Fescue

Bleached out fescue in the Fall

The wispy brown grass that surrounds many of the golf holes at Stowe Mountain Club is called “fescue”. Fescue or Festuca is a genus within the grass family of Poaceae. The species are characteristically a perennial tufted grass species - many are drought and disease resistant and shade tolerant. Planted at Stowe Mountain Club is a blend of the fine fescue grasses that includes; chewing fescue, sheep fescue, hard fescue, and creeping red fescue. The fescue high rough areas are an integral part of the golf experience at Stowe Mountain Club. While playing the course an errant shot has a high probability of landing in fescue since every hole has some fescue on the outer edges.  Knowing how to hit a successful recovery shot out of the fescue is very important to shooting a good score.


Fescue on the right side of the 2nd green in Summer

While there are a few basic skills to hitting out of the fescue, the same is true for managing it. Our main focus when it comes to managing fescue is to have it be aesthetically pleasing and still be thin enough to find a golf ball to advance it. This management strategy is based on a simple principle; the worse you treat fescue the better it is for playability. Successful management of fescue starts from day one. The future success of a stand of fescue grass will depend on what it is planted on. The worse the soil is the better the fescue will be. If fescue is planted on rich, loamy soil it will always be thick and healthy. Thick and healthy fescue will swallow golf balls and trying to hit through thick fescue is almost impossible.

Thin fescue that a ball can be easily found

After proper establishment, fescue should never be irrigated. Our irrigation technician is constantly on the lookout for misaligned sprinkler heads that cover fescue. When there is a very wet spring and early summer the fescue will become very healthy and thick. This was the case this year. Obviously, the growth was out of our control. Similar to irrigation we are very cautious not to fertilize fescue after it has been established for two years. Once established, fescue should be left alone. The one exception to that are weeds. If weeds become too prevalent they need to be removed. Weedy fescue is very difficult to play out of and looks unkempt.

 

Last week the maintenance team has begun to cut the fescue.  This annual mowing of the fescue is the final piece to the management strategy.  Cutting back the fescue assures even growth next year.  The cutting will also thin out any areas that have grown too thick.  A tremendous amount of work has gone into managing the fescue to get it to the current condition.  Every year the fescue gets better.  The maintenance team is committed to preserving this special feature of the golf course.

Epic Day...

In case you missed it. Beatiful day on 09/29/13. View from the 6th tee.

Core Aeration, Why and Why Now?





Core Aerifying the 16th Green

   On August 25th and 26th the putting greens were core aerated. The tees were core aerated the following week. On September 18th the maintenance team will focus on core aerating the fairways.  The dilemma with core aeration of the golf course features is that from an agronomic perspective it is the best possible preventative maintenance that can be done to the turf and from a playing perspective it is one of the more disruptive maintenance practices. From all accounts, there was a general concensus that the greens putted great within a few days after this process. Many thanks to the membership and guests for understanding the importance of completing this core aeration at this time.

Why?:



Topdressing with Sand Post Aerification

    The process of core aeration falls under the general term called "aeration" There are multiple types of aeration that involve the process of mechanically inserting a metal spike or tine into the turf. These terms include; core aeration, needletine aeration, deeptine aeration, solid tine aeration, slicing, and spiking. There are also multiple terms that are used to describe core aeration. Such terms are plugging, punching, or coring.
    The goal at Stowe Mountain Club is to remove organic matter (OM) that has built up just under the surface. Excessive OM will lead to poor growing conditions which in turn may lead to compromised playing conditions. OM left unchecked will lead to: slow water percolation

Notice light colored sand core in top 2 inches

into the soil profile which creates wet playing

conditions that persist over many days; shallow rooted turf that burns out very quickly leaving dead spots; thatchy or puffy turf that gets easily scalped from mowers leaving an unsightly appearance; soft turf that footprints easily leading to bumpy putting greens; and an increase in winterkill due to excessive moisture in the turf canopy leading to poor conditions for Spring golf.

    Included with core aeration, especially with putting greens, is the application of sand post aerification. This is done to dilute the OM with the porous sand.

Why Now?:

    Late August is the best time to aerate golf course turf in the Northeast due to good growing conditions. The daytime temperatures are still warm but not too hot and the night time temps are starting to cool. The good weather provides a quick recovery from the surface disruption. Pushing the aeration window later will reduce the recovery time leading to extended bumpy putting greens. Aerating during colder weather can lead to multiple other undesirable outcomes. The USGA Green Section published a great article on this issue of aeration timing. Click the link to read. Aeration Timing

   

Purple Bergamot, The Queen of the Summer

Purple Bergamot

Purple Bergamot, or more commonly known as bee balm, is a beautiful summer blooming native plant. The delicate purple blossoms provide a great source of nectar for all insects and hummingbirds. Bee balm is a common plant found in perennial gardens. The garden variety is most often a red flowering plant. The bee balm on the golf course is purple. This plant has proliferated very successfully in areas where it was seeded. Take a close look at the intricate flower of the Bergamot plant, it is a delicate beauty.

