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Thursday, July 8, 2010
A fellow superintendent in Maryland wrote this letter and gave me permission to use for explanation of turf colors. I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did. Michael Coy, GCS What Color is your Turf? It has been a long month of June, looks to be another long month in July and August. High temperatures, dry conditions, extreme humidity, lots of play add up to great stress for turf and turf grass managers alike. I have personally seen grass of many colors during this period ranging across the spectrum, each color telling its own tale of stress, recovery, and even death. So I am inspired to write this article that has been on my mind for several years about the colors of turf I have experienced and what they mean to me. I have been fortunate to experience turf grass management in many forms, Golf Course grow-ins (5), Mid-Atlantic summers, Mid-Western winters, PGA tournament preparations, then aftermath's all with different results and many different colors of turf. The color of turf can range from the dark greens of spring to the purples, oranges, reds and browns of summer and back again to the greens of fall. The first color to talk about is yellow; this color represents stress and deficiency of one sort or another. Yellow in the spring tells me that fertility is poor or that something is missing in the nutrition of the turf. This is the easily remedied with micronutrients or fertilizer during grow in. This color tells me I waited too long between fertilizer applications and that two week intervals between feedings should not be stretched. Yellow is also the color of turf grass after the Ameritech Senior Open, where bleachers, skyboxes, tents, and trucks are placed two weeks before and are not removed until the week after. My turf grass forgets what the sun looks like. Although this is an ugly color recovery is usually quick if irrigation or rainfall occurs in a timely manner (I do not know what happened to the rainfall this season). Yellow is the color of turf telling you the manager something needs to be done, it is not a color precluding disaster, it is only trying to get your attention to be fed or loved as we do best. Yellow can be a good color for us on a poa annua control program, it is the lovely color of poa reacting to the plant growth regulator we are using to stress it out so bentgrass can gain a competitive advantage. We like this as the bentgrass can out grow the poa and win the ongoing battle for space on the green. Purples and reds are the colors of extreme stress, caused by the lack of water, too much water, or just plain extreme heat and humidity. This season we have seen all too much of these colors, lack of rainfall, high temperatures, extreme humidity (both high and low), irrigation system deficiencies and human error (not us) can cause these colors to pop up. I personally have seen a broad spectrum of reds and purple on my course, sometimes all within a few feet of each other! Bright reds and purples represent the need to hand water dry spots, those places sometimes next to sprinklers that for whatever reason seem to stay dry. They will not get wet no matter what we do; wetting agents and spending many hours on the business end of a hose seem to be the only solution to these spots. Purple also represents the color of turf preferred by the PGA tournament officials; no matter how well you manage your irrigation, when they arrive the course is always too wet. It seems that long drives for the normal golfer are not good enough for the tour players who need forty extra yards of roll to be able to play your course, without crying that conditions are too tough. That is of course despite winds that along with low humidity dry the course faster than laundry on the line. But, after two nights of no irrigation the course becomes too dry and the ball bounces too much, so the turf manager is allowed to do what we think is best? Lord only knows we might know our course better than anyone else might. Anyway stress related to water management can be easily recognized by the red or purple color spectrum. Always remember it is easier to add water than take it away! This can be a lesson learned the hard way, so be careful and do not fear using a hose! Next is my favorite color of turf, orange, this color can be deceptive and have many different meanings in various conditions. Orange can be both a good and bad color, it can represent problems or recovery. When turf is under stress and conditions are correct, high humidity and nighttime temperatures along with wet conditions, orange represents the color of root rot pythium, ultimately representing eminent death. Orange can also indicate mechanical damage to turf, scalping is often seen after the fact as orange turf. The orange color can also be a good color, often turf that has been moisture stressed can turn orange after lots of hand watering. This orange is a transition color, indicating the recovery of these local dry spots. They will become bright orange before they return to a soft brown and ultimately back to green as the cycle is completed. I have seen this often following our recent hot dry spell, especially in our greens where a lot of poa is present. I have answered