Over the last few weeks, we have been focused on golf course setup, tournament prep and recovering from rain storms. This week, we are more focused on turf health and maintenance. Between yesterday and today, our team has accomplished quite a lot to promote and maintain turf health. All of these are normally scheduled maintenance programs that are quite beneficial to turf health and playability.
1. Greens were vented, spiked and topdressed
2. Green surrounds, approaches, fairways and driving range fertilized
3. Back range tee, short game area, and golf course teeing grounds core aerated and received sand topdressing, fertilizer, and lime applications.
4. Bunker depths checked and sand added (This is a constant practice after heavy thunderstorms)
5. Bunker faces fertilized and sprayed for weeds
6. Golf course and driving range spot sprayed for weeds
7. Fairways sliced
8. All surfaces mowed
We do all of these practices to the warm season, bermudagrass approaches, tees and fairways now during their growing season to promote a healthy, hearty stand of turfgrass. Bunker work has been an ongoing process. Two weeks ago during men's member/guest, the course received over 5 inches of rain, most of it coming in short violent storms. Our team worked quickly and sometimes into the night to repair bunkers, clean up storm damaged trees, and ready the course for play the following day. Lightning wreaked havoc on the golf course trees and irrigation system. We greatly appreciate all of the kind notes, emails and words from many members and echo the thank you to our team for a job well done. When repairing bunkers, our team must remove contaminated sand and redistribute sand that is washed throughout the bunkers. This is the reason that we have so much work directly after and for weeks to follow heavy rain events.
Heavy rain and high heat have also forced us to be very conservative with greens. We have made multiple applications of preventative fungicides and have vented greens to allow gas exchange and air movement. Overall, we are very pleased with how greens are behaving and are starting to feel the impact of multiple years of aggressive agronomic practices to promote a healthier root zone. The greens reacted very well to the heat last week and are draining better than ever.
The course is really taking shape and our team is doing a tremendous job of not only providing a great golf experience but promoting a very healthy turfgrass playing surface.
Enjoy the weather,
Jordan Booth, CGCS
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| Thanks to the addition of a second aerator this year, our team was able to quickly core aerate the driving range back tee and short game area. All of the teeing grounds on the golf course were also core aerated, topdressed and received fertilizer and lime. |
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| Lightning can leave its mark anywhere. This is in the dead center of #5 fairway. |
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| Lightning literally blew this tree on the driving range to pieces. Large pieces of solid oak were blown as far as 250 feet away. A special thanks to Arborscapes for arriving immediately the next morning to make the trees damaged from the storms safe. Our team was able to clean up the trees shortly thereafter. The remainder of the tree at the driving range will be removed next week. |
