Survey results for our Tee areas and surrounding course hardware

For the most part the survey results pertaining to our tee areas were positive. The tees have been culturally worked rather heavily since I began at Highland. Our department has aerified and topdressed the tees numerous times and will continue to do so. We have seen some results as far as more level surfaces, tighter, more consistent turfgrass cover (divot recovery) and realignment of the tees in general. I would however like to address a few of the biggest concerns from the survey.

1.The recycling of the garbage on the golf course.
Comments were made that we should have recycle containers at every tee. The Grounds Dept. services all of the tees everyday in the heart of the golf season; part of this is emptying the garbage containers. One of the elements of this process is separating the recyclables out of the garbage (once back at the maintenance facility). I feel that this is a more efficient and cleaner way of doing this. For us to add another container to every ballwasher (25 of them) would provide a cluttered look to an already busy area.

2.Sprucing up the benches and ballwasher areas.
The Green Committee has addressed this issue and has proposed a capital plan to renovate these areas completely. New benches and a more appropriate material will be installed around these areas as the resources are allocated. The placement of these course hardware pieces has been evaluated and the relocation will be implemented this season.

3.Daily set up of the Tee Blocks.
Our set up person visits every tee every morning in the heart of the season. Divots are filled, debris is picked up, ballwashers are filled and the garbage is taken away. The tee blocks are then moved in accordance with a 6 day rotation. I realize that at the start of the rotation it appears that the blocks are at the front of the tees on one 9 and the back of the tees on the other 9. This is true, for one day. This method allows us to use the entire tee area and keep the distance relatively accurate to our score card.

Comments

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.

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...

Spring Greens Aeration...a week later!

A week has passed since our annual spring greens aeration. We have had a mixed bag of weather, hot, dry, cold, wet and even frost! These conditions make it challenging to aid in healing, but with the more recent consistent warm temperatures we are seeing solid recovery. We were fortunate to have decent weather to complete the process on time, allowing us to fill all the holes created by the 1/2” hollow tines. As there are some minor depressions within some of the holes we will be beginning our bi-weekly topdressing program early next week. Our team is mowing and rolling our greens daily, while slowly lowering our height of cut to our summer norm. We all know that spring cultural practices are not popular among golfers, but these all important tasks are the building blocks for high performance greens conditions throughout the heart of the golf season. Check out this video produced by the USGA on Aerations effect on putting...

HIGHLAND CC GROUNDS

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