THE BULLETIN

of the

UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION GREEN SECTION

Vol. 11 

Washington, D. C., September, 1931 

No. 9

Contents

Page

Russell A. Oakley.......................................................................................................... 175

Some Problems of Southern Golf Courses.............................................   176

Bermuda Turf and Sand Greens at Pinehurst, N. C. By Frank Maples..........  182

Turf Maintenance at Wappoo Links, Charleston, S. C. By J. Keitt Hane, Jr.. 181

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Ganson Depew, Chairman, Marine Trust Bldg., 

Buffalo, N. Y.

H. Kendall Read, Vice-Chairman, Philadel­

phia, Pa.

Robert F. Arnott, Upper Montclair, N. J.
Robert M. Cutting, Chicago, Ill.

Walter S. Harban, Washington, D. C. 
K. F. Kellerman, Washington, D. C.
Cornelius S. Lee, New York, N. Y.
John Monteith, Jr.. Washington, D. C.
Wynant D. Vanderpool, Newark, N. J.
Harvey L. Westover, Washington, D. C.

RESEARCH COMMITTEE

United States Department of Agriculture

K. F. Kellerman, Chairman; Associate Chief, Bureau of Plant Industry.
F. H. Hillman. Botanist, Seed Investigations.
A. J. Pieters, Principal Agronomist in Charge, Forage Crops and Diseases.
Oswald Schreiner. Principal Biochemist in Charge, Soil Fertility.
W. R. Walton. Senior Entomologist. Cereal and Foraee Insects.
Harvey L. Weitover. Senior Agronomist. Forage Crops and Diseases.

United States Golf Association Green Section
John Monteith, Jr.
Kenneth Welton

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Douglas Call, Richmond, Va.
N. S. Campbell, Providence, R. I.
William S. Fownes, Jr., Pittsburgh, Pa.
A. J. Goetz, Webster Groves, Mo. 
William Harig, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
J. McRae Hartgering, Detroit, Mich. 
Frederic C. Hood, Marion, Mass.
Norman Macbeth, Los Angeles, Calif. 
John Morley, Youngstown, Ohio.
Guy M. Peters, Chicago, Ill.

Alex Pirie, Fort Sheridan, Ill.
William J. Rockefeller, Toledo, Ohio.
George V. Rotan, Houston, Tex.
George Sargent, Columbus, Ohio.
John Shanahan, West Newton, Mass.
Sherrill Sherman, Utica, N. Y.
Frederick Snare. Havana, Cuba.
Charles E. Van Nest, Minneapolis, Minn. 
Alan D. Wilson, Philadelphia, Pa.
M. H. Wilson, Jr., Cleveland, Ohio.

The Bulletin is published monthly by the United States Golf Association Green Section, 

at Room 7207, Building F, Constitution Ave. and 7th St., Washington, D. C.

Address all MAIL to P. 0. Box 313, Pennsylvania Avenue Station, Washington, D. C.
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Entered as second-class matter, April 21, 1926, at the post office at Washington, D. C., under 
the Act of March 3, 1879. Copyrighted. 1931, by the United States Golf Association Green Section.

Russell A. Oakley

September, 1931

175

Russell A. Oakley

The death of Dr. Russell A. Oakley at Monrovia, Calif., on August 
6 of this year removes from the Green Section of the United States 
Golf Association its most valued member. He was well known among 
professional and amateur golfers for his interest in the improvement 
and more effective use of fine turf grasses. He and the late C. V. 
Piper were responsible for the creation of the Bulletin of the Green 
Section of the United States Golf Association and for the inaugura­
tion of extensive investigations on fine turf. With Doctor Piper, he 
was co-author of “Turf for Golf Courses.” At the time of his death, 
he was chairman of the research committee of the Green Section and 
for many years he had been a member of the executive committee.

