Pinnacle Peak Country Club Agronomy: June 2018

June 2018

Transition from our cool season turf to our warm season turf is in full bloom. We are seeing a vast amount of Bermuda grass filling in all around the course with a few slower areas that will need additional attention. We will continue to address problem areas throughout the summer. Ryegrass currently remains throughout the golf course as our transitional herbicide is still slowly removing the overseeded areas. The remainder of the ryegrass should dissipate by the end of June.

With the Bermuda recovering and filling in, we will begin our summer cultural practices. These practices can be intrusive to the golfer, but are much needed practices to continue to improve the health and playability of the course. We will continue to aerify, verti-cut, de-thatch, and top-dress for the next several weeks. We hope to complete the bulk of our summer cultural practices by the end of July to early August. The following is our tentative schedule for the upcoming weeks. Weather, equipment, and unforeseen circumstances can change the schedule if necessary.

Week of:

June 10 – Aerify roughs

June 18 – Verticut/Dethatch/Top-dress – Aprons and approaches

June 18 – Aerify green mounds / Finish Roughs

June 25 – Verticut/Dethatch/Top-dress – Tees

June 25 – Verticut / Dethatch Roughs

June 25 – Contract tree trimming begins

July 2 – July 30 – Verticut / Dethatch / Aerify / Top-dress – Fairways

July 9 – Aerify roughs 2^nd pass

You may have noticed around the putting green some grass turning a white color. We have begun to use a new herbicide to control Bermuda encroachment into the collars/greens. We have been carefully experimenting with this product over the last year and have seen positive results. In mid-May we treated a 20-foot section on the chipping greens and saw satisfactory results. After 2 weeks of monitoring we have now applied the same product to the outside edge of the collar on both the putting and chipping greens. We continue to see the desired results thus far and hope that it will continue to prove a valuable tool to keeping Bermuda out of the cool season bentgrasss / rye collars. The 36” collars are meant to provide a buffer to keep the Bermuda out of the putting surface which has proven to be challenging at times. We have altered our approach to maintaining the cool season collars for much of the past year to create a healthier barrier from the Bermuda grass and help the bent/rye survive the adverse summer conditions. So far, we have seen success with the changes but the true test will come during the monsoon months as dew points, humidity, and soil temperatures rise significantly.

The greens continue to mature and create a higher density canopy. We are seeing roots as deep as 11” and thick masses of fibrous roots in the 8-9 in range. This a very healthy spot to be in for the greens as we head towards the adverse summers conditions. Since aerification, the greens have slowed down to the 10.5-11 stimp range. We do anticipate them slowing down to the 9-10 range as monsoon season progresses. This is done in the best interest of preserving the health of the greens and ensuring survival during the summer monsoon.

We have now completed the in-house tree trimming and are moving on to some other drainage and leveling projects. Several small drains have been added to #4 approach, #12, #14. A large depression has been leveled on #12 as well. There are several more areas that we plan to address throughout the summer before fall overseed. In addition, we have begun to sod some poor areas under trees, high traffic areas by cart paths, and bunker faces.

An additional project that has begun is the removal of the cart path yardage plaques adhered to the top of the cart paths. We have begun cut into the concrete and submerge them flush into the concreate. Plaques were continuously coming loose and / or damaged to cart and equipment traffic. This will take some time to complete among all the cultural practices and projects. Our goal is to finish before overseed. So far #7 and #8 have been completed.

Once again, we appreciate your patience and support as we work to provide the best playing conditions to the Membership year-round. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out and we hop you enjoy your summer wherever you may be.