Quick Friday Afternoon Sod Job

We had some sod left over from #1 intermediate and rather it sit all weekend we opted to reclaim the rough  right of #12 green as well as the intermediate around the green.

Intermediate UpDate

The staff progressed nicely on the sod removal and sod installation at the short game and #1 fairway. At this point we are going to concentrate on the rough seeding and various spots that will require sod. Once we feel comfortable with how the rough looks we will continue selecting intermediates for removal.

Short game Sod Removal

Installing the sod

#1 Fairway Intermediate removed

#1 Walk Path

#1 Complete

Spot Seeding the rough with tall fescue

Course Update

Our intermediate sod project progressed nicely but we were just a few pallets short of finishing #5. Our plan next week is to continue on to the next planned holes and once we order sod we will take a few pallets to #5. And again the reason why we are doing this is because we want to be environmentally friendly by installing the proper grasses for our area and reduces our inputs into the environment.

As you can see this intermediate has been destroyed by
disease. (picture taken from #5) Notice the unaffected grass on
the left, this is tall fescue.

This is #2 completed.

On a side note I was watching a member of our staff changing the practice green cups and had a photo opportunity to explain even further on why we aerify the way that we do. In the picture is a hole made from a cup cutter and it shows the sand channels that we made. The darker material is precisely what we are trying to dilute.

You can see the new white sand channels

Course Projects

We are only a week from when the greens were aerified and they are healing very nicely. Last week we planned to start deep tining the fairways and ran into a broken part on the machine, this delayed us until this week. Our goal is to have 9 holes completed this week. 

Fairway deep tine process

We are embarking on the rough this time of year, this will include some spot seeding and sodding but the most dramatic part will be the sod removal of the intermediates. With the amount of disease pressure we get in the rye grass (this is the majority of the intermediate grass) we are converting this over to tall fescue. Tall fescue has become more adapted at low mowing heights, has less disease pressure and uses less water.  Another great aspect of this project is that it will allow us to define our fairway borders, this is just another detailed item that will improve the look of the golf course. Our current areas that we will do first will be #2 and #5, they will be sodded this Wednesday.

#2 walk path, 

Existing contaminated green side intermediate

Sod cutting machine for removal

Sod Removal

#2 Intermediate almost complete

An example on #3 green that has already been through a season,
the tall fescue did great.

Greens Aerification Update

We have officially concluded our fall aerification on the greens and with just a few storms to contend with everything turned out great. The greens were aerified two times, the first was using our standard tine and then we top dressed. The second aerification consisted of using a larger solid tine to just poke a hole and top dressing was applied as well. There is a whole host of benefits to doing this but my goal is to promote more sand concentrations in that top 2 inches of the green. 

First Step, Pulling Cores

Removing the cores, this is the organic matter we want out.

Top Dressing to fill all of the holes

The holes on the left are the second Aerification, holes
on the right is from the first aerification.

Our sweep n fill brush fills the holes up to the top.

All of this work requires a heavy roller to smooth out the surface.

Here is the finished product.

More useful information on Aerification

Why do we Aerify the greens?

We always get the questions and concerns on why do we pull cores and why does the hole size need to be what it is. Well there are a number of factors that go into determining this such as the spacing and hole size. Every year I take 3 samples on 3 different greens from a company called ISTRC, this stand for Sports Turf and Research Center. They take a 4 inch depth core back to there lab to analyze at 1 inch increments to see where we are in terms of organic matter percentages. By doing this they can determine the over all build up through out the year and how the green can be re mediated by pulling cores and what hole size to achieve our goals, which is to reduce the organic matter percentage to an acceptable level.

 Overall if the organic matter at the top of the sand profile surface gets to high you start to see the surface stay to wet and the green become to compacted to allow air and water to infiltrate to the roots efficiently. This can also lead to numerous disease problems as well as poor putting quality and soft greens.  Our overall goal for the year is to remove 20+ percent which happens to be right in line with what the USGA recommends. Every time we pull cores on the greens the weather patterns can be different and can really help the healing process or slow it down considerably, this mainly happens in the spring because of the chances we still have of frost.

Please Note that starting on August 12th the golf course will be receiving an aerification. The greens and tees will have cores pulled and will be sandy for a couple of weeks. The fairways will be deep tined and all that is involved is poking a hole to a depth of 8 inches, no top dressing will be performed at this time. The rough also will be aerified with cores dragged in. 

Here is what you will see after we aerify the greens..