Outside work has pretty much slowed to a crawl with the cold weather this week and now the ground has frozen on the top few inches. But I did manage to take care of lowering 2 areas on 16 and 4 green that have been holding back water on these greens. This will help especially in the winter thaws in removing excess water off the green. Over the course of years of topdressing greens and approaches some of the low areas have raised by almost 3 inches in a few cases. When we lower these areas we may have to remove some green or collar areas to get the proper transition without creating a swale. What I found on these 2 greens is that there was a 3 % raise just off the green which is the obvious issue and reason for the water breaking up. Now we have a 2% fall off the green that is barley visible. What I find very interesting is as we remove the soil and reach the proper fall we almost certainly find the old seedbed from the original construction. Basically the end result is back to the original design of these areas. I was not able to complete the finish work for the collar of #4 because the ground was frozen we will finish first thing in the spring. We were not ale to work on the approach on 7 green this fall. This will have to be put on a list to complete next year.
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| 16 before |
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| 4 before |
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| 16 after |
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4 after
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Another item that we did finish up was to core aerate around all the greens, tee walkons,and all drive ons on the course. All these areas were dragged to break up the cores anything left will break down overwinter and after the first mowing.
Now we are moving in to our equipment maintenance period. All equipment is broken down repainted, serviced and sharpened.
I am in the process of completing my educational requirements for recertification as a Certified Golf Course Superintendent This professional achievement is very important for me to maintain. As a 10 year Certified Superintendent, I must meet stringent requirements. This is the highest level of recognition that can be achieved with the GCSAA, approximately, only 25% of Class A members are certified golf course superintendents.
I hope that everyone enjoyed the golf course this year, I also wish you all a happy and safe Thanksgiving and holiday season
Neil