ROBERT JONES DIARIES
Rob Jones is part of the Ohio State University’s programme for young greenkeepers. In part VI of his diary he talks about preparing his course for two competitions, a visit to the GCSAA Golf Industry show in Orlando, the 17th green at TPC Sawgrass and seeing the Leeds Rhinos beat the Queensland Knights!
W
ell, here I am once again for another instalment of my experiences working and living in
America. I am currently at Sea Island Golf Club in Georgia and the learning curve I am on is excellent. It’s amazing to think it is over a year since I left England and I have not looked back since I arrived here. I would say it has been the best year of my life so far and I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. Since I have been in Georgia I have been networking with a good number of Mexicans as there are quite a few working on the courses in this part of the States. They are a good bunch of lads; hard working, polite and curious about our ways. I have made the effort to refresh my Spanish and, as a result, have gained their respect. Mind you, it’s helpful to me as I believe it’s important to know another language.
In my last diary report I told you about the overseeding I was carrying out with my colleague Scott Davidson. Looking back it has been a very good learning experience for us both. We were given the responsibility for getting the job done, learning from our mistakes as we went along. This was a great experience, and we both know that we could do it better the next time!
Also, at Sea Island, I have been able to look at disease issues as they come up and learn how to deal with each incident in a flexible way, as no two cases can be treated the same. I have had to learn about tweaking tank mixes based on the the different types of disease that can appear on warm season grasses - brown patch, fusarium, nematios, pythium, dollar spot, red thread, fairy ring and dead spot to name a few! There are many other diseases which can occur but these are the main ones I have had to deal with. So, as you can imagine, I have lots of notes!
I have also learned about different chemicals, their uses, mixtures, active ingredients, costs, etc. The most used chemicals on the greens are: Insignia: The active ingredient in this is Pyraclostrobin. This will treat most of the diseases we have at Sea Island, so it’s a very good product for us to use - but it is expensive! Manicure: The active ingredient is
Chlorothalonil. This will control dollar spot, brown patch, red thread, anthracnose and many more. It’s a good product to use as, again, it will treat a good number of the
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diseases and gives us the opportunity to rotate the chemical usage. 18 plus: The active
Above: Rob Jones at TPC Sawgrass
Left: The 17th at TPC Sawgrass, one of the most famous par 3’s in the world
Below: The Lodge at Sea Island Golf Club
ingredient in this one is Iprodione. This chemical is used as a preventative measure when we see high humidity weather coming in which, generally, leads to disease pressure.
On the fairways we will use the above, with the exception of Insignia, because of the cost. On the greens we will use one of the fungicides and normally add some fertiliser (usually 15:0:0) at one gallon per acre. Occasionally, we have to use up to three gallons per acre. We also put wetting agents down. Recently we have started using those that suspend the water in the top few inches of the soil but, in the first few months, we were using wetting agents that flushed the water through the soil. The reason we started suspending the water was because it had become warm, dry and windy, drying out the greens/leaf blade. This way we could keep the water as close to the surface as possible. We have also put insecticide on the
greens because we are starting to have trouble with mole crickets eating the roots on the fairways. So, by treating the greens we hope, and expect, to stop the critters attacking them.
So, when people criticise the Americans for spraying too much chemical and putting on too much fertiliser, there is a reason. If you live here you’ll understand why. This climate is the toughest in which to grow grass as there is always something willing to kill it, be it heat or stress or mole crickets or whatever. You have to be a good greenkeeper to survive here. And no, they do not waste chemicals and spray them
willy-nilly, they watch every penny they spend as these products are expensive. In the last few months we have had two big competitions on the golf course - within two weeks of each other! This was really good for me as I was involved in the course set up and preparation.
The first competition, the Sea Island Invitational, was the bigger of the two. Some very important people play in this tournament and we had to make the course look at its best - it was a case of doing the basics right.
• Greens rolled as required, fairways well groomed - these are the two things golfers take for granted, so they look around at other things, which detract from the course.
• Yardage markers painted. What do golfers need most? Yardages!
• Ensure the course is spotless.
• No weeds and no trash to be seen anywhere by the naked eye.
• Pruning and tidying up trees and shrubs. It took half a day to spray approaches
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