Thursday, August 14, 2014

COURSE UPDATE

COURSE UPDATE


            Aerification has been completed and the Golf Course is in recovery mode from the August Aerifiction.  Greens are on schedule with healing and we are going to being cutting them on a daily basis.  Following aerification we have to discontinue our normal mowing practices due to the amount of sand on the greens.  The sand topdressing will dull the mower blades therefore we decrease the frequency in which we cut them to try and salvage the mowers.   We also have to wait until the greens are dry to mow them because the wet sand will stick to the mowers and reels and will expedite the dulling of the mowers. 

            We realize that aerification is never a popular maintenance practice but it is a necessary one and there is never a good time to complete this task.  We currently aerify three times a year.  We punch very small holes in early June with bigger holes being utilized in August and November.  These practices are essential to the health and playability to our putting surfaces.  The August aerifiction is our most aggressive aerifiction due to the fact that everything is actively growing and will recover quickly.  We also have the full force of all of our summer staff to help with the process, which allows us to perform this process quickly and effectively. 

            Our plan the remainder of the week is to mow and roll the greens everyday through Sunday.   This should result in a significant improvement to greens over the next few days.   The process and mowing schedule used this year following aerification is the same that we have used in previous years.  Recovery for this process is essentially two weeks.  Now that we are beginning to get a better quality of cut on the greens we will see rapid improvement over the next few days.   

            Thank you for your patience and understanding during this time,


Gregory Boring,

Golf Course Superintendent

Friday, August 1, 2014

COURSE UPDATE

         The Green Department has been busy this week with the Memorial Tournament  behind us.  We have been constructing a 5000ft2 (approx size of #1 Green) Green's Nursery behind #8 Green that will be grassed early next week.  We will be utilizing the plugs we pull off the greens from the aerification process, so this nursery will be made up of the same grass we currently have on our greens.  We have also been repairing a few small irrigation leaks throughout the property.  We should have these repaired by the end of today.

         We will begin our Summer Aerification process on Sunday evening.  We will begin punching the Willow's Greens late Sunday afternoon.  For this reason the afternoon rotation for Sunday afternoon will remain the North Course from 11:00 through the remainder of the day.  Eighteen holes will be available all day.  We will begin aerifying and topdressing fairways on Monday.  This is our aggressive aerification of the year, when we punch the bigger holes.  The reason we do it in August is because the grass is actively growing and will recover much quicker than if we performed this in the Spring or Fall.

          It will take us approximately three to four days to complete the process.  During this time some holes may be closed to allow us to complete this process as quickly as possible so we can begin the recovery process.  We should also expect much slower green speeds during the next ten days due to the reduction in the frequency of mowing and the amount of sand that will be applied to the greens.  This will be our last aerifiction to the greens until early November.

We realize that aerification is never a popular procedure but it is a necessary one to promote strong healthy turf.  We thank you for your cooperation next week and hope to return the golf course to normal conditions as quickly as possible.

Thank you,
Greg Boring,
Golf Course Superintendent