GREEN VALLEY COUNTRY CLUB Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania Visit Date: July 18, 2014 Present: Michael C. Kane, President Anthony Sherr, Green Committee Co-Chairman Dr. Jonathan Wolf, Green Committee Co-Committee John Cooper, Head Golf Professional Sean Remington, Superintendent Darin S. Bevard, Director, Mid-Atlantic Region United States Golf Association Darin S. Bevard, Director Green Section Mid-Atlantic Region 485 Baltimore Pike Glen Mills, PA 19342 Phone: 610-558-9066 Fax: 610-558-1135 Email: dbevard@usga.org USGA Green Section Mission: The USGA Green Section are leaders in developing and disseminating agronomically, environmentally, and economically sustainable management practices. We help golf facilities maintain better playing conditions for better golf through science-based and practical solutions. Course Consulting Service Report Page 1
Overall, the summer of 2014 has been a mild one. This does not mean that there are no maintenance challenges on the golf course, but overall health of the turfgrass on tees, fairways and greens was very good. While the weather can still provide significant challenges between now and the end of the summer, the current condition of the golf course bodes well for the rest of the summer stress season. On greens, some stress of Poa annua was noted. This was likely a product of the combination of higher temperatures and rainfall that preceded our visit. The isolated problems with Poa annua were not impacting playability. Installation of sand channel drainage for your greens was also a topic of discussion. With the overall condition of the golf course very good, our visit provided the opportunity to discuss potential long range planning. Mr. Remington indicated that the architectural firm of Forse and Nagle had provided a preliminary master plan presentation just prior to our visit. This is a good start as you try to plan for the future of Green Valley Country Club. With these thoughts in mind, we offer the following suggestions and recommendations for your consideration. GOLF COURSE MASTER PLAN By vocation, I am an agronomist, and I plan on keeping it that way. Thus, when it comes to the development of your master plan, your golf course architects are the best to lay out this foundation. However, remember that Green Valley Country Club belongs to the members and any master plan while keeping certain architectural character intact, should address the concerns of the membership to provide improvements that will be appreciated for years to come. For example, there are several greens with limited hole locations because of the slopes that are present. While these may be considered classic greens, implementing a master plan that changed any of your greens, but did not address this lack of cupping area on your Putting greens would be a mistake in my opinion. You need to have more room to spread wear and traffic and the ability to have a variety of hole locations at modern green speeds to keep the game interesting. Make sure that your master plan addresses the issues that have been discussed as it relates to hole locations and playability. Your architects should develop your master plan, but with input from Mr. Remington and course officials as it relates to maintenance and playability. Your master plan should also address drainage problems such as those on the Fifth hole as well as tree removal and tree replacement. These are all important facets on the long term quality of your golf course that should not be addressed haphazardly. A master plan is critical for long term planning and success, but again, if it does not provide the improvements that are needed, it will not be well received! Course Consulting Service Report Page 2
GREENS 1. Poa Annua Thinning. In the low areas of the greens that we evaluated, Poa annua populations were off color and had thinned-out in some areas. This affected the appearance of the greens in some areas but not the playability. In my opinion, the off color Poa was just a result of summer stress rather than any disease problem. These areas should be monitored carefully, but I don t think they are a major issue. 2. Aeration Timing. Aeration was not performed on the Putting greens this spring because of the combination of the harsh winter and slow start to the spring season. Skipping a single aeration is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Lack of aeration may cause some challenges with water management as the summer progresses, but there will not be some catastrophic failure of the greens. Many may even look at the greens and say that spring aeration is not needed because there were no significant problems in spite of skipping spring aeration. Do not make that mistake. While you may skip aeration, the reasons that you need to aerate continue to accumulate. Organic matter deposition and surface sealing that make water management difficult are ongoing. I don t believe that the people on our visit would make this mistake. However, there may be questions from other golfers or course officials regarding this topic, so I think it is important to address it. Your spring aeration is an important part of preparing the greens for the summer season. The other issue that we discussed was aeration timing. Mr. Remington indicated that he more or less chooses to aerate greens when the golf schedule allows. This is not uncommon, but it is also not the ideal way to plan your aeration programs. The turf benefits the most from aeration when it is actively growing and healthy. Thus, aerating in early August in the summer or early March coming out of the winter is not the best time. In the case of the summer, if the weather does not cooperate, aeration may have to be skipped or less aggressive strategies employed to prevent damage to the grass. In the early spring, early core aeration can lead to greens that are bumpy and uneven for four to six weeks if we catch a cold spring. If there is a way that aeration could be moved later in the spring (late April) and a little closer to either side of Labor Day, the grass would be better for it. Whether or not this is a compromise that can be reached is not for me to decide. However, it is important conversation to have regarding the ongoing maintenance of the golf course. 3. Seventh Green. The biggest blemish on any of your greens was the bare area on the far left side. Unfortunately, this is an area that appears to collect water so it is more prone to scalping and mechanical damage. Mr. Wolfe indicated that it also routinely collects golf balls, so it is in play. If possible, consider plugging this area in an effort to provide recovery. If you wait a little later in the growing season so that weather conditions are more in your favor, so be it. However, plugs probably provide the best option for recovery. 4. Drainage. Sand channel drainage, also known as XGD drainage, has been installed in many soil based Putting greens in the Philadelphia region and beyond. This drainage system is carefully installed into existing greens. The contractors that perform the Course Consulting Service Report Page 3
