Spring Aerification

We just finished our Spring aerification.  We deep drilled 5/8'' holes 10'' deep on 5''x 5'' centers.  after that we came behind with our Toro Procore 648 and punch 3/8'' holes 3'' deep on 1.5''x 1.5'' centers.  Here is a little trivia for you.  We have a total of 2 acres of greens.  We drilled a total of 792,000 holes with the deep drill machines.  We aerified a total of 5,632,000 holes with our Procore.  A grand total of 6,424,000 aerifying holes in our greens.
     Aerification is used for gas exchange in the root zone.  O2 needs to get down to the root zone and CO2 needs to get out of the root zone.  The aerification holes gives the gases a channel to get in and escape.  We also aerify to eliminate thatch.  Thatch can cause multiple problems.  Soft spongy greens to increase disease and insect pressure.  Aerification is a very important cultural practice to have nice playing greens.
     You will notice the holes are much smaller than in past years.  We used smaller tines but punched twice as many holes.  Below are a few pictures of the process.  My staff did an outstanding job.  We aerified all 19 greens plus 9 white tee in one day.

We verticut in 2 different direction before we aerified

Deep drill machine

 Look at the holes.  You can see the bigger deep drill hole below the keys.

 We used 35 tons of sand.

Dragging the sand into holes

Finished

10 Bridge completed

     It took about 1 month but 10 bridge is new and improved.  We added some much need support under the decking of the bridge.  You will notice when you drive across no more clatter.  It took a little longer than we thought.  The weather did not help out.  My staff did an outstanding job.

#10 Bridge

     We have been busy working on #10 bridge.  It has been too wet to get any work done on the golf course so we are fixing up the bridge.  This has been on our to do list since last summer.  We are replacing the rails, decking and beefing up some of the sub flooring.  I hope we will take out a lot of the clattering when you drive over the bridge.  We are also going to stain the entire bridge Forest green.  This will give it a much longer life and it will look much better.  We have another week of work before we get the bridge back open.  Sorry for any inconvenience.  Below are a few pictures of our progress.

 tearing down the old railing and flooring

 Staining our post

 Post going up

Railing finished.

Wet, Wet Wet

     Wet is the word.  Our 2019 season total for moisture is 58.48 inches.  We broke a record for the wettest May on record and we had the second wettest May through December of 2019.  Our average rainfall for a year is 43'' to 45''.  Since December 14, 2019 we have received 11.61'' of moisture from rain, snow and sleet.  Most course work is at a stand still.  We have been able to cut down several trees that are close to the cart paths or parking lot.  We had 3 days with no rain the beginning of February and we got all of our fairways sprayed.  We applied our post and pre emergent herbicides to control our winter weeds as well as crabgrass and goosegrass.  We also got half of our tees sprayed for Poa control.  Not only has it been wet but we have had spring like temperatures mixed in with some cold weather.  Our coldest day of winter will happen tomorrow morning when it is expected to get down to 7 degrees.  2 days later we are back to 50 degrees.  It looks like we will have some dry time next week.  I still have some drainage work I need to get done on holes 14 and 17 greens.  After that we have lots of tree trimming to do.  With all the rain we received a lot of painting got done.  We painted our in and out post, all ball washers were cleaned and painted and we put out newly painted tee blocks.  Spring is right around the corner.  Spring Green Aerification will take place 3/30/2020 and 3/31/2020. 

 Starting to spray 4 fairway

 Poa annua, this is one of the weeds we want to eliminate.

 Busy painting in and out post.

7 Green Drainage

     We finished the drainage work to # 7 green today.  We installed drainage to the left side of the green and cut a drain in front of the green to catch the water seeping down in the fairway in front of the green.  #7 green does not have any drainage in the green.  It is a push up green.  That is a green that was built with native soil.  All new greens are built with drainage and the growing medium is sand.  This should help dry out the left side of the green and the right side of the fairway.  We have 3 more greens to add drainage to.  #9, #14 and #17.

 We dug trench with Track hoe.

Adding pea gravel

 Leveling out gravel

 Ready for topsoil

 Left side finished

Right side finished.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Maintenance Staff.

Winter Play

     I believe there has been some confusion to why golf course has been closed previously. The week of November 10th we received 4'' of snow.  By Friday November 15th we had a large portion of the golf course still covered with snow.  Temperatures Friday morning were in the  20's by noon the temps were climbing into the 40's.  Some members  thought course was closed because greens were thawing or frozen.  Course was not closed for thawing greens it was closed because of snow cover.  We opened the course around 12:30 pm.
      I believe some people think I am closing the course when greens are frozen.  I have never closed the course when greens were frozen.  Limited play on frozen greens is acceptable.  I have a problem with thawing  greens, the top is thawed or thawing but the underlying soil is frozen.  I like to see the freeze line down to 2.0'' to 3'' deep.  If we do get root shearing at that depth I can get our roots back to normal lengths by summer.  If play is allowed when freeze line is shallow 1/2'' to 1.5'' and we get root shearing.  I will have a harder time growing the roots back down to the desired depth we need for summer. In severe cases we could actually lose turf from wear and winter desiccation.
     Here we are again with 4'' - 5'' of snow covering the golf course.  Temperatures will be in the 50's  by this weekend.  Play will be allowed if greens are completely frozen, thawed down to 2'' and the majority of snow cover is gone.  You can get updates from the proshop.  If you are on twitter you can follow me at @ed_wachter for course updates.
     Root shearing can be very detrimental to our greens.  The illustration below will help you visualize what can happen.