September, 1973 Published monthly by the Metropolitan Golf Course Superintendents Association MGCSA MEETING NOTICE Thursday, Sept. 20th Bonnie Briar C.C. 12 noon on (Superintendents’ Championship) Available in grill room Lunch: Cocktails: 6 PM 7 PM Dinner: Program: Cornell University Turf Staff Dr. John Kaufman, Dr. H. Tashiro Dom DiMarzo Host: Directions: Take Weaver Street Exit off Hutchinson River Parkway. Go south on Weaver Street to Club on left. Date: Place: Golf: COMING EVENTS: Oct. 2 MGCSA Invitational, Metropolis C.C. Oct. 2 NJGCSA Field Day Oct. 24-25 8th Annual Wisconsin Golf Turf Symposium Milwaukee, Wise. Topic “Thatch” November Annual meeting Club and date to be announced Dec. 8 Christmas Party, Rockland C.C. Dec. 14 NJGCSA Christmas Party Jan. 30— Rutgers 3-day course on Feb. 1 Golf and Fine Turf Special Notice — to all Class A Members If you plan on playing golf at the invitational, your head golf professional will be availabel to play on that date due to a minor change in the Met Open dates. The Pro-Am will be played on Monday, Oct. 1, 1973. Tuesday, Oct. 2 is open and this is the date of our Invitational at Metropolis. Wednesday, Oct. 3, Thursday, Oct. 4, and Friday, Oct. 5 the Met Open will be played at Elmwood. Invitationals will be out shortly so return your team handicaps as soon as possible. Vol. II, No. 23 and answer period at the end of his talk. This always brings out the great variations in maintenance practices and theories on fertilization, top dressing, etc. It gives us all something to think about and certainly brings back ideas or things to further research at the University level. The recent heat wave of late August and early September really put the finishing touches on a season we all will always remember but in the same breath want to forget the complete gamut of problems we faced this past summer. Most everybody got their first taste of Pythuim during the recent heat wave. Please, fellows in the Washington D.C.-Baltimore area, you can keep that disease all to yourselves. It was even reported in Rhode Island for the first time. The Beach Party at Wood way Beach Club was another great time for those 53 who did go. The water was warm for swimming and certainly it was hot enough. Thanks go to host Sherwood Moore and Chairman “Woodie.” MGCSA Member Honored Internationally Congratulations are in order for Dr. Ralph Engel, turfgrass research professor at Rutgers University. Dr. Engel has been elected recently to the Board of Directors of the International Turfgrass Society. We are proud of our association with Dr. Engel. Membership: The following candidates have been approved executive committee for membership: Michael J. Jacques Milbrook Golf Club Brad Sherry Bedford Golf & Tennis Club Mark Millett Fenway Golf Club MikeTchir Twin Ridge by your Class A Class B Class B Class B MGCSA NEWS: The August joint meeting with Conn. GCSA was well attended with 100 having dinner. Chuck Fatum did a fine job of marking his Tri-Calcium areas. He certainly had some beautiful natural bents which obviously have weathered many seasons including this one. I understand Dr. Skogley took a few plugs back to Rhode Island to put in their plots. Dr. Skogley told us what Rhode Island was doing in turf along with comments about the 73 season. We again had a good question Host Superintendent at Wee B um C.C., Chuck Fatum takes 1st prize from Tony Grasso. Editorial Staff Garry Crothers Ted Horton Co-Editor Co-Editor OFFICERS President: First Vice President: Second Vice President: Secretary: Treasurer: Sergeant at Arms: Harry H. Nichol, Elmwood C.C. Office 914-592-6608, Home 914-268-9370 Garry N. Crothers, Apawamis Club Office 914-967-2100, Home 914-234-3770 Edward C. Horton, Winged Foot Golf Club Office 914-698-2827, Home 914-937-3613 Richard Allen, Sunningdale C.C. Office 914-723-3200, Home 914-723-8097 Robert Alonzi, Burning Tree C.C. Office 203-869-5779, Home 914-937-1527 Anthony Altamaro, Greenwich C.C. Office 203-869-1000, Home 203-661-7019 Not copyrighted. I f there is good here, we want to share it with all chapters —unless author states otherwise. LETTER TO THE EDITOR Dear Mr. Horton: I am sorry for the long delay in answering your letter. Our overall turfgrass disease situation in Virginia this year has been the most severe that I have experienced. As the result, this has also been my busiest year. My feelings on the matter of watering in systemic fungicides after application is outlined in the next to the last section of the enclosed newsletter. Assuming that the material has been applied at the normal dilution rate of 4-5 gallons of water per 1000 square feet, I would doubt very seriously that application of additional water to the area would be of any real benefit. In fact, if a significant portion of the fungicide can actually be washed free of the leaves, there is a very good possibility that much of it will be absorbed by the thatch, and, consequently, never reach the root zone. If you wish to reproduce the write-up in the enclosed newsletter in GREEN WORLD, please feel free to do so. I enjoyed very much having been given the opportunity