Pinnacle Peak Country Club Agronomy: May 2018

April / May 2018

As we approach the end of the winter/spring season and begin to look to summer transition we wanted to inform the membership of several up-coming items.

May 7 & 8 we will be aerifying greens. The greens will be aerified with a small ¼” tine. The holes will be small but there will be much more holes that when a larger tine is used. Upon aerifying the greens, we will topdress the greens with appropriate amount of sand to fill as many of the holes as possible. The sand will be brushed in and followed by several amendments. Once the amendments have been applied we will “flush” the sand and water in with a heavy amount of water. The heavy amount of water will last approximately 2-3 hours to help flush salts, sodium, chlorides, bi-carbonates and any unwanted elements from the soil that can accumulate over time. This flushing practice is done several times a year to accomplish this task, in conjunction with soil testing to guide the process. You can expect the greens to remain sandy for much of the week of May 7. With the temperatures projected to be very warm during this week it may be required to run the overheads sprinklers during the day to keep the sand from getting to hot on the surface of the green and causing damage.

As we enter the summer months the green speeds will begin to decline. We will raise heights and reduce some practices such as the frequency of rolling in-order to reduce additional stress on the bent grass during the adverse summer weather. We will increase the brushing of the greens to help reduce the potential of swelling or puffy conditions during the monsoon season. In addition, we will be increasing the frequency of light top-dressing during the summer monsoon to help alleviate puffy or soft conditions that can be created due high soil temperatures, high air temperatures, humidity, and high dew points. Our goal is to continue to provide the best possible playing conditions during the summer that are conducive to the health of the bent grass.

On May 14 we will spray out the winter ryegrass using an herbicide that targets only the ryegrass. The herbicide will turn the ryegrass off color the first week but will green back up shortly after. The herbicide will then slow remove the ryegrass over the next several weeks creating room for the base Bermuda grass to begin to fill in. Due to a warm fall and spring we have experienced a natural accelerated transition already. The mild winter has advanced the natural transition 4-6 weeks earlier than we typically expect. This has shown optimism for a good transition but we could still see some areas transition poorly and will require addition work during the summer.

As many of you may have already noticed we have begun to trim the smaller trees around the course that can be done in house. The in-house tree trimming will hopefully be completed by the end of May or early June. We know that our chipper can be loud and inconvenient to play. We ask for your patience during this period.

During the summer months there will be summer outside tree trimming performed on the larger trees that we are unable to trim. This will begin in late June and will be performed primarily on Mondays while the course is closed. we anticipate that the large tree trimming will be completed by mid-August.

We will be performing several major cultural practices throughout the summer that will begin in mid-June. Many of these practices will be like the practices we have performed over the past several summers. We will continue to top-dress fairways, tees, and approaches to help increase surface drainage and playability. While these processes are an inconvenient they due play a key role in improving the overall health of the course long term. We will continue to use club email and our blog to further inform and communicate processes on a regular basis during the summer.

Greens and grounds has also begun implementing the tree plan that was developed with a certified arborist and Rick Phelps our golf course architect. Several trees have been planted already. There will be 2 more waves of tree planting in the upcoming months.

We wish everyone a great summer wherever you may be. Please do not hesitate to reach out to the greens and grounds department is we can provide any other information during the summer months.