First Mowing

     We mowed our tee's and Fairways today for first time in 2015.  We now have mowed everything on the course at least once.  The golfing season is here.

Kyle mowing #8 white tee

Duane mowing # 10 fairway

Golf Cleat damage

     The last couple of years I have been noticing an increase in damage to our greens by the new more aggressive golf shoe cleat.  I can actual follow the footsteps of the golfer wearing these cleats on our greens.  These cleats leave such a big imprint in the green that after mowing you can still see the imprint.  In the beginning it was one maybe two manufactures using the aggressive cleat but now I believe all manufactures are using the aggressive cleat.  It has gotten so bad that some courses are now banning certain soft cleats.  I don't believe we are at that point yet but if the new cleats are on all new shoes it will not take long for us to see damage around the cup like we use to see when metal spikes were the norm.  I think some of these new cleats are actual worst than metal spikes.  Here is a link to an article about the problem, http://www.golfcourseindustry.com/gci0315-cleat-spikes-greens-damage.aspx
It is a lengthy article but has some good information.  I am just trying to make you aware that there is a potential problem  that could affect our golf course.

Green Damage

     Yesterday some time in the afternoon.  Someone took a divot next to the cup on 5 green.  We found the damage this morning changing cups.  I can't begin to tell you how disappointing this is.  The people I feel the most for are the golfers that played the hole after the divot was made.  The divot could  ruin a perfectly good shot or putt to the hole.  I can only hope the person responsible knows what they did is wrong and can correct this behavior.

 

The cup just below the capstick

Aerification Completed

     It has been a busy week.  We finished our green aerification.  I would like to thank my crew for a job well done.  This is not an easy job.  We completed both the front and back nine greens by 3:30 p.m. each day.  I would also like to thank Bellerive County Club for loaning us their Core Collector that mounts on the back of our Aerator.  This saved us a tremendous amount of work.  Here are a few facts on our aeration process.   We have 2 acres of greens.  It took  9 people, 18 hours to complete this job.  We used 40 tons of sand.  That is at least 40 round trips with our sand topdresser from Maintenance building to all greens.   We put 400 lbs. of fertilizer and 360 lbs. of soil conditioner on all greens.  

We verticut greens before aerated them

Dan aerating, box on the back was loaned to us by Bellerive C.C.

Core Collector doing its job.

 Collector leaves plugs in a pile all we have to do is shovel in trickster

We then blow greens off.  Helps open up holes

Topdressing is next

We then brush sand into all holes

 



Green after brushing

 

Video of Green being aerated.  Notice how collection box pulls plugs to end of green.