Saturday, April 30, 2011

Green is not Great by Alexander M. Radko

I came across this article yesterday and thought it was worth publishing on the blog.  Although the article was written almost 35 years ago, I think the information holds true even today.  A great deal of the information stated includes philosophies we have been incorporating as we manage towards creeping bentgrass. Read the article, I would be interested in your comments.

Green Is Not Great

Golf is played on grass, not on color.
By Alexander M. Radko
A group from Britain visited the Green Section research grounds at Beltsville, MD, early in the 1950’s when interest was high in the warm-season grasses in that area.  Dr. Fred V. Grau, who was Green Section Director at the time, escorted the visitors through the grounds and enthusiastically described the studies that were being done.  One was the Zoysia plot, which happened to be bleached tan in color because it was late October and Zoysia was dormant.  After Dr. Grau finished his glowing discourse on Zoysia, one visitor, whose voice was exceptionally heavy and whose whisper could carry a long way, said, “That’s the first bloody time I’ve heard so elegant an address on dead grass!”
            This remark typifies what most people think about turfgrass – if it’s green, it’s alive; if it’s any other color, it’s dead or dying!  Many people also have the mistaken notion that the greener the grass, the healthier the turf.  Unfortunately this notion is especially strong among golfers.  They equate dark green with good playing turf, and they often refer to it as beautifully lush turf!  Those trained in the study of turfgrass cringe at this description.  To them lush means undesirable, soft, succulent, out of condition, filled with juice or liquid – as the case may be.  A lush growth often results from the needless race for color despite the fact that color has minimal effect on turfgrass quality for golf.
            Nature has provided grasses with much genetic diversity.  This includes wide differences in color, ranging from dark blue-green to light yellow-green and every intermediate shade.  It is interesting to note that Europeans prefer the light green grasses while Americans very definitely favor a deep blue-green, similar to the dark color of Merion bluegrass.  There are bentgrasses referred to as the Washington types that take on a purple cast with cold weather.  Cohansey (C-7) creeping bentgrass is an example of yellow-green, and although it makes an outstanding putting turf, it isn’t widely accepted because of its very light color.
            Grasses also turn tan with cold weather.  During the winter, northern and southern grasses turn differing shades of tan depending upon the location where they are grown.  Despite this, even the most drastic color change does not affect the playing quality of well-managed turf, a fact that is strikingly evident with warm-season grasses during the winter.  Although dormant and off-color, grasses hold the ball nicely for fairway play.  Color, therefore, is not the most important consideration.  GOLF IS PLAYED ON GRASS, NOT ON COLOR!
            Why this obsession with color?  Golfers like to brag about the color of their golf course; they equate dark green with health, they take pride in saying that “our course looks healthier than yours!”  They also complain about their courses; they compare some neighboring course from a distance (where, indeed, the grass always looks greener) or they compare the course they played when growing conditions were ideal with the condition of their own clubs at times of stress when growing conditions are poor.  Unfair?  Yes, but it’s difficult to overcome such pressure once it circulates within a membership.  Too often such comments force management to say, “If that’s what they want, that’s what we have to give them.”  It takes a very strong personality to stand up to 300 members and say, “You are wrong!  My program is the best long-range direction for the club, we’ll do it my way completely and totally!”  The usual result is a compromise in program, sometimes doing things more for cosmetic purposes and not because it’s the best thing to do.
            The pressure of a membership indeed has great bearing on the golf course management scene.  It has spawned Poa annua-oriented thinking because in reality this is what some memberships want.  (Poa annua, an unreliable annual grass, is considered a weed by some, but a good turf cover by others).  The result is a forced growth of grasses that makes them uniformly greener, but this does not necessarily mean the condition is better for golf.  A forced growth is not a healthy growth!  Without question it is also a large part of the reason why so-called “winter rules” prevail at many golf courses today despite adequate budget expenditure.  If memberships occasionally would accept off-color areas throughout their courses during the playing season, they would be able to play the ball as they find it for a greater part, if not for all the golfing season.
            Turfgrass, as any plant, has varied cycles of growth.  Warm-season grasses begin growth in the spring and show their strongest growth in summer.  When cold weather comes they go into a period of semi-to total dormancy, depending upon the degree of cold experienced in any specific location.  All growth begins in spring as air temperatures rise above freezing.  Growth is slow until the soil warms and winter moisture disappears.  Cool-season grasses go into their stress period in summer; they enter a period of semi-dormancy, which is a resting stage of reduced metabolism, until cool nights prevail in late summer.  Then they resume good growth throughout the fall.  During winter they go dormant with freezing weather and remain in that condition until spring.  This is their yearly cycle; there is no way to change it and attempts to force growth or to force color can have only a harmful effect on their healthful growth.  In spring, therefore, cool-season grasses take time to regain their normal color.  Don’t hurry it by watering and fertilizing too early.  These practices weaken the turf, make it soft and succulent, and more often than not impose a greater stress on the turf during difficult periods of summer.
            Early watering is difficult to justify.  Grasses don’t die in the spring from lack of water!  Normally, winter and early spring precipitation is adequate to provide for early season grass needs.  It is at this time that grasses have the opportunity to develop deep root systems that are so necessary for healthful growth throughout the rest of the growing year.  Early irrigation encourages shallow roots.  Grasses are much the same as humans; they, too, can be conditioned to a way of life and never know any other.  The time to be rough and still get away with it is in the early spring.  What is done during this stage of growth has a strong bearing on how the grasses perform during the rest of the year, especially during stress periods.
