Frost on the Pumpkin

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I worked at a club a few years back in Sun City and the Pro, Tom would call me up in the mornings when it would actually get to freezing and say, "There's a little frost on the pumpkin, huh."  I always think of that saying as the weather begins to get a little colder.

During the times of cold winter weather we will need to delay traffic on the turf until frost is melted. We want to avoid frost damage, because recovery is very slow this time of year. Damage from a cart or a walker can take weeks to recover. The damage will start out purple in color and turn to a straw brown as the leaves begin to dry.

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I like to use the analogy of a piece of glass shattering, when I explain frost damage. When the leaf blade of the plant is frozen and becomes crushed by a tire or a shoe it is basically like a piece of glass shattering into many pieces. Microscopically when the leaf blade sustains the damage the cells shatters into pieces. The pieces move through the plant destroying cells in its path. Once the plant begins to thaw the plant fluid leaks out and the leaf blade and will look water soaked and purple. This is the grass basically bleeding out.  The leaf blade is now dead and will turn brown. Rarely does this damage affect the crown of the plant so the plant itself is not dead. The problem is that growth is slowed during cold weather, which makes for a slow and painstaking recovery.

With that being said with my turf nerdy twang, we ask that walkers and cart traffic avoid turf while it is frozen to protect the grass. If there are any questions about frost and how we make the decision to delay golf please contact me.

Justin C. Ruiz, CGCS
justinr@indiansummergolf.com

Aerification

We were able to finish the front nine today even though the weather did not cooperate much this morning.  We have some clean up that still will need to take place in the morning, but the crew did a great job getting as much as we could done while dealing with the weather woes.
We will be Aerifying the back nine tomorrow.  The back nine will be closed for play in the morning and the front nine may open a little later than usual to allow for some last minute clean up.
Thank you for your understanding as we try to get the course back in shape as quickly as possible.

My 1st Week

My first week here at Indian Summer was kind of frustrating due to the snow covering the turf on Wednesday through the weekend and still hanging around on the next Monday.

Dan has done a great job showing me around the property and explaining how things are layed out on the golf course. It has been a lot of information to digest in such a short time. With Dan's help and cooperation from the weather, I can get my bearings and start to figure out the course layout.

This last week was also frustrating for the crew. With the snow coming down and not much to offer for projects on the course, the crew was able to clean up our maintenance shop quite a bit. The organization helped give us an idea of what we have that is usable and what is no longer needed. Unfortunately the crew had a short week making my introductory period a little longer. I am very happy with the friendly welcome that everyone has given me at Indian Summer. The knowledgable and friendly crew has helped during my transition and I am grateful to be able to join such a great group of people.

I understand now why Dan has received the manager of the month award from Oki Golf because of his professionalism and outstanding work ethic. His hard work these past months have made my transition that much easier.  When I started last monday he explained the history of disease to me and the results that were given recently from Washington State University Extension Office which came back positive for pythium infection on a couple of the greens. This "cool weather" pythium is a relatively new problem in the Northwest and can be devastating as you have seen. Dan reacted appropriately and applied a plant protection product to avoid severe damage. Although 10 and 11 greens are a little thin, without Dan's quick reaction it could have been much worse.  I am excited for this upcoming season and to be able to work with a talented Assistant Superintendent like Dan.

I hope to meet each and everyone of our members over the next few months and as the weather gets better. Please feel free to stop me on the course, email or call me with any comments, questions or concerns.

Justin Ruiz, CGCS
justinr@indiansummergolf.com
Direct Office: 360.459.3772