Thursday, May 22, 2014

#5 Green on May 20, 2014

Although progress has been made, recovery of the winter damaged greens continues to be slow.  A cool spring has slowed the growth of the grass and delayed seed from germinating.  However as the weather continues to warm up I am confident we will see faster recovery.  To speed the process along, we decided to sod the most heavily damaged areas of the collars on the 4th and 5th green.


Re-sodding #5 collar

We also have been taking plugs of bentgrass from our nursery green and plugging out the worst spots on the greens.


Removing bentgrass plugs from nursery green



Repairing #4 green with bentgrass plugs

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Course Update



Beginning Sunday afternoon and ending Monday evening we aerified and topdressed all 18 of our greens.  The greens were aerified using 3/8" hollow coring tines on 1 inch centers.  After the plugs were cleared off the greens, sand was applied and worked into the open holes. Today fertilizer will be applied to get the grass growing. We will roll the greens daily to smooth and firm the surface and in a few days after the sand has settled into the canopy we will start mowing the greens.  Because the growth of the grass tends to be a little slower in the spring, we like to use the smaller 3/8" tines to shorten the recovery time.  The greens should be completely healed in about 2 weeks.  Although aerification is despised by golfers and maintenance staff alike aerification remains an important cultural practice.  Aerification removes unwanted thatch and allows good air exchange to the root system helping the turf to survive the stresses of summer.

The fifth green continues to recover nicely although it never seems to happen as fast as we would like.  The cover definitely helped speed up the recovery process and allowed us to get the bentgrass seed to germinate.  As temperatures continue to rise and the green recovers, the green will be available for limited play and eventually be open all the time.  Looking at the green every day, it is sometimes hard to see the progress we have made.  Here are some before and after photos that show how far the green has come in one month.



#5 Green on April 16, 2014



#5 Green on May 10, 2014


#5 Green on April 7, 2014



#5 Green on May 10, 2014


Bentgrass creeping over damaged areas


New Bentgrass seedlings