Down and Dirty

Weekend temperatures in the mid-eighties have accelerated the growth rate of everything on the golf course. The bentgrass on the greens started growing on Sunday just in time for aerification.

Fairways starting to green up prior to hot weekend

The week of April 11th is focused on two areas. Greens aerification and working on the drain lines around greens on the front nine. Above, #2 green being drilled and filled to a depth of 12 inches deep. Now the roots in the new sod can easily grow into the seedbed . Below is #10 green after being drilled and just prior to our standard 5/8 inch hollow core aerification. Significant positive enhancements to the seedbed where the bentgrass grows were achieved with this aerification practice.

Two green's plugs with one showing the foreign sand layer that came with the sod. One of the purposes of this week's aggressive aerification is to break up this layer to aid downward rooting into existing seed bed before the summer stress period.

Working on the drain lines at each green site continues to be a challenge to locate  the pipes with minimal damage to the golf hole. Unfortunately, most of the exit points are in the front approach of many greens as illustrated with the photo of #3 green. It's hard not to be an inconvenience to play. At this location we found the drain line located in a 12 inch wide rock saw cut trench line approximately eight feet down. When we uncovered the drain line we found the pipe completely blocked with soil. Natural drainage was severely limited. We were able to jet the line clean and now water will move down the line although slowly due to the pipe grade sloping back towards the green.

With this herculean effort to locate twenty-two year old drain lines, you find that quality controls were somewhat lacking during the original construction  as evidenced by the crushed drain line leaving the back half of #3 green. Our efforts are not to question the past but prepare for a better future.

This week has been a great week for the golf course in regards to performing cultural practices that will greatly enhance the growing environment at each green in the very near future and for several year to come. The down side is that playing conditions will take a step backwards for a short period as the course and greens recover from all the disturbances.