Aerification Recovery Update

We are a week removed from aerifying greens and recovery is well on it's way despite the challenging weather over the past weekend.  The morning storms that went through the area on Tuesday helped beat the sand down and allowed for the first cut that afternoon.  Now, three cuts later...greens are returning to our normal standards.  We still need some help form Mother Nature though, cooler temperatures and a timely rain will greatly influence the recovery period.  Greens will continue to be cut on a daily basis, heights will be dropped throughout the next couple of weeks as weather dictates to regain speeds and playability that we are all accustom too.

Unfortunately,  the one drawback of aerifying in August is the challenge created with so much stress to the plant during environmental stresses of drought and high temperatures while conducting the beneficial process.  We did experience a few scars on tees and greens as a result.  The newly sodded collars from this past spring experienced the brunt of damage due to lack of rooting to handle the process.  These are localized areas that have been seeded and will be babied over the next couple of weeks while returning to normal. 

A couple of random bent spots on greens were suffocated under the sand content post topdressing.  A lot of green tissue remains in these spots and with some cooler temps and TLC from the management team, they to will recover with the rest of the putting surfaces.  Pockets on tees experienced the same repercussions from the combination of sand and heat and again practices will be conducted to return them to full health.

It truly is a balancing act to limit turf damage during the strenuous task of Aerification regardless of the timing of year.  After multiple Aerifications in my career, including many during the dog days of summer in the south, my hat is off and couldn't be prouder of the staff and especially the assistants in how they responded over the past week.  Communication was top notch and everyone worked together to limit the amount of damage to the point that I fully expect all to bounce back during the short recovery period over the next couple of weeks.  Aerification, such a long term benefit with so many short term ill effects.

As always, thank you for your continued support and cooperation.  I'm looking forward to a successful remainder of the season and a golf course that continues to speak for itself!

Aerification: Day 3 Recap

Another successful day as our bi-annual process of aerification is beginning to come to an end.  Yesterday, emphasis was placed on finishing tees and starting to prep the course by mowing rough before play resumes on Saturday morning.  Daily attention was given to greens as well, below is a quick recap of yesterday's events:

Greens:

We put our third broom on greens yesterday afternoon followed by an fertility application to help in recovery.  Warmer temperatures and warmer soils are already showing the quick recovery process during this time of year.

 

This photo was taken of #11 after I drug it in on Tuesday afternoon.

 

 

Two days later on Thursday afternoon, you can already see more green as the sand is being worked into the canopy and and we are well on our way to recovery.

 

 

Mark and Max followed yesterday's broom crew to apply an organic fertilizer to help speed up the process and provide some stored nutrients during the stressful period of weeks to come during environmental stresses and self-inflicted stresses as I begin to return them to our standards with heights and speeds.

 

Tees:

 

Max finished up topdressing the tees on 1-7 in the morning.  Then Matt and Justin lead a crew in the afternoon while amending tees to drag and work the sand into the canopy.  As mentioned yesterday, we went extremely aggressive on tees to remove as much thatch as possible and in return incorporate sand to fill the voids and improve the firmness of each teeing ground.

 

 

 

Picture of the Staff working the sand into #4 tees

 

Oddly enough, the tees are smallest area of playing surface on the property but are also the most time consuming when it comes to the process of aerification.  Maneuverability due to size and surrounding slopes pose challenging in staying consistent with rates of sand and effect the ability to use mechanical means to work the sand in, end result is that a lot of work on tees is done by hand.

 

 

Today, we continue prepping the course for play tomorrow.  All the pushmowing and rough mowing will be completed after lunch.  We will prep bunkers since they haven't been touched all week.  We will have a crew follow a roller (used to smooth out the imperfections created from the aerification process) on greens with an additional broom.  This morning, we put a cut on fairways and Max/Matt did a heavier than normal light rate of topdressing on approaches.  Since, we were unable to do any cultural practice on approaches, we will likely repeat this process on Monday.

 

Aerification: Day Two Recap

Day two of aerification is in the books and momentum is staying on track although we experienced a few changes to the gameplan.  Oddly enough, after what seemed to be 40 days and 40 nights of rain, everyone is aware that we have settled into a significant dry period. 

