I was appointed Course Manager in July 2000.

In August 1999 the greens failed due to many factors. The greens were 100% Poa Annua. They had 5 cm of thatch, 1cm of root growth and had been cut for a few weeks at 3mm in the height of Summer in preparation for the SAS Invitational Championship and the poa stressed out resulting in temporary greens being in play in September.

 

I looked back at the management programme for the greens leading up to the summer of 1999. The greens date back to 1937 and are soil push up. Five of the greens are built out of pure peat as 7 of the holes are built on an old peat bog with the peat going down 18m deep. The other greens are constructed with a heavy clay soil. Fertiliser was kg 200 N per /ha. The greens were watered anywhere from 4mm to 6mm every night. Aeration was not performed during April to October and then verti- draining twice per year in early spring and late autumn and occasional slitting. Greens were also rolled regularly causing severe compaction of the sub surface clay soil.

 

 

My first investigation was to have soil tests done to all greens and irrigation water quality tested. A survey of the irrigation system found serious underlying faults including 7 different types of sprinkler head, different pipe sizes around the greens and spacings that did not give an even coverage across the playing surfaces.

The soil tests showed large excesses of all nutrients in the greens especially Phosphate. The p.H of the greens varied from 7.5 to 7.9. The irrigation water ph is 8.2

 

The greens were suffering terribly with dry patch related problems due to all the above problems.

 

The decision was taken to upgrade the greens irrigation in-house, laying new pipe loops around the greens and installing Logic irrigation impact sprinklers. A p.H 6.8 Acid injector system was installed to the irrigation system to correct the water p.h. problem.

 

If we wanted to produce quality greens in the future it was vital that this system produced even water coverage and the fact that the water going on the greens now was slightly acidic would help create a better growing environment for the fescues and bent grasses to compete against the poa.

 

We aerated the greens with 16mm hollow tines on a Toro Procore at 3cm spacings in August 2000 and applied 60 Tonnes of Dansand 50 SP AB and 200kg of Barenbrug bar 2 fescue bent seed mixture. The topdressing was chosen following testing and has been used since 2000 and will continue to be used in the future as the rootzone to establish the fescue and bent species. This first year was a trail year for me as I was trying to find the right balance between fertilising , watering and aerating. Due to the lack of rooting, surface disruption was a problem as turf was lifting. Hollowing tinning again in September the same as in August. Following this treatment the greens were then verti drained 6 times between September and November using 12mm tines and eventually getting full depth(30cm)by the end of this period.

 

Disease was a real problem initially. Anthracnose and the dry patch problem was knocking the poa badly. Fusarium was also a problem. I could still use Rovral and Sportak at this stage to help control the attacks but with wet thatchy greens holding water all Autumn, chemical control was not really working. Sportak had been applied for many years. Regular applications of Sulphate of Iron and seaweed were applied through out autumn. 20kg/30kg /ha of Iron applied every 2 to 4 weeks to try halt fusarium activity. We have to accept that disease will always be a problem until we have reduced the poa content in the green.

 

In the winter of 2000/2001 I called a members meeting to explain the process that we had to follow if we wanted to have firmer drier greens in the coming years. With a total chemical ban in place from year 2003 it was imperative that we started the process of thatch removal, poa reduction and try to introduce fescue and bent grass into the sward.

 

I decided that it would take at least 5 years to start to achieve the results that we wanted and instead of dragging out the thatch removal process too much and upsetting members year after year I went on an aggressive hollow tinning programme in 2001 and 2002 using the 16mm hollow tines on a Toro Procore with a New Holland TC27 Hydrostatic drive tractor at 3cm spacings which was removing about 28% of the thatch each pass.

 

Hollow tinning greens 6 times with 16mm tines at 3cm spacings from April to September.

 

750 Kg of Fescue, 50% Barcrown(slender creeping red fescue)

30% Bargreen.(Chewings fescue)

10% Heriot Browntop Bent

10% Lance Browntop Bent

 

Seed applied using a pro seeder

 

Top dressing used during season was 360Tonnes

 

Solid tine aeration with 8mm tines every 2 weeks between hollow tinning.

 

Verti-drained greens 12mm tines 5 times between September to November.

 

Fertiliser used 120kg N /Ha. 40kg K /Ha. Fertiliser used Scotts 8.0.0. + Invigorator 4.0.8. 1 application of Scotts Hi Mag trace element in May.

 

Seaweed and Humic acid applied 150L for season

 

Fungicide applied 30L Rovral

 

Iron Sulphate applied 130kg for season

 

Irrigation. A small lake is used for watering greens and tees and is topped up from an underground water supply. Previous purchase of water to keep lake full varied between 10,000 m3 to 22,000m3 per year. During 2001, water purchased was 2,200m3.

 

Comments on 2001 season.
Constant aeration was causing an unstable putting surface and hand mowing was necessary during the playing season to avoid wheel marks from triplexs machines. Due to the constant disturbance of the greens to remove the thatch the fescue was having problems establishing but the bent grass was slowly taking hold.

The acid injector was certainly helping with the dry patch situation as the acid seemed to break down the hydrophobisity in the soil and the greens were requiring less irrigation even though 360 Tonnes of top dressing had been applied.

