Golf Course Superintendent Ready to Answer Any Questions You May Have

[caniac6]

Overall, he's doing a great job. The greens seem to be recovering, but have a ways to go.

[sethdavidsdad]

What golf course is it?

[BNGL]

Hear hear!!!

 

to be frank though if I was still working, I’d be be of the mindset shut it down (but we could afford to shutter and had contingencies in place to handle situations doubt anything like this, but various funds and investments to make sure our people were taken care of during times of uncertainty), I’m not risking my people or their families for golf...BUT I do totally understand the normalcy and relief golf can provide at a time like this. Again I want to stress that I no longer work anymore, so maybe I’d be of a different mindset if I was working but it’s not worth it.

 

That being said if you can or are playing regularly, do not be the one that screws it up for everyone else. The clubs don’t want to have to enact precautions, they don’t want to have to enforce them, no one wants to participate in them...but it’s what we have in place right now, so please please please adhere to those guidelines established by the club or governing bodies.

 

best

[caniac6]

I'm playing almost every day, walking, maintaining distance between my golf buddy, and not touching anything that I didn't bring with me. Not even picking up found balls or broken tees on par3s. Using hand sanitizer every time I go in and out of clubhouse, bathrooms.

[caniac6]

I'd rather not say, but I will say that the greens are recovering much better than I thought.

[sethdavidsdad]

Good to hear.

[Hawkeye77]

Ours look the best they have looked for years and years this spring. Of course, less than a dozen people had used the course and already an unfixed ball mark, lol! He can't even bear to look at such a breach of etiquette!

"We" fixed it after the photo.

[lhahn]

What a good looking pup!

[T-3]

They are interesting dogs, that’s for sure! Our Llewellin can barely contain herself on a boat moving 30mph when she spots a bird. How is yours off the leash on the course? I would assume pretty good(!), but curious if you have any stories.

This past weekend at 30mph

[caniac6]

We had two of them. The father was a Liewellin, and the mother was an English. One of them actually caught a bird that had gotten in our screened porch. I tried to get it away from him, but couldn't. About 20 minutes later he was laying down in the yard, and I said something to him, he looked up , and the bird flew off.

[br61]

Unfixed ballmarks is one of my peeve. I told my club pro couple weeks ago that I do not understand why members likes to social distance from their own ballmarks so he liked what I said and posted it on Club's Clubster app asking his members, Please do not social distance from your own ball mark, fix it and one other.

 

[Schley]

Question for your supers out there. Got the Royal Dornoch members email this week and what exactly does hydrojected mean? I know iron makes the green color pop for a short time, but what about cutting tubers on fairways? I'm guessing that is Scottish slang for something.

Golf Courses – On the Championship Course this week we have groomed and aerated the greens, hydrojected the bunker tops, sprayed iron on the fairways, strimmed and tidied the bunkers and started to cut the deep rough. On the Struie Course we have sprayed the greens with wetting agent and then they were top dressed and brushed. We have solid tined the tees and then they were hydrojected. We have now started cutting the tubers on the fairways.

 

[BNGL]

So hydroject means that they’re using water instead of metal tines to poke holes in the turf and aerate the profile. The big benefit to this is there’s not really much heaving so the areas are playable essentially right after performing the practice.

as cutting tubers...I haven’t a clue never heard that terminology used before. If I had to guess it’s probably verticutting but I really don’t know.

[longevi]

thanks for this thread, very helpful!

[Michelle Wie Fan]

Hello, I built a small 9-hole par-3 golf course at home on my little farm.  The 9 putting greens (10’ diameter) are lined with landscape fabric, and contain 5” crusher run, 1” bedding sand, then topped off with retired “Artificial Field Turf”.  I am writing to you today for some advice, hopefully you are willing to give me advice, it would be appreciated.  The problem I am having is with Ants, and other ground dwelling animals “Digging” in the sand and crusher run, especially in the areas around the location of the cups (Holes).  When the work was originally completed on the greens, the “Practice Putting Green Flags would stand straight up.  Now almost a year later, the Practice Putting Green Flags are often found lying on their side as a result of the ants and other animal’s digging and tunneling through the sand. My question for you today is, how do you prevent this type of thing from happening?  What product(s) have you found to be useful in preventing the digging and tunneling of small insects/animals in the sand and crusher run under your greens? I thought it best to ask people/companies that deal with this type of thing on a regular basis for their advice before I just “try something”.  I would greatly appreciate it if you would write back to me with some suggestions and advice about how I can resolve this issue and continue to maintain my greens going forward into the future.  Thank you for taking the time to read my Email.  I’m looking forward to hearing from you and hearing your input, advice and suggestions.   Have a nice day,

