2010 Summary

As of this morning (12/16), the greens are closed for the season. Snow mold fungicides have been applied to greens and tees, as has the green paint we use to protect the greens from desiccation in case we have a dry and snow free winter. We were unable to apply a fungicide to fairways to prevent winter diseases as in the past because in September the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) eliminated pesticide material PCNB from the marketplace, a material that prevented snow molds at relatively low cost.

Reflecting back, 2010 was a unique and difficult golf season that I will remember for quite some time. After an average winter, we had eleven inches of rainfall and golf course flooding during a single 500 year storm event in late March, extreme heat and humidity during summer, a cold fall and early winter chills from late November until today.

Your golf course performed well during the season, but we did not survive this difficult year unscathed. Greens had high populations of stunt nematodes and these root annihilators showed their handiwork by damaging the edges of some greens. Because nematicides are no longer available to treat turfgrass, we formulated a control program based on increased fertility (fertilizers) to grow plants at a faster pace and with more ability to grow new roots after they disappeared. Also added to our program this year was as experimental nematode suppressing material based on walnut extract. This material will be applied next spring to suppress the nematode population before it explodes with warmer soil temperatures of summer.

A few fairways and rough areas declined this summer because of the condition known as "wet wilt." Wet wilt is a condition where weakened turfgrass roots cannot pull water from unsaturated soils to cool itself. Turf dies ironically, because it wilts in areas where soil moisture is more than adequate but the roots are incapable of moving it. In our case, thunderstorms dropped rainfall onto extremely heated soils during July 23rd and July 24th. During the next six days the heat ramped up again keeping soil temperatures high. Despite adequate soil moisture, roots were too sick from the heat to use the water and areas of turf perished. Many of these areas were overseeded this fall, and damaged rough and fairway areas will be re-seeded in early spring to aid recovery.

Professionally it was a challenging year for Golf Course Superintendents here in Rhode Island, and nationally. Golf courses in the Mid Atlantic and Northeast states were devastated, especially from Washington DC to Boston. Many golf courses closed for up to eight weeks to re-establish turf, and famous big budget big name golf courses were not spared. All in all, ours was a successful year for the golf course, especially considering our conditions versus spending less than our original budget. Based on 2010, we will tweak programs again to improve golf course conditioning, and expect an even better golf course during 2011.

Special thanks for all your wonderful support during 2010. I am extremely fortunate to work for such a positive and supportive membership! I speak with other Golf Course Superintendents from across the area and country, and I don't always hear positive stories that I tell about Potowomut. Thanks!!



Tidbits....Also, thanks to my wonderful and dedicated crew for all their hard work during 2010....Pumped 17.5 million gallons of irrigation water, and another 5 million during our special "keep the pumphouse from flooding" project in late March....We will clean the well that provides water for irrigation during winter 2011as we saw thick iron deposits on the well screen when it was last cleaned in January 2008....Read about wet wilt here: http://psuturf.blogspot.com/2010/07/wet-wilt-and-heat-related-injury.html