A productive week for the golf course maintenance staff is coming to an end. Two very importantant
maintenance practices were completed ealier in the week. On Monday, all putting greens were verticut, sand topdressed, and swept. The combination of these practices improves the health of the turf plants by stimulating new growth through vertical mowing. The completion of these practices also improves overall putting green playability and performance by removing the grainly horizontal leaves of the turf and by smoothing out imperfections on the greens. We were pleased by how ball roll, green speed, and smoothness had improved over the course of the week. These procedures will occur on a regular basis throughout the season.
In addition to putting green maintenance, the tees were also aerified. In this process, all cores were collected,
the tees were vertically mowed, and sand was applied. Our goal is to reduce the thatch in the tees, providing a firmer and healthier surface. This labor intensive process was completed in only two days with minimal disruption to play thanks to a very hard working staff and new equipment. While we will apply sand to the tees throughout the growing season, core aerification will not occur again until after Labor Day.
As well as regular course mainteance and the practices above, team members have identified and repaired the
broken drains adjacent to the tee on #15. The source of the problem was a clogged 8" drain. Over time, tree roots had completely plugged the drain. Staff members excavated the drain and removed the blockage. The drains now function as if they were brand new.