New Jersey Golf Course Report

Vol. IV, No. 9 

December, 1971

JOY TO THE WORLD...

President’s Message

The end of 1971 is fast approach­
ing, our trials and tribulations are al­
most finished for this year and we 
look forward to new ones in 1972.

Since all of you were not able to 
attend our annual meeting on Decem­
ber 8th, I would like to highlight our 
1971 year. I feel we made great in­
roads to the National Association this 
year. Our white paper, generally de­
scribing a lack of communications with 
the membership, received a good verbal 
response. The proof of the pudding 
was in June when Dick Blake, Presi­
dent and Charlie Baskin, Director at­
tended our joint meeting. New Jersey 
also instituted the idea of considering 
national candidates with the Metropol­
itan, Long Island, and Hudson Valley 
Associations with the idea of voting as 
a block, and we were successful in 
electing all of our mutual choices. I 
hope we can continue with this pro­
gram.

We also made great strides with the 
newly organized “Green Chairman As­
sociation.” Many of our members at­
tended all their meetings and took part 
in all discussions, and usually were the 
featured speakers.

We had a full complement of meet­
ings this year except in August when 
we could not obtain a club. The talk 
on pesticide legislation was the high­
light of the education program, and 
I’m sure everyone enjoyed the come­
dian at Navesink. Paul Boizelle and 
Phil Scott again did an outstanding job 
with their regional workshops in their 
area. Our field day was the biggest 
success of any previous with Skip Cam­
eron again doing an excellent job.

Our membership has swelled to its 
largest ever to the best of my knowl­
edge. The new roster has been com­
pleted and I’m sure you have it at this 
time. I’m sorry to say the By-Laws 
were not rewritten mainly because my 
injury hampered their completion. We 
have also engaged a new professional 
management service to handle our 
mailings and among many other things 
expedite and help professionalize our 
Association.

I would be remiss not to thank each 
and everyone of you for your cards, 
well-wishes, and gifts during my stay 
in the hospital. A great note of thanks 
also goes to our Vice President, Skip 
Cameron, for his excellent effort in 
taking over in my absence.

We look forward to another super 
Christmas party again this year. The 
committee has done another excellent 
job. We have some new ideas coming 
up next year, and look forward to an­
other progressive year. Best wishes to 
all with the coming holidays and New 
Year ahead.

Jack Martin,  
President

Poa Annua Control At  
Woodcrest Country Club

Jack Montecalvo, Supt.

Shortly after assuming my duties as 
Golf Course Superintendent at Wood­
crest Country Club, I was told to find 
a solution to the Club’s most pressing 
turf problem — the loss of fairway 
grass during the months of July and 
August on fairways that boasted a Poa 
population of from sixty to eighty per­
cent. With Woodcrest’s, then, inad­
equate irrigation system it was almost 
impossible to maintain Poa during se­
vere stress periods of summer.

After having researched all of the 
current avenues available to us for Poa 
annua elimination and control, I de­
cided to use Mallinckrodt’s Po-San 
program.

On April 13th, using a John Bean 
sprayer equipped with #8004 Tee Jet 
tips, we applied Po-San to all of our 
fairways at 1.2 gallons of material per 
acre. Two full days were required to 
complete the operation, which was un­
der the supervision of a Mallinckrodt 
representative.

Ten days after having completed our 
initial application of Po-San we began 
to observe a slight discoloration in the 
turf. We also observed a similar dis­
coloration to random patches of chick­
weed and clover. I might add that we 
did not have to cut fairways for some 
16 days; the turf obviously showing a 
temporary retardation in its growth 
pattern.

By the 1st of May chlorosis was very 
evident. We also observed more Poa 
seedheads than we expected to see. 
However, where there had been a 
“skip,” or an adjacent area that had 
not been sprayed (where the turf had 
been too soft to support the spray rig), 
we quickly noted a tremendous amount 
of seedheads in comparison to the 
areas that had been treated with Po- 
San.

