What are the white dots all over the fairway?

foam on 2 fairway

close up of foam

I get this question every time we take our sprayer out to apply fertilizers and herbicides. Our sprayer is equipped to drop little droplets of foam at the end of our sprayer booms. This allows the operator to see where he has applied the products so that he does not go over the same area twice. The foam marker for our sprayer eliminates the need to add dye to our spray solution which can be very messy to apply.



Frost is finally here

This fall has been the warmest fall I can remember since I have been at the Broadlands. Our average nightly temperatures for the month of October have been 5 to 6 degrees warmer than average. Our first frost finally came on Wednesday this week. Frost is a sign that the end of the growing season is near. Frost will help lower our soil temperatures and begin to slow down the growth of the grass. We have already cut down our mowing of fairways and tees down from 3 mowings per week to 2.
The reason we keep golfers off the turf during frost delays is that the cells inside the plant freeze, when you step on the grass it breaks the frozen cells and kills the plant.

A few reminders for you during frost delays:

• Please stay off of any grass areas, this includes the wheels of the golf cart, your golf bag, and yourself
• After the frost is gone, the maintenance department still needs to setup the course before you begin play, so please be patient.
• Go inside and get a nice hot cup of coffee, who wants to play golf when its that cold outside?

Hydraulic Leak on 7 green



Hydraulic oil leak on 7 green

 As a Superintendent one of your worst fears is having a hydraulic oil leak on one of you greens. Earlier this week we ran into some bad luck while topdressing and had our machine leave 4 lines across #7 green and one line on #6 green. Hydraulic oil is a killer for turf due to the extreme heat of the oil and the oil can coat the soil particles not allowing new turf to grow.

While devastating to see we moved into action quickly having both areas re sodded within 24 hours.

laying new sod

The first step was to use a sod cutter to remove the oil soaked turf.

Second, we had to replace the removed turf with turf that we harvested from our nursery green.

Jeff leveling sod



 Third, we needed to level the new sod. We had to tamp areas that were high, and add sand under the areas that are low.

Tony and Nick watering new sod

Eric mowing the green after the new sod was installed

  Finally we watered in the new sod.

Even with the extreme care taken to make sure the new sod is placed even with the existing green, We will be mowing #7 green with a walk mower set at a higher height of cut (HOC) to help prevent scalping of the new turf.

Sod Projects

Over the past week we have been working on 3 sod projects around the golf course. Each area that we have repaired has a different reason why turf conditions are not ideal.

14 green cart parking

This area has many factors working against it for a successful turf Establishment

- 1st it faces south where the suns rays are more intense

- 2nd every golfer that walks to the green from there cart walks over this area

- 3rd the slope collects all the water that runs down the cart path.

To repair this area we needed to remove the hill between the cart path and green. We began by using a Skid steer to remove the existing mound, and get a rough grade for the new slope. Next we shaped the area with a sod cutter to remove any humps and then added some topsoil to smooth and level the area. Finally we installed the sod and set up a mister kit to water the area.

5 fairway bunker

You wouldn't think that one golf cart can do much damage to a golf course, and you are correct. The damage occurs when we have over 100 carts per day driving over the same area. To repair this traffic issue we first aerified the soil, then filled the holes with some topsoil. Then we installed the new sod over the area. We will be directing traffic around this area until next spring to give the sod a chance to survive.

3 fairway

This area has been a challenging area since the golf course opened. The main reason we have had trouble keeping a playable surface in this area is due to the extremely poor soil conditions. 3 fairway has the highest sodium (salt) levels on the golf course, as well as very heavy clay. High Sodium levels and turf do not mix. in order to give the new sod every chance to survive we removed 6" of existing clay and replaced it with a sandy loam growing medium. This should help give the turf a good rooting mix and we will be able to better manage the turf in this area.