installation are very detail oriented down to placing the sod over the drain lines in the exact location from which it was removed so that there are no obvious sod patterns on the greens. For an average size green, sand channel drainage costs about $7,500.00 plus the cost of the soil mix to backfill the trenches. Sand channel drains increase the margin for error for turfgrass management. They also make it possible to play golf under wet conditions when it may not have been possible before. At the very least, you could select one or two of your greens to experiment with this drainage technique. The results should speak for themselves. FAIRWAYS 1. Annual Bluegrass Weevil (ABW). ABW have been a prominent topic of conversation on most of our visits in recent weeks. Damage from ABW has been significant on several golf courses. To date, control programs at Green Valley have worked very well. My only recommendation is to continue aggressively scouting for ABW damage. We have seen several instances already where what appeared to be excellent first generation control evolved into significant damage on fairways and collars. When ABW populations reach the threshold where they cause significant damage, the cost to get them under control can be very high, so scout vigilantly! 2. Drainage. The challenges of drainage throughout the golf course, but especially in the low area of the Fifth fairway have been discussed in the past. As your master plan is developed, addressing these drainage issues must be part of it. It is amazing how cutting in a swale here or removing a mound there in one area can significantly impact surface drainage patterns downstream of the disturbed area. While the drainage problems in the Fifth fairway have been improved over the years, additional work is still needed with the amount of water that collects in this area. One strategy to consider in this area is Sandmaster drainage. While Sandmaster is not a perfect solution, it does allow areas to drain more quickly than they otherwise would. We have seen instances where the use of Sandmaster drainage has made it possible to run carts on areas of fairways after rain events that used to require cart path only. The Sandmaster machine cuts trenches 10 to 12 inches deep on approximately 1 foot centers. The trenches are about 1 inch wide and the machine backfills the trenches with coarse sand or very fine gravel to facilitate drainage. This work is generally performed by an outside contractor. The slope of the lower part of the Fifth fairway as well as the amount of fall that is present just inside the tree line to the right of the golf holes make this area a good candidate to experiment with this drainage technique. PRACTICE TEE 1. Overall Condition. On the day of our visit, the overall condition of the Latitude 36 bermudagrass was excellent. Mr. Remington indicated that green-up was slow this spring and a low area had to be re-sodded. The cold spring was certainly a point of Course Consulting Service Report Page 4
frustration to initiating bermudagrass growth throughout our region. The coldest winter in nearly thirty years did nothing to help the grass either. Going forward, I would not expect to see similar problems, but I also know better than to challenge Mother Nature. In a normal year, the grass should green-up much earlier than it did this spring. While the bermudagrass was slow to come in on the Practice tee this spring, it was performing well on the day of our visit. For sure, bermudagrass recovers more quickly from divots than the perennial ryegrass that made up the tee in the past. There is no perfect Practice tee grass in our region, but bermudagrass is the best choice in my opinion, especially for undersized ranges such as yours. 2. Overseeding. While overseeding bermudagrass is generally not viewed as a positive agronomic practice, it is a good hedge against winterkill and/or slow spring green-up on bermudagrass in your area. Perennial ryegrass overseeding may even provide some protection against traffic on your base bermudagrass. Mr. Remington indicated that the overseeded area of the tee actually performed better than the non-overseeded area once perennial ryegrass was sprayed-out. While I cannot speak for sure whether overseeding actually helps the bermudagrass, it definitely helps from a political perspective with respect to the appearance of the tee during the winter and its early spring playability. Course Consulting Service Report Page 5
3. Fertility. During the heat of the summer, do not hesitate to apply ½ pound of actual nitrogen per 1,000 square feet every 7 to 14 days. The rate of recovery of bermudagrass should dictate your fertilizer applications. Generally, divots should heal in 10 to 14 days. There is little risk of injuring bermudagrass with readily available nitrogen sources. Nitrogen fertilizer inputs should be dialed back in early to mid-september to allow the plant to harden for the winter. I also recommend an application of sulfate of potash at a rate of 2 pounds of actual product per 1,000 square feet on August 15 and again on September 15 to provide potassium inputs to aid in winter hardening. 