On May 3rd we fertilized the fair­
ways using 300 pounds of Agway’s 
20-0-10 (75% organic) per acre. By 
the second week in May we began to 
see the color returning to the grass. 
We also noted that our native blue­
grass was growing vigorously. The 
color of all turf was definitely better in 
the treated areas.

By June 6th we were playing sum­
mer rules at Woodcrest and the blue­
grass and Poa were growing nicely to­
gether. During the second week of 
June hot, dry weather began to appear. 
The fairways continued to improve; re­
maining beautiful until July 7th. At 
this point we began to experience the 
loss of some Poa. As of July 26th the 
fairways were still in fine shape despite 
some small areas of “lost” Poa.

During the first week of August we 
were “hit” by heavy rains that contin­

ued for several days. When, at last, 
the rain stopped —- hot, humid weather 
followed. Then came another period 
of hot, dry weather. There are ways 
to describe what we looked like as of 
August 13th, but suffice to say it 
wasn’t good. The fairways were very 
ragged. We lost considerable amount 
of Poa in all areas. On August 16th 
we began to aerify the fairways pre­
paratory to our second Po-San treat­
ment.
On August 30th we began to spray 
again using the same rate of applica­
tion we had used in the early spring. 
Needless to say, with our sad looking 
fairways at the time, I had my moments 
of doubt.

On September 9th we began to seed 
the fairways using a Rogers Aero­
Blade Seeder. We introduced a seed 
mixture consisting of 50% Pennstar, 
30% Merion, and 20% Manhattan 
Rye at a rate of thirty pounds to the 
acre. Hampered by heavy rains, our 
seeding program was slowed down. 
Again, because of overly soft turf we 
were forced to omit some areas. Our 
seeding operation was completed on 
September 24th.

By September 27th things began to 
look up. New seedlings began to ap­
pear in the fairways that were seeded 
first, growing in beautiful rows. It 
wasn’t long, however, before the rows 
began to appear on all the remaining 
fairways. With the new grass growing 
vigorously, we got what we consid-
ered to be a tremendous “jump” on 
the Poa.

On October 1st we fertilized our 
fairways with Scott’s 32-0-8 at 125 
pounds per acre. By the middle of 
October we had decent fairways back 
again.

Up until the 1st of November we 
had been cutting the fairways at 1 1/4 
inches; thereafter we began cutting 
them at 3/4 inch. By this time the fair­
ways had almost completely filled in 
with the new seedlings and the Poa.

As the season drew to a close and 
we began to review our efforts for the 
past year we were all in agreement — 
Po-San had done the job Mallinckrodt 
said it would. Next year we believe 
we will see a definite decrease in our 
Poa population. Conversely, we ex­
pect to see a high increase in our per­
manent turf species here at Woodcrest 
in the years to come.

Field Day Enjoys Record Success

A record number of forty-four 
booths were taken by exhibitors at this 
year’s Turf Equipment Field Day held 
on October 7th at the Mountain Ridge 
Country Club. Chairman Skip Cam- 
eron assisted by Ed Nickelsen, Tony 
Bifano, Peter Scoville, Glen Gallion, 
and Rick Francis deserve much of the 
credit for success, as do Phyllis Cam­
eron and Gail Gallion in helping with 

