Turf Newsletter - May
30 MAY 2025
Turf Newsletter – May 2025
For most Superintendents in southern Ontario, the months of April and May are extremely busy. We feel the anticipation of seeing how our turf grass is after the winter, followed by first cuts, clean up, and setting up of new pins. If you are near my office after all this, you’ll hear a big sigh of relief. Next steps are to begin the repair of damage caused by the winter months. This includes sod works, tree felling, catch basin repairs, and any cleanups from the prior falls project list. We roll right into staffing and training (this might be the most laborious and tiring part of the early season). Engaging, checking in on, working side by side, and teaching our new (and sometimes returning) staff is so important early on.
This brings us to what we call our spray season. Our 2 sprayers are out there nonstop when there is an opportunity. We make every effort to avoid member play, excessive winds and rain. That leaves us with being strategic about when and where we can spray. Herbicides for our primary roughs and fescue areas, wetting agents, fertilizers and growth regulators for our greens make it a long list. Well, we are close to finishing spraying our roughs, and we are beginning our fescue areas for herbicides. Our wetting agents are on greens and trees, and our greens are sprayed weekly with growth regulators and fertilizers. 10 acres of greens, 10 acres of trees, 350 acres of rough and 70 acres of fairways…. UGH!
We are experiencing the seed head flush from the Poa Annua in our greens right now. It’s not been as severe as in past years, and we are hoping it stays that way. We are topdressing, rolling and cutting as many times as we can to assist with ball rolling. Ultimately, we must wait out the seed head flush as with any plant that reproduces seed, or flowering is nature's way of reproducing.
We will be sodding with more fescue on the carry portion of 4 Sidewinder next week along with a small amount of over hydroseeding areas that did not take. The fescue seed that we planted last fall has really taken well and should be that 1/3 stroke penalty by mid-year. Fescue grasses do take considerably longer to fully grow and one of the last things we want to do is over seed and it would create too dense a stand that would result in lost balls or that 1 stroke penalty. We are once again striving to have our in-play fescue areas as playable as possible. What I mean by that is the player should be able to find their ball reasonably well and be able to advance it. This is what I mean by a 1/3 stroke penalty. These in play areas will be mown down in the next 2 weeks and not be maintained at a 3-foot height!
Thanks, and see you on the course, Bill