Crew Crushes It Again

 

Once again our crew knocked it out of the park today.  We basically stripped off the rough sod on the 2nd hole in the morning, regraded the front of the tee and added 6 drain laterals and had the sod back on by 3:30 to limit disruption to members on Tuesday.

The old rough sod in front of the tee was basically all bentgrass that would become infested with dollar spot during the summer months.  Now, new kentucky bluegrass sod will look much better and be much more disease resistant.  The bluegrass will really pop once the fescue turns brown this summer.  

5th Hole Starting to Mature

 

The new bunkers and regraded fairway areas are starting to mature and come together.  All sod is down to our normal mowing heights and with some decent weather the fescue mound that was hydroseeded a week and a half ago should start germinating by mid May.  The key to this project is the fairway is much drier following rain events and none of the bunkers have to be pumped.

Success!

Final Heavy Roll

 With aeration in the rear view mirror and recovery starting to occur, we are putting our 1 ton roller on the greens today for the last time today to help smooth out greens before the season gets going.  We are hoping with some good weather to have the greens back to normal by Mens Opening Weekend.

A Busy Monday in April

 

We planted 15 upright junipers on the fescue hillside on the left side of 4 to soften the look of the dorms and our well house.  These plants were a good choice as they are low maintenance, not eaten by deer and they will grow quickly and fill out to hide these areas but will not get too tall to block the views of NYC from 5 tees.  Patience is the key as they fill in and do their job.

The staff went in and cleaned up the target green bunkers on the range today and used a tan stone dust material that will match the look of our bunker sand yet get firm enough to allow the ball picker to drive through them without getting stuck or making a mess.  This cleans up the range for the upcoming season.

New Trees Being Planted

 

We took delivery today of 5 large London Plane trees that will be planted on the 5th and 9th holes.   Downes Tree provided a large front end loader to off load and move to the locations on the course.  We had to lay the trees down, remove all the ropes in the canopies and then pick back up and set in the hole.  Lucky for us the course firmed up enough to get around with minimal damage and we also did not hydroseed the fescue area above until after the trees were planted so we can access this area without damaging new sodded areas on the hole.  Now we have to keep them watered and provide some nutrients throughout the season.

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.