Name: Monarda media

Common Name: Purple Bergamot or bee balm
Color: Purple
Bloom: Late July-Late August
Location: Cottage steps, 6 Tee, 8/9 cart path, 17 blue/white Tee, 18 Tee
Use: Soil stabilization, nectar source for insects, & seed source for birds

USDA Plant Guide

July, Come and Gone...

The intention of this blog is to keep you informed of the comings and goings of the maintenance team and provide updates on the conditions at Stowe Mountain Club. While the blog was off to a good start, July simply flew by with no posts. My apologies. With that said, let's get back to business.

Wow, what a crazy weather season! The weather has been the top story around these parts. The golf course has received 29 inches of rain since May 1st. I need to thank the crew for powering through all these rainy days and getting things done around the golf course. The greens, tees, and bunkers have perfomed beautifully with all this precipitation. The main reason for this is because of good drainage. Greens, tees, and bunkers are built out of sand and have great subsurface drainage. As in the real estate industry where it is all about location, location, location. The golf turf industry is all about drainage, drainage, drainage. It is simply no fun to play golf on a soggy course mainly because the ground game disappears and your bump and run turns into a bump and slop.

The biggest challenge on the course due to the wet weather has been the fairways. Our fairways have good surface drainage due to the various catch basins located in the fairways. The challenge comes with the thick, rocky mountain soils that the fairways are planted on. These soils drain very slowly. With excessive rain the low areas in the fairways just don't dry out. Our actions are focused on identifying these wet areas and fixing them. The fix is to locate any springs that may be bleeding into the area and move that water out of the area through pipes. Or, if it is simply low and stays wet we will dig out the native soil and add pure sand. The later of these two scenario's usually occurs around catch basins where storm water is concentrated.    

Pipe back filled with stone and sand being placed around the catch basin

A good example of this process of drying out wet areas is the project that was recently completed on the 13th hole. Due to the exccesive rain, ground water springs that cause wet fairways in the Spring were problematic well into July. The left of the 13th green was a quagmire for 3 months due to a spring coming out of the hill. This was a call to action for the maintenance team because the area is a critical play area.The process involves removing the sod, piping the spring to the nearest catch basin, removing the native soil, placing sand around the catch basin, and replacing the sod. Due to this work, a tee shot that misses the green to the left can be putted back on the green off of a dry and firm surface. The process described above has been executed in over a dozen areas around the golf course over the years. It is a primary focus of the maintenance team to continue to fix these chronic wet fairway areas. As the weather patterns continue to prove to be extreme in their nature, these drainage improvements will play a critical role in making Stowe Mountain Club playable in all conditions.

       

Black Bear

With a thunder storm pounding the Stowe area recently, I anxiously drove out on the course in the morning thinking I would find storm debris and washed out bunkers. Zooming down the 11th fairway, a big black bear stopped me in my tracks. It was a beauty! Big and black as night with a beautiful brown snout. We both checked each other out and then it moved on. Check out the video. BLACK BEAR VIDEO

Sightings of black bear on the 11th hole is not uncommon. The design of the golf course included a wildlife corridor that starts on the 15th hole, drops down between the 18th and 11th hole and ends next to the 10th hole. This corridor is actively used by wildlife because it encompasses multiple habitats; ridge top forest, meadow, wetland, and a stream.  Many people ask what does it mean to be a sustainable golf course. Including wildlife corridors in development is a prime example of what it means to be "sustainable". It is a simple understanding of our surroundings (Place) and allowing it to continue existing along side us (People) while we engage in our human endeavors (Profit). People, Place, and Profit all in balance is sustainability.

There is no need to be scared if you encounter a black bear on the course. They are more scared of you than you of them. I have posted an informative piece about black bears in the "Environment" section of the blog. The piece was produced by our naturalist, Kim Komer.

Hobblebush

White flowers in the Spring

A good stand next to the 18th green

Hobblebush is a native woody perennial that grows naturally around the course. Hobblebush is an understory plant found predominately in northeastern North American forests. For the past few weeks we have enjoyed its beautiful white flowers. It is a true Spring beauty. The golf course has provided many areas for this plant to flourish due to the "fringe" environments that have been created along the golf holes. Hobblebush is present in most of the forest understory. However, when sunlight is present the plant will flourish like it has at Stowe Mountain Club. Some people refer to this plant as "Moose Wood". It gets this name from the fact that during the winter the tops of the bush will be the only  plant that is above the deep snow pack. Because of this, the moose will browse on the buds. Hobblebush is a staple in the moose diet during the winter.

Name: Viburnum lantanoides
Common Name: Hobblebush
Color: White
Bloom: Spring

Red berries in the Fall

Location: Golf course forest edges and tree islands
Use: Attracts early spring pollinators, stabilizes soil, provides food source for browsing mammals

USDA Plant Guide