Golfers and architecture buffs sometimes lament that architects have missed the best possible routing for a given site. It’s hard to tell, really. Even if a golfer sees a “perfect hole” somewhere in the woods, he has no idea if it could have been connected to the rest of the routing without other holes suffering.

So, what is a good routing? In my book, it’s a golf course with 18 good (or better) holes and incorporates well established design principles, including the following attributes:

Par

No one knows why par 72 is “standard,” but it is. Par 70 and 71 are acceptable, especially when older courses convert short par 5s to long par 4s, but par 69 and 73 are rare and unpopular. There are also good courses with “extra” par-3 holes and fewer par 5s.

While natural holes are most important, all other things being equal, mixing up holes with different pars provides variety. Some courses attain the theoretical ideal of having no two pars in sequence - Augusta National features front nine pars of 4-5-4-3-4-3-4-5-4.

Similarly, consecutive long and/or hard holes are boring, as are stretches of short and/or easy holes.

Length

Yes, length matters. Golfers know what course length is comfortable for them. While length for all tees is also a function of tee organization, the back tees should be at least 6,700 yards. Better players want back tee length of about 7,200 yards, but with only 0.01 percent of players needing that length, some courses are skipping the back tees, and more should.

Width

According to most data, the routing’s corridors between trees, water or natives should be at least 65 yards wide. Fairways need at least 30 yards of width. Between residential property lines, width should be at least 100 yards. Add “with more preferred” to the above statements.

Playable by All Levels of Golfers

After width, playability comes from limiting excessive forced carries (because average golfers top about 23 percent of their shots) and two-stroke hazards, like water and out of bounds.

Visibility

All landing areas and targets should be visible to golfers, for beauty, safety, and strategy. While there are exceptions, blind shots are usually poor routing.

Golf isn’t completely safe, but a good routing doesn’t create safety issues. Parallel fairways should be at least 70 yards centerline to centerline, and 50 yards from property lines. Tees and greens should be outside the normal landing zones of other holes, generally more than 15 degrees off the intended line of play. Add “with more preferred” to the above statements.

Fits Natural Topography/Attractive Holes

“Natural” holes come in all types, but usually have elevated tees, valley fairways and great green sites that just look “right” on the land. Many routings fix awkward holes with earthmoving, but if even that can’t be done, the hole was in the wrong place to start.

Drains Well

A swampy fairway makes for a bad hole. Sure, we can add drain pipes, but a good routing largely avoids swampy land, even in absence of regulations dictating it anyway.

Receptive Targets

Good golfers like some help hitting targets and average golfers need it. They get frustrated when good shots bound away from or even off the fairway or green because of unfavorable slopes. Golf holes should be located or otherwise be designed to be neutral toward or contain shots. Receptivity stems from adequate target width and depth, and forgiving slopes.

Good Circulation/Speed of Play

Good circulation is under appreciated as a design trait, but it reduces playing time and increases enjoyment. Good routings avoid “slow play” features such as tight hole spacing/frequent interference from parallel holes and unnecessary narrow play corridors.

Sun Orientation

A good routing places the clubhouse from 12 to 6 on the clock face, setting up both afternoon and morning holes to play away from the sun.

I

Sweetens Cove Golf Club has nine holes. None are occupied by golfers on a 90-degree mid-August afternoon.

Four people are on the grounds. Superintendent Brent Roberson and a co-worker are using homemade mats to drag sand on a tantalizing collection of gigantic Tennessee greens. Nearby, Rob Collins greets a visitor at the clubhouse, a railcar-sized green shed with a University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and No Laying Up towel draped over a wooden railing.

Collins owns and operates Sweetens Cove. He designed it with partner, Tad King, and enthusiastically shuttles visitors around the course. On this day, he’s driving cart No. 16. The tour pauses 15 times over the next two hours. Collins first stops alongside the first green, where Roberson circles the surface in a utility vehicle. A day earlier, Roberson walked 10.3 miles with an aerifier, punching ½-inch holes into 110,000 square feet of greens.