Doctor Oakley was born at Marysville, Kans., September 7, 1880. 
He graduated with the degree of B. S. from the Kansas Agricultural 
College in 1903 and was awarded the D. Sc. degree at Iowa State 
College in 1920. Doctor Oakley was appointed, July 16, 1903, scien­
tific aid in what was then known as the office of agrostology of the 
United States Department of Agriculture. In 1913 he was appointed 
agronomist in charge of seed distribution. In 1925 he was a special 
representative of the Secretary of Agriculture in the campaign 
against foot-and-mouth disease in California, and the following year 
he was sent by the Secretary as a special delegate to the meeting of 
the International Institute of Agriculture at Rome. In 1926, upon 
the death of Dr. C. V. Piper, he was made senior agronomist in charge 
of the division of forage crops and diseases.

During the war period Doctor Oakley served as chairman of the 
seed stocks committee cooperating with the War Trade Board and 
other emergency activities. He had served as vice chairman of the 
Federal Horticultural Board and more recently was a member of 
the Advisory Federal Plant Quarantine Board. He was a fellow of 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a fellow 
of the American Society of Agronomy, a member of the Washington 
Botanical Society, the American Genetic Society, and the Cosmos 
Club, and an honorary life member of the Washington Golf and Coun­
try Club.

Doctor Oakley’s keen appreciation of scientific work and his un­
usual skill in planning and conducting important and difficult experi­
ments will long be remembered. His most important contributions 
to the agricultural and social welfare in the United States, however, 
in all probability are due to his unusually well-balanced and critical 
judgment and his aptitude for imparting to others his own vision of 
the relative significance of different and occasionally conflicting fac­
tors. Doctor Oakley will be remembered by a very wide circle of in­
timate friends as a man whose opinions, wittily expressed, were val­
uable as well as interesting. He possessed to a remarkable degree the 
quality of making friends and was endowed with almost superhuman 
courage and cheerfulness in long years of struggle against arthritis. 
His associates never ceased to marvel at the indomitable will which 
enabled him to go about his work day after day efficient and genial. 
He leaves behind a splendid record of achievement.

Associate Chief, Bureau of Plant Industry.

K. F. Kellerman,

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Vol. 11, No. 9

Some Problems of Southern Golf Courses

The articles which will be found in this and the following number 
of the Bulletin are devoted primarily to problems of maintaining turf 
on southern golf courses, and although they describe conditions in 
widely separated areas they supplement one another to a large extent.
In a general way, the problems of maintaining turf on golf courses 
in the South are the same as in the North. There occur, however, cer­
tain details, more or less established by latitude, by reason of the 
differences in types of grasses used under the different southern cli­
matic conditions. In the South the problems are concerned chiefly 
with the maintenance of Bermuda grass and carpet grass, the two 
grasses in most general use. The longer period of growth of these 
grasses, coupled with the general deficiency of organic matter in 
southern soils, renders the problem of fertilization more serious as 
compared with conditions on northern courses. So far comparatively 
little experimental work has been done with materials and methods 
used for fertilizing Bermuda grass turf in the South, especially on the 
sandy soils of the coastal plain. Another special problem arises from 
the need of different grass for winter play than are used for summer 
play on many of the southern courses. This change from one grass 
to another occasions two critical periods at which skill in greenkeeping 
is given a severe test. One of these periods is in the fall, when the 
summer turf is being converted to winter turf; the other is in the 
spring, when the winter turf dies and the Bermuda turf is being 
brought back for summer play.

The dividing line between northern and southern turf grasses fol­
lows approximately the 37th degree of latitude, extending through the 
southern parts of Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, 
Utah, and Nevada and through Central California. There is, how­
ever, some deviation from this direct line due to the influence of moun­
tains and oceans on the climate. South of this line is the belt where 
Bermuda grass and carpet grass predominate in the fairways and the 
rough of golf courses, whereas north of it is the region of the northern 
grass belt, where Kentucky bluegrass, fescue, and bents predominate. 
This line of demarcation, as are the lines between any other distinct 
types of vegetation, is necessarily a broad one, since there is a belt in 
which neither the southern grasses nor the northern grasses grow at 
their best but where both are able to exist. Factors other than lati­
tude, including topography, which influence climate and rainfall, and 
also the soil type, enter to regulate the extent to which either grass 
invades the territory of the other.

Bermuda grass is essentially a hot-weather grass and its reaction 
to frost accordingly presents quite different problems on the golf 
courses in the northern, middle, and southern portions of its range.

