Fall Nearly Upon Us ............ Douglas C. Lowe, CGCS

SHIFTING GEARS

Core Aerification

Heavy Rolling

Light Rolling

AERIFICATION
With the cooler weather settling in and the fear of 90 degree days becoming less likely the maintenance routine for the two courses begins to shift gears.  The cooler days of September not only brings stress and heat relief to the staff but the courses benefit greatly as well. The late summer/early fall season is the time of year to begin cultivating your cool season lawns through aerification, fertilization and sometimes reseeding. Our cool season Bentgrass greens are no different than many of the surrounding homeowner lawns in that we also take advantage of the cooler season to aid the plant in it's summer recovery.  Greens aerification, while very labor intensive, is well worth the effort.  Each green is core aerified.  The plugs are then removed and the green is then cleaned prior to filling the holes with topdressing sand.  The topdressing sand is then dragged across the green to fill in all the holes.  Excess sand is blown clear of the green and the rolling begins.  First we roll with a moderately heavy roller, which is followed up with daily rolling for the next 5-7 days.  Mowing generally begins 3-5 days out at slightly higher heights than normal.  Mowing heights are lowered over a two week period until we reach our standard mowing heights.  Finally, the greens usually take 3 weeks to fully recover.

Finished Product Up Close

 DRAINAGE WORK COMES TO AN END
The Farm maintenance staff began the laborious task of installing new drainage features throughout the course in early June.  To date they have installed nearly a half a mile of new drain lines and close to a dozen new storm inlets.  The last of this work will be concluded on Thursday as we lay new sod over all the most recently installed drain lines on holes 6,7, 11,16 and 17.

Protected Drain Lines Prior to New Sod

New Drain Basin on Hole #11

OTHER WORK LIST ITEMS

In additional to aerifying greens on both courses and wrapping up an extensive drainage project the staff has been busy preparing for the soon to be winter months.  While the grass has slowed down it is definitely still growing and everything is still being mowed on a regular basis.  Between the two courses we have applied preventative weed control products to over 200 acres of turf.  The Zoysia grass at each facility has been treated for Zoysia patch, which is a fall disease that causes unsightly and irregular patches throughout Zoysia grass  playing surface and if left unchecked can lead to severely thinned turf.