            So the grass isn’t green!  So the greens don’t hold well for the first month of play!  So what?  This is the time of year for the player to work his swing into the groove for better summer play; similarly, this is the time for grasses to work themselves out of dormancy, to condition themselves for the tough road ahead.  There is a big difference between growing grasses for golf and growing grasses for exhibitions.  Utility grasses must be disciplined and conditioned for traffic, abuse and wear under trying conditions of close cut.  This is tough treatment but toughness is necessary for their healthful performance when the chips are down.  If members would accept this as a way of golf course life, it would be easier to develop permanent grasses in place of Poa annua.
            There is another fact of life in irrigating golf courses.  Terrain is varied.  Slopes, mounds, hills and depressions complement whatever level areas are to be found.  Soils vary too, in depth as well as in composition.  Sand, gravel, rock or ledge permeate areas of golf course property, and soil types vary, sometimes slightly, sometimes greatly.  How is it possible, therefore, to irrigate uniformly when water runoff and water penetration are so variable?
            You can’t!
            If you want to keep the high spots and rock ledge areas green in summer, you must overwater the adjacent areas.  If you set your pattern of irrigation to favor the low areas, then the high spots suffer.  The point is that there is no uniform way to satisfy all conditions of soil and terrain in irrigating golf courses.  Something must suffer, and the agronomically sound direction to pursue is to water only enough to keep grasses alive without serious regard for the development of off-color areas.
            Overwatering is one of the cardinal sins of turfgrass management.  If your course doesn’t have off-color areas under conditions described, then chances are your turf is being overwatered to satisfy the membership’s “keep it green at all costs” edict – whether it favors Poa annua or not!
            This is another reason why turfgrass managers throw their hands up and sooner or later follow the path of least resistance.  Why fight it if their members play golf on color?
            Poa annua is the perfect answer for a good portion of the year.  From the members’ viewpoint water is the answer to keeping grass green.  After all, when an expensive system is installed, the members will take no excuses for grasses turning off-color; if the grass isn’t solidly green, then the man doesn’t know his business.  Let’s fire him and get someone new!  What a misconception!  What an unfair, amateurish appraisal!  However, the old axiom applies; “The boss may not always be right, but he’s always the boss!”
            Fertilizer also promotes color in turfgrasses.  Nitrogen can modify the natural color of grasses slightly, making them a shade darker green than normal, especially when they are heavily fertilized.  Color can be induced early in spring by applications of nitrogen.  This is forced growth, inducing faster growth than the plant would make otherwise, an accepted practice, but only if it is timely and controlled.  We have already said that grasses, too, are creatures of habit.  If you feed them heavily, they come to expect it.  Heavy feeding, however, induces heavy and thick-bladed growth.  If grasses are overstimulated and are fed too early, their growth is soft, succulent and less capable of supporting the golf ball.  Hungry grass, on the other hand, is tough grass; blades that are hungry and lean support the ball well and interfere least with the clubhead’s progress through the ball.  When the grasses are ready to move, only a little help from fertilizer will provide healthful growth.  It’s important to wait for signs that they are ready for food.  This is what most superintendents would do if they managed only for the turfgrass needs.
            Mowing also has a bearing on color.  The higher the cut, the easier it is to keep grasses green and the better the color, especially during periods of stress.  The mowing height, the mowing frequency and the mowing pattern each influences health and color.  The closer the grasses are cut, the better they play.  The closer they are cut, the more difficult it is to keep them uniformly green.  Again, terrain and soils have a strong bearing on the performance of grasses on certain areas.  The closer the cut, the more difficult it is to manage water properly.  Water application is more critical here again, if it is pointed towards the preservation of the permanent grasses.  This means a low amount of watering.  Poa annua always benefits from overwatering.  In the days before fairway irrigation, grasses were often moved at 1 ¼ to 1 ½ inches.  When the grass was dry, this cut was not objectionable because dry grass blades are thin and rigid and the clubhead can move through the ball easily.  The unwatered grass is light and firm, while the watered grass is soft and heavy. Unwatered grass allows a firm surface; heavy watering results in a soft, spongy turf and soil and, therefore, the golfer loses some control over his shots.  A good example of this phenomenon now exists on unwatered rough areas.  Find a spot and try it for yourself.  The problem, however, under completely unwatered conditions is a lack of turf uniformity and density.  Eliminating water obviously is not the answer, just as too much water is not the answer, either.
            The solution lies in a management program somewhere in between.  The British system of course management for the most part represents the least watering principle, the tough management of grasses, the laissez faire doctrine of allowing grasses to fend for themselves and encouraging the fittest to survive.  They describe the American way of management as “the manufactured look,” one that tends to favor weaker grasses through management and maintenance techniques, thereby promoting a weak overall stand.
            Somewhere in between is the answer, but for better golf, in my opinion, the British style of management is the system to follow.  This is especially true since economic, ecological and environmental factors are now so much a part of golf and will become even more influential in the future.
            Finally, the race for color has had a solid impact on budgets.  Water, energy, fertilizer, chemicals, manpower and equipment are now more costly.  As grass growth is forced with excesses of water and fertilizer, more disease, insect and Poa annua problems result.  The more the grass is forced, the more the need for additional man-hours of mowing time.
            Equally important are the increased time and cost of parts required for conditioning and repair of equipment.  The race of color has had a solid impact on golf course management.  It’s time to get away from the manufactured look.  Let’s go back to emphasizing natural turf growth, to growing tougher grasses.  Let’s go back to playing golf on grass, and not on color!
Golf Journal, August 1977

