellent playing surfaces as well as provide a sustainable managed golf course.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Cross Country Ski Trails

As with every winter here at Minikahda we try to provide the very best for a cross country ski trail. Late last winter we were able to get an upgrade in grooming equipment, making the grooming process much more efficient. Below is a picture of the new snowmobile and Ginsu groomer, capable of laying a cut track for inline skiing and a corduroy track for skate skiing.


This year Mother Nature has provided us with more than enough snow so far to have some great trails. With close to 4 miles of ski trails, there is more than enough room for inline and skate skiers to enjoy the trails. See the map below for the available ski and walking/snowshoeing routes. (click on the map for an enlarged view)
There are three entry points for the ski trails:
A. lower parking lot
B. bath house parking lot by #18 green



C. cartpath by #9 green tee




ENJOY THE TRAILS!!!




Friday, December 10, 2010

Chimney Swift Tower

As environmental stewards, we always look to continue and improve upon our Audubon program. Joining Minnesota's Audubon "Chimney Swift Conservation Project" would be another great addition.

The bird, Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica), often called the "flying cigar", has seen a 50% decline in population over the past 4 decades. The Chimney Swift typically has only one brood per season in our area beginning sometime in May, with most clutches having 3-5 eggs. After an incubation period of about 3 weeks, the hatchlings are practicing flight inside the tower and flying outside the tower by the 4th week. Although a tower will only house one nesting pair per year, many other Chimney Swifts (up to the hundreds) will use the tower as a roost. We have routinely seen Chimney Swifts flying around the grounds of Minikahda during our annual "Bird Watch", mostly during the dawn and dusk times of day.
Since 1995 the Texas-based Driftwood Wildlife Association has been in charge of monitoring and promoting the conservation of these birds throughout North America. Our contribution to the project would be to construct a Chimney Swift Tower and install it somewhere on the grounds of Minikahda. After doing some additional research and talking with several other people who have already installed a tower, a site was chosen here at Minikahda and the construction process began. With some luck we'll have a nesting pair next spring.

More information about the project and Chimney Swifts in our area can be found here: at Minnesota Audubon Chimney Swift

The link below has some great photos of the entire nesting cycle from an inside the tower view, hopefully this will occur in our tower at Minikahda next year.

Below is the process of building and installing our tower here at The Minikahda Club.


The three tower sections constructed.

First tower section concreted into the ground.


The three tower sections put together.


The finished Chimney Swift tower, standing just over 14'6".

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The Golf Course Trades Magazine Article


In the December issue of The Golf Course Trades magazine, I was fortunate to write this issues featured article. If you have a moment please read the article titled, My Turning Point. The article gives an inside look into how and why we have changed our management philosophy towards managing our finer turfgrass plants.


Wednesday, December 1, 2010

There's more to our Gardens then Deadheading and Watering

Maybe one of the most under appreciated members of our staff and an individual, if not for his work, would almost go unnoticed (and that's really the way he likes it). Dick Axum, Head Gardener (our only Gardener) has been a member of our Grounds Staff for the past 21 years. In a way Dick works behind the scenes, quietly and diligently going about his work attending to one plant at a time.

The back bone of the gardens, the basis for Dick's madness, is built behind the compost which he makes every fall. For the past 15 years Dick has been making his own compost to add to gardens throughout the golf course and around the club house. All material used for the compost is generated on the property. Compost materials include all of the annual flowers that are removed each fall, Halloween outdoor decorations such as corn stalks, straw bales, and even food scraps that Dick brings from his house each week to deposit on his pile. The backbone to his composting is about 5 loads of leaves collected from the golf course in the fall.

Dick will spend about 4-6 weeks in the later part of November and the month of December grinding leaves and building his compost which will be used next fall. Typically once the leaves and other organic material has been ground and piled, the pile will sit for about 9 months before any of it's used.

One amendment which we would like to begin adding to his pile this year will be coffee grounds from the club house. We want to be able to utilize as much material from our facility as possible to recycle and we feel coffee grounds will be a good place to start. Coffee grounds have a very good nutrient analysis and is a excellent amendment to add to our compost pile. Since we will be using coffee grounds from the club house, this will be a team effort by the waitstaff to save the coffee grounds for our usage. Initially it will take some work to get in place, but like most changes it will only take some time to make the adjustment and the commitment.


No matter the conditions, Dick works through it to make sure his compost pile is made. Quite a determined and focused individual.

Hundreds of tulip bulbs are planted each fall in the front bed.

Multiple containers are positioned around the clubhouse. Dick does a wonderful job keeping the flowers in bloom all season long.

Pool and snack bar area.

The clubs rose gardens are spectacular. Dick invests a great deal of care and attention to each rose plant and it shows. Many of these plants are at least 20 years old.

Dick really has a relationship with his gardens and the soil. He knows and understands how each garden is different and knows what can and will grow, or will not grow in each location. As I watch Dick develop his compost and care for the soils I am reminded of a paragraph from Joel Salatin's book The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer,

"Take a handful of good compost, full of microbes. Bury your nose in it and inhale deeply. Now take a handful of any drug, pesticide, any chemical fertilizer. Bury your nose in it. Inhale deeply. Which relationship would you rather have?"

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