Tee Box Contamination and Renovation

The lime colored grass is zoysia, which came from the 10 acres of zoysia we have planted through out the golf course. the rest of the grass on this tee is 419 from San Antonio



we sod cut then removed the grass and organic matter

tee box being raked out and sprigged, the sprigs were cut from another spot on the golf course that consisted of a pure stand of turf, the white pipe is temporary irrigation that was installed for watering through out the day, we had to water the sprigs a bout 6 times a day to keep them moist

After 3 weeks of growing, looks pretty good, the grass is starting to knit together

After 3 weeks, about 80% coverage, to this point these tee boxes have received 1lb of nitrogen a week to assist them in growing over

When Squire Creek was built earlier this decade everything was sodded, except for the greens. The turf of choice was 419 bermudagrass, and most of this was brought in from Tifton, Georgia. The tees however are different story, the grass on those were brought in from San Antonio, Texas.

Since the tees have a sand base they used washed sod. Washed sod is where the soil is removed from the sod to create a bare root product. This also is used to eliminate sod to soil incompatibilities, help the sod knit to the soil faster, and reduce shipping costs.
When you use a turf from two different fields there are going to be some differences and it can present contamination problems. This is why we have chosen to re-sprig 4 of our tees.

If all goes well the tees should be open for the D-Cup and we may choose a few more to do next year.

The Army has Arrived

single worm down in the grass on #4

several armyworms in grass hanging from leaves

damage in grass on #9, coming out of tree

The armyworm has arrived at Squire Creek and all other nearby pastures. Their eggs are deposited on trees, flagpoles, and grass in groups of 100 or more. The eggs hatch into worms in 2-10 days. The larval body is dull black with several stripes alongside the body. There is a distinct inverted light-colored Y on the front of the head.During there growth cycle they curl up in leaf sheaths, suspend themselves from plants by threads, or crawl about on the ground. Sometimes a large number of larvae may suddenly appear moving across a golf course like an army, hints the name armyworm. When this occurs, large areas will simply disappear overnight, leaving only the thatch, crown, and root system behind. In our area, the fall armyworm is the most destructive turf insect we encounter, especially to bermudagrass.

We have several other grass types in the developement including; centipede, st. augustine, and zoysia. The armyworm does not seem to affect these grasses.

Stormy Weather

Bunker #6 greenside after last Friday's rain


#3 greenside bunker with new sand, I believe that rain was as back as it can get, as you can see this bunker could be raked out, the question is will this sand percolate like this in 3 years?

Lightening strike 4inch irrigation pipe at driving range

the pipe the lightening struck

the pipe repaired with 4inch pipe and 4inch knock-on,

if you look closely you can see red and yellow cables under the pipe, these hopefully were not affected by the lightening

The storms late last week brought much needed rain to our area. We ended up getting .75inch on Wednesday, .25inch on Thursday, and 3.5inch on Friday. The rain we received on Friday was a flash flood type downpour with a lot of lightening. When we receive this amount of lightening we run the risk of it striking trees, irrigation lines, and irrigation cables.

We are now in the process of picking up after the storm. If we do not get any more bad weather we will hopefully be back to normal on Wednesday.