In the northern portion of the Bermuda grass belt the frequent 
frosts keep the Bermuda grass dormant throughout the entire winter 
season and large areas of it may be killed during unusually severe 
winters. The winterkilling of Bermuda grass is more apt to occur 
on putting greens than on fairways or other areas where the grass is 
allowed to grow longer. Bermuda grass, even though dormant and 
brown, offers a satisfactory turf for fairways and tees, but it may be 
badly worn before the end of the playing season, making it necessary 

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177

to have large tees or to use clay and sand. It is good practice to 
stimulate, by the use of fertilizers and by other means, a heavy growth 
of Bermuda grass on fairways and tees during the growing season to 
provide as thick and lasting a turf as possible over winter. On some 
courses in the northern portion of its range the Bermuda grass fair­
ways are improved during winter by the invasion of northern grasses 
and weeds.

To overcome the difficulty of maintaining putting greens in the 
northern part of the Bermuda grass belt some interesting methods 
have been devised. As described elsewhere in this number of the 
Bulletin, the method at Pinehurst is the use of small sand putting 
greens surrounded by well-kept Bermuda turf. Most of the play up 
until the last short putts is on turf, but the heavy wear immediately 
surrounding the cup is on sand. It has been found that satisfactory 
putting surfaces can be maintained better in this manner than by

A Bermuda grass putting green at Tulsa, Okla., which was winterkilled during 
the winter of 1929-i930. In regions where this type of loss is common there is an 
increasing interest in creeping bent for putting greens.

using turf. Another method, which has been used satisfactorily in 
the Atlanta district, is the installation of double putting greens, one 
green being maintained for winter use while the other is covered with 
a mulch to protect it from the rigors of winter. On some courses 
clippings of annual bluegrass containing seed heads are saved in the 
spring and used in the fall in preparing the putting greens of winter 
grass. Pine needles or other coverings have been used to protect the 
Bermuda grass and to keep the putting greens free from weeds and 
foreign grasses which are likely to become established on Bermuda 
turf left uncovered during the winter months when the grass is dor­
mant. The use of double putting greens is described in the Bulletins 
for October and November, 1929.

In the northern section of the Bermuda belt there is an increasing 
interest in the use of bent grasses for year-round putting greens. In 
this section the bent grasses grow sufficiently during the winter 
months to maintain good putting areas but difficulty is experienced 
with them during the summer months. The development of remedies 
for brown-patch in recent years, however, has done much to extend 
the practical limits of bent grasses farther into the Bermuda grass 
belt. On many courses in this section the topsoil is a heavy clay 
which bakes badly and would be unsuitable for the growth of bent 
even in latitudes where it thrives. The improvement of the physical 
properties of this stiff soil for putting green purposes by the addition 

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of organic material and sand, also the adequate provision for surface 
and tile drainage, have made it possible to maintain bent putting 
greens on golf courses where it would otherwise have been impossible. 
As more information becomes available on the culture of bent grass 
under the most trying soil and climatic conditions found in its south­
ern range, it is probable that bent will be used in regions where it 
once would have been regarded as entirely impractical. The increas­
ing use of seaside creeping bent on putting greens on golf courses in 
the vicinities of Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla., furnishes an example 
of the extension of the use of bent grass into a section which formerly 
relied primarily on Bermuda grass. The Green Section has established 
demonstration gardens at Tulsa, Okla., and at Greensboro, N. C., 
where, it is hoped, further information will be developed as to the 
practicability of using other grasses as a base for putting greens in 
this section where Bermuda grass has proved to be unsatisfactory.

