UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION
GREEN SECTION
Southwestern Office

Texas A & M College
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS

 

MARVIN H, FERGUSON

 

SOUTHWESTERN DIRECTOR
NATIONAL RESEARCH COORDINATOR

Southwestern Turfletter

No. 5 - November 1955

RECORDS

Most golf course superintendents keep records of one kind or another. Some of these
are merely records of expenditures for various items of golf course maintenance.
Others take the form of a daily log or diary of golf course operations. Both kinds
of records are important and each of them is useful for planning future operations
and future budgets.

Mr. Homer Looney at the Milburn Golf Course in Kansas City keeps a log of fertilizer
applications. He has his soils tested regularly and he is able to see what effect
his fertilizer applications have upon soil analyses.

It is also wise to have mechanical analyses made of putting green soils. Such
analyses frequently provide clues concerning the amount of water, or the amount of
cultivation, or the amount of fertilizer that a particular green may need.

If you keep records which are a little different from those that a club ordinarily
keeps, would you tell us about it. We are interested in knowing about the various
kinds of records that are kept.

LEAVES ARE A PROBLEM

This is the time of year when falling leaves create a nuisance on golf courses.
Golf balls are lost among the shifting and sometimes drifted leaves, Rain plasters
the turf with the soggy leaves and sometimes turf is damaged by such an accumulation.

Leaf removal is almost necessary on golf courses where deciduous trees are abundant.
A great many methods of leaf handling have been contrived. Huge vacuum cleaners
are used in some places. Leaf mulching attachments on rotary mowers have been used
to grind up leaves and to redistribute them on the turf.
product works very satisfactorily.
of the various parts of this leaf gathering device.

 

One of the simplest and cheapest of leaf removal devices was built by Julian Serna,
superintendent at the Albuquerque Country Club.
of chain link fence measuring 4! x 16'.
is trailed by a piece of heavy canvas 16 fest aquars.
is a roll of chicken wire 18 inches in diamcte>.
the leaves from sliding off the back of ihe canvas.
an original idea, but he has added some modifications of his own and the finished

It is merely a rectangular piece
This is dragged behind a tractor and it
At the rear of the canvas
The chicken wire merely keeps
Juliaa does not claim this as

The accompanying sketch shows the arrangement

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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GOOSEGRASS GOOSER

Mr. Milton Greenfield tells of using a tool he and Supt. Ralph Sehrt have devised
for removing goosegrass from putting greens. The tool is a shaft from a broken
golf club cut off near the grip. The hollow shaft is thrust into the center of a
goosegrass plant, removing the crown of the plant and cutting off the laterally
spreading stems, It does the job more quickly and neatly than a knife or similar
weeding tool. And one doesn't have to stocp so far.

BETTER BENTGRASS FOR THE SOUTHWEST

During the summer of 1955 much trouble from disease activity was experienced on
putting greens throughout the Southwest. The large majority of putting greens

in the Southwest are planted to seeded bents. Very few of them are planted to
improved vegetative strains, In many areas it was noted that where small patches

of improved grass had been set into putting greens that disease did not attack

these patches as seriously as it did the remainder of the green. This difference

in disease resistance should be enough to cause golf course superintendents through-
out the Southwest to try some of the improved strains. They can be planted into a
nursery area. A very small amount of stolons are required to plant quite a sizeable
nursery area for observation. There are nunsrous suppliers of improved bentgrasses.
Many of these suppliers advertise their grasses in the Golf Course Reporter and in
Golfdom magazine.

It seems quite likely that there may be even better strains for Southwestern con-
ditions than any of the bents presently available. None of the widely used strains
was selected in the Southwest. Recently, Cklehoma A. & M. College has undertaken
a@ program of selecting outstanding patches of bentgrass from golf course putting
greens. These selections will be screened and the better ones will be compared
for putting green turf quality. If you have patches of grass on your greens that
are particularly good, it would be appreciated if you tock up a small amount of
that bent (a cup cutter plug) and forwarded it to Dr. Wayne W. Huffine at the
Oklahoma A. & M. College, Stillwater, Oklehoma. The more selections that are
available for screening, the greater the likelihood of finding one or more strains
that are particularly well adapted to Southwestern conditions.

TURF CONFERENCES

Very successful conferences have just been concluded at the New Mexico A. & M.
College, and at Kansas State College. Both of these conferences were very well
attended and interest in turfgrass management was unusually high.

On December_7, § and 9, the Oklahoma Turfgrass Conference will be held at Cklahoma
A, & M. College, Stillwater, Oklahoma. The program has been planned in such a way
that it will be of considerable interest to green committee chairmen as well as to
golf course superintendents. Be sure to attend and be sure to bring your chairman.

The Texas Turfgrass Conference will be held December 12, 13 and 14 at Texas A. & M.
College, and it will have as its theme "Soil Management." Practically all of the
papers and the discussions will revolve around various aspects of this subject,

Ws look forward to seeing you there.
 

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