Farm Ultradwarf Conversion Work Off To A Slow And Wet Start

The Farm course closed on Schedule to begin the conversion work from Bentgrass to Ultradwarf Bermuda on Tuesday, May 23.  That's the good news,  The bad news is the first week of the project was the wettest week of the year with over 7 inches of rain recorded on the course throughout a 5 day period.  Despite the wet start, we have made some good progress. The No-Till greens (1-4, 6-18 and the Practice Green) were aerified and have now been vertically mowed in 8 different directions and mowed at .06 5 times. Prior to the course being closed the no-till greens were sprayed with a Roundup application and are scheduled for a second and final Roundup application on Monday, 29.  On Tuesday, May 30 the greens will be aerified one more time in an effort to create a good sprig plant bed. On Wednesday, May 31 the greens will receive a  pre-plant fertilizer application, which will include six different products designed to get the new sprigs off to a quick establishment.  The sprig planting date has been put off one day from the original schedule and the new grass is currently scheduled to be planted on Thursday, June 1 and Friday, June 2.

Roundup Application

Aerify and Drag Plug

Verticut

Surface Thinning Down

 #5 Rebuild

Despite staying close to our schedule for the No-Till preparation the part of the project our #5 reconstruction segment has not been quite so lucky.  Thus far the rainy conditions have resulted in nearly three lost days in the initial effort to rebuild #5 green. The first day of the #5 project was a complete washout.  Despite steady rain on the second day, we mobilized the majority of the staff from both courses to aid the contractor in the removal of the bentgrass surface all day throughout steady rains,.  This grass has been stored to the side and will be re-established on the newly designed green.  This is an important step that we are taking in an effort to provide a consistent surface in relationship to the remaining greens that will all (exception - new chipping green) be planted on an organic thatch layer.  This is an important aspect as the new Ultradwarf greens will be much firmer than the existing Bentgrass surfaces and maintaining the organic surface layer will result in a softer surface compared to planting in a straight sand surface. Thursday was also a day where the contractor was limited to what he could do based on the continued rains.  Friday was the first day the contractor could really make some headway into coring out the existing green.  Mix from the existing green has been stored on site and will be reused once the rebuilding process starts.  The existing gravel layer cannot be salvaged due to contamination of the mix and subsoil.  The drain pipe at the base of the green was salvaged and will be used on small drainage projects throughout other parts of the course.

Sod Removal

Bentgrass Storage 

Stripped Green

Removing Mix

Base Layer After Gravel Removal

We received another .5 inches of rain last night (Saturday), which will once again limit how much work the contractor can accomplish today as he is now into the earth moving and bulldozer stage and the site was already too wet.  We hope to have the new base contours finished by sometime on Tuesday when our architect, Billy Fuller, will be in town to sign off on the new design and contours. The remaining part of the week will be spent adding back the new materials and eventually recapping with the old Bentgrass sod.