Esplanade Golf & Country Club Naples, Florida Visit Date: April 16, 2019 Present: Denny Albert, Director of Agronomy – Pope Golf LLC Doug Fisher, General Manager Evan Fisher, Golf Course Superintendent Nathan Stith, Director of Community Management – Taylor Morrison Golf Committee Members: Van Mancuso-Chairman, Tom Gardner, Jim Haderer, Steve Baker Paul Graebner, Geri McGee, Chuck Holley, Donna Wood Tom Coffey – Chairman, Finance Committee Steve Kammerer, Director, Southeast Region, USGA Green Section

United States Golf Association Steven J. Kammerer, Director | Green Section 21 Eastbrook Bend, Suite 222 | Peachtree City, GA 30269 (C) 678-673-9853 | skammerer@usga.org The USGA Green Section develops and disseminates sustainable management practices that produce better playing conditions for better golf.

C O U R S E C O N S U L T I N G S E R V I C E

Onsite Visit Report

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Background I was contacted over a month ago by Mr. Albert to conduct a putting green evaluation for Esplanade Golf and Country Club. The USGA Putting Green Evaluation is a comprehensive rating system comprising a set number of factors such as drainage, entry points to the putting green, sunlight coverage, etc. Upon talking further with Mr. Albert, it was decided a comprehensive evaluation of course conditions was more desirable with the primary focus on putting greens and recommendations. Guidance on fairways, roughs and other areas of concern was also needed. The course evaluation consisted of a full scouting, ride-along trip through the golf course with the individuals noted above. This was an informal forum type discussion, presenting information of golf course management and common problems encountered while also addressing current concerns and questions of the golfers.

Table of Contents Putting Green Evaluation and Assessment .......................................................................... 3

Observations .............................................................................................................................. 3 Conclusions and Recommendations .......................................................................................... 4

Roughs and Fairways.............................................................................................................. 5 Observations .............................................................................................................................. 5 Recommendations ..................................................................................................................... 6

Bunkers .................................................................................................................................... 7 Observations .............................................................................................................................. 7 Recommendations ..................................................................................................................... 7

Tees .......................................................................................................................................... 8 Observations .............................................................................................................................. 8 Recommendations ..................................................................................................................... 9

Summary .................................................................................................................................. 9

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Putting Green Evaluation and Assessment Observations

1. Are the five-year-old TifEagle™ putting greens reaching their full potential? Below are my assessments, along with golfer concerns.

• Accolades: ♦ Playing quality. Playing quality was said to be good for most of the peak season with

speeds averaging around 10.5-inches. The putting green height of cut was recently raised to 0.140-inches for spring recovery which has speeds slower; this is normal in preparation for upcoming aeration activities.

♦ Turfgrass plant health is affected by growing environment, availability of water, sunlight, temperatures, nutrients, and availability of oxygen necessary for root growth. Aboveground turfgrass health appeared excellent with good turf color and coverage. Little to no grain swirl or inconsistencies in leaf blade width was observed, with excellent leaf texture.

♦ Root health and depth was excellent, some of the best, healthiest roots I have observed this year.

♦ Surface management, which is essential to continually dilute organic matter with sand, ensuring good drainage and soil air porosity, was excellent.

• Concerns. Where playing quality is not meeting golfer expectations, below are the concerns voiced, which can be separated among those affecting playability and those affecting turfgrass health with potential for turfgrass loss.

♦ Old hole plugs are a significant concern. On many putting greens, numerous old hole plugs can be seen. This creates both a visual and a smoothness issue when putting

Picture 1 – Putting green No. 1 profile indicative of approximately 2.75-inches of very well diluted organic matter (left), and healthy, white roots to a 3.5 to 4-inch depth (right).

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through areas with a high concentration of old hole plugs. Looking at Picture 2, the grain of an old cup is oriented almost 90 degrees adverse to the grain of the green.

♦ Encroachment issues. Every golf course that has Celebration® bermudagrass collars battles encroachment problems, especially as they start along the putting green perimeters. Some of the collars, as well as some significant areas towards the interior of the green, have above average contamination issues.

♦ Re-sodding affecting playability. Depending on the putting green in question, loss of grass from contamination removal, with sod replacement, is not contiguous in some of these areas with the existing playing surface.

♦ Perimeter thinning. At least six putting greens were observed to have some thinning along the inside perimeter. Cyanobacteria, a type of black algae, is establishing in these areas, further impeding recovery. The cyanobacteria and thinning are likely a result of slightly elevated collars that are holding water.

Conclusions and Recommendations 1. Overall, I would give the putting greens good to high marks.

