Check out the blog at http://napervilleccgrounds.blogspot.com/ to learn more about:

• Course maintenance updates, including photos.
• Regular updates on the cultural practices performed on and around the courses, including mowing, spraying and turf aerification.
• General golf course industry news and trends.
• Updates from the turf industry.

If there is a blog you’d like us to feature, please let us know by leaving a comment.
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Let’s face it, golf course superintendents and lawn care managers often double as pseudo weathermen because of their jobs.

So what’s your weather forecast for summer turf conditions:

Share:

-       Hotter than heck weather that breeds turf busting diseases?

-       Mild temps that are great for business?

-       Unusually tough weeds?

-       More severe droughts?

Comment below to share what you’re seeing this spring and your 2012 summer predictions.

Share your top turfgrass management concerns for the season below and describe how you plan to get ahead of the challenges caused by weather and/or possible turf stresses.

Weather continues to be on the mild side for March in the Mid Atlantic, New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas.

ABWs on the move, active dollar spot and much warmer soil temps than most thought. Soil probing my Jersey area this week has revealed to some of the supers that temps averaged 58 degrees already. Those that had aggressive dollar spot last fall need to be spraying now. Tyler Otero, Trump National in Colts Neck, NJ said he sprayed fairways with Emerald^® fungicide just before I arrived on Wednesday. Many early sprays going out this week.

Weather is so much warmer than normal, so it will be struggle to keep up pace this early. Early sprays mean something else isn’t getting completed on the course, which might catch up to supers later in the year.

The last several days we have experienced day-time temps in the high 80s and night-time temps in the 60s. We are coming off of a very mild wimpy winter with limited snow cover across pretty much all of the upper half of the United States. This bare ground is heating up the atmosphere earlier and more aggressively than in years past for the beginning of the spring season. The Forsythia are in full bloom which is a good indicator for beginning pre-emergent herbicide programs.

Early this week, I was in Western Michigan at The Egypt Valley Country Club spending time with Director of Golf Course Operations, Jeff Holmes, CGCS. At 3:30 p.m., we put a soil thermometer in a USGA Sand Green at a 2” depth. The temperature was 75 degrees and in the fairways, the temperature was 65 degrees. Near the Lake in Cleveland, Ohio the temps on USGA Sand Greens was at 65 degrees and at 59 degrees in the fairways.

Golf course managers prepare turfgrass for early-season play

Bottom line, this spring a lot of the golf course maintenance tasks have been condensed into a tight window. I.E. PGR applications, pre-emergent herbicide applications, post-emergent grass/broadleaf herbicide applications, early preventive dollar spot applications, preventive summer stress disease applications, fertility & agronomic applications, getting the irrigation systems ready to go, mowing greens/fairways/roughs/naturalized areas, spring aerification where needed. In most cases, the golf course seasonal maintenance crew is not scheduled to return until April.

The cash register is ringing; many courses have had 1,800-2,000 rounds of golf in March that is unheard of. Northern Michigan golf courses are planning on opening in mid-April instead of mid-May.

The spring season is starting up approximately 30 days ahead of historical patterns. The start of the 2012 season is very positive — the people that make adjustments based on the 2012 spring season, will be ahead of the game. People that remain creatures of habit and continue their approach based on historical calendar dates may struggle later in the season.

I know all how read this have been to the local Applebee’s, and here is a picture of the local Anchorage site with 4.5 feet of snow next to the building.

I was asked by a distribution partner to come to the great far North to talk to pest control, LCO, and greenhouse nursery growers for the UAF-CES Kenai Peninsula District. The meeting was for over 75
pest/turf/ornamental managers in the great state of Alaska. This trip also gave me a chance to meet a distributor in Anchorage. The buyer and VP of sales said that he does not get many visitors, and he
really appreciated the chance to talk to a manufacture and discuss opportunities face to face.

I was on the agenda twice:

1. Pre-Emergent and Vegetation Management Weed Control  – Michael Kropp, BASF
2. Ornamental Fungal Control – Michael Kropp, BASF

The distributor and the moderator, Janice, wrote a nice letter back saying that the meeting went well.