lots of questions about this color with the response that this is a good color; the grass is not dying, but is in recovery mode. Once the extreme hot, dry, humid spell is over, as long as it stays orange soon it will be green again with enough hand watering and care Brown is a color that is not too bad, it represents dormancy not death and often my friends in the Mid-Atlantic remind me that "you do not play golf on color". This year especially we are all reminded that brown may not be so bad, non-irrigated turf on the golf course is now brown. Many home lawns, public spaces and athletic fields share the same color of brown. Also to remind us all that we think things are bad now, the entire Mid-Atlantic region from New Jersey to Virginia is under very drought conditions, possibly the worst for many years. Many of our friends and colleges have entire golf courses, athletic facilities that are brown. Water shortages and restrictions are devastating golf courses; many are down to just hand watering greensand tees only, because that is all the water they have to use. Keep in mind water is a precious resource we do not want to waste or take for granted when we have enough. Keep in mind there is always someone worst off than you are and brown may not be such a bad color! Last we have two colors we never want to see, those are black or white. Both of these colors represent death, be it in sod that has not had enough water, or algae covered slime that once was turf. These colors are to be avoided at all costs if possible. Black cart or mower tracks in stressed turf, soil poking through once vigorous turf areas, white tufts of once nice sod, are all signs renovation is eminent and work needs to be done. In conclusion, I can say with some humour that the grass is not always greener; it may be redder, bluer, and orange or even browned as long as it is not deader. Color is the turf grass talking to us, telling us what it needs. As we gain experience on our golf course or athletic facility, color dictates our management decisions. So do not panic if the grass is not green, just look and listen to your turf and respond with love, hoses, or fertility as required. You will be rewarded with the best color of all Green!Gregg Rosenthal GCS
Tuesday, July 6, 2010 Sorry for the long delay, but we have been extremely busy with the renovation grow-in and trying to keep the course alive during this monster heat wave. I have spoken to many members about their concerns on the dryness of the course and I must touch on what is happening besides the fact of record temperatures and very little rain. Majority of the areas are just due to drought and extreme heat. The course may have been able to handle this better if it were not for the fact we had almost no spring. The spring is time where plants begin to store their foods for preparation for the summer months. Mother Nature tricked them this year by not providing that time. We must also remember that bentgrass is a cool season grass, prefering tempertures in the 60's to 80's. What is happening to the turf now is the pores, stomates, are closing. This is protecting itself from damage or death. This is natural and occurs in all plant material. You may even notice this in the plants at your home. Herbaceous and woody plants stomates are on the underside of their leaves, which adds in the protection of the plant. Though the bentgrass appears to be dead, the vast majority of times it is just going dormant. The crowns and roots are still alive and just waiting to open their stomates once again for survival. To protect the plant we begin raising mowing heights and decreasing the frequency of cuts. We also begin handwatering, syringing, during the day to cool the turfs canopy, soil profile, and wash any material off the leaf blade. Overhead irrigation is then applied at nights for preventative disease pressure. Though majority of areas are due to heat, I must remind everyone of the dead areas on holes 2-7 fairways. I mentioned in a past newsletter about testing a chemical on the eradication of Poa. Well, it was more successful than I hoped for and if I would have know we would be setting a record heat wave I would have conducted this test another year. Once temps break we will begin seeding those areas, along with the bare spots where bent was removed for the practice facility. I hope I did not bore all to death and was able to clear up some of your questions. Thanks Golf Course Superintendent
Wednesday, June 9, 2010 This picture was a sunrise the other morning and thought I would include for all to enjoy. #1 is almost complete. The bunkers will have sand in them and will be playable for the Crystal Classic. Some seeding has begun on the range. This area is by the maintenance facility, which has been seeded and strawed. The new seed on the putting green, chipping green, and #1 tees are coming in great. The range tee has now been sodded with Patriot Bermuda and is taking rooting. Golf Course Superintendent Wednesday, June 2, 2010 Renovation is moving fast! The practice green, chipping green, and #1 tees will be seeded by the weekend and the range tee should also be sodded on Friday. The new chipping fairway is now sodded and should finish up sodding the back of the range tee bank and #1 tee banks today.
