Arnold Palmer called it “an exceptional year for bad weather,” based on his 50 years of experience as a professional golfer. The PGA Tour’s Vice President of Agronomy, Jon Scott, has gone even further, stating that “Never in my 31 years in this profession have I seen [a year] as challenging as this one, in terms of what Mother Nature presented. From heavy rain, to winterkill, to high humidity, to hurricanes, we saw it all.”
The all-out war that course superintendents have had to wage to fend off this year’s especially savage and relentless onslaught of droughts, downpours, disease and just about every other type of weather-related phenomenon has certainly taken its toll—not only on golf courses, but superintendents themselves. “This year, I’ve seen a vacant look in a lot of superintendent’s eyes,” said Stanley Zontek, Mid- Atlantic Director for the USGA’s Green Section, in an October Philadelphia Inquirer report on how dissatisfaction with conditions has led to an unusually high level of superintendent turnover in his area this year.
“[Superintendents here] can’t wait for the first snowfall,” Zontek added. “They are burned out.” New Territory, New Rules While it is no doubt unfair that good superintendents are losing their jobs due to unprecedented levels and degrees of weather-related damage, “supers” are a tough, proud and resilient group not inclined to make excuses. Instead, they environment has changed the rules of the game—and that they need to change approaches to longrange course maintenance accordingly. Around the country, superintendents see they have no choice but to buck up their resolve and shore up their defenses, to try to be better prepared for whatever new furies Mother Nature may choose to unleash in the next year, decade or century.
Raymond Belinowski is just one of many course superintendents who has newfound, firsthand appreciation for just how furious Mom can now get. He oversees maintenance at April Sound Golf Course in Montgomery, Texas, which was buffeted in September by the powerful winds of Hurricane Rita. Although the area avoided a direct hit from the powerful storm, April Sound still suffered significant damage.
“It was wet and there was debris everywhere,” says Belinowski. With uprooted trees directly affecting playability, removing them was an immediate priority. The rain-soaked ground, however, made trucking the woody material off the course both costly and time-consuming. With all signs pointing at an increased number of hurricanes in the near future, Belinowski and the club’s management knew something more proactive had to be done to get the course in better condition to weather these kinds of storms.
As this year’s hurricane season slowly tapered off, an audit was done on all of the course’s trees, looking for weaknesses that would leave them vulnerable to hurricane- force winds. “We concentrated on trees near high traffic areas and ones that affect course design,” Belinowski explained.
The high-value trees deemed most at risk were then anchored to solid ground with cables, to ensure survival against even the most brutal storm. Strategically placed rods were also installed to protect taller trees from the devastating effects of the lightning often associated with post-hurricane conditions. Force from the North Even at courses that were far removed this year from the risks and repercussions of storms like Rita and Katrina, superintendents learned some new “life lessons”—or more accurately, lack of life—the hard way during the summer of 2005.
Growing up on a farm in rural Minnesota, John Almlie, Superintendent of Valleyview Golf Club in Belle Plaine, Minn., has certainly seen his fair share of severe weather. And years of watching his father deftly handle the brutal winters and hot summers of the Northern Plains were good preparation for Almlie as he eventually settled into a career in golf maintenance. But nothing he had experienced on the homestead compared to what he had to deal with this year.
After what was already one of the hottest Junes on record, July and August blanketed Minnesota in a thick, sluggish heat wave. Temperatures soared into the high nineties and stubbornly stayed there for weeks on end.
With plenty of humidity and no watering restrictions handcuffing him, Almlie was able to keep Valleyview’s turf relatively green. But underneath, the soil was being baked by the relentless sun. The high humidity also retarded the evaporation that acts as an important cooling mechanism, further cooking the soil.
In particular, Almlie knew his USGA-spec greens were hurting, the roots suffocating in a coffin of hot, compacted soil. “The greens were undeniably puffy,” he says. The shallow roots were bunching up, causing the green to be spongy to the touch. The uneven surface was not only hard to putt on, it was extremely awkward to cut.
