Aeration Week Coming to a Close

The first mowing on the greens since they were aerified on Tuesday.

The fairways were verticut in two directions and even with the unexpected rain on Tuesday we were able to get most of the debris off the fairways.  For the next few days we will vacuuming the debris that was blown in the roughs.

While we had almost 2" of rain to start the process this week, everything has cleaned up well.  Having the course closed during the process allows my staff to work without interruption which leads to more productivity, especially with 20% less staff this season.

 

The Cavalry Has Arrived!

 A sight for sore eyes.  These line crews from Pennsylvania arrived last night at 6:45 to put all the power wires back up to our pump house.  Lucky we had a generator to run one pump for the last week but it presented its own challenges.  Now we are fully operational!  The little things in life we take for granted.

New Path

We are rehabbing the old path by the alternate 6th tees.  Pedro widened the path a bit and then added the new crushed stone to match the rest of the paths on the course.

Utilize the Rain

Once again with a significant rainfall in the forecast we are lightly topdressing greens again.  The rain will wash the sand into the canopies for us so we do not have to turn on sprinklers or brush the greens.  This is the 3rd time in 7 days we have applied sand to the greens.  This light and frequent approach will smooth surfaces, protect crowns and not impact play after the rain is over.

More Irrigation Upgrades

We could literally make irrigation changes every day of the week to help correct our deficiencies on the course.  In front of 15 green, the spacing of the heads was off so much that we corrected them and actually added another head to cover areas that were not being hit.  All our sins show up when we get really dry.  Our next stop will be the area in front of 13 green where the lack of coverage has less than desirable turf.

Is Spraying Important?

If you are wondering why we spray when the weather is like it is right now, the picture above should be a good indicator.  Inside the 4 white dots is a fungicide application and out of the white dots is the untreated area today at Rutgers university.  With this sultry weather you can imagine what the course would look like if we skipped sprays or did not make them at the proper times.

More Irrigation Additions

This will be the norm for the next few weeks, adding irrigation to areas that do not have any or moving heads around to improve coverage.  Our system was poorly designed and we have inadequacies throughout the golf course that show up during prolonged dry spells.