#1 mens tee getting the final grade Another pic from the back of the practice green looking at the new range tee Golf Course Superintendent
Wednesday, May 26, 2010 Today the are sodding #1 fairway, rough, and bunkers. The chipping green bank and practice green bank should also be sodded before the weekend. Check the pics below.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 AAWWWEEE finally seeing some progress on the renovation. The week ahead looks good and the project will be moving fast again. Today they are finishing grade and preping for sod on #1. All of #1 will be seeded and sodded tomorrow, so the hole will be closed til further notice. Fescue will also be sodded tomorrow around the chipping and practice greens. Friday, May 21, 2010 The range is still too wet for the construction crew to do anything. A few of them are working on #1 today and hope to have the left side fairway sodded by mid next week. With all this rainfall, they are now about 1400 man hours behind. Over the past couple of weeks we have finally built the Oxmoor greenhouse. This first winter use will probably be a lot of testing to see what we are able to grow. I will take clippings/seeds from plants this fall in hopes of adding more color to the clubhouse at a lower cost. Golf Course Superintendent
Friday, May 14, 2010 The renovation is now about two weeks behind due to rainfall, though we are very close to finishing. Everytime it rains it puts them about 3 days behind. All irrigation has now been installed and today they will be doing a few touch-ups with drain basins. The positive note with all this rain is that it is settling the drainage and irrigation lines. Usually during construction of this type you will have settling of soil years down the road, but all the rain has packed in these areas. Once the soil dries and is again workable the finish work should move fast.
Friday, May 7, 2010 Dear Mr. Cummins, Irrigation on the range should be finished today and the topsoil will soon be pushed back over the area for seeding and sod. Hopefully we will not see too much rain tonight so things can move smoothly over the coming days. I included a picture of Bandit helping clear the irrigation trenches for your enjoyment. Hope all is well! Michael Coy, GCS Thursday, May 6, 2010 Renovation is now approximately one week behind due to rainfall. If all eelse goes well this week, we should begin seeding/sodding next week. I will keep everyone posted on the status changes. We have now applied two treatments for Poa control to the fairways listed below. You may notice the yellowing of turf in some of these areas and that is the Poa dying off. By next week we should begin seeing the Poa check out.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010 We have now applied a new chemical to fairways 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 for Poa control. Seeing all of this Poa made me want to check with other courses across the United States and see how their Poa was this year. I visited the National superintendents website forum and the latest question was on Poa. Everyone this year is having Poa stands unlike any other years. Majority of them are assuming all the cold weather we had this past winter. The only reason it is now so noticeable is because of those seedheads that, in the past, have not had a growing season as this one. We should start to see results over the next couple of weeks on those sprayed fairways. The renovation is moving steadily and I feel these guys are doing a great job. Check the pics and descriptions below. This is the area between the back of the maintenance facility and #2 tees. Here they are digging a hole to place all the debris next to 64 fence and will create a mound to buffer the shop from #2 tees view.
#1 left green side bunker is now installed with drainage. All new irrigation is now installed and should be soon sodding left sod of #1 fairway. #1 right green side bunker is now complete with drainage and the final shape looks great. #1 fairway bunker is now complete and will have some challenging shots when finsihed. Fairway practice bunker to the left side of the range tee is now complete and will later get some good use. The range tee has now been laser leveled, drainage installed, and irrigation installed. The next step will be 6" of sand/peat mix that will fill to the top of these irrigation heads. MSD plumbing has begun for the backside restroom off of Sterling Road and will continue over the next couple of weeks. The MSD plumbing will be done on Friday for the frontside restroom. Thanks Golf Course Superintendent
Sunday, April 18, 2010 Sorry for the long delay in updating the "Course Report", but projects and course activity has made it almost impossible to sit down. The renovation is still on course and greens mix has been added to the practice green. The other areas should receive mix next week. Irrigation and #1 completion will be in full swing next week and hope it have majority of that complete. We will also be doing some chemical trials starting next week through the end of June in the fairways for Poa eradication. Results of Poa death will be seen and may make some of you worry about the overall health of these fairways, but the bentgrass should recover. If good results happen from this we will apply this chemical to all fairways. Check below for some new renovation pics.