“It was clear that we had a problem when our mowers started to scalp quite regularly,” Almlie says. The heavy mowers were sinking down on soft greens, causing their blades to dig into the crowns of the leaf blade. The scalped areas invited a whole rash of potential diseases, not to mention the adverse affect on aesthetics and playability. Almlie knew he couldn’t just sit and hope for the fever to break—he had to act. Dressing the Nines Almlie’s first order of business was to inform club regulars about the problem. “I put out a newsletter pretty regularly, and I used the next (issue) to let everyone know what was happening and what we were going to do,” he says. “Everybody was really understanding; in fact, some didn’t even notice anything was wrong.”Almlie and his crew then rolled up their sleeves and set out to remedy the situation. In the short term, the height of cut was raised. This provided a small measure of protection against scalping, but it slowed the greens considerably. The longterm solution came with a steady diet of topdressing. “We put a ton of it down,” said Almlie.
The purpose was twofold—the added sand provided a firmer base, raising the reels above the sensitive areas of the bentgrass, and it also helped to dissipate the radiant heat of the soil.
Over time, enough topdressing was added to even out the undulations formed into the soft green by both golfers and mowers. As the soil temperature cooled, the mineralized dirt eased, the resilient roots were allowed to grow again, and the greens were back to their pristine best.
Almlie and his crew had worked hard to avert a potentially devastating scenario, but they couldn’t stand around and pat themselves on the back for too long. A Minnesota winter was approaching, and they had more reason than ever to prepare the course perfectly for it. If the course wintered poorly, it stood no chance of surviving another long heat wave the following season.
“We’ll lay down our regular applications of [fungicides], but we’ll also put down a pretty decent amo
unt of topdressing,” said Almlie in October, as these preparations began. The course had experienced below-average snowfall for three years running, so the sand was needed to add another layer of protection against the fierce, cold winds that can scour a green slowly over the winter and leave it desiccated and weak come spring.
With the severity of the weather-related challenges now facing superintendents, Almlie wonders why more aren’t proactive in their maintenance routine. “You can’t just keep reacting to these problems, it’s just too much of a risk,” he says. “The potential for disaster is real.”
Almlie’s new approach includes using both long and short-term weather forecasts to budget labor, fertilizer and chemical resources accordingly. To help combat heat stress next summer, he will stop verticutting and utilize a more regimented topdressing program. The thatch layer usually removed by verticutting acts as a heat moderator for the soil, he feels, so light control of thatch with chemicals would be more beneficial. “I know what to expect now,” he says, “and realize there is so much I can do before it happens to minimize the impact.”
Threats from Their "Fathers," Too
There’s another growing force superintendents must contend with that’s very much man-made. The demands put on superintendents at all levels to produce tournament-quality courses on pitchand- putt budgets only become more impossible to meet when nature is especially active, argues Bob Brame, Director of the USGA’s North Central Region.
“[Superintendents] are under immense pressure to maintain courses in perfect playing conditions,” says Brame. “This often leaves the turf vulnerable to the weather patterns we’ve been seeing, and before they know it, they’re caught in a downward cycle.”
More and more often, Brame points out, maintenance needs are taking a backseat to revenue generation, with disastrous consequences. “I’ve heard of some clubs that have put off aeration in order to push through more fall golfers,” he says. The losses from these gambles may not be immediately obvious, he notes, but problems could pile up quickly if spring weather doesn’t cooperate.
Brame always preaches to superintendents that their winterization programs should prepare for the worst-case scenario. It is no time to cut corners or hope for the best. The most important factor, according to Brame, is to “properly feed the turf.” This involves multiple chemical analyses of the soil throughout the year. The soil’s needs are ever-changing, so fertilizer programs should, too. Applying the optimal combination of micro and macro nutrients in the fall invigorates turf and gets it ready for a healthy emergence from dormancy in the spring.
