Chris Vincent, CGCS, is the superintendent at The Reserve at Lake Keowee in Sunset, S.C., and a 20-year member of GCSAA. The 18-hole course, designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened in 2002, is a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. Photo courtesy of BASF
Editor’s note: The following article was supplied by BASF. All product claims, research cited and other information is directly from the company.
The transition zone is a tricky place to be a golf course superintendent. Weather patterns range from intense heat and drought to frost and heavy rains, and the threat of disease is constant. Turf managers need the right tools in their toolbox (and usually lots of them) to stay ahead of the challenges that threaten course health and playability.
Chris Vincent, CGCS, is the superintendent at The Reserve at Lake Keowee, which is nestled in a sprawling, 3,900-acre waterfront community in upstate South Carolina, right in the middle of the transition zone.
“Part of being in the transition zone is that diseases from summer stresses transition from dormant grass to your growing season,” says Vincent. One of the most notorious foes the team at Lake Keowee faces is spring dead spot, and finding an effective solution that can be used across the entire course and across seasons can be difficult. That is, until Vincent began using the combination of Maxtima fungicide and Navicon, an Intrinsic brand fungicide.
Introduced in 2019, Maxtima and Navicon feature cutting-edge new chemistries. Both solutions are DMIs (demethylation inhibitors) that can be sprayed on any turf, at any temperature, all year long. Navicon combines those advantages with the plant health benefits of the Intrinsic brand of fungicides. When Vincent introduced both products into his program in fall 2018, the results spoke for themselves.
“One of the first things we noticed after we made our fall applications is that we had a nice, clean, dormant bermudagrass color. That helped us to really know that something was happening in those areas — that these products were working,” says Vincent. “As that developed in the spring transition, we saw earlier green-up in those spots, along with completely clean turf.”
Hear more from Chris Vincent, CGCS, about the powerful combination and affordable price point of Maxtima and Navicon:
Vincent says the most exciting thing about the combination of Maxtima and Navicon is the possibilities it presents for Lake Keowee and other golf courses that deal with similar challenges. “Now we have the ability to not only treat just a couple areas or short grass areas — now we’re going to be able to affordably treat the entire golf course,” Vincent says. “Now (other courses) can treat their fairways or their tees and control spring dead spot at an affordable price point.”
Maxtima and Navicon are powerful new tools designed to redefine a superintendent’s fungicide rotation. With these solutions, BASF is ushering in a new era of DMI chemistry, and the team at Lake Keowee is among those reaping the benefits. “To see the success and the evolution that these products went through was outstanding,” Vincent says.
Learn more about Maxtima and Navicon fungicides on BASF’s website. Always read and follow label instructions.