This is the mixer for the greens mix. The USGA mix consists of 85% sand and 15% peat. The greens mix being added to the practice green. This green is now complete. Wednesday, April 07, 2010 I would like to remind everyone of the "Superintendent's Revenge" outing on April 25, 2010. The money received from this event goes to the maintenance facility for special projects and this year we would like to improve the lake on #10 greenside. We will purchase a windmill driven aerator for this lake and any money left over will go towards new sod for collar renovations. The water from the maintenace facility to the tall grass at #7 tees has been installed forthe frontside bathrooms. The conduit for electric has been placed and will be installed following the rain.
#1 fairway bunker is receiving some more depth and definition. The view from the new men's tee on #1. The ladies tee has also been reduced in height Drainage is being installed in the driving range tee and will be completed before the rain arrives. Thanks Golf Course Superintendent
Thursday, April 01, 2010 The new chipping green now has drainage installed and soon the USGA greens mix will me added. Bunker shaping for this area should begin tomorrow.
Drainage for the putting green is being installed today and soon greens mix will be added. We have placed a box with with divot sand at #10 tees to refill your bottles
If anyone does not know how to repair a ballmark, just ask Gilbert.
Our birdhouses are beginning to be homes for some lucky birdies.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010 Construction will resume today after the Sunday rainfall. We have begun replacing fairway irrigation heads from the old brass heads to the new plastic style. The old heads are only able to rotate 360 and over the past twenty years the brass nozzles have worn. This resulted in less precision and more water use. The new heads are able to do any degree of rotation and any trajectory. I ask for your patience while we replace these heads and their new yardages. We have also placed a divot sand box at the old grill station on #10, so sand bottles can be filled at the turn. Golf Course Superintendent Thursday, March 25, 2010
Some grade work in the practice green by Carl. Carl was the shaper for the new greens at Valhalla for the Ryder Cup. This is Carl focused and trying to beat the rain. Good luck! This is the new chipping green beginning to take shape. There will a bunker top right and bottom left of the green.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 No new renovation updates due to rain, but construction should continue tomorrow. With the 2010 golf season ramping up now I would like to remind everyone on how to properly repair a ball mark. The right way to fix a ballmark
The local rule for fairway divot repair is to replace the divot alone if there is a nice root system on the divot. If there is no root system on the divot use green sand. Do not apply green sand if using the divot. Golf Course Superintendent
Friday, March 19, 2009 Construction is moving fast and they should begin drainage installation today. Hole #1 entrance will now be to the left of current #1 tee, left of the silt fence through the steeplechase poles. The cartpath will soon be removed and come next week #1 may be shut down for several days for sodding and final bunker/rough prep. The range tee is now at grade and they soon will put the finishing touches on it followed by sand, peat mix and then sod. I have been researching some other types of bermuda than what we have had in the past, Quickstand and Transcontinental, and have found that in this area the "Patriot" type will be far more superior for the range needs. Through university studies "Patriot" scored top for color and divot recovery. It also gives more green time in late spring and fall, while also showing the ability to handle frost better than the others. Bandit and I were checking out the new practice green. If you stand in the middle of this area you really feel how massive this practice green will be. We constructed a new championship tee for #7 yesterday. This will be the shot for the #7 tee. This was constructed from the Holt masterplan and two trees will be removed in the coming week. Holts plan also calls for a new #18 ladies tee and a new #12 championship tee, which will be built over the next couple of weeks. Golf Course Superintendent
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
This is the greens mix from the old practice green. We are not letting anything go to waste, so we are stockpiling at the maintenance facility for future tee building or expansion. Here we expanded and leveled #5 championship tee using the sod from the old practice green and the greens mix. The new #10 drop area has been sodded and will open once the roots have taken hold. This area may also be used for a ladies tee at times. Many of you have noticed the tees looking like this picture. Last year we killed off an aggressive weed called Dallisgrass. We seeded these areas in late fall and did not get much growth through the winter. There is a nice stand of bent in these blotches, but just need some good ol sunshine and warmer temps to get them going. Thanks Golf Course Superintendent
