The Play Season Is Over; Now It Is Time To Get Back To Work!

By John Foy, Director
April 22, 2005

The PGA tour has made its annual March swing through Florida, the spring breakers are gone, and another Masters has been played. For year rounders in Florida, all of these are indicators that another winter play season is coming to an end. Over the past couple of weeks, a decline in play has been noted on courses throughout the South Florida area. Florida superintendents are breathing a sigh of relief, and some even have a smirk on their faces because they know that their northern counterparts will soon be hearing the comments about how great everything is at "our course in Florida".

As a general assessment of the past winter season, I believe it will be rated as overall successful at most clubs and courses. The extremely active 2004 hurricane season caused initial setbacks and additional challenges during the fall. We were able to catch a break with the weather during the late fall and early winter, such that necessary recovery measures could be accomplished and, in turn, appropriate course conditioning and quality be provided. This was followed by the persistence of relatively mild temperatures and some timely rains. Even with these conditions, it is very important to stress that the upcoming summer months will be critical to fully complete the recovery process at the courses that took one or more direct hurricane hits.

With the combination of increasing day length and temperatures, sustained active bermudagrass growth is occurring. Thus, if not already underway, aeration programs will be initiated shortly. Putting green core aeration is undoubtedly one of the most disliked practices by golfers because of the disruption and inconvenience. However, it also is one of the most important basic management practices for relieving the normal buildup of soil compaction and for controlling organic matter accumulation. Compaction and/or excessive organic matter accumulation impede moisture and oxygen infiltration/percolation, which negatively impacts root system growth and overall turf health. While there will be complaints about aeration, as well as requests or even demands to delay tearing up the greens just when they were getting good, the importance of getting the program underway cannot be overemphasized.

With increasing turf growth there is a corresponding increase in water and irrigation requirements. A progressive buildup of sodium/salts in the rootzone can occur even when low to moderate concentrations are present in the irrigation water. Along with monitoring soil chemical characteristics, scheduling flushing/leaching irrigation applications every couple of weeks when regular rainfall is not occurring, is advisable. Alleviating soil compaction also is important for effectively leaching salts.

While the winter play season is coming to an end in Florida, it is now time for the real work to begin with implementation of cultural management programs.

Source: John Foy, jfoy@usga.org or 772-546-2620