Roberson hops off the utility vehicle and describe his team’s part in making Sweetens Cove, well, sweet. The ensuing conversation revolves around the two As – agronomics and architecture – but geographic and business context must be provided before revealing details.

Sweetens Cove is in South Pittsburg, Tenn., population 3,092. Chattanooga is 30 miles to the east; Nashville is 110 miles to the northwest. The Georgia and Alabama lines are a Peyton Manning heave from South Pittsburg. Interstate 24 meanders through South Pittsburg. Sweetens Cove is less than three miles from Exit 152, although no interstate billboards promote the course’s proximity to thousands of daily travelers.

A blue sign a quarter-mile from Sweetens Cove Road serves as a remnant of the course’s former life. Black and white stickers spelling Sweeten Cove override letters spelling Sequatchie Valley Golf & Country Club. Uniform land, in a floodplain, supported a family-owned, nine-hole golf course for 60 years. The course lacked street appeal and reliable infrastructure. “I can easily say it was the worst golf course I have seen in the 32 years I have been in the industry,” says King, who first visited the site in 2010.

Sequatchie Valley Golf & Country Club no longer exists. The worst course King had ever seen now closes for two days in August to aerify and topdress, a pair of cultural practices required to keep Sweetens Cove atop Tennessee’s public golf hierarchy.

Revitalized via a rare golf construction project that commenced during the Great Recession, reopened and renamed in 2014, and reenergized following glowing profiles in consumer publications, including The New York Times, Sweetens Cove disperses simplicity into an industry filled with complexities.

Not many rural golf transformations compare.

II

A food and beverage operation. Restrooms with utilities. Space for weddings and Kiwanis club meetings. Beverage carts. Overnight accommodations. Traditional phone lines. An agency to market the course. Pro shop selling balls, gloves and tees. A practice facility. GPS units in carts. Eighteen holes. A calendar brimming with social functions.

Sweetens Cove has none of the elements industry suits insist golf facilities need to compete in a cluttered marketplace.

Juggling two smartphones, Collins fields five calls in a 45-minute stretch on the recent topdressing Tuesday. One phone serves as the course’s mainline; the other allows Collins to check the tee sheet. Conversations begin with the seven-word greeting: “Sweetens Cove Golf Club. This is Rob.”

Golf represents the sole purpose of the calls. A port-a-potty joins the shed to give Sweetens Cove a pair of primitive structures. The maintenance facility is offsite, a half-mile from the first tee. If somebody wants to grab a sandwich or six-pack, they must visit downtown South Pittsburg or return to the conglomeration of chain restaurants and hotels off Exit 152.

A celebrated golf course is Sweetens Cove’s lone amenity. Golfweek ranks Sweetens Cove the 50th best modern golf course in the United States. Author and historian Anthony Pioppi profiles Sweetens Cove in “The Finest Nines,” a book examining North America’s best nine-hole courses. Golf enthusiasts and architecture aficionados regularly praise Sweetens Cove on social media, helping the course develop a devout following among the 45-and-under crowd.

“There’s a huge disconnect between the quality of the golf course and the catastrophe on top of the hill,” says Collins, glancing at the shed and port-a-potty above the first tee. “It’s funny because we can’t afford to do anything else. Strangely, that has become a strength of ours. People realize that’s part of the deal. There are no comfort stations, there’s no guy shining your shoes. We don’t have that stuff, but we do have a golf course that no other public golf course in the state can offer.”

Roberson, a veteran of the South Florida private club world, nods in agreement. “There’s nobody giving you a cool towel here,” he says. “I wish I had one of those.” Roberson then wipes sweat from his brow. Preserving nine highly regarded holes is grueling work.

Almost every course on every top-100 list has at least one maintenance employee per hole. Roberson maintains a 72-acre site with a crew of five. The golf course must be right, because Sweetens Cove has no alternative revenue-generating tactic.

III

The maintenance staff has quintupled since Sweetens Cove opened with a media preview in October 2014. Reaching opening day was anything but sweet and simple.