Thursday, March 11, 2010
This is a view from the tennis courts of the new range tee construction. The blue flags on the poles represent the grade of the new tee. This is a view of the blue flags from the cartpath on #1. The tee on this side still needs to be raised about 5'. The picture above and below will be the new drop area for #10. This area will be fescue but may be used as a ladies tee. If you have any suggestions for the course, please drop me an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Golf Course Superintendent
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 Now thats what you call some earth moving. This is a view from a mound by the maintenance facility towards the existing driving range tee. All topsoil has been pushed aside and sculpting of the range will soon begin. Just had to stick this one on here cause I caught him off guard.
TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2010 RENOVATION PROGRESS This is the right green side bunker from the top of the green and the top left of the picture will feature a finger shaped rough to avoid. Back right of picture is the fairway bunker. #1 greenside bunker from fairway Another view of #1 bunkers from atop the new fairway bunker. All of the topsoil in the driving range is being pushed aside and sculpting will begin when this is finished. Once the grade on the new range is complete, all topsoil will then be redistributed evenly to ensure a healthy bed for seed and sod.
FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 2010
Left side of #1. The mound on the left will feature a fairway bunker about 245 yards from the tee. View of #1 from the green. Another view from #1 green featuring Tom Meadows, OSM. The pink flag below the green will be the new right side approach and the new bunker will lay to that point. This area beside #2 championship tee will be a gravity fed catch basin for surface water from the range. I am really glad to see this area improve.
This hole is next to the Turfgrass Care Facility or as Josh says, "The Barn". All existing sod is placed here to begin creating mounds to aid in disguising the building from the tee.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 2010 Construction is in full swing! I am on cloud nine seeing the renovation finally taking shape. I will be posting signs today for access to #1 and the temporary driving range. Depending on the crews working location #1 may be closed or opened as a par 3. Please check back for more renovation pics, as below, and course updates. The pink marking flag in the right of the picture will soon be the right side of the fairway. All trees on the left of #1 have been removed. Trees on the left of the greenside will be removed and will feature a small bunker. Right side bunker will be renovated and brought out to the fairway and left of the pin. Who isn't glad to see this go!
The TURFGRASS CARE FACILITY will now soon be masked by mounding. Though the mounds will not be this high, they will reach about 8' for some cover. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2010 We have installed a temporary practice green next to the golf shop for use during the renovation. Though the green will have only 3 cups it should aid in your warmup. We will inform the golf shop when the green is ready for practice. Golf Course Superintendent
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2010 Mobilization is now complete and construction should begin today or tomorrow. Snow and MSD permits have caused a small delay. I will consistently update the "Course Report", so check back for renovation progress and course updates. I just can't wait for the after pics!
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2010 Today we stripped sod by the proshop and once the soil becomes a little more workable, we will lay bent sod for a small practice green to be used during the renovation. Golf Course Superintendent
THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 2010 Since the range renovation is now approved, we will begin using the existing turf on the course for repairs and improvements. Today we stripped out some practice green sod and expanded the front of #13 green by ~6 feet. This will definitely give us some more pin positions.
The completed area should be playable by spring. As spring is getting closer I will continue to update this area on projects, conditions, and the renovation. Thanks, Golf Course Superintendent
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