Family Tradition

Long-time employee at Minikahda, Assistant Superintendent Johnny Jarosz, has 27 years experience on the Grounds Department alone.  That doesn't include his years of service to the club, first as a caddie, then at the bag room and also a short stint washing dishes in the kitchen.  Minikahda is in his blood and quite frankly is the only place he has ever worked.  Now for the first time all three of his boys are working here at the same time.  Neal (20), Cole (17) and Seth (14) are all caddying at the club this summer.  Neal, an Evans Scholar, and Cole are highly qualified and skilled caddies who are highly regarded and frequently requested by the members.  Seth is in his 1st year and by the sounds of it, is a quick study.  I've got to say, its pretty cool to see these three young men out here working together.  I know Johnny feels the same way. 

Seth, Cole and Neal Jarosz

Should I Dare Say It...I hate sod!

Typically I try not to write a lot of opinions on this blog and stick to facts about what we are positively accomplishing on the golf course.  But I really can't help this one. I hate sodding on the golf course and I will try to avoid it when at all possible.  There I said it!  Sod is a quick fix in most instances and it has its place, but when it comes to greens or fairways the long-term success is difficult and sod needs to be managed for many years until it matures into the site.

Typically sod used on our greens either is harvested from a practice green or comes from our sod nursery.  Sod, no matter where it comes from, from my experience, is fickle for the first 1-2 years.  The roots tend to be shallow, extra watering is constantly required and all it takes is one day of heat stress and the sod can be lost.  Sod requires extra fertility as well as topdressing and aeration.  Hence it takes a couple of years until it establishes properly and blends into playing surface. 

Sod laid this spring on the 1st green.  Plugging of the dead spots will be required.

Sod laid this spring on the 1st green, took a hit this past week during the week of severe heat.  All it took was a few hours of heat and a lack of water and turf loss happened quickly.  Additionally sod that was laid last year on some fairway and approach areas has been struggling in the heat, despite additional aeration, fertilizer and fungicide treatments.  Even into the second year, with decent roots, Fickle! 

Sod laid in the spring of 2010. Struggling due to shallow roots, mower traffic and cart traffic.

August Newsletter Article "The Eagle Eye"

Since I just completed my August newsletter article for The Minikahda Columns, I thought I might as well share it on the blog.

Typical Minnesota Weather?                      

It seems every season in Minnesota we deal with extremes; extreme cold, extreme heat and this past month extreme dew points.  July’s weather was one for the records and thankfully the course made it through virtually unscathed.  Proper preparation leading up to the heat, backing off of unnecessary cultural practices such as mowing and rolling of greens and a careful watch of the plants was critical to the turf survival during that stretch of weather.  Proper application of plant protectants was also critical as dew points and temperatures reached record highs.  The weather provided ideal conditions for pathogens such as brown patch and pythium blight.  A perfect storm for disease pressure, fortunately our fine turf areas did not suffer loss from any of these diseases.

The Art Water Management

When to water? What areas to water? Do we water lightly or deeply? What will tomorrow’s weather bring? What does the rest of the weeks weather look like? What events are happening this week? Should we hold off water and wait? Do we syringe greens or do they need a little more to make it through the day? As you can see from these questions there’s little science involved when it comes to water management decisions and a lot more art.  Every day we ask ourselves these questions. I consult with our experienced staff and we make a daily decision before we head home.  Most of the time I think we get it right but sometimes we guess wrong (usually because I tend to lean conservatively with water giving the benefit to the plant that it can survive another day before we need to water it). 

The thing about water, once it’s down, it’s down. We can’t take the application back.  Our goal is not only to provide firm playing conditions, but we also want to maintain healthy turf with deep roots.  From a turf managers, prospective we strive to make deep infrequent irrigation cycles that will promote deep roots on our greens, tees, fairways and rough. Nightly watering may be necessary based on daily weather conditions, but I also feel it conditions the plant to require that type of watering.  By stretching the water cycles we can condition the plants to survive extended periods without nightly watering, mimicking conditions found in nature.  Do we need to water tonight?  That’s should be the ultimate daily question for all Greenkeepers.

Imprelis Herbicide by Dupont          

If you’ve been reading the papers (Star Tribune, July 23^rd, A Surprise Toll on Trees) you’ve probably seen some articles regarding the damage the new herbicide Imprelis has had on coniferous trees on golf courses and homeowners lawns.  We have not used this herbicide on the golf course and there is no concern for tree loss on the golf course do to use of this product. 

