usga green section turf advisory service report

United States Golf Association
Mid-Atlantic Region Green Section
485 Baltimore Pike, Suite 203
Glen Mills, Pennsylvania 19342
(610) 558-9066 FAX (610) 558-1135
USGA GREEN SECTION
TURF ADVISORY SERVICE REPORT
LEHIGH COUNTRY CLUB
Allentown, Pennsylvania
AUGUST 29, 2012
PRESENT: Art Wright, Club President
John Hayes, Ground Committee Chairman
Zenard Mikulski, General Manager
Ryan Fogel, Superintendent
John Chassard, Director of Grounds
Darin S. Bevard USGA, Green Section
Lehigh Country Club
September 6, 2012
INTRODUCTION
The following report is offered to summarize the major points of discussion during our
half-day meeting at Lehigh Country Club on Wednesday, August 29, 2012. This report
will include observations, suggestions and recommendations made during our tour of
your facility.
The overall appearance of the golf course was very good. Tree management programs
have opened up views of the golf course and helped turf conditions to improve. While
these programs are initially controversial, they are very popular in the long term. You have
a beautiful golf course, and by removing some trees you can actually see it!
This was our first visit to Lehigh Country Club since 1999. In that time, significant
changes have been made on the golf course, and more are in the works. The most
noticeable change has been with tree removal throughout the golf course. While
additional work still needs to be completed, growing environments as well as views of
the golf course have been improved. The recent trend on golf courses has been a move
towards fewer, high quality trees that restore shot value and allow views of the golf
course rather than tree lined fairways.
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September 6, 2012
The option of installing supplemental drainage in your putting greens was discussed at
length. In every instance that we have seen this type of drainage installed in greens, it
has provided improvement in turf reliability and ultimately, playability. We will have more
thoughts on this topic later in the report.
Currently, you're in the midst of renovating all of your tees as well as adding additional
tees on some holes. While this project will add some length to the golf course, the
upgrade that it will provide for the tees will be the primary benefit for all players.
Overall, the golf course was in very good condition. Strategies to address challenges
with localized dry spots in fairways as well as the potential to establish new fescue
areas to provide a contrast for the golf course were discussed. These topics and several
others will be addressed in detail in the following report.
TEES
1. Tee Project. From what we could tell as we toured the golf course, your tee project is
progressing very well. While the placement of certain tees will provide some changes to
the landscape, overall, it appears the tees are well incorporated into the existing golf
course. As far as placement and design, this is the reason that you have hired Ron
Forse. His expertise for these types of things with relation to appearance and location is
very good in our experience. Two specific questions regarding the tee project were
addressed.
First, because the existing tee on the Twelfth hole is in such good condition,
Mr. Chassard raised the possibility of limiting renovation to this tee in the interest of
project savings. In our opinion, since all of the tees on the golf course are basically
going to be renovated, we believe it is a good idea to renovate this one as well.
Secondly, the two Oak trees to the left of the Thirteenth tee should be removed in our
opinion. Unfortunately, these trees are in a state of decline. Allowing them to stay and
potentially alter or change the location of the cart path or design of the tees does not
make sense.
2. Bermudagrass Options. As your tees are renovated and regrassed, the option of
installing bermudagrass in some challenging growing environments was discussed. We
have seen several instances where a few tees on a golf course are established to one
of the new, cold hardy bermudagrass varieties. Latitude 36, which has been established
on your Back Practice tee, has performed very well. Its fine texture often fools golfers
who do not even realize that it is not bentgrass. The ideal growing environment for
bermudagrass would be on tees with limited air movement and good sunlight penetration. Whether or not you actually incorporate bermudagrass into your tee project is up
to you. Simply realize that it is an option to consider.
3. Practice Tee. At Lehigh Country Club, you are fortunate to have a fairly large
Practice tee. This provides room to spread wear and traffic over the course of the
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September 6, 2012
summer season and still have reasonable practice conditions. However, during July and
August, the tee becomes heavily divoted and is slow to recover which negatively
impacts the practice experience as well as the appearance of your Practice tee.
Different options for making the tee as good as possible throughout the entire year were
discussed.
A. Artificial Mats. With the improvement in technology of artificial mats, their use is
less objectionable to most golfers. There are many different options available
including continuous mats and individual mats. The continuous mats have increased
in popularity in recent years because they better mimic a normal practice experience
rather than practicing from a small square of artificial grass.
