Why does turf die in the summer?

A short video about what happens to golf course turf under high temperatures.

Stuff I have

I am very protective of "my" cart. It actually belongs to the City of Ann Arbor, but I am on that vehicle almost every single day. I also have a habit of trying to carry many tools and other items that I might need in a day. Trying to take care of 130 acres of grass can put me up to three quarters of a mile a way from the shop, so in order to save travel time, I carry a lot of "junk" with me at all times. Every thing I have with me, I have used more than once.  Here is what was on my cart today.

Starting from the bottom-left, coffee cup (super important), two-way radio, ready-to-use spot weed killer, swiss army knife, white turf paint, multi-tool, tape measure, adjustable wrench, soil thermometer, needle-nose pliers, utility knife, screw driver with interchangeable bits, rope "fib" (allows you to secure rope to itself with out knots), golf multi-tool with ball mark repair tool and soil probe. 

Next row from the bottom, starting at the left, garden pruners, water-proof notebook, flashlight, pen, on/off key for Toro irrigation heads, irrigation tool for taking apart irrigation heads, wire brush, hollow-braid rope, marking paint wand with yellow turf paint, business card holder, "Stimpmeter" (used in conjunction with golf balls and measuring tape to determine green-speed), Teflon tape, electrical tape, o-rings for irrigation heads, ballwasher wrench, ball mark repair tool, golf balls, towel.

Next row, grass trimmer, hose nozzle, spigot for tapping into irrigation system, "quick coupler" for tapping into irrigation system,  irrigation flags, 75 feet of 3/4 inch hose.  Not shown in the picture is the camera that I took the picture with and the 2-way radio that I use to program the irrigation system.

Busy

Happy belated fourth of July!  I have been extremely busy the last couple of weeks (when was the last time I didn't say that?)  My irrigation system has been giving me fits.  We have some sort of problem with the power coming into the station that is causing the computer to shut down the pumps in order to protect them.  For the past month or so, I have been running on one pump.  It only seems to happen when it tries to turn on the second pump.  This is fine, except an irrigation cycle that should take 4 hours takes 8.  If you haven't noticed, we have less darkness than that each night, so I am forced to turn it on earlier than dusk or have it run later than dawn.  Also, when we had that stretch of weather where we had 95 degree days and 30% humidity, my irrigation computer decided it had seen enough and went down.  Not even the blue screen of death, I could not even get it to come on.  To top that all off, I come in last Friday and thanks to George, or resident tee marker/trash/divot guru, I see that we have pythium on our tees.  Pythium is a very nasty fungus that can potentially wipe out turf in a matter of hours.  Luckily, we had a pythium fungicide on the shelf for just such an emergency and the tees are now disease free.

This all comes less than a week before our biggest event of the year, the All-City Golf Championship, which starts this Friday.  I need to get back to work.

Certifiable

I just heard from Ron Calhoun, the director of the Michigan Turfgrass Environmental Stewardship Program.  He was letting me know that Leslie Park has completed all of the work necessary to be re-certified in the MTESP.  This is a great program that is trying to bring the entire golf industry up to a certain standard of environmental awareness and stewardship of the land that golf courses are on.  For more information, click on the links to the right.

New bunker sand

As some of you may have noticed, we have started putting new sand in the bunkers.  This is the same sand that was put in the bunkers originally, but has darkened over the years.  We have completed the back 9, as well as 1, 2 and 3 (except the fairway bunkers on 3 and 16) on the front nine.  We will be getting a new load of sand soon and when we do, we will add the new sand to 4 through 9 as well as the fairway bunkers that have skipped.  At that time, I will also get some before and after pictures.

EPA Testing

I received a call last week from Steve Wood, the Chief Engineer in charge of engines at Toro. It seems that Kubota, one of the chief makers of engines for Toro's mowers, needed to do some in the field testing of it's engines. It just so happened that Leslie Park had some engines that fit Kubota's specifications as far as serial numbers and hours of use. Yesterday, J.J. from Kubota as well as Bill and Clark from Sensors, Inc, came to the golf course to perform some tests.

This involved hooking to exhaust pipe from the mower to a set of instruments that would measure such things as CO2, NOX, particulate matter and other parameters. These sensors were on a utility vehicle that was driven alongside the mower while it was working.

This was all done in order to verify with the Environmental Protection Agency, that Kubota's engines were performing up to the standards that the EPA has set for commercial equipment. This is a recent development, because up until recently, they did not require any testing after the equipment was out in the field. It does seem that much more of this type of testing will be going on, because air quality concerns are rising. This is one of the first times this testing has been done with equipment and engines of this size in a real-world environment. Exciting, to be sure but I would not be surprised if you will see more of this going on in the future.

Audubon International

I received notification from Audubon International's staff ecologist, Jim Sluiter that Leslie Park have achieved the first and largest category toward certification in Audubon's Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses, Environmental Planning.

"The open space of a golf course is utilized not only by golfers, but is habitat for a variety of species." explains Jim.  "We welcome Leslie Park's commitment to the environment and to managing the golf course with wildlife in mind."

By joining and participating in the ACSP, Leslie Park will be involved in projects that enhance habitat for wildlife and preserve natural resources for the benefit of the Ann Arbor community.

The next steps in this process are finishing the Wildlife and Habitat Management, Chemical Use Reduction and Safety, Water Conservation, Water Quality Management and Outreach and Education.  Once these five categories are completed, Leslie Park will become the 842nd certified property in the world and just the 13th in Michigan.

I hope to complete this before next spring.