Fall Construction Projects

By now you know about the Driving range and tennis projects, we also have a few small projects on the golf course that have been approved for completion.  The left greenside pot bunker on #2 will be expanded to entire left of the green.  The right fairway bunker on #17 will be converted to a double stacked bunker (similar to the fairway bunkers on #5) and a new 600 yard tee will be added to the 13^th hole.  These minor projects are slated to begin this fall.  Hartman Companies will provide the rough shaping and the finish work will be completed in house by our staff.  Looks like we’re going to have a busy fall.

Taking it Easy

The next couple days will test our experience as turf managers.  Day temperatures in the high 90's and dew points in the 70's equaling heat indexes around 105-115, not ideal conditions for cool season turfgrass.  Plant protectants have been applied to the fine turf areas to protect the plants from diseases such as Brown Patch and Pythium blight. Reducing stress on the turf is a top concern so we will be reducing our mowing and rolling on greens, alternating mow and roll days and will be stretching our fairway mowing from 3 days a week to 2 days a week.  Mowing is one of the worst activities we can do to the plants during long periods of heat stress.  If there is a cultural practice we can control it's mowing, so we will reduce it as much as we feel we can and still provide the members with quality playing conditions.

Venting of greens surfaces will again take place next Monday and we will be monitoring and scouting greens, tees and fairways a little more closely during this brutal stretch of weather.  The good thing about living in Minnesota is, this will eventually end and a cool front will blow this out of here.  Until then we will be monitoring the turf and reducing cultural practices to the bare minimum. 

Invitational Week

This week is the club's Invitational Golf Event. As far as events at the club go, this is one of our Major's. Member/Member in August being the other Major. The weather over the past few weeks has produced a great deal of rain, high dew points as well as high temperatures. Based on the past weather as well as the forecast for upcoming days, heat index's reaching into the low 100's, even with this weeks "Major" on the schedule, we felt today was an ideal time to vent (aerate) the greens.

Earlier in the week when we walked on greens we could smell that the greens needed to be vented. We could smell the anaerobic activity taking place in the soils and the best cure for allowing gas exchange is to vent the greens. Roots need oxygen to survive and when oxygen is depleted reduction in root depth is greatly compromised. With as much poa annua as we have on greens, maintaining proper root depths throughout the summer months is critical to poa's survival and the quality and condition of greens.

Needle tine aeration "Venting"

Today's aeration began at 5am and the guys were finished with 19 greens by 11am. As you can see in the photos the needle tines that we use cause little disturbance to the surface and when followed by the rollers there is little to no evidence that greens were even aerated. Pretty good work to have completed 2 days before our Invitational and 3 days before and other 1-3" predicted rain event as well as 4-5 days in the mid to high 90's

The green following a roll.

Last Friday's Storm

Last Friday night straight line winds tore through the north end of the golf course. Damage was contained to holes 1, 15, 17 and 18 as well as to the driveway. Four trees were lost on the golf course, a Linden right of the dogleg bunker on 15, 2 maples on the left of 17, a Larch on the right side of 17, a large spruce from the driveway entrance as well as one of the your Princeton elm trees from in front of the club house. We also lost numerous trees along the pool slope.

Our staff was able to clean the bulk of debris on Saturday morning and made quick work of the damage. On Wednesday, Tim's Tree Service was able to grind the stumps, remove the stock pile of trees as well as remove some hangers in a few elm trees as a result of the storm. Let's hope this is all the summer storm damage we will see for the rest of the season.

And if you're wondering will these trees will be replaced? At this time there are no plans to replace the trees that were destroyed on the golf course. The only tree that is currently planned for replacement is the Princeton Elm. Replacement will not happen until the fall when it's safer for the new tree to be transported and planted.

Creeping Bentgrass vs Poa annua

Manage for creeping bentgrass or manage for poa annua? This is the ultimate questions that Superintendents ask themselves and is an industry wide topic. A topic that will probably never be resolved. Many say if you have poa annua manage it. Well we've had poa dominant fairways before and let me tell you they're really not that fun to manage. Now that we've been managing for creeping bentgrass, to me the answer is quite clear.

