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PHOTO quiz |
Answers:
PHOTO A: This newly opened 18-hole championship golf course has bentgrass greens and collars and TifSport fairways, tees and roughs. During the summer, they had been experiencing a record amount of rainfall, so every day they inspect all of their greens for disease and insect damage. On July 27 of this year, they noticed odd bare areas on one of their bentgrass collars.
The areas were just on the edge of the bentgrass/bermudagrass transition area and almost all the way around the green. There were no areas affected on the green’s surface. The superintendent and assistant examined them carefully and noticed animal tracks that led away from the scene, soon concluding that the collar was being eaten by rabbits. Since the damage was almost completely surrounding the green, the superintendent and assistant were pretty sure that it was at least a foursome of rabbits causing the problem. Photo submitted by Justin Pendley, assistant superintendent at Boot Ranch CC in Fredericksburg, Texas, and a three-year GCSAA member. Deven Baughn, a six-year GCSAA member, is superintendent at Boot Ranch.
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PHOTO B: The greens on this golf course were renovated two years previously by stripping sod, adding some USGA-recommended sand and peat moss and then performing on-site rototilling. Resodding was then performed with a newer ultradwarf variety of turf. After the sod had grown in, the turf appeared to have an uneven color. A quick inspection with my soil profile sampler easily revealed the problem. The on-site rototilling had done a very poor job of mixing the sand and peat components, revealing alternating layers of sand and peat moss. Inconsistencies with on-site rototilling will lead to many years of trouble down the road. I personally have never seen an on-site rototilling operation mix soil to the proper consistency, even when it is performed in several different directions
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