Golf Course Update...

Even though the weather has not cooperated this past month (rain and cold), we have been busy working away at our spring to do list. Along with our capital projects of fairway drainage and greens perimeter irrigation we have been very busy keeping up with mowing and grooming the golf course. Both of the previously mentioned capital projects have been completed and are working very well.
Further information about the golf course-
Greens:Our greens are starting to firm up and get up to speed. Our mowing and rolling program is now in full effect. With some cooperative weather we will see the speeds stay consistent. What we really need is for the greens to dry out. Wet, soft greens rarely will allow you to get them up to speed with out creating disease and or compaction issues.
Tees, Fairways and Approaches: All are in good shape, cultural practices are constantly being performed to ensure a successful season.
Bunkers: We have been plugging away in the bunkers consistently all season. Unfortunately it seems that every time we start to make real progress we get a significant rain which requires us to put all manpower into repair. Bunker sand addition, edging, mowing, fertilizer application and weed control are all being done as the weather permits. You may have noticed that the fairway bunker on #16 is in disrepair. We were forced to remove the bunker liner as it had far to many rips and tears in it to salvage. We will be doing some minor cosmetic repair to ensure that it is playable for the remainder of the season. Until it is complete it will be marked as Ground Under Repair.
Rough: We have finally been able to get the rough under control. With a few nice days here and there our mowers have been able to get into somewhat of a routine. The rough is very thick at this time of year. Once we experience some drier warmer weather it will begin to thin out a bit, as it usually does. Weed control is being performed as the weather permits as well.
Also, I would like to remind our members that our department has a twitter account. With a twitter account you can follow us and get short, blasts of information and pictures of what is happening on the golf course. Twitter is faster and more mobile for us to update, therefore more current.

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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.

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...

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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