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Advantage...Bentgrass

For those that have been following the changes we made to our maintenance philosophy 3 years ago on our greens,tees and fairways you're aware of adjustments we've made to our cultural and nutritional practices.  Practices that we know, over time, have the ability to favor creeping bentgrass and give it the edge over poa annua. As we start the 2011 season I thought now would be a good time to show some photos to compare where we were to where we are now.  I have a lot of photos so it's difficult to show them all for comparison purposes, but I have selected a few of interest.

No one said what we are trying to accomplish would be easy and we've never said it would happen over night.  A transition takes time, patience and no doubt we have had our share of bumps along the way.  But what we have seen over the past 3 years is a slow and steady change in the overall dynamics of our greens and fairways.  Fairways, as most would expect, have transitioned the quickest.  Going from a stand of 30-50% creeping bentgrass to a dominant stand of creeping bentgrass estimated to be 80-90%.  The most highly populated poa areas are where we have the most cart and mower traffic, where compaction is the greatest, next to fairway bunkers and where the transition between the fairway and approach meet.  Areas we will be focusing a great deal of attention on this year to provide more favorable conditions for creeping bentgrass.

As seen in the this photo of 7 fairway in the spring of 2008 compared to the same fairway in the spring of 2011, the swing in the composition of turf varieties is quite obvious.  My one wish is that I would have taken more photographs of our fairways to show the transition.  But for those on our staff who have worked here a long time, they notice it and comment on the change quite frequently. (click on the photos to enlarge them to have a better view of the various grass types, the light colored turf is poa annua and the darker grass is creeping bentgrass)


Two more photos showing the 14th fairway.  The first from 2008 and the second from 2011.

