Let the season begin!

It has been a busy couple of weeks on the golf course. Last week we completed greens aerification and are about half way through fairway aerification and sanding. This week we applied our Spring fertilizer and are now in the process of building a new ladies tee on #2. This photo is of #8 green one week after aerification. The greens are healing very quickly due to the weather.

Here is the beginning of the new ladies tee on #2. The base is shaped and graded using soil and will then be capped with 4" of sand. Next week I will post the finished product.

Greens Aerification

This week we are aerifying the putting greens, as well as beginning the fairways. Here are a couple of photos that demonstrate the aerification process.

March Weather

March was a great month for golf. Here is a weather summary for the month:

High - 71* with the average high of 56*

Low - 36* with the average low of 40*

Average temp - 51*

Total precipitation - 4.84 inches. (2.5 inches fell in the last 3 days of the month)

Time For Aerification?

It's that time of year when golf courses begin to aerify. Many golfers often wonder why it is necessary to aerify every year. This picture demonstrates one of the many reasons aerification is necessary. Over time the putting greens become compacted due to foot traffic and equipment. The surface of the putting green becomes "sealed off" making it difficult for water to penetrate and infiltrate through the soil profile. The result is puddles of water after rain events like you see in the photo.

Course Projects

We have recently completed a few small projects throughout the golf course. As part of our committment to the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program we have converted a former landscape bed into a wildflower area. We hope this area will be home to many pollinators. This photo shows the area at the time of seeding. We will update photos as the wildflowers appear.

In an effort to reduce maintained turf we have converted an area on the west side of the clubhouse to a landscape bed. The turf quality in this particular location was very poor due to shade and drainage. Our intent was to not only improve aesthetics, but to reduce mowing, irrigation and fertilizer use as well.

Reshaping

This week we are in the process of reshaping various tees, approaches and fairways. With time our mow lines tend to creep in and we lose the original shape of these areas. After the desired shape is painted out we begin to scalp the rough down to the correct turf height of each area. We will also overseed the scalped area with perennial ryegrass to increase turf density. The above photos of #17 ladies tee demonstrate this process.

Vandalism

March is finally here! As we began our morning duties we found someone had a little fun at our expense. The pictures are from #10 and #11 tee area.