Welcome to 2016

Well, it has been an unusual Fall season with the temperatures being so warm late in to the year. We have been mowing the short grass on fairways and tees the last two months when historically the bermuda is very dormant this time of year. We have to change our weed control strategies this year as it looks as though the bermuda may not go completely dormant. We usually are able to spray Round-up late in the winter to cleanup any remaining poa annua and broadleaf weeds. This year we will be spraying a product called Revolver on the tees and fairways which is much safer to use on semi-dormant bermuda grass. This product works very well to control winter broadleaf weeds and poa which is our major issue this year since the fall has been so wet.                                                                                                                                           We have also installed silt fencing around some of our sand traps that are most exposed to the Northeast prevailing winds. While this fencing may be temporarily unsightly, it helps to contain the wind blown sand that ultimately causes some winter kill damage around the trap faces. This sand is very labor intensive to clean up each spring so the fencing is necessary and with our low volume of golf play this time of year, not too intrusive. The fencing will be removed as play starts to resume in the spring.                                                   Another focus for the maintenance staff as we go through the off season, is to work on some details like the landscape beds. The beds are being raked out and sprayed for weeds as staffing allows and we are hoping to put an experienced landscape person in place this year to keep them clean and weed free.                          We have also begun making applications to the greens to suppress the poa annua that we deal with in the  early part of the year. This application of a growth regulator along with our spring apps of a poa suppressing fungicide will help us to manage the seed heads that the poa produces in early spring.                                     There are plans to lay sod to repair any remaining winter-kill damage from 2015 as the weather allows in May/June of 2016. Lets hope that with the warmer temps this winter we will have little or no winter-kill damage this year. Looking forward to a great 2016 on the golf course. Get out there and play some golf and take advantage of this weather!