Catching Up

It's been awhile since the last post, so I have alot of catching up to do. September has been an extremely busy time on the golf course with member events  and trying to encourage the golf course to heal from the stresses of the summer.  The temperatures have been very nice and the rainfall minimal. In the last forty-five days, the golf course has received about one inch of rain. The course is dry in some areas and wet in others depending on how the irrigation sprinklers throw water and the course topography.  The zoysia fairways are off color in some areas due to the drought and a couple of spotty frosts. At this point, we have experienced four frost delays.

The native grass conversion on holes #8 and 18 is pretty much complete. The tall fescue is well on its way of establishing itself and filling-in. Both areas have been mowed one time in the last week. The following pictures represent some of the preparation steps taken to encourage a successful transition to the tall fescue native area.

Round-up spray of the existing warm season native grasses.

Native grass boundary defined by round-up spraying.

The seeding effort is underway with a walking aerifier, a verticutt/ seeder and a rotary spreader broadcasting seed also.

Part of the renovation work involved removing years of silt accumulation below a storm drain culvert that dumps water and debris across the native area. The guys did a nice job excating the silt and grading the area to direct water to an existing drainage collection basin located in the right rough.

Once the storm drainage path was graded, fescue sod was planted to minimize erosion while the seeded areas establishes itself.

The tall fescue is actively growing and returning a green look to the area.

The Native Grass Conversion project is complete on hole #8. Next spring the grass will be allowed to grow to eight inches. An area behind the green as been defined to receive minimal mowing also. Change is underway.....