Greens Aerification

       Our spring Green aerification has come and gone.  This is one of the most important cultural practices we do. With out aerification our greens would slowly deteriorate.  Greens would become spongy, would not hold golf shot, and ball roll would be very inconsistent.  On the maintenance side of things isolated dry spots would increase, disease and insect damage would rise in severity.  That means more money spraying chemicals to control all all the problems that wold arise from not aerating.
     Green aerification does a number of things.  1. It improves the exchange of air and water between the atmosphere and soil.  The exchange involves the downward movement of oxygen and water into the soil and the upward movement of carbon dioxide and other toxic gases out of the soil.  The Bentgrass absorb oxygen through the root system.  Roots need oxygen and aerating is the best way to give them oxygen.  2. It aids the green in moving water through the soil profile.  A dry green is a happy green.  3. Thatch removal, Bentgrass is a big thatch producer.  Too much thatch causes greens to become spongy, hydrophobic, disease and insect damage would rise.  Spongy greens will not accept a properly hit golf shot and  ball roll would be very inconsistent.   So it is very important that we manage thatch with aeration.
     We use 2 different aerators.  1. Floyd McCay deep drill machine.  The Floyd McCay machine drills a 3/4'' hole 10'' deep on a 5''x5'' spacing.  Roots will find these 10'' channels and chase them to the bottom. We find them when we cut cups.  We will have roots coming out the bottom of our cup cutter.

     2.  Toro Procore aerator.  The Procore will punch a 3/8'' hole 3'' deep on 2''x2.5'' centers.
     

 Procore with core collector attached to back 

After we aerate greens we have to clean them up.  Thankfully we have a core collector that brings all the cores to the edge of the green.  We shovel the plugs into carts and haul away.  We then use our sweeper and blower to sweep any debris left behind off the green.

Removing cores

Our green sweeper in action.

Next step is to put down our sand.  We use 30 tons of sand to fill our aeration holes up.  We have a new Topdresser to help us get this job done.

After sand is applied we brush sand into holes.  We brush our greens in 4 different direction to move sand into holes.

Brushing green

Finished ready for water.

Last steps is to apply fertilizer, change the cup and water the green.  We will continue to brush greens to move sand.  We will also remove excess sand with our groomers before we mow them.  

      I know this is a inconvenience to your golf game but it is short lived.  after about a week greens start to heal up.  In two weeks they are almost healed and we are mowing them at normal height 1/8'' high. You will also see a new glow to our greens they will be rejuvenated.  A stronger, healthier green with smoother putting surface. Aerifying greens is very labor intensive. We used 12 people to get this done and we could have used couple more bodies.  Picking up aerifying plugs and carrying a back pack blower  all day is hard on your back. I would like to thank my staff for a job well done.  

Busy, Busy

     We have been very busy here at the golf course lately.  The weather has finally cooperated.  We finally went 10 days without some sort of moisture.  We were able to get our pre-emergent herbicide  down to all of our tee's and roughs. We sprayed our tee's with round up to remove any winter weeds. Irrigation system has been pressurized and so far no leaks.  Speaking of leaks we did have a problem with the water line at the Halfway house.  It took 3 1/2 days to fix that problem.

We had to dig up the water line and repair it

We had to replace plumbing in the wall of the Halfway house.                              

     

     We will be installing some small yellow markers in the fairways where the family tee's are located.  People that walk are having a hard time finding the tee's.  If you drive a cart we have markers on the path letting you know where they are.  Anyone that walks has a harder time.  We hope this will help find the family tee's.

We can mow right over this flexible stake. 

     Finally we will be doing our spring Green Aerification Monday April 1st and Tuesday April 2nd.

 We will have E@E here to deep drill all our greens.  We will then run our Procore behind them.  If everything goes as planed it should only take 2 days.  Front 9 will be closed on Monday and the Back 9 will be closed Tuesday. 

