Well, I have nothing to say but I am sorry for not posting.  It will become a point of mine to report more often.  I am no longer on twitter, so the best way to follow turf updates is through here.  Please feel free to email any questions at dlatham@bentwaterclub.com.  But a brief update is as follows.

We aerified all three courses this year, starting with Grand Pines in May, followed by Weiskopf in June and Miller finished up in late July.  All three courses are certainly healthy going through this long dry summer but I wanted to touch on a few things we have seen.

Weeds:  We have just sprayed a post emergent herbicide on Weiskopf collars and tees.  These areas may turf a little off color, but we need to go after all the weeds on these collars.  The most prevalent weed is Goosegrass.  This weed has become a major problem for many courses in the south.  With new technology always coming out, we are spraying what we hope is a sure fire way to kill the Goosegrass.  Miller has been sprayed and we had moderate success, but we will continue to fight this fight.  One thing I have learned here is that we need to rotate our spring and fall pre-emergent herbicides and also need a stronger pre-emergent herbicide around greens and tees.  This is where they are the most visible and a nuisance.  We will make these adjustments this fall and in the spring. 

Weiskopf greens:  I have noticed many greens have a fungus called Fairy Ring.  These are the off color rings in the greens.  This is very common, but we are spraying fungicides to eradicate this disease.  If you watched the British Open, you may have noticed these same type of rings on many of those greens.  I say this just to point out that it is common.  We are working to clean this fungus up. 

Weiskopf BUNKER UPDATE!!!  I have met with Jeff Blume, architect of Grand Pines, will be assisting us with this update.  We will be making changes to these bunkers and the design.  We will certainly do our part in keeping the overall feel of these bunkers the same, but there will be some changes.  Some removal and perhaps adding some new ones.  We will use the same sand that we used on Miller and the same liner.  We anticipate starting this project in December, but yes we are doing the bunkers.

Grand Pines:  The bunkers are getting better.  We have learned so much about these bunkers this summer.  We have to hand rake them, but what we also learned is that by putting a machine in them once a week, we can keep them smoother and not bumpy.  Hand raking daily will make them bumpier than we would like, so the decision has been made to machine rake the bunkers on Tuesday and smooth them by hand on Wednesday.  I know you will see the improvement.

Summer Stress:  Man do we need some rain.  We depend heavily on mother nature giving us a little drink from time to time, but during July and August we really have to irrigate more frequently and heavier.  No irrigation system is perfect, nor is any irrigation system going to keep all the hot spots from showing up.  We do our best not to flood the whole course based on some off color spots in the fairways/rough.  We do turn water on during the mornings before golf gets out there to help these spots recover.  I am confident that we have not lost any turf, but once we get a good rain, we will bounce back.

Overall, I am pleased with the courses, I have heard lots of good comments, but we are always striving to provide you with a good quality turf.  As always, I look forward to seeing you out on the golf courses.

Donny Latham
Director of Agronomy