The Thomas family, owners of Sequatchie Concrete Services and the previous golf course, hired King Collins Golf Design in 2011 to design a new course. The family left the golf business by 2013, placing Collins and King in a peril because the course had been grassed in 2012. Confident Sweetens Cove was special, Collins negotiated with investors, including Ari Techner of former custom club manufacturer Scratch Golf, to secure a long-term lease on the property in spring 2014.

A sluggish economy left Collins, a Chattanooga resident who previously worked for Gary Player Design, with few options. King left a project in Qatar to help Collins open the course for the late 2014 opening.

“The client pulled the plug on all the resources, let all the labor go and you had $100,000 worth of grass out there that nobody was maintaining,” King says. “Rob and I, just as a labor of love, would run irrigation cycles, pull hoses and everything else. Rob and Ari took it over on a lease and it worked out well for me. I left Qatar and came down in the fall of 2014 solely to get Sweetens open for our media event. We had burned through all the budget, but we had to get it launched so we were all working for free.”

Collins’ group exhausted its financial resources after the opening, which led to then-superintendent Michael Burrows departing a second time for a stable job at an established private club. In addition to working for Collins’ group for six months in 2014, the Thomas family employed Burrows as superintendent before they exited the project. King then returned to the Middle East, leaving Collins as the only regular employee as the winter of 2014-15 approach.

Collins maintained the course and operated the business until Patrick Boyd, who was also involved in Scratch Golf, agreed to become general manager. The duo endured a dicey winter, which included losing 2,500 square feet on a green because of freezing temperatures and high winds.

Hiring Roberson, a native of nearby Dunlap, Tenn., as superintendent in March 2015 represented a major triumph because of his experience working under respected agronomist John Katterheinrich at The Bear’s Club in Jupiter, Fla. Two inches of snow covered Sweetens Cove when Roberson first toured the course with Collins. He saw enough potential in the rolling land – and felt confident enough in Sweetens Cove’s financial future – to leave Florida and lead what would become a small crew maintaining a layout built atop a course he played as a teenager.

“I could see parts of the course and it was like, ‘Wow, this is really neat,’” Roberson says. “You got on the greens and you could tell there was a lot of movement. It wasn’t even the same property. I took a chance, I definitely took a chance. In our industry, it’s hard to get from state to state. It’s one thing to be working in Jupiter and to get a job in Boca, but to be in Tennessee, 30 to 45 minutes from where I grew up … I’m fortunate.”

IV

The similarities between working at a nine-hole course in Tennessee charging $65 for 18 holes with a cart on weekends ($55 on weekdays) and a private club in South Florida end with the Bermudagrass playing surfaces.

Besides employing a small crew, Roberson has just three mowers to maintain 35 acres of turf: a fairway unit and two triplexes. Hand labor, although sometimes needed, is reduced by using a triplex to mow the nearly three acres of MiniVerde greens and a mechanical rake to smooth the almost seven acres of bunkers/waste areas. All bunkers play as waste hazards, thus allowing golfers to ground clubs. No rakes are placed on the course.

I could see parts of the course and it was like, ‘Wow, this is really neat. You got on the greens and you could tell there was a lot of movement. It wasn’t even the same property. I took a chance, I definitely took a chance. In our industry, it’s hard to get from state to state. It’s one thing to be working in Jupiter and to get a job in Boca, but to be in Tennessee, 30 to 45 minutes from where I grew up … I’m fortunate.” — Brent Roberson

Roberson and his team use the mechanical rake on bottoms two or three times per week. Tasks such as restoring edges after heavy storms – South Pittsburg averages 59 inches of rain per year – and pulling weeds are performed by hand. Collins lauds Roberson and his crew’s persistence, but he says Sweetens Cove’s bunkers aren’t meant to provide the favorable lies golfers find at many private and high-end public courses.

“We definitely take a different approach to bunker maintenance and that fits in with our architectural style,” Collins says. “We believe bunkers are hazards, and if you don’t have a perfect lie, I don’t care. That’s your problem. You shouldn’t hit it in there.”