4. Spring Dead Spot. About the only disease that impacts bermudagrass in the Mid- Atlantic region is spring dead spot. Spring dead spot infects the bermudagrass rhizomes as it enters dormancy in the fall. The resultant dead spots express themselves the following spring and early summer. Eventually, these areas do recover, but they can cause significant problems with bermudagrass. To that end, consider making two applications of Tebuconazole at 0.6 ounces per 1,000 square feet. The first application should be made in early to mid-august. A second application should be made approximately thirty days later. While Tebuconazole does not completely eradicate spring dead spot, it dramatically reduces the severity of the disease for quicker healing in the spring. GENERAL 1. Gnats. On the day of our visit, gnats were quite a nuisance. Mr. Sherr indicated that gnats have been a problem since late spring. Exactly why the gnats are so bad this year is unknown to me. The bottom line is that their presence is generally weather related and there is little that can be done to control them. The best option is to spray the bill of a golf cap with insect repellent to help keep the gnats away from your face. These gnats are a routine problem further south in the Washington, D.C. area, but far less prevalent in the Philadelphia area in most years. Hopefully, their numbers decrease as the summer wears on. 2. Bunkers. Playability of the bunkers was again a topic of conversation. As we have said in the past, the idea of having consistent bunkers is really a fallacy. Some bunkers receive more sun than shade; some wash out during heavy rains and become contaminated while other ones rarely wash out and the sand remains pure. All of these factors affect the playability of the sand. Mr. Remington and his staff can do their best to insure uniform depth of sand in the base of the bunkers. Generally, four to six inches of sand should be maintained in the base of the bunkers with only enough sand on the faces to keep them covered. Shallower sand on the faces reduces the likelihood of buried lies in the bunker. While maintaining these uniform depths sounds simple enough, it is far from an easy process. When you consider the square footage of bunkers, it takes quite a long time to sample Course Consulting Service Report Page 6
depths and redistribute sand. As soon as you have your first heavy rain, Mother Nature redistributes the sand again for you. Your maintenance staff is scrambling to simply restore the bunkers to a playable condition without time to consider depth of sand from one part of the bunker to the other. Perhaps as part of your master plan the bunkers will be renovated with one of the modern hard liners such as Matrix or Better Billy Bunker installed to reduce wash-outs and help keep sand in place. These products increase cost of bunker renovation, but these costs can be recovered in the form of less sand contamination and reduced labor input to restore bunkers after heavy rain. The rough on the right side of the picture was sodded when the new Practice green was established. The grass on the left is your typical putting green surround turf made up of creeping bentgrass, Poa annua, tall fescue, ryegrass, etc. If you truly want to improve the rough in the green surrounds, sodding is probably the best option for long term success. 3. Rough. Mr. Kane often mentions the grass that isn t really grass as it relates to the rough. This actually is grass and it is generally creeping bentgrass that is creating the playability problems in your rough. While many different solutions can be offered to potentially improve the rough, the ultimate solution that will provide the best result and also be most cost effective in the long term is probably sodding. When you look at the condition of the rough immediately behind the Eighteenth green as well as the surrounds of the Practice green, the impacts of sodding are clear to see. In the long term, a capital project that should be considered is to allocate a certain dollar figure on Course Consulting Service Report Page 7
an annual basis to begin re-sodding your green surrounds. In my opinion, this is the only way that you will ultimately get the uniform turf conditions that you desire. Removal of the maple tree on the edge of the pit has been discussed in the past. I believe the maple should be removed to accent the pit and provide the golfers with a clear view to the left side of the fairway. This tree will only continue to grow and further encroach on playability of the Sixteenth hole. 4. Trees. The tree management program that is currently under way at Green Valley is excellent. By removing damaged trees, you improve the quality of your tree inventory as a whole. Additionally, removing healthy trees that actually block views of the golf course or inhibit your ability to maintain quality turf is also beneficial. Tree removal is always controversial, but at Green Valley as is the case at so many other golf courses, the trees hide architectural features of the golf course and prevent views of the property from being enjoyed. The removal of the maple tree at the corner of the pit on the Sixteenth hole has been discussed in the past. I still believe that this tree should be removed. The appearance of the golf hole will be improved. It also will further highlight the pit which has become a nice feature on the Sixteenth hole. Course Consulting Service Report Page 8
The other topic of conversation regarding tree removal was some of the arborvitae hedgerows that are present. We spent a lot of time discussing the hedgerow behind the Fourth and Eighth greens. Removing this row of arborvitae will provide a much different view of the golf course. The question of safety certainly arises. However, as I evaluated different plantings of arborvitae throughout the golf course, it appears they were planted as more of a shield to prevent golfers from seeing other golfers get in and out of their carts once cart paths were installed. In virtually every case, the arborvitae were installed in conjunction with cart paths, not necessarily for safety reasons. In the case of the Fourth and Eighth greens, it may be wise to instruct golfers not to park directly between these two greens if this hedgerow is removed. Visually, these two golf holes would look spectacular without the hedgerow separating them. CONCLUSION Developing and adopting a master plan will provide a blueprint to make improvements to the golf course over the long term with a common goal in mind. It also prevents piecemeal changes from being made based on the whims of any individual. However, it is important that the plan addresses the problems with day to day playability and maintenance on the golf course. This concludes our summary of the major points of discussion during our visit and tour of your golf course. If any questions arise concerning this visit, my report or any other area, please feel free to call our office. We are here to help. Sincerely, Darin S. Bevard Director, Mid-Atlantic Region DSB:mf cc: Anthony Sherr, Green Committee Co-Chairman Michael Kane, President Sean Remington, Superintendent Course Consulting Service Report Page 9