Compacting New Bunkers 10,11

The greenside bunkers on 10 and 11 got compacted this week to help firm up the new sand.  This should help alleviate fried eggs when balls enter the bunkers.  The sand will firm up over time with irrigation, rainfall and play, but right now the sand is still relatively new.

Staff Meeting

Yesterday we held our annual staff meeting.  This ensures the entire staff is on board with how we want to maintain the golf course and what our goals are.  It also allows time to answer any questions the staff may have in regards to mowing, maintenance etc. and it also allows us to discuss various ideas for the golf course.  I feel we have assembled a strong staff that takes pride in what they do.

Bringing New Life to the 17th Hole

This ditch is not only important to transfer our well water to the irrigation pond on 13, it also serves as a drainage corridor for the holes up above, especially 18.  We should be completely finished with this project on Saturday morning before the rain.

Tansformation of 17 Ditch

Notice the old ditch by the 17th green, unsightly and almost invisible.  Now, the new ditch is more visible and we are now running our well water through it so it is not stagnant looking.

Facelift to the Ditch by 17 Green

The drainage ditch left of the 17th green is getting a much needed facelift, similar to the ditch on #12.  We are also going to be running our well water through this ditch and now the stagnant unsightly ditch will have running water in it throughout the summer months.  Pictures of the progress will be posted on the blog and we are hoping to be done by middle of next week.

11th Hole Officially Opens

The 11th hole officially opened today for the Spring Good Fellowship Scramble and believe it or not, the green was finally hit by the 14th player of the day, Jeff Ransom who hit it 30' from the pin and went on to smoothly roll in the putt, so he is the first player to hit the green and then birdie it, so congratulations to Jeff.  Also, I only observed the first 6 foursomes and out of the 24 players, 11 went in the pond and 2 hit the green.  The first official person to play the hole today found the water as well and since he was one of the people who hired me, I cannot mention his name.  Also, for all of you who missed the green and told me you did not want to make a ball mark, thank you as well.  The green was definitely slower than the rest and you will have to keep that in mind for most of the season when you play it.

Heavy Grooming on Fairways This Week

This week we will be doing a heavy grooming of the fairways.  This will eliminate the leggy look of the bentgrasss but more importantly will create a denser playing surface.  Over time, this frequent cultural practice will encourage more bentgrass growth on the fairways along with growth regulators and good water management.

Dryject Process #2 Green Video

This is a video of the dryject process on the 2nd green.  Our process on this green and all others is we deep tined the greens first with 1/2" tines to help loosen up the soil and create more channels for the dryject to penetrate.  This dryject machine injects sand and water to a depth of 8-12" depending on green soil types.  We used this machine only on the 2nd green as it is one of our worst draining greens.  Watch what happens when the water hits the heavy clay layer down below, the pressure of the water and the hard layer are forcing water out of our deep tine holes.  This means it is hard for the water to penetrate the layer which is why it drains so poorly, but it is moving laterally and now fracturing the soil and this will create more pore spaces for roots and improve drainage.  At the end of the day, XGD is really needed but the dryject should also be done to help the water move laterally to the drainage lines.

#2 Green

The dryject process started today.  Here is a picture of a plug from our second green and in this application, the machine can inject sand to a depth of 8-12".  If you notice in the plug, the top 4-5" is an amended sandy soil from all our topdressing and at the bottom is a heavy clay soil that is like mud.  This green is one of our poorer draining ones and now you can see why.  The bottom picture shows what happens when the machine hits that mud layer, it kicks dirt back up out of the hole since it is hard to penetrate through this layer.  This application over time will help this green but this is a great candidate for XGD internal greens drainage.