fe ature ◗ NANCY PIERCE, AGS
Taking the Plunge Regrassing the putting surfaces at Crowbush Cove ◗ This was going to be a big, big project!
We were tasked with the small matter of re-sodding 15 of our putting greens, along with the practice green, chipping green and turf nursery in October, 2012. That’s why I chose the term “Taking the Plunge” to describe the project. The term suggests entering into an unfamiliar situation filled with excitement and mixed with a healthy dose of trepidation! That describes what this regrassing project was all about for me. The ground was broken for construction of The Links at Crowbush Cove in 1991. Crowbush is an 18-hole golf course nestled amongst the dunes and wetlands of PEI’s north shore. We opened for business on July 9, 1993. If you do the math, you’ll realize this season will be Crowbush’s 20th anniversary! During construction, the greens, tees and fairways had all been seeded out to Penncross creeping bentgrass. As is true in most places, it doesn’t take long in our Maritime climate for creeping bentgrass surfaces to become contaminated with Poa annua without some kind of intervention. For us, that intervention came back in the early and mid-1990s in the form of extra staff in the late fall. I armed them all with hunting knives and buckets and we trotted out to the greens to start cutting out the Poa and filling the holes with topdressing sand. We did it every day, rain or shine. It was labour intensive, but it worked! When Jim Skorulski from the USGA made his first turf visit to Crowbush several years after opening, he commended us on the lack of Poa in the greens. But times changed, money became scarce and that extra shot of staff in the fall became a thing of the past. We tried to remove some of the Poa ourselves with just the few people we had left after closing, in addition to all the other things that needed to be done, but we weren’t keeping up with the infestation. The first three greens at 32 greenMaster | www.golfsupers.com
Crowbush have always been the worst for Poa; probably because they are the shadiest greens on the property. On these greens, Poa was becoming the dominant species in the low areas, the wear areas and the shady areas. And with that came the usual problems associated with Poa greens; seed head production and often dead grass in the low areas in the spring. It was decided we would re-sod just the first three greens in the spring of 2010. First, we had to answer a few pertinent questions. Where would we get the sod? Transportation was going to comprise a good chunk of our budget, so closer was better. What type of bent should we get? Should we stay with Penncross or switch to one of the newer varieties? Since, at that time, the first three greens were the only ones under consideration, we decided to stick with Penncross in order to maintain consistency across all the greens. Third, who has Penncross sod these days? Well, turns out Bastien Sod Farm, which is just north of Montreal, could accommodate all our needs. Alex Bastien was our contact and I found him to be very knowledgeable about all things turf and sod. He actually had some Penncross sod, so we made arrangements to start the process in early May of 2010. With just 12 staff available to work on sodding, we stripped, prepped, sodded and seam-filled those three greens in just three days. The greens came along nicely and were in great shape by mid-season. Everyone loved them (perhaps you are getting ahead of me and can see where this is leading)! They loved them so much that talk began about re-sodding the remainder of the greens. Alex agreed to grow us more Penncross and a plan was formulated to re-grass the remaining greens in the fall of 2011. But
that summer, word circulated that Tourism was bidding on a large televised event scheduled for Crowbush in 2012 (ie. The Skins Game)! Obviously we didn’t want newly sodded greens in play for such a large event, so the regrassing project was postponed until the fall of 2012. By the time we found out that PEI would not be hosting the event, it was late fall and our window of opportunity was long gone. Later this past summer, once it became clear the project was going ahead with no more delays, Alex Bastien paid us a visit. We went over our plans with him and he made some very helpful suggestions. He recommended we apply a couple of amendments to the root zone prior to sodding, which I’ll discuss a bit later. He also convinced us that using a refer truck for transportation was unnecessary. He guaranteed that the sod would arrive in perfect shape using a much less expensive flatbed truck as long as the proper sod tarps were used. He was absolutely right on that account and his suggestion saved us quite a bit of money. Each truck held 22 pallets or 13,200 sq. ft. of sod, which was easily enough to re-grass two greens, including collars and approaches. As the start date drew closer, we began accumulating the items we would need. We bought about 50 sheets of plywood, a couple dozen pieces of pink rigid Styrofoam insulation (for kneeling on when seamfilling), knee pads, rubberized work gloves and topdressing sand. We also made arrangements to rent a large forklift from a brick mason and a refer truck for sod storage. We borrowed an extra sod cutter and a couple Cushmans from our sister course Dundarave. Most of my staff was brought on a bit later in the spring and would still be working during this project. In total we had 22 people; 13 guys and nine gals. This included