Roberson, whose team includes loyal mechanic Ron Simpson, admits he was overwhelmed at times in his first year at Sweetens Cove. But experience has taught him the value of prioritizing, which he says becomes more important when leading a small crew.

“This was a big change for me,” he says. “Where I was you had a crew of almost 30. I was having trouble keeping people busy, especially in the winter, which was our busiest time in Florida because you had a lot of golf. You did a lot of shop work. It’s a lot tougher here. It’s never ending.”

V

Working at a nine-hole course with meager resources has its perks. Collins knows for Sweetens Cove to succeed he must entrust key employees to efficiently operate their departments. So, Collins says, he gives Roberson and Boyd “a lot of latitude” to make decisions. Having just one layer to report to contrasts what many talented superintendents and general managers experience.

“I don’t know what Brent’s previous job was like,” Collins says. “I know there’s a lot of things he wishes were different here, but I would guess one of the things that’s better here is that when you work at a big private club, you have a GM, you have a club president, you have some obnoxious members, you have a greens committee and they are on you every single day. Brent doesn’t have any of that here. Hopefully the things he likes about working here are a little bit of a tradeoff.

Less oversight often means more job fulfillment in the turf world. “It works better to for a superintendent, in my opinion, whenever you are able to do what you need to do and not answer to six or seven people,” Roberson says. “Greens committees have ruined quite a few really good golf course superintendents. With the way this is, I know what needs to be done and I don’t have to ask. Unless it’s a big financial deal, I’m just going to do it.”

VI

Closing for two summer days to aerify and topdress represents a major decision at Sweetens Cove, one that Collins estimates costs the course between $2,000 and $3,000 in revenue.

Sweetens Cove aerified once in each of Roberson’s first three years at the course. Roberson received an agronomic treat when Collins agreed to a DryJect application earlier this year. The application injected 22 tons of sand into the greens, further promoting the fast and firm surfaces Collins and King envisioned.

Because of the DryJect application, Roberson aerified with a smaller tine in August. Using a ½-inch tine allowed Sweetens Cove to limit golfer disruption. Feeling comfortable about closing the golf course for an important cultural practice represents significant progress in the Sweetens Cove’s business evolution.

“Last year it was extremely scary to aerify,” Collins says. “We weren’t doing that well financially and it was hard to stomach closing. This year we are up substantially and because of how quickly the golf course recovered from the DryJect and because we were doing a little bit smaller tine, I felt like we could to the right thing for the for the golf course and still do the right thing for the business.”

VII

A creek borders Sweetens Cove, mountains surround the property and a dam rests on the other side of Interstate 24. When it rains hard, Collins, Roberson and Boyd get antsy.

The property has one natural foot of fall. Creating an interesting and functioning course involved moving 350,000 cubic yards of dirt, installing more than 10 miles of drainage and capping the ground with 4 inches of sand. The construction effort, which included workers from the concrete company and shapers recruited by Collins and King, created 30 feet of elevation. Numerous materials used in construction, including two varieties of sand, were provided by the concrete company.

Flipping a floodplain into a fully flood-proof setting, though, is almost impossible. “When you hear the word flood and golf course in a same sentence, it carries all sort of terrible connotations,” Collins says. “We don’t get a torrent of water that flows through the golf course. Mostly, it comes up and just flows away. It’s really a pain in the ass in two ways: it’s a pain in the ass operationally because we have to shut down for a few days and it’s a pain in the ass for Brent because it’s cleanup.”

Following a heavy storm this past February, water submerged parts of the course. High water levels coincided with thawing and Roberson considered using kayaks to reach greens that needed covered. “Luckily, it didn’t get to that point,” he says. Water and winter will continue to yield uneasy moments, making Sweetens Cove’s environment no different than many Transition Zone courses.

VIII

A steady day at Sweetens Cove …

Golfers begin arriving at 7 a.m. First group tees off at 7:30 a.m. Morning tee times run until 9:30 a.m., with many customers opting to play 18 holes in a cart. Boyd schedules tee times 15 minutes apart, allowing gaps for potential walk-in play.