• There is good, dense turfgrass coverage and very few thin areas. The perimeter issues and some areas within the greens where thinning with subsequent cyanobacteria was observed seemed to be a result of sodding efforts following Celebration contamination removal.

2. Misaligned grain.

• Bermudagrass is a laterally growing plant. If the orientation of the growth, commonly referred to as grain, is not lined up on the hole plug in the same direction as the surrounding turf, several things will occur.

♦ First, the old hole plug will be more visible, particularly when looking down-grain. ♦ Second, the misaligned grain in the hole plug is more prone to scalping.

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♦ Finally, if the grain on the putting green is headed in a downhill direction and the grain in the hole plug is headed in an uphill direction, the gap created by any leaves that flaked off during play will require quite a long time to be covered with grass and likely incur establishment of cyanobacteria.

• What can be done to speed up the recovery of these old hole plugs? Detailed information on specific recommendations to better align and facilitate recovery of old cups is shared with the maintenance staff under an addendum to this report.

3. Encroachment prevention needs to be a regular, ongoing task. Golf courses that are successful at minimizing establishment of rough grass into the putting green surface have scheduled activities that they continually follow. The putting greens, on the day I visited, did have a fresh edge cut.

• During the winter months, the putting green perimeter should be edged at least once a week. During the summer months, twice a week edging may be required.

• There is a little-known wick type application of an herbicide combination that can be applied to small contaminated areas. This will result in straw to white colored dead areas within 24 to 48 hours. The herbicides are delicately “touch” applied with systemicity within the contacted tissue but no soil residual. These areas may need re-treatment, but this practice can help reduce sod repair work. Details will be shared.

4. Collar reduction would be helpful in minimizing collar dams on many of the putting greens. This can be accomplished with sod cutters or fraise mowers that scalp the collars down during the summer months.

• I don’t believe that every collar on every green needs to be addressed. Identify the problematic greens, and the areas where water puddles, and take these collars down where practical.

• In the future, extra aeration of the collars during the summer months can help to minimize additional collar elevation over time. Periodically scalping these areas will be required.

5. There are several high concentration hydrogen peroxide products labelled for golf course use that help to control cyanobacteria.

• During the winter months, once-a-month applications are inexpensive and can help keep this organism from establishing to damaging levels.

• Additional information on cyanobacteria biology and control methods will be shared.

Roughs and Fairways Observations

1. The areas free of bermudagrass mites were observed to be very healthy with good turfgrass coverage.

• The Celebration rough cut to a height of 1.25-inches was in good condition with good canopy and leaf density.

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• The consistency of the turf surface and growth habit was good. Celebration, if not managed appropriately during the summer months, can result in undesirable tuft-like growth during the winter months.

2. There were few weeds observed in most areas.

• Two minor exceptions were some localized weed infestations such as: ♦ St. Augustinegrass, single plantlets, contamination, in the wet, rough area outside of

putting green No. 7. ♦ Annual bluegrass outbreak above No. 2 putting greenside bunker, likely an herbicide

application miss. 3. Mites. Roughs, and to a lesser extent, fairways, were severely damaged by

bermudagrass mites.

• These microscopic mites are likely always present but can increase in populations with resulting damage due to extended dry periods coupled with slow growth.

• There are very few to no miticides for turfgrass use. The loss of many insecticides over the past 20+ years led to more pest-specific, long residual insecticides that have no effect on mites.

• Once damage is observed, the pest is very difficult to control as they are imbedded down within the canopy under dead and dying leaf sheaths. They also have a very rapid generation time from egg to hatch to new egg-laying adults in a matter of as little as seven days.

• These thinned, damaged areas are then more sensitive to cart traffic, wear and weed establishment.

4. Drainage. The golf course was constructed over a type of limestone rock. Some areas sampled with my soil profiler indicated a soil depth of approximately 4-inches atop a largely impenetrable, rocky subsurface, such as off of the rough slope adjacent to No. 7 putting green.

• Especially following high rainfall events, water is slow to drain. In these areas during heavy rainfall events, topical runoff water will move more rapidly downslope to the drains but more slowly once into the soil, to wherever gravity takes it. As a result, some areas such as on No. 13 are said to be wet, with “cart path only” rules 70 percent of the time.

Recommendations 1. Additional information, directions and guidance on mites will be shared with Mr. Fischer

and Mr. Albert.

• Primo™ growth regulator helps to increase stolon and leaf density during the summer months – reduce rates going into the winter months. Being able to mow off older tissue more frequently, with blowing or removal of clippings is a cultural practice that can help reduce populations.

2. The existing weed outbreaks are minor and easily controlled with spot applications of postemergence selective herbicides.