the registration. On the other hand as 
Chairman, Vice President “Skip” points 
out, there would be no day at all with­
out the companies and friends of the 
Association, who take the time and 
trouble to exhibit. In the hopes that 
such a mutual benefit plan will con­
tinue even more successfully in the 
future, we list the contributors to this 
year’s Field Day as follows in no es­
pecial order:
ALAN CRUSE  
TUCO PRODUCTS  
CALDWELL TRACTOR  
TEXAS REFINERY CORP . 
MALLINCKRODT CHEMICAL  
METRO-MILORGANITE  
AGRICO CHEMICAL  
ANDREW WILSON  
TERRE COMPANY  
GREEN HILL TURF SUPPLY  
OTIS MATERIAL HANDLING  
DUPONT CHEMICAL  
MILLER CHEMICAL  
DITCH WITCH OF N. J.  
CHANDERLIN SEED CO.  
PLANT FOOD CHEMICAL  
TURF PRODUCTS CO.  
O. M. SCOTT & SONS  
ERCO HYDRAULIC  
HEIGHTS FARM EQUIPMENT CO.  
AQUALTROLS OF AMERICA  
STEVE WILLAND  
PIERSON’S MILL 
DOUBLE EAGLE PRODUCTS  
RHODIA INC., CHIPMAN DIVISION  
U.S.S. AGRI-CHEM 
ROCKLAND CHEMICAL  
W. A. CLEARY CORP.  
NASSAU CAR CORP.  
FERTL-SOIL CO. 
VERMEER SALES  
WILFRED MacDONALD CO.  
WILPAT ASSOCIATES  
VANDERMOLEN EXPORTS CORP.  
AGWAY 
HARTER CORP.  
SEACOAST CARS  
MORRISEY ASSOCIATES CO., 
CONSOLIDATED FENCE CO.  
RED OAK, INC. 
STORR TRACTOR  
ELECTRO CADDY  
GENERAL ENGINES  
DOW CHEMICAL  
ELANCO PRODUCTS  
PHIL DEMARCO

INC. LTD.  

Report To the Chairman
Dear Mr. Chairman:

As I am sure you know, Peter left 
early the day before yesterday to at­
tend the annual Yazoo University Turf 
Conference. If you knew Peter as well 
as I do, you would realize just how im­
portant this event is to him. On the 
other hand, as his dutiful wife, I am 
rather hard pressed to understand why 
the Club refuses to pay his expenses. 
I am beginning to think you took his 
one line report (“It was a ball!”) re­
garding the same meeting last year 
seriously. From all that I can deter­
mine he does nothing but work! All 
those stories about drinking and wom­
en have no basis here as Peter is usual­
ly his old normal self within three days 
after he gets home. Anyway, he asked 

me to compile his monthly summary 
for you (in as much as I always re­
write it anyway) in hopes that I have 
a general idea as to what is going on.
There are several problems that I 
would like to mention to the Board at 
this time of year. Just what is it about 
this liming program? It might not be 
so bad if we didn’t live on the course, 
although I don’t really believe it. To 
say that the lime is into everything is 
not enough. I had a big fight with 
Peter over it last week. I said the kids 
would have to be steam cleaned over 
at the shop. He said that was fine with 
him, but that the machine was too 
busy cleaning the lime spreaders. So 
I had to give them a bath here. The 
septic tank hit a pH of 9 and burped 
“God bless the Environment”!

I would also like to communicate on 
the subject of my husband’s working 
hours. I can see the fact that during 
the summer the grass grows seven days 
a week, but really, does Peter have to 
be there everyday to watch it grow? 
The husbands of all my friends in the 
bridge club all seem to be off more 
than they are on, and generally make 
more money as salesmen, etc. The oth­
er night I even watched him at the 
bedroom window just making sure that 
the snow was really covering the grass 
— he was ecstatic until it dawned on 
him to plow the parking lots and paddle 
tennis the next morning, which natural­
ly was a Sunday!

And by the way, we are about to 
leave on our annual January vacation. 
I realize you think this is a luxury, be­
ing able to head south in the winter, 
and all that. But, do you realize that 
we have never even seen anything 
north of the Mason-Dixon Line, and 
that all those wonderful places you 
talk about like Nantucket, Sabago 
Lake, and the Thousand Islands, are 
only a dream to us; and I might add 
far cheaper than the south! In fact 
you once told me you couldn’t afford 
Florida — neither can we.

