Stay thin

The Seaside II creeping bentgrass covering the fairways at the links-style Club at Strawberry Creek was originally picked for its “hungry yellow-green color,” says superintendent Matt Kregel. Its aggressive growth built a thick stand of turf that crowded out other interlopers like Poa annua.

But that strong thatch layer is also appealing to fungus like fairy ring.

“It does generate quite a bit of thatch,” says Kregel. “It’s something we definitely try to target not only to try to help with disease prevention, but also from a playability standpoint and to maintain firm and fast conditions.”

The course, built in 2004, still has wide expanses of fairway without trees built over what used to be about 150 acres of strawberry fields. He tries to use management practices to keep fungi like fairy ring from sprouting up, verticutting frequently in the spring and fall and sand topdressing. But his team can’t afford to fight back just as aggressively against the thatch with his small team.

Fairy ring started out on those fairways, growing into a nuisance, especially as weather gave the fungus favorable conditions.

“The key area it showed up was on fairways,” says Kregel. “We had the rings forming, but then on top of that, we had the mushrooms forming everywhere. It was pretty classic – after that stretch of weatherit was just exploding everywhere.”

With the fairy ring becoming more noticeable between mowings, Kregel had to fight back. When the weather wouldn’t cooperate, the crew would be out dragging fairways in the morning not only to knock off dew but also to take care of any spores that had popped up overnight. But it wasn’t giving up easily either. The 10th hole had enough to warrant calling the University of Wisconsin out to set up some trials. That bout resolved itself, but the fight wasn’t over.

“It was pretty funny with all these areas that just had mushroom spores that were just popping up all over on top of the fairy ring symptoms that were out there,” says Kregel.

As a newer course with new construction, Kregel was concerned with outbreaks of take-all patch, and started doing research into DMIs that could have some action against multiple turf diseases. He started up triticonazole during the spring greenup to help handle dollar spot and snow mold, looking for some additional coverage against fairy ring.

“Whatever you can do to help yourself out on that aspect is great,” says Kregel. “We ended up changing our program on the fairways. Personally, I think when you go out early in the season, you’re doing a cleanup app with good chemistry that’s not only preventing these things but also knocking down anything that’s still out there.

“That enables you to push back when your next app might be, and the severity the next time isn’t as great as it potentially could be.”

Kregel plans on pushing harder on the thatch as well this season, with some microbial products to cut down on the layer. But the cooler season this year could be lending him a hand as well.

“I’m planning on that DMI treatment like I’ve been doing, so we’ll get that out when the soil temps get to that point,” he says. “At this point, who knows, that might not be until June! I think the nice, cold winter’s definitely going to help us against disease this year.”