Sweetens Cove had 18 carts until adding five more earlier this year. Optimal capacity involves placing no more than 50 golfers on the course at any given time. “I try to keep that flow going and that cycle keeps going all day until the golf course is empty,” Boyd says.

Collins initially envisioned the bulk of Sweetens Cove’s customers hailing from Chattanooga. Architecture gurus relished their first glimpses at the course, which includes a par 3 with a 20,000-square foot green, a driveable par 4 guarded by a sadistic bunker, and modern versions of beloved Golden Age templates such as a “Cape” hole and “Biarritz” and “Redan” greens. But the combination of traditional marketing and architectural praise didn’t produce immediate success in the 550,000-person Chattanooga market.

An engaged following cultivated through an inorganic in-house social media effort slowly developed, expanding the customer radius to a three-hour radius that includes Nashville, Atlanta, Knoxville, Birmingham and Huntsville. Sweetens Cove’s 3,100 Twitter and 3,300 Instagram followers are believed to be the nation’s highest totals for a standalone nine-hole facility. “Twitter and Instagram are our two best friends,” Collins says.

IX

Sweetens Cove doesn’t have out-of-bounds stakes, rough, cart paths or a dress code. “Everything is designed to keep it moving, keep it fast, and keep it fun and enjoyable,” Boyd says.

Simple works in many facets of life. Can it work in American golf?

Short-term success at Sweetens Cove includes expanding the regional customer base. Revenues have grown every year since the course open and, so far, 2018 marks the “best year we have ever had,” Collins says. Building a permanent clubhouse, onsite maintenance facility and perhaps a few cabins are long-range goals.

A survive-the-day mentality still permeates when trying to polish a spacious golf course that blends with idyllic surroundings. “If I could wave a magic wand and get more resources, I would hire three more guys, get another fairway, get another surrounds mower and update some of the equipment,” Collins says. “Walking a tightrope day after day is tough.”

Sweetens Cove has already received a few doses of magic, surviving a recession, ownership change, financial hardship and ultra-lean beginnings. Sweetens Cove will never magically morph into an 18-hole course because of land constraints and because sometimes nine memorable holes are enough to serve a deeper purpose.

“It’s about as anti-establishment of a golf club or experience that you’re going to find,” Boyd says. “There’s no masquerading about that. We celebrate it for what it is.”

As the summer begins to wind down, superintendents start working on their plans to protect turf from the oncoming threat of winter injury. For some, those plans include turf covers. While they can be very effective at providing additional insulation for turf and protect it from direct low-temperature injury, getting the most out of turf covers can be an art form that requires the right timing and proper preparation.

Here are a few tips to make sure that this winter, your course is covered.

Start off right

If the timing is right, a turf cover can work incredibly well in climatic zones where winter desiccation is a problem, says Dr. Nick Christians, professor in the department of horticulture at Iowa State University.

“Desiccation is one of the biggest problems in the drier parts of the Midwest, and for that a turf cover can work miracles,” he says. “I’ve seen turf under a cover that is just way ahead in the spring when it comes out, so they definitely have a positive impact.”

But choosing the right time to put down turf covers can be difficult, especially since putting them out is labor-intensive and means closing, he says.

There’s no solid rule as to when turf covers should go out, either in soil temperatures or time of year, but superintendents need to wait until the turf has at least started to go dormant, he says. In the Midwest, that could look like mid-November or early December, depending on the weather. As the weather starts to shift and after the last mowing of the season, get started on putting out your turf covers, Christians says.

Talk it out

Communication is key when working around players in most aspects of turf maintenance, and turf covers are no different. Closing the course to handle turf covers is never going to be popular with members.

“They’ve got to communicate very well with the golfers or membership if they’re in a private club,” Christians says. “Tell them what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, because they’re not going to like it. You put a cover on, and the weather gets nice, and they’ll want to golf.”

Talk about the process and what kind of labor and cost goes into keeping turf safe from winter injury going into spring. Transparency in maintenance projects can go a long way in smoothing over membership struggles, especially if it means faster green-up when the weather improves.

