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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....

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