Skip to main content

Golf Course Update...

Since my last post the golf course and grounds dept. has been very busy. Last Sunday/Monday we were able to complete our spring aeration on greens. With the saturated soils that we have been dealing with this spring, we decided to use our newly acquired Verti-Drain deep tine aerifier in place of our standard greens aerifiers. This machine allows us to create deep channels in our putting surfaces. These channels not only allow water to drain freely to the bottom of the root zone, they create a perfect opportunity for air, sand and nutrients to reach deep into the root zone. During this practice we were able to top dress with a large quantity of sand (actually 45 tons for 3 acres of greens surface). Sand topdressing not only dilutes organic matter levels, but it also helps to speed up recovery and provides a firm and smooth putting surface. Our membership's patience is greatly appreciated during these processes as well as during the recovery time. In this instance, recovery time was minimal. With the rain that we have been receiving in the past 24 hours, I would expect to get back to a regular greens mowing schedule on Monday.
Another accomplishment this week was actually getting the golf course mowed. This proved to be a challenging task this season. We are now back on track with our mowing schedules. Our rough is very lush and thick right now. The spring weather that we have experienced this season has created a monster! We have began to mow our rough at our regular summer height, it just seems a bit extreme right now. As we begin to dry out, the rough will be back to it's regular playability.
We were also able to put down a few skids of sod this past week. All stump holes and some cart path edges/endings have been tied in. Our plans for this coming week are to continue mowing, perform some fertilization and work away at solid tine aeration and topdressing of approaches and tees (weather permitting). Although, with a quick check of the forecast, mother nature may have different plans for us....

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Finish Grading on #2 & #12 Tees

With the great weather that we have had the last two days, we were able to get the tees shaped and all of the tee mix out to the tees. In this picture here, Derek Vergeer (our contractor) is finish grading #2 Tee to be ready for sod. Unfortunately the forecast is for rain the next couple of days and could hold us up for a bit. We are doing out best to complete these projects in a timely manner, of course with this blog we will keep you updated.
2 comments
Read more

Greens Cultural Management Practices Schedule

The fall is a great time to perform a number of necessary cultural practices. Our goal is to amend the upper portion of the greens surface with enough sand to help insulate the crown through the winter as well as removing and diluting organic matter. Below you will find a schedule of cultural practices that we aim to complete before the covers go on and the snow flies!!! Wednesday, Sept. 30th- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt Tuesday, Wednesday October 13/14-Course Closure full core aeration with heavy topdressing. October 19th- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt October 26th- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt November 2nd- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt November 9th- Deep Verticut, followed by a sufficient topdressing. November 16th- Post Course Closure, Heavy topdressing followed by Deep tine aeration. Of course this is all in hope that the weather cooperates...happy fall!
Post a Comment
Read more

Golf Course Update

As our season slowly comes to a end our department has been working away at year end projects. We installed drainage in a few areas of the practice range and short game area. These areas were perpetually wet and caused turf and aesthetic issues. We have also been chipping away at the bunkers on #17, smoothing out the faces and recreating the grass edges. These bunkers suffered some severe frost heaving in the faces during the winter after they were built. Our team has removed a number of trees and brush from around our maintenance facility to allow some expansion of our operation. We are working away at clearing space to install aggregate bins and sufficient staff parking. This will also allow delivery trucks and semi's to access our facility without any issues. We are also removing the fallen trees and brush from the woodlot on the right side of #16 fairway. This is a challenging area to work as it is a peat bog and remains wet even in the hottest and driest of summers (like 2010)...
1 comment
Read more