There is one more thing that has to 
be reported in my opinion. Peter works 
from about 7 A.M. to 5 P.M., except 
in the summer when he has to be out 
nights due to the antique watering svs- 
tem. Why is it that almost to the min­
ute he sits down to dinner, you tele­
phone for a resume of the day’s prob­
lems and events? I don’t question your 
interest, but Peter has a telephone in 
his office the same as you do. If vou 
want to be called at home, Peter has 
often said he’d be perfectly willing to 
call you at night between sprinkler 
changes.

Other than the above, things seem 
to have been normal during the past 
month. Peter’s ulcer is diminishing as 
it usually does this time of year, and 

the kids are getting used to calling him 
“daddy” again. I don’t think it even 
really bothered him when you over­
ruled him and opened the course last 
weekend after he had closed it due to 
2 inches of rain and frost.

I hope you will regard the above as 
a constructive report, which it is, but 
on the other hand how will it feel to 
be the corespondent in our divorce, 
when I tell Peter I don’t give a damn 
about transpiration, but he might just 
consider talking to me about propaga­
tion?

Your truly, 
Prudence Poa

Turf Clippings

President Jack Martin is on the 
mend after a serious boating accident 
at Toms River. As most already know, 
Jack was thrown out of, and then at­
tacked by his own boat, which didn’t 
do his left arm a bit of good.

Director Gene Tarulli of Colonia 
C.C. is reported to be recovering from 
a “mild” heart attack. Certainly hope 
both of the above have a speedy re­
covery.

Some recent job changes: Al Cara- 
vella leaves the Garden State for Brae 
Burn C.C. in Westchester. Frank 
Leary, formerly of the Knoll G.C. suc­
ceeds Al at Echo Lake, and Ed Rock­
hill, Asst. Supt. at Montclair moves to 
the Knoll.

And there’s more: Paul Boizelle 
after four years at Navesink C.C. 
moves on to Fiddler’s Elbow C.C. He 
will be succeeded at Navesink by Bob 
Dobbie out of Piersons Mill by Maple­
wood C.C. Wayne Allen has been 
named Supt. at Shackamaxon C.C. It’s 
beginning to look like another “winter 
of discontent.” Perhaps we’re wrong, 
but it just seems like the local turf in­
dustry has a major “shake-out” about 
every three years.

There were 110 for the dinner at 
Navesink following the Annual Invita­
tional Golf Tournament — something 
of a record. With the rigors of “Sum­
mer Sun” and “Fall Hurricanes” be­
hind them, a relaxed field enjoyed the 
day to its fullest over Paul’s beautifully 
conditioned course.

Foresgate C.C. is in the process of 
building nine more holes to bring their 
total to thirty-six. Roy Em is the 
builder with John Wanty, Supt.

Cheers and Tears Dept. — Pat 
Campbell, Supt. of Flanders Valley 
will host the U. S. Amateur Public 
Links Championship in 1973. Ed 
Nickelsen and Don Marshall of Mont­
clair will take turns pulling sick time 
prior to the U. S. Ladies Amateur in 
the same year. One begins to wonder 

in this business whether it pays to get 
a good thing going. The U.S.G.A. Of­
ficials rated Flanders Valley as being 
the “best conditioned public golf 
course” in the Metropolitan area over 
the past two seasons. Seems their com­
ments on Montclair escaped the press.
Jim Gilligan is the newly elected 
Fire Chief of the newly organized 
foundation savers near his Bedens 
Brook Club. Probably more of us 
could follow the example set by Jim. 
A civic approach such as this would 
do much to enhance that all important 
image. On the other hand if the local 
Lodge Hall were to bum down in the 
afternoon of a 96 degree Fourth of 
July while Jim’s greens were wilt­
ing .. .

Carl Ostberg, “scarred veteran of 
umteen Thunderbird and Dow Jones 
Classics,” has tendered his resignation 
at Upper Montclair C.C. after having 
served a long and illustrious career. 
Carl’s well indoctrinated Asst., “Red” 
Dickson will succeed his former boss 
as of the end of the current season. 
Both deserve congratulations and best 
wishes.

