Rolling after Aerification

I like to roll greens after we aerate them.  It help smooth putting surface and move sand down into green profile.  We will roll multiple times before we put the cutting units on and mow for the first time Monday.

Native area

We were finally able to burn the native area between 4 and 5.  We have been trying to do this for 2 months.  Too wet, too windy, too much work on other parts of the course.  Burning rejuvenates the prairie by removing excess leaf litter and duff allowing more plants to flower, produce seed and grow taller.  It also increases available nutrients through indirect stimulation of microbial activity in the soil and releasing nutrients from the ash.  Burning exposes the darkened soil and allows sunlight to warm the soil quicker and extend the growing season for warm season native plants.  The fire also suppresses many weeds and non native invasive cool season grass. When we burn the native we always back burn.  You want the fire to move against the wind not with the wind.

Green Aerification Completed

It has been a busy 2 day on the course.  We completed our Greens aerification on Tuesday.  Staff worked very hard.  I would like to say it went smooth  but we had our problems.  Monday  our Topdresser decided it was not ready for aerification.  Here we are ready to apply sand to our greens with no way to put it out.  Rob was trying to troubleshoot the problem but after 2 hours something had to be done.  We converted our fertilizer spreader into a topdresser.  It worked very well but we could not haul as much sand with it so it took a lot more trips per green.  It looked like we would be working up until dark but Rob saved the day and got our broken topdresser fixed around 5:00 p.m.  That was a relief.  The second day ran very smooth and we finished back nine greens by 3:30 p.m.  Here are a few pictures of our aerification process.

We verticut greens first

Aerator running with our core collector

Dumping cores at end of green

 Crew picking up cores. 

 

Rob and Karen running blowers to help open up all aerification holes.   Rob made attachment to go on back pack blower to help open holes.

 

Fertilizer spreader used to topdress.



 

Our regular topdresser working.

 Nick drags sand into holes

Dan applying fertilizer.  Turn water on we are done

Purple Martins

You can't help but here our Purple Martin's singing.  They are here.  I think they love the new location we put the houses.

Happy Easter

What a beautiful sunrise.  Happy Easter

They Need Time to get it done

     This is an article posted in this weeks USGA Green Section under Course Care. It Talks about giving the maintenance crew time to get  course setup done before play begins.  How golfer interference in the morning can cause chain reaction of events that can slow down the progress of the staff getting its work done.  The biggest thing to take out of the article is to know when the course is open and do not to jump the gun on starting times.  It also talks about the person who might want to start on hole 4 or 7 to get a head of groups starting on hole 1, they think it is not a big deal but could end up costing maintenance crew valuable time getting jobs and projects completed.  We start our day at sun up.  This time of the year that is 7 a.m. in the summer it is 5:30 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. Our course opens at 8:00 a.m. currently and in the golfing season it is 7:00 a.m.  If the starting times are observed this gives the maintenance staff 1 to 1 1/2 hour head start.  The chances are slim you would even see a mower or maintenance staff worker well into your round.  Hit the link below to take you to the article.

http://www.usga.org/course-care/forethegolfer/they-need-time-to-get-it-done.html

Verticutting Greens

     We are verticutting Greens today.  Verticutting helps eliminate grain.  Grain develops when bentgrass grows.  The bentgrass likes to grow horizontally.   It lays flat on the putting surface. Verticutting cuts these horizontal leaves and lifts them out.  What happens next is the new leaf grows upright, that will give you a much better ball roll.  You will have less leaf that the ball comes in contact with.  Our verticutting is agressive this time of year.  In the warm months we are not as agressive taking about 1/2 as much material.

Dan Verticutting Putting Green.  He fills baskets up about every 3 passes.

 

 

We fill Truckster up after 3 greens.

Mole found

Couple weeks ago mole ran across back of 14 green.  While Tim and I were stomping down run we saw mole was back.  I took my Leatherman and stabbed.  We could not find the mole.  Well 2 weeks later I see this.  We could not find dead mole but some 4 legged animal did.

Fairways

Fairways are showing signs of life.  Green leaves shooting up through last year's dormant brown leaves.

Purple Martins

Our Purple Martin's have arrived.