Pick the right cover

There are different types of turf covers, and each can be used for different effects with overwintering turf, says Dr. Paul Koch, turfgrass diagnostic lab director at the department of plant pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

An impermeable cover isn’t going to allow any gas exchange between the plant and atmosphere, trapping certain gases just like a long duration ice cover, he says. But if a superintendent is looking for protection against winter crown hydration injury, it’s probably the right choice.

“If you have an impermeable-type cover, you’re going to need to go in and vent to provide some gas exchange artificially by blowers or putting in some PVC pipe,” he says. “Especially in the spring, it can promote growth of the plant before you necessarily want the plant to really grow.”

The temperature under the tarp heats up quickly as outside temperatures rise in the sunlight, and turf could be greening up in February or early March, he says.

Pulling the cover off after the turf begins to grow in earnest, it “could be not very acclimated to the winter conditions, and you can have some stress or freezing injury that can occur on those plants,” he says. “You can’t just put the cover down and forget about it.”

If a superintendent is looking more for a faster green-up in the spring, a permeable cover might be a better choice, he adds. There’s less concern around the prevention of gas exchange with a permeable cover.

Chill out

The common recommendation from USGA and many turf experts is that if night temperatures are expected to be below 25 degrees or lower, turf covers should be deployed. But turf studies show that’s not necessarily the case, says Dr. Mike Richardson, professor in the department of horticulture at the University of Arkansas.

“If that’s your threshold, in some areas of the country, you could be covering about 15 to 20 times a year, and that’s a lot,” he says.

Richardson’s research, focused on reducing the threshold target to see how many coverings can be saved during the season, showed that superintendents can often wait for a slightly lower temperature without a significant increase in injury, he says. The research ran plots that were covered at 25, 22, 18 and 15 degrees as the target low temperatures.

“What we found out when we did this trial three years in a row, that we really had minimal differences between covering them at 25 degrees and covering at 15 degrees,” he says. “A couple times we saw a little bit more injury at 15 degrees, but we never saw death and destruction like we did with our uncovered plots, where we basically had not one single blade of grass still alive.

Richardson gives a strong caveat that the research doesn’t describe a one-size-fits-all situation. If a superintendent has the resources and the member pressures to deliver high-performance turf very quickly after the season warms up, “I would err on the side of being conservative,” he says.

For a course running a skeleton crew, he would probably start by pushing the target temperature down to about 20 to start, before proceeding on to 15.

“It would save you a lot in terms of the labor cost as well as the lost revenue by moving that number down,” he says. “We’ve done some cost analysis on that, and in some scenarios, it could save from about $15,000 to $20,000 just in labor costs, depending on the location and the year, without sacrificing any loss in the turf.”

Break the mold

Research has shown that working with a snow mold can increase susceptibility to and severity of snow mold, says Koch. This is especially true of impermeable turf covers, where snow mold pressure can as much as double. “Just make sure you have a good strong snow mold program under those covers,” he says.

An effective snow mold control should include at least two but most likely three different active ingredients from different chemical classes, he says.

Wet it down

Another area of research for Richardson shows that when covers are off, it’s critical to keep the greens hydrated. If a superintendent is in an area where the irrigation is charged and useable through the winter, “I always tell superintendents, if the covers are not on them, water them,” he say Just keep as much moisture as you can in that system.”

Wetting agents can also be used to keep water moving in the soil profile, even during the winter with dormant greens. Research results have been inconsistent, but there have been a number of occasions where wetting agents have also enhanced survival, he says.

“Again, this is pointing to the idea that desiccation is causing more injury than we may think,” he says. “The use of a wetting agent or app or two in the winter, plus putting down moisture on the greens as often as you can; just moisture management is important in conjunction in using turf covers.”

Use a probe to find the appropriate target moisture level, especially since as grass is dormant in winter, it’s much more difficult to spot stress, Richardson says.

Pull it off

Finding the right date to remove turf covers in the spring is just as problematic as finding the right starting date. It’s safer to err on the side of pulling them up too early rather than too late, says Koch.

