Greens Aeration Complete

 

We scaled back aeration this year to 1/2" tines and 1/2" deep tines on greens since we did a bigger aeration in December.  The greens should heal relatively quick once we get warmer weather.  Nutrients will be applied moving forward to help in the healing.  24 hours post aeration we blew excess sand off and filled in all the holes and rolled.  We will use a 1 ton roller on Friday to smooth them out before play resumes.  We will also be doing dryject next Wednesday which will help inject more sand and close the holes quicker.  Short term pains for long term pains.

Range Tee Aeration and Seeding

 

Greens aeration has started today and this includes the practice areas.  The will be aerified and seeded and topdressed to help get it ready for the beating it will be taking this season.  The tee has already been significantly used this spring and late last fall so divot recovery is taking some time.  We will increase nutrient use this season to help wear recover quicker and we will incorporate slit seeding throughout the summer and fall months.

Crushed Stone Path

 

The main service road through the course is being dressed up with crushed aggregate to help smooth the surface and offer a better appearance.  Before, the path was made up of recycled stone etc and full of pot holes.  This road is traveled frequently by my staff, the clubhouse staff to address drink stations and most importantly members and guests during shotgun starts.  We will see how it holds up this year with heavy rains and how much maintenance is needed after.  This same path goes behind #2 green and we are thinking of installing asphalt there due to the amount of run off that passes over it during rain events.  All of our old gravel paths have now been converted to this material and has greatly improved the appearance of the course.

Starting to Address the Grass

 This past week was beneficial in that we finished verticutting 80% of our fairways and we started thatching all of our roughs.  This will help in waking up the grass a little bit that was under snow cover for quite a few weeks.  Some spots there is some snow mold that will grow up once warmer weather comes.  Next week we finish the fairways and start topdressing them and we should have all the roughs completed and then we can start spot seeding any thin areas from 2020.

Drainage #5

 

We are finally addressing the drainage on #5.  This upper portion of the fairway has needed drainage for some time and we are nearing completion installing subsurface drainage this week.  This ties into the entire 5th hole project that has addressed drainage, bunkers and grassing lines.  The hole should be complete by the end of March with good weather.