As mentioned, one of the most important processes during the practice of aerification is replenishing the profile with sand to improve the soil structure for drainage, porosity and etc.  In addition to the agronomic benefits, filling the holes that were created while removing cores protects the plant from temporary environmental stresses.  No humidity, wind, and existing dry conditions are a perfect recipe for wilt and turf loss during the process of aerficiation due to the timing from start to finish.  Exposed holes will allow the playing surface to dry out at a alarming rate. 

These factors in addition to budgetary concerns, forced me to call an audible yesterday morning.  To reduce the timing of exposed holes during the 3 step process of poking, cleaning, and topdressing, we put all of our focus on tees and will be holding off on approaches this summer.  To simplify, the larger the area poked, the longer the time to clean.

Approaches will receive some attention with a heavier than normal light topdress (our in season rate) rate on Friday, but no holes will be poked.  Below is a recap on tees and other tasks from Day Two.

 

We followed pretty much the  same protocol with greens by using a 5/8 inch tine on a 2 inch spacing while pulling at 2.5 inch depth on tees.

 

The objective is to reduce the thatch layer to not only improve plant health but also improve the firmness of the respected playing surfaces.  With 5 different sets of tees, a variety of play is experienced on each surface, thus effecting the thatch content.  Looking at the picture above, we consistently have a bout a 1/2 inch of thatch (area above pen), which isn't that bad.  The key and our goal is the area below the pen, incorporating more sand (lighter color) and dark content (thatch, organic material, etc.) will improve drainage, porosity and most importantly "firmness".

 

The cleanup process follows by blowing, dragging and removing all the plugs.

Next, we applied topdressing sand to fill the holes.

 

 

In addition, to working on tees throughout the day.  We put our first broom on greens in two different directions to work the sand into the canopy and fill any lingering holes.

 

 

Once each green is completed, irrigation is used to cool down the surface following the abrasion of broom the sand across the plant and provides the additional benefit of working the sand into the profile.

 

The Divs cooling down while hanging out with Dad during the afternoon.

 

 

All in All, a successful day!  All tees and driving targets were poked and cleaned.  Just 1-7 remained for topdressing.  Today we shift gears and put focus on getting course back playable for the weekend with mowing rough and pushmowing.  We finished up topdressing tees this morning and during the afternoon we will drag the sand in on the tees and put our second double broom on the greens.  The assistants have been busy starting the amending process with tees this morning and greens will take place this afternoon following the broom crew.

 

 

Check in tomorrow for another update!

 



Aerification: Day One Recap

After a great stretch of weather for golf, it's perfect timing to give the place a much needed break with aerification following some big events that showcased the property with the PA State Senior Am and Diebold matches.

If you are a regular of the blog, I shouldn't have to go over the benefits of aerification.  In a nutshell, this process is beneficial to plant health by relieving compaction and improving porosity for oxygen and water infiltration for root growth.

With that being said, here is a quick recap from Day One of Aerification:

 

We started on greens just before sunrise, by pulling a 5/8 inch core on 1 1/2 spacing at a depth of 3 inches.



The clean-up process was quick and successful, as we finished all greens just before dark.  Job well done by the staff, 4 acres poked and cleaned in one full day.

 

As each green was completed, we started the process of applying topdressing sand to fill the holes and improve the soil profile to aid in drainage, porosity and playability.  Just 5 greens remain today.

 

With the cooler weather, we went aggressive and applied over 92 tons of sand spaced out throughout the property.  The most since I've been here.

 

The final step, was to work the sand into the holes and canopy with our drag mat.

 

Overall, a very successful day one of Aerification.  Today, we move to tees and approaches.  Check in tomorrow for status updates and a outline of the process.  As always, thank you for your continued support and cooperation during a integral practice towards the golf course's health!