“Pulling them up too late, you get a situation where you’ve really heated up the soil temperature under the covers,” he says. “Those plants are totally deacclimated to the winter. So, when you pull the covers off, they think it’s July when in reality it’s March.”

Superintendents can’t rely on air temperature, because it’s not necessarily going to be tied to the soil temperature under the turf covers, he says. As a general rule, pull the turf covers up at the earliest opportunity during the winter when it seems like all the snow and ice events for the season are finished.

Kurt Kleinham is a contributing editor from Akron, Ohio.

This fall, turf managers should avoid a potentially problematic occurrence — inefficient fall fertilization.

Low-nitrogen fertility in the fall has emerged due to heavy emphasis on potassium and the fear of creating turf that is too succulent, says Dr. Raymond Snyder, director of agronomy for Harrell’s. “This has resulted in too little nitrogen applied in the fall period,” he says, adding the result is “very poor turf conditions emerging in the spring resulting in the need for growing in of large turf areas and/or sod.”

To better prepare turf for the next season, Snyder advises superintendents to develop more effective fall fertility programs and to utilize a fertilizer product that contains a component of soluble and controlled-release potassium. “Include more rapidly releasing controlled-release nitrogen with a longer lasting controlled-release nitrogen source,” he says.

Superintendents rarely consider photosynthesis, says Aris Gharapetian, director of marketing for Target Specialty Products. “Our plants need sunlight, water and CO2 to make valuable energy,” he says. “This energy will be used to power operations like recovery from summer’s stress, root system regeneration and preparation for winter. With day length, soil moisture and solar energy potential all reduced during the fall, it’s important for turf managers to adjust nutritional plans.”

Secondly, Gharapetian points to nitrogen-driven growth. Nitrogen’s ability to drive shoot growth is less in the fall when compared to springtime applications. “In the spring, we’re cautious to not over apply nitrogen and drive shoot growth at the expense of roots,” he says. “Fall nitrogen reacts in a different manner and affords the opportunity for recovery and carbohydrate production without roots having to pay the price. Moderation is still key.”

Another overlooked issue, Gharapetian says, is potassium’s influence on several plant functions. “Plants use potassium to kick start sugar, protein and starch production,” he says. “This is mission-critical in the fall as these energies are what plants will depend on for winter survival and spring performance. Also, by helping maintain turgor pressure, potassium dramatically lowers a plant’s risk of disease, drought stress and winter injury.

Likewise, zinc plays a small role in more plant reactions than any other nutrient, Gharapetian says. However, its deficiency is rarely noticeable. Zinc helps to keep plants alive in waterlogged soils and zinc regulates plant temperature. This means the plant’s reactions to wild temperature swings are tempered by zinc.

The importance of fall nutrition is often overlooked as nighttime temps are lower, days are shorter and there’s less stress on the plant, Gharapetian says. Turf seems to look better and better as fall proceeds and the tendency is to minimize nutrient inputs. “The fact is, fall is the most critical time of year for proper nutrition,” he says. “This sets the stage for how your turf will overwinter and how it will perform the following season.”

There are a number of reasons for improper fall fertilization, says Dr. James Murphy, extension specialist in turf management for Rutgers University. The amount and complexity of issues a superintendent has to manage compete, and sometimes agronomic issues aren’t at the top of the list. “Experience with different turf and environmental conditions plays a role in one’s understanding of the relative significance of these factors,” he says. “Sometimes, we fall into a rut and do the same thing over and over without taking the time to think critically about the objectives for our actions. But it is important to make the time to review your situation and adjust programs, including fall fertilization, when needed.”

Existing turfgrass conditions dictate whether fall fertilization is needed and, if so, how much, Murphy says. “An older turf that is healthy and vigorous requires much less fertilization than a young immature turf,” he says. “Therefore, the longer you manage a turf, it is more likely that you will need to adjust fertilization rates down to avoid over-fertilizing.”

A sparse, worn-out turf needs more fertilization to help with recovery than a healthy, dense stand of grass, Murphy says. Additionally, the immediate need for recovery in a worn-out turf dictates that more (and perhaps all) of the nitrogen should be in the quick-release form rather than the slow-release form.

