TIC VERT. TURF COMMS V -I -JUNE 90 PURPOSEx To pass on what *e learn willingly and happily to others in the pro^ttfion so as to improve turf conditions Łround the country. GROUNDS MAINTENANCE is a magazine many of you receive; if you don't you should be. What's more, you need to be reading it as part of your continuing education. This magazine appears to have definitely improved its quality if not quantity of turf maintenance related articles in the last six months or so. You should include it right along with Golf Course Management and the USGA Record as one of those to read first. Grounds Mai ntenance's KS 66212-9981 address is P.O. Box 12901, Overland Park, LOVE THOSE JACK NICKALUS DESIGNED GOLF COURSES - They make everybody maintaining a first class country club for half to three-quarters of a million look like heroes. Between operating and capital expenses a Jack Nickalus golf course can eat up a million dollars before the year is 3/4s done. Stopped at Jack's designed course in Nashville, that's the one that has filed a $2.5 million lawsuit charging faulty construction against Jack's Golden Bear International Inc. as well as several other companies according to the June issue of Golf Course News. While there I picked up the following tiabit. The superintendent there, Tim Taylor, finds it necessary to spend 40 man-hours per week mowing steep rough with a Steiner 72" outŠfront rotary. That is everything he couldn't mow with his National 84s or TURFCOMHS is published at unpredictable intervals by the editor and publishers Douglas T. Hattes, Ph D Certified Professional Agronomist Specializing in Golf Course Maintenance Consulting 2408 Roundrock Trail Planot Texas 75075 (214) 867ŠO176 Subscription cost is *15. Send Checks to Doug Hawes at the above address. the Fly-mow areas. Mr. Taylor had a crew of 27 on this 18 hole golf course in what was de-finitely hilly terrain - landslide terrain. If you need a mower for steep slopes check the Steiner out. TOCA (Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association) MEETING NOTES - Went to this meeting in part because it fell at a very convenient time to go on a mini-vacation (just after school ended). It was interesting to meet the editors and writers for many of our professions magazines. NEWSWEEK - Did you catch the John Deere Educational Advertisements in the April 23rd and May 21st issues of Newsweek? Turf maintenance ads are now in the big time magazines. SCSSA - 82 percent of superintendent's dues to 6CS5A are paid by the club. No wonder at 6500 members this organization represents the big or impressive clubs almost totally but not the little clubs. GCSSA members are smart, educated and leaders in the field. But, the other two thirds of the golf courses have elected to hire non-GCSAA members or should we say hire superintendents but not pay their $210 dues. Most of these same superintendents have also elected not spend a week' pay check for dues. PLACAA - Tom Delaney of this organization noted that 14 states now have some kind of posting requirement for areas being sprayed with pesticides. I.P.M. is the lawn care industry's buzz word. 
He quoted Jim Wilkinson as saying laws governing transportation of hazardous materials may hit the industry hard over the next 
few years. Mr. Delaney also noted that the labor shortage was very real in the Southeastern U.S. He also said that rules and enforcement of rules governing where you store pesticides are expected to be emphasized in the next few years. We visited Fulton Stadium, where the Braves play in Atlanta. Brandon Koehnke, groundskeeper, told us about uncovering the field after seven days of having been covered for motocross. It was covered with soil on top of two layers of plywood and two layers of vinyl sheeting. He said the turf was greasy black and smelled like sewage when uncovered. He had to reseed perennial ryegrass. The field is suppose to be bermudagrass overseeded to ryegrass. Very little bermudagrass survived the winter. We next visited Atlanta Athletic Club where Ken Magnum, superintendent, talked to us. Here is a superintendent that has the public relations expertise that we mentioned last issue as being so important. It was great to watch him in action. He had just come off the course having played with the press on Press 
Day for the Women's Open. He did a great job of handling the TOCA group. -a-Some o-f you newsletter editors would have appreciated the talk by John Spink, photographer for the Atlanta Journal/Constitution. The title o-f his talk was Shooting Quality Black & White Photos. I'll not try to give you all my notes, I wouldn't want to mislead you if I got something down wrong. He did suggest Time Life Library on Photography for extra reading and use of film with an ASA 100 speed. He also suggested attaching a piece of white cardboard (see drawing below) to your flash for those conference speaker and award pictures. Also open up the lens a couple of f-stops when doing this. Grayson County College Sherman-Denison, Texas Grayson College offers a two-year technical program in Golf Course and Turf Grass management. The campus has an 18-hole golf course, dormitories and placement assistance. Financial aid and scholarships are available. GCCs 480-acre campus is located midway between Sherman and Denison near Lake Texoma - in beautiful north Texas. For more information contact us at 6101 Grayson Drive, Denison, Texas 75020, (214) 465-6030. WINTER OF 1989-90 - Winter kill seems to be ccrcircg all to common. It is hard to believe the environment is warming up. In North Texas we have lost bermudagrass greens three of the last seven years at no -fault o-f the superintendents. We also have lost portions o-f -fairways and tees. This last winter it was accomplished in a three day stretch o-f weather that included a low o-f -5 to -10°F. Weather more commonly -found as the winters low in Northern Oklahoma. With the bermudagrass greens went St. Augustine lawns all the way south to San Antonio. Where they belong in my opinion. That grass is not shade tolerant in North Texas. It requires sun to survive the winters here. North Texas wasn't alone in her misery. A drive across the South to Atlanta -found dead grass in highway median strips in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. NASHVILLE, TN - I discussed my findings of a September, 1988 visit in Volume 4, Issue 8 of Turfcomms. This winter 
temperatures there dropped to -lS^F. With no snow cover the 
frost went down enough in the ground to freeze a fair number of water lines into homes. Bermudagrass at fairway or tee height of cut was mostly killed. Areas where cart traffic was not allowed survived quite well at one club. Another with overseed fairways was 100% dead. The clubs there are replanting with 419. One new club is putting in zoysia fairways. Makes one wonder what the other clubs need to be hit with to realize what the best choice should be. But, then the Washington, D.C. area still hasn't made that move. They went to perennial ryegrass with fungicides and yearly reseeding. Why only Kansas City and St. Louis have gone the zoysia route I have trouble understanding. IMAGE - If your a southern turf manager this herbicide is at last giving you a chance to attack nutsedge. And with many of the new golf courses going in on flood plain areas nutsedges are major 
weeds for the superintendent on such a course. According to the latest American Cyanamid release Image is labelled for Purple, Yellow, Globe and Rice Flatsedge as well as Green Kyllinga. Now if I could only identify all those sedges. It will also kill field sandbur and that perennial ryegrass that doesn't want to go away after 90% of the overseeding has died. f,I told the superintendent 
those hawks would be a problem once they caught all the gophers/1 END