The USGA Green Section
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| You Fix Ball Marks - Right? | But how about your friends?
by the USGA Green Section staff |
Ok, so this is hail damage instead of really poor ball mark etiquette - but this could be your greens without a little extra effort on the part of all golfers. | Ball marks are always a problem but they are much worse this year with bentgrass and Poa annua greens struggling to survive. Putting green turf that is under severe stress has very little recuperative ability making it more important than ever for golfers to properly fix ball marks. Listed below you will find valuable articles and a video animation on this topic. The Green Section urges you to forward this issue to your friends in the hope that they will increase their ball mark repair efforts.
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| Regional Updates From Across The Country | Timely advice and important news
 From the Florida Region |
University of Florida student and USGA summer intern Chad Grannis checks out the putting green irrigation updating project that has been underway at Black Diamond Ranch. | For Florida golf courses, the arrival of Labor Day means that it is time to wrap up summertime cultural management programs and projects, and prepping for the upcoming winter season becomes the priority. At courses in Central to South Florida, a final core aeration of putting greens is typically conducted in early to mid-September, and while sustained bermudagrass growth is occurring, the rate of recovery is slowing down. Thus, care needs to be exercised not to cause excessive mechanical damage, and the use of smaller (3/8 to 1/2-inch) diameter tines is advised. Read this entire update.
 From the Southeast Region
Mini Rings Outbreaks Happening Now
by Patrick O'Brien and Chris Hartwiger, agronomists
Mini Ring fungus, caused by Rhizoctonia zeae, is now active in the SE Region. Curative fungicide programs work well now to provide suppression. |
Mini Rings are now active on ultra-dwarf bermudagrass putting greens. The fungus also can be active on bentgrass putting greens at this time. According to Steve Kammerer, a University of Florida MS candidate and Syngenta Field Technical Manager, this is a fungus caused by Rhizoctonia zeae and it infects the sheaths of older leaf blades in the lower canopy. The outbreaks for some reason are a little later than normal, but perhaps the additional overcast skies the past few weeks has allowed the fungus to become more active. Seeing this fungus active now on putting greens is far better than in the cooler weather, as new growth can still happen. When the mini rings occur in the fall, during cooler weather, the rings can sometimes hang around until next spring when new growth resumes. Read the rest of this update.
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| Coming Up Next Week
A Region By Region Review of the Summer of 2010 | What happened and why
by the USGA Green Section staff | | The damage to bentgrass and Poa annua greens this summer was widespread stretchinig over five Green Section regions. In next week's Record, representatives from the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, North-Central, Southeast, and Mid-Continent regions will summarize what happened and why in their respective areas through short, recorded video presentations There are many lessons to be learned from the past summer; please help us get the word out about this important event.
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| How Is Your Fescue - Fine? | By Dr. David M. Kopec and Brian Whitlark, University of Arizona and USGA Green Section
It is worth evaluating the addition of fine fescues to your overseeding efforts. | Fescue anyone? That's what they probably have said to each other at St. Andrews before offering up the challenge of a round of golf. Worldwide, there are many applicable uses for the six types of fine fescues, largely based on species and any special selection pressure performed by breeders. For turf managers in the desert southwest, where might the fine fescues fit in? Read the rest of this article | |
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| USGA Research You Can Use | Evaluating the New England Velvet Bentgrass Collection
by Drs. Rebecca Nelson Brown and Geunhwa Jung
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Velvet bentgrass has many desirable genetic traits that scientists are trying to save for the development of new, stronger turfgrasses for golf. | Velvet bentgrass (Agrostis canina L.) has excellent tolerance to lower levels of sunlight, nitrogen, and water and is considered native to New England and coastal regions as far south as Maryland. The stress tolerance genes found in velvet bentgrass need to be preserved as potentially irreplaceable genetic resources.
The New England velvet bentgrass germplasm collection is a collaborative effort by researchers at the University of Rhode Island and the University of Massachusetts. More than 250 accessions have been collected from old golf courses throughout New England. In 2008, more than 750 individuals were evaluated in the field at the University of Massachusetts for turf quality and resistance to brown patch and dollar spot. In 2009, the entire collection was evaluated for salt tolerance in the greenhouse at the University of Rhode Island, and for genetic color, growth rate, and dollar spot in the field. In addition, copper spot-resistant accessions identified in 2008 were re-screened to confirm resistance. Read the rest of the research summary.
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| Like What You See And Want To Share? | |
Looking for something? |
We have had numerous requests from golf and turf associations about how to forward the Record to their membership via their association newsletter. Simply cutting and pasting will not work. Fortunately, there is a very simple procedure that does. Just follow these steps:
- Visit our archive and find the issue that you would like to share.
- Select the issue - it will display in your browser in html format.
- Simply copy the url from the address line and paste it into your newsletter.
Of course, we hope you also urge your membership to subscribe to the Green Section Record so they can recieve it directly. It is full of timely, valuable information and free of advertisements. Best of all, it's absolutely free.
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| The USGA Green Section Portal | |
A Valuable Resource For All
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Take a minute to visit the Green Section's portal at http://gsportal.usga.org. There you will find information regarding upcoming live webcasts and links to recordings of more than 30 previously-delivered webcasts, as well as announcements regarding upcoming USGA Green Section activities, education conferences, and meetings.
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| USGA Green Section
P.O. Box 708
Far Hills, NJ 07931-0708 908.234.2300
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©2010 by United States Golf Association®
Permission to reproduce articles or material in the USGA Green Section Record is
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Green Section Record (ISSN 2156-5813) is published weekly via electronic mail by the
United States Golf Association®, Golf House, Far Hills, NJ 07931.
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