In the middle portion of the Bermuda grass belt, which extends 
approximately between the latitudes of central Georgia and the Gulf 
and northward somewhat along the coastal plain, temperatures are 
more moderate. In this region Bermuda grass, although dormant, 
can generally survive the winter months even on putting greens and 
it is not necessary to resort to sand putting greens or separate put­
ting greens for winter play. In order that the putting greens for 
winter play may present a much finer putting surface and also the 
attractive appearance of green, growing grass, the method generally 
used is to plant northern grasses directly on the Bermuda grass put­
ting greens. The methods used for the transfer from winter to sum­
mer putting greens, and vice versa, vary to some extent in different 
localities. In the fall, when Bermuda grass is checked by cool weather, 
it is cut close and heavily top-dressed. Northern grasses, such as rye 
grass, redtop, and Kentucky bluegrass, are seeded on the heavily top- 
dressed putting greens, which are then cared for during the winter 
months much as the northern putting greens are cared for during the 
summer. The mat of Bermuda grass provides a firm base, which 
makes it possible to establish and preserve a true putting surface soon 
after the seedling grass is well established. Without this mat the 
newly seeded greens would have the same objection as newly seeded 
greens in any other regions, in that it would take a long time to get 
them in condition for putting. With this method, winter play is actu­
ally not on an entirely new putting green, but rather on a new grass 
growing on a heavy top-dressing. Difficulties are frequently encoun­
tered in establishing a new grass early enough in the season before 
the heavy winter play begins. If the planting is made too early the 
seedlings may be destroyed by sudden hot spells soon after the seeds 
germinate. Also if the winter seeding is done before the Bermuda 
grass has become dormant, the Bermuda may continue to grow and 
its coarse shoots will make the putting green uneven and unsightly. 
On some courses there are decided preferences for certain of the 
northern grasses, but probably in most cases mixtures of seeds of 
different grasses are used for planting winter greens. Rye grass and 
redtop are the grasses chiefly used, but in recent years there has been 
a tendency to use more Kentucky bluegrass for this purpose since on 
many courses it has been found to give more lasting turf during the 
winter months.

September, 1931

179

For a number of years the Green Section, in cooperation with the 
Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, made tests of the growth 
characteristics of several northern grasses when grown for winter 
putting greens on a Bermuda base at Gainesville, Fla. The results ob­
tained were published in the Bulletins for May, 1927, and November 
and December, 1928. Some of the details involved in the maintenance 
of a course at Charleston, S. C., which is in this general belt, are ex­
plained in the current number of the Bulletin.

The fairways in the middle section of the Bermuda belt are chiefly 
of Bermuda grass, which becomes practically dormant during the 
winter but still provides a good cushion for play and usually survives 
the winter without much difficulty. The only objection is that it is 
brown and unattractive during this season and some attempts have 
been made to improve the appearance of the fairways by encouraging 
plants that will remain green during winter. In the Bulletin for Oc­
tober, 1928, was described a method of using bur clover in the fair­
ways to provide a green covering during the winter at Waco, Tex. 
The bur clover adds nitrogen to the soil, which encourages a more 
vigorous growth of Bermuda grass when it returns in the spring.

In the extreme southern section of the Bermuda grass belt, as is 
represented by the southern part of Florida, it is practical to main­
tain putting greens of Bermuda grass the year round. Occasional 
frosts occur even this far south, and Bermuda grass under natural 
conditions lies dormant during most of the winter. However, by using 
quickly-available fertilizers and by watering, set-backs are only tem­
porary and new growth may be soon encouraged after any cold spell. 
In Cuba the winter climate is sufficiently moderate to permit the Ber­
muda grass to remain in a healthy growing condition throughout the 
winter even though not stimulated by extra fertilizing and artificial 
watering. In Cuba, however, they have problems of their own with 
Bermuda grass; the Bulletin for March, 1925, contains an article de­
scribing the problems there, including the use of two tropical grasses, 
Acapulco grass and Bahia grass. The Bulletin for November, 1924, 
contains an article by the late Dr. C. V. Piper describing the value on 
golf courses of various southern and tropical grasses.

In the following number of the Bulletin two greenkeepers will de­
scribe how their fairway problems on the west coast of Florida are 
solved for the most part by nature. The soil of the west-coast golf 
courses is usually heavier than the soil of the east-coast, and carpet 
grass, which there requires little or no attention, predominates. 
Although Bermuda grass may be maintained successfully throughout 
the year in this region even here many of the putting greens of the 
courses are planted with northern grasses for winter play. The use 
of northern grasses here is due chiefly to the objection of northern 
golfers to Bermuda grass for putting green purposes. It is likely that 
finer strains of Bermuda grass or some other southern grasses may 
be developed in the future to overcome this objection and make un­
necessary this additional expense of upkeep and inconvenience to play 
of transferring to winter greens and back again to summer greens.