 

 



Golf Course Update

This has been a common theme since my last post a little over a month ago.  In fact,  we have recorded measurable rainfall on 22 of the last 37 days since I sat down to update everyone on the happenings of the course.  Records have been set across the region for above average rainfall in June and even the start of July on what has been an extremely wet start to the summer.  In the days leading into the Robert White Invitational, it rained 7 out of the 8 days totaling over 6 inches.  Since then, 13 rain events have prevented the course from drying out and has provided some trying times for the greens staff.

The game-plan or blue print from a maintenance standpoint was completely thrown out the window as applications were altered, mowing practices changed and hours sky rocketed just to stay caught-up with conditions while providing a commodity for events and outings on a weekly basis.  Mowing and Bunkers are the biggest challenges when you go through periods like this and finding the time to complete everything in a manor of respecting play is almost impossible.

 

On a daily basis, the first thought process was to get the golf course playable; which meant repairing bunkers (sometimes twice in one day) and putting a cut on playing surfaces without posing to much mechanical injury to the turf.  We went a week without cutting fairways following the Robert White and on two occasions throughout the past month we expanded on our normal push mowing routine to cut the rough in areas just to make the course somewhat playable (See below) because the big equipment couldn't get out.

 

With saturated conditions comes damage from equipment and golf carts.  For the most part, we used measures to keep equipment off of certain areas and golf cart traffic damage to a minimal.  Despite the countless feet of rope and directional signs, damage still occurred.

 

 

Ruts occurred in areas that were clearly marked throughout the property and on multiple occasions a week, the staff spent time repairing the damage.

 

Plywood and our greens roller were used to smooth out the imperfections made from traffic to allow our fairway mowers to cut without scalping or creating even more ruts.

 

We have done our best to route the traffic, but damage happened both before and after directional signs.



Unfortunately, some damage has left scars and will take some time to heal.  It was a tough decision on a daily basis to allow or prevent carts, a call I never like to make because of the impact on your lives and the fiscal impact of the club; but there were days that it just wasn't possible.  For the record, I'm not pointing the finger completely at cart traffic, some damage was inevitable from equipment simply to repair and maintain over the past month in Bleaksburgh.

Putting Green:

We are very fortunate to have XGD drainage in 17 of our 19 greens on property.  With the events that have transpired over the past month including Member/Guests and Club Championships we were still able to provided respectable putting surfaces despite the impact of weather.  Very minimal damage has occurred on greens despite the traffic (and abuse from me for that matter) under wet conditions.  The putting green has received the brunt of the damage and that could be expected because of the lack of drainage and size of the green to facilitate the amount of traffic on a given day.  Oddly enough, the putting green is the smallest green on the course but receives the most traffic  because of those warming-up prior to a round or those that venture out to work on their putting stroke.  A progression of decline over the past week has lead me to seek approval from the Greens and Golf committee to close the putting green for 7-10 days.

The start of thinning was noticed on the Monday following July 4th.

 

A week later, 2 inches of rain later and a club championship later the areas were spreading despite the changes I made in our practices.

 

Footprints from working on those 5 footers

 

Same footprints, 4 days later.

 

 

I'll leave the putting tips to the pros, but here is a tip from a grass grower.  Mix up your angles when working on those 3-5 footers, draw an imaginary circle around the cup on the distances that you want to work on and constantly move on that circle to reduce the wear that your leaving on the putting surface.  Plus it gives you different reads, uphill/downhill putts and etc.  In return, we are both happy....you will not miss putts and the putting green will be happy, happy!

 

Yesterday,  we vented in multiple directions and topdressed the entire putting surface prior to roping off for some much needed rest.

 





 

I apologize for the short term inconvenience, but with a busy couple of weeks coming up including the State Senior Amateur, this decision had to be made.  The short 9 chipping green located to the right of the main drive has been made available for your putting.  That green will be maintained throughout the 7-10 day stretch exactly like the greens on the course to provide consistency. 

In closing, I have probably received more comments and compliments over the past 3 weeks about the job that myself and staff has done with this property. I can't take full credit, nothing would be possible with out the entire staff.  My hats off to everyone, especially the assistants, we have spent more time with each other during this stretch than our wives and family (I think they are growing pretty tired of me at this point) while trying to provide the conditions that you and your guests deserve despite what curveball Mother Nature throws at us!