Just as a doctor must carefully interpret all symptoms when diagnosing a patient in order to develop a treatment plan, so must a golf course manager evaluate all turf and soil conditions when developing a comprehensive management plan that delivers top notch playing conditions. When developing a plan for Hidden Glen’s playing surfaces, we have relied upon university research, soil analysis, physical inspection, past and present USGA agronomic reports, and turfgrass management experience. The maintenance plan for each area of finely cut turfgrass has been customized to meet the needs of each individual area.
Since the putting greens are well-built and have received the most intensive maintenance since construction, they required the least invasive fall maintenance in order to meet our agronomic goals. Rather than pulling large cores this fall, two types of solid tines were used, followed by heavy sand topdressing. As a result, recovery time was minimized and ball roll was much improved within ten days. The solid-tining and sand application was sufficient to create sand channels that will allow the putting surfaces to “breath” during next year’s hot and humid days.
The prescriptions for improving Hidden Glen’s tees, approaches, and collection areas are nearly identical due to the same issue—thatch. Thatch, or the soil layer composed of living and dead organic plant material, is extremely high. The picture on the right illustrates the one inch of thatch that has accumulated over time. Ideally we would like to see this layer reduced to one quarter inch. Excessive thatch does not lend itself to maintaining high quality playing surfaces as it creates spongy and poorly drained turf. The golf course maintenance staff has taken a very aggressive approach in order to reduce the level of thatch. In the abovementioned areas, maintenance team members removed cores, verticut, and applied a sand topdressing. The core removal and verticutting remove existing thatch, while the sand topdressing serves to dilute the amount of thatch when incorporated into the soil profile. A reduction in thatch coupled with the accumulation of sand will result in much firmer and healthier playing surfaces.
Excessive thatch is also the biggest problem on fairways. Due to the massive area of Hidden Glen’s fairways and increasingly short days, pulling cores was not feasible. Rather than pulling cores,
maintenance staff members aggressively verticut and fairways in two directions to remove thatch and swept sand into the turf canopy in order to dilute the thatch. While an invasive process, this method is significantly less intrusive than core aerification and eliminates the muddy mess. Recovery time is also reduced in this process. The maintenance staff will continually apply sand throughout the growing season in the coming years to continue to dilute the thatch layer. Over time, our fairways will become firmer, creating more ball roll after carry and additional opportunities to play the bump and run around greens.
The maintenance staff will monitor the success of our practices, making changes as necessary. Consistency over time will continue to elevate the daily playing conditions at Hidden Glen. Completing all these labor intensive practices within three weeks in not an easy task. A special thanks to all the very hardworking golf course maintenance team members for their efforts. By completing all fall maintenance practices in September, we have provided sufficient time for the turf to recover this fall and open in terrific shape in the spring. As always, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.