If you played golf this week you may have noticed a brown ring around the lakes. This was caused by a change in the of height of cut from 4" down to 11/2". After considerable thought and discussion the decision was made to change this mowing standard. The rough was maintained at 4" in the past in order to prevent balls from rolling into the lakes. An unintended consequence of this practice was a lot of lost balls in the tall grass, additional time spent looking for balls, and also the rules of golf call for different treatment of a lost ball than a ball in the hazard. The shorter grass will allow more balls to roll into the water, but the thought is that they will be easier to find. It should also result in fewer lost balls, and faster play. The good thing about this change is that if the general consensus is that it was better when the grass was long, we can let it grow back.
You may have also noticed that some work was done on some of the collars. Vents, instead of caps were installed on the greens drainage system when the greens were rebuilt. I have heard 2 different views on the benefit of vents s. caps from green industry consultants. It may or may not be significant, but many of the problem areas on the perimeters of some of the greens are adjacent to these vents. It is possible that the vents are causing the green perimeters to dry faster than the rest of the green and causing stress to the turf. We have taken the vents off around some of these areas, and replaced them with caps. Time will tell if this makes a difference. In addition to this drain work we are giving these bad spots additional water and foliar fertilizer, and plugging bare spots. In the upcoming days we will also be adding amending the soil to improve its nutrient, water, and air holding capacity. As you can see we are taking many different approaches to solving this problem, and we wont stop until we have 100% turf coverage on all greens.
The Floritam that was sprayed a couple weeks ago has been removed, and fresh sod has been installed. This sod will be receiving daily afternoon watering until a root system has developed that can sustain the sod. This will take about two weeks. We have also sprayed out the area between the road and the chipping green and will be re-sodding it soon. Most, if not all of the Floritam in Stonebridge is over 15 years old. We will do more replacement later this year, and will plan on doing at least a truck load of sod each year to replace some of the old and worn out grass. It is the wish and goal of the grounds maintenance team that Stonebridge is a place you can be proud of, and be proud to bring your family and friends to.
