Sunday, May 29, 2011

Memorial weekend preparations

This past week, the staff had been in high gear getting the golf course ready for the holiday weekend.  We have been scrambling around mowing all areas of the golf course, trim mowing, and wrapping up other miscellaneous detail work.
One of the miscellaneous projects that had been on my list for a few weeks was renovating the area between the cart path and the green on #13.  This area had been worn down due to foot and cart traffic and was in need of attention.  We added sod to this area and a mulch pathway to focus the foot traffic approaching the green.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Verticut and Topdressing on Greens


The greens are loving the recent weather and have really taken off.  The rapid growth of the bentgrass this time of year also means that thatch can become an issue.  Thatch is just old roots and leaves that have died and have become a part of the soil.  Thatch can be a problem because it acts like a sponge and can trap excess moisture and nutrients.  This thatch layer has several downsides:  it can keep water and nutrients from moving down into the rootzone, keeps the surface soft, increases ballmarks, and decreases ball roll.
In order to keep the thatch from accumulating, we periodically vertical mow and lightly topdress the greens with sand.  The vertical mower is similar to power raking your yard and it allows us to remove some of the excess thatch without interfering with playing conditions.  The sand is dusted onto the green to dilute the thatch further and to smooth out the surface.