Now greens on the other hand have not been the beneficiary of such an easy transition and that's to be expected. The dynamics of our greens is all over the board.  Typically we group them into 3 categories, we have 6 greens with over 60% creeping bentgrass, 6 greens with around 25-60% bent populations and then we have 6 greens well under 25% bent. These are clearly our poa dominated greens.  I would like to share some photos of one green in particular that has made a huge swing from poa annua to bentgrass in the past 3 years.

In 2008 our 2nd green was 70-80% poa annua.  In only the second year 2009 you can seen the bent emerging. 3 years later in 2011 its closer to 60% bentgrass.

All three photos show the green before a cut in the spring following the removal of covers.  In the 2008 photo there is virtually no creeping bentgrass visible as we never provided an advantage for the bent.  2009 you can see a change taking place. Now in 2011 following the removal of the covers...Advantage Bentgrass.  Interestingly there is a diverse population of multiple varieties of creeping bentgrass, as would be expected on a 113 year old course.

One question I'm often asked is do you overseed?  No we do not.  The bentgrass that's creeping and filling in is grass that's always been there. We're just providing it an environment where it can thrive.

If you study the photo of our 12th green from the summer of 2009 to the spring of 2011 you can see how the bentgrass has not only been spreading, but also colonizing into larger groups.  As we continue to provide adventitious conditions for the bentgrass it continues to thrive and compete against the poa.
Pretty cool stuff

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Spring Snow Event


The Forecasters were calling for 1-2" of snow last night.  This is surely not unusual for Minnesota, but after a long snow covered winter, just not what many of us had in mind for the month of April.  It hasn't been a great opening week, weather wise it's been cool and cloudy.  The extended forecast shows temperatures barely making 50 degrees.  For those courses with winter damage to their fine turf areas, this weather is not conducive for aiding turf recovery.  Patience will be needed for the Superintendents and golfers alike and hopefully May will provide us with some warmer conditions.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Covers Removed and Course Clean-up Begins


                                                                             # 4 green

This past Wednesday we removed all the covers from the greens.  Based on reported conditions around the Twin Cities, I'm quite pleased with the condition of our greens.  There are a few blemishes on a few greens such as 4, 6 and 13, but these are minor and will recover or can be repaired quite easily.  The green with the most damage was on the 1st green.  Damage occurred in the middle of the green (a very strange location) in a 250 sq. ft. area.  The plants have severe leaf tissue damage, but the crowns of the plants and the roots appear healthy.  We have covered this area in an attempt to raise the soil temperature to try and stimulate some growth.  We will attempt this method first so we can determine what our next phase in the recovery process might be.  Hopefully the plants are not completely dead.
The covers we utilized to protect our greens through the winter are an impermeable plastic.  We use this type of cover to protect the plants from free water or ice.  We also install a 1/8" rolls of foam to protect the plants from freeze/thaw cycles which can also kill plants in the middle of the winter.  Although we are trying to eliminate free water from reaching the plants in winter, one disadvantage to the impermeable cover is that no snow melt is allowed on the greens. So when we remove our covers, the greens are dry and require water very soon following the removal.  A lesson we have learned the hard way in the past. Now with the use of our TDR 300 moisture sensor we can easily monitor our moisture levels. 

This year, only two days after removing covers greens needed water asap. We checked moisture levels as soon as the covers were removed as well as the following 2 days.  It was obvious with moisture levels falling below 10% or delicate poa annua plants would require water very soon.  Since the frost is gone we were able to pressurize the irrigation system on Friday.  Based on the plants needs we broke one of the cardinal sins of our Rick Krause, our irrigation technician of 27 years, never pressurize the irrigation system on a Friday.  Unfortunately the plants don't know or care what day it is and they needed water. That's two years in a row of breaking that rule, last year we pressurized on a Saturday.

It appears we did a great job with the blow-out last fall with the irrigation system. We were able to pressurize in a little under 2 hours and have no leaks or breaks.  Greens we flooded with a 30 minute water cycle and field capacity moisture levels were obtained. The affect of the water on the plants was almost immediate.  Good to know we have a solid irrigation system that we can count on, money well spent 8 years ago.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Cover Removal

Today we will be removing covers from greens.  I will keep you posted as to the outcome.  I'm staying optimistic even though there are four course's in the Metro that have minor to severe damage on their greens, even with covers.  I will post photos later today or tomorrow. Hoping to have the majority of the covers removed as long as the wind doesn't get too strong.  Watch the twitter feed for the most up-to-date information.

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