Suny Turns the Tables on the Turfgrass Zealot, Dave Wilber

If you want to learn more about the Turfgrass Zealot, Dave Wilber, listen to his show but with a twist; I'll be interviewing Dave. You'll learn more about Dave as a person and as one of the preeminent eco-ag turf consultants. Many of today's turf soil and fertility concepts and products are based on Dave's efforts in consulting and educating Superintendents. Listen here:

INTERVIEW LINK 

A Mobile Device Application for Shade Studies

Welcome to the new world.

Applications for mobile devices are coming to turf and there is one out now, that while not a "Turf" application, will be a tremendous tool for turf managers.

These applications can be found on Shade Apps and are available for a nominal fee. These applications will allow you to track the sun's movement for any day of the year and capture the images. Knowing where the sun is and isn't for that matter, just became very inexpensive and very easy. The guess work has been removed and everyone can afford to do their own shade studies now.

Use them well!

Golf Architecture's 18 Commandments

1. Thou shall build golf courses that are enjoyable for average golfers and intriguing to better golfers
2. You shall not force every golf course to be a par 72
3. Thou shall not make every Par 3 hole play downhill
4. Thou shall avoid using the same percent slope on every feature, it's unnatural and nature isn't perfect
5. You shall not move more soil than necessary
6. Thou shall not copy golf holes or template holes
7. Thou shall foster and accommodate the ground game
8. Thou shall consider desired green speeds when designing green contours
9. You shall not make all of your golf courses look alike
10. Thou shall not force the same strategy on every hole
11. Thou shall embrace originality in design
12. Thou shall not use water features excessively and artificially
13. Remember, forward tees need better angles and more elevation, back tees don't have to be elevated
14. Honor the owner by being on site more and spending money as if it were your own
15. Thou shall consider green construction methods that work better and cost less than USGA specs
16. Remember that man made features should appear natural and reflect the surroundings
17. Thou shall not worship Big Name Architects
18. Thou shalt not worship Golden Era Architects

USGA Recognizes Sagebrush for "Firm and Fast"

USGA Video on Sagebrush

In the video link above from the 2010 Golf Industry Show, the USGA identified Sagebrush Golf and Sporting Club as an example of "Firm and Fast" golf course conditioning. Richard Zokol, PGA Tour player, club founder, and designer, had the foresight and vision to create Sagebrush five years ago. His goal was to create links playability in the mountains of British Columbia. The golf course was designed to be playable, engaging and aesthetically appealing, all while embracing the ground game. We are all proud of the golf course (Golf Digest's Best New Canadian Course for 2009) and the way that Superintendent or  rather, Keeper of the Green, Norley Calder has implemented the maintenance strategies to provide these conditions.

Contrary to popular belief, Firm and Fast conditions can be created on any soil type unless the region is subject to unusually high rainfall. Sagebrush is built on a silty soil. The construction was crafted based upon the maintenance regimes that were going to be required to provide the playability goals.

Is Golf Business an Oxymoron or a Regular Moron in Golf Attire?

It's easy to look back at golf's build-up prior to the collapse and wonder what were they thinking. How did the golf business get to this point? Obviously, this recession has affected businesses across the board and there will be no bailouts for golf. But there is more to Golf's economic free fall than easy financing and a market downturn.

People got into the golf business because times were good and the golf business is sexy. Sexy, you may be shaking your head but think about this, you are at a cocktail party and there is one fellow that owns at a mini-storage warehouse that is extremely profitable and another fellow that owns a golf course that loses a million a year, which fellow will get chatted up the most? A golf course and or development owner will really draw a crowd if he has used a "big name" to design the course. So, we have people that got into the business, that may have had only a cursory understanding of the golf business based upon playing the game and possibly having been on the board at their club and we wonder why our industry crashed.

Firm and Fast Golf

Firm and Fast golfing conditions are something that I started providing in 1982 at Rolling Green Golf Club outside of Philadelphia and through the 80s and early 90s in the Western United States at Cherry Hills and Castle Pines. I have experience with both cool and warm season grasses. This discussion is germane to both. Some of you may remember that some players in the 1985 PGA Championship at Cherry Hills thought that the golf course was too firm. The members didn't have much sympathy since other than the greens being a little faster, the firmness of the greens and fairways and the speed of the 0.25 inch fairways (6+ on the stimpmeter) was the same as the members played all summer and fall.