Brame also discourages overseeding of bermudagrass greens in the southern States. “It’s another case of aesthetics winning out over proper maintenance,” he says. The benefits, namely protection from wear and infestation of winter weeds, are outweighed by the potential problems commonly faced when transitioning back in the spring. Bermudagrass emerging from dormancy is highly susceptible to spring root decline, Brame notes, and if the grass is also pouring energy into competing with the cool season grasses that were overseeded, the bermuda’s chances for survival are diminished. Throw in a long stretch of hot, dry weather, and you’ve got the basic recipe for a superintendent’s worst nightmare.
Much More at Stake
But while specific departures from standard practice will vary from region to region and course to course, the new reality everywhere, assuming the weather patterns of the past year do indeed signal the onset of global warming or another fundamental climatic change, is that all stakeholders—superintendents, managers and members— must agree on new expectations and practices. If severe heat or drought conditions are to become the norm, it is unrealistic to expect lightning-fast greens and uninterrupted play all season long. Superintendents must be given the power to balance a course’s long-term health with current playing conditions, to give it a fighting chance against these ever-more challenging weather phenomena.
Keeping all stakeholders well-apprised of the new realities of the situation is a critical first step—and a newsletter like that put out by Valleyview’s Almlie is the perfect medium for doing so. Clarify why you must aerate, even if it means less play; justify the higher heights on your greens. Consider it all necessary “propaganda” in the all-out war being waged with Mother Nature. While it may seem like a David vs. Goliath battle at times, proactive superintendents who can keep their course at an optimal level of health all year will stand more than a fighting chance. C&RB
Summing It Up
• Unfairly or not, superintendents have literally become “fall guys” for weather- related problems at courses around the country; dissatisfaction with conditions has prompted higher than normal turnover.
• Recognizing the higher degree of risk caused by more volatile climatic trends, many superintendents are becoming more aggressive and proactive in trying to anticipate and prepare for worst-case scenarios.
• Some courses in hurricane or tornado prone regions are now conducting complete tree audits to identify and anchor the oldest and most vulnerable. They’re also installing lightning rods to help protect their tallest trees.
• In areas prone to drought and blight, more aggressive topdressing of greens is a favored new tactic.
Big Impact and Not-So-Easy Returns
The “poster courses” for just how badly clubs can now get walloped by natural disasters are the properties in the New Orleans area that took direct hits from Hurricane Katrina. A mid-October report in the New Orleans Times-Picayune provided these updates on the extent of the damage, and when (if) some of the area’s courses were likely to recover:
• Bayou Oaks GC—Damage was “catastrophic,” according to Gordon Digby of Kemper Management Group, which manages the 54-hole public facility. As part of an estimated $25 million in damage, the storm moved a 10,000-gallon fuel tank 100 yards from its site and ruined the clubhouse, maintenance equipment and 200 carts valued at $3,700 each. Whether any of the three courses can be reopened by next summer hinges on whether money becomes available to buy equipment and restaff (Kemper furloughed the nearly 100 employees that worked at the course and has been actively trying to help them find other employment).
• Eastover (The Golf Club of New Orleans at Eastover)—Two canals that cut through the 36-hole layout and then empty into Lake Pontchartrain overflowed when the lake backed up, flooding the golf course, cart shed and clubhouse with more than eight feet of water. The owner has set Spring 2007 as the earliest opening date, with only 18 holes to be reopened.
The news and outlooks were not much better at other area courses that suffered significant water and wind damage: Oak Harbor in Slidell, TPC of Louisiana, and the public Joe Bartholomew Golf
Course in Pontchartain Park.
But these courses were already reopened or well on their way to doing so, according to the report: Abita Springs G&CC, Audubon GC, Belle Terre CC, Colonial CC, English Turn, Pinewood CC, Royal GC, Timberlane CC, and Willowdale CC. Many of these courses, though, were dealing not only with greatly reduced numbers of players, but also skeletal staffs, as regular personnel had either relocated or quit to take more lucrative construction jobs.
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.