Update on Greens and a Couple of Other Notes

Anyone who played over the last few days probably noticed open holes on greens. Some of the holes opened up because wet sand had closed the hole during core dragging and did not allow the dry sand to penetrate. The rain from last week then opened up the hole. Also, in our haste to get all greens cored before the rains hit last week, we were a little light on our sand application and the time we took to blow sand in the holes. Today we added additional sand to the Pg, 1-4 and got almost every hole topped off. The staff will hopefully get the rest completed tomorrow or by Wednesday at the latest. A few of the greens were in good shape with a majority of the holes filled.

The cool season tees on 2,3,5,10,14,17 were core aerated and material hauled away. We brushed the tees and blew the remaining material off the tee. Sand will be used on the tees to help with drainage, root development, and compaction.  A little fertilizer will be applied over the next couple of days as well.

After the cold temperatures from over the weekend, the staff placed the water cooler and ice machine at the pro shop for your use.

Spring Greens Aeartion Complete

The staff completed our spring greens aeration Monday evening.  Check out the video below for the all the details.

For devices that do not go directly to the embeded video, use the link below.

https://youtu.be/dS-nl12ItYQ

Piles of cores removed.  Took about 3 full cart loads per green to haul away material.

Blowing sand into the holes and then would brush and roll.

Greens and upcoming aeration

Posted a video regarding our greens and the regulator that we are using to reduce the activity of the poa annua. We also aerated 18 green today in preparation of our work next week.

I also sprayed our seedhead suppressant material as well today.  We use a Growing Degree Day Model to determine when to spray the product.  Take the average temperature for the day and subtract that number from the base which is 32.  Add those numbers each day since mid-February.  The range is around 220-500,  I usually spray before we reach 300 growing degree days. Some years it works better than other years but we expect to have around 50% reduction in poa seedheads which helps bump the ball off line when putting over the next couple of months.

The walk off area on 5 green.  Mostly poa annua on this collar. Too much shade folks from too many trees. Need to do some sod removal but my nursery is not strong enough at this time.  Maybe I will shorten some approach bent and use in this spot.

Guys finishing dragging 18 green in our practice run for the aeration coming up Monday.

Final surface.  Looks pretty good.  Vertical mowing lines in the surface as well.

Old asphalt tennis courts removed

This past week we removed all the asphalt and dumped it in the back of the range.  As I mentioned earlier, we plan on covering it up with the wasted bunker material to provide a nice berm at the back of the range. We are in the process of locating some fill dirt to cover the area and we will then need to seed and straw it. We have a considerable pile of gravel in the area yet that needs to be moved as well but it must get a little drier. We will use this material in the maintenance parking lot and for the road leading to the back of the range. At this time there are many more capitol needs than replacing the courts and the removal will improve the overall look of the grounds.

We will still have the 2 clay courts that are maintained regularly for our tennis enthusiasts.

Started using the backhoe to remove the material but progress was fairly slow.

Rented a skid steer that  you see in the background that helped speed up the removal considerably.

Used the skid to pull up the material and used our loader to load the dead material.  Skid also helped with that issue as well.

Getting further along.  Took us a little over 3 days to removal the courts.

Near completion on Thursday.

Almost to the end.

Gravel layer that will be hauled out when dry enough to get equipment in there.

Carts are off paths for the season

Carts are off the paths for the rest of the season unless wet conditions occur. We've also changed policy on driving carts. Ask that you use 90 degree but carts can go in rough. I will elaborate further next week in an email blast to the membership. Come see us this weekend, need to end em the fiscal year with some good momentum going into the new year.

Greens Aeration Monday, March 23rd

Our greens aeration is scheduled for Monday, March 23rd.  I would expect that we will have approximately 4 greens to finish over Tues-Wed.  We will be pulling a core during this aeration process with our verti-drain machine. After a few days and the sand begins to settle, we will begin dry mowing the greens during the middle of the day. I would expect the greens to be in normal playing condition within 2 weeks. More details on the work will be posted next week.

What he says! Video from USGA regarding greens aeration including venting greens. I do one thing difference than the video. I aerate at the beginning of spring(mid-March) to encourage the greens to warm up and also disrupt the least amount of play. We are not as busy in March, and usually after The Masters is played the course becomes very busy with golfing activity. By that time, the greens are healed and you have no disruption during the prime playing time in the spring. With a smaller sized staff, it helps to get the work completed before the majority of the turf on the course is growing. Aeration requires all hands on deck, or at least the hands we have at the time.

Helicopter Chainsaw

No, we will not have a member fundraiser for this attachment.