The Green Section has established a demonstration turf garden 
on the Bay Shore Golf Course, Miami Beach, Fla., and hopes to de­
rive much information useful to the golf clubs in that section of the 

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country. Some of the preliminary results from this garden will be 
found in the next number of the Bulletin.

In the coastal-plain area the golf courses are for the most part flat 
and are built on soils which are generally sandy and low in essential 
plant foods. It is not on account of the soil or topography that many 
golf courses are built in this area but because it is a winter play­
ground for thousands from the North. The warm and humid climate 
tends to hasten decomposition and consequent depletion of the organic 
matter in the soil, and the porous nature of the soil assists in rapid 
leaching of soluble plant foods.

One can not fail to realize, when reading these experiences of 
southern greenkeepers as presented in the Bulletin, that the supply of 
plant food is a most important factor in maintaining good turf of Ber­
muda grass. The articles also indicate the need of maintaining the 
supply of organic matter in the soil of putting greens for the purpose 
of conserving moisture and plant food. Under putting-green condi­
tions both Bermuda grass and the seedling winter grasses are only 
shallow-rooted, and can not survive drought to the same extent as 
under fairway conditions. Fortunately, however, throughout the 
coastal-plain area there is, in places, an abundant natural supply of 
organic matter in the form of plant remains which have accumulated 
under poor drainage conditions and are available for increasing the 
organic content of the soil.

Covering sand with layers of marl and muck in constructing fairways at Boca 
Raton, Fla. The materials were later mixed by discing. This process is an ex­
pensive one but on some courses it has been considered advisable in order to make 
the soil more firm and better able to retain water and plant foods.

Considering the type >f soil in the coastal-plain area it is custom­
ary if not necessary, to prepare a heavier topsoil on the putting greens 
by mixing with the sandy topsoil marl, clay, and organic matter such 
as peat or muck. Organic matter is applied to the topsoil from time 
to time by the practice of mixing considerable of these materials with 
sand for top-dressing purposes. Some of the clubs in Florida have 
incurred heavy expense in top-dressing their fairways with large 
quantities of soil which is more fertile than the underlying sand. The 
next Bulletin will contain a description of the methods used on a course 

September, 1931

181

built on beach sand. A top-dressing of several inches of heavier soil 
was applied before the fairways of this course were planted. It was 
not, however, until a fairway water system was installed that it was 
possible to keep the fairways green and growing throughout the win­
ter. Ample amounts of fertilizer are used and, with the present water 
system, it is not necessary to depend on rainfall to wash the fertilizer 
into the soil and to supply the necessary moisture to the plants. On 
other courses in Florida it has been demonstrated that it is possible, 
by the use of artificial watering and by adequate fertilizing with solu­
ble materials, to keep the Bermuda grass thick and alive over winter 
even where planted on sand. Some clubs feel that top-dressing fair­
ways with heavier soils is justified since the ball rolls farther on turf 
on such soils, and this no doubt adds to the enjoyment of most golfers.
Three ways of improving Bermuda grass fairways, which are re­
ceiving more attention each year by southern greenkeepers, are top­
dressing, plowing, and discing. During the growing season Bermuda 
grass often responds splendidly even to top-dressings of sand, al­
though the use of fertile soil gives still better results. But top-dress­
ing acres of fairways is costly. Equally good results have been found 
to follow a shallow plowing of Bermuda fairways every three or four 
years or a discing every season. Neither of these latter methods is 
as expensive as top-dressing. Discing, in fact, entails little expense. 
The disc is set back only enough to cut into the turf without bringing 
up much soil. The fairways are disced in at least two directions, and 
then rolled. If fertilizer is applied at the same time the results are 
remarkable.

There are many golf courses in the South that have special prob­
lems on account of their short season of play. Courses connected with 
winter resorts or hotels are often open only from shortly before 
Christmas till early in April, when most of the winter guests have 
left. Those in charge of these courses are interested chiefly in hav­
ing the winter grasses remain until the winter season is over but care 
little about the condition of the turf during the summer except in so 
far as economical maintenance affects the ease of bringing the course 
back into condition early in the winter. Such clubs endeavor to get 
their courses into playing condition before the winter with as little 
expense as is necessary during the eight months of the year that the 
course is not in use. Most clubs or hotels which maintain courses of 
this nature find it profitable to do a certain amount of mowing in order 
to keep ahead of weeds and to keep the turf from becoming too coarse.