Many golf courses we work with require outings to exclusively use artificial mats on
the driving range to save the grass hitting areas for their members and regular
players. This is another benefit of having mats as an option. Obviously, under very
wet conditions, artificial mats can still be used where your Practice tee may not be
an option. Artificial mats are commonplace in our travels.
B. Bermudagrass. The use of cold tolerant bermudagrass for all or a portion of
Practice tee areas has gained popularity in the past several years. Several clubs in
your general area, including Commonwealth National, Doylestown Country Club and
Saucon Valley Country Club have installed bermudagrass on all or a portion of their
Practice tees. The reason is simple. From June through mid-September, bermudagrass provides much better practice conditions than cool-season grass. The newer
bermudagrasses such as Latitude 36 have a fine texture that is very similar to
creeping bentgrass. More importantly, these grasses heal very rapidly during the
heat of the summer which limits weed encroachment into heavily trafficked Practice
tees. If only part of your Practice tee is established to bermudagrass, this can be
used during the heat of the summer while efforts are made to promote recovery on
cool-season grass areas at the same time. Thus, your cool-season areas can be
used during the spring and early summer. The warm-season tee can be used during
the heat of the summer, and you can return to the cool-season tee after Labor Day.
The goal is to take advantage of the strengths of cool-season and warm-season
grasses at different times of the growing season.
From a logistical perspective, try to aggressively use the portion of your existing
cool-season grass in early and mid-spring. In early June, this area can be stripped
and resodded to Latitude 36 bermudagrass. The portion of the cool-season tee that
will not be established to bermudagrass can be used as the sod is grown-in. By the
way, the Latitude 36 should be ready to use in about two weeks or so.
Without a doubt, golf has become more a game of practice. Having high quality practice
facilities can be an important part of attracting new members. At the very least, with the
facility you have at Lehigh Country Club there is potential to insure that your practice
facility is a positive attribute for the golf course. While initial reaction to bermudagrass
can be mixed, which we believe is mostly the result of a lack of knowledge, in all cases
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September 6, 2012
where it has been installed, it has been well received once the golfers actually have the
opportunity to use it for practice. If you choose to install bermudagrass, do not hesitate
to contact us if you have specific questions.
FAIRWAYS
The “brown” spots that are visible in the morning dew are caused by LDS. When you get
right on top of these areas, the thinning of the grass is not as evident. However, the soils
in these patches are basically powder dry. While irrigation can be applied to keep the
grass alive, it generally takes persistent rainfall to restore soil moisture.
1. Localized Dry Spot (LDS). LDS occurs when organic acids coat soil particles
making them water repellant. During extended periods of dry weather, as these soils dry
down, it becomes very difficult to rewet them. Sometimes, fairy ring organisms are
associated with LDS. As we illustrated during the visit, you will have a small patch of
grass affected by LDS with drought symptoms immediately adjacent to areas of healthy
grass that show no signs of stress. Thus, it can become very difficult to manage LDS in
the absence of rainfall to supplement your irrigation system. Fortunately, most of these
areas were recovering on your fairways.
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September 6, 2012
In terms of management, soil surfactants and wetting agents can help. There are many
different wetting agents that can be used to treat these areas. Some can even be
injected through the irrigation system. These products work best preventatively. When
LDS occurs, best results with wetting agents are generally achieved through direct
application through your sprayer.
Remember, your LDS problem was very pronounced this summer because of the
extended period of dry weather. Irrigation systems in our region are designed to
supplement Mother Nature, not replace her. With more normal rainfall patterns, we
believe your LDS problems would have been much less.
2. Core Aeration. The planned core aeration of the fairways will help in the short and
long term with LDS management. While core aeration does nothing to change the soil
characteristics that cause LDS, creating channels through the thatch layer and into the
soil will help with rewetting of the soil profile from rainfall and irrigation.
Mr. Chassard indicated that fairway aeration programs have been altered in recent
years to help accumulate thatch and organic matter in the upper portion of the soil
profile. This allows the turfgrass to better tolerate golfer and maintenance traffic.
However, a layer of thatch has developed at the surface. Some thatch is good, too
much thatch is bad. Incorporating routine core aeration back into your fairway programs
will allow soil to be incorporated back into this layer.
