July 14, 2011 |
Where transition on golf course fairways is concerned, Mother Nature calls the shots. Under normal circumstances, the bare conditions the fairways are experiencing right now would have occurred last month and golfers would be teeing off onto fairways freshly filled in with summer bermudagrass. But Mother Nature had other plans.
Due to a cooler-than-usual May and June, the normal transition from rye grass to Bermuda has been delayed this year by a month or so. In addition, the herbicide RCSC uses to kill off the winter ryegrass could not be applied until the middle of June. The herbicide cannot be applied until soil temperatures reach 65 degrees.
The herbicide is part of RCSC’s new transition program (started three years ago) that focuses on providing the Bermuda grass 100 days of a healthy growing season without any competition from the rye grass. In order to do this the spray kills the rye grass immediately, even before the Bermuda grass has completed its transition. The Bermuda grass fills in quickly as long as Mother Nature cooperates; however, often golfers are alarmed and concerned about the lack of any grass on the fairways prior to the completion of the process. RCSC has put its golf courses on a rotating schedule so only four courses a year go through the procedure. This year, Quail Run, North, Lakes West and Willowcreek are going through the process. The other four courses – South, Lakes East, Willowbrook and Riverview – will go through the process next year.
In addition, in RCSC’s effort to improve the condition of our golf courses for the long haul, it is vital that we remove organic material from the fairways. To remove the organic material, maintenance crews performed a hollow tine aerification on the fairways, which is similar to the greens aerification. The machine for this procedure removes plugs of soil from the ground, and removes organic matter along with those soil plugs. Hollow tine aerification was performed in June and will be followed by vertical mowing, which also helps remove organic matter.
The organic-removal process can take up to five years to complete, so please realize that we are not likely to see immediate results, but the long-term health of our golf courses is well worth it.
We know golfers don’t like the condition of the fairways during transition, neither do we, but Mother Nature’s delay in sending higher summer temperatures resulted in the fairways’ ugly conditions getting pushed back this year and we ask for your patience. We expect the fairways’ transition to be completed by the end of August.