 

Joe

[Ascartmill]

Hey guys, this is my first question on this forum and just wanted to get a few of you supers out there to see if you could help me with a little issue we’re having with the lip of our cup holes just flaking around the lip really bad . We have 419 Bermuda greens. This problem only happens in the winter. It seems as if when we cut the holes, whichever way the grain is going that particular side of the hole is the part that flakes the most. I have tried everything. We bought a hole changing board which helped some but just put a temp bandaid on the problem. I use a pvc pipe after rolling greens and that seems to be the best thing for it but as soon as the grass dries it just gets torn to hell. It doesn’t help we are doing around 200 ppl a day right now but it happens before the big crowds get here . Sorry such a long question. Wanted to try to explain the whole thing! Thanks for your time guys!

Edited December 29, 2020 by Ascartmill

[mallrat]

2 hours ago, Ascartmill said:

Hey guys, this is my first question on this forum and just wanted to get a few of you supers out there to see if you could help me with a little issue we’re having with the lip of our cup holes just flaking around the lip really bad . We have 419 Bermuda greens. This problem only happens in the winter. It seems as if when we cut the holes, whichever way the grain is going that particular side of the hole is the part that flakes the most. I have tried everything. We bought a hole changing board which helped some but just put a temp bandaid on the problem. I use a pvc pipe after rolling greens and that seems to be the best thing for it but as soon as the grass dries it just gets torn to hell. It doesn’t help we are doing around 200 ppl a day right now but it happens before the big crowds get here . Sorry such a long question. Wanted to try to explain the whole thing! Thanks for your time guys!

I’m sure the others will know more than me, especially as I only worked with Bent for a year, but my first thought is how healthy is the turf? Sounds like it’s kind of thin and a not very established root system? By flaking, I’m assuming you mean the edge is crumbling?

 

Also how quick is it happening? If it’s right away that’s one thing but if it’s 1/2 way through the day or you don’t notice it until the morning could it be players digging the ball out with their putter and crushing the edge? That’s a big issue we have

[BNGL]

2 hours ago, Ascartmill said:

Hey guys, this is my first question on this forum and just wanted to get a few of you supers out there to see if you could help me with a little issue we’re having with the lip of our cup holes just flaking around the lip really bad . We have 419 Bermuda greens. This problem only happens in the winter. It seems as if when we cut the holes, whichever way the grain is going that particular side of the hole is the part that flakes the most. I have tried everything. We bought a hole changing board which helped some but just put a temp bandaid on the problem. I use a pvc pipe after rolling greens and that seems to be the best thing for it but as soon as the grass dries it just gets torn to hell. It doesn’t help we are doing around 200 ppl a day right now but it happens before the big crowds get here . Sorry such a long question. Wanted to try to explain the whole thing! Thanks for your time guys!

Welcome to bermuda. So what’s happening is when your cutting cups, you’re literally shearing the stolons (bermuda is quite stoloniferous!) which means that the leaf blade on the surface might not be attached to anything anymore. Bermuda grows laterally through stolons and rhizomes (underground stolons, although this isn’t as prevalent). The best thing to do especially in winter when cutting cups on bermuda greens:

-match the grain when replacing plugs

-sand the old plugs

-consider using cup savers if your doing 200 plus rounds a day

 

How would you minimize this issue going forward? Cultural practices will help some top dressing and   verticutting will stop some of that lateral growth, and promote vertical growth. Nothing too deep just a frequent tickle.

Edited December 29, 2020 by BNGL

[BNGL]

On 8/25/2020 at 6:51 AM, Michelle Wie Fan said:

Hello, I built a small 9-hole par-3 golf course at home on my little farm.  The 9 putting greens (10’ diameter) are lined with landscape fabric, and contain 5” crusher run, 1” bedding sand, then topped off with retired “Artificial Field Turf”.  I am writing to you today for some advice, hopefully you are willing to give me advice, it would be appreciated.  The problem I am having is with Ants, and other ground dwelling animals “Digging” in the sand and crusher run, especially in the areas around the location of the cups (Holes).  When the work was originally completed on the greens, the “Practice Putting Green Flags would stand straight up.  Now almost a year later, the Practice Putting Green Flags are often found lying on their side as a result of the ants and other animal’s digging and tunneling through the sand. My question for you today is, how do you prevent this type of thing from happening?  What product(s) have you found to be useful in preventing the digging and tunneling of small insects/animals in the sand and crusher run under your greens? I thought it best to ask people/companies that deal with this type of thing on a regular basis for their advice before I just “try something”.  I would greatly appreciate it if you would write back to me with some suggestions and advice about how I can resolve this issue and continue to maintain my greens going forward into the future.  Thank you for taking the time to read my Email.  I’m looking forward to hearing from you and hearing your input, advice and suggestions.   Have a nice day,

 

 

 

Joe

 

Hi Joe, I apologize for the tardy reply I don’t know why but I seriously just saw this this morning! So let’s see if we can figure out a solution, if you haven’t already! 
 

