Bluegrass Yacht & Country Club Golf Course Maintenance

Today was the day we dread each fall – our first frost delay. Our area has a 50% probability of the first frost occurring by October 25th, so we actually made it 10 days longer than average this year.

It’s frustrating to have to wait for frost to clear on cold mornings – you are ready to play and your maintenance staff is anxious to get ahead of you to prepare the course for the day’s play. But walking on closely mown frost covered grass can cause damage that will last for months.

Frost is essentially frozen dew. The ice crystals that form on the outside of the plant can also form on the inside of the grass blades. The grass plant, normally resilient to a person’s footsteps, becomes more brittle and fragile when the ice crystals form. In this condition, the added pressure from a footstep can cause the plant cells to rupture and render the grass unable to recover from this damage. Dead grass will begin to appear in the footprints in just a few days.

We appreciate your patience on these frosty mornings and want to assure you that we do all we can to get you on the course as soon as it’s safe for our turf.

Overall, our turfgrass has benefited from the better than normal fall weather this year. This is the fourth season since changing over to the Latitude 36 bermuda in our fairways and it has proven to be the good investment that we had hoped for. The grass is still holding a lot of its color, as seen in these photos from the last two weeks.

Despite the good color to date, the fairways have slowed their growth over the last few weeks as the nighttime temperatures have dropped. When soil temperatures drop below 55 F, bermudagrass has difficulty producing chlorophyll (remember your high school science classes) more rapidly than it is degrading in the plant. As a result, the grass will start to lose its dark green color as it goes dormant for the winter. We raised our mowing height at the beginning of October to allow the extra grass blade length needed to give us a good playing surface until the spring.

Between the reduced rollout from the longer fairway grass and shorter carry distance due to colder temps, moving up a set of tees is never a bad idea to keep the game fun during the winter months.

Welcome back to the Bluegrass Golf Course Maintenance site. Like everywhere else over the last year, things have been pretty crazy for us in the golf course maintenance world.

We are blessed that golf turned out to be one of the safest activities we can enjoy in today’s environment. As a result, we’ve seen a significant increase in play and use of the course since early 2020. Your maintenance staff has been pushed hard to keep the golf course and associated infrastructure in the condition you expect and deserve. But we’ve had a good year and the turf is in great condition as we prepare for the transition into the winter months.

For those new members who may not know me, I am Tyler Ingram, your Superintendent of Maintenance. I’ve been part of the maintenance staff here for the last 10 years and was proud to be asked to take the lead of our team in 2015. 

Going forward on a more regular basis I’ll be sharing information that I hope you find interesting and helpful to gain a better understanding of your golf course, including …

• Maintenance practices – the things we do and how we do them
• The specialized equipment that we use to maintain this 125 acres of turf
• Conditioning challenges specific to our area and how they affect your golf course
• Your course maintenance team, the folks that share a passion for your golf course
• Ways you can help our team keep your course in the best condition possible

Over the next few weeks we’ll be focused on the greens aerification planned for October 26th, our winter fertilization plans and the annual battle with leaves to keep the course in good playing condition for you to enjoy this fall and to get prepared for the winter.

If you have any questions, concerns or feedback, you can respond in the comments on this site or contact me directly at tyler.ingram@clubcorp.com.

Our first aerification is here for 2021. We will be deep tining greens with a .25″ solid tine at a depth of 10″. We will follow with a core diameter of .40″ hollow tine at a depth of 5″ which equates to roughly 72 holes per a square foot. Here is a list of 5 things to know that might help understand the importance of this process.

1. We aerate to improve the putting greens surface

Putting greens receive more traffic than any other playing surface. The aeration process helps relieve compaction caused by rounds of golf, mowing equipment, sprayers etc. it also helps create a firm and smooth playing surface.

2. Thatch

Thatch is defined as a layer of dead and living stems, leaves, and roots that accumulates between the soil surface and green vegetation that you putt on. If thatch is not removed by aerification, vertical mowing or diluted by topdressing it can create a sponge like surface that creates soft playing conditions and higher risk of disease. We also combat Thatch with weekly topdressing during the growing season.