Damage from the Japanese beetle in the Philadelphia district 
was considerably reduced on account of the excessively dry heat of 
the drought of 1930, according to T. L. Guyton, chief entomologist of 
the Pennsylvania State Department of Agriculture, who points out 
that the eggs of the beetle which had not been deposited far enough 
below'- the surface of the hard, baked ground were destroyed by the 
dry heat. Damage to crops from the Mexican beetle, corn borer, and 
Hessian fly w7as likewise less severe due to the same cause. On the 
contrary, the unusual weather conditions had an opposite effect on 
the grasshopper, codling moth, and red spider, w-hich were unusually 
abundant and destructive.

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Bermuda Turf and Sand Greens at Pinehurst, N. C.
By Frank Maples

We have here at Pinehurst, within a radius of six miles, eight 
complete 18-hole golf courses, one 9-hole golf course, four polo fields, 
and one airport, all planted with Bermuda turf and covering over 400 
acres. These have been built within the last 32 years, and my ex­
perience in their maintenance covers a period of 29 years. They 
were built by myself from the plans of a golf architect. Our soil is 
light and sandy and does not require much drainage.

Practically all of our play is in the winter when there is very 
little growth of grass. As the play is heavy, we have so far found it 
impossible to produce grass greens with a satisfactory putting surface. 
We have, however, wonderful sand greens. We have on our land a 
natural mixture of sand and clay, consisting of about 75 per cent of 
1/16-inch-grain sand and 25 per cent of clay, which drains very 
quickly. We cover the greens with about 5 inches of this mixture, 
roll it and scrape it until it is thoroughly smooth and firm, and then 
apply enough 1/16-inch-grain sand, free from clay, to permit a ball 
to run true. In maintaining these sand greens for play, a circular 
space around the cup is sprinkled with water and then brushed with 
a carpet 5 or 6 feet wide.

In maintaining sand greens at Pinehurst, a circular space around the cup is 
watered and then brushed with a piece of carpet

Our Bermuda fairways are kept cut close and the fertilizer is 
applied during June, July, and August. We have tried almost every 
fertilizer that has been put on the market but have obtained best 
results from a commercial mixture, the base of which is Peruvian 
guano. One application of fertilizer a month, applied at the rate of 
600 pounds to the acre, gives wonderful results on light sandy soils. 
We occasionally top-dress our Bermuda turf during June. A com­
post for top-dressing purposes is made very cheaply by taking a few 
acres of land and plowing in 6 or 8 inches of rough manure. This is 
left from 8 to 10 months, or until well rotted, and is then plowed and 
disced until well mixed. It is kept harrowed for about 30 days so as 

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183

to kill germinating weed seeds. Fresh stable manure is not used for 
top-dressing Bermuda turf, for it has been tried and found very unde­
sirable. Since we have no water supply on our fairways, we have 
to depend entirely on rainfall. Occasionally when we have a drought 
our fairways have a tendency to burn or turn brown. We have 
noticed that agricultural lime is very helpful in carrying Bermuda 
fairways through a drought. Hydrated lime gives equally as good 
results more quickly but it is a little more expensive.

We have large Bermuda grass tees which we seed to Italian rye 
grass in the fall. We also seed around our putting greens with 
Italian rye grass and keep it cut close during the playing season. By 
doing this our approaches are kept smooth and even.

Distributing fertilizer on a Bermuda grass fairway at Pinehurst

One of our problems at Pinehurst has been the control of the grubs 
of the June beetle. We are able to control them satisfactorily by 
making an application of arsenate of lead at the rate of 8 to 10 
pounds to 1,000 square feet. This is mixed with fertilizer and ap­
plied with a lime drill.

We have had good results from seeding new land since our soil 
on such areas does not contain seeds of troublesome weeds, such as 
crab grass. In preparing new golf course land for seeding to Ber­
muda grass, we clear the ground and, after plowing, disc it several 
times in order to mix the soil thoroughly for a seed bed. After the 
soil is well mixed, all roots removed, and smoothed, we make an appli­
cation of organic fertilizer at the rate of one ton to the acre. When 
this is thoroughly mixed into the soil with a spike-tooth harrow7, we 
seed Bermuda grass at the rate of 50 pounds of seed to the acre. 
This is then harrowed three or four times in different directions, 
raked with hand rakes, and rolled with a roller of about one ton in 
weight.

