Northeast Turf Diseases and a Call to @ThePCreamer

Last week I had the opportunity to visit several golf courses in the Northeastern United States on one of my five scheduled internship visits. This trip took me through CT, MA, NY, and PA where I had the chance to visit my students as well as a several golf courses. During the trip I saw a variety of diseases, but perhaps the most impressive was the take all patch severity at one course (although I saw it in MA and PA). Finally, the shout out to Paula Creamer later in this post.

Around Connecticut there were just about all the diseases and problems you would expect. I saw some damage from annual bluegrass weevils and at the UConn Turfgrass Research Facility they were throughout the ABG putting green in the pupa stage. Also seen at UConn were take all patch, dollar spot, brown patch on the colonial bentgrass, and probably other stuff that I can't remember now. You can check out all of the issues this summer at their 2nd field day on July 21st.

In Massachusetts, there was some dollar spot, anthracnose and fairy ring showing up, but one case of take all patch was the most severe that I have seen to date. In this case, it was in a bentgrass fairway that was about 6 years old. Although the course has a history of the disease, a single spray in the fall was not enough to prevent these symptoms. More aggressive fungicide programs on the tees and greens (2 fall and 2 spring apps), however, appeared to be successful. This presents a major challenge in these economic times as effective fungicides for the fairway can be an EXPENSIVE proposition.

 Anthracnose is active on annual bluegrass throughout the northeast

Fairy ring has been increasing in both putting greens and fairways.

Below is a series of take all patch images from a golf course in Mass

In other parts of the region, I observed anthracnose and fairy ring on putting greens and again the typical dollar spot, red thread, leaf spot and likely other things were active. Although not available in all states at this point, the recent release of the fungicide Torque (tebuconazole) is a MAJOR benefit for those battling anthracnose. In all of our evaluations with this active ingredient, it has consistently provided excellent control of anthracnose. You can find out more about this product in Frank's previous post here.

...and now the call to Paula Creamer

One of my students (pictured right) is currently interning at Winged Foot Golf Club and happened to have the opportunity to meet Paula Creamer at the course this past month. While he didn't have the chance to exchange digits (I believe that this is frowned upon by most clubs and I am glad he kept his distance), I thought that I would put the call to Paula here on the blog. Paula, if you are interested in Ernie feel free to contact me via @johnkaminski and I can put you two in touch. I think that you would make a great couple!