to participate in the meeting at Elmwood, and I hope that per­ haps sometime in the future I might be able to meet with your groups again. With best personal regards. Houston B. Couch Professor and Head of Department College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State Univ. Spray Now — Drench Later? The systemic fungicides now in use in turfgrass management move upward in the plants. This has lead to a theory that watering the area after it has been sprayed with a systemic fungicide will enhance the m ateriafs effectiveness by washing it down to the root zone of the plants. While there are ap­ parently some rather strong opinions about the merits of this program, the research information that is available would not seem to support it. Field research with systemic fungicides for the control of stripe smut (Ustilago striiformis) and Fusarium blight CF. roseum) indicates that there is no difference in levels of disease control when the materials are applied at dilution rates ranging from 10 gallons to 50 gallons per 1000 square feet of turfgrass. Assuming an initial application of a systemic fungicide as a normal dilute spray of 4 to 5 gallons of water per 1000 square feet, additional drenching of the area by irrigation or syringing would probably not significantly increase the effectiveness of the material. On the other hand, since the material is systemic, this procedure probably won’t decrease its effectiveness either. It would seem, then, that this is one of those rare instances in turfgrass disease control programing where either approach is equally appropriate. Job Openings: Tabor Country Club 70 Valley Road Madison, New Jersey 9 hole Golf Course Hospitalization — Salary Open Contact Mr. Joe Pennucci — Phone (201) 377-0525 Note: This is a good starter’s course. Green Acres C.C. Lawrence Township Trenton, New Jersey Experienced Golf Course Superintendent desired Salary $18,000 Call or send resume to: Robert Albert 15 Cadwalder Drive Trenton, New Jersey 08618 Phone: (609) 882-2821 Business (609) 392-6419 Home Course fully equipped including Binar Automatic Irrigation System. Long Shore Golf Club Long Shore Club Park 260 South Compo Road Westport, Conn. 06880 18 holes — Municipal Automatic Irrigation Housing possible Municipal benefits: Hospitalization, Sick Days, Vacation Retirement Pension Salary open for negotiation. Send resume to: Mr. Arthur Bleau Exec. Director of Recreation Westport, Conn. 06880 For further information call (203) 227-0894 UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION GREEN SECTION Eastern Region The Difficult Season of 1973 by Alexander M. Radko, William G. Buchanan and Stanley J. Zontek, USGA Green Section, Eastern Region Ever heard of Murphy’s Law? It says in part, “if anything can go wrong, it will!” Murphy’s Law applied to 1973 weather so far as the fine turfgrasses this year were concerned. Every­ thing that could have gone wrong, did. . .and golf courses suffered excesses in turf loss on fairways, collars and aprons principally. First came the very wet spring weather. . .skies were continuously overcast. . .and rains came often and heavily. Soils could accommodate little more water from the previous two years of heavy rain but new record rains came nevertheless. So long as the cool weather held, the weaknesses caused by these excesses did not show. It was when we first experienced clear, hot, sunny days followed by extended periods of high humidity that the bottom began to drop out. Without ques­ tion, the year to this mid-August date has been one of the most difficult periods that superintendents have experienced in many years. Then the extended periods without sunshine in spring caused the fine turfgrasses to grow weak and spindly. . .they were extremely tender, they were soft. . .they were not as good for golf as they normally are in spring. . .they did not exhibit firm growth at any time in spring. The week of July 4th came with several consecutive bright, sunny days. . .the first strong sunlight that grasses were subjected to up to that pont. . .it proved too much. . .it was tantamount to keeping a man in solitary confinement for three months in a cold, dark and damp cellar. . .then suddenly exposing him to the blazing desert sun. . .this is the torture treatment and this is exactly what our grasses were subjected to and they weakened quick­ ly. . .there was no period of adjustment. This condition, coupled with record rainfalls, compounded the problem. It set the stage for wilt, scald and diseases of every kind. It created new, and aggravated old drainage problems. . .water began to show in areas where it never was a problem before. It also caused a lot of mechanical injury. . . grasses had to be cut despite conditions that favored scalping, bruising, rutting. . .etc. There were times when more water trailed mowers than grass clippings. . .it was bad yes, but the grasses had to be mowed! Fairways otherwise would have looked like roughs and greens would have looked like fairways if left unmowed over weekends. The difficult part of it all was that every decision of whether to mow (Fridays especially) was