USGA Regional Update

By John Foy, Director September 23, 2009

Throughout Florida it still feels like summer even though the calendar says fall has arrived. Especially in the central to southern part of the state, hot and humid conditions persist, and afternoon thunderstorms are still boiling up on a fairly regular basis. September 10th is the time when peak Atlantic hurricane activity typically occurs, but, so far, the tropics have been quiet. While we certainly can’t let our guard down, hopefully we can make it through another season without a direct hit.

Earlier in the summer the Climate Prediction Center noted the development of an El Nino effect in the equatorial Pacific, affecting Florida weather patterns thousands of miles away. In particular, upper level westerly winds disrupt and redirect tropical waves and low pressure systems coming across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa, which, in turn, reduces storms and hurricanes forming and hitting the peninsula. Based on the predictive models, further strengthening of the El Nino effect will occur and is expected to last at least through the upcoming winter months. When a strong El Nino was in place during the winter in the past, Florida and the lower Southeast experienced below average cool temperatures and above average rainfall.

Without pronounced environmental extremes, most people have a limited appreciation of the major negative impact on general turf health and course conditioning that occurs from a prolonged period of cool and wet weather. The El Nino winter of 1997/1998 stands out and is remembered because of the problems experienced at golf courses throughout the state and the tremendous number of SOS calls received in our office. On top of cool and damp conditions, increased cloud cover further exacerbated the reduced sunlight of short winter days such that one golf course superintendent so aptly described the situation as "trying to grow grass in a closet". This situation is not conducive to bermudagrass growth and also caused problems with establishing and maintaining a dense and healthy overseeding cover on putting surfaces, tees, and fairways.

While the accuracy of long range weather forecasts still leaves a lot to be desired, given past experiences and the possibility of a moderate to strong El Nino being in place this winter, the importance of good fall preparations and having the base turf in as healthy a condition as possible is critical. A key component is a good fertilization program to maintain sufficient levels of available nutrients in the soil to support balanced and sustained growth while environmental conditions remain favorable. Unfortunately, at many courses around Florida, the current economic recession has required budget cutbacks, but course fertilization is an area that should not be compromised. There are no magic elixirs or substitutes for the basic macro- and micronutrients needed to support plant growth.

Especially with putting greens, sufficient leaf surface area is necessary for photosynthesis and, in turn, carbohydrate production and storage. There are no chemical treatments that can replace carbohydrates after they become depleted in the late fall, winter, and early spring. While there will always be pressure from low handicap golfers for fast to very fast putting speeds, maintaining slightly elevated heights of cut for the next two to three months is especially important to make sure the turf is adequately prepared to survive the winter. This is true regardless of whether or not the putting surfaces are overseeded.

Golf Course Update

The month of August has brought much needed rainfall to the Mediterra area. Half way through the month we have received between 7-10 inches of rain throughout the property. With the rainy season in full swing, the potential to add additional rainfall throughout the month is very good.

The month of July was a letdown in terms of rainfall. We received on average 4.08" of rainfall throughout the Mediterra property. This is 4" below average, and 8" lower than July 2008. The worst part about the July rain, was that there was a 3 week period where there was no rainfall. With our summer irrigation allotment, we really depend on the rainfall to keep all the turf and landscape healthy.

The North Golf Course re-opening was pushed one week, and resulted in an August 6th opening. This was due to the extreme dry conditions, as we wanted the turf better suited for traffice once re-opened. It worked out pretty good, as the rainfall returned and the end of July and has continued into August.

The South Course is on the third week of its 2nd closure. So far we have aerified greens, tees, and fairways. We are starting the aerification process today on the collars and approaches. This will be our last cultural practice of the summer on the South Course, and then all attention will be turned to prepare the golf course for season.

Golf Course Update

Weeks 3,4 and 5 of the North Course closure have come to an end. The past three weeks have been spent getting the golf course back in condition for opening. Due to the lack of rain in July, we have decided to push the North Course opening back until August 6th to give it proper time to recover from our maintenance practices. We anticipate opening the North Course in very good condition.

July started out very well in terms of rainfall, as we picked up almost 2 inches the first two days. From that point forward, it has been extremely dry. We have recorded an average of .40" of rain throughout the property since that time. During this time of year, we lose close to .25" of water in the soil per day through Evapotranspiration (ET). We really count on the summer rains to help push us through the hot weather, and to also replenish our lakes on property. The good news is that there are still a couple months remaining in the rainy season that could provide more than adequate rainfall.

