Glen Eagle Maintenance (2/25/26)

After record setting high temperatures to end the last week, more cold and dry weather to start this one. We had our second patchy frost of the year on Wednesday morning. That is more frost this year than in the previous 6 years since I started at Glen Eagle. Warmer temperatures in the forecast for the remainder of the week and into next. Hopefully we have seen our last frost! I’m not ready for summer just yet but some mild temperatures would be great!

Still no rain so we are monitoring water closely. Saturday is our next decent chance, I will be watching and waiting, thats for sure.

The course color has been good over the last week, hopefully the cold weather will not hurt it too much as we look forward to our Member/Gust events next week.

Andres our new irrigation tech has been hard at work since starting a month ago. In addition to irrigation repairs, he has also been working on drainage. When drains stop draining, it is often that the exit end of the drain get plugged up by dirt. Sometimes however, roots have grown up thur the drain and are plugging the entire drain pipe. Here are a few examples of that happening on the course. You can see how long the roots are as they take advantage of the easy water and nutrients in the drain pipe.

18 Tee

4 Tee

A big thank you to Jose, GE’s Facilities Maintenance Tech, who cleaned up and painted the short wall behind 14 green. What a huge difference a fresh coat of paint makes!

I look forward to seeing everyone on the course, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf!

Glen Eagle Maintenance (2/18/26)

 Warmer weather (along with some fertilizer) has brought back color to the course. Growth is starting to come back but will be limited by the still cool soil temps. A quarter of an inch of rain helped kick in some of the fertilizer earlier this week but we are still looking for a significant (inches) rain to help stabilize lake levels.

Here is a very brief explanation of the fertilizer we are using to help the course green up during this “warm” stretch of weather we are currently having.

There are three primary nitrogen fertilizer forms that we use on the course. Nitrates, Ammonium, and Urea. There are others like organic nitrogen but for most purposes the major sources are the first three.

This time of year we don’t use much Ammonium nitrogen because it has a higher probability of burn and it has to be converted into a source the plant can use by soil microbes that are not as active during colder months. Urea also has to be converted but has a much lower burn potential and is usually coated into a slow release product that makes it a suitable source most of the year.

To promote recovery from the cold weather Nitrate sources are the best for this time of year. We are currently using Potassium Nitrate in a liquid form and backing that up for longer release with a slow release urea granular.

Nitrates are good this time of year because they don’t have to be converted by microbes. They are plant available and can be taken up right away once they are applied.

The frost that we had a couple weeks ago did a number on many of our plants but none take it as hard as the Copperleaf. Copperleaf generally does very well here in Naples, especially closer to the coast because we don’t normally get very cold. However, in the rare year where we do, it takes it hard will end up looking like dead sticks once it looses its leaves. It is not dead and will come back but that process will take a while. The best thing we can do for it is to trim it back and be patient.

Here are a couple pictures of how Copperleaf has thinned out on the course and what it looks like once we have trimmed it back to promote density as it recovers from the cold.

I look forward to seeing everyone on the course, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf!

Glen Eagle Maintenance (2/11/26)

Warm(ish) weather has returned and along with it the color on the golf course is trying to make a comeback.

All things considered, the golf course is in good condition. Greens are quick and ball roll in the fairways is long, enjoy it while it lasts 😁.

Now that the cold weather has subsided, at-least temporarily, lack of rainfall has been and will continue to be our greatest challenge. SFWMD issued a warning about dropping aquifer levels and asked for voluntary water use reductions thorough out all of SW Florida. The water district’s primary responsibility is to protect the potable water supply. When they see specific drops in aquifer levels, they have developed protocol to reduce consumption, preventing critical depletion. This warning is the first step  in conservation. If we don’t see adequate rainfall (forecast is not currently favorable) to restore aquifer levels, they will start issuing mandatory water use restrictions.

Typical those reductions will be as reduced irrigation days for landscape areas, including home lawns and a percentage reduction for golf courses.