3. Crabgrass Control. Control of crabgrass and even goosegrass has become a bigger
issue during our travels in fine turf areas. Whether its warmer temperatures, longer
growing seasons or both, we are seeing higher populations of crabgrass in areas where
it has traditionally not been a problem. Additionally, control measures have often been
less effective than expected. In the case of Lehigh Country Club, the best option is
probably to apply preemergence herbicides in early April to control crabgrass.
Dimension is likely the best option for your fairways. After two growing seasons, you
may be able to suspend preemergence applications as the seed pool is reduced, but a
couple of years of preemergence herbicides will help with this problem.
The other option for crabgrass control is postemergence programs. We still see success
with Acclaim extra applied at 3 1/2 ounces of actual product per acre on a 14-day
interval beginning in early May and continuing into August. For this program to be
successful, this interval must be maintained. The other option is to use Drive
herbicide in early to mid-June or in late-August or early September. During the middle of
the summer, Drive does not control crabgrass effectively. The biggest issue with Drive
is potential thinning and discoloration of creeping bentgrass. However, the discoloration
is temporary.
The most efficient control option is probably to use Dimension on your fairways.
Although Dimension does have postemergence activity on crabgrass, best results are
still achieved if Dimension is applied and activated by the middle part of April.
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September 6, 2012
GREENS
1. Drainage. The potential to install XGD (Existing Greens Drainage) drainage in your
greens was discussed. Wherever we have seen this drainage installed, the quality of
putting greens has improved. Basically, with XGD type drainage, you are retrofitting
your soil-based greens with an internal drainage system. Currently, your greens are like
bathtubs. Under persistent rainfall, your green cavities will slowly fill-up with water and
you are at the mercy of inherent water infiltration rates of the soils under the greens to
get the greens dried out. Installation of drainage will only help with the management of
your greens. For those who may argue that the surface drainage of your greens is good
enough that internal drainage is not needed, the fact is both are needed under certain
conditions. The goal is to improve the reliability of all of your fine turf areas and XGD
drainage is another tool that helps in this pursuit.
If you install this drainage in some of your greens that hold water or those that do not
have good surface drainage, the program will sell itself for the long term. This drainage
has been installed at many, many courses in our region and beyond with great results.
2. Aeration. Different options for aeration were discussed for the greens. For soil-based
greens, it takes a combination of shallow and deep tine aeration to manage your putting
green soils. Your standard coring of the greens allows organic matter to be removed
and replaced with new, sand topdressing. This maintains aeration and water infiltration
into the upper portion of the soil profile. Generally, we find that at least one of the core
aerations performed on the greens should be with 1/2 inch coring tines. This allows
more sand to be incorporated into the upper portion of the soil profile. Smaller tine sizes
often result in holes that cannot be filled with topdressing because the sand bridges
these holes. These unfilled holes actually can fill-up with roots, which is not necessarily
a good thing. It would be better if the roots were growing in sand.
The other aspect of aeration on your greens is deep tine aeration. Drill-and-Fill is
probably the best option for soil-based greens. This allows a channel to be created and
filled to the surface with sand. With this combination of deep and shallow aeration,
water moves more quickly into the soil profile. This is where the potential installation of
XGD drainage becomes critical. If you had these internal drains, water would move out
of the lower portion of the soil more quickly. When you look at the golf courses in your
area and into the Philadelphia region, the courses with the best greens have the most
aggressive aeration programs on an annual basis. While the inconvenience of aeration
is not enjoyed by anyone in the short term, it has a big impact on season-long playing
quality.
GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Fescue Areas. Your Master Plan calls for the incorporation of fine fescues throughout the golf course. In our experience, if you wish to have thin, wispy grass with the
blowing seedheads that seem to be the desired look, you need to completely kill the
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September 6, 2012
areas to be established. Suspending mowing of the existing grass is not an option for
establishing these areas in our experience.
This is an early attempt at fine fescue establishment at Lehigh. Fall establishment works
best by far. Mr. Chassard indicated this was a quick effort just to have grass in this area,
but it illustrates why proper establishment is so critical.
Basically, you need to determine the contours of the areas that will be established to
fine fescue. The areas should be sprayed-out with Roundup or other non-selective
herbicide and then overseeded with fine fescue. For best results, lighter rather than
heavier seeding rates should be used. Sixty to eighty pounds of seed per acre is
generally adequate. Heavier seeding rates result in a thicker stand of grass which is
undesirable both visually and from the perspective of playability. Application of Tenacity
herbicide at 5 oz. of actual product per acre at the time of seeding can dramatically
reduce weed encroachment into these areas at the time of establishment.
Any fescue areas should be beyond the scope of your irrigation coverage. If they
receive water from your irrigation system, they will be too thick, and weed control will be
more difficult. Other than a starter fertilizer application at the time of seeding, no
additional nitrogen should be added. Again, the goal is for these areas to be thinner, not
thicker. Once established, weed control options are available to maintain these areas as
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September 6, 2012
pure stand of fescue. For the record, Aurora Gold hard fescue has probably been the
most popular variety because of its tolerance to Roundup which provides a great option
for weed control.
If you did not know better, you may think this is a new bunker filled with sand. However, this
is actually a bunker lined with Sportcrete waiting for sand installation. The fine gravel is
sprayed with epoxy which holds the material in place. Sand is installed over top of the
Sportcrete. Results to date have been excellent. Sportcrete is just one liner option.
2. Bunker Liners. As your bunkers are addressed, should you use liners or not? Which
liner should you use? In our experience, liners do extend the life of bunker sand. They
can create challenges with maintenance, especially if mechanical rakes are used
frequently. The rakes can snag the bunker liners and create problems. Recently, the
use of hard bunker liners such as Sportcrete, Klingtsone and the "Better Billy Bunker"
has become more popular. These liners are more expensive to install, but they have
worked very well. If we have a concern with these bunkers, especially in your area, it is
the impact of freezing and thawing over the course of the winter and early spring. We do
not know whether this will be a problem or not. However, this is a concern for the
longevity of these liners. Time will tell.
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September 6, 2012
The other important aspect of any renovation to the bunkers is to address features
outside the bunkers so that water does not sheet drain into them. If you eliminate water
running into the bunkers, washouts become a much smaller issue. Liners help. Design
helps even more.
3. Tree Management. While tree management will be the last section of the report, it is
certainly not the least significant. While tree removal is often controversial, once the
process is completed, the results are generally viewed as very positive overall. When
we visited the golf course in 1999, one of the main problems was poor turfgrass
conditions on your Twelfth tee. With the trees removed that were blocking morning
sunlight penetration to this tee, it now performs very well. The Eleventh green has also
improved with better sunlight penetration and air movement. In our opinion, whenever
trees cause a problem for the maintenance of the grass, the tree should be removed.
The game of golf is played on grass.
The other dramatic improvement is the open views of the golf course. There is still work
to be done in our opinion. The grove of Spruce trees to the left of the First hole is slated
for removal, and we agree that these trees should be removed. First, they are encroaching on the fairway bunkers which are an important design feature of the golf course.
Secondly, they completely block views of other portions of your property. Golf courses
were severely over-planted over the years which dramatically changed their character,
and in many cases, playability. While we do not recommend clear cuting your golf
course, we do recommend a measured approach to tree removal to open-up the golf
course. We believe the tree work accomplished is excellent and should be completed.
Also remember, in addition to tree removal there will be opportunities for additional tree
planting. However, wait until most of your tree removal plans are implemented before
significant replanting is performed. Oftentimes, the remaining trees grow and develop to
fill voids more quickly than people expect.
CONCLUSION
Overall, the golf course was in very good condition at the time of our visit after another
challenging growing season. Obviously, course officials have do a good job of investing
in the golf course and the facility as a whole over time. The potential to invest capital
into putting green drainage should be considered. There is nothing more important to
the golf course than your putting greens, and XGD type drainage will offer greater
margin for error in managing and preparing your greens under wet conditions.
This concludes our summary of the major points of discussion during our visit and tour
of your golf course. If any questions arise concerning this visit, our report or any other
area, please feel free to call our office. We are here to help.
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September 6, 2012
Sincerely,
Darin S. Bevard
Senior Agronomist
DSB:tb
John Chassard, Director of Grounds
Art Wright, Club President
John Hayes, Ground Committee Chairman
Zenard Mikulski, General Manager
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