This morning we made the 1st of three applications in select rough areas that removes creeping bentgrass from Kentucky Bluegrass/Tall Fescue. The interesting thing about this product, called Tenacity, is that it turns the Bentgrass white before it dies. This is the only time of year this product is effective and applications must begin now in order to have enough time to apply all three applications, spaced 2-3 weeks apart from one another.
There is no question that the golf course is showing a lot of wear and tear from a summer of record use. While as a whole, I'm proud of where the golf course is for as much play as we received. At the same time, I am also disappointed in how I've handled some areas in the rough. When the golf course gets as wet as it was during the month of August, there is little that can be done. That said, there are some areas here and there that we should have stayed off of for a longer period of time. This week, we are going to be working hard to repair many of these areas by rolling, topdressing and seeding. In some cases, like the 2-track cart path behind the #15th green, we'll be doing some resodding by cutting turf from the back of the practice range. The goal is to have the golf course in excellent shape for next week's Men's Member/Guest Tournament and for the remainder of the fall season. We are also thinking ahead to next year and making changes to what areas are mowed with each specific mower. The amount of manual push mowing we do will be increased to avoid the same wear and tear in the future.