3. Sand, sand and more sand

Heavy application of topdressing following aerification helps fill in the holes from the removal of cores. Sand creates channels for water and air movement, dilutes organic matter and helps smooth the playing surface.

4. It’s not as bad as you think

We will roughly removing and creating close to 6,500,000 HOLES!! 72 holes per a square foot, but in the grand scheme of things we will only be affecting 8% of surface area. Volume removed will be right at 20.94 cu-ft per 1000 sq/ft.

5. Timing is everything 

It is very common for us to aerate during peak season, and when the bentgrass is at its best. Our goal is to aerify when the plant is healthy and actively growing, this will help us recover quicker and minimize damage. Aerating at other times may be more convenient for golf schedule, but it extends recovery times.

We will be closed this Monday and Tuesday, March 8th & 9th due to our first aerification process. Our goal is to recover in 14 days, weather permitting. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. If you have any questions feel free to reach out to me.

Thanks,

Tyler Ingram & the GCM staff

There are a couple articles from Texas A&M and Purdue regarding spring transition. We are  behind this year compared to normal and both articles will address in great detail. Please feel free to review at your earliest convenience.

We have not reached temperatures needed for Bermuda grass to start actively growing. We have a great forecast in front of us this week, and have started to encourage with fertilization, and will continue to do so. Currently in heavily shaded fairways we are sitting around 58-61 degrees, and in full sun around 65 degrees at a 4” depth.

We are going to elimate traffic on fairways for a couple weeks to minimize compaction and damage to new leaves. Below is a picture of healthy rhizomes, but have not reached the needed soil temps. If we have any damage from winterkill we will repair.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/turf/publications/spring.html

http://purdueturftips.blogspot.com/2014/03/warm-season-turf-winterkill-2014-what.html?m=1

Per the calendar spring is here, but unfortunately the weather is not.  I have had several questions regarding golf course playing conditions, from “when is the Bermuda going to green up?” to “ Why are we always on the cart path?” to  “Last year this time we were hitting off the driving range tee, what gives?”  I’ll answer a few of these questions along with the explicit, big bad word “WINTER KILL!!”  going forward.

Bermuda grass is a warm season grass predominantly grown in the transition zone which Tennessee is in.  If you can imagine a bell curve with peak of said curve being summer, and on one side winter/fall, and the other being winter/spring. (Pictured below) We have not reached the soil temperatures needed for Bermuda grass to begin active growth. You can always use the rule of 150, which is when the day and night time temperatures add up to 150 degrees for consecutive days, Bermuda grass will begin actively growing.

“Why have we been on the cart path all winter?”

If you have been outside this year, more than likely it was raining. The best factual answer would be, we are 12+” above average rainfall. WOW! And we are only 3 months in!  With that being said, Bermuda grass is still dormant it is not taking up H2O, like it normally would when it is actively growing. I promise I’m not a bad guy! I’m only trying to protect your investment!

Warning: Winterkill definition ahead.

Winterkill is the result of temperatures below freezing experienced in winter. Winter kill most commonly occurs during periods of alternating freezing and thawing, aggravated by the increase in plant moisture when the turf is most vulnerable in late winter.

This is an informational post, not a scare tatic, but it does seem to describe a lot of what we have experienced recently.  I have seen great signs of our Bermuda grass waking up from dormancy, as well as healthy roots in areas of concern, but it’s still a little to early to say we are out of the clear.  Our Latitude 36 Bermuda grass is a very cold tolerant Bermuda, but at the end of the day it’s still a Bermuda.

I have been at Bluegrass for 7 years now.  Every single season Winter, fall, spring, summer has been different every year. Unfortunately Mother Nature determines a lot of what I do or how we react.  Imagine being in a stock car going around a track, except you don’t have control of a steering, brakes or gas.  Sometimes you cruise, sometimes you are in a pit,  sometimes you go left,  maybe right…don’t go right… that’s my best analogy of Mother Nature in the transition zone.

See ya on the Course,

Tyler Ingram

Due to our first herbicide application on fairways, to prepare for sprigging, there is absolutely no play today. Thank you for your cooperation.

Thanks,

GCM