For those of who who have played our course in the last 3-4 days, but specifically today, you surely noticed the changes to the greens. These "changes" are great for the long term, but not so great for the playability and aesthetics in the short term. Below I am going to describe the "changes" we're seeing on the greens and the time line for improvements.
Bumpy, slow putting surface. This will mostly be rectified prior to play tomorrow. The bermudagrass is beginning to wake up, but in different phases throughout the green. To combat this we will be lowering heights on our greens mowers. This will help smooth out the inconsistencies and help promote more lateral growth and development of the greens as a whole. In addition, we will be using our NEW, yes you read that right, NEW greens mowers. These we're recently delivered and fully set up today. Having a factory fresh bed knife and reel going out on our greens tomorrow will do wonders to the overall quality of cut.
Splotchy appearance. This is partially due to the bermudagrass waking in different phases but mostly due to a condition of hydrophobic soils, which is very common on sand based greens. And common this time of year as the water requirement for the bermudagrass increases rapidly. To combat this, we have sprayed a wetting agent, which ensures uniform movement, distribution and availability of moisture in the rootzone and overcomes water repellency issues... I.E. allows the water to reach the plant and not get stuck on the surface. The leopard like pattern will dissipate over the next several days.
Volunteer grass in the clean up passes. With the warm weather we have really seen a boost in volunteer grasses growing in the clean up passes. Most of these grass plants will be killed directly by the heights of cut being lowered. But the remaining plants will be either physically removed in the coming weeks, or chemically eradicated all together in May.
I hope this helps anyone's frustrations from today's slower and bumpier putting surface. Actively growing bermudagrass is the fastest way to softened and more receptive greens and they are knocking at the door!
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