Well it is finally May.  The month that we typically start to grow grass.  April is always a tough month, with Spring temperatures still hovering in the lower 50's for much of the month.  Bermuda grass requires a few things before it becomes an actively growing plant.  First it needs the soil temps to be above 65 degrees.  This is usually the easiest of the requirements, but it also needs a full 8-10  hours of direct sunlight.  Both increased light intensity and day length increase rhizome, stolon and leaf growth in bermudagrass.  The false sense of growth we typically see in April is simply from the increased chlorophyll production.  This means the grass greens up but really isn't actively growing.  However, in May, all these important factors are in place.  We applied 20,000 pounds of fertilizer on the Weiskopf golf course last week on all fairways, roughs and tees.  The Miller course also received 15,000 pounds of fertilizer on all tees, fairways and rough as well as Grand Pines.  I am anticipating a boost in growth and green up over the next week due to this fertilizer app.

I have been asked when are the greens and collars going to recover from the damage suffered over the last few months.  These collars on Weiskopf are scheduled to be started on Tuesday May 2.  We will begin removing the dead material as well as a couple of inches of sand/soil.  Once this is removed we will add new sand/soil mix to these and resod.  Our plan is start on the Putting Green, #9 and #18.  Once these three have been completed we will start to move our way throughout the course.  I ask for your patience as we remedy these eye sores.  Large areas of greens will be resodded on the Grand Pines course.  I wish I could say that we will "grow out of this" but that is simply not the case.  We will remove these large areas of dead turf and prep them for sod.  As we bring in sod we will carefully place into the greens.  These areas will remain GUR as we grow them in.  We will have to aggressively topdress these areas all summer to erase the visible sod seams.  Our goal is to have all of these greens repaired before June 1.  I will keep you all posted on our progress.  Look forward to seeing you all on the courses.

Donny Latham