critical. If you guessed wrong just once, wilt readily set in. . . and weak grasses don’t quickly recover from wilt in the JulyAugust heat. The lesson learned is that the permanent grasses held up best during all this adversity. . .they went out where they drowned-out. No grass will survive long periods of flooding in summer. Blotches of permanent grasses stood out like islands . . .the Poa annua dies in most areas or was severely set back all around the bentgrass and bluegrass clones. Poa annua was held in some cases by constant watering and syringing. . . golfers played through water sprays almost all of July and August where Poa annua predominated. Courses where permanent grasses predominate in fairways were watered much less and were harely ever syringed. From the golfing standpoint, firm fairways play superior to spongy, wet fairways. It’s years like this that makes one wish that Poa annua never existed. . .superintendents and golfers wich they never heard of watered fairways. . .and superintendents and workers pray that they never have to install another drain ever again! To date 1973 has been a torturous year for grasses. . .it is safe to predict that its praises will never be intoned in a ballad . . .it wasn’t a very good year! A Warm Welcome From Wee Bum by Scott Benty, Winged Foot Golf Club Being a newcomer to this area, I look forward each month to the Superintendents’ meeting because it affords me the opportunity of a first hand visit to the clubs in this association. My visit to Wee Burn this month will rank high on my list of favorites. I liked the Spanish design and again the service was excellent. This meeting was enjoyed by the Connecticut and Metro­ politan Association members. It was also a pleasure to see the New Jersey Superintendents represented. It’s nice to see men who are interested enough to make such a long trip, they should be commended. Dr. Skogley was the guest speaker. He is, as everyone knows, the Professor of Turf Management from the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Skogley complimented the letter written by Mr. Radko concerning the near impossible conditions that have been so unfavorable to the turf grass growing season. He agreed with Mr. Radko, and further commented on the excess rain that we received in the spring along with the lack of sunlight. Dr. Skogley has been doing a great deal of research with the Velvet Bentgrass and suggests strongly that it has a great potential for fine playing turf. At the University of Rhode Island they have done the most work on this species. They have had good results: Velvet Bentgrass does well in acidic soils — ph of 4V2 to 5; is very disease resistant, and tolerant of low fertility. All of this plus the fact that it does well in shaded areas as well as in the sunlight, gives us reason to keep in close touch with Dr. Skogley for further results. Dr. Skogley also believes in frequent topdressing. By this I mean at least four times a year. Unlike previous methods which were once in the spring and once in the fall. He says it is more beneficial to topdress an additional two times, but make all of them lighter applications. This is fine for the clubs with the funds to do it, but some do not have the funds for such an undertaking. The discussion period was most interesting as several different topics were discussed. Mr. Sherwood Moore asked about the rate of nitrogen that is best to apply to Merion Bluegrass. He was curious to know if 8 lbs. was still the rate prescribed for that species. Dr. Skogley says that 4 lbs. is now the rate used, along with a lower level in cutting height. Dr. Engel, from Rutgers, agreed with this and further stated that it was most important to feed it heavily in the fall because it grows best at that time of year, plus supplying added stability for the winter months. Reseeding was also a discussion topic, because of the poor summer we experienced, everyone is questioning the proper times to reseed. Dr. Skogley favors late July and early August if water is available. The soil is warm and general conditions are all favorable. But you can seed up until early September. If you can create the right conditions you can grow the grass. Also you may get some poa along with it but if you are reseeding you will be happy to see anything green I am sure. Take care to be aware of diseases, young grass plants are very suseptible to all diseases. Hopefully, the Summer of “73” is past history and ready to be forgotten by all. I do feel that it was a good test for the Superintendent however, it may have lasted a little too long. I learned a lot from it and I feel the greatest lesson was “to get out and really look.” Lt. to rt.: Frank Lamphier, V.P. Conn. GCSA; Bob Vierra, Pres. Conn. GCSA; Harry Nichol, Pres., MGCSA; Dr. Richard Skogley, R.I. Guest Speaker; Garry Crothers, V.P., MGCSA; at Joint Meeting Conn.-Met. GCSA. Guest Speaker, Dr. Richard Skogley with 3 former R.I. students. Left to right: Paul Caswal, Dr. Skogley, Larry Sheridan, M ike J. Jacques. ~\fV M POSTAGE 3sfPl473g ^ > ^ ;v y Richard C. 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