Our current greens dragging brush has finally seen its last day, but with some creative brainstorming, I present our new greens brush.
Bottom of Greens Brush
Greens Brush
With the use of an old wooden pallet and 6 shop brooms we were able develop a brush pattern based off the new technology brushes of today. This homemade recipe has worked with great success for less than $100 compared to the $2,000+ brushes of today.
Currently our staff is 75% completed with the full aerification process. We were able to get all the greens aerified and cleaned today. Tomorrow morning the final process will include finishing topdressing, brushing the sand, applying amendments, and a spray application.
Greens Aerification
Fun Facts From Aerification:
12.27 cubic feet of green remove per 1000 square feet
1104.3 cubic feet of green removed over all greens
9.82% of the putting surface affected
72 holes per square foot
6,480,000 holes over all greens
Many wonder why aerification is so important. Greens aerifications are a necessary practice to ensure the green’s health for the future. Normally aerification on bentgrass takes place when the plants are at their optimum time for growth and when golfers view the greens are at their best. Performing this cultural practice during this time will provide a speedy recovery and allow adequate amounts of oxygen and applied nutrients to the soil for healing and growth.
When selecting a tine size, tine spacing, and amount of organic matter to remove is a lot more than just a guess or how much you want to make the golfers mad. The USGA provides guidelines for the amount of organic matter removed from a green every year (15-20% OM/Year). These guidelines help to prolong the life of a green and ensure the root zone will stay functioning as it should. Typically 3-4 aerifications a year, similar to this fall aerification, will comply with the USGA guidelines. We plan our tine sizes and spacing to remove 3-8% organic matter per aerification for the year using different tine sizes for different periods of the season. Early Spring and summer aerifications use smaller tines on a closer tine spacing to achieve the correct OM% removed. A smaller tine in a closer pattern will be less disruptive to golfers than the larger tines in Summer and Fall.
We are approaching our seeding date for ryegrass on the driving range tee. Typically, around the last week of September to first week of October we look to overseed the driving range tee. This year we will overseed the range the week of September 21st. During that time hitting off the mats will be mandatory for about 2-3 weeks while the seed germinates and becomes ready to withstand play. After the tee is open for play we will allow hitting off the grass on a limited schedule similar to last year. We will post a schedule for hitting off the grass as we approach the seeding date.
The golf course will be closed Monday & Tuesday for our final aerification of the year. We will be using the same size aerification tines as we did from this past May. The expected recovery time (weather dependent) will be approximately 2-3 weeks for 100% recovery.
– Steffie Safrit
Every year we anticipate having a cold winter which could possibly devastate warm seasons grasses like bermuda grass. To protect our grasses, all bermuda grass height of cuts have been raised to allow more carbohydrates be stored for the winter. Our staff began the first cut of higher heights this week and look to continue at these heights until the beginning of 2014. This cultural practice we have used for the past several years with minimal winter injury from cold temperatures.
These efforts are also to increase the amount of leaf tissue to try to negate the effects of the Vamont Bermuda dropping its leaves late into the winter providing a less than desirable playing condition.
In the next day or two, all golf members at Bluegrass Yacht & Country Club will be receiving a No Mow Area Survey from myself to have a better understanding of how to proceed with these areas.
There have been many positives and negatives concerning these areas plus many misunderstandings of how these areas were developed and intended. Below are the answers to a few questions I have commonly heard.
With all the rain over the past 8 hours, needless to say the course is under water. So far we have received close to 6-8″ of rain since the start of the day with no major damage other than debris and high water. One great thing is the bunkers have done great, with no wash outs, a perfect testimony to the Better Billy Bunker System. Below are just a few pictures from throughout the day of the course. We are expecting to get back to normal tomorrow, other than being able to mow out the course as we typically do.
