Fall is in the air with the first official frost on Wednesday. The golf course is really in great shape right now. I hope that you have had a chance to get in a few rounds. I have been hearing some very nice compliments about the course conditions.
This week we were able to complete the core aerating the approaches on 12-18. I am sure that you also noticed that we are also doing some of the weaker areas, mounds and cart traffic spots. the difference is night and day from the areas not done. recovery is already evident. The soil at Hawks is to say the least not ideal and our program of cultural control measures seems to be working. I feel the key is to continue on this program and even get a little more aggressive in the spring next year. Our plan will be to continue to core aerate our way around the golf course. working on a few holes a day until we have completed everything. Monday next week I plan on completing 11,10,9,1 and also topdress the greens and approaches. Tuesday we will work on holes 8,2,7 6, Wednesday holes 5,4..Then most likely the following week finish 3 and 14. Once we have completed the coring the greens will be needle tined and NOT CORED. I will then spike all fairways that week. If the weather stays warm as predicated all the tees will be verticut again next week. I am starting to see a difference in the firmness of the tees with this program and feel deep verticutting may be a little better then actually core aerating the tees. After next week I will start to slowly raise the height of the greens to prepare the turf for winter. The cool weather really slows the growth of our greens. Encouraging rooting, reducing stress and building a strong plant is important for winter survival.
this is also the time of the season that I like to work on a few projects before the end of the year. This year I plan on removing most of the rough around the oak at 2 green and replacing with fairway turf. There are a few bunkers that we will add sand and work on drainage.
Once again I hope that you are enjoying the course and look forward to seeing you soon
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
update
Another good week behind us and from the looks of it at least another solid week ahead. The golf course has really been in fine shape. The change in weather plays a large part in that but I also feel that the topdressing and verticutting are starting to pay off. Yesterday, we started to aerate the approaches on 15 and 16 also a few weak areas in 15 fairway. I would think this will be the norm over the next few weeks in that we will try to aerate one or two a day until they are done.
This is a great time of the year to apply some fertilizer. I plan on fertilizing the golf course using a granular next week. There has been some interesting data about the late fall fertilizer application in that this may not be as beneficial as we have thought in the past. This year, I plan on not making that late fall application and favoring a good solid fertilizer applied to the fairways and roughs right now. This should help the turf build and strong root system and fill in some weaker areas
Hopefully in conjunction with some of our cultural practices being done we should in theory build a better plant. I think that is the key, we need to look into the future do the right thing now to better the chances of survival down the road. If we want to favor a firmer faster golf course we really need to verticut and get some holes into the ground. Poa trivials is a a problem but we also have compacted areas that nothing can go into. Having a firm golf course doesn't mean less maintenance it may actually mean more since the ground needs to have proper air and water exchange for the turf to survive the drier conditions. I think that is what everyone gets a little confused about. I just can not shut off the irrigation without proper preparation of the soil for the plant to have a chance of survival.
This is a great time of the year to apply some fertilizer. I plan on fertilizing the golf course using a granular next week. There has been some interesting data about the late fall fertilizer application in that this may not be as beneficial as we have thought in the past. This year, I plan on not making that late fall application and favoring a good solid fertilizer applied to the fairways and roughs right now. This should help the turf build and strong root system and fill in some weaker areas
Hopefully in conjunction with some of our cultural practices being done we should in theory build a better plant. I think that is the key, we need to look into the future do the right thing now to better the chances of survival down the road. If we want to favor a firmer faster golf course we really need to verticut and get some holes into the ground. Poa trivials is a a problem but we also have compacted areas that nothing can go into. Having a firm golf course doesn't mean less maintenance it may actually mean more since the ground needs to have proper air and water exchange for the turf to survive the drier conditions. I think that is what everyone gets a little confused about. I just can not shut off the irrigation without proper preparation of the soil for the plant to have a chance of survival.
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