Course Update

Army worms are the hottest topic in our region lately.  As mentioned in a recent update, they are not an issue we have ever had to deal with here.  The adult moths arrived a few weeks ago perhaps riding the jet stream from the south.  Eggs were laid and the resulting army worms have caused a great deal of damage throughout the neighborhood.  They primarily eat the patches of bentgrass and bermuda grass in our rough.  That is actually not all bad as both those grasses are "weeds" in our rough.  However, due to the high cost of seed this year and the VSGA Mid Amateur Championship this week, I opted not to intentionally spray out these two rogue grasses from our roughs.  Doing so would have forced us to buy a lot more seed and made the course look "under repair" for a big event.  Army worms didn't care about my plan to push off major overseeding efforts until seed prices relaxed.  Therefore, after the tournament, we'll be aerating and overseeding the worn out areas of fescue rough.  Maybe next year we can tackle the rough re-grassing project on my terms.  

We have a lot of new faces playing golf and we continue to break records in the rounds played department.  That adds a lot of meaning to our job and also helps fund our efforts to maintain and improve the course.  The downside is the extra traffic and subsequent turf decline in some places.  We've put more manpower into course set up this year to alleviate the wear on tees, greens, and the practice facility.  We've also added more input to areas of concentrated cart traffic in the rough.  The course is exhausted from the summer and needs relief soon.  We will begin aerating and overseeding roughs next week.  As always...PLEASE follow all cart traffic posts, park with all 4 tires on the path when stopped at tees and greens, and don't drive in the rough.   

Yesterday, while working on #10, several groups played through.  Almost every 
cart pulled two tires off the path when parking.  This leads to compact soil, which 
leads to dead grass, which leads to weeds (primarily goosegrass), which then get tracked
to the green or tee.  Curbs essentially prevent weeds, but unfortunately we don't
have curbs.  If you hate weeds, please park all 4 tires on the path.