Course Update 12/20/18

The courses were a little wet after last weekend's rain, but it was a very productive week for the maintenance team and a few outside contractors.  All greens and tees, along with most of the fairways on Lakes were sprayed with a winter fungicide application to protect the turf from snow mold.  The chemicals used specifically target the disease and are formulated to last up to four months given moderate weather variations.  The ideal application period is when the turf has stopped producing new leaf tissue and the ground is not frozen.  Frozen ground limits the plant's ability to absorb the fungicide which results in reduced disease control.  We had planned to apply the products at the beginning of the month, but the rain, snow, and ice events prevented us from doing so.  In total, we will spray 53 acres of turf with a chemical cost of $17,000 and plan to finish spraying the fairways after the Christmas break.

There are two types of snow mold that negatively affect turfgrass, pink and gray.  Gray snow mold is associated with long periods of snow cover and pink snow mold can occur with or without snow.  Gray snow mold is much more destructive and can kill large areas of turf, while pink snow mold typically attacks leaf tissue and does not harm the growing point (crown) of the plant.  In southwestern PA we use a fungicide that targets both pink and gray snow mold since we don't know what the weather will be like during the winter.

This is the typical appearance of Pink Snow Mold on fairway turf.  Notice the pinkish hue around
the outside of the infected patches.

In addition to the chemical sprays, a considerable amount of time was spent blowing leaves and cleaning up debris.  There were also a couple frosty mornings that allowed the staff to continue removing brush and unwanted vegetation near cart paths.  A few contractors were also on property grinding stumps, deep-tining fairways, and backfilling gravel in the fairway drain lines installed during the summer.

Like I said, it was a busy week!

Removing brush around the drainage swale left of Lakes 3 fairway.

Tree roots, broken branches and a buildup of leaves are limiting the amount of water going into the drain pipe. 

The contractor used three machines to deep-tine the fairways in two days with an equipment value of $250,000.

This was supposed to be core aerification back in September, but the rainy weather kept delaying the process and we decided to deep-tine versus doing nothing at all.  Regular core aerification is already scheduled for the spring.

The aerification process uses 3/4" solid tines that penetrate up to 8" deep depending on soil conditions and the amount of rock present.  Deep-tining fractures compacted soil for improved water penetration, gas exchange, and root growth.