Why We Apply Roundup

Every winter we have a period of time where we spray almost the entire course with herbicides. What we are trying to achieve with this practice is the removal of all unwanted grass species, weeds. The definition of a weed is, any grass that is not desired in a certain area. In our case we want 419 Bermudagrass and Meyer Zoysiagrass as our two higher cut grasses. In order to maintain the two main types of desirable grasses we have to apply pre emergent and post emergent herbicides. Typically a stand of turf should have a pre emergent herbicide applied in the Spring and the Fall. Each one of these applications should last about 6 months. They prevent any new seeds from germinating in the soil. Unfortunately we only apply one pre emerge application per year. We couple this with a "Round Up" application in the dead of winter when the Bermuda and Zoysia are completely dormant. This way we can kill any weeds in the Bermuda and Zoysia without harming the desired turf. This year we are focusing on removing any of the existing over seeding from last year that may still be hanging around. I have a few pictures below to illustrate the timeline of damage.

This is the Chipping Area. It has not been sprayed with "Round Up" at this time. You can see the Ryegrass is nice and green.

This is the right edge of the Putting Green Collar. If you look carefully you can see the defined line in the middle of the picture where the "Round Up" has been sprayed 27 days ago. The right side of the line is Bentgrass in the collar that is starting to yellow out.

This is the front left corner of the Driving Range Tee. We sprayed the Range Tee with "Round Up" 33 days ago. You can see the Ryegrass that has yellowed and is very close to death.

It's Winter

Well it appears that the almanac was wrong. All I heard this fall was how the winter was supposed to be mild this year. That appears to be a load of hogwash. Between some of the bitter cold temperatures we have had and the last snow fall that lasted for 8 days we really haven't been able to accomplish much outside. We are supposed to be spraying roundup and a pre emergent herbicide on the course right now. Usually I start this practice on Jan. 1st, but, thankfully, I had our Chemical Technician start spraying Tees and Fairways back in December. since January we have only had 2 days that we have really been able to spray. For those two days we spent our time cutting in the greens edges, slopes and other tight areas on the course with roundup. Below is a picture of us cutting in #1 Green.

We have also had the chance back in December to start working on the Bunker Elimination Project. We have back filled the following bunkers; #2 green side, All of #3 fairway bunkers, the front right and back green side bunkers on #10. We have also started to define the bunkers that we are going to rebuild;#7 #10 front left green side, #12 green side, #13 green side.

Jim Mcelyea and I have created a kind of "Storyboard" that shows the projects and improvements that we would like to make to the course over the next few years. Hopefully this is a helpful communication tool for us both. It is located in the Golf Shop by the counter for anyone who would like to view it.

I have a few pictures posted below of the work we have been doing lately.

The future shape of # 7 Bunker.

The future shape of # 10 front left Bunker.

The future shape of # 12 green side Bunker.

The future shape of # 13 Bunker.

This is the result of our fescue natural areas that we planted back in September on # 3 and #4.

Bunker Renovation

I want to address one of the biggest complaints that I receive about the golf course. “When are you going to do something about those bunkers?” Well the time has come. I have proposed a “master plan” to rebuild and remove bunkers on the course. Some of the bunkers on the course are no longer a real hazard. Many fairway bunkers are too short off of the tee. If they drained well and didn’t have rocks in them it would be a moot point, but they are in poor shape and either need to be fixed or removed. Removed is the more practical option for this situation. For those bunkers that are still integral to the design of the golf course, the “master plan” calls for a phase rebuild project. What this means is that over a period of 4-5 years we hope to renovate all of our bunkers, that will remain, that are not in good shape. The order to this work will be the worst bunkers get fixed first and the most playable will be fixed last. I have; #10 front left green side, #12 green side, #13 green side, #7 green side on the list for renovation in February of 2011. These bunkers are scheduled for elimination in December of 2010; #2, all of #3 fairway bunkers, #10 front right and back green side bunkers, #11 right fairway bunker, #17 back green side bunker.

The process of fixing a bunker is not as easy as most people think. I often get the question, “Can’t you just put some sand in the bunkers?” Simple answer, No. Full answer, we can’t do that because the pretty, expensive, playable sand that we put in the bunker will integrate with the soil like sand that we have in our bunkers now and be ruined in the first heavy rainfall we get. There are steps to properly rebuilding a bunker. The first step I take is finding the drainage out fall area. Without proper drainage bunkers become ponds quickly. After the outfall area is found we will redefine the edges of the bunker. We will have no more steep sloped faces on our bunkers. The steep faces are too labor intensive. The next step is creating the drain system; there are many different methods to drainage. I am going to go with the tried and true method of herring bone drainage. It is the same style that we used on # 11 fairway bunker and it has preformed beautifully. After the drainage is cut and cleaned the liners can be installed. Liners are a method of diverting water without diverting sand with it, and they are a barrier between sand and soil to prevent contamination of the sand.

The elimination process will consist of filling the existing bunker with topsoil to conform to the existing topography. Then in the spring we will come back with bermudagrass sod and cover the topsoil areas.

This project will be a major improvement to the golf course and will also greatly enhance play.

I can't wait to get started on it!