3 weeks after aerification..

 

Since we are only doing one aerification this spring we decided to go a little more aggressive.

We pulled 1/2" cores on 1.5" centers.     

 We removed double the amount of material from the greens.

  We also spread 100# of profile soil conditioner per green to help with water and nutrient retention.

 Greens after topdress applied

 The guys moving the sand into the holes with brooms and blowers

 2nd week after ....

3rd week...

April 10th our first 80 degree days.

The Bermuda has finally started to break dormancy. Fairways will get the first cut this week.

Last minute projects before the season starts.

We installed a new irrigation line for our nursery green. Once again I'm going to grow in the nursery green from our aerification cores. This time we will have a fighting chance since we have water.

We have also washed all the collars and bunker edges. You can see how the sand has built up over the winter from bunker play and from topdressing . 

 The guys working hard to clean up around # 3 Greenside.

Patching a hole in a 36" drain line going across the Driving Range.

Burning out the remainder of the leaves and ditches.

Deep Tine in March.......

Our first step was verti-cutting in two directions. Blowing the greens then mowing.

11" tines

We were able to get down to a depth of 9"
We choose to go with a large pattern of 4"x 8"

After topdressing and rolling, the greens will be back rolling good next week.

After clean-up with the holes filled.

Putting the sod cutter to work this week.....

 The guys working hard in the cold. We are lowering this curve beside the cart path.

 You can see in the pic how much of the cart path was covered. We removed about 10" of soil to get back to grade.

 Finished project 

 Next was on #12 you can see how water and silt collect in the low areas next to the path

 There is about 8-10" of build up beside the path. Also there is a hump in the rough that comes from the collection of silt.

 We removed the sod and cut down the grade .

 Another spot fixed.

 We also took this opportunity to fix the walk up to the black tees on #12

 This spot has been on my lists since I was hired. Next step is to get irrigation to this tee.

Laying sod on #2 . This area is subject to wash with rains or irrigation. The sod should help to stabilize the soil also give us another area to mulch.

Ready to mulch .....

February spiking of greens.....

Yesterday we used the spiker attachment on the sand pro to open up the greens. After we rolled you can hardly tell we did anything. Considering all the rain we have been receiving. I also took advantage of this time to spray the wetting agent Duplex. This application will help with water infiltration. 

First 2013 update

 The storm last week brought cold temps, snow, and even a flood.

You can see in the picture how high the water came out of the creek on # 8 tees. You can see how the snow fell on the areas not covered by water.

 # 4 green looking back at fairway

 Once again the silt came out and covered the bermudagrass and filled the bunker. We have since cleaned and removed the silt.

 Some of the debris left under # 15 bridge after the high waters

 

We are using the trencher attachment to do a little tree root pruning along the fairways.

 You can see just how many feeder roots the trees put out. 

All these roots compete for moisture and nutrients with the struggling bermudagrass.

We have redefined edged on bunkers, also redistrubted the sand to adequat sand depts.

 Another task we took on was to redesign the sand bins. One of our issues was that the water runoff collected in the back of the bin.

 Keeping the sand moisture levels high

 We used the Bobcat to reposition all the stacked block.

 We turned the bin pararel to the slope so that runoff would not enter the bin.

By redoing the topdressing bin we will be able to purchase dry sand which will help with working sand into the aerificaion holes. Giving us better dilution of the greens mix.