Unlike residential and many commercial landscapes, golf courses have water use permits that allow for an amount of water use per month and per year. That differs from landscapes which have certain days of the week they can water. Since we manage water use on a daily basis we can water on an as needed basis as long as we don’t go over the permitted pumping limits the district sets for the property when the permit was granted.

When restrictions are implemented, landscapes are told to reduce the number of days per week that they water. For example, current and normal watering is allotted 3 days per week so if restrictions go into effect, they will reduce that to a 2 or 1 day watering schedule depending on how severe the water shortage is.

On the golf course, they implement percentage reductions of our permitted allotment. Generally they start with a 10% reduction, then move 25% and so forth until they feel the water supply is stable. Since I only have to meet the restricted usage, I can target areas of greatest need like greens, fwys,  and tees.

Our water levels are very low for this time of year and with not much rain in the forecast, we may have to restrict our usage ahead of the district mandates. Like the district does for drinking water, I have to protect the greens by saving enough water that at minimum we can keep them alive until rainy season starts. I hope we don’t get to that condition but I have to plan for the worse and hope for the best. Water management is a constant part of our property and golf course management year round but is certainly most stressful when our resource is low.

Here is a link to the districts notice:

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/FLSFWMD/bulletins/407f272

For now, let’s all do our rain dances and I will keep you informed of the conditions as we get deeper into dry season.

I look forward to seeing everyone on the course, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf!

Glen Eagle Maintenance (2/4/26)

Cold, Cold, Cold has been the theme over the last week. The coldest weather in nearly 2 decades passed thru our area earlier this week including 2 days of frost.

Since I started at Glen Eagle in 2019, we have only had frost conditions one other time. This week was the heaviest frost I have seen during my time here.

Here are some pictures of frost on the course…

We can’t do much to keep the frost off the grass but we pulled out the covers for the flowers. All of our plants will have some damage (brown leaves/leaf loss) from frost but if we don’t cover the annual plants flowers they will have significant damage and will die. Due to the wind on Saturday, we will see some damage to the annuals but not as much as if we left them uncovered.

Here is the team putting out the covers on Friday…

What Frost Does to the Grass

Frost forms when temperature drop low enough for moisture on the leaf surface to freeze. Keep in mind, that doesn’t mean the air temperature has to drop to freezing, only the temperature on the surface of the leaf blades. When the grass blades freeze, the water inside the plant cells expands, which can rupture cell walls. Once those cells are damaged, they can’t function properly, leading to discoloration and tissue death. This is why we keep all foot and cart traffic off of the turf during potential periods of frost. Having traffic on the turf would certainly cause frozen cells to rupture, making the damage to the turf much worse.

Most of our frost was in the rough which has a higher heights of cut and therefore much more surface area for the frost to form on. The good news is the frost doesn’t kill the plant, only some of the tissue it comes in contact with and that is dependent on how heavy the frost is. It will take a few days to see how much tissue was effected but I don’t expect an extreme amount of damage.

One thing that is very noticeable during cold periods is the substantial color response between turf types, particularly our TifEagle greens compared to the Celebraiton on the reminder of the course.

TifEagle is maintained at very low mowing heights so it can be more vulnerable to temperature stress. With less leaf surface and less stored energy, the plant responds quickly by shutting down and losing chlorophyll, resulting in a brown or off-color appearance.

Celebration is maintained at higher heights and that extra leaf tissue provides insulation so the plant doesn’t go into as much shock therefore resulting in less color loss.

Looking Ahead

Temperatures will still be cool over the next week but not nearly as extreme as we just experienced. The visual impact from the recent frost and cold stress will be noticable for a couple weeks but Bermudagrass is resilient and will recover by pushing new growth and regaining color.

Until the growth picks back up, enjoy the extra ball roll, and please remember to fill divots, fix ball marks and use the 90 degree rule.

I look forward to seeing everyone on the course, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf!