Bluegrass Yacht & Country Club Golf Course Maintenance

I wanted to take the time to update you on a few upcoming projects as well as course conditions going into the winter.

You may have noticed orange ribbon around certain trees while playing the front 9 this past week. We have marked these trees for either removal, pruning, or relocation. If you refer to the picture above to #6 fairway you can see how shaded this fairway stays until midday.  It is our goal to provide the best playing surface while also keeping the natural look and feel of Bluegrass.  Removing these trees will help us grow healthier denser turf where we sometimes struggle due to shade and irrigation.

Lack of rain has been evident in our tree line fescue roughs, and also in certain Bermuda roughs the last couple of months. We are anticipating a winter 2017 irrigation project, installing and relocating of 200 heads to be able to irrigate every playable surface.  This and in combination with tree work should help us provide great conditions year around going forward. 

We have been working on bunkers the last week adding sand, plate tamping and changing up our raking method. “The Aussie method” is where you compact faces and use the back of the rake or a roller to smooth the faces around the perimeter of the bunker, while raking the bottom portion of the bunker. The Aussie method will keep faces firm and reduce fried egg lies as well as wash outs. Please do not exit out of the bunker through the faces. Proper etiquette for a golfer is to rake bottom of bunker like normal and when exiting, flip the bunker rake over to the back side of the rake and finish the perimeter raking with a smooth finish. 

The bermuda driving range tee will be closing down going into winter. We have two overseed tees that we will be rotating through the winter months, these two overseeded tees will be irons only. There will be a designated spot for drivers, woods and long irons that will be clearly marked.  Driving range schedule will be Tuesday- Thursday Mats only and Friday-Sunday overseeded tees.

Please remember to stay on the cart path around tees, and adhere to proper 90 degree rule going into winter. Dormant Bermuda is not actively growing in winter months therefore there is no recovery until spring green up.

Feel free to contact me about anything mentioned in this post or for general course questions.

Thanks & Happy Thanksgiving.

USGA defines venting as the practice of creating small, non-disruptive holes in a putting green for the purpose of improving gas exchange, increasing infiltration of water, and relieves compaction.

With the amount of rainfall we received in July and the normal summer temperatures, this practice is vital to keeping our greens healthy.   You can see in the picture above, the right side has been vented and the left hasn’t. Typically we  use a 1/4″ solid tine at a 5″ depth every 3 to 4 weeks.  This type of Aerification is a lot less disruptive then spring and fall aerification and allows us to mow or roll right behind. Typically it takes 3 or 4 days for the tine holes to heal in.

Thanks,

GCM