September 12, 2012

After aeration, many members have told me that I must be happy that things are slowing down and that I can rest...

I wish!

Things never slow down! Although we were able to finish the green and fairway aeration last week, we still have a lot to do! Our season and work is far from over!

This week we began tee aeration, which we do “in play”, by doing just a few tee boxes at a time on each hole, shifting the tee markers back and forth to the ones we are not working on. This method is time and labor consuming, and will take us a few weeks to finish.

Meanwhile, we are re-seeding the rough areas that thinned over the summer, and overseeding the fairways with bentgrass. This too, is a slow, but methodical process. When we finish these we will overseed the tees with bentgrass.

We are beginning “spring” weed control! Most weeds are best controlled in the fall so that they won’t become a problem the next coming spring. We have started to spray out broadleaf weeds such as clover, plantains, dandelion, etc. We have to coordinate these sprays with seeding because the herbicide will also kill any new seedlings that we have seeded, so there is a lot of planning and timing involved.

When these are finished it will be time to aerate the rough – a job that takes 3-4 weeks.

We also plan to lime the fairways to bring our calcuim levels up.  This will be a huge job – spreading about 3 tons lime per acre!

Slow down? Rest? We probably won’t until there is six inches of snow on the ground!