With the
decided shift in the weather, golf course maintenance activities have shifted
from cutting fairways to blowing leaves and cleaning up storm debris. The
biggest impediment to this process is wet weather. Since fairways do not dry as fast this time
of year, it is difficult to keep up with leaf removal. Everyone knows tractors
on the fairways are not a good thing, so we appreciate your patience. Feel free
to use the “leaf rule” to speed up play.
The
greens continue to grow over the winter and we are monitoring places on the
greens that have had damage prior to the project.
Some of these areas are being allowed to grow in and other areas have been
plugged. This healing process will
continue into the spring. You might
notice different mowing patterns on the greens.
Normally the operator mows in a straight line and goes off the green to
turn the mower. Because all the areas
off the greens had new Bermuda grass sod that required a lot of water, the operators
have mowed the greens in a circle (to stay on the green) rather than back and
forth.
This
mowing pattern has resulted in some scalping, which will heal. At this point the Bermuda grass has become dormant
and the green irrigation system has been turned off. As the surrounds dry out the operators will
return to normal mowing patterns.
On #4
you may notice some scalping which is due to the new surface not being
perfectly smooth. The USGA recommends beginning
mowing as soon as the turf is well rooted.
Quoting the USGA, “Since it is almost impossible to keep the green
surface perfectly smooth (due to the frequent irrigation necessary during
establishment) some scalping is inevitable.
However, it is better to scalp the new turfgrass plants early (and have
time to recover) than wait to lower the cut just prior to opening.”
The
final phase of the green renovation project was to inspect and replace the defective subsurface green drains.
Fortunately the drain problems we identified were in the main drain
lines off the putting surfaces, so we only had to dig up fairways and roughs.
Since the last update, the drainage work on holes 7, 9, 12, and 18 has been
completed. On the 7th hole,
we added a “smile drain” which is an arc – like a smile – that wraps the low
side of the green which will improve the bent grass on that part of the green.
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| # 4 Drain |
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| # 13 Drain |
Finally
the excess dirt we removed from around the greens has been placed in bare spots
around the golf course. It is being
tilled and seeded for the winter. As
stated in a previous update, play these areas as ground under repair.
