Busy Fall

The front entry project has officially started in full force. Southwest Paving is now removing asphalt and will start the grading in the next day or two. Hartman has started the renovation of the first tee also, so there is a lot going on at the club right now. Projected entry project completion time is Mid October. Oh yeah, on top of all that it is aerifying time again. We completed the front nine greens today, plug-collect-sand-drag-brush-mow-water. We did not get the fertilizer down at this time because the winds were blowing 20+ mph all day, it was great for drying sand but not for spreading fert. We will get it down as soon as the winds calm and allow us to.

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.

10 Steps or so...

Pulling Cores

Harvesting Cores

Spreading Sand

Dragging Sand In

Brushing Sand In

Hand Broom And Fill Remaining Holes

Backpack Blower Cleanup

Mowing

Fertilizing

Much Needed Irrigation By Step 10

September Informer

I want to start off with a huge thanks to my staff for setting up a great golf course for Club Championship. A little rain on Sunday was more annoying then anything else, but other then that the weather was terrific and the course played great. From the comments I heard it sounded as though everyone had a great weekend, even though some golf games were not that “fun”. So with the Championship behind us we are now prepping for aerification. The greens will be aerified on the 6^th and 7^th, the Tuesday and Wednesday right after Labor Day. Tees and fairways will follow, and like in the past, that should not disrupt play much at all. With such a slow start to the season it feels like the last 2 months just flew by and it’s hard to think about fall and getting the course ready for winter. I am sure we still have 2 good months of golf ahead, and perhaps even a decent part of November if the weather holds.

Unlike last October when we were renovating 4,7, & 18, there will be no major projects going on this fall. We have some drainage work and some curb projects to tackle, and we will definitely be continuing the tree trimming. As I mentioned last month, we will be doing some major tree work on #16 in order to create a much better environment for the green and hole in general. It will start with the removal of the Oak tree closest to the green on the front right corner. The large Oak behind the green will be drastically trimmed up this fall, as well as some major trimming along the left side with some potential tree removal there also.

With the season winding down the Greens Committee will be looking for a new member very soon, so if you are interested please let them know. There are five members on the committee with 2-3 board members also sitting in. The commitment is 5 years, we meet once a month for most of the year, and tackle issues regarding all aspects of the golf course.

Enjoy the rest of the summer,

Kurt

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.

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.