There are two divergent methods of providing firm and fast. Both methods, we shall assume need solid fundamental agronomics when it comes to soil management, cultivation/topdressing, mowing etc. Responsible turf managers are going more and more towards sustainable practices utilizing microbe friendly soil management programs with more compost, natural organic fertilizers, and microbe friendly mined and synthetic products. Balancing soil nutrition through base saturation is a must. The divergence really comes down to irrigation philosophies.

There are those that provide firm and fast by applying a little bit of water each day when it is hot and maybe even syringing on cool season grasses. And then there are those that irrigate deeply and infrequently. Count me in that second group. There was a year in Philadelphia that I watered fairways 11 times in one season. Others watered 11 times in one week. It wasn't a wet year. Can both methods provide firm and fast conditions? Sure, a talented committed Superintendent can provide firm and fast conditions either way.

The big difference is that deep and infrequent irrigation is more natural and provides for healthier turf. How can this be? Have you ever noticed that the day after a heavy rain, that the golf course is starting to firm up and that two, three, and four days after the rain the golf course is really getting firm and by that I mean thirty, forty, fifty+ yards of roll. And soil types don't have to be sandy, this works on clay, silt and sand. The only thing that varies is the amount of water applied and the frequency.

Deep and infrequent irrigation mimics a heavy rainfall. It connects the surface moisture with the subsurface moisture. This allows the tension of the the pull from the soil particles and gravity to allow water to be pulled down and allow the surface to dry from evaporation, transpiration, soil tension, and gravity as opposed to the light frequent irrigation in which the surface dries mostly by evaporation and transpiration. The other thing that occurs with deep and infrequent irrigation is that as water is pulled down by tension and gravity deeper into the soils, air is pulled into and through the turf canopy and soil to replace water going deeper. Plants and soils that receive more atmospheric/soil gas exchange will be healthier and deeper rooted.

The deep and infrequent irrigation philosophy and technique creates a soil that is at field capacity for a shorter period of time over the long run. Irrigation every day typically takes the soil to field capacity each day as it replaces what was lost the previous 24 hours. Field capacity in a soil, is when half of the pore spaces are filled with water and half with air. Field capacity is also when soil is at its maximum potential for compaction. The more frequent the soil surface is at field capacity the more prone the soil is to compaction. Another and less noticeable difference between deep and infrequent and shallow and frequent irrigation is that gas transfer through water is much less than through soils. If soils are irrigated every day there will be less gases transferring between the soil and the atmosphere. Soil microbes, especially the good ones, need oxygen; they get oxygen from the atmosphere. If the soil surface is being sealed with water for a period of time every day until it transpires or evaporates, the transfer of gases has been reduced. Less atmospheric gases in the soils means less healthy soils.

Shallow frequent subsistence irrigation can produce firm conditions when talented Superintendents monitor it and manipulate it to the edge. The golf course will be a little moist each morning. It isn't natural, it isn't the way grasses developed, it does create ideal conditions for compaction, it does make an ideal irrigation technique for Poa annua seed germination, it does tend to produce more shallow rooted plants, moist soils transfer heat more rapidly than dry soils, and it may cause the need for syringing during golf. This philosophy cannot be used in high salt/sodic soils or irrigation waters without a deep flushing periodically.

Deep and infrequent irrigation requires that soils be receptive to irrigations of one half to three quarters of an inch in one evening. The golf course will probably be wet the first morning. But from that point forward the ground will get firmer and firmer for days with another irrigation being needed when the root zone is about 40% depleted of moisture. Wetting agents can help reduce the wet morning period of the first day after an irrigation. Deep and infrequent irrigation minimizes the germination of weed seeds including Poa annua because the soil surface isn't re-moistened every day. If you were trying to get Poa annua seeds to germinate, you would irrigate every day and maybe throw in a syringe.

It really all comes down to a commitment to provide firm fast conditions, the way golf was intended to be played. You can clearly come to the conclusion that I believe that deep and infrequent irrigation is the best way to get there. But just get there, however you do it, just do it. Firm and Fast is good for golf and for some odd reason, it seems as if the Firm and Fast crowd, especially the deep and infrequent ones always tend to have less fertilizer and chemical input for some reason.

The site will take you to a great article written by Ed Miller. Ed was the Assistant Superintendent at Cherry Hills and then went on to Desert Forest, Pebble Beach, Desert Highlands, and then ran all of Carefree Resorts' properties before building and owning courses in Texas. You get the idea. Ed clearly expressed the deep and infrequent philosophy in this USGA Green Section publication.

Green Section 1988 March/April