Let me tell you a secret . . .

The crew has been busy this week punching not just the time clock but all the closely mowed turf too.  You may or may not have noticed this because the impact of what we have been doing on play has been so minimal.

On the fairways and tees we have been using our newly acquired Wiedenmann deep tine aerator at a depth of 6 inches and a 15 degree kicking action that fractures the soil each time a hole is made.  As far as the greens go, we use our porcupine spiker attachment that is mounted underneath our Tru-turf greens rollers at a depth of 1.5 inches.  All of this busy work is part of the program that we have put in place to maintain turf health at an optimal level as we get ready to battle the summer heat and peak golfer and equipment traffic in July and August.  The goals of this program include:

1. Water penetration.  This helps wet spots dry out and dry spots become more receptive to water that is applied, creating a more consistent playing surface.
2. Compaction relief.  The golf course has been subjected to increased cart traffic, equipment traffic and foot traffic as we have moved from Spring to Summer weather.  By making holes in the surface and fracturing the soil, we are creating pore space to encourage deeper and stronger rooting which will help the turf tolerate heat and traffic stress this summer.  
3. Gas exchange.  Oxygen will be allowed into the soil while built-up carbon dioxide is able to escape, creating a healthy growing environment for the turf which leads to a stronger turf plant.  

Punching tees on #8. 

Our Wiedenmann deep tine aerator in action on #1 fairway.

One of the reasons we love our new deep tine aerator so much is that it is so easy to use year-round because the impact on play is so minimal but the benefits are incredible.  Take a look at the two pictures below, the first one shows a fairway that was punched that day and the second one is a fairway that was punched three days ago.  See, what I mean by low-impact?!  Isn't it great?

Fairway that was punched on the same day this picture was taken.

Fairway that was punched three days ago.

We also love our porcupine spiker.  We used to have to put small tines on our greens aerifer, send out an operator to walk the course with a slow moving machine to aerate then send a roller behind him to smooth out the surface.  Not anymore!  Our porcupine spiker attachment allows us to do two things on one- aerate and roll.  The manpower required for this practice is reduced and we can do it much faster and more often which will help us keep the greens healthier year-round.  The impact on ball-roll is nonexistent as evidenced by the photos below.  Dare I say if I hadn't told you that we did this practice you may not have even noticed.

Porcupine Spiker attachment under our Tru-turf roller.

Close-up of a green that was spiked today.  Tomorrow you probably
won't even see these holes.

What holes?  Greens are healthy and rolling true!

Spring Project Recap

It's already the second week in June and looking back, the month of May practically flew by despite it being one of the longest months of the year.  During May the staff was very busy with some projects that will have a huge impact on the long-term aesthetics and playability of the golf course and I wanted to take a moment to do a quick recap of these projects.

#1:  Drainage Project on the 18th hole.  

The installation of 4,000 linear feet of 4" perforated drain pipe on this hole is now complete.  We were able to tackle the most saturated areas, mainly at the interface of the fairways and rough and the bottom portion of the fairway.  With the change in the weather, the course has dried out and will stay that way as we head into the summer months.  The immediate benefits will be most noticeable this winter when the rainy season returns.  Our ultimate goal with any drainage project is to improve the playing conditions during the shoulder seasons when the weather bounces back and forth between wet and dry weather cycles.  We are very pleased to say that we have installed over a mile of drainage since January 2014 (6,000 linear feet).  This is the most drainage we have ever been able to install in one year since the construction of the golf course.  

Miles re-installing the sod on top of a newly-filled drain line.

Installing pipe.

Another huge boulder uncovered.  Too many to count were found!

The weather finally dried out a bit in May, providing better working conditions in
contrast to what we experienced in late April.

#2 Brush Clearing on the left of the 15th hole

As I outlined in a previous post, the canyon on the left side of #15 had become extremely overgrown over the years.  To remedy this, we brought in goats to graze on whatever they could reach and finished by having a logger come in and cut down the remaining sapling trees and bushes.  The result unveiled a nice clean cliff edge that improved sight lines from the tee and fairway and added another dimension to the psychological effect of how one may choose to play this hole. 

Finished Product on #15.

#3 Removal of Pasture-Type grasses on Bunker Faces

Last Spring, I outlined a herbicide application process that we were experimenting with on our bunker faces in an attempt to remove some of the weedy pasture type of grasses.  This grass is coarsely textured and a lighter green color in comparison to the finer textured grasses around it, making it stand out like a sore thumb.  The process worked so well last Spring that we decided to do a full-scale treatment on all of our bunker faces and the results are now beginning to take full effect with many of these patches melting out of the stand.  You can read more detail on the process in my blog post from last Spring here.

The off-color white spots are the areas that we applied Tenacity.

The herbicide works by bleaching-out the chlorophyll in the plant which
makes the plant unable to use the sunlight's energy to sustain itself leading
to death.

#4  Deep-Tine Aerification of Fairways

 Maybe some of you have seen this orange machine behind our tractor zooming around our fairways recently.  Let me introduce you to one of the newest additions to our equipment fleet, the Wiedenmann Terra Spike XF.  This machine is essentially an aeration machine that unlike our old one, has the ability to remove compaction up to 8.5 inches and "kick" the soil, creating a pocket of up to 1 inch below the surface.  Using this machine to break up compaction at a deeper depth than ever before (5+ inches more) will lead to better root growth, help the turf make better use of water and nutrients, improve the flow of water and balance of air.  These benefits will lead to overall better turf conditions year round including shoulder-season drainage.  We plan to use this machine often as the benefits are so great and the impact on play is so little.  The holes that are made by the machine have no affect on how the ball rolls on the fairways and the holes close up quickly.  

#15 Fairway being deep-tined

The after-result.  These holes were healed-over in a matter of days.

These are the tines used on the machine, allowing us to penetrate the hard-pan below
our fairways which will be one of the tools we use to improve course drainage over
the next few years.

The tines are mounted two per block for a total of twelve tines.  We have to change-out
the tines an average of every three fairways aerified because the sand cap is so
coarse, wearing down our tines quickly.