Anyone who maintains a lawn at their home knows the two most difficult times of the year to keep the grass green are in the height of summer and late autumn, when the temperatures at night start to plummet.
Fortunately for Del Mar and it's 10½-acre Jimmy Durante Turf Course, they have landscape superintendent John Beggin, who knows just what to do to keep the grass green through the upcoming Bing Crosby Season and its Turf Festival.
Beggin says they've been working on the turf course since the close of the summer meet in September.
“A lot of fertilizing,” he says, “and we blanket the track multiple times to help bring the soil temperatures up.”
Beggin admits they do some turf painting but it's not for aesthetic reasons.
“It helps radiate heat,” Beggin notes, “to get it to recover and grow. Our soil is not ideal for warm season grass so we do anything we can to raise the temperature of the soil. That's the key.”
Del Mar patrons will notice immediately the excellent job Beggin and his staff have done on the turf course. The lush green look of the course jumps out at you when you enter the grandstand. But looks aren't everything. Safety is also top in mind.
“I try to keep a consistent softness to the grass,” Beggin says. “If the course starts to get firm we aerify it to soften it back up. The drier it is, the firmer it is. There's kind of a fine line between keeping the moisture right where we want.”
The Jimmy Durante course consists of Bermuda grass and Beggin finds himself in a constant battle with Mother Nature and the persistent marine layer that blankets our coast.
“Bermuda really thrives off of UV's,” Beggin contends. “Without direct UV's it just doesn't thrive as much.”
He says having Tropical Storm Hilary blow through back in September has helped with the maintenance of the turf course this fall.
“The rains really helped,” Beggin notes. “We don't usually get that kind of rain during that season and it helped push certain salts and toxins out of the soil to have everything thrive.”
Turf racing is a big emphasis for the Bing Crosby Season but it's no different for Beggin.
“Every time we race I feel pressure,” he says. “My ultimate goal is to keep everything consistent to where it has been in the past. All the way through the meet, in between seasons and into the next meet.”
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