Aeration of Greens Completed...

Today we were able to finish up our spring aeration on our greens. As most of our members know we began the process on Thursday on the greens that suffered the most winter injury, as they were already out of play. We continued Sunday night and into Monday. With the looming forecast of rain, rain and more rain, we opted to Deep-tine and Deep Verticut our greens this spring instead of coring (coring in the rain is a messy process that rarely accomplishes the original goals). Switching to this process allows us to properly prepare a good seedbed for our yearly Creeping Bentgrass inter-seeding program, while still removing a decent amount of organic matter.

The process was as follows:
1. Straight sand topdressing
2. Deep-Tine aerify to a depth of 8 inches
3. Deep Verticut with our Sissis
4. Blow to remove organic matter
5. Dropseed T1 Creeping Bentgrass
6. Straight sand topdress (again)
7. Hand broom the sand into the canopy
8. Roll to smooth
9. Fertilize with an Ammonium Sulphate based greens grade product
10. Lightly irrigate to knock the fertilizer into the canopy

After this process we installed our permeable covers on the 5 greens (1,4,8,10,12) that we had the most significant damage on as a result of the winter of 2014. The covers will help to insulate during the cold nights that we are experiencing and help push the germination of the bentgrass seed. Utilizing temporary greens during the aeration process is a huge advantage to completing the task in a timely and efficient manner.With the exception of 1, 4, 8, 10 and 12 we will be reopening all greens to play on Tuesday, May 6th. Our membership's patience and understanding is always appreciated during these very crucial cultural practices.

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The Practice Range Tee

Last fall we utilized a “new to us” method of revitilization for our practice tee. Our contractor TDS, fraize mowed the surface of the tee to remove organic matter as well at to aid in leveling. The tee was then aerified and seeded to a new variety of creeping rye grass. We chose this type of turf grass as research shows rapid recovery and a low growth habit. We were able to get some great growth in the fall, but the tee is still not ready for traffic and full use. The plan is to utilize the mats until growth has filled in some of the voids etc. We will then begin to slowly set up hitting areas on the grass tee. For a while we will alternate between grass and the mats with a 50/50 ratio of use. Once the grass tee is established and is in adequate recovery mode, the practice areas will be back to normal. As always our membership’s patience is appreciated as we try to improve these areas for use.

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!

Venting Greens...

This week we will be venting our greens with needle tines. These tines make a hole that is less than an 1/8th of inch. With our greens being completely saturated from the incredible amount of rain that we have recieved this season, there is no room for air movement in the soil. We need to create very small channels for air movement to the root zone. When roots don't have air, they die. This has not been evident yet, but with the warmer temperatures of July upon us soon, trouble could be lurking. This will be a very non-disruptive process to our members and play. We are going to vent all of our greens over then next few days early in the morning as to not disrupt play. The process is simple, we vent the green using the aerifier and needle tines, roll them smooth and then mow the green. The holes virtually dissapear and are of no effect to roll. I realize that the word aerifier starts to scare people, but this is necessary and again is very clean and non-disruptive. Check out the pic...

HIGHLAND CC GROUNDS

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