Winter Preparations IV: Fungi...

Steve Cook, CGCS MG, Oakland Hills Country Club, Bloomfield Hills, MI:

"Snow Mold includes several diseases that occur over the winter, with or without snow cover. In a typical year, these fungi will not cause widespread death of fine turfgrass if treated preventatively with a fungicide. If left untreated, the damage can be severe.

The application of fungicides must be well timed. Just prior to soil freezing and before snowfall has worked best for us here at Oakland Hills. The application is usually best before any winter topdressing is applied and before the winter covers are installed.

This week we are applying a fungicide to all greens, tees and fairways to provide insurance against a heavy onset of snow mold. Some snow mold is always present in the spring, but the damage will be minimized by this application."

Visit Steve's blog at ohccturf.blogspot.com.

The limb is gone!

Brandon Collins, Country Club of Woodmore, Mitchellville, MD:

"The number one inquiry about the golf course that I have had this year is in regards to the limb that overhung the fairway on #17. As anyone who has played the golf course knows, #17 is an extremely tight driving hole. Over the years, a limb on the large elm to the left of the fairway has been getting longer and lower and had effectively tightened the shot even more. This past season the limb eventually overhung a fair portion the fairway and was only about 7 feet off of the ground (lower when the tree was wet and the leaves were heavier). It was very possible to hit a tee shot in to the fairway and not to have a look at the green.

If we were to have removed this limb in season, the tree would have had increased susceptibility to a severe pathogen known as Dutch Elm Disease. This is a fungus carried by beetles and any cut that we made to the tree in season would have increased the likelihood of losing it. We did not want to take this risk seeing as how important this tree is to the design of the golf hole.

We waited until had several frosts and the beetles are no longer active so we could safely perform this much needed pruning. Below is the result of the process. Thanks for your patience this season and were sincerely apologize for any match this might have cost you."

Visit Brandon's blog at ccwoodmoregcm.com.

Lighting it up!

Paul Chojnacky, Pasatiempo Golf Club, Santa Cruz, CA:

"The 6th-7th-8th corridor of Pasatiempo is a stretch of the golf course that is nothing to brag about. From an architectural standpoint, the trees that line this area of the golf course completely ruin the intended architecture.

The 7th hole is a short par-4 but the tee shot is visually intimidating as a long line of massive cypress trees creates a tunnel vision effect in ones mind. For several years, most tree work in this area has been delayed or pushed back. However, the aging trees have created a significant shade issue and a potential safety issue with many broken limbs. From a playability standpoint, the low hanging limbs were impacting golf shots and making the short par-4 play much more difficult.

During the week of November 14th, the golf course was closed due to aeration of greens, tees, and fairways. It also was an opportune time to complete a massive trimming project in this area without having players to work around. Twenty four cypress trees were limbed up 50-feet and the lateral growth was removed. This has dramatically changed the view from the tee, the overall playability of the 6th and 7th holes, and has substantially increased the amount of sunlight affecting the 8th green along with the fairways in this area.

No trees were removed during this phase of the project, but there is the possibility of taking some trees out in the future to really improve this area of the golf course."

We started by removing the old sand as well as the old drain pipe and surrounding gravel.	In this bunker we experimented with the drainage by lining the trenches with Sandtrapper II. We utilized drain pipe wrapped with a fabric sock. The pipe is then covered with sand.
The sub grade is then covered with the Sandtrapper fabric.	The fabric is held down by 6 inch sod staples spaced 8 inches apart.
We then glued the staples to the fabric in an attempt to keep winter frost from pushing the staples out of the ground.	The end result - before sand. Notice we are also experimenting with two different Sandtrapper products.

The process has taken several days for a team of three people- we're learning as we go! For the bunker pictured above on #13 we used over 3,000 staples and 31 tubes of glue. We will be filling the bunker with sand tomorrow and are confident this bunker will perform much better in years to come.

Visit John's blog at wakondagrounds.blogspot.com

Bunker Rake Placement... Do it Right!!

Joel Kachmarek, Tacoma Country and Golf Club, Lakewood, WA:

"First of all, if you haven't watched the video I made on bunkers, here it is. Watch it again and pay close attention to where I talk about bunker rake placement.

Now watch this video on bunker rake placement.

Two very different perspectives. Let me just say those guys are wrong. Bunker rakes should be left inside the bunkers so that the maintenance staff doesn't have to move them every time the grass needs to be cut. The exception is during tournament play.

I understand the argument that rakes left outside the bunkers will result in fewer ruling violations but that's only because people haven't been taught that there is a better way to place them inside the bunker. Watch the second video again and take note of the rake that gets in the guy's way. Somebody placed it up on a slope in such a manner that it was destined to cause a problem. That rake was likely put there because someone walked out of the bunker on that steep face because he or she was too lazy to walk out the lower face like they should.

This issue is about education and etiquette. People need to walk in and out of bunkers where the face is NOT steep whenever possible. People also need to be responsible and place rakes in such a manner that the next person won't run into an issue. That might mean you leave it in the bottom of the bunker where it's flat, but I imagine in most situations you can place it like I've instructed in my video. This is really the most reasonable thing to do.

If you're at a course that asks for rakes to be placed outside the bunkers then by all means do that. If your playing here at Tacoma C&GC, please don't. Be a responsible golfer and place them in such a way as to not interfere with the person behind you. This usually happens naturally if you simply follow the rules of entering and exiting the bunkers."

Visit Joel's blog at www.tacomaturf.com