Glen Eagle Maintenance (3/25/26)

The golf course is looking pretty good considering the dry weather that continues to stay in place over our area of SW Florida.

As we wind down our busy golfing season, we are also in the driest portion of the year. From now until June is a critical time for water management and we are seeing the effects of that on the golf course already.

We have reduced irrigation in roughs by 50%, over the past week and I can see many areas turning brown due to the reduction.

The picture above was taken prior to any irrigation adjustments. Here are some since we reduced the rough irrigation.

We have also reduced common grounds irrigation by a third which will cause areas of turf and plants to become wilted and visibally off color over the next several months.

All of this is to protect the remaining water availability in our lakes until we start getting rain later this summer.

Here is a current picture of the lake level at the 3 Tee bridge

Where we are seeing these impacts the most is when we have an irrigation issue such as power or communication issues between controllers and irrigation stations. Missing irrigation cycles during this time of year causes hot spots that take extended time to recuperate. This was evident on the putting green over the past week where an extremely dry area developed on the slope causing an unsightly brown area.

Each one of the irrigation heads on our course has a decoder in the head that tells the head when to open the valve and allow the water to come on. When a decoder goes bad, it doesn’t receive the signal from the central hub (computer) to run the head. Sometimes when a decoder goes bad, it can affect other heads around it and none of them will work properly. When the visible dry spot shows up, it is a trigger for us to check the decoders in the area and replace any damaged decoders.

Once a dry spot has developed we have to get it rehydrated which is generally accomplished by hand watering the location with a hose and wetting agent dispenser to help retain water in the root zone as it is rehydrated.

Even though we are not reducing water on greens, greens have localized dry spots (LDS). This is due to higher daytime temps and reduced water quality as we get down to the lower levels of the lakes. Basically the bicarbonates and salts that naturally occur in our limestone lakes are more concentrated the longer we go without rain and the lower the lake levels get. This causes areas of the greens to become hydrophobic and repel water. To combat LDS, we pencil tine aerify greens, spray wetting agents that reduce the surface tension and allow water to flow into the soil and hand water the LDS areas.

As you can see, we have our hands full right now with water management and desperately want some rain.

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 (3/18/26)

 Weather turned a bit chilly once again following our last cold front. We had hoped for some rain but end up missing it this time around. The forecast looks dry for the next 10 days or so as we enter traditionally the driest time of the year but the course continues to look green with strong turf growth.

On Thursday we pencil tined greens to help with air and water movement. This time of year having water reach the root zone and not run off the greens is extra important for water use efficiency. These machines poke a solid hole in the greens surface which penetrates approx. 7-8” creating channels for water and air to move into the root zone and soil profile.

 Entering the home stretch of our primary golfing season please remember to practice proper course maintenance etiquette. Repair ball marks, fill in fairway divots, practice the 90 degree rule for driving carts, keep all 4 tires on the path around tees and greens and if you are in an area where the 90 degree rule is not practical, please scatter your cart traffic to prevent wearing out entry and exit points.

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 (3/11/26)

After having tricky weather for most of the golf season, we had a great weather for last week’s Member/Guests. Warm, sunny and with a splash of rain which helped reinforce our fertility programs and produced nice course conditions that continues into this week. Here are a handful of pictures highlighting the beauty of our course when we get just enough help from Mother Nature.

As we come into the home stretch of our golf season, it is also time to apply our spring pre-emergent. We apply a granular fertilizer that has a pre-emergent herbicide “sparged” on it. Sparged simply means the herbicide is coated to the outside of the fertilizer prill and when activated by irrigaiton or rain, moves off the prill and onto the soil surface. Once on the soil surface, the herbicide creates a barrier that prevents weed seed germination, suppressing weed populations in the turf.

A contractor puts out the majority of the fertilizer and Sylvestre does the “tie-ins” that the truck can’t get.

The next morning the application is hardly noticeable but we know the blanket of pre-emergent is invisibly doing it’s job to keep our course as weed free as possible. 

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 (3/4/26)

Monday afternoon I saw one of the most beautiful things I have seen in quite a while, RAIN! We ended up receiving 0.75” and Tuesday morning you could tell how much the turf liked having some real, fresh, water. You could see not only the color was more vibrant but also that the leaf tissue of the turf was plump with water.

When we get rain, the turf takes up that rain water very efficiently, causing the leaf tissue to swell. Plants, like us are made up of individual cells that are made predominantly of water. When high quality, abundantly available water is available to the plant cells, the cells become full of water. On the other hand when low quality or low water availability occurs, the cells shrink and are for lack of a better term, shriveled.

This is much like what happens in humans. When we are hydrated, we fell better and often look better due to the cells in the skin being full of water. If we get dehydrated, we slow down, don’t feel as good and our skin looks dry. Pretty much the same process in the turf.

While still beneficial, the only area where full leaves can have a positive and negative effect is on the greens. When the grass on the greens is full and “puffy” with water, the leaves are fat, with more surface area. To produce good putting surfaces, we want the ball to roll across the tips of the grass but when the leaves are puffy with water the ball rolls more on the leaf surface causing slow greens speeds.

Don’t get me wrong, fresh abundant water is good for greens too and I wouldn’t trade it for dry conditions but we will have to work a little harder on our plant growth regulators and fertility programs to keep the greens rolling at a consistent speed for play.

The rain did bring our lakes up 2” which is great but we still have a long way to go to before we are out of the woods where water availability is concerned. As it has been for a while now, water availability is a wait and see game until we get to summer.

The golf course was nice and green for the Ladies Member/Guest on Tuesday. Paige and the Ladies 18 holers added a little color to the PPG for the putting competition which turned out very nice. I hope everyone had a fun time!

We look forward to the Talon (Men’s Member/Guest) on Friday and Saturday of this week and wish everyone good luck!

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!