North Course Closure - Week 1 & 2

The first two weeks of the North Course closure are of to a good start. We have successfully aerified greens and fairways. The picture above shows the machines we use during our greens aerification, the Toro ProCore 648. The machine is very smooth and capable of deeper aerification than Toro's previous walking aerator. This process helps us remove unwanted organic matter from the rootzone, and aids in deeper root development. I will do a more in-depth article regarding aeration and organic matter in the near future.



The fairways were aerated 2-3 different directions on the North Course this closure. The fairways that had the tendancy to dry out quicker, we aerated 3 times hoping to improve water infiltration and also build a stronger root system.

The 2nd week of the North Coure closure had us complete verticutting of the greens and tees. The greens are deeply verticut with a machine called Graden. The Graden helps us remove a portion of the thatch that has accumulated over the past season. A very necessary procedure to maintain high quality putting surfaces.

The verticutting of the tees is done for a similar reason as the greens. The bermudagrass found on the tees benefits greatly from verticutting. The surface gets denser and more upright from verticutting. This helps improve playability of the teeing surfaces, and also allows us to mow at lower heights of cut without fear of scalping the turf.

We finished the month of June with an average of 6.41" of rain around the Meditera property. For comparison, we received an average of 5.39" last year in June. We started July out nice with a 2" rain, and are hopeful for more on the way.

Mainline Break on Driving Range

This past Friday we had an 16 inch mainline break out on the Driving Range. For those of you presently at Mediterra, the large mountain of dirt on the driving range is the result of the work currently being done to fix the break.

This type of event is something all golf course employees fear. There is always a lot of damage that occurs, and the repair process usually takes a couple days. Normally you have a section of the golf course that can't be watered until the break is repaired, so we where thankful of the rain we've be receiving over the past week.

With the help of Liebold Irrigation, the break was repaired Tuesday afternoon, and we'll have all our irrigation back up and running at full speed Wednesday. The next step will be grading and re-grassing the area that damaged from the mainline break.

South Course Closure Weeks 4 & 5

The fourth and fifth weeks of the South Course closure brought the end of our maintenance practices, and the begginning of preparing the golf course for re-opening. We did have a couple practices to finish up, and they include aerification of the rough and pencil-tining of the greens.

Aerification of the rough helps provide relief from a season's worth of compaction from cart and machine traffic. The aerification helps provide water, air, and nutrients to the roots for improved plant growth. The picture below shows the #15 South after the rough had been aerified. The same machine that was used to aerify fairways is also used on the rough.

The pencil-tining of the greens involves using a solid-tine to poke small holes in the rootzone. This helped us smooth the greens out after both the aerification and verticutting that occured earlier in the closure. The holes from the process are very small, and that is where it received the name "pencil-tine." These holes will also serve as avenues for new root growth, oxygen exchange, and also help with water infiltration. Below are a couple pictures of this process.

Summer Update - South Course 3rd Week

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The third week of the South Course closure brought the completion of verticutting and aerifying the tees, collars, and approaches. Above you can see the machine that was used for the process of aerifying these areas. We had the machine set at 1" x 1" spacing, which pulls 144 cores per square foot. This process removes a lot of the dead and decaying material (thatch) that can produce so many negetives for both the turfgrass and also the golfers playing. The process of verticutting and aerifying also will help smooth the surfaces from the previous season.

The above pictures show a completed tee and also a close shot of the material being brought to the surface through the aerification process. These surfaces are normally back to normal within 7-10 days.

The above pictures show the process we use to drag the aerification cores back into the tees. We use a steel drag mat pulled my a utility vehicle. The steel mat separates the soil from the thatch, and the soil helps fill in the holes. The thatch, which can be seen on the upper right picture, is simply blown off with a blower.

The above pictures show the verticutting of the collars and approaches. We went over each area twice, really removing a lot of the thatch from these areas. Following the verticutting, the same aerification process that was completed on the tees was completed on the collars and approaches.

Overall, things are progressing very nicely. We continue to receive the normal afternoon rain here and there. Finished the month of May with almost 6" of rain average on the property.

Continue to check back for more updates.