3. Consider hiring an expert drainage consultant to assist in addressing existing drainage issues and a master plan. A master plan is the first step to attack this primary concern of

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the golf course. Mr. Dennis Hurley (504-606-0495) with Turfgrass Drainage of America is the most famous drainage expert in the U.S. He has solved drainage problems with some of the most well-regarded golf courses in the south.

Bunkers Observations

1. There are several bunkers with steep faces, such as off of putting green No. 4, that are difficult to maintain.

• The sand is an expensive, high-performance G-angle sand which holds better for steep slopes compared to river sand.

• The steep face slopes of these bunkers require more time and labor raking, especially following heavy rainfall events. Consistency is also affected.

• It is very difficult to maintain adequate soil moisture for the turfgrass line area above these faces with regular irrigation. They are difficult to mow and at times necessitate additional wetting agent applications to address soil hydrophobicity issues.

2. The bunkers have no liners, cloth or otherwise, separating the sand from the soil. Prior to construction of the golf course, the soil apparently contained large amounts of lime rock. The bunker sand depth averages 4-inches.

• Many golf courses in Florida, especially those with sandy soils, have no liner.

• Cloth liners help hold the bunker sand and the edges but can rip or tear over time with mechanical raking or edging.

• As a result of mechanical raking, lime rock is winding up in the bunker sand.

Recommendations 1. It was discussed that some of these bunkers with steep faces could be reduced to

turfgrass.

Picture 3 – No. 4, bunker adjacent to putting green, with steep sand face prone to erosion of turf face and requiring high maintenance repair efforts following heavy rainfall events (left), lime rock.

i i f G l d i i f d l i il b ( i h )

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2. For dry, thin, heavily sloped grass faces:

• Consider installation of bunker mist irrigation heads. These can improve turfgrass quality and root density while improving soil retention along the bunker edges. These mist heads reduce the volume and intensity of inadvertent irrigation water going into the bunker, thus reducing sand dislodging and sand moisture inconsistencies.

• Spot treat faces with Exteris™ + soil wetting agent followed by light irrigation. 3. There are several options to consider for the rock contamination issues.

• During day-to-day operations for the bunkers, the maintenance crew is hand removing rocks when seen. Having one crew member spend an allocated time period specifically removing rocks can help.

• Prioritize your bunkers and their importance regarding placement and strategy for the hole. For these high priority bunkers utilize hand raking.

• A more drastic option is to remove the existing sand, install liners and add new sand to a depth that is below the mechanical rake tips.

Tees Observations

1. The gold and silver tee boxes appear to be the most popular on the golf course, incurring more divots and wear than others (see Picture 4).

• The gold and silver tee boxes on No. 18 are slightly off-level. Tees that incur heavy use and wear from divot injury can develop a turtle-back appearance due to accumulation of divot repair sand being applied to the same area over and over.

• The area to the front of these tees is being mowed in an arc with the mowers, which displays a slight dip in the front and back.

Picture 4 – Golf and silver No. 18 tee boxes.

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Recommendations 1. It was communicated that there were 48,945 rounds of golf played at Esplanade in 2018.

• Assuming 70 percent of the rounds are played on the gold and silver tee boxes, this equates to 34,262 rounds. The bulk of this resulting wear is concentrated in the late fall to early spring season when bermudagrass recovery is going to be slowest.

• For every 1,000 rounds a tee receives, 100 square feet of teeing area should be provided.

• Using these numbers, ideally there should be close to 3,426 square feet for this tee box. This is the main contributing factor to the wear and the unlevel playing surface of this specific tee box.

2. With some architectural planning and reconstruction, depending on the hole, some of the tees could be combined and widened to better spread out the wear.

• See Tailor-Made, New Equations To Determine Proper Tee Size for more information.

Summary I really enjoyed the opportunity to visit Esplanade Golf and Country Club. It is a beautiful development, and one that I would be proud of if I were a resident. Overall, I found the golf course to be in very good shape. Addressing the more pressing issues such as drainage, coupled with solutions to the easier problems, will deliver long lasting returns on your investment along with more immediate improvements.

If there are any additional questions or if more clarification is needed, please let me know. Golf in Florida is a 12-month season, and much can change in the course of just six to nine months. My visit coincided with the beginning preparations for summer management. You might consider an additional visit going into the peak fall to winter season if desired.

Sincerely,

Steven J Kammerer, Ph.D. Director, Southeast Region USGA Green Section

Distribution: Denny Albert, Director of Agronomy – Pope Golf LLC Doug Fisher, General Manager Evan Fisher, Golf Course Superintendent Nathan Stith, Director of Community Management – Taylor Morrison

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