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Vol. 11, No. 9

In preparing old land, which, as a rule, is infested with seeds of 
undesirable plants, we find we can obtain the quickest and best results 
by planting stolons of Bermuda grass. During April or May we 
cover the stolons by shallow plowing with a one-horse plow. The 
ground is then kept harrowed regularly with a spike-tooth harrow, 
in order to prevent the growth of crab grass and other weeds until 
the Bermuda has covered the ground. By following the above pro­
cedure we have been able to establish a beautiful, thick Bermuda 
grass fairway in one summer.

Turf Maintenance at Wappoo Links, Charleston, S. C.
By J. Keitt Hane, Jr.

The Wappoo Links of Charleston Country Club are in their in­
fancy, relatively speaking. The course is now in its seventh year of 
Play.

It is constructed on two types of soil, sandy loam and muck. In 
common with other golf courses in its neighborhood, the predomi­
nating soil type is a sandy loam. The entire course, including greens, 
tees, and rough, is thoroughly drained. The rough and fairways are 
drained with farm drain tile and troughs made of cypress. Perhaps 
it is too thoroughly drained when droughts are taken into considera­
tion, a common condition in the last two years. On the other hand, 
without this thorough drainage it is possible we might be bothered 
more with salt concentration in the soil, as the course is below sea 
level. The concentration of salt in the soil appears to give us the 
most trouble.

The soil of the greens has been greatly improved by the use of 
good organic fertilizers and, about once a year, a complete fertilizer. 
The organic fertilizers have been cottonseed meal, castor bean po­
mace, and rape meal, and from these we have obtained excellent re­
sults. Twice a year each green receives 400 to 600 pounds of organic 
fertilizer, and about once a year 300 to 400 pounds of lime. The 
greens are 5,000 to 10,000 square feet in area. The use of castor 
bean pomace seems to discourage some of our most common pests, 
such as grubs, earthworms, and mole crickets. Tobacco stems, ap­
plied at a rate of 400 to 500 pounds to a green, also seem to be a good 
insecticide. By the use of these fertilizers a luxuriant turf is ob­
tained. The fertilizer is applied immediately after top-dressing a 
green and three weeks or a month before seeding. In this way it can 
be thoroughly mixed with the top-dressing and worked into the turf 
at the same time, and becomes more available for the young grass 
than if applied at the time of seeding. Water is always applied im­
mediately after fertilizing. I am a great believer in frequent appli­
cations of sulphate of ammonia. This we apply at the rate of 20 to 
40 pounds to a green as often as it seems to be needed, which, with us, 
is about once a month. This tends to make the soil slightly acid, but 
any excess of acidity may be readily corrected by the application of 
lime.

Up to date we have been very unfortunate as regards water sup­
ply, but hope to have an ample supply in the near future. At present 
we have four surface wells, each averaging 1,500 to 2,500 gallons of 
water daily. This is very little water for courses in our section. This 
water receives natural purification and is free from salt, which, as I 

September, 1931

185

have said, occasions us most trouble. Fortunately we are not troubled 
with offensive plant growths in the water hazards, due no doubt to 
the saltiness of the water in the hazards.

The greens and tees are Bermuda grass in summer and Italian 
rye grass (domestic grown) in winter. The fairways are mixed Ber­
muda grass and carpet grass, the latter predominating. The Ber­
muda becomes dormant in the winter and we do not sow rye grass 
on the fairways. The rough is Bermuda grass, carpet grass, and our 
native grasses.

