WARM SEASON GRASS - SPRING TRANSITION UPDATE
Now that soil temperatures are starting to warm it is becoming apparent the short burst of cold air in late December has done some damage to certain areas of the two courses. The Irving Park course has suffered the most damage, but the Farm course is not immune. As is the case with most years where we have experienced a measurable amount of winterkill or winter damage the areas affected are in the less-than-optimal growing areas. These areas include wet areas, dry ridges on tops of mounds, dried out bunker surrounds, and the usual areas to include shady zones and north facing slopes.
As is customary the Irving Park course has the most amount of damage with the majority of damage occurring in poorly drained areas, which we all know the drainage issues on the IP course are numerous. In the areas where there was only one underlying factor such as poor drainage the damage appears to be limited to the top 3/4 inches of the turf. This means there are live healthy roots deeper in the soil that will eventually migrate to the surface, but the turf will be thin, and it will take an extended period of time and effort to get these areas to fill in. Areas where there are multiple underlying growth limitations such as poorly drained soils in shady areas or compacted areas or north facing slopes the turf will be even slower to come back and will likely have to be replaced with new sod. The reasoning is fairly simple. Rooting systems in normally healthy growing locations are much denser than those with multiple limiting factors. For example, a defined area of healthy turf may have 100 inches of root matter. That same defined area of turf growing under multiple limitations may only have 30 inches of root material. If you damage 50% of the root material the healthy area still has 50 inches of root material whereas the limited area know only has 15 inches and will not likely have enough root mass left over to regenerate a healthy stand of turf in an appropriate amount of time.
The Farm course will also see some hurdles to get it back to where the membership is accustomed to seeing it, but the fairways are Zoysia which is much more winter hardy, so the scale of damage is much lower. While Zoysia is much more winter hardy it does not tolerate poorly drained soils for extended periods of time, which often occur during the winter months. When the course was renovated in 2008-2009 a significant amount of drainage was installed and the staff has been adding new drainage every year since then, but it's a big course and we still have some work to do.
WHAT'S THE PLAN AND WHAT SHOULD EVERYONE'S EXPECTATIONS BE?
Sod is in short supply this year. Not so much due to winter damage because that is restricted to a very small area of northern and central counties in NC and parts of Virginia, and this is by no means a large event for most courses. Rather there are a lot of new courses being built and several courses currently under renovation that has large acres of turf under contract. With that said, we will find what we need to make the necessary repairs, but we will need to be patient as it will become much more available once we get more into the hotter growing months of June and July.
IRVING PARK
The IP course will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, April 24-25 to allow us an opportunity to cultivate as many of the damaged areas as possible and to start applying the first of many extra fertilizer applications. We will repair 10,000 square of the worst areas that are in play and deemed to be too slow to come back during the first and second week of May. From there we will continue our fertilization program and begin preparing the course for the McAlister Cup. That will put us into the month of June where we will be better staffed, and sod will become more available. I would expect by the late June or early July the course should be restored to its normal condition.
FARM COURSE
We expect to have any areas in the fairways that will not recover in a timely fashion repaired by the second week of May. There are other areas on the Farm course that are of concern, but they are more standard areas of repair that we deal with on an annual basis and as they present themselves more clearly, they will be dealt with in a timely manner.
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| Wet Swale |
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| Wet Swale |
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| Wet Swale |
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| Dessicated Mound |
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| Desiccated Bunker Edge |
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| Farm Wet Swale Just Above Drainage Line |
ON A LIGHTER NOTE,
The pickleball patio and landscaping is nearly complete and we hope the membership finds this area pleasing and useful.
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