For ants I used several products that worked well. If I had any piles on the course or irrigation boxes I’d just use something called Andro, you can get it at Lowe’s or Home Depot. And you just sprinkle it on the ant mound, takes care of it in a couple days. If I have ants in the ground, any product containing the active ingredient Bifenthrin will be effective! I’d wager that once you take care of the ants the burrowing animals will stop, but if not I’d set traps. You can pick those up at any hardware store I reckon. I have heard of people using sonic devices with mixed results but might be worth a try! 

[Ascartmill]

1 hour ago, BNGL said:

Welcome to bermuda. So what’s happening is when your cutting cups, you’re literally shearing the stolons (bermuda is quite stoloniferous!) which means that the leaf blade on the surface might not be attached to anything anymore. Bermuda grows laterally through stolons and rhizomes (underground stolons, although this isn’t as prevalent). The best thing to do especially in winter when cutting cups on bermuda greens:

-match the grain when replacing plugs

-sand the old plugs

-consider using cup savers if your doing 200 plus rounds a day

 

How would you minimize this issue going forward? Cultural practices will help some top dressing and   verticutting will stop some of that lateral growth, and promote vertical growth. Nothing too deep just a frequent tickle.

Very good info from you and mallrat. Thank you. And to answer mallrat, we have some of the strongest greens going into winter we ever have . Root system has been phenomenal this year...The weird thing about it is we actually verticut more frequently last summer and early spring than we ever have, but the grain/stolon issue with cutting the holes has seemed worse this year? It’s very strange. But turf can be strange! when you say frequent tickle.. lol how often do you mean? Weekly? What kind of top dressing regimen would you recommend? And by cup saver, do you mean the levy system attached to flag poles I’ve been seeing? Thanks for the quick responses!

[BNGL]

1 minute ago, Ascartmill said:

Very good info from you and mallrat. Thank you. And to answer mallrat, we have some of the strongest greens going into winter we ever have . Root system has been phenomenal this year...The weird thing about it is we actually verticut more frequently last summer and early spring than we ever have, but the grain/stolon issue with cutting the holes has seemed worse this year? It’s very strange. But turf can be strange! when you say frequent tickle.. lol how often do you mean? Weekly? What kind of top dressing regimen would you recommend? And by cup saver, do you mean the levy system attached to flag poles I’ve been seeing? Thanks for the quick responses!

I mean those little plastic rings from standard golf? That go in between the cup and the surface, we used on our practice greens just because we didn’t change the holes daily there and it preserved the edge nicely for the couple days between changing. 
 

weekly tickles...when I say tickle it’s set right above surface level so it just barely cuts anything. We’d be closed every Tuesday so we’d cut them up and top dress them then too. 
 

If you could post a profile picture of the green. Actually take a little bit out of the green and take a picture like this...I’d bet you have some issues with thatch accumulation if the cups are raggedy that quickly. Bermuda had a ragged root system anyways but it should be able to maintain a crisp cut for a short time at least 

 

[Ascartmill]

On 12/29/2020 at 10:26 AM, BNGL said:

I mean those little plastic rings from standard golf? That go in between the cup and the surface, we used on our practice greens just because we didn’t change the holes daily there and it preserved the edge nicely for the couple days between changing. 
 

weekly tickles...when I say tickle it’s set right above surface level so it just barely cuts anything. We’d be closed every Tuesday so we’d cut them up and top dress them then too. 
 

If you could post a profile picture of the green. Actually take a little bit out of the green and take a picture like this...I’d bet you have some issues with thatch accumulation if the cups are raggedy that quickly. Bermuda had a ragged root system anyways but it should be able to maintain a crisp cut for a short time at least 

 

Hello again. Sorry for the late reply. I know without a doubt we have a thatch problem. The bumps on our green from foot traffic shows how horrible the thatch is right now! Is there anything in the winter time that can be done to help a thatch problem? We’ve never verti cut in winter bc of the no Healing of the green . What would you guys do to combat it in winter? If anything?This coming spring summer we are planning on doing a weekly or bi weekly tickle, as well as top dress on the regular to. Man, thanks for all the info, I could learn a thing or two from you! Btw- we used some cup savers we had laying around that never got used yesterday.. I had to be careful putting the. In the cup as to to be gentle with the lip and not tear it up after a fresh cup cut. I just sprayed some water down before cutting cup, waited 20 seconds then cut the hole. Seemed to make the ground more malleable so the cup saver would go right  in.  Thanks again man!

