update

This week is for me just about the toughest week of the golf season.  Blowing out the irrigation lines on  the golf course is a very stressful day to say the least.  I rent two 750 cfm air compressors that are basically tied together to function as a 1500 cfm compressor.  Bottom line, there is a lot of air that has to be managed throughout the day in keeping just enough sprinklers heads running.  If you have too few heads we can run the risk of pipe actually blowing out of the ground and if you have to many heads running then we lose pressure in the lines.  I am fortunate to have many valves all around the golf course that I use to move water and air around.  The entire process took us 13 hours from start to finish.  I moved on to the waterfall on 18 which takes about 6 hours to completely drain, remove pipe and valves.  I also, completed the golf course restrooms and the pool lawn irrigation.  Everything as of today to ready for the winter.


 With the heavy frosts in the mornings lately the turfgrass plants are starting to slow growth and prepare for the winter by storing carbohydrates and building more roots.  This can be seen in the sod that we laid on the bunker on 15.  The turf is really no longer but the roots are growing like crazy.  This is why I really like to work on some sod projects at this time of the year.   We stopped mowing all the grass on the golf course the week of the 29th.  When you mow the turf you at this time of the year it may start to regrow some new plants above ground.  This is not what we want to happen right now.  The more we allow the plant to do its own thing the better the chances for winter survival in my mind.  If we go out there to just mow the greens they will start to regrow and then the energy will be lost into building roots at this time of the year.  We have applied our first application of plant protections for snow mold to all greens, tees, and fairways there will be one more application made towards the end of next week. 

We have just about completed the sod work to the right side of 8 green.  There is a lot of work that should be done to the left side and we may move to this next.  I am trying to fix any low and steep angles near the green in the rough to allow for a smooth transition to the green.  I believe this will allow for better shot making if your ball happens to land in these low areas.  You not even be able to see what is wrong with the areas that are being fix until your golf ball lands in them.   9, and 14 green banks are the next two that I would really like to work on but I am not sure if we will have enough time to complete these.  There are a few more things that  would like to complet this fall before the snow stops us all fairways will be spiked agian and we will fininsh core aerting aorund the greens.  The aerator was broken and I had to wait on the parts to get it back up and running.

Thank you and it looks like we are going to have a few more day of nice weather I hope to see you out on the golf course.


Neil

Green Section Record

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Update

We have another heavy frost out on the golf course.  I have a few projects to work on inside but updating my blog is more fun right now.

If you have had the chance to play this week you may have noticed that we removed the weak sod from 2 and 8 greens.   This is a project that I have wanted to do for the last 2 years, but it seems like I always run out of time.  This year, will be the year it gets done.  The problem is that the sod is contaminated with creeping bentgrass, which does not like to be at rough height, some areas do not drain properly, and just worn out over the last 10 years.  We are core aerating around all the green this fall this will help reduce some stress but the only way to fix drainage issues is to remove the sod.  You can see in the pictures below that the area between the bunker and green on 8 has been lowered slightly. All sod around the right side of the green was removed and at this time we addressed any drainage issues.

There is also some work that will be done on the left side. The front and back approach have similar issues in that right near the green transition there is either a low spot or high spot.  This may be cause some of the issues that I have with this green in that the water may be getting backed up and not draining properly. We will have to remove a large section to fix the problem on 8.  If all goes as planned number 9 will be next.  There is a lot of work on 9 that I would like to do.

Reminder For this upcoming Wednesday the 3rd, this will be the irrigation blowout.  The weather is looking very good for golf and the blowout.  I have done this in the cold and rain and it is not fun.  I will be blowing 1500 cfm through the irrigation lines all day and with this much force it is impossible to turn off every sprinkler when golfer are near.  I am sorry if we cause any issues.