Top Dressing Green

     We top dressed all greens last week.  I have a video below showing how we do this important cultural practice.  Top dressing does a number of thing for us.  1.  Improves smoothness -Voids exists in the canopy of the grass plant.  The sand helps fill the voids giving you a truer and smoother putting surface.  2.  Thatch dilutions-The layer of organic debris, stems, crowns and roots in the upper rootzone – i.e., thatch – can become concentrated and encourage mower scalping and localized dry spots. Thatch should be diluted with sand through practices like verticutting and sand topdressing to maintain good turf quality.  3.  Improved Turf Recovery – Occasional turf thinning can occur on putting greens. Sand helps cushion leaf tips and crowns and reduces algae. 3.  Improved Turf Recovery- Occasionally turf thinning can occur on putting greens.  Sand help cushion leaf tips and crowns and helps reduce algae.  4.  Increase Firmness-   Turf produces organic matter in the upper rootzone that creates soft, spongy playing conditions. Regular sand topdressing, along with core aeration, improves surface firmness and resiliency.  5.  Improved Rootzone- Sand drains well and resists soil compaction. The accumulation of sand from multiple topdressings over many years can improve soil physical properties.  We apply a small amount of sand.  At times you don't even know we have done it.

 

New Home for Purple Martin houses

We have moved the location of our Purple Martin houses.  They are now in the no mow area by 4 tee's and 6 green.  We also made a new pole for the big house.  The old pole rotted and became crooked.  We gave the big house a new coat of white paint.   I think our Martin's will like their new home.

Installing new Post



Fresh coat white paint on houses



Clubhouse Tree Removal

We have 2 trees at the clubhouse that need to be removed.  The first trees is the Bradford Pear at the front entrance.  This tree has outgrown its location.  Most of the tree is hanging over the roof.  Branches have poked holes in the roof and the debris left behind clogs our down spots we can have over foot of water on roof at times.  Karen has some good ideas on how to landscape the area after the tree is removed.  The second tree is one of the Pin Oaks on the west end of the club by the kitchen walkway.  This tree is diseased and over 1/2 of the tree is dead.  We were going to have dead wood removed last summer but after taking a closer look it was determined tree was too far gone and should be removed.

 Bradford Pear front entrance.  Notice how it leans into the club

 

.  Pin Oak in middle of picture being removed

Here is picture of Clubhouse after Bradford Pear is gone.

 

Green Fairways

If you have been to the golf course you might be wondering why are the fairways painted green.  Last week we sprayed our preemergent herbicide to all of our fairways.  In the tank we also mixed a green pigment that does 2 things.  1.  It helps Dan mark where he has sprayed so he does not over spray product.  2.  The green pigment will help the Zoysia grass green up a little quicker in the spring.  This happen because the pigment absorbs more sunlight causing the Zoysia to heat up a few more degrees so we get the Zoysia growing quicker than it would without the pigment.

Fairway entrance and exit

     Here we had at least 4 carts that did not exit where they were suppose to. The exit sign for 10 fairway is 20 yards behind this wet spot.  It is very important that we enter and exit at the green stakes.  Spring time is the worst time for wet spots.  We want you to be able to drive carts in fairways. It is a more enjoyable round plus you get through your round much quicker.  We have a few fairways however that are not as dry as others so we adjust the enter and exits so you are able use most of the fairway to drive.  PLEASE ENTER AND EXIT AT ALL GREEN POST.

 

Practice Tee Ediquette

 

With warmer weather approaching below is a article from USGA on  proper way to take divots while practicing on Driving range.  The linear method allows turf to recover the quickest.  Please hit link below to read article.  Our Practice tee is undersized if we adopted this method we would have much better turf on our tee the entire season.

 

  http://www.usga.org/course-care/2014/09/does-your-divot-pattern-help-or-hurt-the-golf-course-21474873114.html

 

 



Trimming Trees #4 Rough

     Today we were busy trimming trees up on the left side of #4 rough.  We took out low hanging limbs and tried to get as much dead wood as we could.  Some of the dead wood is just too high for us to get.  This helps our turf under the trees it lets more sunlight get to the ground.  Some of the limbs are hazardous to golfers, employees and equipment.  

 Have I ever told you I have the best crew.  This is very hard work.  Everyone is doing their part.

 This is a shot of trees before we trimmed.

This is what it looks like when we finished.