“Fall fertilization, especially with nitrogen and phosphate, favors the development of annual bluegrass over other cool-seasons turfgrasses, including creeping bentgrass, Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescue,” he says. “As a result, superintendents who want to discourage annual bluegrass encroachment should consider withholding or at least minimizing fall fertilization.”

The timing of fertilization, as well as the nitrogen source(s), control whether fall fertilization results in turf responses primarily during the fall or spring. For example, early fall applications containing greater percentages of quick-release nitrogen (ammoniacal, nitrate, urea forms) result in the turf responding during fall. Conversely, applications later in the fall or containing a greater percentage of slow-release (water insoluble and coated forms) nitrogen will shift the turf responses toward early spring.

“It is important to determine which responses are needed (fall or spring) and pick a timing and fertilizer product that provides that,” Murphy says. “Turf that needs to grow actively in both fall and spring (for example, annual bluegrass turf) would benefit from both an early fall fertilization with quick-release nitrogen and a late-fall fertilization that includes a larger percentage of slow-release nitrogen.”

Fall fertilization needs to start sooner in more northern (colder) regions. “Late fall fertilization in New Jersey typically occurs during November,” Murphy says. “However, November is often too late for a colder region such as northern New England, especially if a turf response is expected this fall.”

Nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers should not be applied when the soil’s water content is high (wet) or frozen. Both conditions encourage nutrient loss from runoff or leaching. Similarly, nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers should not be applied to dormant turf.

Adequate potassium access for the entire season is too often overlooked in all types of turf, says Dr. Larry Murphy, owner of Murphy Agro.

“Winter hardiness is tremendously important for cool-season species and should not be overlooked for warm-season species, particularly if there is a chance of occasional freezing,” he says. “Many turf grades or mixes simply do not supply sufficient potassium. Loss of stand can frequently be attributed to low available potassium from all sources, soil and fertilizer. Sufficient potassium is critical for sugar synthesis and transport and for retention of water.”

Other nutrients are crucial for fall and winter vigor and hardiness. For example, Larry Murphy says phosphorus is very important at all times but poses a “dilemma” where restrictions have been placed on its use in fertilization.

“Run-off and erosion are the mechanisms of loss, but phosphorus reactions with soil components (fixation) are the big reasons for poor utilization efficiency,” he says. Phosphorus availability and uptake should be enhanced if possible by treatment of either dry or liquid phosphorus with a polymer having a high concentration of carboxyl groups that “diminish soil phosphorus fixation reactions.”

Joel Simmons, president of EarthWorks, believes biological soil management (BSM), an approach he’s advocated for three decades for all soil types. BSM uses carbon-based fertility, which helps provide long-term feeding opportunities for the soil’s microbial populations. Carbon-based fertilizers balance the carbon/nitrogen ratio in the soil and can be blended with or without synthetic fertilizer.

“If I had only had one fertilizer application to make all year it would be a winter or dormant feed application with a carbon-based product,” Simmons says.

As the turf’s top growth slows down in mid to late fall in many parts of the country, microbial activity under the turf layer is still very active and a good feeding of the microbial activity can help to break down thatch, flocculate the soil, build water holding capacities, buffer sodium build up, and help to bring a quick and vibrant spring green up, Simmons says.

“If this same application is made without a carbon base, the available carbon in the soil that is used by microbes for all these vital functions is burned up and the soil and the plant can suffer,” he says.

By balancing the carbon to nitrogen ratio in the soil, Simmons says nitrogen “rolls through” nitrification more efficiently, allowing superintendents to use less fertility with better recovery because microbes are more active, and more fertility is being made available to the plant. “Even in 12-month environments the winter feed can be of great value for the same biological reasons as in cooler parts of the country,” Simmons adds. “The only weather conditions to avoid may be applying to frozen soils because of the potential for surface run off.”

The message is clear: Do not overlook or undervalue any basic when it comes to feeding your turf this fall. Your reward will be a healthy stand and a beautiful green up come spring.