High Tech Water Management

In the past, we have made irrigation decisions based on visual observations and pulling many greens soil samples to check moisture.  We have switched to a more modern method that gives us an exact reading of moisture content in any given area.  The Moisture Meter is inserted into the green at various spots and gives us an average moisture content.   Each golf course is different, but what I have found at OCGC, the wilting point of our greens is when moisture content falls below 10%.  Our ideal moisture is 14-19%.  We check humps and high spots in the morning.  Any spot below 10% is hand watered with a hose.  When our average drops below 10%, we run the overhead irrigation.  I have been surprised at how many times the greens look like they need water, but are fine.  This promotes healthier and firmer greens.  I will refine the process as we move forward.

New Yardage Markers

We have just added a couple new features to speed up play and help you enjoy your game more.  The black prisms on top of the flagsticks are for players who use yardage finders.

We are also in the process of adding Flex Stakes to indicate yardage.  Red are 100, white 150 and blue is 200 yards.

The stakes "flex" when run over with the Intermediate mower. 

We hope these additions add to your enjoyment at OCGC.

Encouraging Bermudagrass Growth

This picture shows a dead spot of poa annua, which now has bermudagrass growing where the poa was.  Since our USGA visit, we have been transitioning the Newport fairways from a mix of grasses and encouraging bermudagrass growth.  We have lowered the height of cut on the fairways and reduced water use throught the spring.  After the memorial and Member-Member Events, we selectively sprayed some of the fairways with high bermuda populations with the herbicide Revolver.  We also sprayed the rinse water cleaning up the Revolver on some fairways.  Revolver is a selective herbicide that is safe to use on warm season grasses, but slowly kills or supresses the cool season grasses and weeds (especially the ryegrass and poa annua).  We did not touch any areas that had more cool season grass, like 17, 13, 11, 8.  We sprayed parts of 3, 4, 5, 14, 15.  We sprayed rinse water on 18, parts of 15.  Per the USGA recommendations, we have already made three fertilizer applications to Newport fairways. We are going to fetilize at least two more times this summer.  That plus the use of the growth regulator Primo Maxx should take full advantage of the increased fertilizer inputs.  We will then apply the herbicide Barricade in September to attempt to keep the poa annua in check going into the dormant season.  The new fairway mowing equipment will also help the spread of the bermudagrass.  When I came to OCGC, I saw the potential of the bermudagrass fairways.  The USGA confirmed this.  I hope to create fairways the membership can be proud of.

Why the dry spots occur on the tees

Some of our recently constructed tees are showing signs that we are in a severe drought.  The brown spots are localized dry spots.  Everyone usually thinks well you have irrigation, what's the problem.  A lot of golf courses have irrigation heads that are improperly spaced, causing irregular or poor coverage.  We are trying to change runtimes, use soil surfactant chemistries, hand watering and irrigation nozzles to improve coverage.  The main problem is located just below the surface.  Look at the picture above.  There is a LOT of thatch in the tees.  We just purchased verticutting reels to aleviate this problem.  We will start this fall to remove the heavy thatch.  Thatch is one of the leading causes of dry spots.

Latest US Drought Monitor...we are now over 8 inches below normal rainfall

Mosquito Repellent Damage

This picture is from Seaside Fairway #5.  Someone had one leg out of a golf cart and sprayed some Deet based Insect Repellent.  The resulting overspray damaged the turf.  There are some newly created Botannicals that are also effective.  I have found the Lemon Eucalyptis based botannicals are almost as effective as the Deet based repellents.  The best advice I can give is spray repellents on cartpaths or deep in the roughs, to prevent turf damage.