Bermuda grass putting green at Wappoo Links

The greens are seeded with Bermuda grass in April at the rate 
of 100 pounds of seed to a green. It is not necessary to rake the 
greens since they are thoroughly spiked just before seeding. The 
seed is sown with a mechanical seeder and about two yards of good 
sandy loam top-dressing is applied to cover the seed. Water is ap­
plied just before seeding so as to moisten the soil for quicker ger­
mination, and again after the top-dressing is applied so as thoroughly 
to wet the soil. At the time of seeding no attempt is made to de­
stroy the winter grass so as to hasten the summer grass, since it is 
then that we have our heaviest play; we try therefore to maintain the 
winter turf as long as possible. As a consequence we never have 
really fine summer greens before the middle of July or the first of 
August. The summer greens are changed to winter greens between 
the 1st and 20th of October. This summer turf also is maintained as 
long as possible. The winter greens are sown with rye grass at the 
rate of 400 to 600 pounds to the green. This seed is sown with a 
small fertilizer distributor.

The greens are played on every day of the year. The members 
are never asked to play on temporary greens while the permanent 
greens are being seeded. This does not seem to injure the turf in 
any way. We have indeed been very fortunate in being able to main­
tain excellent turf practically the year round, the only exception to 
this being the period from the first of June to the middle of July, 
during which period the Bermuda is in process of recovery, a fairly 
slow process at best. While it is easy to change the greens from 

186

Vol. 11, No. 9

Bermuda grass to Italian rye grass it is difficult to change them from 
Italian rye grass to Bermuda grass. This would probably not be so 
if we should kill the rye grass earlier in the season.

Our water system was planned and laid out by one of our mem­
bers who is an engineer; it is considered to be a very good one. We 
use two rotary sprinklers to a green and they have proved very sat­
isfactory. The greens are watered at night in summer and in the 
morning in winter. They are mowed with power putting green 
mowers every day including Sundays. The clippings are removed 
and put into a topsoil bed. The greens are never rolled, as the power 
mowers seem to roll them sufficiently. They are top-dressed at least 
once a month with a sandy loam top-dressing, about two yards to a 
green, and at the same time they receive an application of sulphate 
of ammonia. The top-dressing is applied with shovels. We usually 
top-dress 9 greens a day; this is a task for 5 men, 4 handling the 
top-dressing and 1 brushing it in. The tees are cared for in the same 
manner as the greens.

Our worst weeds are crab grass, clover, and crowfoot or goose 
grass. Crab grass and crowfoot grass can be easily controlled by 
hand weeding. We hire 4 or 5 women to weed these out. This is 
very cheap help, costing on the average 75 cents a day. If crab 
grass is removed in its earliest stages it is never really troublesome, 
and this holds true also for any of our most common weed pests. 
Clover can be killed by the application of powdered sulphate of am­
monia. The patch of clover is first sprinkled with a little water 
from a sprinkling can and the sulphate of ammonia is then applied as 
a dust, a handful or more being used on a patch, depending on the 
size of the patch. No more water is applied. We usually select a 
day when the sun is shining brightly for making the application. 
Although this practice will turn the Bermuda grass slightly amber in 
color it will not injure it.

Our most troublesome insects are mole crickets and grubs. The 
mole crickets are poisoned with a mixture of 100 pounds of cotton­
seed meal, 200 pounds of wheat bran, 30 pounds of arsenate of lead, 
and 6 gallons of molasses syrup (poor grade) with sufficient water to 
make the mixture moist enough to spread readily by hand. These 
materials are thoroughly mixed, the molasses first being diluted with 
at least an equal quantity of water. The grubs are partially controlled 
by the frequent application of arsenate of lead at the rate of 10 to 30 
pounds to a green.

The female Typhia wasp, in destroying a Japanese beetle grub, is 
supposed to detect the presence of the grub in the soil by the sense of 
smell. It burrows into the ground until it finds the grub, climbs on 
the grub’s back, and stings it several times before it has a chance to 
free itself. The stinging causes temporary paralysis and relaxation 
of the grub. The wasp then cleans and polishes the beetle grub’s 
abdomen in preparation for egg laying. It first kneads the spot with 
its mandibles and then polishes it with the tip of its abdomen. It 
then lays its eggs in a furrow between the fifth and sixth segments 
of the grub’s abdomen. It often takes a wasp as long as 30 minutes 
to lay its eggs. The wasp grubs that hatch out first suck the fluids 
from the beetle grub’s body and finally devour the remains.

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The ladder of life is full of splinters, but they 
always prick the hardest when we are sliding down.
William L. Brownell