[Ascartmill]

23 minutes ago, Ascartmill said:

Hello again. Sorry for the late reply. I know without a doubt we have a thatch problem. The bumps on our green from foot traffic shows how horrible the thatch is right now! Is there anything in the winter time that can be done to help a thatch problem? We’ve never verti cut in winter bc of the no Healing of the green . What would you guys do to combat it in winter? If anything?This coming spring summer we are planning on doing a weekly or bi weekly tickle, as well as top dress on the regular to. Man, thanks for all the info, I could learn a thing or two from you! Btw- we used some cup savers we had laying around that never got used yesterday.. I had to be careful putting the. In the cup as to to be gentle with the lip and not tear it up after a fresh cup cut. I just sprayed some water down before cutting cup, waited 20 seconds then cut the hole. Seemed to make the ground more malleable so the cup saver would go right  in.  Thanks again man!

One more quick question to, we are looking on the standard golf website, have you ever tried the white metal crown cup savers? It looks as if it slides into the cup and the lip saver is all connected ? Looks interesting! 

[Holy Moses]

On 8/25/2020 at 6:51 AM, Michelle Wie Fan said:

Hello, I built a small 9-hole par-3 golf course at home on my little farm.  The 9 putting greens (10’ diameter) are lined with landscape fabric, and contain 5” crusher run, 1” bedding sand, then topped off with retired “Artificial Field Turf”.  I am writing to you today for some advice, hopefully you are willing to give me advice, it would be appreciated.  The problem I am having is with Ants, and other ground dwelling animals “Digging” in the sand and crusher run, especially in the areas around the location of the cups (Holes).  When the work was originally completed on the greens, the “Practice Putting Green Flags would stand straight up.  Now almost a year later, the Practice Putting Green Flags are often found lying on their side as a result of the ants and other animal’s digging and tunneling through the sand. My question for you today is, how do you prevent this type of thing from happening?  What product(s) have you found to be useful in preventing the digging and tunneling of small insects/animals in the sand and crusher run under your greens? I thought it best to ask people/companies that deal with this type of thing on a regular basis for their advice before I just “try something”.  I would greatly appreciate it if you would write back to me with some suggestions and advice about how I can resolve this issue and continue to maintain my greens going forward into the future.  Thank you for taking the time to read my Email.  I’m looking forward to hearing from you and hearing your input, advice and suggestions.   Have a nice day,

 

 

 

Joe

 

I would apply granular Talstar insecticide for ants. If it’s a moles or something larger like that, it’s more difficult.

[mallrat]

FWIW, we verticut and topdress every other Tuesday from mid spring through mid fall. Most Tuesdays we will verticut greens and collections with their own mower but about every 4th one we use the greens verticutter to do both greens and collections. Almost most topdressings are fairly light but once every 2 months we through a pretty heavy one in their. 
 

We tested high in organic matter 2 years ago and are working HARD to get it down. Curious to do our soil samples this year

[jpociluyko]

Do golf course superintendents find it frustrating to see golf tees littered all over the course? How does that impact equipment? 

[mallrat]

It’s annoying but when they are just thrown around they are easy to pick up. The ones that really get me are the guys that get frustrated and hammer their tee into the ground with the club. 
 

I know it’s not great for mowers but I haven’t had a real issue. Just have to sharpen them more

[cristphoto]

I'm in the Maryland suburbs of DC and played a course last week that had recently aerated and sanded the greens.  I've never seen that being done this time of year (mid Jan.).  Did they goof up or is there a valid reason to do this?

[Holy Moses]

6 minutes ago, cristphoto said:

I'm in the Maryland suburbs of DC and played a course last week that had recently aerated and sanded the greens.  I've never seen that being done this time of year (mid Jan.).  Did they goof up or is there a valid reason to do this?

Was there snow and ice in the forecast? Sanding can help prevent snow mold. 

[cristphoto]

10 minutes ago, Holy Moses said:

Was there snow and ice in the forecast? Sanding can help prevent snow mold. 

 

It snowed about 1-2 inches this week in the DC area.  Judging by the green conditions they aerated about a week or two before we played so that was maybe three weeks ago from today.  Do/can they forecast that far out?   This was a low amenity 9-hole executive course for reference.  

Edited February 3, 2021 by cristphoto