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Wednesday, August 05,
2015
Golf Course Update Dear Members:
It is hard to believe that the summer is almost over and
we be aerifyng the golf course next week. For many on my staff it's a
monumental moment when aerification arrives because it signals to us that the
season is slowly winding down and cooler weather is on the way. Our goal for
the greens aerification program in the early spring is to be aggressive
removing the unwanted organic material. The second greens aerification,
scheduled for next week, is to heal up quickly and be less aggressive. By
combining these two types of techniques, we can still attain our goals of
removing more that 20 percent of the area for proper greens health. The tees,
approaches and rough will also see cores removed and the fairways will have
select areas aerified with a solid tine for minimal disruption. Over all,
that is the program for this year, so we have a lot of work for us to
accomplish next week.
We are also entering the part of the season where the
Bermuda grass is thriving in places across the golf course. This weed is the
most difficult to control and most golf courses in our area, and those
nationwide that are NOT Bermuda, have the same problem. Some courses are
aggressive in their approach, while others do what they can. We are actually
going to do both. It's been a well-known fact that through the spring and
summer, our rough is not always where we would like it to be.
 We want to avoid that by using a mix of
techniques that could give us desirable results while minimizing the impact
on member play. Our plan is to take small areas that are generally
in-play, apply Round-Up to those, and then sod them, as seen in the photo to
the right. Other areas that are farther away from play areas will be seeded.
We will try to seed fewer areas because of the amount of time it takes to
produce results compared to sod. Some holes are worse than others and if we chose to apply Round-Up to the Bermuda on holes 5, 8, and 18, there wouldn't be any rough left. So on these holes we are going to spray a herbicide, similar to what we do in the fairways to minimize the contamination, and then seed those. My goal over time is to get small areas where we can apply Round-Up. Is all of this a sure fire way of dealing with this problem? Probably not, but it's the best thing available to us, since we know that if we do nothing it will only get worse. I'm pretty certain that two things will survive a nuclear attack, cockroaches and Bermuda grass!  On August 17th, we will have a
tree company on site to remove a large willow oak where the back half of the
canopy has died. This was a beautiful tree at one point, and it is a shame we
have to take it down, but it's just not safe because of the proximity to the
clubhouse and walkway. We will evaluate the area for additional improvements
with another tree and plant material.
We hope your summer has been great so far and we look
forward to seeing you on the course.
Thank you,
Phil Desbrow
Golf Course Manager
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Lakewood Country
Club. 13901 Glen Mill
Road. Rockville, MD 20850
301.762.5430
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