Spring Greetings,

I just wanted to send a note to say Thank You for your
participation in the 2012 Alaska Certified Pesticide Applicator Conference last week. Your experience, humor, and information was well presented and well received and thanks to you all the conference was a great success. We realize that travel to Alaska in what is basically winter, is not high on everyone’s list and so we appreciate your participation all the more. We have had nothing but positive comments about all the presentations, from both the out of state and in-state presenters, which shows what a high level of professionalism you all possess.

Thank you again for coming and sharing your knowledge with our participants.

Hope to see you again in future workshops!

Sincerely,

Janice Chumley
IPM tech/Research tech
UAF-CES
Kenai Peninsula District
Soldotna, AK 99669

We all struggle for new opportunities in our business life, personal life, and professional life, but I will say the people who live 1600 miles for the lower 48 have a spirit that was very refreshing to witness, and I look forward to growing BASF business in the great state of AK!

Golf course management industry peers gathered in Las Vegas February 27 through March 2, 2012, for another successful GCSAA Golf Industry Show. Golf course superintendents, distributors, manufacturers and industry professionals bustled between education, networking and booth activities. Many met with the BASF Professional Turf & Ornamentals team to learn about Intrinsic^™ brand fungicides disease control and plant health research. A sincere “thank you” to our customers and industry partners for visiting with the BASF team at the show.

2012 BASF Turf GIS Activity Recap – By the Numbers:

 - 120 golf course superintendents received signed-copies of Dr. David Kopec’s, “Turfgrass Water Conservation, Vol. 2,” and Dr. Bert McCarty’s, “Best Golf Course Management Practices, 3rd Edition.”

- Golf course superintendents won a combined total of $10,800 in cash gift cards playing BASF Superintendent Pyramid in our booth.

- 5 turf industry media and their colleagues helped raise a combined total of $7,550 for charities of their choice playing BASF Superintendent Pyramid for Charity.

This year’s game “Superintendent Pyramid” paired teams to provide clues and guess topics to earn $100 for each correctly answer. Thanks to all of our media participants and the audience who cheered them on!

- Larry Aylward, Superintendent, earned $1,500 for the Cleveland Food Bank.

- Kyle Brown, Golf Course Industry, earned $1,750 for the Movember Foundation.

- Scott Hollister, Golf Course Management, earned $1,750 for the Heartland Habitat for Humanity.

- Seth Jones, Golfdom, earned $1,200 for the Head for the Cure.

- John Reitman, TurfNet, earned $1,350 for the Women’s Resource Center of Hancock County, Ohio

Lucky golf course superintendents teamed up with their BASF reps to win cash gift cards this morning playing Superintendent Pyramid at BASF Professional Turf & Ornamentals Golf Industry Show Booth #1860 in Las Vegas. Thanks to all those who played!

Sixty golf course superintendents lined-up to meet author Bert McCarty, Ph.D., and received a signed copy of his book, “Best Golf Course Management Practices, 3rd Edition,” compliments of BASF Professional Turf & Ornamentals during the Golf Industry Show in Las Vegas.

More GIS BASF booth #1860 activities this afternoon 3/1!

Starting at 3 p.m. today—come cheer on the industry’s media as they play a special edition of “Superintendent Pyramid Media for Charity.” Each editor has a chance to win and donate up to $2,000 to the selected charity listed below.

- Larry Aylward, Superintendent—charity: Cleveland Food Bank.

- Kyle Brown, Golf Course Industry—charity: Movember Foundation.

- Scott Hollister, Golf Course Management—charity: Heartland Habitat for Humanity.

- Seth Jones, Golfdom—charity: Head for the Cure.

- John Reitman, TurfNet—charity: Women’s Resource Center of Hancock County, Ohio.

Lucky golf course superintendents teamed up with their BASF Turf sales reps today to win cash gift cards playing Superintendent Pyramid at BASF Professional Turf & Ornamentals Golf Industry Show Booth #1860 in Las Vegas.

More chances to win—hurry to the BASF booth tomorrow, Thurs., 3/1 at 11 a.m. to play for the chance to earn up to $1,000!

View the full booth schedule to learn more and follow @BASFTurf_us on Twitter.