September 30, 2013

We accomplished quite a lot during the month of September!

Labor day week we performed a deep vertical cut with our graden machines on the greens which we immediately followed with aeration and topdressing. These cultural practices remove thatch, stimulate the growth of the bent grasses, help amend the soil, relieve compaction, resurface the greens, and overall improve the health of the greens.

At the same time, we aerated the fairways and also performed a deep verticut to the approaches – these practices remove thatch, aerate the soil, and help to relieve some of the compaction that has taken place throughout the year. As soon as we dragged and cleaned up, we drop seeded bent grass seed into the open holes, and followed that with our slice seeder. As I write this, I am very happy with the results so far – we have had pretty good germination and I am seeing plenty of seedlings.

We resodded the 7^th black, blue, and white tees with Patriot bermuda grass (the same variety that we used on the driving range a few years back). The 7^th tee is one of the hardest areas on the course to grow turf – it’s surrounded on three sides, left and back with trees, and to the right with the halfway house. It gets very little air movement and the trapped air heats up, making it the warmest spot on the course by at least 5-10 degrees.( Incidentally, the 13^th tee is the second warmest area.) Because bermuda can take the heat, we think its the best choice for this area. The green and yellow tees had been sodded with Riviera bermuda grass three seasons ago, and have out performed the traditional grasses such as bent grass that had been used previously. If the bermuda doesn’t work, the chainsaws will work!

We have overseeded some of the rough areas that have worn thin due to cart traffic and lack of irrigation. Some of the areas include the left of 8 fairway, areas between 1 and 2 fairways, the areas surrounding the 7th green tee, and areas along the left of the sixth hole.

Although not in play, we overseeded the wedding garden lawn too!

Last week we did a second aeration of the tees and this coming week we will topdress them and slice in more bentgrass.

All these efforts will translate to better and improved conditions over time.