Need Stress

Since Mother Nature is not going to stress the grass this summer, we are going to have to do it ourselves.

As any golfer can tell, turf conditions have been very healthy this year. The past two seasons we have benefitted greatly from dry and hot conditions to firm up greens and have them rolling at higher speeds.

This season dealing with too much moisture has been our enemy. We can always put water down, but it is hard to take it off.

One of the reasons why it is so hard to dry down on greens is due to the native soils. In dry years (normal Denver summers) native soil greens perform really well. Sand greens are built in new construction greens to improve drainage and maintain firm greens.

So we are faced with a new management technique for this season. Our goal is to increase the drying potential for the soil and also create a little beneficial stress to the turf to "thin it out" for better ball roll.

This week we verticut in two directions to pull out a lot of verticut plant material. Then mixed in a medium rate of sand topdressing. The sand promotes smoothness. Topdressing is an integral part of seasonal maintenance to maintain proper greens performance.

Adjusting irrigation heads is an important step as well. Each green has sprinklers that only irrigate the surrounding turf and other sprinklers that just water the greens. These heads are over 10 years old and have a lot of miles on them. We are in the process of changing out the head for a better performing sprinkler if necessary. Otherwise, we just adjust it to the proper radius.

Venting is also another technique we are starting to do more of this year. Our greens rollers have spikes on them. They are used to open the soil profile and increase oxygen in the rootzone. This also allows the soil to dry faster.