Aerifying

The greens have healed in great after aerifying. Today would be 2 weeks since we pulled cores and filled holes, and the weather has cooperated perfectly. We continue on our plug pulling rampage with tee boxes now. The front nine tees were completed on Tuesday and the back nine will be done tomorrow. Ones in worse shape recieve a little extra tlc with topdressing and seed, the others just get the plugs dragged around and cleaned off.

The fairways as many of you know are solid tine aerified, this creates a hole without pulling out a plug. By not disrupting the fairway surface we leave the poa annua seed in the ground and hopefully deter it from germinating more readily and compete against the desired bluegrass. Solid tines also allow us to get the job complete with less labor involved because there is no need for busting up cores, dragging them in, and cleaning the fairway off with a blower. All we have to do is aerify, perhaps roll some of the areas that pull up, and then mow. Our fairway soils are good and there is very little issue with excessive organic matter, so solid tines fit the bill nicely for our fairways. We will continue on them next week and should be finished up by the end of the week.

Seed Germination

On Sunday I noticed a few shoots on thirteen fairway, on Monday a few more, and today there is definitely a green tint to large portions of the fairway. We seeded it Last Wednesday so everything we see right now is Ryegrass, but by the end of the week we should definitely see the bluegrass germinating. The mix was roughly 80% premium bluegrass and 20% perennial ryegrass, and so far it is coming along as planned. Here's hoping for a long fall that allows us to get a good stand of grass before winter sets in...

Heat, Water, & Seed

The renovation on number thirteen was completed on Wednesday. Now with a some help from the weather things will be in good shape going into winter. We used erosion control blankets around the four catch basins and the approach area to prevent as much erosion as we can if we should get a heavy rain. The bunker surrounds were sodded also for this reason, especially concerning the steeper faces and mounding. We used a 80% premium bluegrass/20% ryegrass mix of seed, so we should see some seed germination in under a week. All in all the project went very smooth and the weather helped out a lot, save for the lack of rain at the end but once we got the irrigation up and running it didn't matter.

From what I have seen over the last couple of days, people are obeying the signs and staying out of the roped area if their ball should find its way onto the dirt. This is critical, one being the muddy mess that would be created and two the disruption in the seed bed would create "dirt" footprints as germination starts to take place. So thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

On another note. Greens aerification went great and after a week and a half the greens are looking very good. The greens should be back in tip-top shape shortly. We are about half way through aerifying the fairways and the tees will be done next Tuesday and Thursday.

Watering Dirt

What a busy ten days since my last update. All the greens have been aerified, and about half the fairways are complete. Tees are on the agenda for this coming week, along with finishing up fairways. And number thirteen is shaping up very well. All the irrigation is in and everything is working. The soil was so dry and hard that we needed to get the water turned on before any bunker work or seeding could take place. I have been watering the dirt heavily for the past couple of days trying to get the subsurface moist and start to melt down some of the harder clumps that would not break up. Monday is the big for finishing up the bunkers and getting one last grade on the fairway. Seed and sod will be finished up Monday and Tuesday, and it looks as though the weather will cooperate...

Just a reminder about aerifying... We mow greens every other day for about a week or so following plugging. We want as little stress on the turf as possible so we can get a speedy recovery. Tees are similar, and because of the soil content we need them to be dry before we can mow them after aerifying so the mowers are out in the afternoon. We try and disrupt play as little as possible during these critical cultural practices and we appreciate everyones understanding. In a couple weeks the greens should be back to normal and weather permitting there will be a bunch of days left for some golf.

Renovation Continues...

A lot of grading has been done, the bunkers are roughly shaped in, and today the main drainage basins and tile are being installed.