A perfect is example is on our fairways. I probe fairways quite frequently and one reason is I love looking at our bentgrass roots. They are DEEP! I on average I find our roots to be 12-18" deep. Deep roots equal less water, less fertilizer and all round healthier plants. Also by watering deep and infrequently we can provide firm playing conditions as we are able to stretch the length between water cycles. We also have less thatch on the fairways. We are able provide conditions that are adventitious for deep roots which also equals less fertility and that allows us to stretch our fertility applications and as a result have less thatch on the fairways as the roots are going deep and are not limited to the top 4 inches.

Our poa roots, on the other hand are shallow. Shallow rooted plants need to be babied and require a great deal more TLC. As you can see in this photo, poa annua roots are only 4" deep compared to the 12" roots of the creeping bentgrass. Moisture levels at 12" soil depths are very good. Right where the creeping bentgrass roots extend. Heading into the heat of the summer we can all sleep a lot better knowing if the roots are deep and healthy so will be the playing surfaces.

Powerade for Trees

Two weeks ago we moved a very large Sugar maple to the garden by the Grill entrance. The tree is a 9" DBH and was moved with a 102" tree spade. We've been looking for a tree for this location for quite some time. The timing was right this spring when a landscape architect we work with was working on a job where they wanted this tree removed. The tree was free and all we had to pay was the moving cost.

Ideally we would have moved a tree this size in the late fall or early spring. When we moved the tree it was fully leafed out. Moving a tree this size and fully leafed is extremely stressful to the tree. Additionally only 4 days following the move, temperatures reached 95 degrees one day and 103 the next coupled with 30 mph winds. Needless to say the tree was in shock.

Deep watering as well as what we like to call the "Powerade" mix for transplanted trees and shrubs will be applied weekly to aid the tree through the transplant process. The "Powerade" mix is a mixture of Seaweed extract, Fish Hydrolysate, Humic Acid, Micro-nutrients, Yucca extract and Mycorrhizae. There are numerous benefits to the plant from all of these products and hopefully by applying these products to the roots we can help power this tree through the transplant stress and successfully transition into its new home.

Thankfully the weather has also been cooperating with timely rains, cloudy days and some cool night temperatures. If we can successfully get the tree to survive the summer, it stands a good chance of surviving the the move, so keep your fingers crossed.

It's All About The Roots!

If you talk to any Superintendent about the health of the turf plant, they will invariably speak about the quality and depth of the roots of the plant.  Having deep roots heading into summer is critical for the plants to survive the heat of the summer unscathed. For the past 3-4 years we have been promoting creeping bentgrass over poa annua.  Many members question the reason and what the benefits really are?  Superintendents know the many benefits and the potential for deep rooting plants is one of those benefits.

Usually I can insert the probe in our fairways to the handle.  Just happened to catch a rock and it stop me at 13"

Today I inserted a soil probe into our second fairway as deep as it would go (13").  When I pulled it out, roots were hanging from the bottom of the probe.  Additionally at that depth there the soil temperatures were nice and cool, about 60 degrees, and there was also adequate moisture.  With roots at that depth (13+") this allows us to provide firmer playing conditions as we can really stretch our watering cycles.

Deep roots= a healthier plant, a plant that requires less nutrients, less water and firmer playing conditions.

At the end of the probe you can see the roots hanging.

Course Update

Its been over a month since I last updated the blog.  Time flies when you're busy.  Despite the cooler than normal temperatures as well as rainy (3.75" this month) and cloudy weather, the staff has been very busy working to get the course into summer condition.

Aside from typical mowing and daily maintenance we have been planting trees and shrubs around the perimeter of the course as well as improving gardens around the club house and golf shop.  Spring is a great time for planting and we want to install as much plant material as we can now, before the heat of the summer.  This week installation of annuals is taking place.  When the threat of a killing frost is over then we can install annual flowers we also want to make sure the flowers all get planted before Memorial weekend.  We work with an outside contractor who grows and installs the flowers for us which allows us the time to focus our efforts on maintaining the golf course.

Monday the decision was made to sod the dead spot on 1 green.  After a good attempt at aiding recovery by over-seeding and covering the affected area, we decided the best alternative would be to sod.  Sod was removed from our main practice green and then sod from our nursery was used to replace the sod on the practice green.  The sod from the practice green is a good match to the existing grass species on the 1st green and in time will blend quite nicely. 

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