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Verticutting, overseeding and topdressing Greens this week...


Verticutting is a fairly common practice on playing surfaces. This process removes organic matter, more commonly known as thatch. Thatch accumulation can create a soft and puffy putting surface. This process also removes some of the aggressively growing tillers of the bentgrass plants. This inturn creates a more upright grass plant, which makes a faster, truer putting surface. The verticut channels also create a good seed bed for overseeding.
As always, "weather permitting", we will be verticutting, overseeding and topdressing our greens this Thursday and Friday. The plan is to start verticutting late on Wednesday night after play and continue Thursday morning. We are starting on Wednesday to ensure that all greens are cleaned and mowed before play on Thursday morning. On Thursday we will overseed the greens with Creeping Bentgrass. We will then begin topdressing either late in the evening on Thursday or early Friday morning (weather permitting). Again, our goal is to topdress and brush the sand/seed into the greens before morning play on Friday. These cultural practices are necessary for us to maintain good healthy greens that will stand up to the stresses that occur during our regular golf season. As I have said in the past, we appreciate our membership's patience and understanding during these tasks.

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