 

40 Litres of Aquadoc wetting agent was used as necessary on any persistent dry patch development.

 

The Poa was always struggling with lack of Nitrogen and Anthracnose disease.

 

Cutting heights never went below 5mm in Summer and 7 to 8mm in Winter.

 

New roots. From the original 1cm of root we observed new root growth down to 8cm during this first year of the process.

 

Year 2002 carried on in a similar pattern as 2001.

 

5 hollow tinnings 16mm tines at 3cm spacings.

 

1000kg of seed applied( same varieties as 2001)

 

Top dressing applied 325Tonnes

 

Greens aerated 8mm solid tines every 2 weeks between hollow tinning programme.

 

Fertiliser was reduced again down to 90kg N/ha, 40kg K/ha.

1 application Hi Mag trace elements

 

200Litres of Seaweed and Humic acid applied

 

Greens verti drained 4 times in Autumn with 12mm tines down to 30cm deep.

 

Fungicide application 6 L Sportak.( Rovral now withdrawn from use)

 

Iron Sulphate applied 120Kg

 

Water purchased for irrigation purposes was 1,800m3

 

Mowing heights once again remained at 5mm during the playing season

 

 

Due to over 600T of top dressing applied during the last 2 seasons and the extraction of the thatch, surfaces were starting to firm up. Initially following any kind of rainfall greens became bogs with surface water standing for up to 24 hours on the green surface. Due to the heavy decompaction of the clay subsoil with the vertidrain in the early Autumn even after a 30mm rainfall surfaces were remaining dry and triplex machines could still be used.

 

The new seed was also starting to get established as we had after the end of year 2002 replaced the 5cm of thatch with top dressing. Our goal was always to end up with as much fescue in the sward as possible in the future but in the short term we seemed to have a situation were the bent grass was the dominant grass species over the fescue. This was probably due to the high fertiliser levels still that would favour the bent grass.

 

Rooting was now well advanced after year 2 . Roots were down some 20cm down vertidrain holes and a mass on white shoots visible in the upper 10cm of the root zone. We had between 10 and 50% bent and fescue established in what was predominantly poa greens in 2000.

 

Dry patch was on the decrease with only 20L of Aquadoc applied.

 

The poa once again was struggling with anthracnose disease in the summer due to lack of Nitrogen and irrigation but as it thinned out the new seed could compete and develop.

 

 

At the start of spring 2003 it became obvious that we no longer had a problem with thatch and after a trial on one green with the 16mm hollow tines we were just extracting top dressing. I decided now that we had 7cm of top dressing in the green surface that we could solid tine and overseed and top dress. This process caused far less surface disruption. We found the idea way was to overseed greens, then apply the top dressing and finally solid tine aerate the greens and then brush the dressing into the holes. We modified the Toro Procore blocks to take 19mm vertidrain tines which allowed us to make nice large holes down which the seed could germinate.

 

We used the solid tine process with 19mm tines 3 times and with 12mm solid tines 3 times.

 

Greens solid tined 8mm tines every 2 weeks between overseedings

 

We used 1000kg of fescue/ bent seed.

 

Top dressing was up to 430 Tonnes in 2003

 

Fertiliser was reduced again down to 72kg N/ha and 20kg K/ha.

 

Irrigation was reduced down again to purchasing only 550m3 of water

 

Seaweed and Humic acid was 150L for the season

 

Greens were vertidrained September to November 3 times.

 

19mm solid tines on the procore were also used in the autumn 3 times to keep the surface open to allow the new seed to establish.

 

150kg of Iron Sulphate applied

 

7 L of sportak fungicide applied against fusarium. This fungicide was allowed to be used for another 12 months by the Government.

 

 

This was the year that we turned the corner. The membership started to realise why we had done all the work on the greens as surfaces became faster and smoother. The aeration process was causing much less surface disruption and playing surfaces were back in good order in 1 to 2 days . The greens built on the peat had improved to the point were the 2^nd green was now 85% bent grass.

We developed take all patch disease on 3 greens which along with the anthracnose on the poa caused an interesting situation. Fescue was filling into the voids left by the decline of the bent and poa. A perfect situation which visually the surface may have looked poor but which in fact did not affect the putting surface and why would anybody wish to spray with a fungicide anyway when you have natural competition with fescue dominating and colonising?

 

We now have greens with 10cm of rootzone in the green surface. We have roots down 20cm on most greens. We have various results with the colonisation of the fescue and bent grass into the poa sward. I believe that the green location, soil make up, available air movement and sunlight availability will dictate how fast individual greens will develop in terms of bent and fescue colonisation. We estimate that we are 60% forward in the grass exchange programme and so much also depends on mother nature and who much rain etc falls in any given year

 

As we enter year 2004 we have only applied 28kg of N/ha by end of June and the poa is now really on the back foot and I would hope to see a large swing in percentages of fescue and bent this year and 2005. I would also hope that as we start to be able to dry out the greens more and with less Nitrogen applied that the fescue may be able to dominate the sward more and more. At the moment if the bent grass is more vigorous so be it. Anything is better than having poa as the dominant grass species with all its associated problems