 Our Toro Procore. Punches a 3/8'' hole 3'' deep on 2''x 2 1/2'' spacing

Floyd McCay Deep Drill Machine.  Drills a 5/8'' hole 10'' deep on 5'' x 5'' spacing

Is Winter really gone

     What a winter we have had this year.  We seen it all.  Lots of snow (25''), some ice and quite a bit of rain.  We seen temperatures near 0 and highs near 70. Since November we have had 16'' of moisture on the golf course from snow, ice and rain. We have been getting some sort of precipitation every 7 to 10 days. It has been very difficult trying to get projects done this winter.  We have cut down quite a few trees. (see previous post)  Last week we fell two more big White Oaks that died.  One was north of #1 greens just across the cart path in edge of woods.  The second one was in woods behind our gas tanks at shop.  I had to call a expert to get these two big trees on the ground.  We did not want to destroy the cart path on #1 and I was worried about our gas tanks with the second tree.  We caught a break last week and was able to spray our fairways with our pre-emergent herbicide.  I was beginning to get worried if we were  going to be able to get the spray rig out on the wet golf course.  Just so happen we had 2 days of high winds and then it turned cold and froze the ground.  The spray rig had no trouble. We finished just before the last weeks snow.  The high winds did give us a huge mess with limbs that fell but it was worth the mess to get our fairways sprayed.  Looks like warmer temperatures are in the future but rain is also in the forecast.  We desperately need some dry time.  Below are some video's of the tree's we cut down and spraying fairways.

Spraying pre-emergent herbicide on 18 fairway.

Cutting down White Oak #1

White Oak behind gas tanks at Maintenance Building.

Course update

     Golf Course will open today at 12 p.m.  Golf course is thawing out and it could get slippery out there so be very careful walking to your ball and driving your carts.  The driving range will remain closed it is very soggy in the range and ball will plug.

New Rule Changes

     The USGA has posted a collection of Video's to help you understand the new rule changes.  Here is the link in case you need help interrupting the new rules.  I believe you will find it very helpful.  

http://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/rules-hub/rules-modernization/major-changes/major-changes.html

Extreme cold

     We have had it all this winter.  Lots of snow, rain and bitter cold.  As I am writing this blog post it is -3 degrees.  The high today will be around 8 degrees.  The good news it will be near 60 degrees this weekend.  The bad news is the green might not be thawed down to 2 inches.  I am optimistic if the course is not open Saturday it should be open by Sunday.  Playing on thawing greens can cause root shear.  Root shear is the sharing off of the Bentgrass root system at the freeze line.  I feel if root shearing occurs at 2 inches plus we can overcome the damage before summer.  If we allow play on the greens with less than 2 inches of thawing it is very difficult to grow the roots back to proper depth for summer.  With roots at very dangerous short length we could lose some turf  this winter from Winter Desiccation.  It is very important we protect our greens from any damage. Not all of our greens thaw equally.  The greens that get the most sunlight will be the first ones to thaw.  # 7 and 18 greens will be the last ones to thaw because they are push up greens. Below is diagram on the sudden thaw dynamics.  Please call Pro Shop before you come out.  We will be monitoring the greens and when all greens are thawed down to the 2 inch level the course will be open.

Tree Removal

     We have been busy removing trees the last few weeks.  We have 11 trees that died last year. We have 7 Ash trees that were removed because they had 1/3 of canopy dead.  The Emerald Ash Bore (EAB) is here in Missouri and they will attack and kill all Ash trees.  We have a lot of Ash trees on our golf course.  The good news is we will not lose all of our Ash trees.  They have some very good insecticides out that will control the EAB.  We will be treating most of our Ash trees.  The treatment is good for 2 years.  After 2 years we have to retreat.  Any tree that is already damaged or becomes damaged will be cut down. We have some really nice Ash Trees we can't afford to lose.  Dave and I will be evaluating all of our Ash trees and determine which tree need to be treated.  Below is a few pictures of some of our work.  We have cut down Oak tree in front entrance, Oak tree right 12 rough, Locust tree bottom of hill between 9 and 18, Oak tree next to 18 white tee, and the 7 Ash trees #10.  We still have 8 trees to remove when we can get back on the golf course.

 Ash tree removal #10 rough

 We took 7 Ash trees from #10 rough

 Oak tree from 12 rough

Oak tree from 18 white tee.

The Oak on 18 was little tricky to clean up.  Big limbs kept it in the air on a side slope.