When the Club is Closed the Turf Care Department is Open for Business

Due to the Memorial Day holiday the Club was unusually closed for a Tuesday. However the Turf Care team was here working hard. We take full advantage of the course being closed to get jobs done that would be difficult to accomplish with play.  Some tasks that were completed yesterday are greens were topdressed, fairways lightly verticut and mowed, native areas mowed 7-9, and greens were fertilized yesterday.

We have also been starting to hand water fairways do to these high temperatures we already seeing for late May/June.  We have made many head adjustments to help remedy localized dry spots, but sometimes nothing is more efficient than a hose.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

It has been another productive week. Aerification holes in all areas of the course are healing wonderfully and are barely visible. Most of the sand has worked its way into the canopy on the greens. We have lowered the brushes on our green's mowers. This brushing allows our green's mowers to stand the leaves up prior to the cutting reel of the mower. This helps minimize the amount of layover in the canopy. The minimization of layover creates a more upright growth pattern in the green surface and more consistent playing condition. These brushes were one of the new technologies which I alluded to in the E blast introducing our new fleet.

In the picture below you can see the the brush and reel set up on the mower. Also pictured is our roller and green's mower on number eight this morning. We are up at summer mowing heights. The greens are stimping 10.5 today.

What a Difference a Year Makes!

Last year at this time we were fighting hundred degree temperatures and sustained 20 mile an hour winds. This year has been much more kind to us. Even though we've had what would be considered a very warm spring. The beginning to the summer has been terrific for all grass species. Growth on greens has been surprisingly good even with these low 90° temperatures we've had over the last several days. Typically we'd see a decrease in grass clipping yield when temperatures reach this mark however with back-to-back mowings yesterday and today I'm surprised to see how much we are getting off the greens. This is a strong testament to the their health due to the agronomic practices we've implemented over the last couple of years.

Greens were top dressed yesterday. Today we are spraying them with the foliar fertilizer. We are also finishing our fertilizer application to a few of the holes on the back nine which we were unable to get to at the tail end of last week.

Red Dotted Lines in Fairways?

In some fairways there are some areas that are outlined with red dotted lines. These lines are indicators for the staff to have gone around and added a soil amendment after the aerification. This soil amendment helps retain moisture in the soil. Even after making numerous sprinkler head adjustments we still have not been able to maintain adequate soil moisture in certain areas. Therefore with the holes currently being open we took advantage of this time to add something to better retain moisture in these areas.

Main Line is Back Online

Caleb Fox did an excellent job leading the crew who repaired the mainline break out on the driving range. We were able to get the system pressurized by 730 last night. This is quite a relief due to the fact that we need to get out and hand water greens today. This was our fourth such break out on the driving range to our mainline since I've been here. Our mainline was improperly bedded with an inappropriate amount of rock underneath to avoid puncture breaks from the bedrock which it lays on. You can see in the picture below Caleb and a couple other crew members putting the final touches on the sleeve which reconnected the pipe. In the other picture, you can see the puncture hole which the bedrock put in the line cracking the entire 20 foot section.

The native mowers got through hole number 4 yesterday. We will resume mowing native areas again next Tuesday.

The Aerification is Finished and all 18 are Open

Everything went smoothly yesterday. The back nine was open by 1 o'clock for play. Today we are doing normal morning prep for the golf course. And we are commencing mowing of all the native areas that border the golf course. A welcomed gift to a lot of you, I know. I posted a picture of the mowers on number one this morning. I anticipate this project to take several weeks as we will be working it in around our normal course maintenance.

We did run into one another little hiccup yesterday. As our mainline experienced a break out at the driving range. We hope to have this remedied by the end of the day today.

A Day Behind

With the rain showers that moved through yesterday. We received 6/10 of an inch. That is welcomed rain. This May alone we received the same amount of rain that we received over the course of 13 months last year. The rain could not come at a better time either due to the fact that 98% of our holes were already punched in fairways and rough which really allowed the water to penetrate down into the profile.

The only downside to the rain will be for any golfers trying to get out first thing this morning. The back nine holes will not be open until about mid day. We need to let the plugs dry before cleanup efforts can begin again. With a forecast of clear blue skies all day this shouldn't take too long.

The other bit of good news I can report today is that the greens have healed exceptionally well. As seen here in the picture below of number two green.

Some other side notes. The front nine will be open to car traffic today. Tees are being topdressed. Fertilizer application to fairways and rough is also going to continue to be applied today.

Front Nine Open for Play

The aerification is still going well the aerifiers are currently on hole number 18 and finishing up. The rains did slow down the clean up just slightly. But we hope with the rains clearing out this afternoon we will again be able to continue with cleanup as desired.

We were able to get the front nine holes cleaned up and they will be open for play. Unfortunately though the front nine will be closed to cart traffic until later on this morning as they need to dry out from the rain overnight. It is nice to get these rains while the fairways are open to allow better penetration down into the soil profile.

The greens are in exceptional shape given the time they have had to heal since last Mondays aerification.  We are getting a lot of clippings this morning which is great to see!  I would guess by looking at all the indicators you will barely see the holes by next week on our greens.  We will be giving them another shot of some foliar fertilizer later this afternoon.

Aerification Day Two

Things got off to another good start today at 5 AM with aerifiers starting on hole number five. As of right now at 10:15 this morning aerifiers are all the way through hole number eight and we hope to start clean up process after lunch at 11:30. If all goes well we should have more than just the front nine open by the start of the day tomorrow. Here are couple pictures one of number six after the aerifiers have moved through and one of the aerifiers working on number seven.

Good night to aerify!

Some of the turf care staff began aerifying all bermuda grass areas tonight at 4 o'clock. Everything got off to a very smooth start, which is more the rarity than the norm. But perhaps it is attributed to are well seasoned staff who have all been through this biannual process numerous times now. We will be working until 10 tonight and picking back up at 5 am tomorrow. We are hopeful that we will be done punching by mid day on Tuesday.

Second Mowing

Today was our second time getting the mowers out on the greens since the aerification. We do this to allow time for the grass to work its way through the sand and get as much incorporation of sand into the profile as possible. We have rolled the greens eleven times since the aerification
to get them rolling smoothly again.
Also wishing all the mothers Happy Mothers Day!

Aerification Status

May 12 2012

Greens aerification healing nicely, after punching them on Monday the 7th.  As the greens growth curve shifts from roots to shoots the recovery time on them should be relatively quick.  We also received almost 3" of rain out at Cimarron Hills this week which has helped all aspects of the course. 

Bermuda aerification is on the schedule starting Sunday evening and going through Tuesday the 15th.  There will be plenty of holes out there for a short time in preparation for the growing season.