What's Next For the Newport Bermudagrass?

The first picture is one of the bermudagrass fairways this past spring.  With the help of the USGA, we began to clean them up and promote bermudagrass as the primary fairway turf.  We aggressively sprayed all the fairways except part of 5,8,9,11,17 and 18 with Revolver herbicide.  The Revolver selectively removes ALL cool season grasses and weeds, promoting the bermudagrass.  We lowered the mowing height and very aggressively fertilized three times a month.  The end result was an overwhelming success.  Where do we go from here now that the bermudagrass is pretty much dormant?  Picture 2 is of the 18th fairway that was NOT sprayed.  We also sprayed the herbicide Barricade on all the fairways on Newport around the end of August.  The Barricade is applied to prohibit the germination of poa annua and other winter annual weeds.  Our goal is to reduce the poa populations by 75%.  Anywhere a divot is taken (picture 3) poa annua can germinate...much the same as crabgrass germinating in divots in the summertime. 

The areas of perennial ryegrass that is actively growing now, are not areas we sprayed.  I purposely stayed far away from approaches and fairway edges, so we could properly evaluate how much bermudagrass we actually had.  Going forward, the next step we will take is in February, we will spray RoundUp on the fairways.  Yes RoundUp!  It does not harm the bermudagrass when it is dormant, when sprayed at a rate of 22-32 oz/acre.  The RoundUp will clean up all the perennial ryegrass, poa annua and other weeds.  This will allow the fairways to play better, look better and become even better in 2012.  At this time, I do not anticipate spraying the right of 5, far left of 8, any of 11 or 17.  We will take a calculated approach to converting those fairways to all bermudagrass.  This includes tree removal and patching sod into these areas.

What's Up With Those Lines on Seaaside Greens???

One of the components of the USGA visit in April, was a discussion about how the Seaside greens have shrunk and are they restorable.  Based on thier feedback, we came up with a plan to accomplish this.  Over time, we are finding hidden maintenance problems that show up over time.  We expanded the first cut or intermediate rough with an old fairway mower.  The mower was actually travelling with the tires ON the green.   We decided to eliminate the intermediate around Seaside greens.  I spent a lot of time with Mike Johnson, examiniing where the original greens were and why areas were pulled in.  In some instances there are irrigation heads on the old green surface from the irrigation reconstruction.  Some areas were pulled in due to soil conditions, humps or in the case of #15, it does not make sense to have the green go back down the approach like it originally was.  We expanded the greens where it made sense and where we could add some nicer contours for variety.  The plan going forward is we mowed these expansion areas with a walk mower set at double the greens height.  We will take this height down S-L-O-W-L-Y.  In addition, we areified these areas and the weak collar areas.  We then overseeded with topdressing and creeping bentgrass.  The new collars will be mowed with a triplex.  This will save us some labor and give Seaside a very distinct look.  On some greens, we have gained as many as 10 pin placements!  If we find we have to make some adjustments, we will.  Also, #16 is now fairway up to the approach.  In the long run, I think everyone will like the changes.

What's New at OCGC?

We have been adding sand to the bunkers, in case you have not noticed.  We are supplementing the very worst ones first.  This bunker on #4 Newport Bay, we shoveled all the rock contaminated old sand out first.  We then tacked a piece of erosion paper to the wall to avoid future problems.  We intend to add some drainage to problematic bunkers.  This will free us up to do other things, than pumping water every time it rains.  The theory in doing the sand  now is it will have a few months to settle before next golf season.  We will be adding approximately 200 tons of sand to your bunkers this fall.