Course Update

Cold the weather is finally settling in with the night temperatures getting closer to freezing, with that being said frost delays are becoming more and more prevalent. Some projects that have been under way and completed  include the pulling of cores in the approaches and reusing the cores on 16 fairway. In an effort to improve the play ability on 16 fairway, it has been  extended to about 15 yards. Since this was rough at one point all of this needed to be removed so we can install the same grass as the fairway. If we were to sod this area the approximate cost would have been about $7,000.00. By leveling out the cores and seeding with bent grass we are not having to expense that cost in sod. This will take all winter to develop and has been covered to enhance the growing conditions.

 We are on our last truck of sod for the year continuing with removing of bermuda, poa and filling in bare areas. Leaf clean is on going with numerous immature trees still waiting to drop there leaves, as well as mulch bed clean up (pine needles, pine cones and leaves). All of the approaches have been top dressed, you will notice some sand on them as we continue to work the sand into the grass. The fairway top dressing program will begin in a couple of weeks. 

Coring the Approach

Pushing for removal

Installing cores on 16 fairway extension

Rolling for smoothness

Ground Penetrating Radar Update

A few weeks ago we had a study performed on the greens using ground penetrating radar. I wanted to give you a little insight into what we have discovered and some possible scenarios for repairing the problem areas.

In the following photos you will see the picture of our 3rd green,

The left side is the front of the green and the white area is moisture in the green.

The blue areas in the picture are water holding areas.

To better illustrate our problem on the surface.

So the plan is to close the green on November 19th and start the process of exploring the drain pipes for proper fall and inspect for contamination of the gravel. This will lead to hand trenching the entire drainage system and expose the drain pipe. At that point we will remove the gravel and pipe for cleaning and re-installing everything to exactly the way it was intended making sure that we have proper fall for the water to exit the green. Also we will install a smile drain in front of the green to pick up any water at the front. The approach will be graded slightly to help surface run off because at this point the approach is higher than the green creating a bowl for the surface water to sit in. 

Stay tuned for more exciting pictures about this process

Course Update

We manage to skate by hurricane Sandy last week with leaves every where and of course the bunkers were now considered water hazards. We did have one area near a bunker that fell off and has been taken care of.

Yesterday we completed the areas around the eleventh green and also started to prep for our fairway extension on #16. We will sod a few areas and then harvest some bent grass cores from an approach area and spread them out in the extension area to convert the rough area to fairway.

11 green side

16 Fairway Extension

Also last week and continuing this week we are verti-quaking the rough on #7 and top dressing heavily to help the soil perform better for next year. The main reason we are doing this is because the entire 8th hole drains towards 7th hole causing abnormal growing conditions for the turf grass. Some examples are increased compaction and anaerobic soil conditions.  We will continue this process through out the winter on this hole and other traffic areas on the golf course.