Aerifying Schedule

Last week we aerified greens, and it went about as smooth as it ever has. The weather was absolutely perfect and at a week out the greens are healing nicely. My previous post gives a pictorial of the process from start to finish, for those of you who might be interested in what it takes to go from really nice putting surfaces to something akin to putting over large holed pegboard. By this coming weekend they should be in pretty good shape.

This week we will be aerifying tees, which we started today by getting half of the driving range tee done. Wednesday and Thursday we plan to do the front 9 and back 9 respectively. And then on Friday we plan to finish the driving range tee. The process is a bit different then greens. We pull cores, pulverize them, and then drag the sand/soil into the turf canopy. The par 3 tees and some of the par 4 tees will get some seed and topdressing as part of the process also. Like the greens, we will be mowing the tees a little less frequently over the next week or so, and also waiting a little longer in the day so they have time to dry a bit and we don't track around any mud.

Fairways will follow next week and it usually takes a couple of weeks to get them all done. We use large solid tines and the disruption to play is minimal. They will also get some seed and topdressing dragged in where we feel it is needed, though they have recovered very nicely from the summer issues we had a couple of months ago.

Hole #16, What's Going On.

05-10-2011

05-10-2011

05-11-2011

05-16-2011

05-17-2011

Here are shots to summarize the work so far of the bunker renovation taking place on hole 16. It is expected to be completed by the end of the day today and sod should go down tomorrow sometime. In about 2 weeks we should be able to open up the new bunkers and surrounding rough providing the weather cooperated and the new turf roots down good. 

And on another note, #16 green will be open for play starting Monday the 23rd. We have kept the height of cut a little longer compared to the other greens to encourage better growth, especially once it starts getting traffic, and overall it is in great shape. There are still some thin spots but the bulk of the damage down the center of the green has recovered very nicely. Once the younger plants have matured a bit more we will start a topdressing program, same goes for #7 green, which should help with the thinner and uneven spots...

If this weather can start to stay more typical for this time of year we should have the turf back in no time.

Signs of Spring

( 2010_03_15 - #18 Green Surround - Snow Mold )

Ten days ago I was showing you 2 feet of snow on the greens and throughout the golf course, oh what ten days has done to things. Now we are about 80% open and the rain is falling. So far what I have seen has me very optimistic that the course came through the winter in great shape and we just need the temps up to get things growing. With the extensive snow cover for the entire winter season we have a lot of Gray Snow Mold in the rough areas where we do not chemically treat to prevent it. As you can see from the picture of the 18th green surround, it is abundant. And from what I have seen around town, home lawns are showing the same thing. When things warm up a bit a good hand raking in these areas will bust up the gray cotton looking mycelium and aid in a quick recovery. As for the treated areas, the turf looks healthy and free of disease.

( 2010_03_15 - #13 Fairway )

I have been a little apprehensive all winter wondering how #13 fairway was going to look coming out of winter. Last October was not kind to us at all with regards to trying to grow anything from seed, especially the extent of an entire fairway. We had great germination of both the ryegrass and more importantly the bluegrass, but once the rains and cooler weather moved in the new seedlings really slowed their growth. Much to my relief, it appears we are starting the season better then I expected. The turf is very thin, but even with as wet as it is I was able to walk on it without too much of a problem. There are a lot of areas with a good stand of turf. I have a couple of plans in place for fertilizer depending on the weather, but what we really need is a quick spring with warm temps to get the turf growing and filling in the open spots. Where it is struggling the most is the approach area, the shade from the trees lining the left side really hindered the germination by keeping things cool and wet. A couple of options for the really poor areas would be overseed or sod, as things progress during the next month or so we will make a decision and put the plan into action.

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.

Renovation Is Underway

Renovation on #13 began on Friday. It should take 7-10 days to get everything graded, seeded, and bunkers built. Here's hoping for a great stretch of weather to get the new fairway established...

Spring is here, and with it...

On Monday we aerified all the greens with knife style tines. The tines are about 3/4" wide and a good 1/4" thick, they go about 3-4" deep. This has been the normal practice for the last couple of years in the spring. It is a low impact type of aerifying and just creates air chambers without pulling out the soil/organic matter. Our greens have a pretty good rootzone mix of sand/soil from years of topdressing, and the organic matter is not too built up. This allows us to not take cores twice a year, but rather use something that is less obstructive to the playing surface. However, if I thought coring was waranted for the spring aerifying I would not hesitate to do it.

On the same note, we did core aerify the collars of all 18 greens on Tuesday. The timing could not have been better with the 1/2" of rain we received almost immediately after finishing the last green. We aerified, picked up the cores, topdressed with a sand/soil/peat mix, seeded with bentgrass, and dragged it all in. The rain was perfect for soaking the seed and "melting" the topdressing into the turf. We may also do this routine on some of the worst areas in the rough that just don't seem to want to fill in. For the few burned out fairway spots (#10 comes to mind) we will be slit seeding and topdressing those sometime this week.