Practicing for spring

Superintendents are already preparing turf programs – and managing member expectations even if anthracnose does affect the course.


The Westfield Group Country Club in Westfield Center, Ohio, has two courses for its members with a total of 36 holes, all of which have seen the same conditions this past season. Superintendent Mark Jordan, CGCS, however, is keeping a much closer eye on the south course – especially its Poa/bentgrass mixed greens. It’s still early in March, but he’s preparing to get turf management going just in case.

“We have an kind of an eclectic group of greens from a management standpoint,” says Jordan. “In the past, through our cultural practices and our watering practices and even our day-to-day mowing practices, we seemed to keep anthracnose in check.”

With a focus on those practices, the courses have controlled the disease fairly well, he says. But the north course has an easier time of it every year due to superior drainage and the size of the greens. The south course suffers from poor internal drainage and smaller greens.

“The south course is a different animal. I can’t say we’ve had anthracnose on every one of our greens, but consistently we’ve had it on several greens on the south course,” says Jordan. “Particularly on the front nine, like 1 and 7, internal drainage is poor. Whenever the turf was under stress, we would recognize on certain greens we would have incidents of anthracnose.”

And even though he uses maintenance practices to try to make up for the soil varieties, sometimes it’s just not possible to keep the turf happy.


“Last summer, when we had the excess of rainfall and drainage was poor, we had to hold off on mowing because we didn’t want to put the greens under additional stress,” says Jordan. “You do those things to minimize the impact of the conditions. But the bottom line is we had to be open for business, and because of the lack of oxygen in the soil, it created a lot of stress, which weakened the plant and allowed the anthracnose to impact it.”

The crew uses a granular fertilizer with spring aeration to help the turf snap out of winter and head into the new season healthy. The fertilizer is supplemented throughout the season with .10 lb. of water-soluble nitrogen per week. In addition, Jordan is having greens drainage installed on eight of the south course greens this spring.

“You manage the environmental conditions as best you can and use your fertility programs to help out,” says Jordan. “With any disease, you have to keep a healthy plant. Similar to humans, if we get worn down and tired, chances are you get sick. You need to keep the grass plant healthy, keep it actively growing and do everything you can to provide the nutrients, sunlight and moisture levels it needs.”

But when management can’t meet the needs of the turf, Jordan and the rest of the course staff have to work together to handle member expectations.

“This past year was so challenging. There were times when we had big events at the end of July when I went to our pro that Saturday morning and said ‘We’re not going to mow. I just can’t. I’m backed into a corner and we need to communicate it to those who are playing the event,’” says Jordan. “It’s not the product I wanted to produce, but it’s how we had to manage. I’m obligated to do what I can for the members, but wanted to make sure we managed expectations by providing information – I wanted to be like Joe Friday and say, ‘Here are the facts.’”

Aiming those expectations is a matter of using the same kind of cultural care with members as he does with turf, for Jordan. He sends out an e-mail to course members every two weeks on course status and planned projects. He also uses a Twitter account to keep members updated on daily conditions, with a sizeable member base participating. Beyond keeping players updated, both the e-mails and feed helped Jordan track past management and weather. Players also provided feedback through both, and members had fewer questions about management practices.

“That’s a big part of my communication goal for this upcoming year, in watching the season,” he says. “But for right now I’m just waiting it out.”