Setting the stage for the following season

For many golf course superintendents throughout the Northern regions of the country, the fall season may be the most important time of the year. Fall is when it’s time to put the golf course to bed and protect the turfgrass from the ravages that come with winter. It’s also the time of the year during which fall agronomics programs begin setting up the golf course for next year’s season. And for a select few, it’s a time to prepare their facility for winter activities, such as cross-country skiing and ice-skating.

For many superintendents, preventing winter injury to turfgrass areas ranks as the No. 1 concern as winter approaches. Matt Rostal, superintendent at Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minn., says it’s a critical time to get a lot of work accomplished in a short period of time. Rostal has been with the Interlachen Club for 13 years, the last four as its superintendent. With that experience, he puts snow mold controls, green covers and irrigation winterization at the top of his winter preparation list. At Interlachen, all greens are covered with turfgrass mats for winter protection. Rostal says the turfgrass covers offer desiccation protection and help prevent ice- and suffocation-related damage.

"This past year, some area courses got hit hard with low-area winter kill on greens, while at Interlachen, we came through in excellent condition," he says. "I attribute this mostly to the turfgrass covers we use."

Prior to covering the greens, a mid-October fertilization consisting of 0.5 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet from an 8-2-10 organic material is applied along with snow mold controls. Aerification of greens is done during late August to allow for sufficient healing time.

Another task is leaf removal. Rostal estimates that about 2,000 trees are in play throughout the golf course, in addition to trees elsewhere on the 185-acre property. This keeps his staff busy with leaf duty alone throughout the fall. The leaves are blown off the fairways into the rough areas where a mulching mower is used to grind them up, so Rostal doesn’t have to worry about collecting leaves and disposing them off site.

"It’s a nice way to add some nutrient value to the rough without fertilizer," he says.

Rostal also has to prepare other golf course amenities for the winter. This year, he will purchase a cross-country ski tracker to track trails on the golf course for use by the club’s members. He marks and stakes all trails in the fall to make sure skiers are in areas of the course he prefers. He also floods seven clay tennis courts, turning them into ice rinks for hockey and pleasure skating. Both of these amenities require maintenance by his staff throughout the winter.

"Not too many golf course guys get to drive a Zamboni," he says.

Different prep

At the Nantucket Golf Club on the island of Nantucket in Massachusetts, fall preparation means it’s project time.

"This is when all our golf course project work and grassland restoration is accomplished," says Mark Lucas, who’s been superintendent at Nantucket since 2001.

Lucas ranks golf course improvements, drainage work such as vertidrain and waterwick, grassland restoration, soil testing and nutrient applications, irrigation winterization and greens preparation as his main focus heading into the fall.

As far as normal turfgrass preparation heading into the winter, Lucas differs from many courses. To begin with, Nantucket Golf Club doesn’t treat for snow mold. Including his years as an assistant, Lucas has only seen snow mold (pink) once in seven years. He says a fungicide application isn’t justified. He also doesn’t normally apply any late-fall/dormant-type nitrogen fertilization. Environmental concerns also factor into Lucas’ decision to not make these applications. The ground water at Nantucket Golf Club is monitored every three months. This monitoring is an ongoing process and is required as part of the original permit for construction of the golf course.

"We need to keep this in mind with all our programs," Lucas says

The greens at Nantucket are prepped for winter with heavy topdressing in early December. The main goal is to protect them from desiccation.

"With a windy and unpredictable wintertime, our main problem is protecting our greens from those desiccating winds," Lucas says.

Lucas doesn’t use turf covers, although he has tried them.

"There is no possible way to keep the covers down in our winds," he says. "I’ve even seen hay bales be blown off the covers and roll down the fairway some 50 to 100 yards."

During the fall, grassland restoration in native areas is a major focus for some of Lucas’ staff. He employs a full-time grassland specialist, who leads a transplanting effort. Each fall, a 1-acre area is planted, and about 20,000 plants are planted within the acre each following year. Lucas estimates about 10 acres have been planted throughout the years with about 200,000 plants planted in these areas. Also, grassland restoration was part of the approval permits stemming from the initial construction of the course.

"Even if it was not part of the permitting, we would still go ahead with the plantings," he says. "It is such a good thing."

Some of the species that have been planted, such as New England Blazing Star and Saint Andrews Cross, are on Massachusetts’ threatened and endangered list.

Time crunch

Far from Cape Cod at the Breckenridge Golf Club in Colorado, Derf Soller, superintendent of the 27-hole, Jack Nicklaus municipal layout, has his own worries. High in the Colorado Rockies, Breckenridge can experience permanent snow cover as early as October. This leaves a short period of time to accomplish the much-needed winter preparation for the golf course.

"My main worry to prep for winter is, can I get everything wrapped up before winter sets in," Soller says.

Soller’s prioritized checklist heading into winter includes: greens dethatching, application of snow mold controls, irrigation system winterization, fall fertilization and anti-desiccant applications.

Greens preparation starts during the third week of September when the greens are linear aerified using a dethatcher. Soller uses 2-mm blades on the greens followed by heavy topdressing. He says the heavy topdressing helps protect the plant during the winter. He finishes his greens preparation with a PCNB (pento-chloronitrobenzene) snow mold application and fertilization at a rate of 0.5 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet, along with a separate application of potassium.

"That about sums up the greens prep for fall," he says. "Then with our winters, you just hope for the best in the spring."

Other areas of the golf course, such as fairways and tees, are aerified shortly after Labor Day. When finished, these areas are treated for snow mold using PCNB. The fairways are fertilized with ammonium sulfate at 1 pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet, and the tees are fertilized similar to the greens. Along with these applications, Soller also applies an anti-desiccant to high areas that don’t hold snow cover to protect from the drying winter winds and desiccation damage.

The most daunting task at Breckenridge is the winterization of the irrigation system. Working around Mother Nature with 27 holes of piping, the system winterization is a five-day challenge. Normally, Soller shoots for the first week of October to complete the winterization.

"Depending on what the weather looks like we might go a little earlier or a little later," he says. "When you deal with mother nature in the Rockies, anything can happen."

After the golf season is finished and the course is covered with snow, it’s transformed into the Breckenridge Nordic Center for the winter. During the fall, a big effort is required from Soller’s staff to ready the routings of the trails for skiers. Tree pruning, mowing native grass areas and installing culverts for stream crossings takes place throughout September and October. A snowmobile is used in the beginning of the winter when the snow base is light. Then when a sufficient base accumulates, a snow cat is used on a regular basis. Soller equates maintaining ski trails to that of maintaining greens. Often, he hears the same type of comments: The track is too slow, too fast, too hard. It’s an every day job, much maintaining greens.

Although fall preparation might vary from course to course and region to region, there’s one commonality: There’s a lot of work to accomplish in a short period of time. It also might be the time of year that dictates what the following year will bring. GCN

Kevin Ross, CGCS, is director of golf course management at the Country Club of the Rockies in Vail, Colo. He can be reached at kjross@vail.net.