In order to prevent our golf course ( mostly the fairways !) from being invaded by different and unwanted grass types, which generally bloom and prosper in these Mediterranean regions in the summer season and which you probably also have in your gardens, our maintenance team tried out a different product this year, which was supposed to reduce the germination of these invaders, and leave the normal rye grass untouched.
This experiment (apparently) did not succeed too well as it not only affected the invasive sorts but also our desired types as the product filtered too deeply into the soil. Discussions have been held with the supplier of this product, and we are investigating if similar occurrences took place on other golf courses, and what we can do at this stage to have our course return to its normal condition before the real hot season starts.
It is important to know that, under normal circumstances, the fairways will return to their usual condition within 1-2 months after the treatment, which took place early may, but we hope that with an additional injection of fertilizers we will see the desired « green » results on the fairways by mid july. After that procedure, we will have to overseed certain regions in order to have a more stable and dense coverage.
Tee boxes, roughs, and most importantly greens are and will not be affected at all by these interventions.
It means, however, that we have to follow several operations on the course which may affect your play, but we will do our best to limit these to a minimum, but without compromising the condition of the course.
Benoit Falgayrac/ Joost Rieter
June 2010
