Fusariummy

A few years ago I seeded yarrow into the sand trap surrounds at the advice of Armen Suny . This "weed" is perfectly adapted for the tough growing conditions surrounding sand traps, it stays green even when it is extremely dry, provides a good playing surface when mowed, and spreads to provide a good stable edge to a trap. This year we have been experiencing the worst drought since they started taking records. Needless to say we have had trouble keeping some of our bunker surrounds in good shape. Today I noticed that the yarrow was still doing great, despite the difficult growing conditions on the course and especially on the bunker edges. Here are a few pictures to show just how happy the yarrow is. The collar is on a steep slope. Any hand watering will wash out the trap. The yarrow is creeping in from the trap edge towards the green in these tough growing conditions. Without the yarrow the trap edge would completely collapse. Close up of the yarrow creeping back from the bun...

What is a weed? One definition I found was: A plant considered undesirable, unattractive, or troublesome, especially one growing where it is not wanted, as in a garden. On some golf courses weeds can be a constant battle. Turf managers often have to go out of their way to deal with the pesky plants. Often the weeds on a golf course are harmful to the turf and the environment. Invasive species for example are a major problem all over the world. In other instances it is the native species that are the culprits. The past few years that I have worked at the Pender Harbour Golf Club have taught me a lot of things. One of those things is how to deal with weeds. At Pender Harbour we might look at "weeds" a little differently than most other golf courses. Clover growing in the turf Take White Clover (Trifolium repens) for example. Our rough, fairways and tees are full of clover. Clover is usually a sign of poor soil nutrition and drought. This is very true especially for the rough ar...

Today I had a very interesting conversation about "minimalist" sand trap maintenance with a few fellow Superintendents on Twitter. Many golf clubs these days spend as much if not more on their sand traps as they do their putting greens. I decided to stop and think about each aspect of sand trap maintenance and ask why we currently do what we do, what alternatives there are, and what is best for my golf club. Sand trap raked with Sandpro. Edges done by hand with a rake. The first and most obvious maintenance practice is raking the traps.  The purpose of raking the traps is to smooth and loosen the sand to try and provide consistently soft but firm sand. Good luck with this!  Most courses these days use motorized bunker rakes due to the speed and economics they provide. Simply put they are many times faster than raking traps by hand. They do require a large sand trap though so the smaller traps will still need to be raked by hand. Personally I do not see the advantage of hand r...