Being educated in the turfgrass field, golf course managers are taught to be stewards of the environment.  My turfgrass professors really focused on responsibility and reducing our footprint.  We are more than doing our part at Thousand Acres.  As of June 15^th we have not treated the 31 acres of fairways with any fungicides yet this season, only fertilizer and growth regulators.  The weather has cooperated for sure, but all of the other things we do, topdressing, dragging, mowing, and proper irrigation strategies are really the key to reducing the turfgrass diseases pressure and avoiding pesticide applications.  To be fair, we do have some damage from spring diseases, but not enough to warrant a treatment. That is what environmental stewardship is all about.  Please know we are doing everything we can to maintain a great golf course and respecting our role as environmental stewards.

If you have played lately, you may have noticed that we aerated the front-nine fairways and verticut the back-nine fairways.  We followed both practices with sand topdressing.  You are probably asking what is the difference between a verticut and aeration?  Verticutting is a vertical blade removing thatch at the surface, whereas with aeration you are removing a section of thatch and a column from the soil profile.  We aerate and verticut the front-nine because we need to be more aggressive on the front-nine considering the age of the turfgrass and amount of thatch.  There were years early on where this was not done as needed, and as a result we have some catching up to do.  The back-nine has not matured enough to create any excess thatch and therefore we can accomplish our goal with just a verticut.

In terms of managing the front versus the back, there is quite a difference in how we manage them, in an effort to make them play the same.  The front-nine gets less fertility and more growth regulators whereas the back-nine gets more fertility and less growth regulation.  Also, there are differences in mowing frequency but that is becoming less of a strategy. Probably the biggest difference that you surely notice is the firmness of the back-nine greens compared to the front-nine greens.  The new greens are still young and do not have a thatch layer built up yet, which affects how the ball bounces and rolls.  The thatch absorbs the energy of an approaching golf shot and is why the front-nine greens are very receptive to golf shots, where the back-nine is still all bounce.  This will get better with time (maturity).  

The course is in great shape heading into summer.  We will have our challenges in the next few weeks with the summer stress (heat) but I have many tools to help battle these stresses.  You will see us starting to hand water more the next few weeks.  If the staff is hand watering the fairways, please give them time to get out of the way when you approach.  If a staff member is not moving out of the way of play it is likely they have not seen your group, please give them a chance to find safety before you hit.

As always, please remember to fix ball marks on the greens, replace divots and rake the bunkers that you play from.  We set out every morning to make the course the best we can, and your dedication to course etiquette makes the course even better!  

Thank you and see you on the course!

Tom Harshberger