The nominating committee for the 
New Jersey Turfgrass Association has 
submitted the following slate for the 
coming year: President — Don Mar­
shall; Vice President — Eugene Field; 
Secretary — Dr. Ralph Engel; Treas­
urer— Janet Schernecke. While only 
a year old, this group has come a long 
way in attempting to represent all turf 
interests in the state in these times of 
screwed up legislation and now has a 
membership of over 250.

President “Jack” has appointed Don 
Marshall and Paul Boizelle as delegates 
to the National Conference. A poll of 
the above two finds them very happy, 
because they found it very tough to 
find a real reason to go to Cincinnati 
in February!

Phil Scott just recently “cut the rib­
bon” for Bamm Hollow’s new nine. 
Phil also drew plaudits from the local 
press for the splendid job he did in 
bringing the course in after a very try­
ing summer. Phil’s wife had no com­
ment.

Research has revealed a very dedi­
cated group. Jack Ormond (also 
known as the “White Fox” and already 
known to be dedicated), Jim McCor­
mick of Bea Lea, Heinz Fritschka of 
Toms River, and Woodcrest Country 
Club’s Jack Montecalvo all travel a 
minimum of 100 miles to attend Supt. 
meetings and often more. It’s great 
they’re that dedicated, but let’s hope 
they don’t request mileage.

Jim Tosco is leaving Fertl Soil Co. 
to join the sales staff of O. M. Scott.
Les “Bucky” Carpenter, Supt. of 
Braidbum C.C. has added a newly 

completed tennis complex to his grow­
ing list of responsibilities. Big deal you 
say? Try on seven courts under one 
roof for size! And the courts are heat­
ed and air conditioned! Next they’ll 
want grass courts.

More changes: John Johnson has 
been named Supt. at Knob Hill C.C. 
Recently purchased from the Hand- 
werg family, this club is now in the 
process of renovation, green recon­
struction, automatic water system, etc. 
Don McDaniels is the new Supt. of the 
newly constructed Monmouth County 
Golf Course near Farmingdale, New 
Jersey. Don comes to Jersey via the 
Dupont C.C. at Wilmington, Del­
aware. Joe Flaherty, Jr. redesigned 
his life-style finally and got married. 
Efforts to contact him have failed.

In the business world, Jim Roach 
reports that increased business has 
compelled him to construct a new 
warehouse, which will be finished 
shortly. Leo Cleary has unleashed his 
secret weapon to the hilt in the form 
of son, John Cleary. John is a little 
bitter about having 3366 tatooed on 
his chest, but is otherwise enjoying 
seeing the country by plane.

And lastly, another on the sick list 
has been Bill “Silver Fox” Riley. It’s 
a long and rather confusing story, but 
basically you could say he was attacked 
by a minimum human former em­

ployee and as a result fell and broke 
a wrist. Bill has promised us an article 
entitled “Basic moves when Employer- 
Employee relations break down.”
Did You Know:

The thinner sod is cut the greater 
the number of new roots emerge from 
the sod, recent research at the Uni­
versity of California, Davis, indicates. 
This conclusion has been reached 
through experiments conducted by Dr. 
John H. Madison, Department of En­
vironmental Design, using Kentucky 
bluegrass and colonial bentgrass cut at 
a thickness of 1/2, 1, and 2 inches.

The experiments also showed that 
rooting of the sod was from new roots 
and that there is negligible branching 
and re-growth from old, cut roots. The 
sod was laid and after a period of 8, 
15, and 22 days, or 29 days in the case 
of colonial bentgrass, the sod was ex­
amined to see how much root and 
shoot emergence had taken place.

After 8 days the bluegrass cut at 
1/2 inch had more emerged roots than 
had thicker sods of bluegrass at any 
time in the three week period. Bent­
grass showed a greater increase in the 
number of roots emerged with time, 
but failed to show a significant dif­
ference in number of emerged roots 
with thickness of sod.

The Rocky Mountain Reporter

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