Superintendents Corner - Article

10/06/2009

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Course Information                                                                            June 2009

By Simon Lewis, Superintendent Sutton Golf Club

The intended use of this information is to provide clarification to the members of Sutton Golf Club in regards to the state of the golf course.

Greens

It was decided by the greens committee in 2008 to embark on a program to make Sutton Golf more sustainable, and reinstate the natural qualities associated with links courses.  Specifically this means converting the annual meadow grass dominated- greens to fescue/bent dominated swards.  It is my intention to undertake this challenge gradually so that major interruptions in play are avoided.  The desired outcome is to improve the ratio of fescue/bent grasses vs annual meadow grass each year.  To accomplish this, the club have purchased the necessary tools for the job and the greens staff have adopted management practices to facilitate this plan.  Specifically this means:

• Building up viable seed banks in greens via stitch seeding using disc-seeder twice a year) and dimple seeding (throughout growing season)
• Maintaining heights of cut at 5mm. (fescue stresses at lower heights of cut)

One may ask how will we maintain green speed despite mowing at a higher cut?  (previous summer heights of cut would be 3mm to 4mm).  Green smoothness and speed can be achieved through:

• Frequent light top dressings. (applying sand every two weeks)
• Regular rolling. (once a week)

The transition of changing the species composition of the greens does entail manipulating the environmental conditions such that the fescue/bent varietes enjoy a competitive advantage over the annual meadow grass (poa).  In these instances the poa may weaken and cause slight disruptions to ball roll, thus affecting smoothness and pace. These adverse affects are undesirable but can be mitigated through careful timing of  cultural practices and by achieving results gradually.  This process is ongoing and a number of years will be required to see a full transition.  These stands of poa will decline until fully dominated by the emerging fescue and bent seedlings.

Why should we do this? 

• Cost:    A more sustainable golf course means fewer inputs are required.  Using less fertilizer, pesticides, and irrigation water will result in significant financial savings.
• Time:    Limiting disruptions in play from cultural practices such as verti-cutting, and hollow coring. 
• Improved Sward Health and Uniformity:  Greens will be more consistent, firm, and smooth with fewer incidence of disease and drought stress.

Rough:

The wet summers of 2008 and 2007 have caused some of the rough on the course to grow quite dense.  A rough maintenance program was initiated to thin out these areas.  Small areas were done in the winter of 2007/2008 with limited success.  A more aggressive and broader program was completed in winter 2008/2009.  The current state of the rough indicates that an even more severe treatment is required this fall and winter, and perhaps in some areas in spring too.  However should we experience a dry summer (hopefully), some of the rough will burn and thin naturally.  Unfortunately the current state of the rough will remain until this fall and there will be no mowing of it.  The semi-rough has been extended where particularly dense stands were near fairways. Similar to the greens program the process of thinning out the rough will take time. 

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