Minnesota Golfer - Directory 2020 - 19

The winter of 2018-19 with freezing rain in December followed
by a long period of extreme sub-zero temperatures
hurt many local courses. Scores of them lost turf, delaying full
recovery well into summer. It was the latest in a line of diffi cult
winters and has more courses considering bentgrass to prevent
winter injury-like some have already done.
" Mother Nature will do what she wants and you don't have
a lot of control, " Schindele says. " It's important that clubs seriously
consider this if they have the means to do it. "
The Impetus
The story of local clubs regrassing did
not occur overnight, unlike frost forming
on fairways. According to Jack
MacKenzie, executive director of the
Minnesota Golf Couse Superintendents
Association, area clubs have been talking
about it since 2005 when the USGA's
Bob Vavrek (regional director-Central
Region) came to town and spoke at the
MGA's Spring Forum.
" He said, 'here's the deal, gang:
researching and discussing what it would require to regrass a
historic course that contained grasses that had been around
almost since its 1898 inception. That's a long time, and meant a
regrass the greens; eliminate the problem,' "
MacKenzie reports. " Take down
trees and regrass your greens? That was
kind of a foreign idea. But, 14 years later, we have people doing
it. "
Vavrek said regrassing and tree management " were all the
rage " at clubs in Chicago, where 47 of the top 50 private clubs
have converted their turf to strains
of bentgrass that are more resistant
to winter injury and more tolerant of
summer heat. It was time for this area
to consider it.
" A lot has to do with economics, "
MacKenzie says. " When this was fi rst
discussed in 2005, the metropolitan area
had suffered some signifi cant ice damage.
We had an economic blip in 200708,
and I believe there just weren't the
resources to do the regrassing. We just
recently went through another cycle of
freeze damage and bluegrass mortality
due to the weather anomalies, and that
has inspired golf courses-now during
a good economic time-to regrass their
surfaces. "
Problematic Poa
Offi cials from The Minikahda Club
in Minneapolis started talking about
regrassing for two years before they
pulled the trigger in 2018. According
to superintendent Jeff Johnson, the
grounds committee spent that time
mngolf.org
" Mother Nature will
do what she wants
and you don't have
a lot of control. "
-Brandon Schindele
number of ancient grasses would be eradicated.
" We had Heinz 57, " Johnson says, referring to the mixedstand
of grass on the fabled grounds. " I know on our fairways is
a grass called Cohan seed, developed in the 1930s. We still have
that in places, which is kind of cool from a turf geek perspective
to see the different grasses on the fairways. But I don't know if
everybody appreciates that as much as I probably did from a
turf perspective.
" Maybe that Cohan seed was there
when Bobby Jones won in 1927-I don't
know, " Johnson says with a chuckle.
Johnson concedes there are problems
with managing a variety of grasses,
and planting a mono-stand is designed
to reduce injury risk and improve the
overall quality of the playing surface.
When one or more grasses reacts differently
to the tough winter conditions, the
result is a mixed bag of healthy, diseased
and even dead grass that makes for an
inconsistent surface and a management
nightmare.
" Sometimes we are judged on our weakest grass, " Johnson
says. " We manage to the weakest grass, trying to keep it alive all
the time. If we lose any grass, it makes us look bad. So, you kind
of manage to the lowest common denominator, and by regrassTHE
MINIKAHDA CLUB
Directory 2020 MINNESOTAGOLFER
19
http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Directory 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Minnesota Golfer - Directory 2020
