| We deal with our water issues in many ways at Pine Tree Golf Course. Now, I won’t attest that our way is any better than what the superintendent and his crew are doing at the golf course next door. However, it is a methodology that we have carefully developed – through trial and error – over the last two years. Overall, this is what works best of our particular course. We have an effluent water source that is high in sodium. Much of the water we use in the summer months is used in combination with a lot of aerification and/or vertidraining to help the water percolate and not just run off the surface. Because of our use of effluent water, the practice of keeping the soil open (aerification) helps flush out those harmful salts, especially when the Florida summer rains start. We spray multiple wetting agents on our short grass playing surfaces – greens, tees, fairways and approaches. Fairways are sprayed monthly with Mizer (Loveland Products). Unfortunately, we have many “pockets” throughout our fairways that are very high in sand content. So these dry down much faster than the loam base that the course was built on. To combat these pockets, we spray Duplex every other week just to hold some moisture, about 2 acres worth. Our greens are sprayed monthly with Pervade (Floratine). This provides us enough moisture to keep up with the dry down of the greens without having to chase a hose all day. Greens are very rarely overhead watered. Therefore, it’s very important to have the right wetting agent on the right surface, along with a diligent watering program. Tees and approaches are TifEagle, though slightly less intensively-maintained. At this time, the root systems on these surfaces are not as strong as our greens, so we spray Duplex bi-weekly to hold a little moisture on the top of the playing surface. Both tees and approaches have small, Toro 810 irrigation heads on the perimeter, where the interface of the TifEagle and 419 Bermudagrass meet. These small irrigation heads allow us to water only the TifEagle and with less amounts of water. Lastly, we hand-water. Actually, we hand-water a lot. On any given day, four to six staff members will be watering greens, tees, approaches and fairway spots just to cool the plant down and get it through the day. Obviously, hand-watering is a very labor-intensive routine, but when you’re paying for water, it’s very important to utilize it in the areas of most importance. So to combat summer drought conditions at Pine Tree GC, we spend a lot of time, effort and money on opening the surfaces, wetting agents and hand-watering. So far this approach has worked out well for us. But frankly, things are just a whole lot easier when it rains. GCI Tony Nysse is superintendent at Pine Tree Golf Course in Boynton Beach, Fla. |
Explore the June 2011 Issue
Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.
Latest from Golf Course Industry
- Golf Construction Conversations: Reed Anderson
- ’Twas the Night Before Christmas (on turf)
- Twas the Night Before Christmas (the turf version audio)
- Advanced Turf Solutions and The Aquatrols Company release soil surfactant
- Heritage Golf Group acquires North Carolina courses
- Editor’s notebook: Green Start Academy 2024
- USGA focuses on inclusion, sustainability in 2024
- Greens with Envy 65: Carolina on our mind
